Giants-Saints highlights: 5 plays that made difference as Gaints lose again

Plays that changed the Giants’ eighth straight loss

The New York Giants lost their eighth game in a row on Sunday,falling 14-11 at home to the New Orleans Saints. The Giants’ defense was respectable, but the Drew Lock-led offense significantly struggled for much of the game, which poses questions about Joe Schoen’s plans at quarterback when the 2024 season commenced.

The Giants entered this season with Daniel Jones, Drew Lock, and Tommy DeVito as their quarterback room. Jones, who was recovering from a torn ACL, performed poorly in 2023 before his injury. Lock was presumably the necessary quarterback insurance behind Jones — the de facto No. 2 quarterback.

However, after the Giants’ season unraveled, their brass leapfrogged Lock and started DeVito against the Buccaneers, which ended poorly. DeVito hurt his wrist, and Lock started on Thanksgiving and remained the starter even with a healthy DeVito. The vacillation between the two quarterbacks, who were both mediocre at best, is indicative of grave mismanagement by the Giants’ front office regarding the quarterback position.

Joe Schoen failed to add a competent quarterback to challenge Daniel Jones or to start if Jones struggled, resulting in yet another unwatchable offensive effort by the Giants, which has become synonymous with Brian Daboll through three different quarterbacks this season. Lock failed to complete a pass until the second quarter — he was 0 of 8. What makes this maddening? I’m still not convinced DeVito is a better option.

The general manager failed to bolster the quarterback room. The coach — who relieved the offensive coordinator of play calling — has an unwatchable offense. Giant fans deserve better than this debacle. Even though the game almost went to overtime, this was yet another embarrassing loss for the Giants. Here are the five plays, or five sequence of plays, that led to the loss:

Play(s) 1: Almost forced OT

The Giants somehow forced overtime after the offense looked lifeless for much of the game. Derek Carr suffered an injury late in the game, and the defense forced a three-and-out against backup quarterback Jake Haener after Lock’s fourth-quarter interception. New York used the hurry-up offense, and Lock led a 10-play, 56-yard drive in just more than a minute.

Two explosive plays: a 25-yard scramble by Lock and a 23-yard catch and run by Malik Nabers, put Graham Gano and the Giants into field goal range. Gano attempted a 35-yard field goal that would send the game to overtime, but Saints’ defensive lineman Bryan Bresee had other ideas:

Play(s) 2: Back-to-back TE plays

The Giants were within striking distance toward the end of the third quarter. The score was 7-3 despite the Saints earning 150 more offensive yards until that point (253 to 103 yards). After a third-and-one Kendre Miller conversion, Derek Carr found Foster Moreau for a 32-yard one-handed grab:

On the next play, Carr found tight end Juwaan Johnson for an 11-yard touchdown strike:

The Giants left Johnson wide open as Jason Pinnock (27) communicated with Micah McFadden (41) pre-snap. It appears like Johnson was Pinnock’s assignment against the Saints empty formation. New Orleans took a 14-3 lead as the third quarter neared an end.

Play 3: Tre Hawkins III interception

Is it snowing?! The Giants record their second interception of the season; their first was a Darius Muasau interception in Week 1 against Minnesota. This Tre Hawkins III pick ended the longest interception drought by any team since 1933, when the league began recording statistics.

Hawkins did well to position himself and high-point the under-thrown pass. Fashionably, the Giants’ offense failed to pick up a first down and the Saints took over at the New Orleans 31-yard line after Jamie Gillan’s seventh punt of the game.

Play(s) 4: Inept offense

The Giants started FOUR first-half drives at their own 49-yard line or better. Field position was on their side throughout the first half, as the beat-up defense consistently played well. The Giants managed just three points on those four drives. This is the second week in a row where New York’s offense did little with great field position.

For the second week in a row, the Giants were heavily penalized. They committed 11 penalties for 107 yards against the Saints; the committed 13 penalties for 98 yards last week against the Cowboys. One was of massive consequence in Week 14:

Ihmir Smith-Marsette took a punt to the house that was called back on a rather innocuous holding call against Greg Stroman Jr. Still, undisciplined teams commit penalties, and the Giants have struggled to maintain discipline for much of the 2024 season.

Play(s) 5: Home touchdown!

Home touchdowns are hard to come by; Tyrone Tracy Jr. concluded a 13-play, 82-yard drive with a one-yard touchdown rush that barely broke the plane. This brought the score to 14-9 with 4:11 left in the game. Daboll and the Giants decided to go for two when this whacky play materialized:

The Giants move the pocket and Lock attempts to find Nabers across the grain, but the ball is tipped into the air. Nabers does a fantastic job locating the pass and securing it for two points to give the Giants a shot to somehow steal a victory late in the fourth quarter if the defense came up with a stop:

A stop is precisely what the defense came up with, as Micah McFadden earned a tackle for a loss to force the punt. Unfortunately, after a delay of game, the Giants found themselves in a third-and-9 and then a fourth-and-9 that ended in a Demario Davis interception.