A few years ago, John Mara warned Head Coach Brian Daboll after his surprising first season as Giants head coach that it doesn’t take long to go from Bono to Bozo. Daboll found out how true that was the next season and beyond. John Harbaugh has something much closer to Bono’s portfolio, and his team’s resounding opening week victory over Dallas had fans singing, “It’s a beautiful day.” But in the NFL, it’s what have you done for me lately? Would Giants fans be singing again after facing the Super
Bowl-contending Los Angeles Rams, or would they be saying, “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for”?
Bozo it is. The Rams brought the Giants back down to earth with a 28-6 victory that wasn’t as close as the score indicated. What did we learn from this thrashing?
The game is won in the trenches. Part I
The Rams’ defensive line wasted no time letting the Giants’ offensive line know what a real pass rush looks like. The Giants took the opening kickoff, and they did move the ball for a little while, but only in fits and starts. Right from the start, Dart felt pressure. He did complete a (poorly thrown) pass to Isaiah Likely, who made a nice adjustment for a 5-yard gain, and on the next play Dart went to Malachi Fields with another poorly thrown pass for 14 yards that Fields made a great play on to catch. That’s the sign of a quarterback who is afraid to step into his throws. After an incompletion to Theo Johnson (a recurring theme tonight and in every game, it seems) and a short Skattebo gain, Dart threw long but incomplete to Theo again. He had an excuse for that, though, because both Andrew Thomas and Jermaine Eluemunor were beaten, by edge defenders Josaiah Stewart and Byron Young. The Rams’ rushers made a Dart sandwich and Dart’s knee was pushed inward, causing him to leave the game.
Overall the Rams pressured Dart on half of his dropbacks, and that was without Aaron Donald doing very much…except stopping Skattebo near the goal line the one time the Giants threatened. Of course the double teams he faced helped the rest of the Rams’ defensive line win their one-on-one battles. The Giants used to have a guy called Dexter Lawrence who did that. As a result of this, the pressure wasn’t just coming from the outside. It came up the middle too, so much so that after Jameis Winston entered the game he looked afraid to really step into his throws, leaving many of them short. This wasn’t the good Jameis we saw in Detroit last year. It was the bad Jameis, short-arming and throwing right to defenders.
Getting beaten by the Rams’ defensive line wasn’t restricted to the passing game. The Giants rushed 21 times, for only 52 yards. Cam Skattebo did his best trying to bounce off the first defender to hit him, but he only gained 36 yards on 12 rushes. Najee Harris, seeing his first action, gained only 6 yards in four carries. Inexplicably, offensive coordinator Matt Nagy had him in there carrying the ball the one time the Giants got inside the 10 instead of Skattebo. On third-and-2, Harris was tackled for a loss by Aaron Donald.
And this suggests what might be a theme for the entire season. This is not a Giants team that is built to play from behind. Last week they were able to dictate to the Dallas defense, stay ahead of them most of the night, and use the running game to grind the Dallas defense down. Falling behind early against the Rams, we saw that the Giants’ receivers didn’t get open much. It didn’t help that Winston was short-arming the ball or throwing off his back foot, but this looks like a team that needs to win the first half to thrive.
The game is won in the trenches. Part II
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe the Giants were supposed to have a fearsome pass rush this season. Abdul Carter did get one sack, but that was it. Matthew Stafford was able to sit back there in the pocket and look at tourist photos from Australia if he’d wanted to. Meanwhile, the Rams’ running backs carried the ball 24 times for 164 yards. Much of it early on was between the tackles, but as the game wore on, the Giants’ old problems of setting the edge reared their ugly head again. To make matters worse, Brian Burns came off the field with an ankle injury late in the game.
Was Dennard Wilson the defensive coordinator tonight, or did they bring Shane Bowen back?
The inability to get to Stafford, or even put pressure on him on a consistent basis, led to the realization of the Giants’ worst fear…
The Giants’ secondary is not up to the task
Granted, any secondary is up against it when the pass rush doesn’t pressure the quarterback. But the Rams’ receivers, even with Puka Nacua sidelined, embarrassed the Giants’ secondary. Davante Adams had 8 receptions in 10 targets for 195 yards and 2 TDs, and on most of them he was so wide open it was ridiculous. Tight end Terrance Ferguson caught six balls in nine targets. There were occasional good plays, including another interception plus two forced fumbles by Jevon Holland, and even passes defensed by Tyler Nubin and Greg Newsome II, but more often, Rams receivers were catching the ball with no Giant within five yards of them. In particular, when you see Adams downfield and Nubin the one defending, you know it’s not going to end well.
The secondary gets a bit of a pass because Deonte Banks and Paulson Adebo were out with injuries, but it’s not as if either one is considered a Pro Bowl threat. The bottom line is that any game in which the Giants’ front seven does not dominate this season is probably going to be a loss.
At least the Giants have a kicking game
After making all 4four extra points in his first game, kicker Dominic Zvada made both of his field goal attempts tonight, including a 52-yarder, and both were pretty much down the middle. Meanwhile, Jordan Stout averaged 52.5 yards on his (unfortunately) six punts, three of them inside the 20 and one of them for 78 yards. Hopefully there will be games this season in which they can be a factor in a Giants win. That may be as soon as next week, when the Giants face a Titans team that was looked at as an easy W but which doesn’t look that way anymore.
