OBJ cares more than critics
Hey, Odell critics: Outburst shows he cares
Acommon complaint from fans is this: We care more than the players do. You do not care more than Odell Beckham Jr. And, for anyone bent out of shape about the way he blew off steam outside the visitors’ locker room at Lincoln Financial Field early Friday morning, go drink some eggnog and chill out.
Sure, the sight of Beckham pacing like a caged lion in the tunnel leading to the field, still full of fury and frustration, was jarring. He remained in full uniform after his teammates were already inside, trying to gather himself after the 24-19 loss to the Eagles that delayed the Giants’ playoff-clinching celebration. He flexed his muscles, he let out a guttural scream, his head cocked backward and his eyes closed tightly.
He then stood inside the tunnel, his nose nearly touching a steel gate within the wall, and banged his head against it a few times before Giants security and team officials, including co-owner John Mara, surrounded him, consoled him — Mara gently patted him on the back — and he was ushered into the locker room.
Once inside, Beckham spoke calmly about the game, fully composed. He did not answer a question about his tunnel outburst, but addressed everything else. Beckham was especially frustrated that he did not make a play with 20 seconds remaining, a deep ball from Eli Manning from the Giants’ 34-yard line. A double-move by Beckham sprung him free and he actually had a step on the closest defender, but Manning’s pass did not have enough lift on it and it fell harmlessly in the end zone.
“I had him,” Manning said. “I had a shot.’’
Beckham was especially peeved he could not catch up to the pass, insisting “the ball wasn’t overthrown, it was put right where it needed to be.’’ He admitted “I needed a little bit more gas in me to go and get it.’’
That might have been falling on the sword for his quarterback, but Beckham had a right to be fatigued. He played 88 of the 89 offensive snaps four days after playing 60-of-64 snaps. Manning threw 63 passes and Beckham ran a route on every one of them; he was targeted 20 times. He believed there was a game-winning play to be made and he did not make it.
Harnessing his talent and mind is an ongoing quest and every week, it seems, he is in the crosshairs. That goes with the territory, given how much Beckham brings on himself. He lights fires of controversy and thus cannot be aghast when he gets burned.
The Eagles never made it easy on him. Safety Malcolm Jenkins said, “We made up a defense on the sideline’’ because we got tired of him catching the ball and sprinting through the defense.’’
Basically, the Eagles junked their zone. Jenkins said they put rookie Jalen Mills on Beckham, took a defensive lineman off the field and put an extra defensive back, Terrence Brooks, into the game to attend specifically to Beckham. “We made sure we had somebody on Odell all the time,’’ Jenkins said.
Jim Schwartz, the defensive coordinator, described it as a boxand-one defense, akin to the basketball gimmick defense used to contain one high scorer. Beckham ended with 11 catches for 150 yards, but he was kept out of the end zone and averaged only 13.6 yards per catch.
Anyone pointing to Beckham’s postgame head-pounding as a sign of him being out of control or unable to deal with his emotions is just being silly, or petty. Without him, the Giants would have five wins, not 10, and they would be headed for a fifth consecutive season out of the playoffs, rather than sitting on the doorstep, with admission highly likely this weekend, despite the loss to the Eagles.
He cares. You want to get on him for that, go ahead. Plenty of you out there care about the Giants — but not as much as Beckham does.