Rising concerns are swirling around MetLife Stadium for the New York Giants.

After the brutal Week 1 loss to the Washington Commanders, Big Blue Nation was up in arms after another preseason of promise and hope.

Giants star wide receiver Malik Nabers and head coach Brian Daboll seemed to be arguing on the sidelines, Russell Wilson is posting motivational posts on X, and now running back Tyrone Tracy is calling out the play calling.

Tracy made it known that the team took to the public scrutiny personally, and that the Giants aim to raise the standards.

But Tracy was quite outspoken with how the game was called, indicating that perhaps the coaches weren’t listening to what the players were saying.

“I have to do what’s called, but I definitely said we needed to run the ball on the 1-yard line,” Tracy told reporters after practice on Thursday. “I feel like everyone felt the same — whether it’s offensive line, quarterback, running back. To do the play-action pass off the 1-yard line, you have to run the ball first.”

However, it didn’t work out that way. 

According to Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post, on 13 of the red zone plays that the Giants ran, 12 of those plays were passes, which also includes six of seven when it was a one-score game.

What’s the definition of insanity again?

Throughout his 14 year career, Wilson has developed as one of the better play action passers in the game. But to Tracy’s point, in order to fool the defense, you got to at least run the ball first.

In Week 1’s loss to Washington, the Giants ran the ball 23 times, with eight of those occasions being runs from Wilson. Tracy ran 10 times for 24 yards, while Devin Singletary and Cam Skattebo had a handful of carries each.

That’s not enough to establish a run game.

Offensive coordinator Mike Kafka indicated that he was pushing the Giants to be as aggressive as possible, and attempt to throw the Commanders off guard.

“You start evaluating the tape and you see maybe there was an alignment that we thought we could take advantage of,” Kafka said. “We were trying to be aggressive with it. It didn’t work out. First-down call, you have the ability to use those types of calls because really the defense doesn’t know, are you running it? Are you throwing it?’”

Washington’s defense read them like a children’s book.

Tracy may not have generated a ton of yards in his myriad of carries, but throwing the ball didn’t seem to work either. Wilson threw the ball 37 times and only completed 17 passes – a completely unacceptable stat.

As Tracy later said, “In any good offense, you have to have a well-established run. If you don’t, it’s going to be really hard to do anything else.”

Look at all the Super Bowl champions of the past. The Eagles pounded the rock with Saquon Barkley and Jalen Hurts. The Chiefs didn’t need a dynamic running back because of Patrick Mahomes – but when they were called, they performed. Same with the Rams and the Buccaneers.

We’re not saying the Giants are Super Bowl worthy, but sometimes offenses need to get out of their own way first to figure it out. Wilson, with all the ups and downs he’s had since leaving Seattle, proved he can still perform well last season with the Steelers.

But now, it’s up to the Giants’ coaching staff to establish the run.