EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The hope is that 20 years from now, New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart will look back and laugh at his NFL baptism at the hands of the Minnesota Vikings’ suffocating defense the way Eli Manning does to the abuse he took from the Baltimore Ravens his rookie season.

It will help if Dart has a few Super Bowl rings as he takes that self-deprecating trip down memory lane.

Because as of now, Dart will want to forget Sunday’s painful 16-13 loss to the Vikings for a long time. Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores’ exotic schemes made Dart look very much like a rookie making his 10th career start.

It wasn’t as bad as Manning’s 0.0 passer rating in a 37-14 loss to the Ravens in his fourth career start. But Dart completed 7-of-13 passes for 33 yards, no touchdowns and one interception, which was easily the worst statistical output of his young career. He was sacked five times and had just seven yards rushing on two carries. The Giants finished with 13 net yards passing.

“Just not let it happen again, I guess,” Dart said of the takeaway from the worst game of his young career.

Interim coach Mike Kafka tried to protect Dart with a run-heavy game plan, but Kafka went too far, effectively neutering the rookie.

The Giants ran the ball on 16 of their 19 first-down plays in the game. The offense averaged 4.7 yards on those carries, so the approach was effective. But failing to mix in more passes, particularly off play action, forced Dart to make only high-leverage throws on third and fourth downs, when Flores’ scheme is at its most complex.

Dart didn’t officially record an attempt until three minutes into the second quarter when tight end Theo Johnson dropped a sidearm pass in the flat. Kafka called three pass plays earlier, but one ended in a sack and penalties negated the two others.

Dart’s next attempt was a deep pass to slot wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson up the seam against one of Flores’ patented all-out blitzes. It was the right read, but Dart put too much air under the pass, which allowed cornerback Isaiah Rodgers to break it up.

Dart’s next attempt was a quick slant to Johnson on third-and-15. The pass went through Johnson’s hands — something that has occurred too frequently this season — and was intercepted by Vikings cornerback Byron Murphy. His 15-yard return to New York’s 16 set up a touchdown to give the Vikings a 13-3 lead late in the first half.

And we’ll take that‼️@byronmurphy

📺: @NFLonFOX pic.twitter.com/K78GIHPP4R

— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) December 21, 2025

Dart’s first completion didn’t come until less two minutes remained in the first half when he hit Robinson for a 2-yard gain. That was sandwiched between near interceptions, as Dart was clearly struggling to decipher the disguised coverages.

Dart completed 1-of-5 passes for two yards, no touchdowns, one interception and three sacks in the first half. The performance was every bit as ugly as those numbers indicate.

“You trust the game plan,” Dart said. “You have those conversations with the coaches, and you just do your best to execute. For myself and for our team, we had our opportunities, and we didn’t do that at a level enough to win the game.”

Things didn’t improve much in the second half. Dart’s longest completion of the day was a 14-yarder to Robinson on third-and-16 on the Giants’ second possession of the third quarter. Dart then hit wide receiver Darius Slayton for an 8-yard gain on fourth-and-2 to advance to the Vikings’ 46-yard line.

That drive could have ended when Dart was sacked on third-and-16, but Vikings linebacker Eric Wilson was flagged for hitting the quarterback in the head. That was the second time a Giants drive was extended by a roughing the passer penalty on a third-down sack.

The drive quickly stalled from there, however, with undrafted rookie kicker Ben Sauls hitting a 39-yard field goal to tie the score at 13 with 11:06 remaining. The Giants’ defense, which supplied the team’s lone touchdown on a 27-yard fumble return by safety Tyler Nubin late in the first half, allowed a Vikings field goal on the ensuing possession.

Burns strip sack leads to Nubin TD 🔥

📺: FOX pic.twitter.com/JtX9zDGs7d

— New York Giants (@Giants) December 21, 2025

That set up Dart with an opportunity to erase all of the frustration that had built by leading a game-winning drive. Instead, the frustration only grew.

Slayton had a hideous drop on pass that would have gained at least 17 yards and moved the ball into Vikings territory. Slayton, who signed a three-year, $36 million contract in the offseason, has a $16 million cap hit in 2026, and the Giants would gain only $250,000 in cap savings by cutting him.

An illegal contact penalty on a third-and-9 incompletion granted the Giants a first down before two runs set up third-and-3 from Minnesota’s 47-yard line. Dart’s third-down pass was batted down at the line. He was sacked in a collapsing pocket with 1:58 remaining to seal the loss.

It was the Giants’ ninth straight loss, dropping them to 2-13. That sets up a showdown with the 2-13 Raiders with the No. 1 pick on the line next week.

“It’s just a new experience I’ve never been through before, and it doesn’t make it any easier than what it is,” Dart said. “You just try to do your best to stay positive as much as you can.”

Dart huddled with veteran backups Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston in the locker room after the game. Dart declined to share the specifics of those conversations, but it’s easy to imagine the experienced quarterbacks sharing tales of how they rebounded from clunkers early in their careers.

“The big thing is perspective,” Dart said. “They have been through a lot. They have had crazy good games. They have had games where they struggled themselves. A lot of this is new for me, and I definitely lean on those guys and have those conversations.”

When taking a big-picture view of Dart’s season, it’s impossible to ignore that his performance has declined in his three games since Brian Daboll was fired and replaced by Kafka. Dart’s uneven play has also coincided with his return from a two-game absence due to a concussion.

With a heightened focus on Dart’s health, his designed runs have been reduced greatly. Finding the balance of using Dart’s legs as a weapon and avoiding injury is a line the Giants will be walking throughout the early stages of his career. But a game like Sunday emphasized that Dart is still in the early stages of his development as a pocket passer.

“I thought they did a good job,” Dart said of Minnesota’s defense. “I thought they did a good job of staying true to rush lanes. The opportunities that you have in the game when you’re kind of in those exotic downs and when they are trying to light it up, you just try your best to stay composed during all that.”

Making matters even more challenging for Dart is that he was playing behind three backup offensive linemen by the end of Sunday’s game. Left guard Jon Runyan was inactive because he was with his wife, who was in labor with their first child. Left tackle Andrew Thomas left early in the second quarter with a hamstring injury. Center John Michael Schmitz exited with a hand injury late in the third quarter.

The extent of Thomas’ injury won’t be known until he undergoes an MRI on Monday. But it would be foolish to push the injury-prone star to play in the two meaningless games remaining. However, the thought of having Dart’s blindside protected by rookie Marcus Mbow is unsettling as the quarterback aims to finish a rookie season that began with such promise on a high note.

“This is just not how you plan it out to go in your head before the season,” Dart said. “It’s definitely been difficult.”

Dart can only hope it doesn’t get much more difficult than Sunday.