The New York Giants may have known internally who their quarterback was going to be on Sunday in Philadelphia, but they didn’t officially announce Jake Fromm as the starter until Sunday morning.
Unfortunately, it looks like the same situation for next Sunday against Chicago, albeit with the reverse situation between the two contenders.
“We'll decide based on how they practice. We'll see how these guys do,” head coach Joe Judge said after Big Blue’s dismal 34-10 loss to the Eagles.
It was a similar sentiment all week that led up to Fromm making his first career start on Sunday, but as good as the second-year man out of Georgia looked in his one series against Dallas, he looked just as bad in eight against Philly.
Fromm was benched eight series in after going 6-for-17 for 25 yards and an interception (and nearly losing two other turnovers), with Big Blue going three-and-out on four of his eight drives.
“Obviously we didn't do anything good enough on offense. I decided to make the move of going from Jake to Mike because we weren't getting anything going offensively,” Judge said. “I thought there were some opportunities that we did have in the first half and early in the second half, so I had to get something in there going to give ourselves a chance to make some plays that I thought were out there to make.”
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“I would say it's not ideal. I wish I would have played better. It's frustrating for myself. It's not the way I wanted to have represented myself, my family, or, of course, this organization,” Fromm said. “It's tough, but I'm going to learn from it. I don't think it gets much worse than that. I'm going to learn from it, work my tail off to get better and play better like I know I can and be the best me I can be from here on out.”
Glennon wasn’t much better, despite a line that says he went 17 of 27 for 93 yards with one touchdown and one interception; the yardage, at least, was slightly less than Glennon had when he was benched in the fourth quarter last week, but most of those 93 yards came on the Giants’ final two drives – a 17-play, 75-yard drive that led to Evan Engram’s TD that made it 34-10, and a six-play drive that played out the string of the final two minutes.
Glennon was 4-for-9 for 25 yards and the pick on his first three drives before the final two yielded 13-for-18 for 68 yards and a touchdown, but even that isn’t exactly eye-popping.
“Obviously not how we envisioned it going but I have to be ready at all times. Unfortunately we weren't able to come back, but we'll keep fighting,” Glennon said. “Two games left in the season. Come back to work on Wednesday and get ready to go.”
When they do, the Giants will have a decision to make. Both of their final two games are winnable, against the Bears and Washington, although they are now in a pair of three-way ties for draft position; as it stands, the Giants’ 4-11 record has their own pick at No. 5 thanks to “winning” a tiebreaker with the Jets and Texans, while the Bears’ 5-10 record after a win in Seattle has that pick eighth, also at the bottom of a tiebreaker with Carolina and Seattle (whose pick goes to the Jets).
That’s about all the Giants have left to play for, and they’ll have to sabotage at least one of those picks next week, but it’s a matter of whether they want to choose the known quantity (albeit a sub-optimal one) in Glennon, or run it back with Fromm and hope Sunday wasn’t indicative of the real talent there.
“You're a young player and you have to learn and develop. This is the early part of your career, so you have to learn from what happened today and you have to make improvements,” Judge said of Fromm. “You have to make improvements on execution and obviously your decision-making will improve over time. But he has to come back to work on Wednesday just like everyone else.”
Added Glennon: “It just felt like it was tough to get something going. First start in the NFL, it's not an easy job, and obviously there's some things that I'm sure he'll want back. But, all-in-all, he handled himself really well this week. He prepared really well, and I felt his maturity and presence.”
Regardless of whose presence is under center next week, one thing is for certain: thanks to the loss, the Giants are officially playing out the string, as even winning out to go 6-11 will leave them at least two wins shy of a playoff spot.
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
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