East Rutherford, New Jersey — The Washington Commanders have won two in a row since suffering their second loss of the season and look to make it three with a second victory against the New York Giants.

This would not only give the Commanders their first sweep of the season against the NFC East division rival in quite some time, that would give them a 2-0 record in the division and keep them in first place – perhaps with a bit of a lead depending on the outcome of the Philadelphia Eagles’ game against Jacksonville. Jaguar.

Before this weekend’s competition for Washingtonwe contacted Patricia Traina of the New York Giants on SI to get the answers to five questions for week 9.

1. How different is this Giants team from the one we saw in Week 2?

Well, for starters, they now have a healthy kicker, at least as of this writing. But more seriously, the offensive line lost left tackle Andrew Thomas. This is huge because the tackling scheme they worked on all spring and summer (Joshua Ezeudu) didn’t really work, leaving them to explore other options. (They now have Chris Hubbard, who played fewer than 200 snaps at left tackle during his NFL career, in that role.

Another big positive difference is that the Giants got their pass rush going. Dexter Lawrence is having a Defensive Player of the Year type of season – whether he can do it on a losing team and everything remains to be seen, but he deserves it, having accomplished what he has despite being double-crossed and hat-trick in the majority team. of the time.

2. Malik Nabers had a pretty good game against Washington last time out. How has his role increased – or how has the team learned to use him more effectively?

There is no doubt that Nabers is a prime target in the passing game. And he attracts more attention from his opponents. But a slight problem in his game was the loss of balls. He had two against the Steelers, one of which I believe came third.

He now has five drops on 71 target passes, second-most on the team behind Darius Slayton (4). Nabers is still learning how to refine his routes, but he is one of the newest players on this team. I think I would be afraid to improve and be a staple of this offense for years to come.

*Question #3 was asked before Giants running back Tyron Tracy Jr.’s unusually rapid recovery from a concussion suffered Monday night in Week 8.*

3. The alleged absence of Tyrone Tracy Jr. should be significant on this side, is that correct?

I would say so. Tracy is their primary runner, having passed Devin Singletary on the depth chart (unofficially, of course). Then again, Daboll, now the playmaker on this team, doesn’t usually stick to the run, so maybe it won’t be as bad this week as far as the overall game plan goes.

But there’s no doubt that Tracy, a fifth-round draft pick, has been a bargain. His experience as a receiver really served him well this year in terms of vision, juke ability, etc. This is a great find for this offense that I think could, over time, ease the pain of Saquon Barkley’s departure.

4. Given the struggles of CB Deonte Banks and QB Daniel Jones, do you agree with Coach Daboll continuing to start both?

With Banks, I thought Daboll should have benched him early in the Steelers game. I mean, how many chances are you going to continue to give this guy? That said, I hope he finally learned that you can’t do things half-baked and that you can’t be independent (if he was indeed independent).

As for Jones, I think it’s clear that this team will move on from him after this year, so why they continue to put this injury guarantee in his contract next spring is a mystery to me. Daboll says Jones gives them the best chance to win, but at this point the season is all but lost and I think we need to start thinking long term.

That said, I understand why Daboll sticks with Jones. If you remove it after saying it gives you your best chance of winning, you’re sending the wrong message to the locker room: you’re throwing in the towel. It’s a tricky situation, and it all goes back to what I was shouting in the spring before the draft: that the Giants should have taken a chance on a new quarterback from this year’s class and started grooming him.

If you go for the draft next year, you’ll probably now have to start the season with a bridge guy until the rookie is ready. And we will have to let the rookie cut his teeth. All of this could have been avoided if they had rolled the dice against someone this year, but there it is. Joe Schoen tried to advance and was rejected in his attempts, so they will likely finish the year with Jones (assuming he can win one of his next two games before the bye) and then move on after the season.

5. What would it mean for the Giants organization to be swept aside by the new commanders after having had their number for most of recent memory?

Any loss, no matter who it may be, is a tough pill to swallow – and it doesn’t matter if it’s Giants-Commanders, Giants-Cowboys or Giants-Ordinary Joes. However, when it comes to losses in the division, those count as one and a half losses in the final standings, so yes, being swept by the Commanders would definitely hurt a lot more.

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• Foe Giants commanders don’t plan to bench struggling starters