The New York Giants played the first 15 minutes of football Sunday as if they forgot there was a football game. The wholly mediocre Arizona Cardinals, with a rookie quarterback and rookie head coach, jumped out to a 17-0 lead and kept Big Blue at a stiff-arm's length all afternoon, cruising to a 27-21 win at MetLife Stadium.
All of this came after Arizona's star running back, David Johnson, left the field with a tender ankle. Yet the Giants made backup halfback Chase Edmonds look like Earl Campbell. Edmonds bulled his way to 126 yards, averaged 4.7 yards per carry and rumbled for three touchdowns, barely touched by Giants defenders on any of them.
The Giants also did nothing to make Cardinals QB Kyler Murray the least bit uneasy. Though Murray passed for barely 100 yards, he did not turn the ball over and was able to rely on his rushing attack whenever he needed to.
The Giants' defense was so bad that the WFAN crew calling the game, led by Bob Papa and Howard Cross, was astonished by the lack of playmaking, often noting how far Giants were from being in position to make plays on Cardinals ball carriers. And even the ones who were around the play weren't putting in full effort. Indeed, on Edmons's second TD run, Papa compared the Giants' defense to the "parting of the Red Sea."
On offense, Daniel Jones, the Giants' own rookie quarterback, is losing the ball at an appalling rates. He had three turnovers Sunday, tossing one pick and losing two fumbles. Meanwhile, we're hearing less and less of his celebrated sobriquet, "Danny Dimes," a name normally reserved for people who don't fumble three times. Though he ended the game with a more robust stat line, Jones finished the fateful first quarter with one completion for minus-8 yards and one interception.
But it wasn't all on Jones, who wasn't helped by inexcusable drops by Evan Engram and Bennie Fowler, both in the first half and both of which would have grabbed first downs. It seems self-evident, but the Giants must learn that the team plunging into a 17-0 hole can't mount a comeback if they can't catch the ball.
The Giants' offensive line was equally inept and made Chandler Jones look like Lawrence Taylor. The Cardinals linebacker sacked Daniel Jones four times, forced a fumble and recovered it. The former Patriot is a fine player, but he just toyed with an allegedly revamped offensive line all afternoon. The Giants simply seemed out of place, out of touch or out of time from whistle to gun.
Plus, coach Pat Shurmur, who is increasingly truculent with Big Apple media, is still making scalp-scratching calls that leave the G-Men in obvious peril. He was way too conservative at the end of the first half and didn't even attempt a field goal before halftime despite being in Aldrick Rosas' range. But Shurmur's signature gaffe came in the fourth quarter. He called a draw on a third-and-18 in his own territory, which gained just 3 yards and left the clock bleeding under three minutes. Then he went for it on fourth-and-15 from Big Blue's 30-yard line. The Giants still had two timeouts and the two-minute warning, so punting the ball was the most Captain Obvious move of the day, except to the head coach.
Even Papa, forever measured and professional in calling Giants games, was baffled, like many of us were, by Shurmur's decision to eschew the punt in a 24-21 game. Naturally, Daniel Jones was sacked on the fitful fourth-down effort. (He also committed his third fumble.)
Any team can lose to any team at any time. That's the NFL's mantra, pitching the parity that makes pro football so special. But if you're a serious football club, you win home games in New Jersey against middling teams from Arizona. You can excuse the Giants for getting clubbed by the Patriots, or for losing to the Cowboys. They are much better teams. But losing to Arizona, a team that started in Chicago, had a layover in St. Louis and landed in Arizona — dominating the NFL at no point during that journey — should have been the cure for the floundering Giants.
So instead of ending the afternoon 3-4 and tied for second place in the NFC East, Big Blue is an ugly 2-5, a loser of three straight games and in sinking from contention.
And a season that had so much promise at 2-2 promises to be another forlorn season for this franchise.
Follow Jason on Twitter at @JasonKeidel.
