Giants go limp on D without star corner
EAST RUTHERFORD » You really can’t blame the Giants for playing so much zone coverage with an undermanned secondary against one of the hottest quarterbacks in the NFL.
Unfortunately, they had to live with predictably bad results.
Baker Mayfield picked apart the Giants’ defense Sunday night to lead the Cleveland Browns to a 20-6 victory at MetLife Stadium, dampening New York’s (5-9) playoff hopes with only two games remaining.
For as masterful as defensive coordinator Patrick Graham has been this season, there was simply no way to scheme around the absence of James Bradberry, maybe the Giants’ best and certainly their most indispensable player.
“You can’t replace James Bradberry, but I think everyone has to step up in a different way by doing a little more,” defensive back Logan Ryan said. “Honestly, our hats off to the Browns. I think our coverage was tight; they made some contested catches. We really loaded up to stop the run game which we did, but we really weren’t good in third down or in the red area which is, situationally, how you win football games.”
The Giants are in a bind as they feature an All-Pro cornerback and no other reliable options, so the drop-off is enormous at a premium position. Bradberry went on the reserve/ COVID-19 list last week as a high-risk close contact, and the defense was also without starting slot corner Darnay Holmes because of a knee injury.
That meant mediocre No. 2 corner Isaac Yiadom was the lone healthy player, forcing the Giants to move safety Julian Love to corner and promote
Jarren Williams and Quincy Williams from the practice squad. Rookie Xavier McKinney played slot corner in subpackages.
The Giants were in a nowin situation against Mayfield, who continued the best stretch of his career with sizzling efficiency (27-of-32 for 297 yards and two touchdowns). The Browns’ third-year quarterback now has 974 yards and eight touchdowns in his past three games and only one interception in the last seven games.
Conventional wisdom suggested that the Giants could be competitive by neutralizing Cleveland’s third-ranked running game with their run-stopping front line.
Well, they were relatively effective in that regard as the Browns averaged 3.5 yards on 30 carries, but they also had no reason to commit to the ground game given the Giants’ inability to rush the passer and prevent chunk gains over the middle of the field.
“I think our defense did a good job, for the most part, of really limiting an explosive run game,” head coach Joe Judge said. “These two backs are two of the best in the league. Look, they were able to go and find some open windows and take advantage of them and keep drives moving. It’s our responsibility to have the players that are in the game coached up and ready to go.”
Mayfield completed 13 passes for at least 10 yards and four for at least 20. His accuracy on intermediate throws was impressive, especially compared to Russell Wilson’s struggles against the Giants two weeks ago — the only other time when New York had to start backup quarterback Colt McCoy.
The Giants normally play a fair amount of zone, but especially versus Cleveland because they didn’t have the personnel to match up in man coverage with the likes of Jarvis Landry and Rashard Higgins.
Still, it didn’t help that the Giants seemingly blew assignments at times, like when linebacker Devante Downs looked disoriented on Mayfield’s 2-yard touchdown to tight end Austin Hooper in the second quarter.
Cleveland controlled the flow with four drives of at least 10 plays and third-down conversions on 9-of-13 attempts.
All of that gave the Giants little chance with their anemic offense, which showed early signs of life that faded with McCoy filling in for injured Daniel Jones.
Tight ends coach Freddie Kitchens was aggressive as the play-caller replacement for Jason Garrett, who tested positive for COVID-19 last week. McCoy had a key 35-yard sideline pass to Darius Slayton on third down in the first quarter, and the Giants reached the red zone on their first three possessions.
But they set an ominous tone by scoring only three points on those drives. They failed twice on fourth down — an errant pass by punter Riley Dixon on a fake field goal, and then a stuffed run up the middle where the offensive line simply failed to block well enough.
It was easy to second-guess Judge for calling a fake field goal instead of taking three points on the Giants’ opening drive to create momentum, but Judge knew that his team needed touchdowns in a 60-minute bout with Mayfield.
“Field goals weren’t going to win this game,” Judge said. “I’m not afraid to call things aggressively. I’m not afraid if I think we have a good scheme in the kicking game to call a fake. I’m not afraid to run the ball on fourth-and-one. We’ll play to our defense at times. If we don’t get that, we have to go out there and stand up defensively.”
What was more confounding was how the Giants punted on fourth-and-4 from Cleveland’s 44 in the third quarter and then fourth-and-10 from their own 40 in the fourth quarter down by double digits, essentially waving the white flag.
New York’s second field goal with 4:11 left made it a twotouchdown game, but that felt incredibly hollow on a helpless night.
Without Jones, the Giants don’t look capable of winning the NFC East on offense.
They must rely on the defense’s ability to create turnovers and third-down stops. Yet when the secondary is as thin as it was Sunday, forget about it.
“Is 20 a whole lot of points given up? Of course not. But we had to give up less in order to win the game,” Ryan said. “That’s our job — to give the ball back to the offense, get them more opportunities, force turnovers and make it hard on the quarterback. I felt like he was extremely efficient today, I felt like he was extremely prepared today, and he played a good game. We have to take that on the chin, and get ready to go against the former MVP in Lamar Jackson next week.”