Takeaways from New York Giants Week 3 Loss
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Not the way we envision celebrating Eli Manning's day. On a day when the greatest New York quarterback had his number retired, the New York Giants laid an egg and lost in the final second for the second straight game. The Giants fell to the Falcons 17-14 on a last-second field goal. The Giants were outscored 10-0 in the final quarter after Saquon Barkley's electric touchdown leap. There's a lot to unpack here, so let's get to it. Not Scoring Touchdowns in the Redzone
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The Giants and the red zone so far this year haven't cashed in. The Giants were moving the football all throughout the game, and out gain the Falcons 346 yards to 296. In the first half the Giants were inside the Red zone twice and twice settled for field goals. The first drive stalled when Daniel Jones was sacked by Grady Jarrett for an 11-yard loss on 2nd and goal. This the drive momentum killer that led to the first of Graham Gano's two field goals The Giants' second opportunity in the redzone was killed by a poor snap from center Billy Price that Daniel Jones couldn't control. The play moved the ball to the 28 and made it impossible to get into the endzone. Then to add insult to injury, Eli Penny was called for a false start that turned a impossible 3rd-and-17 into an even worse 3rd and 22. It forced the Giants to settle for their second field goal. The Giants took a 6-0 lead instead of a 14-0 that would have put the pressure on the Falcons.
Mistakes are killing this team
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But those two drives weren't the only mistakes of the football game. When you're good at something, you might as well keep doing it. And the Giants are good at killing themselves with mental mistakes. Miss tackles, penalties, and communication errors have plagued the Giants in their first three games. Now in Joe Judge's second year, the Giants have actually gotten worse with the mental mistakes. The mismanagement of timeouts in the second half, challenging a touchdown catch, and stupid penalties have pointed to an undisciplined football team. Joe Judge hasn't built on the nice foundation he built last season and the team looks like they regressed. Giants did a great job of attracting talent in the offseason to this football team, but talent isn't enough. We need to start playing smarter football and that starts with the head coach. The Giants had 8 penalties for 53 yards, not a lot of yardage in the grand scheme of things. However these penalties couldn't have happened at the worst time, as they either killed drives in the red zone or extended drives for the Falcons. Daniel Jones was harassed because of missed blocks in the passing game. The running game, while they rushed for 100 yards, saw a lot of missed blocks which routinely stopped Saquon Barkley at the line of scrimmage. Safety Xavier McKinney was flagged for a personal foul when he made helmet to helmet contact with WR Olamide Zaccheaus that moved the ball inside the ten yard line. In another momentum killer, the Giants were moving the ball inside of 2 minutes to end the first half. But TE Evan Engram, who was playing in his first game of the season, fumbled the ball on a pass from Jones and the Falcons recovered to take the Giants offense of the field. The obvious dropped interception in the endzone by Andoris Jackson was a killer, as that play would've stopped a long drive with under 5 minutes left in the 4th quarter. But I will not say this INT would've sealed the game like other media people have come out to say. They got a "game sealing" INT by CB James Bradberry last week against the Washington Football Team, went 3 and out, settled for a field goal, then proceeded to lose them have Let's just sprinkle in a drop by Evan Engram, a penalty against guard Will Hernandez that took away a nice 20-yard Barkley pass, and a missed pass to a wide-open C.J. Board that would've taken the Giants out of the shadow of their endzone. The Giants shouldn't have been in a close game at all, let alone take a home loss.
Azeez Ojulari needs to play more
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Ojulari is still pretty raw and is likely a reason why he doesn't play first and second downs as often. But the rookie is quick off the ball, has good hand placement and is clearly the only edge pass rusher that's able to make plays right now. Ojulari is the only Giants' player to have a sack in his first 3 games. It’s also k important that his sack was sack-fumble that derailed the Falcons' drive. The Giants’ defense for the most part played well. Even after losing their leading tackler LB Blake Martinez, the Giants shut down the running game and frustrated QB Matt Ryan.
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The electric TE Kyle Pitts didn't get his first catch until the 4th quarter. Matt Ryan I was consistently checking the ball down, holding the ball way too long in the pocket, or just really had no where to go. Consistent pass rush would have held this Falcons' offense in check for the full game, but the final quarter saw the Falcons score 10 unanswered points and steal a victory from the Giants. Injuries are mounting for Big Blue
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The Giants got TE Evan Engram back from his preseason calf injury. But the Giants started to sustain some injuries that made prove to be costly. The most brutal of the injuries came early in the game as defensive co-captain Blake Martinez injured his knee injury on a non-contact play on the Falcons' opening drive. Those type of injuries usually spell ACL related injures as Blake didn't return to the game.
UPDATE: Mike Garafolo confirms LB Blake is it for the season with a torn ACL Also coming up with injuries were WRs Sterling Shepard and Darius Slayton. Both starters appeared to suffer hamstring related injuries. Both players did not return to them game. Star WR Kenny Golladay was a surprise start for the game with his hip injury and was rules a go after pre-game warm-ups. Rumor was he was going to be on a pitch count, but with the injuries to Slayton and Sheperd he had to play a little bit more than I suspect the coaches wanted. Golladay spent time on the bike in between series and went a few plays at a time on the sidelines. When you looked at the schedule early in the season, you thought the light part of their schedule was possibly the first three games. The Giants are now looking for their first win of the season against the Saints, Cowboys, Rams, Panthers, Chiefs, or Raiders before we mercifully get a Week 10 bye.
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Things got so bad for the Giants yesterday, even owner John Mara was booed at the Eli Manning ceremony. I don't think I've ever heard the owner get such a loud negative response at home like I did yesterday. Well I don't think the chorus of boos was all directed at Mr. Mara, I think the fans let him know that they aren't happy with been going on for the last 8 years. Fans and ownership alike are fed up, and it's starting to look like heads are going to roll. But another 0-3 start has doomed this season to another Giants failure.
