New York Giants Notebook | Wasted Effort, Veteran Presents and More

By many measures, the Giants put together their best performance as a team in their 17-9 loss to the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday.

The team achieved season bests in rushing offense, rushing defense, time of possession, and turnover differential. But even then, it wasn't enough to get the Giants their first win of 2020.

It begs the question: Just how far away are the Giants from their first win?

Head coach Joe Judge has been dealt the task of leading his team through a season that is quickly spiraling downward, and it's not the type of task he's held in his coaching career before.

Judge has never been a coach on an 0-4 football team dating back to the beginning of his tenure as a special teams assistant at Alabama in 2009.

Does Judge even know how far away the Giants are from their first win?

As things get dire for Judge and his team, he will try to focus on building off performance, maintaining mental composure, and avoiding falling onto an emotional roller coaster ride.

"You go in there, you show them the tape, you show the evidence of what we did right to make improvements, you show them what happened wrong, what we have to clean up, and then you shift your focus to the next opponent," Judge said."You have to keep on moving, you can't ride a roller coaster in this league. It's a long season; there's a lot of ball to be played.

"We're an improved team from last week, I'm proud of the way the guys worked the entire week, I'm proud of how they fought today. We've to make sure we don't have self-inflicted wounds that stop us from having the wins we need."

A Wasted But Impressive Effort

The Giants' defense, aside from one broken play in coverage that allowed Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp to score a critical 55-yard touchdown, put up arguably its best performance of the season.

The Rams offense was limited to just 240 total yards, only 58 rushing yards, and was just five of 13 on third down.

The performance marks a dramatic turnaround for the defense, considering it is coming off its worst outing of the season against the San Francisco 49ers in Week 3.

While the defense's impressive showing against the Rams on Sunday wasn't enough to yield the Giants their first win, it was still a step in the right direction for the unit, which came into the year with very low expectations it's surpassed in many ways already.

"I love the way our defense is playing right now," Judge said. "Obviously third downs have been a big emphasis for us as a team, they improved on that today.

"We have good energy. We're getting great communication across the board thing. I think 'Pat' (Defensive Coordinator Patrick Graham) and his staff are doing a great job calling this right here. I'm proud of the way the guys work every week to improve and get better and I like the way they fought today."

The Giants put the game in the hands of their defense many times throughout the game, including deciding to punt on 4th-and-2 from midfield with the Giants trailing by one point late in the game.

The decision didn't pay off for the Giants, as that punt ultimately would yield the Rams the opportunity to score on Kupp's long reception. However, it was still a testament to the growing confidence the Giants are starting to build in their defense.

"It's just the best decision we thought at the time for the team," Judge said. Our defense was playing good. You know, we're winning the field position. You want to put them on down on a long field and let our defense play.

"I think we've gone for it on enough fourth downs. We're not afraid to go for it at the right time, but I have to call it based on what I think is best for the team at that time."

Veteran Presents

The Giants' offseason spending spree appears to have paid off for their defense, as the additions of inside linebacker Blake Martinez, outside linebacker Kyler Fackrell and cornerback James Bradberry, all showed up in the defense's effort on Sunday.

Martinez tied his season-high with 13 tackles. His leadership as a defensive captain helped ensure that the Giants defensive players were held their assignments and disrupted the Rams offense enough to allow their lowest scoring output of the season.

"I think that's the type of team we want to be, and I think overall it's something we'll hold our hat high on, but at the end of the day, it's a production league, it's getting wins, and that's what we want, and I think we're not going to be satisfied until that happens," Martinez said.

"We're just working as a team, and I know it's going to keep getting better each and every week, and I saw a lot of improvement across the board today."

Bradberry didn't have his best game as a Giant, as his lapse in coverage allowed the Kupp touchdown, but still proved to be the best defensive back on the field for the Giants.

Still, Bradberry's purpose in delivering that defensive effort is to help the Giants win games, and until that happens, he isn't satisfied with his or the unit's performance as a whole.

"We just expect to go out there and dominate," Bradberry said. "That's our whole motto, whether it's a win or a loss, we need to go out there and dominate and show that we are a dominant force. If they don't score, they don't win; that's the point at the end of the day.

"It's frustrating to lose in general. It was frustrating when we gave that deep touchdown pass to Coop and I wasn't able to get him on the ground. I was frustrated with that. There are going to be points in the game where you're frustrated, but you have to keep going on. If you run out of time at the end of the game, you have to move on to the next game. So, we're moving on to Dallas next week."

Meanwhile, Fackrell racked up his second sack of the season, which ties him for the team lead and means he has already surpassed his sack total from last season and could be on track to be one of the Giants' most productive pass rushers this year.

All Starting Up Front

Despite a season-high in rushing yards, the Giants offensive line did not turn in a solid or even average performance on Sunday.

The unit allowed Daniel Jones to be sacked five times and didn't open up rushing lanes consistently. Too many runs went for minimal yardage, and the Giants' 136 rushing yards were based mostly on the running of Jones getting outside the pocket and scrambling for yardage and several big chunk runs by the team's running backs.

"We shot ourselves in the foot a couple times when we got to the red zone with a couple of penalties, and it kind of hurts you when you're down there, so we've just got to eliminate those and we've just got to play better," said center Nick Gates.

However, the Giants offensive line did take a step toward finding improvement after halftime as the unit only gave up one sack and put up a better run-blocking effort in the second half.

"I just think everybody held their blocks more and finished downfield on their guys. Running backs were hitting holes and just running downhill hard," Gates said.

Gates and his offensive linemates can take solace in how they contained All-Pro defensive tackle Aaron Donald, who had just two tackles and 0.5 sacks. Still, containing Donald might have cost the offensive line in other areas.

"We had a plan for Donald, and I think we executed the plan," Gates said. "I think we tried to get two guys on him as much as we can and everybody else played pretty well in pass pro, but we've got to be better. We gave up what, four, five sacks? That can't happen."

Gates had the responsibility of lining up against Donald on the interior for the majority of snaps. That battle even culminated with a physical altercation after the whistle as Gates and Donald engaged in a scrap that resulted in offsetting unnecessary roughness penalties.

"Honestly, I don't know what happened. We just got into it. He's a good player, I'm a good player. Emotions get high out there," Gates said.