FAMILIAR ISSUES
Manning Sacked 4 Times In Giants’ Fourth Straight Loss
ATLANTA — Pat Shurmur needed a water break in Monday night’s third quarter. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Shurmur’s lips were easy and painful to read.
“Why didn’t he throw it to Odell?” the coach said incredulously on the sideline.
Odell Beckham Jr. had been open on fourth and goal from the Atlanta Falcons’ 1-yard line on the first drive of the second half, with the Giants down only a score in their only trip this season to MercedesBenz Stadium, the site of this year’s Super Bowl.
But Eli Manning did not throw to his best receiver running left to right along the goal line. He didn’t even throw to a seemingly open tight end Rhett Ellison in the back of the end zone. He forced one back across the field to third-string tight end Scott Simonson. And the pass fell predictably incomplete.
Same old frustrations for the Giants (1-6), whose offensive line got dominated for four Falcons sacks in the first half; whose quarterback overthrew an open Beckham in the end zone in the first half and ignored him open in the second; who took a fourth straight loss, 23-20, to an injury-riddled Atlanta team that improved to an underwhelming 3-4.
Beckham and Sterling Shepard both went for more than 140 yards receiving on
a Falcons defense prone to surrendering the big play. But the Giants scored no more than six first-half points for the fourth time in seven games, trailing 10-3 at the break.
And when Saquon Barkley answered Tevin Coleman’s 30-yard fourth quarter touchdown run with a 2yard score to draw within 20-12 with 4:47 to play, Shurmur went for two, and Beckham dropped the conversion pass from Manning.
Then Atlanta’s Giorgio Tavecchio banged a 53-yard field goal to ice it on the other side of the two minute warning.
Beckham would tack on a late touchdown with five seconds left followed by a Barkley two-point conversion, but only after a couple of unsuccessful QB sneaks at the goal line, which zapped almost all the time off the clock, leaving no chance for another score.
Peyton Manning was in the house to witness his brother’s latest defeat. John Mara was here. So was Odell Beckham Sr. The drama faded, the game was played, the result stayed the same.
The Giants fell to 0-28 since 2012 when trailing at halftime on the road.
They have lost their last 19 games when trailing by at least seven points at the half, the longest streak in the league and in team history, per ESPN’s Monday Night Football crew.
But this isn’t about history; it’s about the unbearable present, especially of the offense. It was both Manning and the offensive line on Monday.
The line gave Manning little chance to operate on many first-down snaps.
The Giants defense refreshingly had come out in attack mode, sacking Matt Ryan three times in the first half led by Kerry Wynn, B.W. Webb and Lorenzo Carter.
Defensive coordinator James Bettcher threw in some creative looks to fluster Atlanta’s offense, too.
And Janoris Jenkins, beaten early on a touchdown, forced a big second half fumble by Julio Jones.