The Giants were called to task for not having faith in their offense last week when Mike Glennon handed the ball off more than 80 percent of the time in a 29-3 loss to Chicago, come to find out that Glennon had a hand injury – which led to more wonder, this time why he wasn’t replaced.
Well, Joe Judge’s play-calling got another dose of question on Sunday, when, facing a second-and-11 at his own three with just over five minutes left in the second quarter, Judge called for two straight quarterback sneaks, which saw Jake Fromm gain three yards before a Riley Dixon punt.
The strategy? Avoid another situation like in Chicago, where the team was backed up and yielded a safety.
“We were backed up, had a shot on the play-action to get the ball in the flat; Eli (Penny) was open, and we have to make the throw,” Judge explained, referencing the first down play where Fromm overthrew Penny in the flat. “That would’ve been a good shot coming off the goal line to get space.
Ultimately, we were backed up, and I wanted to get room. We weren’t going to live through what happened last week in Chicago again.”
The difference this time is that the giants were only down 3-0 at the time as opposed to their big deficit in Chicago, so it’s
“We gave ourselves room for the punt, covered well, played the field position game we wanted to play, and we held them on the next drive,” Judge said. “Do we want to do that all the time? No, but that was a situation based on where we were, and I wanted to make sure things we had issues with last week wouldn’t repeat.”
Judge was bluntly asked if that showed a lack of faith in his offense, and, well, he didn’t really answer.
“I think it shows faith in the fact that we knew we would cover the kick and play defense,” he said.
Two of his offensive players were just as noncommittal.
“As an offense, it’s your job to go out there and execute the play that’s called,” Saquon Barkley said. “We don’t make those decisions. There's a reason why that play is called. We just try to execute it as best we can.”
“You're just situationally trying to give the punt team a little more room,” added Jake Fromm. “Whatever the call was, just go in and try to execute the call.”
Fromm was asked if he thought they might be able to make something happen had the giants tried actual plays and downplayed it, saying “potentially, but that wasn’t my call to make, so I was just trying to make sure the guys knew what we were doing and executed.”
Related
Either way, it was a stark contrast from earlier in the game, where the Giants called a play on fourth-and-one and decided to try a vertical pass to Kenny Golladay…instead of, perhaps, a sneak in a situation where it was much more apropos.
“There was something we saw on tape in terms of how those defensive ends had played in those situations, in terms of taking it, in some success modes with similar plays against these guys,” Judge said. “From what I saw, it was a little outside (Golladay’s) reach, but they made a better play.”
"I thought it was close. Tried to give him a good ball and give him a chance and sometimes you make plays, sometimes you don't," Fromm added of that Golladay pass.
The defense did indeed hold the WFT to a punt, so when asked, Logan Ryan agreed with the field position notion.
“I mean, the game is built on field position. At the end of the day, it's built on field position and if they felt like they wanted space to punt, that happens, to flip the field and play good defense,” Ryan said. “However the offense is playing, it's just the margin of error for the defense goes up or down, just like how well the defense is playing gives the offense more margin for error.”
It’s all for naught, as in the end, the Giants lost 22-7 to finish their season 4-13, but now there’s just one more thing to wonder: will Judge be back to try this again in 2022?
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
Follow WFAN on Social Media
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Twitch