Marshall plan isn’t working
BRANDON Marshall was at a loss for words after two more dropped passes Sunday in the Giants’ fall to 0-4. “Just not playing well right now,” Marshall said after the 25-23 defeat in Tampa Bay. “I haven’t played a solid game since I’ve been here.”
Ben McAdoo was restless not just with Marshall but with Odell Beckham’s two drops, too.
“They catch the ball for a living,” the coach said. “We need to do a better job of catching the ball.”
Marshall was hailed as a major acquisition by GM Jerry Reese last spring, but he hasn’t looked confident or capable through four weeks, not to mention he and Eli Manning remain far from in sync.
“We just need to get through a clean game with him,” McAdoo said in Monday’s conference call. “He’s been catching it well in practice. We just need to carry it over in the games.”
Marshall dropped passes on third down in the first quarter and on second down in the fourth quarter, killing two drives. On an early jump ball that Manning threw to Marshall’s front shoulder off-target, Marshall was unable to wrest the ball away as the Bucs’ Vernon Hargreaves knocked it incomplete.
Marshall did make a big 10-yard catch to set up Wayne Gallman’s first career touchdown in the third quarter.
“I think it’s a new offense, he’s doing a lot of learning, he’s still doing a lot of learning, playing with a different quarterback," McAdoo said. “Ya know, he hasn't caught the ball cleanly in games.”
WHERE WAS THE RUSH?
When the Giants’ pass rush didn’t disrupt Jameis Winston enough early, defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo began bringing consistent blitzes and the Bucs’ offense had trouble adjusting. The Giants D held them scoreless in the third quarter and also on Tampa’s first fourth-quarter drive.
But inexplicably on the Bucs’ game-winning drive, the Giants defense brought no more than a four-man rush on the first three plays — save for a late linebacker coming ineffectively on the third snap — and Winston was able to gain 27 yards through completions to Adam Humphries and Mike Evans and a QB scramble.
“We had some success (blitzing); he made some plays on some other ones,” McAdoo said. “That (late coverages) is what we felt the situation dictated for us to be successful. Give (Winston) credit, he extended a play and made a nice play down on the third-and-short to get it to a chip shot for them."
LOOSE ON TIGHT ENDS
The Giants have surrendered an astounding 27 catches for 302 yards and five touchdowns to opposing tight ends in their four losses, including at least one tight end TD in each defeat. And the Buccaneers’ tight end duo did the worst damage yet.
Cameron Brate and rookie O.J. Howard combined to make three of the biggest plays in the game, combining for six catches for 143 yards and two TDs. Howard was all alone on an early 58-yard TD catch, with middle linebacker B.J. Goodson the closest defender to him until he sprinted to space.
Brate beat linebacker Jonathan Casillas for a 14-yard TD catch and also beat strong safety Landon Collins in single coverage for the 26-yard reception that stuck a dagger in the Giants to set up Nick Folk’s game-winning field goal. — with John Healy