OK, TIME for a quick quiz. 

The Giants are: 

A) Bad 

B) Good 

C) Meh 

D) Sorry, I shut the TV off at halftime of the Cowboys game because I couldn’t take it anymore and was too traumatized to check back in. 

The best part of what was a whirlwind first act to their season — three games in 12 days, including a not-so fun-filled week in Arizona and California — is that it is over and done with.

The less said about it, the better, as far as the Giants are concerned. They were on the field for 12 quarters and in only three of them did they display credible evidence that they are worthy successors to the 2022 playoff outfit that delighted so many blue-bleeding loyalists. 

Three games in, has this Giants iteration delighted anyone? Yeah, that second half at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., was scintillating but it was achieved against the Cardinals and thus gets graded on a curve. Mostly, it has been avert-your-eyes sights and huffing and puffing sounds adding up to some truly uninspiring football. 

That there was any talk whatsoever inside the visitors locker room at Levi’s Stadium on Thursday night about “competing” and taking any positives away after a thorough 30-12 loss to the 49ers was misguided — unless the bar had been reset so low after the 40-0 wipeout by the Cowboys that it rested inches off the ground.

Sure, the Giants did compete. They trailed only 17-12 in the third quarter. Hurray for them. This is the second year of the Brian Daboll program and all that laborious construction from the ground up, by now, was supposed to leave the site with the foundation in place. 

“We’re trying to build this brick by brick,” Kayvon Thibodeaux said not long after he got the defense off the schneid after eight sackless quarters to start the season. “We started playing a little bit of complementary football. I feel like there were some spurts of the team that we could be.’’

Spurts are more agreeable than slop, to be sure. The spurts of quality, though, were spread more thinly than the layer of cold cuts found in one of those gas station convenience store sandwiches.

The numbers don’t lie. The Giants were mauled by the 49ers in total yards (441-150), rushing yards (141-29), passing yards (300-121), first downs (26-10) and time of possession (39:10-20:50). Their 150 total yards was their most feeble in a game in 10 years. 

The statistical lowlights, arriving so soon after a litany of worst-ever data spit out after the Week 1 embarrassment, make it difficult to gauge exactly how lacking this team actually is. 

The offensive line remains a jumbled mess. Only two of the five players who started opening day were in the lineup against the 49ers, alterations based on injury and poor performance.

Daniel Jones willed the offense to points in the Valley of the Sun, but everything else has been cloudy amid his shrinking pocket protection. Jones missed on a few throws he normally hits as the 49ers closed in around him. 

The defense gave the illusion it was getting things done with some bullish work on first and second downs. When push came to shove, however, that defense caved in, allowing the 49ers to retain possession in the first half with a ridiculous 7-for-10 conversion rate on third downs.

The mixture of the high-priced up-front duo of Dexter Lawrence and Leonard Williams, new in the middle with Bobby Okereke and young on the back end with rookie corners Deonte Banks and Tre Hawkins and third-year Jason Pinnock, has not coalesced. Tackling against San Francisco was optional — of the 49ers’ 310 passing yards, 201 of them came after the catch. That is ghastly. 

“It’s a long season,” veteran cornerback Adoree’ Jackson said. “We’re only three games in. We still got 14 more to go, so you can’t hang your head too low. Even if you win, you can’t hold your head too high.” 

Improvement is rarely linear and, lest we forget, the Giants are in Year 2 of the Joe Schoen and Daboll rebuilding. The fact they went 9-7-1 in 2022 and won a playoff game guaranteed nothing for 2023 other than burgeoning expectations. The plot, like one season to the next, often zigs and zags, like your favorite streaming series. There are side quests in “The Mandalorian” that can be frustrating and pauses in the frenetic energy of “The Bear” for quiet character development that can make you feel off-kilter.

You keep watching, regardless. 

“We have a lot of young players on this team that have to go through those pains and aches sometimes,” said running back Matt Breida, whose solitary highlight starting in place of injured Saquon Barkley was a hard-working 8-yard run for the Giants’ lone touchdown. “This team has a lot to learn but I think we’ll be alright.” 

The Giants ending up all right has to sit there like a big maybe, based on what we’ve seen so far. The best part of the first three games for the Giants is that they now have been resigned to history.