Opener an eye-opener for Big Blue

It’s only one game of preseason football, but Odell Beckham Jr. agrees with Giants coach Tom Coughlin.

Friday night wasn’t good enough — not by a long shot.

“We just need to play better, plain and simple,” was the message Coughlin sent, according to Beckham, about the team’s 2310 loss to the Bengals in which they were outgained, 432224, and the firstteam offense struggled mightily. Coughlin was particularly critical of his team’s receivers, saying, “Our execution left a lot to be desired.”

“[We] definitely need to do more as a receiving group, and a team as well,” said Beckham, who was targeted twice, but didn’t have a reception. “We didn’t really play well. ... It just wasn’t there. Things weren’t working. But like I said, there’s plenty more games, plenty more practices, to get stuff right.”

“Sometimes we tend to forget this is the game you played as a little kid that you loved, as far as coming out and just being excited to play football. It hit us kind of late, really realizing the season is around the corner. This may be the first preseason game, but it’s a game.”

Rehabbing cornerback Prince Amukamara agreed with Beckham about the team’s overall performance, saying on defense they were “punched in the mouth early.” Amukamara said after watching film, he noticed some good things as well, but there is a lot of room for improvement.

“The biggest measure of our team will be to see how we bounce back this week against the Jaguars,” he said, referring to Saturday’s preseason game at MetLife Stadium against Jacksonville.

Running back Rashad Jennings chalked up the performance as proof everyone needs to improve, but that’s usually the case after the f irst preseason game anyway, he said. He felt they performed well in the twojoint practices with the Bengals.

“We just need to transfer it to the game,” Jennings said.