Giants Avoid the Cellar in MMQB's Week 5 Power Rankings
For the third straight week, the MMQB team has ranked the Giants 31st in its Week 5 NFL power rankings, one spot higher than the Jets, who are also winless, noting of the Giants that "The effort fight is still there; the wins aren’t."
Except for their blowout loss to the 49ers in Week 3, the Giants have mostly managed to remain competitive in most of their games until late, when some breakdown leads to their margin of defeat widening.
The Giants offense has been its biggest problem. It's currently averaging 11.8 points per game, worst in the NFL and just behind the Jets, who have averaged 16.2 points per game.
The Giants offense also has gone eight straight quarters without scoring a touchdown, as Sunday's loss to the Rams marked the second straight week the Giants couldn't crack double-digits in scoring, and the fourth consecutive week they failed to break 20 points.
Quarterback Daniel Jones, who threw a late game-sealing interception on his final pass of the game, has now committed a turnover in 15 of his 16 career starts. Jones has also been one of the least productive passers in terms of yards and touchdowns in the NFL this season with just two touchdown passes, 222 passing yards per game, and a 68.3 quarterback rating.
"Certainly, frustrating for me," Jones said of the start to his season. "We just got to execute when we get down in scoring position. I think we've hurt ourselves in a lot of those situations. I have to be better and can't afford negative plays, can't afford penalties, and just have to take advantage of the opportunities we have. So, just got to execute in those situations."
Meanwhile, while the Giants defense put up arguably its best performance of the season in Week 4, it wasn't good enough to make up for the team's offensive deficiencies.
The Giants defense gave up two long touchdown drives, one in the first quarter and one late in the fourth when a busted coverage allowed Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp to score on a 55-yard touchdown reception.
The Giants are preparing to begin a six-game stretch that features five divisional matchups. Head coach Joe Judge and his staff are working diligently to come up with ways to fix what ails this team.
Still, it remains to be seen if that's possible or if the problems run much deeper, thus dooming the Giants to sit near the bottom of the weekly power rankings for the foreseeable future.
