On a day where Daniel Jones was able to play just a week after leaving a huge division game with a concussion, on a day where they honored the 10-year anniversary of the Big Blue squad that upset the Patriots (for the second time) in Super Bowl XLVI, the Giants lost to the Rams 38-11 in a game that was never as close as that score might even attempt to indicate.
And they don’t even get a ‘good job, good effort’ from their leader.
“Obviously it wasn’t good enough today. Credit to the Rams who did a good job executing,” head coach Joe Judge said after the game. “There’s a responsibility to uphold the tradition of how this organization wants to play, and we didn’t do that today.”
It was 10 seasons ago that the 2011 Giants got hot down the stretch, going from a 6-6 team to one that beat the Cowboys twice and the Jets to go 9-7 and win the NFC East, and then won two road games and a nail biter against New England to win the Super Bowl for the second time in five seasons.
On Sunday, though, the current Giants dropped to 19-51 since the beginning of 2017, the worst record in the NFL over that span.
“There are positives to build off of, and some things we have to do better,” Judge said. “We started the game with good tempo – we want to finish in the red zone with touchdowns, not field goals, so we have to do better there – but obviously some execution we have to clean up.”
The Giants did start strong, driving 68 yards over 14 plays leading up to a 27-yard field goal to take a 3-0 lead. They then held the Rams to two straight punts, and led by that 3-0 score after one – but after turning it over on downs just outside their 40 early in the second, the wheels came off.
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Offensively, the Giants ran 14 plays in the second quarter, with their five drives ending in three turnovers – two interceptions, one of which Sterling Shepard took culpability for because he fell down, and one fumble – and two punts, one a three-and-out. Their lone third-quarter drive ended after eight plays in another pick, and the fourth quarter started with a three-and-out before they finally capitalized on a Xavier McKinney interception with their lone touchdown of the day.
“We had a good plan and didn’t execute it, and got behind the sticks a lot. Turnovers were a big deal, and that set us back,” said quarterback Daniel Jones.
“I thought Daniel played well, it’s on the surrounding cast. We have to do a better job of helping him out, and I don’t think we did that as a unit,” added Sterling Shepard, who returned from an injury absence with 10 catches for 76 yards. “We have to play better.”
By the time of McKinney’s pick, though, they were down 38-3, as two of the three second quarter turnovers came inside the Giants’ 20 and led to a pair of touchdowns, and the defense also allowed a six-play, 78-yard touchdown drive that included multiple chunk plays – one coming on a broken play where Matthew Stafford had to improvise after a botched snap.
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“We didn’t execute in the red area and hold them at three enough,” defensive back Logan Ryan said of the day. “With a couple short fields, you have to put out the fire, because there’s a big difference between seven points and three. I’m extremely disappointed, it’s not acceptable and that’s it. We had to go out in the second half and fight the best we could, but the results haven’t been acceptable.”
“We started fast like we wanted, getting pressure up the middle, but it seemed like their tempo started going in the second half,” Leonard Williams added. “Overall, they did better than our defense.”
A 28-3 halftime score isn’t insurmountable, but by the time the Giants got the ball back down 38-3 with less than 10 minutes left, it was basically an organized scrimmage at that point. But give the Giants credit: they never quit, even if it was questioned why Jones went back on the field at 38-3 for the eventual touchdown drive, let alone the next one, too.
“I challenged the guys at halftime to see who was gonna finish the game and see what kind of fight was left to be had,” Judge said. “We’re going to compete for 60 minutes, and I wanted to see who was going to fight. I watched how the game flow was going, and Daniel wanted to compete for 60 minutes.”
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“I thought we fought all 60 minutes and competed. Still wasn’t perfect, too many mistakes, but we fought,” Jones added. “I appreciated the opportunity to be out there; coach preaches that we play 60 minutes, and that’s how long we’re going to compete for.”
And so, you can blame the patchwork line, or Jones’ lack of reps, or all of the missing pieces that were added to with the losses of Kadarius Toney and CJ Board during the game, but the Giants won’t.
“You don’t want to see anybody go down because it will affect the team in some way, but none of that matters,” Shepard said. “We have to have a next guy up mentality and get the job done. We have guys in the stable that can go and make plays, we have to figure out a way to execute better.”
As Ryan noted, though, the execution isn’t matching the effort, and while Judge said that he has faith in the roster, he also added that “whoever is in the game has to produce” – and perhaps it was Shepard who best summed up where the Giants are at 1-5, and where they go from here.
“We’re all competitors; we don’t practice every week to come out and lose, so yeah, we’re pissed off about it, but we’re the only ones who can change it.”
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