Ben must answer for offense
THE Giants’ 2017 season slogan is catchy and direct: “He’s Got An Ankle.” That is all an evasive Ben McAdoo continued to say after Wednesday’s practice about Odell Beckham, despite a report that the star receiver’s sprained left ankle could keep him out of the Week 1 opener in Dallas.
McAdoo also said he “didn’t learn anything from the MRI” on Beckham, so either there is an enormous communication breakdown between the Giants’ doctors and coaches, or McAdoo is considering a switch to coach hockey, a sport in which vague injury updates are as common as the injuries themselves.
No matter. He’s got an ankle. Odell Beckham has an ankle. But do you know what the Giants don’t have?
A running game, a potent offense, or any touchdowns through two preseason games.
Perhaps McAdoo has tightened up in recent days because he sees this. Perhaps he is coming to the realization that his 2017 offense so far looks too much like his 2016 offense, and he knows an NFL offense can’t just flip a switch when it wants to and morph into something it’s not.
Maybe McAdoo knows already that if his Giants are going to win this season, it’s looking like they again are going to have to do it on the back of their defense in painful, low-scoring games.
The Giants went 11-5 and reached the playoffs with that formula last year, sure, but it’s the path of greatest resistance to take there, and it sure caught up to them in a big way in the Wild Card game in Green Bay.
Repeating 2016 on offense is not an option if this team wants to chase that fifth championship banner that Beckham identified as a realistic goal not long ago. Last season’s offense finished 26th in points (19.4) and 30th in yards per carry rushing (3.5).
That is unsustainable, even with Olivier Vernon, Jason Pierre-Paul and Landon Collins looking as monstrous this preseason as three defenders can. And if Beckham misses significant time? Forget it.
The Giants’ offense is McAdoo’s baby, so this is the last thing he wants and it’s what he plans all offseason to avoid. He was probably even more excited than any Giants fan when Jerry Reese signed Brandon Marshall in free agency, and when the GM doubled down on offense by drafting tight end Evan Engram in the first round.
But Saturday night’s game against the Jets at MetLife Stadium already is upon them, the final trial for McAdoo’s first-team offense before facing the Cowboys in Arlington on Sept. 10. They are running out of time to put this all together.
With Beckham presumably out the rest of the preseason and the status of Marshall (shoulder) up in the air, McAdoo will find it even more difficult to make strides on offense and establish consistency.
Oh, and the offensive line that Reese barely addressed in the offseason and the Giants have championed as improving? On Wednesday, McAdoo began tinkering with it because he hasn’t seen nearly enough.
This is a natural part of preseason coaching in the NFL, yes. But the hype around the Giants’ offense and the reality that they still have so much unresolved are not compatible. The offense can’t be both a well-oiled machine waiting to explode and a clunker car back in the shop for repairs.
McAdoo’s shadiness on Wednesday extended beyond updates on Beckham. He would say only of absent corner Valentino Blake that “we had a couple guys we had to leave inside today, and we’ll leave it at that.”
State secrets on an NFL preseason practice day. All right. e’s got an ankle, Beckham does. But the fact that his ankle now could be worse than initially believed doesn’t reflect particularly well on the Giants’ decision to let Beckham wander the sideline on that injured ankle in the second half of Monday night’s loss in Cleveland, does it? What about that decision? “No regrets,” McAdoo said. Not yet.
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