Let’s see who earned them
The New York Giants suffered their seventh consecutive defeat on Thursday, losing to the Dallas Cowboys, 27-20. The Giants are now 2-10 and have gone 1-6 in one-score games.
But, hey, it was a victory of sorts. At least this week, unlike after Sunday’s debacle against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the ‘Kudos & Wet Willies’ will actually include some ‘Kudos’.
Let’s get to it.
Kudos to …
Cor’Dale Flott — Flott gave up a 36-yard reception in the third quarter, but otherwise played well. He gave up just three completions in seven targets and had a pair of passes defensed. Flott did not miss any tackles, which was notable as the Giants missed 10 overall. Maybe now defensive coordinator Shane Bowen will stop taking Flott off the field in obvious third-down passing situations.
Tyler Nubin — The rookie safety had a team-leading 12 tackles and a pass defensed. Nubin made a terrific play to help the Giants stop a fourth-and-1 try by Dallas from their own 44-yard line. The Giants, unfortunately, could not capitalize by getting points but that doesn’t take away from the play.
Art Green — The backup cornerback made two terrific special teams plays in the first half as a punt gunner. Green made a big hit on punt returner KaVontae Turpin. Green also downed a Jamie Gillan punt inside the 1-yard line.
Graham Gano — The veteran kicker made both of his field-goal attempts, hitting from 46 and 47 yards.
Theo Johnson — The rookie tight end had five catches on five targets, all in the second half. Johnson was running through tackles and delivering punishment as he finished with 54 receiving yards.
Tyrone Tracy — The rookie running back did not start after fumbling in key situations in each of the last two games. He played well, though, when he got his opportunity. Tracy had nine carries for 32 yards, and had a 14-yard run negated by penalty. He had two catches for 33 yards, and also had a 14-yard reception negated by another penalty.
Jamie Gillan — The punter averaged 45.6 yards on five punts, with two downed inside the 20-yard line. He actually averaged more net yards — 46.2 — than yards per punt, mostly because of Green. I am sure that has happened before, but it might be the first time I have been aware of that taking place.
Wet Willies to …
Kayvon Thibodeaux — Three penalties, two offside penalties and a roughing the passer call. He might have had a fourth, except that Elijah Chatman got called for offside before Thibodeaux did. Two quarterback hits and one assist on a tackle don’t make up for that.
Eric Gray — Another kickoff return, another fumble for Gray. That’s his third fumble this season on just 28 touches. That’s not acceptable. The Giants took punt and kickoff returns away from Gray a season ago because of ball security issues. Yet, here we are again. It’s hard to understand.
Run defense — In putting this here it has to be acknowledged that during the game the Giants lost defensive linemen Dexter Lawrence, D.J. Davidson and Rakeem Nunez-Roches to injury during the game. But, Rico Dowdle had eight carries for 50 yards (6.3 per attempt) in the first half and finished with 22 carries for 112 yards, his first career 100-yard rushing game. As usual, the run defense wasn’t good enough.
Execution/technique/discipline … whatever you want to call it — The Giants had 13 accepted penalties. The Cowboys declined two others. Two of those came on third downs that should have resulted in punts. Four defensive penalties gave Dallas first downs. The Giants committed offensive penalties that negated two 14-yard gains by Tyrone Tracy and a 29-yard pass to Malik Nabers.
The Giants missed 10 tackles, according to early stats from Pro Football Focus. They had two turnovers. They dropped three passes.
The Giants played hard. But, it is hard to argue they played well.
Pass protection — With Andrew Thomas somewhere recovering from Lisfranc surgery and Jermaine Eluemunor back in New Jersey because of his injured quad, the Giants had no chance to slow the Dallas pass rush.
Drew Lock was sacked six times. He was hit 14 times and Pro Football Focus said he was under pressure on 47.6% of his dropbacks.
Left tackle Chris Hubbard gave up seven pressures. Right tackle Evan Neal gave up a sack and three pressures while usually matched up with Micah Parsons. Left guard Jon Runyan Jr. gave up a sack and had the lowest pass-blocking grade of any Giant lineman (41.5) in preliminary PFF grading.
The Giants’ offensive line was adequate when it was healthy. Now that it’s not, the line is a mess.
Kwillies to …
Malik Nabers — A week after complaining that he didn’t get involved in the game early enough, Nabers had eight catches on 13 targets for 69 yards. The numbers look OK but there weren’t any huge impact plays — though he did have a 29-yard reception negated by penalty. This one is a borderline ‘Kudos’, but I decided to leave it here.
Drew Lock — I debated making this a ‘Kudos’, but couldn’t justify that with Lock having ended up with a pair of turnovers — an unfortunate Pick 6 and a lost fumble at the start of the third quarter.
I thought Lock did as well as he could considering that he only found out Wednesday that he would start, and that he hasn’t had a real practice with the first-team offense in months. It was obvious the timing between Lock and the receivers wasn’t great.
Lock, though, competed. He took six sacks and was hit 14 times as the pass protection did not hold up, but he ran for a touchdown, and almost ran for a second one. He finished 21 of 32 for 178 yards with an interception and ran four times for 57 yards (14.3 yards per carry).
Adoree’ Jackson — The veteran cornerback started in place of Deonte Banks, and had an interesting game. He competed hard, ending up giving up six receptions in 10 targets. He finished with seven tackles and a pass defensed. Jackson, though, had a missed tackle that led to a big gain, a defensive pass interference on third down that resulted in a first down and a dropped interception that would been the Giants’ first since Week 1.
