New York Giants Week 7 Report Card: Awful, Just Awful

East Rutherford, NJ — Grading the New York Giants’ 28-3 loss to the Philadephia Eagles.

No, this loss wasn’t all on quarterback Daniel Jones, whom head coach Brian Daboll said would keep his job moving forward despite having been benched in the fourth quarter for Drew Lock. 

But when was the last time Jones elevated the players around him?  And not for nothing, but the Giants’ 119 total yards of offense was their worst total since Week 1 of the 1999 season when they mustered 107 yards in a 17-13 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 

If that isn’t enough to warrant this week’s failing grade, consider this: former Giants running back Saquon Barkley, who almost certainly will be named the NFC Offensive Player of the Week this week for his 17-carry, 176-rushing yard performance, finished the game with 187 all-purpose yards–68 more yards than the entire Giants offense was able to produce. 

Just awful.

The Giants’ defense kept it close through the first half and mustered up four sacks against EAgles quarterback Jalen Hurts. But in the second half, the unit, half of which was banged up (see outside linebacker Brian Burns, who was valiantly trying to fight through a groin injury that left him limping noticeably out of the locker room) and half of which just seemed to throw up their arms in defeat.

Cornerback Deonte Banks got toasted by receiver A.J. Brown, but his biggest sin might have been his giving up pursuit on an 11-yard scramble, a move that earned him a scolding from the coaches on the sideline (and should earn him a benching) for lack of effort. 

And what was outside linebacker Tomon Fox doing celebrating a garbage time sack with his team not only down 28-3, but after he missed a tackle on the Hurts 3rd-and-16 run that set up the Birds’s final touchdown of the game and then followed that up with a roughing the kicker penalty on a fourth-quarter 4th-and-15 at the Eagles’ 23-yard line that gave them a fresh set of downs to end the game? 

Greg Joseph made his lone field goal attempt, but the next time the Giants special teams flip the field in their favor, it will be the first time this season. Ihmir Smith-Marsette nearly lost a punt that, thankfully, squirted out of bounds after he muffed it. The Giants also gave up a 28-yard put return to Cooper DeJean. That old cliche, “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem,” applies here.

Every week, it seems like the offensive game plan is the same old song. They start with a slant to the X-receiver, try to go to Wan’Dale Robinson, a receiver who needs the ball thrown on the money to make a play on third down, and don’t run the ball to try to balance out the offensive attack, instead seemingly allowing the defense to dictate to them what they can and can’t do. 

The Giants running backs ran three times for four yards in the first half, with Daniel Jones rushing five times for 20 yards. They picked up the pace running the ball in the second half, but there has to be a way of delivering a more balanced offense than what the Giants have run of late.

Defensively, the run defense was atrocious, particularly on the edges. And that lack of effort by Deonte Banks? The coaches should have benched him right then and there to send a message.

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