It’s hard to say at 2-4, but in the underwhelming NFC East today’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles was an important one for the New York Giants, who were still in position to make a playoff run after being competitive in every game since Week 2.

The Giants didn’t get the message that football games are 60 minutes long, though. They (barely) hung with Eagles for the first half, but by a few minutes into the third quarter you could stick a fork in them, on both sides of the ball. What did we learn (that we didn’t already at least suspect)?

NFL defenses know they can blatantly disrespect the Giants’ passing game

For a while this season, it appeared that the Giants’ offense, with improvements on the offensive line and a new weapon in Malik Nabers, could finally become a force. It wasn’t exactly explosive in Washington and Cleveland, but the Giants both passed and ran the ball well enough to imagine that better things were in store. Then, after a strange Dallas game in which the Giants moved the ball but couldn’t get to the end zone, the offense broke out against a good defense in Seattle and it seemed as if the Giants were at a turning point in the season.

Well, they were, but not in the hoped-for direction. Last week a poor Cincinnati defense brought their safeties way down and dared the Giants to beat them over the top…which they couldn’t Daniel Jones only attempted eight throws (out of 34) past 10 yards and only completed 2, with one interception. Sunday the Eagles didn’t play their safeties quite as shallow, but the result was similar: Jones only attempted five passes past 10 yards, and only one past 20 yards (that one a free play after a flag was thrown on the Eagles). By comparison, Tyrod Taylor attempted 19 passes beyond 10 yards in two games against the Eagles last season (the first of which he only played in the second half), and completed 10.

Daniel Jones didn’t appear to do anything especially wrong today. He was under pressure on almost half his dropbacks and often barely had time to identify his first read, much less a second read. It wasn’t the offensive line’s best game to say the least. Still, it is clear that opposing defenses don’t expect him to throw even to the intermediate depths, much less go deep, and so the offense for the second week in a row was mostly non-existent, even with Malik Nabers returning.

Brian Daboll needs to balance the offense between passing and rushing

Daboll loves the passing game. He had a quarterback in Buffalo who could make a coach love the passing game. But a couple of things argue against him doing that with the Giants:

• Daniel Jones is not Josh Allen.
• The league’s defenses have adjusted to the pass-happy last decade by making it harder to beat teams with the pass (thanks, Vic Fangio) and so you have to establish the run.

It’s not easy to do that with the Giants, because their offensive line is not as good at run blocking as pass blocking. Still, you have to try. The Giants only rushed 13 times today (other than Jones keepers or scrambles) while dropping back to pass 40 times (30 while Jones was in the game, and many of these while the outcome was still in doubt). For the season up until today, the Giants are 6th in the league in passing attempts with 220, per Pro Football Reference, while having only 164 rushing attempts. The top four NFL offenses’ splits are as follows: Baltimore, 177 passing vs. 209 rushing attempts; San Francisco, 185 vs. 188; Green Bay, 180 vs. 198; Washington, 169 vs. 186. All four of those teams have respected quarterbacks, yet they run more than they pass.

Drops, drops, and more drops

It’s been a problem all season. Sunday, Wan’Dale Robinson dropped a key third-down pass that Jones delivered right into his breadbox. Robinson did catch six of the other eight passes that came his way, but he’s been making drops at key times all season, and your move-the-chains guy just can’t do that. Darius Slayton dropped a potential first-down pass that admittedly was a little behind him, but still it’s the type of thing a great receiver should hold onto. We even saw a deep throw to Jalin Hyatt late in the game, and of course Hyatt could not come down with it.

Basically Malik Nabers is the only Giant who seems to be able to make difficult catches, and of course even he had a key drop led to Washington’s game-winning drive in Week 2. Whatever Daniel Jones’ shortcomings are, he’s not getting help from his receivers.

Pro Football Focus has the Giants’ receivers with 17 drops through seven games. Compare that to the Eagles’ four drops in six games, the Commanders’ four drops in seven games, and the Cowboys’ seven in six games.

The Giants, other than Daniel Jones, rushed only three times in the first half when the game was still competitive. The Eagles, who have a formidable pass rush, could just pin back their ears against Jones, who usually lines up in the shotgun. The result was not pretty, with the Eagles getting 7 sacks, and Jones did well to avoid a few others. Running the ball to counter the opponent’s aggressiveness is the way to cool that down.

The Giants’ run defense failed at key moments

The Giants’ pass rush continues to be ferocious, sacking Jalen Hurts five times today and pressuring him 11 other times. Hurts passed for only 114 yards on the day, much of that on the 41-yard TD pass to A.J. Brown right after Cor’Dale Flott left with a groin injury. (What is it with these players’ groins?) Overall the secondary played well. Hurts didn’t look much better than Jones.

The run defense was another story. Give credit to Saquon Barkley. You knew he wanted to shine today, and you knew the Eagles would lean on him to win the game. The GIants do have some good run defenders: Dexter Lawrence, Bobby Okereke, Micah McFadden, Dru Phillips, and increasingly, Tyler Nubin. Unfortunately they have some holes in run defense as well that Barkley was able to exploit. Barkley’s first big run of the game, 55 yards around left end on the Eagles’ first TD drive, was made possible because Azeez Ojulari, a notoriously bad run defender, did not set the edge. A third quarter Barkley run off right guard for 38 yards on the drive that put the Eagles up 21-3 took place with Dexter Lawrence off the field for a breather, and opponents know the D is vulnerable when that happens.