Giants-Steelers preview: 4 storylines for Week 8

Will the Giants suffer yet another primetime meltdown?

Having missed opportunities in some winnable early-season games, and coming off a disheartening 28-3 blowout loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, the 2-5 New York Giants face a difficult task Monday on the road against the 5-2 Pittsburgh Steelers.

Here are some of this week’s storylines.

Can the Giants score some points?

The Giants have scored only a total of 10 points the past two weeks. Not surprisingly, both games were losses. The Giants average just 14.1 points per game, 30th in 32-team NFL. The Steelers are second in the league in points allowed, giving up just 14.4 per game.

Here are Pittsburgh’s defensive rankings:

Here are the Giants’ offensive rankings:

Daniel Jones will continue to start at quarterback for the Giants because coach Brian Daboll believes “he gives us the best chance” to win.

The giants have sought, but not gotten, explosive plays. They have 13 plays of 20 or more yards, with only three teams having fewer. Jones is just 56 of 22 (22.7%) on throws of 20+ yards past the line of scrimmage. Only two quarterbacks with at least 16 such attempts — Caleb Williams and DeShaun Watson — have been worse.

“We try to put together a really good plan, as good as we can. And then ultimately go out there and operate and execute it and make adjustments as we go,” Daboll said. “That won’t change. We’ll continue to do that. Obviously, the results aren’t what we want them to be. But we’re working hard to fix the things we need to fix to get different results.”

Primetime again

Jones is 1-15 as a starter in primetime games. The Giants are 2-18 in such games since Jones, Dexter Lawrence, and Darius Slayton were drafted in 2019. Yet, here we are with the nation again being subjected to the Giants.

At least this game is on the road, where the Giants are 2-1 this season. They are 0-4 at MetLife Stadium.

Russ is cookin’ again

Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin made a controversial decision in Week 7, replacing quarterback Justin Fields with a finally healthy Russell Wilson despite the Steelers sporting a 4-2 record at the time.

At least in Week 7 that worked out spectacularly for Pittsburgh.

Wilson was 16 of 29 for 269 yards and two touchdowns as the Steelers hit season-highs in points (37), total yards (409) in a 37-15 rout of the New York Jets.

The 36-year-old Wilson is several years removed from his glory days. Still, if he can play at that level or somewhere near it against the Giants it seems unlikely that New York’s anemic offense will be able to keep up.

Who’s at left tackle?

The Giants seem to have realized after Sunday’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles that they were misguided in thinking Josh Ezeudu was an acceptable backup at left tackle for Andrew Thomas.

Daboll waffled on Monday when asked if Ezeudu would continue as the starting left tackle with Thomas out for the season.

“We’ll have that discussion here. We’ve watched the tape. We’re not there yet,” Daboll said. “I thought that early on there was a couple plays in there. One off of a jam and another one that could have been better. I think he settled in. It was his first time playing. So, there’s some things he did better as the game went on and made some improvements. And we’ll see where we’re at here.”

The Giants worked out but did not sign veteran left tackle D.J. Humphries on Tuesday. A 2016 first-round pick, Humphries spent nine years starting at left tackle for the Arizona Cardinals. He was let go after suffering a Week 17 torn ACL last season. Perhaps they didn’t feel Humphries looked healthy enough yet.

So, the Giants are left with a series of unappetizing options. They could leave Ezeudu at left tackle. They could put veteran Chris Hubbard or the forgotten Evan Neal there. They could move Jermaine Eluemunor from right tackle to left tackle and put one of Hubbard, Neal, or Ezeudu on the right side.

This could have been avoided had the Giants not believed without evidence that Ezeudu could do the job at left tackle.