Depleted Giants reeling ahead of meeting
The New York Giants have come undone.
The 2016 playoff team with a potential Hall of Fame quarterback and once- elite defense has tumbled to 0-5 and sits in the cellar of the NFL.
It ranks 28th in scoring (16.4 points per game), 30th in rushing (77.8 yards) and among the bottom 10 in seven defensive categories.
It lost receivers Odell Beckham Jr., Dwayne Harris and Brandon Marshall to season-ending injuries in a single game, last Sunday against the Chargers.
“I’ve been around a lot of football,” Giants head coach Ben McAdoo said. “I’m young but I have some miles on me, but, no, I’ve never seen anything like that and hope I never do again.”
And, most recently, it lost star cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie to suspension for a reported “altercation” with McAdoo.
“We had a conversation yesterday, and he came into the building today and decided to leave and we have suspended him,” McAdoo said.
McAdoo refused to divulge the length of suspension and declined to comment further on the report of the altercation.
“I’ve said everything I needed to say,” he said.
The New York Giants are unraveling on and off the field, just in time to face the Broncos and their topranked defense in Denver.
“We just haven’t played well enough. We’ve done some good things, we’ve played in some close games, we’ve had opportunities,” Giants quarterback Eli Manning said. “We just haven’t made some plays at certain times to win football games. You got to expect games in this league to go into the fourth quarter, and you got to make more plays than the other team in that period.
“We got to keep working, that’s all you can do. We got a game to get ready for, and we got some new guys on offense who we have to get up to speed.”
Those tasked with becoming Manning’s new offensive weapons are former practice squad receivers Travis Rudoph and Ed Eagan, undrafted player Roger Lewis Jr., and former Broncos draft pick Tavarres King, who was released by the Giants in September and re-signed Monday.
“The good thing is most of them were here during training camp,” Manning said. “Tavarres King has been with us the last couple of years and played for us in regular seasons and caught some touchdowns. Rodger Lewis played all last year and played this year, and a few other guys have been here on the practice squad. So they know the system, they know the plays, they know the routes and the concepts. I’ve thrown routes with them. It’s not brand new for them, so they should be able to hop in there and play fast, know their assignments and that’s what you want.”
But they’ll try to do so against a Broncos’ front seven that has a knack for creating pressure and, lately, stifling the run. And they’ll try to do so against an elite secondary that helped Denver lead the league in pass defense the last two years and, through four games this season, has come up with four interceptions.
The Giants, so far, appear a shell of the team that went 11-5 last season and have left many wondering what else can possibly go wrong.