The New York Giants’ 33-32 loss to the Denver Broncos on Sunday is the most painful, hard to understand, loss by the Giants in a long time. Let’s get to the ‘Kudos & Wet Willies’ review. Yes, we have to. Sorry!
Kudos to …
Daniel Bellinger — So, maybe it was a good thing I talked to Bellinger 1-on-1 last week. He had three catches for a career-high 88 yards, besting the 52 yards he compiled against the New Orleans Saints two weeks ago. He had a 44-yard touchdown catch, a 29-yard catch and nearly had an 18-yard
touchdown catch.
Why is it, though, that Bellinger keeps doing his best work in games the Giants lose?
Wan’Dale Robinson — I continue to be amazed by the 5-foot-8 Robinson. He had six receptions for 95 yards (15.8 yards per catch), including a 19-yard fourth-and-19 grab with 1:08 to play and the Giants needing a touchdown. Poor quarterback play can’t be the only reason the Giants weren’t able to unlock this kind of play in Robinson’s first three seasons.
Dane Belton — Whatever else Belton did or did not do, and he did a lot with 10 tackles, his touchdown-saving tackle of Courtland Sutton on fourth-and-2 with the Giants leading 13-0 late in the second quarter, is ‘Kudos’ worthy by itself.
Cor’Dale Flott — Flott was outstanding on Sunday, and his four-tackle, two passes defensed, one tackle for loss stat line hardly tells you why. Flott was in perfect position on an incomplete deep ball at the goal line intended for Marvin Mims. He also knocked the ball away from Troy Franklin on a beautifully thrown deep out. The last time I saw Pro Football Focus numbers before they were taken down, Flott had allowed just two completions on 10 targets.
Brian Burns — Two more sacks give Burns 9.0 on the season. He is a talented, relentless player even when he is not 100%, which he clearly was not as Sunday’s game wore on. Burns also had three tackles for loss, two quarterback hits and a pass defensed.
I won’t kill Burns for his offsides penalty on Denver’s final drive. Reporters on the scene said he left the stadium with a walking boot on his right foot.
Burns was not happy at the end of the game.
Andrew Thomas — The star left tackle neutralized Nik Bonitto, who entered the game leading the league with 8.0 sacks, to the point where Denver defensive coordinator Vance Joseph eventually moved Bonitto to the other side against Jermaine Eluemunor. Thomas also caved in the entire side of the Broncos’ defense on Tyrone Tracy’s 31-yard touchdown run.
Defense … for three quarters — The Giants held Denver scoreless for three quarters, and entered the fourth quarter not having surrendered a point since the first half of the Week 6 game against the Philadelphia Eagles. That was five scoreless quarters. They pressured Denver quarterback Bo Nix, defended the run well, covered well and hit with ferocity. Until it all fell apart.
Wet Willies to …
Jude McAtamney — The young kicker missed two extra points, and has missed three in two games. These two cost the Giants a football game, enabling Denver to kick a game-winning field goal as time expired. I have wondered for two years what the Giants saw in a kicker Rutgers would not allow to do anything but kick off in his final season with the Scarlet Knights. I will be stunned if McAtamney ever kicks for the Giants again.
When Lawrence Tynes is critical of a kicker, you know things are bad:
If Graham Gano isn’t ready to come off IR next week, veteran Younghoe Koo has to get an opportunity.
Fourth-quarter defense — After being shut out and made to look inept offensively by the Giants for three quarters, Denver hung 33 points on the Giants in the fourth quarter. Denver had the ball four times in the fourth quarter, gained 227 yards, and scored three touchdowns and a game-winning field goal.
Yes, the Giants were without starting safety Jevon Holland starting cA ornerback Paulson Adebo. The loss of Adebo in the second half forced the Giants to play Deonte Banks, and Banks seemed to be in the middle of much of went wrong in the fourth quarter, especially failing to set contain on Bo Nix’s 18-yard touchdown run.
Those losses, though, should not have been enough to let the Giants become the first team in 1,602 NFL games to lose a game they led by 18 points (26-8) with six minutes to play. The Giants, in fact, had a 99% win probability with 5:21 remaining:
Dru Phillips had nine tackles. Unfortunately, the rest of the NFL — the Broncos included — have figured out that coverage is something Phillips is having a hard time with. That, of course, is a problem for a slot cornerback. Phillips, per Pro Football Focus, gave up five completions in six targets for 85 yards.
Phillips committed a defensive pass interference on a fourth-and-3 with 6:38 remaining and the Giants up 18 points. That led to a Denver touchdown.
Phillips was also victimized by a 31-yard pass to Marvin Mims on a third-and-11 with 2:14 to play, setting up a touchdown that gave the Broncos their first lead, 30-26.
Finally, Phillips was the closest defender on a 29-yard pass to Mims that put Denver at the Giants’ 48-yard line with :33 to play.
Of course, it wasn’t Phillips who decided to have the Giants rush three and drop eight. That, of course, repeated the mistake that led to a 64-yard game-tying field goal by Brandon Aubry at the end of regulation in the Giants’ Week 2 overtime loss to the Dallas Cowboys.
A Kayvon Thibodeaux offsides penalty with 4:15 remaining and the Giants ahead 26-16 turned a third-and-five at the Giants 14-yard line into first-and-goal at the 9-yard line. The Broncos pulled within three points, 26-23, two plays later.
Denver also had some luck, with Trey Franklin catching a touchdown pass off a ricochet.
Still, after making so much progress in recent weeks, this was a horrifyingly bad quarter of football by the Giants’ defense.
Shane Bowen — The Giants’ defense coordinator was contrite after the Week 2 loss to the Cowboys, saying he “would have liked to have a different call” than the soft one that allowed Aubry to kick that 64-yard field goal.
After a few hopeful weeks in which Bowen was lauded for letting his talented defense be more aggressive, Bowen’s true colors showed at the worst possible time on Denver’s final drive. The Giants dropped eight, rushed three, gave Bo Nix all day and he completed a 29-yard pass that put the Broncos well on their way to the game-winning field goal.
Yes, teams win and lose collectively. Yes, there is plenty of blame to go around and plenty of things that could or should have worked out differently. The defensive coordinator has, though, now had direct hands in a pair of devastating losses that should not have happened.
Kwillies to …
Jaxson Dart — The rookie quarterback was terrific on Sunday … except when he wasn’t.
Dart did a LOT of good things. He passed for 283 yards. He threw for three touchdowns. He led a 65-yard drive that started with 1:51 to play, and his 1-yard dive into the end zone with :37 left should have been a game-winning score.
Dart didn’t get rattled by a tremendous Denver defense that sacked him four times and hit him on 10 other dropbacks. He used his legs to buy time and made some beautiful throws. He gave the Giants and their fans plenty to feel good about.
Oh, but that one play he would like to have back. The fourth-quarter interception of Dart by Justin Strnad with 4:56 to play and the Giants clinging nervously to a 10-point lead changed everything. It set Denver up at the Giants’ 19 yard line for a touchdown that got them within three.
Theo Johnson — The tight end had a sort of bumbling first half, likely being charged with one clear drop and failing to come up with a second ball he could have caught. Johnson, though, caught the 41-yard ricochet touchdown off a ball that caromed off Robinson’s hands on third-and-12 with 10:22 to play, seemingly giving the Giants an insurmountable 18-point lead.
That touchdown led former Giant Lawrence Tynes to post this on ‘X’:
Obviously, that did not age well.
