Defense has no answer for Beckham, Manning
Secondary suffers long night against Giants’ big plays.
MIAMI GARDENS — Odell Beckham Jr. made Brent Grimes look bad in the first half.
And then he abused Jamar Taylor and Reshad Jones on the same play in the second half, burning them on blown coverage for an 84-yard touchdown catch and the winning points with a little more than 11 minutes left.
The New York Giants’ explosive receiver piled up 166 yards and two touchdowns on seven receptions Monday night, including an incredible grab in the end zone. But it wasn’t just Beckham that the Dolphins secondary couldn’t stop in their 31-24 loss at Sun Life Stadium.
The Giants’ passing attack amassed 337 yards — an average of 10.9 yards per pass attempt — as quarterback Eli Manning turned in a nearly perfect performance. Manning finished with a 151.2 passer rating while throwing as many touchdowns as incompletions (four) on 31 attempts.
“They didn’t do nothing special,” Taylor said. “They just made more plays and they hit us at times we didn’t need to get hit.”
“Can’t blame it on calls,” safety Michael Thomas conceded. “When guys get their assignments, including myself, they’ve got to execute their jobs. Kudos to the Giants. They found the weaknesses in all of our defenses and they exploited it.”
Never more so than on Beckham’s decisive touchdown, which snapped a 24-all tie. Beckham sped past Taylor, and when Jones bit on a fake inside, Beckham created about seven yards of separation between himself and the Dolphins’ chasing defenders.
Jones, who recovered a fumble in Giants territory in the first half that led to a field goal, initially said after the game he needed to watch replays to see what went wrong, noting “we were in zone coverage and it was on both of us.” Later, he blamed Taylor for the blown coverage.
“It was probably miscommunication,” Jones said. “I mean, I was doing my job and I was doing what I was supposed to do. The corner is supposed to follow up and go over the top, which he didn’t.”
Manning said the Giants hadn’t practiced the play in a long time, but had talked about running it against the right coverage.
“I was thinking it would be a big play, or had a chance to (be),” Manning said. “I didn’t think it would be that open.”
Taylor found himself covering Beckham more than expected Monday night, due to rookie Bob- by McCain leaving the game (and undergoing concussion protocol) and Grimes struggling against him.
Manning connected with Beckham for a 45-yard completion that set up Will Tye’s 5-yard touchdown catch that tied the score at 17 with 44 seconds left in the first half.
Then with the Dolphins leading 24-17 in the third quarter, Beckham beat Grimes for a 6-yard score. He grabbed the pass with the toe of his left shoe just inches in bounds and his right foot dragging.
“He’s a great player,” Grimes said. “He had one (catch) in the first half where they ran a good play, had a good scheme and cleared out the middle. … But hey, I’ve got to make that play.”
“We just didn’t make enough plays,” Jones added. “We had guys there, but we didn’t go up and get the ball. We didn’t contest.”
While Jones has a chance of making the Pro Bowl this season, the Dolphins still need help at safety. The same goes for cornerback. There are increasing doubts whether the 32-year-old Grimes, a three-time Pro Bowl selection, has lost too much speed to be effective moving forward. He likely would have to take a pay cut from his $8 million salary for 2016 to remain with the team.