Takeaways and from New York Giants' 17-9 Loss to the Rams
Well, the Giants tried in this one. The defense came to play and, for the most part, lived up to the characterization that Rams head coach Sean McVay gave them when he said they were a "pain" to deal with.
The play of the defense is a big reason why this game wasn't the blowout that many thought it would be, which is a moral victory of sorts.
The offense? Look, you can only blame the loss of Saquon Barkley for so long (not that the Giants were setting the league on fire with Barkley in the lineup).
The bottom line is that you're starting to see the same mistakes being made week after week--the red zone penalties, the quarterback locking in on a receiver, etc. And until that changes, this team is doing nowhere fast, no matter what the coaching staff says.
The Turning Point
The Giants kept the game within reach right up until the about 6:56 in the fourth quarter. That’s when Rams quarterback Jared Goff connected with receiver Cooper Kupp on a 55-yard touchdown reception, the longest pass play against the Giants defense this season.
Goff, Kupp, and the Rams were aided by a miscommunication by the Giants defensive secondary compounded by a bad angle taken by the usually reliable cornerback James Bradberry.
“They hurried up to the line,” Bradberry said. “It was just miscommunication on the back end. We're all accountable for that. We didn't communicate enough. That's what led to the touchdown.”
Bradberry, who appeared to be in the best position to stop Kupp, took his share of the blame.
“He kind of just squared me up. He had a two-way go on me. I stopped my feet. It was just bad technique by me,” Bradberry said. “I should have been able to get him down or at least get a hand on him or something.”
While Bradberry’s remorse is admirable, the Giants offense certainly didn’t do much to help matters as Daniel Jones’ ill-advised throw in the red zone that was picked off by Darious Williams was the final nail in the Giants’ coffin this week.
Oct 4, 2020; Inglewood, California, USA; Los Angeles Rams running back Malcolm Brown (34) tries to run past New York Giants cornerback James Bradberry (24) during the second quarter at SoFi Stadium.
Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports
Daniel Jones Watch
Daniel Jones has started 16 games now dating back to last year, and the jury is still out on what the Giants have in him.
This week, Jones was again under siege behind an offensive line that allowed four sacks in the first half.
But on at least two pass attempts, both in the fourth quarter, he appeared to stare down his receivers.
The first came on a 2nd-and-15 incomplete throw to tight end Evan Engram broken up Williams with 3:22 left. But that wasn’t the worst pf Jones’ mistakes. On the Giants final drive, Jones stared down Damion Ratley on a 2nd and-5 from the Rams’ 18-yard line.
Williams, again in coverage, read the play all the way, jumped the route, picked off the ball, and ended the Giants’ quest to get into the end zone for the first time since the second quarter of their Week 2 loss in Chicago.
"I just can't force the ball in those situations," Jones said. "At the end of the game with a chance to score and go for two to tie up the game and not do that is certainly frustrating."
In both instances, Jones went with his first read and locked down on his intended target. This has been a problem with Jones going back to his days at Duke, and unless he fixes it, he’s going to continue to be a turnover machine.
And while on the topic of Jones, he has appeared now in 17 NFL games, 16 as a starter and one in relief of then starter Eli Manning. Jones has yet to get through a contest in those games played without having some sort of mishap with the ball.
Jones has thrown an interception in all but six games played and has recorded a fumble in all but four games. He has never had a game in which he didn’t record an interception or fumble.
If we’re talking strictly turnovers (interceptions and/or fumbles), Jones has just one career game, that being on December 22, 2019, when he fumbled a ball but didn’t lose it.
Aaron Donald Watch
This week, much focus was placed on Rams defensive lineman Aaron Donald, chosen one pick after the Giants drafted receiver Odell Beckham Jr in the 2014 draft. Leading up to the game, head coach Joe Judge spoke about how Donald can wreck a game all by his lonesome, saying, “This guy will really ruin your birthday party in a hurry.”
So how did Donald do against the Giants?
He was credited with two assisted tackles and managed a half-sack for one yard and two quarterback hits. But when going against Andrew Thomas, Donald gave the rookie some more “Welcome to the NFL” moments.
And how did the Giants keep Donald from ruining their birthday party? Besides knowing where he was at all times, the Giants schemed double-teams nearly every play. Not everyone was successful, but the vast majority kept Donald out of the backfield and away from Daniel Jones.
Rams defensive lineman Aaron Donalsd.
Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
The "Oy Vey" Stats of the Week
The Giants have failed to score a touchdown in two consecutive games for the first time since November 1998.
For the fourth time in as many games, the Giants’ offense did not gain 300 yards. But their 295 total yards matched the season-high they set on September 20 in Chicago.
Tight end Gerald Everett, who scored the first touchdown of the game on a jet sweep, was the first tight end to rush for a touchdown against the Giants since December 8, 1968, when St Louis’ Jackie Smith scored on an 11-yard run in a 28-21 Cardinals victory.
Three Drives That Mattered
No. 1: First Quarter, 2:45 left
The Giants were gifted a golden opportunity by the Rams in which they recovered a fumble deep in Los Angele’s territory. Beginning the drive at the Rams’ 34-yard line, Jones and the Giants drove to the 12-yard line.
Then on the last play of the quarter, right guard Kevin Zeitler, a veteran, goes and commits a false start on a 3rd-and-8 that set the Giants back five yards and likely cuts out the number of options the Giants have on that critical third-down play.
There is never any good time for a penalty to occur, and certainly not when you’re in the red zone.
But what killed the Giants on this penalty is that it came on the very last play of the quarter with one second left and no chance of the Giants running a play until the start of the second quarter. That Zeitler committed this gaffe is inexcusable.
The Giants did cap the drive with a 35-yard field goal by Graham Gano, but you wonder how the play calling was affected by the loss of five yards there at the end.
No. 2: Fourth Quarter, 12:32 left
On the stat sheet, this drive was rather non-descript. The Giants managed to pick up a first down on Wayne Gallman’s 16-yad run, the longest of the game (and year). But three plays later, the drive stalled at the Rams’ 48-yard line. But instead of going for it, as he had done in the third quarter with the ball also on the same yard line (albeit on a 4th-and-1), Judge decided to have Riley Dixon punt the ball.
“We were playing good defense, we had field position and we wanted to win right there, put them on back there – I thought it was a good time to put the ball to our defense and let them play,” Judge explained after the game.
Dixon and the coverage team did their parts, forcing a fair catch at the Rams’ 9-yard line. But in going back to the well yet another time, this time the Giants and Judge got burned as a communication breakdown in the defensive secondary on the Rams drive led to Kupp’s 55-yard touchdown reception, which put the game away for them.
And maybe it’s just me, but Judge’s explanation didn’t exactly sound like a ringing endorsement of his struggling offense.
No. 3: Fourth Quarter
Technically, Daniel Jones just completed his first full “year” as an NFL starter. And yes, his pass protection has been spotty. But it boggles the mind how he is on his second coaching staff, and no one can seem to fix his occasional practice of telegraphing where he’s going with the ball.
Jones did so again on the Giants’ final drive of the game, and the Rams Darious Williams read the play all the way, picking off the pass intended for receiver Damion Ratley.
“Certainly, frustrating for me. There at the end of the game with a chance to score and go for two and tie up the game, and to not do that, certainly frustrating,” Jones said. “You can't force the ball in those situations.”
No, you can’t. The problem is this isn’t the first time Jones has tried to force the ball into a window that wasn’t there, and it might not be the last. And there is a difference between taking a risk and telegraphing what you’re doing.
Jones did the latter by locking in on his intended receiver. He might as well have pointed to the receiver because the defensive back read him all the way and was able to adjust and jump the route.
Again, Jones often doesn’t have time to go through multiple reads. Still, there has to be some little trick that offensive coordinator Jason Garrett, a former NFL quarterback, can teach this kid so that he’s not locking in on his intended receiver and helping out the defense with where he’s going with the ball.
Injuries
Edge rusher Oshane Ximines left the game in the second half with a shoulder injury and didn’t return. Fellow edge rusher Kyler Fackrell suffered a neck injury but came back to the game.
And defensive back Adrian Colbert left the game with a neck injury just before the Giants had that significant communication breakdown in the defensive secondary on Cooper Kupp’s 55-yard touchdown reception.
Headscratcher
Every NFL team gets to bring up a player from its practice squad twice without exposing them to waivers. So you’d think that if the Giants were going to bring up a player, they’d have him active.
Ah, not this week. The Giants brought up receiver Austin Mack from the practice squad, yet they left him inactive for whatever the reason.
Go figure.
The Kid Are Alright
If you blinked, you probably missed rookie offensive lineman Shane Lemieux’s first NFL snap on the Giants' second drive of the game.
No, it wasn’t at guard. Lemieux lined up as a jumbo fullback on a running play.
Meanwhile, offensive tackle Matt Peart, who last week stepped in for a couple of snaps after Cameron Fleming had to leave with an undisclosed injury, was inserted into the game for a handful of snaps at right tackle.
Interestingly, when Peart came in, the Giants run game started to function better. He was eventually removed and replaced by Fleming, with head coach Joe Judge refusing to admit that they gave Fleming a timeout to collect his thoughts.
Judge, of course, denied that Fleming was removed because he struggled. He said, “We're just going to play all the guys who are at the game. So, there's nothing that happened in the game that dictated anything that we did substitution wise on either side of the ball.
“You know, these are young guys. Obviously, they didn't have a preseason to really gain experience. So, we have to build them then throughout the season and I've used them selectively to give them some experience on the field.”
Tarnished Tate
From the first day, Joe Judge stepped into the Quest Diagnostics Training Center, he spoke about putting the team first and leaving all other stuff at the door.
Too bad receiver Golden Tate couldn’t do that. Because while Tate’s emotions toward Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey are understandable, the bottom line is Tate put those ahead of his teammates and created a significant embarrassment for himself and the franchise when after the game, he and Ramsey mixed it up at midfield.
This action is almost certain to draw fines from both the league and the Giants, if not suspensions from the league. (And something tells me the repercussions won’t only be felt by Ramsey and Tate.)
But here’s the other issue. In this age of COVID-19, when head coaches like Denver’s Vic Fangio are discouraging postgame handshakes to limit his players' exposures to others who could be incubating the coronavirus (yes, they tested positive and were allowed to play, but as we’ve seen, the test results take several hours to come back which leaves a potentially infected person pretty much free to go about his business without even realizing if he’s been infected), that brawl after the game put both the Giants and Rams players in harm's way.
It was stupid and selfish. You have a personal beef with a guy, fine. But to drag your teammates into that is not what a supposed leader should be doing.
Can You Believe It?
The Giants game at Los Angeles (well, technically Anaheim, as that’s where the Rams played their home games at the time) was their first visit to the area since October 16, 1994, a 17-10 Rams win.
Some of the Giants big names of the day included Duke's very own Dave Brown at quarterback, Rodney Hampton, and David Meggett at running back, Howard Cross at tight end, Chris Calloway at receiver, and, on defense, Corey Miller, Keith Hamilton, and Michael Strahan, who was in his second NFL season at the time.
The Big Picture
With aa trip to Arlington to face the Cowboys next week, the odds don’t favor the Giants getting their first win of the Joe Judge era.
However, after that date with the Cowboys in Texas, which by the way, is the start of a crucial stretch in which the Giants will face division opponents in five of the next six weeks, the Giants might catch a break in what’s been a grueling schedule.
They’ll host the Washington Football Team on October 18 before having to pack things up again to hit the road for a Thursday night primetime date against the banged-up and struggling Eagles at what’s been a house of horrors—Lincoln Financial Field--for the Giants in recent years.
If the Giants can somehow come away with wins in those two games, that will give them a little momentum going into yet another primetime matchup, this one a home game against Tom Brady and the Bucs.
