GO THE LONG WAY
Giants must start taking deep shots to open up offense
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — At a time when most of the rest of the league is setting records and making a mockery of defense, Eli Manning’s Giants appear to be operating at the bottom of Mount Everest, waging the mother of all uphill battles to even find the end zone.
There are young gunslingers taki ng t he league by storm — Patrick Mahomes i n Kansas City and Jared Goff in Los Angeles, to name a couple — and even old gunslingers — Drew Brees in New Orleans and Tom Brady in New England, to name a couple.
Manning and the Giants have long forgotten how to score 30 lousy points. And Odell Beckham Jr. is wasting his time going deep and can’t get in the end zone.
It is maddening and mind-boggling, and it is not what was promised.
The quarterback is smarter than he is immobile, head coach Pat Shurmur is a play-calling guru and quarterback whisperer, Beckham is an otherworldly talent and Saquon Barkley was fitted for a gold jacket the night he was drafted. And Sterling Shepard does Victor Cruz things, minus the salsa.
This should be a machine, an X-and-O symphony.
It has been a sorry i llustration of Murphy’s Law.
More alarmingly, Manning’s Law, when you are afraid to make a mistake because the risk is not worth the reward.
Which is all f i ne and dandy only when you are winning.
It is time for Manning to f ind the nerve to take downfield shots, even behind a rebuilt offensive line that has struggled to give him comfort in the pocket. At what point does a careerhigh completion mark translate into fireworks? Can he make the big throw at the right time?
What is keeping Beckham from taking a slant to the house? If Antonio Brown has three touchdowns, why is Beckham still looking for his first? How come they can’t throw the ball for more than 20 yards?
Everyone sees what Beckham sees. And doesn’t see. And must see.
With those fresh quads, how about getting Barkley 25 touches through land and air if only to loosen everything up for Beckham and Sterling and giving Manning some much-needed balance?
Forcing Manning to matriculate the ball down the field will work most of the time, even when: Manning misses an open receiver. Or one of his offensive linemen contracts Flowersitis and is f lagged for holding or offsides, and Manning for this reason or that reason is unable to overcome operating behind the chains. So on and so forth. “When they’re running slants and running in-breaking routes and running deep over routes and those types of things, if you can get to those throws and hit guys on the move, they can turn those throws into big plays,” Manning said.
The Giants are averaging 18.3 points per game. You get the feeling Chiefs phenom Pat Mahomes (36.3 ppg) can do that throwing left-handed. Beckham’s longest catch is 30 yards.
“A quarterback’s job is to do three things: throw it to the right guy, get the ball there on time and get the ball there accurately,” Offensive coordinator Mike Shula said. “Whether or not that guy is 20 yards down the field or 5 yards down the f ield, just keep the chains moving forward, and then we feel like if we do that and stay on the field, with our athletes, we’re going to get the ball in the end zone.”
Except the Giants haven’t gotten the ball in the end zone. Except for one game.
“We got to f inish drives. We got to get the ball in the end zone, however we get it in the end zone,” Shula said.
It takes time for an offensive line to jell. Except Manning and the Giants don’t have the time. They don’t have the luxury of any excuses, either.
Football isn’t rocket science. It only seems as if it for the Giants’ offense. Manning has gone 36 games now without scoring 30 points. He’s playing better than he did last year with Ben McAdoo. He has to play better. Because it still isn’t good enough.
“It’s all about scoring points,” Shula said.
Even after all these years, the Giants cannot spell “believe” without the letters E-L-I. They didn’t draft the Next Eli Manning in large part because they entrusted this Eli Manning to chase another championship. He better start chasing it.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Former Giants linebacker (and Super Bowl XLVI hero) Chase Blackburn is the Panthers’ special teams coordinator, which is why it will come as no surprise what they do on special teams Sunday at Bank of America Stadium will remind the Giants of themselves.
“You got to realize that Chase played here, I coached him here, he worked with me for two years and we think very similar,’’ said Thomas McGaughey, who runs the Giants’ special teams. “But Chase is a heck of a football coach and he’s going to have some things that he’s going to do different, but for the most part when you look at them, it’s like I told my guys, they’re a mirror image of us.’’
Many aspects of special teams are huge problems for the Giants. They are 25th in punt return average at 3.0 yards and 25th in kickoff returns at 19.6 yards. It is no wonder they are 29th in the NFL in average start of possession, beginning offensive series, on average, at the 24.5-yard line. They have not been able to find a reliable returner.
One they jettisoned, Dwayne Harris, was named the AFC Special Teams Player of the Week for the Raiders. Harris has 98 yards on five punt returns this season. The Giants have a total of 24 on their eight punt returns.
Rookie RB Saquon Barkley can join Adrian Peterson and Kareem Hunt as the only players in NFL history with at least 100 yards from scrimmage in their first five career games. Barkley has surpassed 100 yards from scrimmage in his first four games. … Snap counts tell the tale. LB Ray-Ray Armstrong was on the field for 57 plays on defense vs. the Saints and B.J. Goodson received just 11 snaps. Some of this is based on the weekly game plan — Armstrong is stronger in coverage — but this is definitely a shift.
Shurmur acknowledged the Giants like how Armstrong “does a good job chasing the ball down,” but added, “he’s got to continue to work on his run fits and all the things he’ll need to do to become a really top-notch player.”