When you try to gauge where the 2-5 Giants are at and where they might be going at this stage of their torturous rebuilding project as they reach what looms ominously as another halfway-to-hell season without a playoff berth, there are games that serve as barometers, and Sunday against the 2-3-1 Lions is one of them.

The Kyler Murray-Kliff Kingsbury Cardinals were a similar test, and the Giants failed miserably.

This is another opponent that is eminently beatable … an opponent whose next Super Bowl championship will be its first Super Bowl championship … whose last playoff win came on Jan. 5, 1992, against the Cowboys.

Pat Shurmur can make Giants ownership feel better about hiring him 13 days before the Lions hired Matt Patricia, because the loser of this game will have to answer legitimate questions as to whether his team is headed in the right direction.

Shurmur, the much-ballyhooed offensive guru, is 7-16 with the Giants. Patricia, the much-ballyhooed defensive guru, is 8-13-1 in Detroit.

Even while developing Daniel Jones, there is increasing urgency on Shurmur to teach his young team how to win, because he is aware there are no medals for trying in Giants history. Shurmur remains steadfast that his team is indeed headed in the right direction.

“Because of the way they compete and they way they fight,” he told The Post. “And we just gotta do a better job of finishing.”

That, of course, includes him doing a better job of helping his team finish with better play-calling on any and all third-and-18 and fourth-and-15 predicaments at the end of the game.

The way the Lions have been playing defense lately, there is no reason why Jones should be confronting any third-and-18s or fourth-and-15s. They can’t stop the run, they can’t stop the pass, they can’t pressure the quarterback. And now cornerback Darius “Big Play” Slay won’t play. Stop me if they sound like the NFC North version of the Giants.

“We need to get a win and get on track, sooner rather than later,” Golden Tate told the Post. “We have time, but there’s not a lot of time at this point. … If you look back at the games we’ve lost, it’s just because of things that we’ve done, not necessarily anything that the opposition’s done.”

Shurmur presumably made the monumental switch from Eli Manning because he believed Jones gave him a better chance to win, or would sooner rather than later. Jones exploded out of the blocks, but his predictable growing pains have not yet provided encouraging evidence that it will be sooner.

“I felt a lot more sense of urgency from everybody in this locker room, including Daniel,” Evan Engram told The Post. “He’s growing into a leader, he’s growing into getting comfortable around the guys, and being more transparent and communicating better, working on small things like routes and stuff, so he’s growing, he’s growing into a leader, and sense of urgency is definitely up.”

It would be nice if Jones got more help from his offensive line, which will still require fixing by general manager Dave Gettleman, and a defense that doesn’t force him to play catchup and had better not swoon at the strength of Matthew Stafford’s arm. A healthy Saquon Barkley is a luxury Stafford won’t have with rookie running back Ty Johnson.

“I don’t think anyone’s tanked,” Tate said. “I think we want to win just as much as everybody in the city wants to happen. We just gotta make it happen.”

Then make it happen, already.

“I love this team,” Tate said. “I love the whole organization. I think we have a bunch of guys that want to be really good. Being so close to the city and having so many distractions, I think guys are doing a really, really good job with being focused on what’s really important, and that’s showing up to work, being a pro and trying to win ballgames.”

Try harder.

“We have the talent, we have the right-minded people, we have the right attitude, we have the right work ethic,” Engram said, “we just gotta get it done when it counts.”

Engram was wearing a No. 89 Mark Bavaro jersey on his way out of the locker room.

“Best tight end to play here, one of the best tight ends ever, really,” Engram said. “Hard-nosed guy, came up clutch. He wasn’t the biggest, fastest guy, but he was gonna fight every play and you got that infamous play against the 49ers when he got about the whole defense on his back. When you look at a tight end, you build a tight end, Mark Bavaro’s probably one of the best ones you can build up.”
Engram was wearing Bavaro’s 89 in advance of National Tight Ends Day on Sunday.

“I gotta show out for National Tight End Day!” Engram said.

It would be nice if the whole damn team did.

For more on the Giants, listen to the latest episode of the “Blue Rush” podcast: