Giants running out of time to fix second-worst scoring offense
One of the best NFL games of the season likely wasn’t too enjoyable for Giants coaches to watch.
The Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens — the Giants’ next two opponents — combined for 89 points Monday night.
Keeping pace with those AFC North teams will be a challenge for New York, which mustered a season-low seven points in Sunday’s loss to Arizona and features the league’s second-worst scoring unit (18.3 points per game).
The Giants’ (5-8) most realistic path to the NFC East title will be finding a way to knock off Cleveland or Baltimore and then beating the lesser Cowboys in Week 17. But actually navigating to a 7-9 record will likely require drastically better play on offense.
The Giants’ weakest output of the season entailed poor quarterback play, receivers failing to create separation, vanilla schemes and disastrous pass protection.
Some of the issues can be masked or mitigated over the final three weeks. Others can’t be resolved until the offseason. But perhaps the biggest wild card is the health of quarterback Daniel Jones, who was hobbling at times Sunday in his return from a hamstring injury.
“I’d say the way he moved in the game was what we expected,” head coach Joe Judge said. “We put him through enough in practice last week to make sure he was put in a position where he could protect himself. We knew that there were things that were going to come up in the game and some limitations that he was going to have throughout the game. We were willing to live with those.”
Judge insisted again that the Giants have no regrets about playing Jones, who had no rushing attempts for the first time in 25 career games. He was virtually a statue in the pocket who clearly wasn’t going to tuck it and run on any zone reads, and yet Judge still felt he was a better option than backup Colt McCoy.
Judge said Jones merely had “bumps and bruises” from the game and didn’t reaggravate his hamstring. So barring a setback during the week, it doesn’t appear that his chances of playing against Cleveland next Sunday night are in jeopardy.
“If Daniel is healthy to play and he looked the way he did in practice last week, I’d have no hesitation of playing Daniel at all,” Judge said. “We made a calculation. We have a lot of confidence in Colt. This has nothing to do with Colt. But there’s also a commitment we’ve made to Daniel as our quarterback and how we’re running this offense. We have confidence in all of our players. But if he’s healthy enough to go out there and protect himself, and we don’t feel he’s putting himself in greater danger to be injured worse, and he’s going to give the team a competitive advantage of going out there, then we’re going to play him.”
Jones’ limitations were compounded by the fact that the offensive line struggled against Arizona’s blitz-heavy defense. The Cardinals had eight sacks against the Giants, who had allowed just five sacks in the previous three games combined.
Haason Reddick’s five sacks Sunday were the most by a single player in one game against the Giants since sacks became an official stat in 1982.
Offensive line coach Dave DeGuglielmo, who replaced Marc Colombo last month, said T-E stunts have been problematic for the Giants’ unit all season. That type of pass-rushing maneuver involves a defensive end and defensive tackle switching roles in an attempt to confuse offensive linemen.
“It’s something we’re continually working on to get better at. We need to get better at it,
we need to straighten it out,” DeGuglielmo said. “Everything that happens in a game, positive or negative, comes back to fundamentals. When you take your mind off of your fundamental footwork, fit and finish … when you take your mind off of those things and start getting in your own head about what they’re doing or my set, this is why practice is critical. Practicing at a high speed is critical.”
Arizona’s defense was also a tough matchup for the Giants because of how frequently they play press-man coverage.
The Giants lack receivers who can consistently create separation, with Darius Slayton being a solid deep threat but not a No. 1 target when a team needs someone to win one-on-one in intermediate routes. Golden Tate’s team-high 39 yards came on one catch.
Obviously the Giants can’t reinvent the wheel or change their personnel this late in the season, so the biggest keys going forward for creating big plays will be limiting turnovers and running the ball effectively. They finished with fewer than 100 rushing yards Sunday for the first time in eight games.
“You have to give them credit. They had a good game plan,” Judge said. “They definitely did a lot of the stuff in terms of double teaming and bracketing a lot of our receivers down the field. There was definitely some tight coverage in man situations. I saw a lot of opportunities where our guys made catches in tight situations. I saw a lot of guys separate from man coverage and get open at times. There were times where we have to do a better job of winning our matchups. That ties into a lot of things.”