New York Giants Week 12 Report Card
How did the Giants grade out this week following their 19-17 win over the Bengals?
Rushing Offense: A
Ho-hum. Another week, another 100-yard performance from the Giants committee, which, by the way, makes it six in a row that they’ve topped 100 yards on the ground as a team.
Wayne Gallman is still searching for his first 100-yard rushing game—he came close this week with a career-high 94 yards on 23 carries. He also recorded another rushing touchdown, making it five games in a row that he’s scored in the ground game. And speaking of which, 76 of his 94 rushing yards came after contact this week. Gallman's going to get a decent deal as a free agent—whether it comes from the Giants remains to be seen.
Passing Offense: B-
Daniel Jones had a solid showing up until his hamstring strain, going 16 of 27 for 213. Until he learns to slide when he takes off as a runner, the fear is he will be unable to achieve the iron man status that Eli Manning enjoyed during his career.
On the plus side, though, Jones's no turnovers, though the same can’t be said for tight end Evan Engram, who had a backbreaking fumble that led to a Bengals field goal. Engram’s play this season has been maddening, as in this week’s game, he put his speed and athleticism on display with some nice deep receptions. But those turnovers have got to stop.
Quarterback Colt McCoy did well to manage the game when Jones had to leave, but his ill-advised decision to run out of bounds late in the fourth quarter was a head-scratcher. Solid showing from the offensive line, save for maybe Cam Fleming, who was flagged three times, twice on third down.
Run Defense: A
The Bengals were hoping that having Giovanni Bernard would take some of the pressure off of quarterback Brandon Allen, but the Giants run defense had other ideas.
New York held Bernard to 32 yards on eight carries, the longest run going for 15 yards. When the smoke cleared, the Bengals rushed for 40 yards on 15 carries, a 2.7 yards-per-carry average.
By the way, the 40 rushing yards allowed were the second-lowest total given up by the Giants this season, behind the 37 they allowed to the Washington Football Team in a Week 9 win. It was also the sixth time this season the Giants held the opponent to under 100 yards on the ground.
Pass Defense: A
The Giants did a wonderful job keeping the Bengals passing game in check. Receiver Tee Higgins ended up leading the Bengals, catching five out of five pass targets for 44 yards and one touchdown, but other than that, not a single Bengals pass reception went for 20 or more yards.
The Giants pass rush managed eight quarterback hits, two of which were sacks (including Leonard Williams’ sixth sack of the year). The defense’s back end broke up seven passes and picked off one, leaving the Bengals and backup quarterback Brandon Allen (17 of 29, 136 yards) reeling.
Special Teams: C-
Raise your hand if you had flashbacks to the Giants' special teams performances pre-dating the arrival of coordinator Thomas McGaughey.
Who would blame you after witnessing a 103-yard touchdown return on a kickoff after the giant stook a 7-0 lead on the opening drive, a miscue that kicker Graham “Mr. Automatic” Gano took full responsibility for (he was to blame, yes, but his supporting cast didn’t exactly help him out).
And what about that late fourth-quarter punt return by Adam Erickson that went for 29 yards and might have gone for a lot more were it not for Cam Brown’s hustle to make the tackle?
Jabrill Peppers’ decision to let a punt bounce and roll for about 10-15 yards in the wrong direction? Yikes!
Otherwise, Mr. Automatic was once again clutch on four field-goal attempts and the lone PAT, and Riley Dixon had a couple of nice punts, including the two he placed inside the 20-yard line.
Coaching: B-
Let’s get the bad news out of the way: special teams nearly cost the Giants this game, and you can bet anything that head coach Joe Judge, he of a special teams background, isn’t going to be too thrilled with a tape showing missed tackles galore and overall inefficiency especially on the coverage units when they watch it.
The good news is the Giants offensive line did survive the change in position coaches. The even better news is that the Giants offense didn’t hurt itself after losing starting quarterback Daniel Jones to an early third-quarter hamstring injury.
And how about the job done by defensive coordinator Patrick Graham, whose unit held the Bengals to a 30% third-down conversion rate, 155 yards on offense, and 3.4 yards per play (2.7 per rush)? Now, if they can only bottle what they’ve been doing and unleash it against Russell Wilson and the Seahawks next week, things will be cooking.
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