Awful Giants losing
WHO says the Giants are out of it and it’s not worth watching the out-of-town scoreboard? The playoffs: Forget about it. The first pick in the 2018 draft: It’s not over till it’s over. The Giants’ 30-10 loss to the Cowboys on Eli Manning Appreciation Day was not the bad news. In fact, as far as securing their next franchise quarterback, every loss is a good loss, unless you think meaningless victories in a lost season build character and can save the job of interim coach Steve Spagnuolo when this team is in need of a massive overhaul.
The far worse news was the winless Browns blowing a 14-point lead to the Packers and losing in overtime to retain a two-game lead for the first pick.
The Giants were so unwatchable again Sunday that Dave Gettleman, the favorite to be named general manager, and any other candidate interested in the job, could have been scared off watching the Giants play to get to 2-11.
Then again, assuming the Giants have bottomed out, the old regime of Jerry Reese and Ben McAdoo has left the new regime plenty of room to improve. If the Giants lose two of their last three games against the Eagles, Cardinals and Washington to finish 3-13, it will be the first time in franchise history they have lost more than 12 games.
If they run the table and lose all three, the nine-game season-to-season dropoff in victories will be the most since the NFL went to 16 games in 1978 and tie the franchise record of 11-3 in 1963 to 2-10-2 in 1964.
Manning, back as the starter, was given a standing ovation the first time he took the field and fans later were chanting, “Eli Manning, Eli Manning,” and it was such a heartwarming moment that even Cowboys owner Jerry Jones later said, “I was glad to see Eli out there. I really was. I’m not sure what it would look like to see a Giant team if they don’t have Eli out there at quarterback.”
I don’t think he was saying that because Manning tossed two interceptions in the fourth quarter, the first setting up the final touchdown for Dallas, and was missing so right when you think you got it, something goes wrong and then something else goes wrong and it just like keeps going wrong,” said corner Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie.
Spagnuolo did not specify which calls he would like to have back, although there were certainly a handful of big plays the Cowboys had that he could choose from.
There was a 50-yard catch and run from Cole Beasley in the fourth quarter, that set up a 20-yard go-ahead touchdown pass to Jason Witten, a short pass over the middle to Rod Smith that went for an 81-yard touchdown and later also a 15-yard touchdown run for Smith.
“When a play call doesn’t go right, I always think that there could have been a better call,” Spagnuolo said. “Now, having said that, we know that whatever the call is, a guy is going to try to make a play...we’re going to have to dissect and go through it with the players.”
While Spagnuolo second-guessed many open receivers, as he has all season.
Manning really has no reliable wideouts besides Sterling Shepard and no offensive line, but after crying when he got demoted and then begging Spags for his job back after McAdoo was fired, he showed why John Mara, Reese and McAdoo wanted to give playing time to Geno Smith and, eventually and hopefully, rookie Davis Webb. Manning can’t function with so little talent around him. He’s going to be 37 in a few weeks and needs more pieces. Eli played like the Manning of 2017, which means not very good.
“Obviously the last few weeks have been difficult with losing my starting job and losing your head coach,” Manning said. “Those things are hard and they are personal and hurt. I don’t like losing a head coach. I take that personally. That’s on me for not doing my job. I don’t like losing my starting job. That’s personal, also, and some of his defensive play-calling, he defended his decisions to punt the ball on two fourth downs in Dallas territory.
In the first quarter, Spagnuolo opted to punt from the Cowboys 37-yard line on a fourth-and-3 instead of either going for it or kicking a 55-yard field goal — which resulted in boos from Giants fans.
“It felt like it was going to be a field position game, which it really was right until the fourth quarter,” he said. “When you kind of get that feeling, I wanted to stick with the field position game, back them up.”
Punter Brad Wing, however, booted the ball into the end zone for a touchback, which put the Cowboys at the 20 — a difference of just 17 yards if they had missed the field goal or failed a fourthdown conversion.
The Giants also punted the ball on a fourth-and-8 from the Dallas 46 with 4:40 remaining in the game and trailing by one score. Three plays later came Smith’s 81-yard touchdown.