New York Giants Week 6 Grades: ‘Offensive’

The grades are in for the Giants’ 17-7 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.

Offense

Brian Daboll said it best: One touchdown won’t cut it–not even for as good as the Giants defense was playing last night. 

The biggest culprit continues to be Daniel Jones. One-read quarterback Daniel Jones. Lock onto the receiver Daniel Jones. Yeah, that guy. Because that’s what Jones, who had finally looked like he turned the corner and settled into a groove over the last few weeks, delivered. 

Questionable decisions, such as the turnover in the red zone (or is that “dead zone”?) when Jones should have taken a sack rather than attempt to heave the ball out of the end zone while going backward only to throw it into triple coverage and have it picked. 

A failure to audible out of pass play in the first quarter when the Bengals, initially showing blitz, backed off at the last second into coverage. A long pass play of 15 yards, a stark reminder of how much Malik Nabers was missed. 

It wasn’t all on Jones, though. Five of the Giants’ seven third-down attempts in the first half were of at least eight yards. Throw in a couple more dropped passes into the mix for good measure.  

The run game sputtered out of the gate, with Jones by the way the team’s rushing yardage leader (56 yards). Left tackle Andrew Thomas, who is now dealing with a foot injury, was beaten by Trey Hendrickson for two sacks and drawing an illegal man downfield penalty that nullified a 56-yard completion to Darius Slayton.

Not good enough. Not even close.

Grade: F 

Defense

What an absolute shame that the defense’s performance was wasted. 

The Giants held a Bengals offense that had scored 30+ points in hits in the last three games to just 17 points, their second-lowest point output of the season. They found a way to harass Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow at least once every 1.86 dropback attempts. 

They survived the loss of Kayvon Thibodeaux, as Azeez Ojulari had himself a night with two of the defense’s sacks. Micah McFadden forced two fumbles as he continues to have a solid season. The defense even kept superstar receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins from going off. 

It wasn’t perfect–see the 47-yard touchdown run by Joe Burrow and the 30-yard touchdown run by Chase Brown. But overall, the defensive performance was good enough for a win that the offense failed to do its part to deliver.  

Grade: A- 

Special Teams

The Giants’ special teams must be cursed–there’s no other explanation for what has happened to them this season.

Kicker Greg Joseph, who had finally settled down after a rough debut as a Giant, hooked two 40+ yard field goal attempts wide left despite there initially appearing to be no problem with the snaps or holds of new punter Matt Haack, in for the ailing Jamie Gillan, the latest specialist to pop up on the injury report late in the week.

Ihmir Smith-Marsette had to miss one of his punt returns–he was replaced by Adoree’ Jackson–after getting banged up. Not that it mattered as on two returns, Smith-Marsette mustered up just one yard in his attempt to flip the field.

Haack had a nice debut, averaging 468 yards with a 43.5 net average and placing two balls inside the 20-yard line.  

But much like the offense, it wasn’t enough nor good enough.

Grade: D

Coaching 

Brian Daboll adapted the players’ “F– it!” attitude by going for it on fourth down five times, three of which were successful. It was a valiant attempt to light a fire under the backsides of the sluggish offense, but it didn’t matter.

Shane Bowen delivered another strong game plan that tamed the Bengals explosive offense and which continues to have the unit playing at a high level, or at least a level good enough to contribute to winning. 

The question that must eventually be answered by Daboll is how much longer he is going to stick with the maddening inconsistent play of his starting quarterback, who, by the way, has that injury guarantee in his contract. The best guess is they’ll ride it out through the bye week, and if things don’t improve, then they’ll look to make a change.  

Grade: B-

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