5 plays that mattered in Giants’ disappointing loss to Bengals

Giants couldn’t make the plays that mattered most

The New York Giants lost in prime time to the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday. The 17-7 methodically slow game featured a Giants’ offense that struggled to move the football and a lively pass-rush that harassed Joe Burrow all night. The Giants averaged 3.8 yards per carry as Tyrone Tracy Jr. chipped away at what was the league’s second-worst rush defense, per EPA.

Tracy Jr. was a bright spot on a dim offense that relied on the defense to keep the game competitive. New York nearly out-possessed the Bengals by 10 minutes, yet they only muster seven points — at least they finally scored a touchdown at home!

Daniel Jones passed back 41 times and finished with 205 touchdown-less passing yards. He also had a catastrophic mistake in the red zone. New York failed to build upon the positive momentum they established last week in Seattle. Disappointing is the adjective, and that’s consistent with the Giants in recent memory.

Here are five plays, or five sequences of plays, that were impactful on Sunday Night Football.

Play(s) 1: Three Bengal plays

The Giants defense played well against the Cincinnati Bengals. They surrendered just over 300 total offensive yards and were all over Joe Burrow throughout the night: they had four sacks and seven tackles for a loss. Still, the Bengals had three clutch plays, and the final two all but sealed Cincinnati’s 17-7 victory:

The Giants’ defense held the Bengals to just 4 of 11 on third down. At the end of the game, with the Giants in desperate need for a stop, Burrow found Andrei Iosivas on a 29-yard conversion that set up Chase Brown’s 30-yard touchdown run:

The only other glaring mistake from the defense came on their opening drive. The Giants forced Burrow and the Bengals into a third-and-18:

The Giants ran man coverage, and the Bengals had no routes to the boundary. Burrow diagnosed the defense and used his legs to run 47 yards to a score. The Giants’ defense has done a poor job stopping the quarterback runs on third-and-long all season.

Play 2: Look what Micah found

The Giants offense started the second-half gaining just eight yards on their first three plays. An aggressive Brian Daboll opted not to punt the football, and attempt a fourth-and-2 on the Giants’ 38-yard line. New York ran a stick and out combo with Wan’Dale Robinson and Darius Slayton; Jones threw to Robinson and the ball was knocked away by an inside defender.

I was surprised to see Daboll forego the punt — possibly due to Jamie Gillan’s absence, possibly just to generate offense, possibly a little Column A, or a little Column B. Either way, the Bengals were set up in an excellent position to make it a two-score game. But the Giants’ defense came up with a huge play:

Zack Moss (31) fumbled the football as several Giants converged to hit him. Micah McFadden fell on the ball, marking a 14-point swing for the Giants (see below).

The Giants ended up going 3 of 5 on fourth-down conversion attempts. Another huge moment in the game transpired with 3:02 left in the game with the Giants down 10-7. Daboll attempted a fourth-down conversion, but it was incomplete. It’s tough to blame Daboll, though, due to the missed Greg Joseph 47-yard field goal on the previous drive. The field goal attempt on the missed fourth down conversion would have been from 54 yards. Here is that failed fourth down:

Play(s) 3: 16-play, 79-yard drive

After McFadden’s fumble recovery, Daboll continued that aggressive mindset on the ensuing drive. The Giants converted two fourth-and-short runs as New York kept Burrow and the Bengals’ offense on the bench. Rookie Tyrone Tracy Jr. was featured on the drive and came in clutch to conclude the drive with the first Giants’ home touchdown of 2024:

The fumble was MASSIVE and it allowed the Giants to figure it out on offense to make the game competitive.

Play 4: Rookie year Jones

The Giants struggled to move the football in the first-half. They mustered one drive of more than 30 yards, and it ended like this:

It appears like another throwback type of play where Jones goes into a play-action roll and attempts to find a designed solution opposite of the roll. New York has tried this several times this season — most ended up in a near disaster other than last week’s 30-yard touchdown to Darius Slayton.

I’ll confirm on the All-22, but Theo Johnson (84) seemed to be the target off a roll-side release that he was bending to the back pylon. Germaine Pratt (57) intercepted Jones after the quarterback tried to do too much on a first-and-1- at the Bengals’ 14-yard-line. The Giants defense forced a punt, but their offense failed to put points on the board until the second half.

Play 5: Missed field goals

The Giants missed two field goals in the second half, including a 45-yarder with 55 seconds left in the game, down by 10; the aforementioned 47-yard miss was the other. Daboll electing to try the field goal on second-and-10 instead of taking two shots at the end zone will spark debate post-game. Somehow special teams continues to be an issue, whether through the team’s fault or through injury.