Takeaways from New York Giants Week 6 Loss
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Well that didn't go as planned. Week 6 for the New York Giants was a humbling experience as the Los Angeles Rams beat them into the ground 38-11. The Giants were outclassed by the superior Rams as they were barely in the game. The Giants fall to 1-5 on the season and the season that began with so much promise is virtually over before the kids go trick-or-treating.
Giants have a combined record of 19-51 since the start of the 2017. This is the longest sustained drought in my lifetime for the Giants. I was a baby when they were coming out of the 1970s and early 80s disaster. Owner John Mara is said to be frustrated, embarrassed and hurt by boos he has to take in their last home game two weeks ago against the Falcons. He understands the boos but it doesn't mean he likes it. After he basically put a playoff mandate on this team, he is watching another go down the drain. He hates making changes mid-season but be sure changes are coming. Joe Judge is 7-15 as head coach and the Giants are headed in the wrong direction. We now have college football to watch as we think about our next two draft picks in the first round.
I was able to get some stats from the Giants Wire about last night's game, and some of these are head shaking worthy.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, this was the first 38-11 final score in NFL history.
The Giants’ four turnovers were the most in a game since October 10, 2019.
The Giants trailed the Rams, 38-3, in the fourth quarter, their largest deficit since November 5, 2017. That also came against the Rams (48-10).
The Rams’ 28-point second quarter was the most by a Giants opponent since December 19, 2010 (Eagles).
The Giants have lost their first three home games for the first time since 2017.
Daniel Jones’ 44.7 passer rating was the second-lowest of his career.
Jones’ 29 completions and 51 pass attempts were each career highs.
Jones back to his old habits
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Daniel Jones was a surprise start coming into the Rams game. After the nasty concussion he suffered against the Dallas Cowboys, no one thought he would be able to play the following week. Jones was on track to start all week after Friday’s practice and was in the lineup. But the hope quickly faded away as Jones had his worst performance of the season, finishing 29-51 for 242 yards, 3 INTs and 2 fumbles (1 fumble lost).
Just as I was about to allow Jones to retake the “Danny Dimes” moniker”, he slumped back into his old habits again. He couldn’t take care of the football, he was staring down receivers, telegraphing throws and just couldn’t find a rhythm until late in the 4th quarter. He showed promise as he led the offense down the field on their opening drive. This drive untimely stalled in the redzone (sound familiar) and had to settle for a 27-yard field goal by K Graham Gano. But a few 3 and outs saw the Rams defense settled in. The Rams picked Jones off three times plus recovered a fumble on a strip-sack by DE Ogbonnia Okoronkwo.
Yes, Jones was without a host of offensive weapons in RB Saquon Barkley and WR Kenny Golladay to start the game. Then breakout WR Kadarius Toney re-injured his ankle on the opening drive after catching all these targets for 39 yards. Coach Jones admitted after the game Toney was a big part of the game plan going into the Rams game and had no backup plan after his injury. The offensive line was horrible and even WR Sterling Shepard admitted that, "Surrounding cast let Daniel Jones down." The blame can't go squarely on the QB, but unfortunately he will get the credit when they win and the blame when they loose. That's the name of the game.
Turnovers and the Second Quarter were back breakers
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The Giants were completely overmatched and not on the level of the Rams team. The Giants however opened up the game with a great drive to take an early lead. But as the Rams offense settled in, the Giants proceeded to give the game away with turnovers. The Giants aren’t good enough to win games when they turnover the football 4 times in the game. The 3 interceptions and 2 fumbles (1 lost) were back breakers that the team just could not overcome.
The mental mistakes have been following this team around for the season so far and turnovers are right in line with this. The belief was that Joe Judge had brought discipline and a change of culture to the Giants. But this team has clearly take a step back.
The Giants had one of their worst quarters of the season in the 2nd quarter. This quarter was their doom as the defense couldn't make dogs and the offense couldn't do anything. They gave up 28 points as the Rams found creative ways to punish the Giants: blown coverage on a touchdown to WR Robert Woods, a rushing touchdown to Darrell Henderson (who had his way with the Giants), a receiving touchdown from a running back, and a 4th and 1 touchdown pass to Cooper Kupp who is playing out of his mind this season.
Sterling Shepard was clearly the only Giants offensive player who had a good game. Coming back from the hamstring injury that had him out of the lineup for the last few games, Shepard finished with 10 catches for 76 yards. But as always with the Giants, he slipped on a Jones’ pass in the 2nd quarter that ended up being intercepted. So the football always bounces both ways for the Giants.
Defense couldn't make plays
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The defense was pushed around and manhandled by the high-powered Rams offense. The Giants were unable to stop the run as RB Darrell Henderson and company averaged 3.1 yards per carry on their way to 131 rushing yards. Yet again, the Giants let up another touchdown with under 2 minutes left in the first half. The Giants would have gave up another as the defense stepped up with a big interception to close the half after Jones threw a pick.
The lone bright spots on defense was the play of Leonard Williams and Xavier McKinney. Williams had been the target of criticism all week for his lack of play despite getting a big contract extension in the off-season. He had his best game of the season as he recorded 7 tackles (2 solo and 1 for a loss), 2 QB hits and 1.5 sacks. S Xavier McKinney also had one of his best games as he tallied 2 interceptions on the day.
The Giants are allowing over 400 yards of total offense per game and nearly 30 points per contest. This is after they finished as a top 10 defense last year and made additions in the off-season. Losing Blake Martinez was a huge loss and you can see that with the amount of missed tackles in the first/second levels. There is no consistent pass rush outside of coverage sacks, they can’t create pressure in under 3 seconds to disrupt the opposing offense, and they can’t stop the run at all. The secondary has good players but they can’t be asked to cover NFL-level WRs for longer than 5 seconds.
DT Williams said he was disappointed in the fans booing yesterday. But what do you expect? We as fans have been watching almost 10 years of awful Giants football. On a day where we celebrated our last Super Bowl, we are reminded how far we are away from that level.
Offensive line was overmatched
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The offense line was a disaster against the stout Los Angeles Rams defensive line. Daniel Jones was under constant pressure throughout the game as he couldn’t move the ball down field. OT Andrew Thomas gave it a go but clearly should not have been out there.
Offensive tackle Nate Solder clearly is not a starter but keeps getting run out there. Solder on the first offensive snap in the game gets beat badly by DE Floyd and almost got the strip sack. He was immediately pulled for T Matt Peart and the Giants matched right down the field. Coincidence? But Solder was back in the game and proceeded to have a horrible game. Despite the eye test, Solder actually led the Giants’ offense with a grade of 67.0 according to Pro Football Focus (go figure). That basically points to how bad the rest of them line played on Sunday. The lowest-graded linemen was guard Wes Martin (23.5 and a 0.0 pass block grade). According to Giants Wire, it’s the second week in a row a Giants offensive lineman earned a 0.0 in pass protection (Matt Skura the other).
I said tackle Matt Peart needs to play more once Thomas is completely healthy. But yesterday was a brutal game for him as DE Ogbonnia Okoronkwo beat him around the edge consistently. Peart played out of position at left tackle after the Thomas injury and the Giants refusal to allow Solder to play LT again. Peart scored a 59.6 according to Pro Football Focus and shows promise as the right tackle.
It was yet another reason why this team just can't get out of their own way, the mistakes are too much to overcome along with the injuries. Back to the drawing board for the G-Men and ownership needs to start over again.
