Sans OBJ, inept attack turns in dud in Big D
ARLINGTON, Tex. — If only the Giants could blame Sunday night’s offensive ineptitude in a 19-3 loss to the Cowboys on Odell Beckham Jr.’s absence. The reality is the Giants’ offense often played as poorly last season when Beckham started all 16 games as it did in this season-opening dud at AT&T Stadium.
“Obviously you miss the best player in the NFL (not) being out there,” left guard Justin Pugh said. “But we didn’t even run the ball or control the clock, get first downs – at the very least just don’t go three-and-out … It’s the first game of the season luckily because we’re nowhere we need to be … We got our butts kicked tonight.”
Sitting Beckham with his sprained left ankle robbed Eli Manning of his best receiver and apparently his only deep threat; Manning didn’t go deep until an incompletion intended for Brandon Marshall down the left sideline with 1:31 remaining in the third quarter.
But too much went wrong on Ben McAdoo’s offense to say a healthy No. 13 would have been the antidote. And besides, Sterling Shepard said the Giants had “prepared as if (Beckham) wasn’t playing” all along, so they weren’t caught off-guard. Marshall’s Giants debut particularly was uninspiring. He was nearly invisible. He made his only catch for 10 yards on the second-to-last play of the game, on just four total targets. Marshall praised Shepard (seven catches, 44 yards) and said “when the opportunities come, I’ll be ready for ’em.”
But Marshall is supposed to be the Giants’ second No. 1 receiver and with Beckham out, he was expected to step up. Yet Manning didn’t even look at Marshall until late in the second quarter, when the two clearly were on different pages and Manning sailed a pass high incomplete. Then they failed to connect on the thirdquarter deep ball and on an off-target pass to the left flat that Marshall still should have caught.
“The thing I thought about after the game was we’ve just got to start faster. We’ve got to be more efficient,” Marshall said. “If we do that, who knows how the game goes, right? (Maybe then) there are opportunities for other guys. We just didn’t do a great job today.”
Typical offensive line problems were the main reason the Giants went scoreless into halftime down 16-0, though, which is another frustrating reminder of how little GM Jerry Reese fixed the unit in the offseason.
John Jerry and Weston Richburg were whistled for penalties. Jerry was beaten for a sack. Right tackle Bobby Hart twisted an ankle early and couldn’t block Dallas defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence (five tackles, two sacks). Dallas ran several stunts and twists with its D-linemen, crossing up the Giants up front. “Because we’re struggling to block it,” McAdoo said of the tactic.
Then left tackle Ereck Flowers, who had a pretty good first half, surrendered a drive-killing sack early in the third quarter that forced the Giants into a 25-yard Aldrick Rosas field goal for their first points with 5:16 left in the quarter. Flowers also committed a holding penalty in the fourth.
Running lanes were scarce. Paul Perkins (seven carries, 16 yards) had nowhere to go. The offense committed a 12 men on the field penalty in the third quarter. And then Manning threw a backbreaking interception to Cowboys corner Anthony Brown in the fourth quarter trailing 16-3. The Giants were lucky to be down only 16-0 at halftime. At half the Cowboys had 16 first downs to the Giants’ two, 265 yards to the Giants’ 49, and 5-of-9 third down conversions to the Giants’ 0-for-5. “Our start was not hot, that’s one thing for sure,” said Shepard, who helped the offense move the ball a bit better in the second half after Cowboys DB Orlando Scandrick (hand) left with an injury. “They did a great job mixing up the coverages. We expected a lot more man than what we got.”
The defense was the only reason they stayed close, especially ferocious new middle linebacker B.J. Goodson (18 tackles). But the Cowboys still were able to move the ball and caught a break on the phantom pass interference call on Janoris Jenkins that set up Jason Witten’s 12yard touchdown.
And plus, even as the game stayed somewhat within reach, the Giants didn’t have Beckham to make that one big play and bail his team out – like in Week 14 of last season, when the Giants beat the Cowboys, 10-7, at MetLife Stadium on a blazing 61-yard Beckham TD in the third quarter. So what would Marshall say to critics who believe this offense isn’t any good without Beckham? “It’s not as good, I can say that,” Marshall said.
Sitting Beckham on Sunday night was the wise choice. There was no reason to risk further injury.
Still, the result was frighteningly bad for McAdoo, the second-lowest point output since he’s called plays for the Giants, only to a 27-0 shutout loss to the Eagles on Oct. 12, 2014. And it must be equally scary for John Mara and Steve Tisch thinking of how much higher Beckham’s contract price tag is now, after this stinker.