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Giants quarterback Daniel Jones answers questions during a news conference after losing to the Seattle Seahawks Monday night in East Rutherford, N.J. Adam Hunger/Associated Press

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The New York Giants have won once in four games, and things have the potential to get a lot worse.

The 2023 season could go south quickly.

The next two games are at Miami (3-1) next Sunday and at Buffalo (3-1) the following week. A 1-5 start is a distinct possibility and the chances of New York making the playoffs for a second straight season would be slim.

“I just try to focus on the here and now, and we’ve got a lot of improving to do, and that’s what we’re going to try to do,” Coach Brian Daboll said Tuesday, less than 12 hours after the Seattle Seahawks used a dominating defense to beat the Giants 24-3 on “Monday Night Football.”

New York looks nothing like the team that surprised the league in 2022 in Daboll’s first year as a head coach. Coming off five straight losing seasons, the Giants went 9-7-1 and made the playoffs for the first time since 2016. They were competitive almost every game.

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That’s not the case this season.

“I would say every year is a new year. I’ve said that since the start of OTAs. And it is,” Daboll said. “There’s a lot of things that have to go right each game to be successful and right now we’re not there yet. We’re certainly working to be there, but we’re not there yet.”

The biggest problem on Monday was the offensive line — missing left tackle Andrew Thomas for the third straight game — could not protect Daniel Jones. He was sacked 10 times and the Seahawks added another on a trick play to tie their franchise record with 11 sacks..

This was the second time in Giants history they were outscored by 21-plus points in back-to-back home games in the same season. It also happened in the first two home games in 1971, a 30-3 loss to Washington and a 31-7 setback to the then-Baltimore Colts. New York finished 4-10 and last in the NFC East.

SEAHAWKS: QB Geno Smith should be OK after suffering a knee injury in Monday night’s win over the New York Giants, Coach Pete Carroll said during his weekly radio show on Seattle Sports 710.

“I think so,” Carroll said. “He went back in the game and was able to get back out there, so I think so.”

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Carroll said he felt even more strongly that a flag should have been thrown on the play as New York’s Isaiah Simmons tackled Smith out of bounds, and doing so from behind, in what Carroll characterized as a “horse collar tackle.”

“It just should have been recognized,” Carroll said. “… I don’t even care about the penalty. We’ve just got to get that out of ball. It’s so dangerous.”

Carroll said of Smith appearing to escape any significant injury that “we’re so lucky.” Smith declined to detail the specifics of the injury, saying, “It was some slight pain, but overall, I was just happy that I came out OK.”

Smith was angry that no penalty was called and said in an interview on ESPN afterward that it was a “dirty play,” adding, “I just don’t respect that type of stuff. There’s no need for that type of stuff. It’s a hard-fought game out there. We’re all battling, but there’s no need to take shots at guys running out of bounds on the sideline.”

Simmons defended the tackle to ESPN.

“I really don’t got much to say about it,” Simmons said. “We playing football. He’s mad he got hit? What do most quarterbacks do when they don’t want to get hit? They go down. I don’t really know what else to tell him about that.”

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STEELERS: Mike Tomlin believes the Pittsburgh Steelers’ lack of physicality in a one-sided loss to Houston is nothing a padded practice can’t fix.

Less than 48 hours after promising “changes” in the immediate aftermath of a 30-6 demolition at the hands of the Texans, Tomlin struck a different chord.

The changes — if any — ahead of Sunday’s visit from AFC North rival Baltimore (3-1) will be subtle, and they won’t include tinkering with who is calling the plays for an offense that has managed all of four touchdowns through four games and is last in the NFL in first downs.

Asked specifically if he was going to shift play-calling responsibilities away from embattled offensive coordinator Matt Canada, Tomlin responded simply “at this juncture, no.”

Instead, Tomlin stressed the need to put the pads on during practice, something the staff chose not to do over the past two weeks following primetime games, one of which included a return trip home from Las Vegas that was interrupted by an unexpected layover in Kansas City because of a mechanical issue with the club’s charter plane.

Tomlin believes the lack of padded practices forced the Steelers to need time to “warm up” to the game on Sunday. Houston didn’t have that problem, rolling up 451 yards while manhandling Pittsburgh for long stretches.

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