Odell becomes an afterthought
ARLINGTON, Tex. — The Giants paid Odell Beckham Jr. $90 million on a contract extension and allowed the Cowboys to scheme him into an afterthought two weeks into the season in a prime-time game.
Beckham incomprehensibly went almost a full quarter of the Giants’ 20-13 loss without a target between the late first (6:01 remaining) and late second quarters (6:40). Then he didn’t see another pass come his way until the 9:18 mark of the third. This after Eli Manning’s first pass for Beckham went out of bounds.
Beckham finished with nine targets, four catches, 51 yards, and no answers for why the Cowboys’ two-deep safety look was so easily able to limit downfield threats, even with Saquon Barkley at running back.
“I think it’ll get to a point where (defenses) can’t do it,” Beckham said. “I hate being like, ‘It’s only Week 2,’ because I don’t like being down 0-2. Today was tough. It was frustrating. I really hate losing. And I think at some point in time it’s gonna be hard for teams to play us the way that they did. Things will get going. I’m really a believer in it, and I know for sure I’m not gonna give up.”
Beckham and Saquon Barkley, especially the rookie running back in this game, almost were expected to take short passes in traffic and do the impossible just to find points. OBJ agreed that can be a difficult plan but also said the Giants have the unique talent to do it.
“I feel what you’re saying, yeah, we have to execute better and make more of the (normal) plays and not depend as much on those (big) plays,” Beckham said. “I agree with you in that sense. But with the guys that we have on our team it’s hard to say that, because we are some of those home-run hitter guys and big-play guys. Today we just didn’t have enough.”
Beckham paused when asked if he had enough opportunities to be a differencemaker on Sunday night.
“Uh, I dont know. I didn’t make enough of the opportunities that I had,” he said. “There’s gonna be games you might get 20 targets, there’s gonna be plays you might get seven. It’s just about making the most of those plays. I didn’t feel like I did a good enough job on whatever it was. I just had to be a bigger difference maker.”
Beckham returned a punt after Kaelin Clay got hurt and made two tacklers miss, but was brought down for a 3-yard gain.