It was great seeing the best high school football players in New Jersey slugging it out for the championship of their NJSIAA group at MetLife Stadium on Sunday. Most of these players will never see the NFL, so the chance to play in front of a big crowd at an NFL stadium must have been the thrill of a lifetime.

Oh, that was last week? What was the game played at MetLife today? Really, it was an NFL game? Who were all those players?

The uniforms said it was the New York Giants vs. the New Orleans Saints, but many of the names were unfamiliar, in particular the ones wearing blue. Both teams have been ravaged by injuries. You wouldn’t have expected a classic game…and you would have been right. The two offenses put on an Alphonse and Gaston show – “you score, no sir, please, you score…” – worthy of the banner flying from the plane that flew over MetLife, evoking the mood of 1978.

That said, did we learn anything from the Giants’ 14-11 loss to the Saints?

There’s a reason Drew Lock is not an NFL starting QB

Lock started two games for the Seattle Seahawks last year. In the first he went 22 of 31 for 269 yards, two TDs, and twoINTs in a loss to a San Francisco team that almost won the Super Bowl. The following week he went 22 of 33 for 208 yards and a TD… at the end of a game-winning drive against Philadelphia. As a sophomore starter in Denver he threw for 2,933 yards and 16 TDs – not starting caliber, but surely good enough to be a backup quarterback. He even looked OK starting for the Giants against Dallas, getting them to within a touchdown of being able to tie the game late in the fourth quarter.

That Drew Lock was nowhere to be seen today. He looked flustered from the opening snap, was inaccurate on most of his passes (21 of 49 with and interception), and made multiple poor decisions, none more blatant than when he took off scrambling on third down, had a lane in front of him to get the first down, and inexplicably veered right after a few yards, right into a cluster of defenders.

The Giants really miss Andrew Thomas

Yes, Daniel Jones was not the answer. Yes, Lock and Tommy DeVito aren’t, either. And yes, I realize that correlation is not causation. But consider this:

2023: Andrew Thomas gets injured in the first quarter of the first game. The Giants go 2-8 in their first 10 games, with Thomas out most of that time and getting mostly limited snaps when he did return. In Game 11 he returns full time, and over the rest of the season, the Giants go 4-3, with victories over two playoff teams, Green Bay and Philadephia.

Giants fans attribute that mostly to Tyrod Taylor and Tommy DeVito playing better than Jones. Also, Evan Neal was injured and was replaced by Tyre Phillips during that time. It’s a multi-variable problem, but Andrew Thomas’ absence has to be part of the explanation.

2024: The Giants start 2-3, with an impressive performance in Seattle in which the passing game looks NFL-caliber. In the fourth quarter of the Cincinnati game the next week, with the outcome still in doubt, Thomas is injured again and lost for the season. The Giants are 0-8 since then. To be honest, the tackle situation hasn’t been as bad with him out this time as it was last year. Jermaine Eluemunor moved over from the right side and was fine, until he got hurt, too. Chris Hubbard replaced him and was a disaster and was finally replaced by Josh Ezeudu…who actually played pretty well this week (ignoring that false start in the final minute).

Still, you could see today how little confidence Drew Lock had in his pass protection, bailing at the first sign of pressure. Some of that was due to interior pressure, some of it was from Evan Neal’s side. It’s not clear how many deeper pass routes are even first reads in this offense. Malik Nabers, e.g., only ran two routes today beyond 20 yards and Lock only threw six balls beyond 20 yards out of his 49 attempts, according to Next Gen Stats. Even going back to the Carolina game, the one time Daboll dialed up a deep shot was a flea-flicker… and Jones couldn’t get the ball out anyway.

Whether Ezeudu or Phillips is the answer at backup tackle, nothing is better on the Giants offense than when Thomas is anchoring that left side. No matter who the QB is.

Tre Hawkins exists

Remember 2023 Giants training camp? It seemed as if Joe Schoen had rebuilt the Giants’ secondary in one draft, with Tae Banks settling in nicely as the new CB1 and Tre Hawkins III, a sixth round pick, making a surprise highly competitive showing. He played well enough that Wink Martindale decided to move Adoree’ Jackson into the slot and start Hawkins at CB2. Then the real games started, Hawkins gave up 21 receptions in 26 targets for 330 yards (126 YAC) and three TDs, and only one pass breakup, and he wound up on the bench.

Hawkins seemed on the road to oblivion this season, playing in only one previous game (the blowout loss to the Eagles). Necessity is the mother of invention, though, and with Tae Banks and Dru Phillips sidelined with injuries, Shane Bowen had to mix and match with his cornerbacks, and Hawkins had his first start of the season.

He did not disappoint. Hawkins was competitive at the catchpoint, something rarely said of Giants’ CBs this season. He gave up three completions in six targets for only 30 yards, only 3 yards after catch and a 25.0 passer rating. Most importantly, he had one pass defensed and the Giants’ secondary’s first interception of the season, in Game 13. Granted, it wasn’t Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed out there for New Orleans today, but still, it was promising for a cornerback room that will take all the help it can get. Of course, this is the Giants…Hawkins was shaken up and walked off the field in the fourth quarter.

The interior defensive line wasn’t awful

No Dexter Lawrence, no Rakeem Nunez-Roches, no D.J. Davidson today on an interior defensive line that wasn’t all that great when they were out there. Instead, it was Elijah Chatman, Jordon Riley, Elijah Garcia, Cory Durden, and Casey Rogers. Oof.

It wasn’t terrible, though. The Saints finished with 92 yards rushing on 33 caries, a 2.8 yards per carry average. The Saints’ longest run of the day was 16 yards. Derek Carr was OK, 20-of-31 for 219 yards and 1 TD, but not great – he’s exceeded that five times this season.

The Giants did not lose this game because they couldn’t stop the Saints’ offense. They lost it because Drew Lock couldn’t move the offense through the air.

Malik Nabers is a trooper

Nabers didn’t have a spectacular game. He caught 5 passes in 10 targets for only 79 yards and did not have a touchdown. But this guy is a gamer. We all know he is playing through injuries, but he was out there competing and breathing life into that moribund offense, especially in the fourth quarter when the game was on the line.

Maybe the Giants will ultimately regret not taking a quarterback with the No. 6 pick this year. If/when they do become a contender, though, Nabers will be one of the big reasons why. He deserved a win today.