After his historically bad opening drive in Sunday’s overtime loss to the Dallas Cowboys — four penalties committed for 40 yards and one sack allowed — offensive tackle James Hudson III is the most vilified member of the New York Giants. At least among the players on the 53-man roster.
Defensive coordinator Shane Bowen was also an easy target for frustrated fans after the ballyhooed defense allowed 40 points, 478 yards and could not protect a three-point lead in the final 25 seconds of regulation.
Check any post-game story here at Big Blue View, and the comments inevitably turn toward pointing the blame at Bowen. Here are a few samples:
Bowen was a target of fans’ ire mainly because the Giants’ soft defensive shell in the final :25 of regulation allowed the Dallas Cowboys to get into position for a 64-yard game-tying field goal by the amazing Brandon Aubrey.
At issue mostly was a second-and-10 call from the Dallas 33-yard line that saw defensive backs 10 yards off the line of scrimmage and backing up at the snap. FOX analyst Greg Olsen was aghast at the depth of the secondary before the snap. Sure enough, an 18-yard completion from Dak Prescott to Jake Ferguson put the Cowboys in position to let Aubrey work his magic.
“We knew Aubrey had a long leg. Got to play tight coverage,” said head coach Brian Daboll. “Got to do some things rush-wise. Made some good plays. They just made one more play than we did.”
The Giants did not, though, play tight coverage in that instance. And it proved costly as they fell to 0-2.
Expectation does not guarantee results
Throughout the spring and summer expectations for a revamped Giants defense with one of the league’s best front sevens were off the charts. Veteran players like Dexter Lawrence and Brian Burns, though, warned that the Giants had to prove on the field that they deserved the attention.
So far, they have not.
Against the Washington Commanders in Week 1, the Giants gave up 432 total yards (220 rushing) and 21 points. It would have been worse if not for at least four dropped passes by Washington receivers and a myriad of Commanders penalties that cost them opportunities.
In the fourth quarter on Sunday, the Giants offense handed the defense leads three times.
- A Cam Skattebo 1-yard run gave the Giants a 23-20 lead with 12:07 to play. Dallas went 85 yards in 10 plays to re-take the lead, 27-23. The big play on that drive came on a second-and-11. A 25-yard pass to CeeDee Lamb, defended by Dru Phillips, and a debatable roughing the passer penalty on Roy Robertson-Harris moved the ball all the way to the Giants’ 24-yard line. Miles Sanders finished the drive with a 4-yard scoring run.
- A 32-yard pass from Russell Wilson to Wan’Dale Robinson on fourth-and-4 gave the Giants a 30-27 lead with 2:44 to play. Dallas went 71 yards in 11 plays to re-take the lead, 30-27. The Giants gave up four plays of 11 yards or more on that drive before Prescott hit George Pickens for a 6-yard touchdown.
- A magical 48-yard Wilson moon ball to Malik Nabers gave the Giants their final lead, 37-34, with :25 to play. In three plays, the Giants gave that back.
There is more.
- With a 13-3 first-half lead, the Giants gave up an eight-play, 64-yard touchdown drive to make the score 13-10. That drive featured six Giants penalties, including three on one play that ended up being offset by a Cowboys’ penalty.
The Giants surrendered 478 yards and are last in the league in yards allowed and 27th in points allowed through an admittedly small sample size of two games.
The Giants are 31st in the league, giving up 5.9 yards per rushing attempt. The coverage hasn’t been good enough. The Giants are giving up 69.51% completions, 25th in the league, and 14.5 passing first downs per game, 28th.
We warned before the season that the Giants would have to win games for them. The offense gave Bowen’s unit multiple chances to do that on Sunday, and the defense failed.
Can Bowen fix it?
It will help when Lawrence begins to play once again like the best defensive tackle in football. After a spring and summer where Lawrence did very little, apparently protecting the elbow he dislocated last season, he has been exceptionally quiet. That needs to change.
A week after being criticized for not playing rookie Abdul Carter enough, Carter played 67 of 83 defensive snaps (75%). Per NextGen Stats, Carter, Burns and Kayvon Thibodeaux were on the field together for 32 defensive snaps. Twenty of those came in the fourth quarter when the Cowboys scored 20 points.
Bowen was heavily criticized by Giants owner John Mara at the end of last season. GM Joe Schoen supplied him with an array of talented new players.
So far that hasn’t made a difference.
More thoughts
- Even though 37 points should be enough to win an NFL game, let’s not completely absolve the offense. The Giants were just 1 of 5 in scoring touchdowns when the reached the red zone, and are now 1 of 7 (31st in the league at 14.29% efficiency) in the red zone after two games. Turn a couple of those failures into touchdowns, and there is no chance for Dallas to come back on Sunday. They need to figure that out.
- After an impressive summer, Marcus Mbow played well (without the Pro Football Focus grades or a second look at the game) subbing for the out of control James Hudson. I still wonder if, to get him on the field more as the year goes on, the Giants will work him in at guard. That is where most analysts thought he would end up in the NFL.
- Jalin Hyatt was the only active Giant who did not play a snap on Sunday. It is pretty clear the Giants don’t think he can be more than an emergency fill-in.
- The use of Devin Singletary on Sunday was weird. He started the game at running back, had the Giants’ first carry, then did not play again until overtime. He played four snaps.
- Rookie defensive tackle Darius Alexander made his NFL debut, playing 15 snaps. Defensive line coach Andre Patterson has high expectations for the third-round pick, and how he has gotten his feet wet. He had a quarterback hit on Sunday.
- 0-2 is a standard start for the Giants. The Kansas City Chiefs? Not so much. After losses to the Los Angeles Chargers and Philadelphia Eagles, the Chiefs will come to MetLife Stadium for Sunday Night Football winless after two games. Does that mean the Giants have a chance to win their home opener, or will the angry Chiefs take out their frustrations on the Giants? We’ll see.
