Blueprint to failure
Wednesday was a rough day for the Giants, with Ben McAdoo announcing the suspension of Dominique Rogers-Cromartie. In this winless and terrible 2017 season, it was more of the same for a team that has endured a whole bunch of rough days. Here’s a look at what has gone wrong:
Odell Beckham Jr. comes up limping in Cleveland. A high ankle sprain in a preseason game against the Browns forces the star receiver to the sideline and he ends up missing the regular-season opener.
Rookie tight end Evan Engram in his second NFL game celebrates his first career touchdown with a crotch-grab that gets him a 15-yard penalty.
After Eli Manning took a delay-of-game penalty on a fourth-and-goal from the 2, forcing the Giants to settle for a field goal instead of going for a touchdown in their 24-10 loss to the Lions, Ben McAdoo chastises his quarterback. “Sloppy quarterback play. The quarterback and center need to be on the same page there,” McAdoo said. “We’ve got to get the ball snapped.”
Beckham celebrates his first touchdown catch of the season in Philadelphia by getting down on all-fours, raising his right leg and pretending to pee like a dog (above). He is hit with a 15-yard penalty and a rebuke by co-owner John Mara.
Giants score 24 points in the fourth quarter to take leads of 21-14 and 24-21 against the Eagles, but ultimately lose on Jake Elliott’s 61-yard field goal as time expires. It is the longest game-winning field goal against the Giants in franchise history and the first of three consecutive games in which the Giants blow a fourth-quarter lead.
Poised to finally get their points of a first half, the Giants are inside the Eagles’ 1-yard line when Orleans Darkwa on fourth down is stopped for a loss of a yard. A day later, McAdoo blames himself for the play call. “Put the big guys in a bad spot there,’’ he says. The Giants lose 25-23 in Tampa and afterward Beckham relates a conversation he had with Buccaneers cornerback Vernon Hargreaves, who says the Bucs knew what routes the Giants were running before they ran them. Sterling Shepard and Brandon Marshall go down on the same series in the second quarter Sunday, one of the darkest days in team history. Beckham, who was hurt in the fourth quarter, and Marshall are lost for the season with ankle injuries and the Giants fall to 0-5 with a 27-22 loss to the Chargers.
Benched for the first three defensive series vs. the Chargers, Eli Apple infers he is being scapegoated. “You lose games and it’s got to be someone else’s problem and they look around and think, ‘OK, this is the problem,’ ’’ says Apple, who adds the problem is with the “whole culture’’ of the team. Janoris Jenkins leaves the field in the final seconds before the final kneel-down by the Chargers. McAdoo says this violation of team rules will be handled internally. Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie (left), upset to hear he will not be activated to play Sunday in Denver for going into the locker room in the second half of the loss to the Chargers, walks out of the team facility and is suspended by McAdoo.