Giants blow another late lead to spoil Mike Kafka’s debut, Jameis Winston’s start as skid hits five

New head coach.

New starting quarterback.

Same sad result.

The Giants cannot escape losing.

Not even with Mike Kafka having taken over as their head coach for Brian Daboll, who was fired on Monday after three-plus seasons in charge.

Not even with Jameis Winston, the 31-year-old power of positive energy at quarterback, making his Giants debut and performing well enough to win.

Nothing works for the Giants — not even when they do so many good things.

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They ran the ball effectively. Winston (19-of-29, 201 yards) efficiently managed the game and made big plays on third downs. The defense knocked the opposing starting quarterback out of the game for a series early on and punched a couple of balls loose.

And yet maddeningly, with so much change entering Sunday’s game against the Packers at MetLife Stadium, which was about 50 percent occupied by Green Bay fans clad in their garish Cheeseheads, the result remained the same: A loss.

This latest setback was a gut-punch 27-20 defeat at the hands of Green Bay in which the Giants defense blew a fourth-quarter lead for the third time this season and second consecutive week.

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The 2-9 Giants have lost their past five games, and the beat goes on as they travel to Detroit next weekend to play a Lions team that’s one of the best in the league.

“I really wanted to win for these guys, man,” Winston said.

The most sickening element to this game was that the Giants looked like they were about to end their losing streak and give Kafka his first NFL victory as a head coach.

The Giants went ahead 20-19 with 7:22 remaining in a seesaw game on a 1-yard quarterback keeper by Winston, who was starting in place of injured rookie Jaxson Dart (out with a concussion).

Unfortunately, that led to the Giants defense agonizingly blowing yet another fourth-quarter lead.

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This is getting old.

These were Kafka’s words to the defense after Winston had given them that 20-19 lead: “Attack, be aggressive, and let’s go get the ball back.’’

They didn’t.

The first dagger came in the form of a 32-yard completion from Packers quarterback Jordan Love to Savion Williams on third-and-10 from the Green Bay 48. Williams outleaped Giants cornerback Cor’Dale Flott. That put the Packers at the Giants 20-yard line.

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Three plays later, Love threw his second touchdown pass of the day to Christian Watson for the 27-20 lead with 4:02 remaining in the game after a successful two-point conversion.

Brian Burns, who was in Love’s face as he released the ball, blamed the backbreaking 32-yard play on the defensive front, not Flott.

“We took too long,” he said. “We had three one-on-ones we didn’t win.”

(note: Burns was not one of them; he was chipped by the tight end)

“You can’t leave the coverage covering that long,” Burns said. “Flott was in position. We’ve got to help him out on that, so that’s on the D-line in my opinion.

“We’ve got to make bigger and better plays to impact the game, all of us.”

The final dagger came after Winston drove the Giants down to the Green Bay 14-yard line and was intercepted by Packers safety Evan Williams with 36 seconds remaining in the game.

The turnover was not on Winston, though. It was on receiver Jalin Hyatt, who looked like he was supposed to break his route toward the corner of the end zone but stopped.

Winston’s pass went where Hyatt was supposed to go, and instead, Williams was there for the easy pick.

Hyatt said by the time he turned, he saw the ball “already in the air” and on the way into Williams’ arms.

“I’ve got to make the play,” Hyatt said. “At the end of the day, it’s on me.”

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Winston didn’t blame Hyatt, instead blaming not enough time to work with his receivers, saying, “Timing and execution is so important in this game.”

The Giants came out with an aggressive mindset in the game, winning the opening coin toss and taking the ball.

That led to a 7-0 lead on a 5-yard scoring run by Devin Singletary, the first of his two first-half rushing touchdowns.

The Packers cut the lead to 7-6 on a 6-yard scoring pass from backup quarterback Malik Willis, who was in for Love after Love injured his shoulder on a hit by Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles, to Watson.

Backup kicker Lucas Havrisik, who was playing for the injured Brandon McManus, missed the extra point, the first of two he’d miss in the game.

After a Giants three-and-out on offense, the Packers took a 13-7 lead on an 11-yard scoring run by running back Emanuel Wilson, who’d replaced starter Josh Jacobs after Jacobs left with an injured knee in the second quarter.

The Giants tied it at 13-13 on Singletary’s second TD, a 2-yard scoring run with 1:11 remaining in the first half.

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The Packers went up 19-13 when Love connected with Josh Whyle for a 2-yard TD pass 3:20 into the second half.

The Giants answered with a 16-play drive that ate 9:46 off the clock … but it ended in a failed fourth-and-3 play from the Green Bay 10-yard line when Winston was sacked.

It was the longest offensive possession of the season for the Giants. And it ended up being the only one of the four fourth-downs they went for and failed to convert.

“This team wants it,” Winston said. “We’re right there, close in these games. We just have to finish the game. And we will. We’ll find a way to finish, because it’s required to finish in this league.”

Unfortunately, the Giants too often this season have failed to meet those requirements