O’ NO, JINTS BLASTED
BIG BLUE SPIN WHEELS IN DEFEAT TO SEATTLE
So where do the Giants go from here?
“I think with the bye week coming up, we have to look ourselves in the mirror and figure out what we do well and figure out what we do bad,” running back Orleans Darkwa said after another dismal day at the ballpark for the Giants.
You know it is prematurely bleak when the “look ourselves in the mirror” comments start sprouting like weeds, and it is not even midseason.
On Sunday, the Giants tried to win a game without an offense. Oh, they had 11 players on the field at all times, and they lined up and, you know, called plays and ran the ball and also passed it. They did nothing that resembled legitimate NFL offensive football in a hard-on-the-eyes 24-7 loss to the Seahawks at MetLife Stadium. If this is going to be the way it is the rest of this sorry season, there is little reason to watch.
“I can’t even answer that question,” said Landon Collins, asked to assess the Giants at their bye week. “We just have to stick together as a team, keep fighting and try to make a good outcome out of this.”
Good luck with that. This might as well be considered the bye-bye week for the Giants as they have left the area set aside for meaningful games in the second half of the season. Last week in Denver, they enjoyed a momentary respite from the misery of loss upon loss, but it was a fleeting sensation. This was back to the reality of the 2017 season, with Eli Manning and a cast of ill-suited characters — other than rookie tight end Evan Engram — wholly unable to dent the Seahawks in any meaningful way.
“We weren’t sharp on offense,” said Ben McAdoo, who again had Mike Sullivan, his offensive coordinator, call the plays. Too bad Sullivan could not dial anything up for Odell Beckham Jr. and Brandon Marshall, both out for the season.
It has come to this for the Giants: Their goal is to try to keep things close and somehow find a way to win in the fourth quarter. They succeeded then failed. They were ahead 7-3 at halftime and trailed 10-7 heading into the fourth quarter before wilting. Rookie kicker Aldrick Rosas missed a 47-yard field goal that would have tied the game. The one misadventure that absolutely cannot happen with this no-room-for-error operation — turnovers — happened with 9:49 remaining, when Jarran Reed stormed in and hit Manning, forcing a fumble Frank Clark recovered on the Giants 38-yard line.
On the next play, Wilson lobbed the ball to Paul Richardson, running alone with Collins. Both players leaped for the ball, Richardson got it first then Collins grabbed hold. Both players fell into the end zone, and on the simultaneous-possession rule, the Seahawks had the touchdown. Referee Tony Corrente said afterward as soon as Richardson and Collins went to the ground at the same time, the play was over and the catch was established. The Giants did not concur. “It was an interception,” Collins said. “You could blatantly see it was on my chest. That was my ball.”
Collins admitted the defense was “kind of wearing down with all the snaps” and the Seahawks, with Russell Wilson’s elusiveness, tacking on another fourthquarter touchdown. McAdoo hoped his club could stay close and tire out the smaller Seattle defense. Instead, it was his defense that could not overcome inept offensive display.
Manning had no running game to lean on and was not sharp. The only touchdown, a 5-yard pass to Engram, came on a 17-yard drive after Avery Moss forced a fumble on Thomas Rawls that Collins recovered and returned 32 yards. There were only two other enticing scoring chances. Tavarres King got a step on Richard Sherman, and Manning nearly had a 54-yard touchdown until Sherman recovered to break up the play.
“That was a big moment,’’ King said.
That play, like most everything else this season, did not go the way the Giants envisioned. paul.schwartz@nypost.com