Same old frustrations for Giants’ O-line in loss

ATLANTA — Pat Shurmur needed a water break in Monday night’s third quarter. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Shurmur’s lips were easy and painful to read.

“Why didn’t he throw it to Odell?” the coach said incredulously on the sideline.

Odell Beckham Jr. had been open on fourth and goal from the Atlanta Falcons’ 1-yard line on the first drive of the second half, with the Giants down only a score in their only trip this season to Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the site of this year’s Super Bowl.

But Eli Manning did not throw to his best receiver running left to right along the goal line. He didn’t even throw to a seemingly open tight end Rhett Ellison in the back of the end zone. He forced one back across the field to third-string tight end Scott Simonson. And the pass fell predictably incomplete.

Same old frustrations for the Giants (1-6), whose offensive line got dominated for four Falcons sacks in the first half; whose quarterback overthrew an open Beckham in the end zone in the first half and ignored him open in the second; who took a fourth straight loss, 23-20, to an injury-riddled Atlanta team that improved to an underwhelming 34.Beckham and Sterling Shepard both went for more than 140 yards receiving on a Falcons defense prone to surrendering the big play. But the Giants scored no more than six first-half points for the fourth time in seven games, trailing 10-3 at the break.

And when Saquon Barkley answered Tevin Coleman’s 30-yard fourth quarter touchdown run with a 2-yard score to draw within 20-12 with 4:47 to play, Shurmur went for two, and Beckham dropped the conversion pass from Manning. Then Atlanta’s Giorgio Tavecchio banged a 53-yard field goal to ice it on the other side of the two minute warning.