Giants-Browns ‘Kudos & Wet Willies’: Winners and losers from Week 3

Who deserves praise; who deserves criticism?

Let’s review the New York Giants’ much-needed 21-15 victory over the Cleveland Browns on Sunday in our traditional ‘Kudos & Wet Willies’ style.

Kudos to …

Dexter Lawrence — The big man said during the week that he was “pissed off” by the losing. Well, Sexy Dexy did something about it Sunday with two sacks, three tackles (one for loss), and four quarterback hits. Lawrence had an early sack to force a punt and a fourth-and-1 sack.

Malik Nabers — Players know players. Listen to Brian Burns talk about Nabers after Sunday’s game:

Yes, Nabers looks special. He certainly was on Sunday — for the second week in a row. He caught eight passes for 78 yards and two TDs, including an unbelievable twisting touchdown catch.

Nabers had a 28-yard catch on a ball that Cleveland’s Martin Emerson probably figured he would intercept. Until Nabers just ripped it away.

Nabers also made a great play when Daniel Jones’ arm was hit, causing a pass to flutter in the air and look like an interception. Until Nabers made sure neither of the two Browns’ defenders in position to make the play could catch the ball.

Nabers is re-writing record books, already.

Maybe, though, the Giants should put away the idea of having Nabers try to throw touchdown passes to Daniel Jones.

Brian Burns — We have been waiting for Burns, the edge defender the Giants made a big investment in during the offseason, to have a positive impact. Sunday, on a day when his playing status was in doubt because of a groin injury, Burns made that impact. He had a sack/fumble, two passes defensed, two quarterback hits and a tackle for loss.

Shane Bowen/pass rush — I put these together because one had A LOT to do with the other.

With a makeshift Cleveland offensive that entered the game missing starter Jack Conklin and then proceeded to lose three players throughout the afternoon, Bowen abandoned his usual belief in the four-man pass rush.

The Giants’ defensive coordinator turned everybody, and I do mean everybody, loose to go after Cleveland quarterback DeShaun Watson. The result was eight sacks and 17 quarterback hits.

Lawrence and Burns have already received ‘Kudos’. There are several other noteworthy players who were part of the storm the Giants sent Watson’s way.

• Linebacker Micah McFadden had a sack and three quarterback hits.
• Safety Jason Pinnock had a sack.
• Defensive tackle Rakeem Nunez-Roches had a half-sack and a quarterback hit.
• Defensive tackle Elijah Chatman, who might deserve a stand-alone ‘Kudos’, had the first sack of his career, a fumble recovery, and a quarterback hit.
• Kayvon Thibodeaux had a half-sack and a pair of quarterback hits.
• Edge defender Azeez Ojulari had his most impactful game in a loooong time, with a sack, a fumble recovery, and a pair of quarterback hits.

Brian Daboll — On the third anniversary of his beloved grandmother’s death, Daboll came in armed with an excellent game plan of his own. The Giants used a lot of short and intermediate passes, took some deep shots, and screens. The Giants sprinkled in a varied running game that incorporated Nabers, Jones and rookie Tyrone Tracy as well as Devin Singletary.

Even in the second half when the Giants did not score, it seemed Daboll had a good feel for what he wanted to do. The Giants just did not execute as well, with Jones missing a deep throw to an open Nabers and Singletary fumbling.

Daboll’s offense has shown a lot of positive signs the last couple of weeks.

Wan’Dale Robinson — The Giants’ slot receiver is becoming ‘Robin’ to Nabers’ ‘Batman’. Robinson had another efficient game with seven catches in eight targets for 61 yards.

Wet Willies to …

Eric Gray — How much longer can the Giants keep sending Gray back to return kickoffs? Opposing teams are obviously kicking the ball to the second-year running back, who lost the kickoff and punt return jobs a year ago due to ball security issues.

Gray fumbled the opening kickoff, leading to the Giants being behind 7-0 just two plays into Sunday’s game. In my view, Gray shouldn’t be back there.

Tae Banks — The Browns went after Banks from their first offensive play, and Amari Cooper schooled the 2023 first-round pick all day. Cooper had 2 touchdown catches, a 24-yarder on the first play and a 6-yarder in the fourth quarter on which Banks was juked badly. Cooper ended up with 7 catches for 86 yards.

In his first three games as the Giants’ CB1, Banks looks overmatched against opposing team’s best wide receivers.

Greg Joseph — Maybe the Giants will have another new placekicker Thursday night when they face the Dallas Cowboys. In his debut with the Giants as the replacement for the injured Graham Gano, Joseph played to form. Joseph made just three of six field goals from 40-49 yards for the Minnesota Vikings last season.

Given an opportunity to give the Giants a two-score lead with 3:04 left in the game, Joseph badly missed a 48-yard attempt. It was a horrid kick that can’t give the Giants confidence they made the right choice by plucking him off the Detroit Lions’ practice squad.

Andrew Thomas — I hate putting Thomas here, but he clearly lost his matchup against Myles Garrett. It really wasn’t close.

Thomas also committed two penalties, a false start and a declined holding penalty.

Kwillies to …

Devin Singletary — Singletary had a nice game statistically with 16 carries for 65 yards (4.1 yards per carry) and a touchdown, including a 43-yard run that sealed the victory, and four catches for 43 yards. Still, Singletary fumbled for the second straight week. That can’t become a trend.

Daniel Jones — I will be honest. I went back-and-forth between a ‘Kudo’ and a ‘Kwillie’ for the quarterback. Obviously, I settled on the ‘Kwillie’.

Jones was good Sunday. But, not as good as he could have been.

The quarterback was 17 of 19 for 178 yards and two TDs in the first half. Per the broadcast, that is the most first-half completions for Jones in his career. He went only 7 of 15 the rest of the way, though. Jones missed a deep throw to Nabers, and probably missed a short throw to Wan’Dale Robinson that forced a punt. He got away with an early interception that was negated by penalty, though I do wonder if rookie tight end Theo Johnson was not where Jones expected him to be on that play.

Jones went just 1 of 4 on throws more than 20 yards past the line of scrimmage, and the completion was a great catch by Nabers on a contested ball.