Runyan knows that giving up “eight sacks is unaccpetable”
Jon Runyan doesn’t make the lineup decisions, but it sounds like the veteran guard is expecting Josh Ezeudu to continue at left tackle Monday night for the New York Giants when they face the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“I don’t anticipate any new changes,” Runyan said via Zoom on Wednesday. “I think going out there for your first start of the year, first or second drive, having one blunder doesn’t mean the season’s over for anybody.
“Going forward, we feel really comfortable with Josh (Ezeudu) out there. He did really well once he settled in after one of those drives.”
After giving up drive-ending sacks on two of the Giants’ first three possessions Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles, Ezeudu was charged with only one more pressure allowed during the game.
Ezeudu is subbing for Andrew Thomas, lost for the season following surgery for a Lisfranc injury.
The Giants surrendered eight sacks as a team after allowing only 14 in the team’s first six games.
“Eight sacks is unacceptable and we know that as an offensive line,” Runyan said. “Definitely a lot of things we could do better and make Daniel (Jones) feel more comfortable back there and instill more confidence in our play callers. Not have to feel like we have to throw the ball so much and we can hand the ball off and gain three, four yards per carry.
“I feel like we held up relatively well later on in the game. But, at that point it’s too late and we just got to start out the game way better than we did. I think it kind of rattled our quarterback which is our fault, not his fault at all, and the play calling which again I feel like goes back on us.”
Runyan said being without Thomas wasn’t the sole problem.
“I think just the way the game that was going early, we had some trouble with protection, and I think that kind of hurt us in our pass game,” Runyan said. “From our perspective as an offensive lineman, I think it didn’t help our quarterback. Him being down on the ground that many times in the first, second quarter is not really what he’s used to so far this year. I think there’s a lot of blame to put on us as the front five up there early on. Eventually we did settle later on, probably late second quarter. But, at that point it felt like the game started to slip too much.
“Giving up eight sacks, you’re not going to win many games giving up eight sacks in this league. We understand that and we own that as offensive line. We got to work to be better, for sure. That’s unacceptable in our offensive line room.”
