From the moment Daniel Jones threw an interception to Aidan Hutchinson, ending his streak of over 150 straight attempts without a pick, the Giants’ 31-18 loss to the Lions never seemed as close as the final score indicated.
“I didn't see him there. Got to see him dropping out…just a bad decision there,” Jones said. “Good play by him, can't afford to do that.”
And quite frankly, as you would hope, no one was happy about a loss where they turned the ball over three times, missed two extra points, and were fighting from behind almost all day.
“Obviously not the outcome that we wanted. It's hard to win a game when you have three turnovers and don't get any. Some things we did well but not good enough. Give Detroit credit for the win,” head coach Brian Daboll said. “No excuses, we didn't do a good enough job. Nothing was good enough, nothing was up to standard. That starts with me.”
“Credit to Detroit – they had a good plan and stopped us in some areas that we've had success,” added Jones. “I think credit to them, but we got to look at ourselves and see where we can execute better. I think we're all pretty disappointed with our effort today and how we played – not up to our standard, not up to what we're capable of doing. I think that's the disappointing part of it, and we've got to evaluate that, study it and make sure we can't let those things happen again. Another opportunity here in a few days to correct those things.”
The Lions’ strategy seemed simple, but it’s something very few have been able to do this year: stop Saquon Barkley, and force turnovers.
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On the former, well, credit to the Lions once again.
“They did a good job up front, won up front and made tackles in space. You know, bottled up the run game pretty good. That's obviously a big part of what we do,” Daboll said.
Barkley had just 22 yards on 15 carries and two catches for 13 yards, a rough day from scrimmage overall for a guy who had three dozen touches and over 150 yards last week.
“They did a really good job today,” Barkley said. “I wasn’t waiting to pop a long one, because when you get that mindset, they're not going to come. I was trying to take what they give me, focus on taking little runs, and when the opportunity comes, make them pay, and I didn't make them pay at all today. I've got to give credit to all those boys over there and their defensive coordinator.”
Saquon “handled it like a pro,” Daboll said, but the back didn’t think his lack of production should be the be-all, end-all reason for the loss.
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“I don't think (offense) really changes (if you can’t run the ball); if you’re not running the ball well, you're going to pass the ball, and that’s just the answer for every team,” Barkley said. “If the run game is not going, you're kind of tied with one hand behind your back, you've got to pass the ball, so that's why it's important for myself to get this run game back on track, and the best way to do that is moving on and getting ready for Thursday.”
As for the turnovers, well, Jones has done a good job minimizing them, but two interceptions and then a fumble gave Detroit 17 points on a day where the Giants had zero takeaways.
“If you have three turnovers and the other team has zero, you're probably going to lose every game,” Daboll said bluntly. “We had some plays, Daniel threw for a lot of yards, but that doesn't really matter relative to the turnovers.”
Daboll pinned Jones’ second INT of the game on an overthrow and lamented the fumble, but he noted it’s “all in the ebbs and flows of a season,” as much as this one trended downward.
“When you lose, it doesn't matter about yards, stats, any of that stuff. The only thing that matters is executing the way you need to execute, and it just wasn't good enough today,” Daboll said. “To have a 3-0 differential, I know it's boring, but that's the truth. There's a lot of things we can do better. It starts with me, and that's what we'll do.”
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They’ll do it on a short week, but neither Daboll nor either of his offensive leaders are worried about how the team will respond, short week or not.
“They'll respond. There was some good things and bad things, just like there is every game, and we all understand we're in an outcome, results-oriented business,” Daboll said. “But the things that we do during the week, the work we put in, how we study, that's what's important to me. Obviously, we want to win every game. But I think you stay consistent. I've talked about this plenty of times. We're going to be consistent. We're going to go through our preparation. And then we're going to go out and try to play the best we can play Thursday.”
Added Barkley, when asked how much if at all the Giants’ confidence is shaken: “Zero. I mean at the end of the day, it's the NFL, every team is a great team. They came out here, they played great. We're not going to panic. We're not going to worry. We're not going to waver at all. That's for you guys to go out there and say what you want to say about us. At the end of the day, the only focus we have is the men and women in the locker room and the facility.”
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
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