Giants make vow to fans after home flops

Veteran offensive lineman Justin Pugh wants to give frustrated fans better after the New York Giants flopped in their first two home games of what could quickly become a disastrous season for the organization. 

"We gotta go out there and fight for the fans," Pugh told Steve Serby of the New York Post. "Home field needs to be an advantage. In all my years playing, the toughest places to play usually give a point differential to the home team, and we need to get that, and get that from our fans, and we need to give them that energy to cheer for us...We gotta go out there and fight, we gotta put on a show and we gotta start winning games. That’s the bottom line."

The Giants opened the campaign on Sept. 10 with a brutal 40-0 home loss to the division-rival Dallas Cowboys. New York then suffered a 24-3 "Monday Night Football" defeat against the Seattle Seahawks in Week 4 on Oct. 2. 

Right tackle Evan Neal angered fans earlier this month when he said paying customers who booed the Giants during the Seattle game were "bandwagoners" who "flip hot dogs and hamburgers." Star running back Saquon Barkley later lashed out at a supposed supporter during New York's loss at the Miami Dolphins in Week 5. Needless to say, the 1-5 Giants seem to be feeling the pressure as they prepare for this Sunday's home game against the 3-3 Washington Commanders.

"We haven’t put a product out there that anybody should be happy about," Barkley acknowledged while speaking with Serby. "...We get a great opportunity to go back home in front of our fans and play a division opponent and try to get the season back on the right track. We’re not naive to the fact that they spend hard-earned money to come and watch us play and support the team, but at the end of the day it’s like we care, we really do care about what’s going on with our season, and we want to save it, and we want to be able to play at the level that we know we can play."

As of Thursday afternoon, OddsChecker listed the Giants as two-and-a-half-point underdogs against Washington. Players such as Barkley are looking for fans to assist a struggling side that will attempt to prove Vegas wrong on Sunday. 

"We want to get this thing back on track, and we want their help, and we need their help," Barkley added. "So my message to them would be: 'Be the fans that we know you could be. Come in there, be loud, give us the energy that we need, and we’ll feed off each other.'"

After this weekend, the Giants will next "host" the 3-3 New York Jets coming off the Jets' bye on Oct. 29.