Giants-Steelers ‘Kudos & Wet Willies’: Winners and losers from Monday Night Football

Let’s review Monday night’s gritty, but mistake-filled, 26-18 loss by the New York Giants to the Pittsburgh Steelers in our unique ‘Kudos & Wet Willies’ style.

Kudos to …

Tyrone Tracy — The rookie is clearly the Giants RB1, and when given the opportunity and a little bit of space to work with is showing that you don’t need the No. 2 overall pick in the draft to run the ball well.

Tracy had 20 carries for 145 yards. He had explosive carries, like his 45-yard touchdown run. He had tough carries, grinding out yards and dragging tacklers with him. This kid is good. Too bad the Giants will likely be without him this Sunday against the Washington Commanders since he has a concussion and this will be a short week.

Azeez Ojulari — Two more sacks for the fourth-year edge defender, who continues to make splash plays in the absence of Kayvon Thibodeaux. Ojulari finished with two sacks, two quarterback hits, two tackles for loss, and seven total tackles.

Bobby Okereke — Fourteen tackles, a forced fumble/recovery that gave the Giants an opportunity late in Monday’s game, a half-sack. Okereke played with ferocity Monday night.

Dexter Lawrence and Brian Burns — I am going to lump these two defensive stars together. Neither had a dominant night statistically. They were both, though, forceful and their presences were felt. Lawrence had four tackles and a quarterback hit, and seemed to create a lot of plays for his teammates. Burns had a sack, a tackle for loss, and three quarterback hits.

Lawrence and Burns are also both becoming forceful locker room leaders:

Darius Slayton — Four catches for 108 yards for Slayton, who is always a comfortable target for Daniel Jones. Slayton had catches of 43, 36, and 18 yards.

Wet Willies to …

Deonte Banks — Where do the Giants go from here with their 2023 first-round pick?

The third time was the unlucky charm for Banks. After two instances where Banks was publicly and correctly criticized for lack of effort, he was yanked off the field in the second quarter Monday night. The Giants were apparently unhappy with Banks’ tackling.

“Just thought during that series needed a little bit more,” Daboll said.

Run defense — The Giants entered the game giving up a league-worst 5.4 yards per rushing attempt. That didn’t get better against the Steelers. Pittsburgh ran 31 times for 167 yards, exactly 5.4 yards per attempt. The Steelers had 81 of those yards — on just nine carries — after one quarter. The Giants can talk about run fits and gap responsibilities all they want. They just don’t have enough talent on the defensive line aside from Dexter Lawrence.

2-point conversion decision AND play call — I hated the decision to try for two points following Tracy’s 45-yard touchdown run that made the score 23-15 with 10:07 to play. I know analytics says go for 2 points because if you convert your are only down by six points. I don’t like it. Convert the extra-point kick and you are down by seven. That gives you the option of going for one point or two if you score again.

I hated the play call, too. The Giants tried to set up some type of picket fence with several players in front of wide receiver Malik Nabers. No one except Alex Highsmith of the Steelers moved when the ball was snapped, though, and Highsmith broke up the play.

That led to this reaction from quarterback Daniel Jones:

And, it got this reaction on the Manningcast:

Pass protection — The Giants did what they could to protect Daniel Jones. They started Chris Hubbard at left tackle instead of Josh Ezeudu, ending Ezeudu’s reign as Andrew Thomas’s replacement after one game. They did a lot of quick passing. They helped on Pittsburgh’s edge defenders as much as they could — except for the one play where Daniel Jones didn’t get the protection set properly.

Still, the Giants surrendered four sacks. Jones was hit repeatedly, 12 times officially, and made increasingly uncomfortable as the night went along.

Penalties — The Giants had 11 penalties for 65 yards. Only two of those were against the defense. They had a number of unforced errors with illegal shifts, illegal formation, fals starts, and delay of game penalties. In the third quarter they had illegal shift and delay of game penalties on back-to-back attempted snaps.

All of those little things show a lack of discipline and attention to detail.

Punt coverage — Somehow, special teams always seems to have something to do with close Giants’ losses. Monday, the Giants surrendered a game-altering 73-yard punt return touchdown to Calvin Austin with the score knotted at 9-9 in the third quarter.

Yes, I know the Steelers could easily have been called for running into the kicker. But, they weren’t. And the Giants coverage players couldn’t do what they were supposed to do — contain the returner and make a tackle.

Kwillies to …

Daniel Jones — I can hear many BBV readers screaming that Jones deserves a ‘Wet Willie’. I am going to respectfully disagree, though I understand the viewpoint.

Jones did a lot of good things on Monday night. He played with toughness. He played with passion. He threw for 264 yards. He made a number of excellent throws, including a couple that created explosive plays. He had a would-be touchdown pass to Chris Manhertz taken off the board by a ticky-tack illegal shift call on Malik Nabers.

And yet, all of the things that drive you crazy about Jones and will ultimately lead to the Giants moving on from the quarterback at season’s end were also in evidence.

Jones missed a third-down throw to Darius Slayton that could have been a big play. He didn’t properly set the protection before a T.J. Watt strip-sack, hanging right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor out to dry. He sailed a game-ending interception over Devin Singletary’s head when he seemed to get overanxious in the pocket.

Jones, in my view, did a number of things he deserves credit for on Monday. In the end, though, like it has been too often for Jones over his Giants career, he couldn’t do enough to get his team a victory.