With upgrades on the line and at receiver that should not be the case, but it is
The New York Giants have an improved group of wide receivers from 2023, led by superstar rookie Malik Nabers. They have a better offensive line. Quarterback Daniel Jones is playing much better than a year ago. Head coach Brian Daboll, renowned for his prowess as a play-caller, has taken over that role.
Yet, the Giants still cannot score points. The have have scored 20 or more just once, 21 Week 3 vs. the Cleveland Browns. They punted just once on Thursday night in their loss to the Dallas Cowboys, yet scored just 15 points on five Greg Joseph field goals. The Giants, in fact, are averaging an even 15.0 points per game through four games. That is worse than the 15.6 points per game they scored last season, and which they knew wasn’t good enough.
“We got down in the red zone twice and missed a couple opportunities,” Daboll said Friday afternoon. “We’re moving the ball better. We’ve just gotta do a better job on converting some of these third downs. And when we do get in a red zone, which the previous two weeks we have, finishing off drives.”
The Giants are 20 of 56 (35.7%) converting third-down attempts, 19th in the NFL. They are tied for 15th in red zone touchdown percentage at 50%, having converted six of 12 opportunities. They are 14th in the league, again middle of the pack, with 3.0 red zone scoring opportunities per game. The Giants are 11th in the NFL in time of possession.
“They’re all a little bit different, but that’s what we’ll do here in the next couple days. Go back, revisit the first four games, see some of the things that are improvinngto score that many points and only punt once. We’ve gotta be able to get the ball into the end zone.”
The lack of a vertical passing attack, despite time to throw and good receivers for Jones to throw to, has been part of the problem.
Jones is just 3 of 15 (20%) on passes 20 or more yards beyond the line of scrimmage. Among quarterbacks with at least nine attempts of 20 or more yards, only Chicago Bears rookie Caleb Williams (3 of 19, 15.8%) has been worse. Per Pro Football Focus, Jones has only two ‘big-time throws’ in four games.
The first couple of weeks, Jones overthrew some deep targets. Thursday, his deep targets — even one completed to Nabers for 39 yards — were underthrown.
“I just thought he under threw a couple (Thursday night),” Daboll said. “He didn’t put enough into it. We’ll just keep working on it.”
Malik Nabers update
Nabers is in the concussion protocol after his late-game head injury vs. Dallas. Daboll did report that Nabers was in the team facility on Friday.
The Giants don’t play again until Oct. 6 vs. the Seattle Seahawks.
“We’ll take it day by day here and see where he’s at,” Daboll said of Nabers.
