Show ’em on the field!
Beckham can prove he’s not the problem by doing what Mara wants
Far be it from me to advocate an NFL player foregoing his duties to speak to the media, but for one day on Friday inside the Giants’ locker room in East Rutherford, I’d be OK with it.
I’d be OK with Odell Beckham Jr. this one time telling everyone: ‘Not this week, guys. I’d prefer to let my play on the field do the talking. Talk to you after Monday night’s game in Atlanta.’
Because then, if the Giants went down to Mercedes-Benz Stadium and put on their typical, sub-20-point show — with Beckham doing “a little more playing and a little less talking,” exactly as coowner John Mara had asked this Tuesday — then everyone would be reminded of the real reason these Giants aren’t scoring and winning:
It isn’t Beckham’s mouth that’s the problem when the games start; it’s Eli Manning’s arm and decision-making, and often also the offensive line’s inability to consistently protect.
And it’s the defense’s inability to keep points off the board, too, having surrendered 33, 33, and 34 points in the Giants’ last three games, respectively, all losses.
This has happened while Manning’s offense has scored 18 or fewer points in four of six games and two of the last three — including a paltry 13 points in last Thursday night’s embarrassing home loss to the Philadelphia Eagles despite Saquon Barkley’s 229 yards from scrimmage.
The injury-riddled defense of the Falcons (2-4) has become a punchline of sorts, surrendering a staggering 32 points per game. But the Giants’ defense is suddenly up there at 27 points allowed per game, too.
And while Matt Ryan and Atlanta are scoring up near the average of what Big Blue is surrendering (27.8), the Giants’ offense cannot boast the same confidence, averaging just 19.5 per game.
So the numbers don’t favor New York.
“Offensively, we just have to move the ball,” Manning said Thursday. “We know we got to do our part. We got to try to get out to a good lead … You can’t give this (Falcons) team a whole lot of breathing room, because they have the ability to come back and to score.”
On Monday night, though, the Falcons’ shorthanded defense most certainly will present Manning with opportunities to push the ball down the field. Head coach Pat Shurmur, as he has all season, will call plays to throw the ball down the field to Beckham, Sterling Shepard and Evan Engram.
And it will be up to the quarterback to connect on them and to avoid throwing interceptions, as he did on last week’s opening drive and twice in the second half in Carolina.
Strong safety Landon Collins, asked Thursday what the missing ingredient is from this defense not making all the plays it did two years ago, said: “(We have to) make the play. Make the play. Makes all the difference.” But that message really can be applied to the entire team.
Shurmur on Thursday implicitly defended corner Janoris Jenkins’ effort in a terrible performance against the Eagles, but in the process the coach made the point that no one is without blame.
“I think (Jenkins) has competed pretty well,” Shurmur said. “He’s had a couple plays a game that -you can just fill in the blank on each player, fill in the blank on each coach.”
Beckham has not played perfectly, to be sure. In Carolina, he muffed a punt that the Panthers recovered for a touchdown, dropped a fourth-down pass and had a touchdown ripped out of his hands. His pre-halftime
exits to the locker room in Weeks 1 and 6 have also been counterproductive.
And he shouldn’t have publicly blasted his coach, quarterback, teammates’ heart and the market in which he’s playing. And he shouldn’t have said that he doesn’t need to apologize.
Those were mistakes. They made a bad situation a lot worse.
But the focus for right now is on beating the Falcons. Nothing else. And if Beckham just removes the variable of his off-field drama for a few days here, perhaps this charade of accountability will reset naturally to the reality:
That OBJ has created some problems, but he isn’t THE problem.