Plumb the depths
Giant's offense has sunk into the abyss with league-worst Browns and Rams
Not the worst, but close to it. Since Week 7 of the NFL season, the Giants are keeping some unsavory company. In the past six games, the Giants possess the 30th-ranked total offense in the league. Only the Browns and Rams are worse.
Let that sink in for a moment. Only the winless Browns, with their decades-long quarterback issues, and the moribund Rams — another sad-sack scoring outfit — have been more anemic than the Giants, a team featuring Eli Manning and Odell Beckham Jr.
The Giants are 26th in the NFL in total yards, 31st in rushing yards, tied for 23rd in scoring. They are one of only five teams yet to score 30 points in a game this season and five times they have scored fewer than 20 points.
How humbling and what a comedown from the offense when Ben McAdoo was the offensive coordinator last season, when the Giants averaged 26.3 points a game and were, more often than not, quite difficult to contain.
“Going into the season, you can’t flip a switch and expect to be the same type of outfit you were in the past,’’ McAdoo said Monday. “Each year is a new year and you have to earn it and up to this point, me included, we haven’t earned it.’’
What the Giants have earned is admission into the playoff chase, despite their offensive foibles. Their 24-14 loss to the Steelers did not end anything for the Giants, other than the far-fetched notion they could overtake the Cowboys (11-1) for first place in the NFC East. Their playoff goals remain intact and, although Sunday night’s game at Met Life Stadium will not be a first-place showdown — the Cowboys with a win clinch the division title — but it will help determine if the Giants can shake off this offensive malaise and more closely resemble a playoff-caliber team.
Asked directly if the Giants possess a playoff offense, McAdoo said, “Right now we believe we have the players and the scheme to make a run to this thing.’’
The problem is the productivity is getting worse, not better. The Giants didn’t do much of anything with the ball in Cleveland and really did not produce one prolonged, meaningful scoring drive all night in Pittsburgh. Their lone touchdown while the game was still competitive came in the third quarter on a two-play, 17-yard “drive’’ after forcing a fumble. The only other points came with the Steelers leading 24-7 with 26 seconds remaining, the fans already gone or headed for the exits at Heinz Field.
“I think there’s a heightened sense of awareness that we need to get better and we need to improve and we need to keep working at it,’’ McAdoo said.
Twice, the Giants moved deep into Steelers territory, reaching the 9 and 3-yard line, and failed to come away with any points, which is not easy to do.
“We’re down in the red zone multiple times, at a certain point it’s about capitalizing,’’ offensive lineman Marshall Newhouse said. “There’s nothing I think they confused us with, it’s just converting and executing. That’s what these December games come down to, that’s what playoff games come down to.’’
Newhouse added, “There’s nothing even closely compared to a crisis’’ within the Giants offense, but that might be wishful thinking.
This looks like a mess from the outside.
The Giants do not run the ball with any conviction and their passing game is often disjointed, with Beckham making plays all over the field, but the ball not finding its way into the end zone nearly enough. No targets for Sterling Shepard last week in Cleveland and none for Victor Cruz against the Steelers sends up flares the operation is not in synch.
“From 10 [Manning] to the receivers to the offensive line, we all got to pick our game up a little bit more,’’ Newhouse said.
Everyone is watching and waiting, with time dwindling to get it right.