To answer the question in the title: Not many. The New York Giants were actually ahead of the Atlanta Falcons 7-3 for a few minutes in the second quarter, they had the ball and were about to cross midfield and potentially go up 10-3 or even 14-3. Then Drew Lock wasn’t able to read the coverage, Jessie Bates intercepted him and ran it in for a score and a 10-7 Falcons lead, and things just went downhill from there. You know things are bad when the pick-6 wasn’t even the only one in the game, and it wasn’t the worse of the two. Not only that, were it not for Kyle Pitts fumbling a pass he should have caught and scored on and allowing Cor’Dale Flott to intercept it at the goal line, the final score could have been even worse.

So let’s see who the guilty parties were in the eyes of Pro Football Focus and who was at the scene of the crime.

Offense

PFF grades

Courtesy of Pro Football Focus

• Props to Chris Manhertz (84.1), who got the only elite grade on either side of the ball for the Giants. Daniel Bellinger (57.5) was only OK – his terrible 10.4 pass block grade was on only one pass blocking play, on which he gave up a sack.
• The game can be summed up neatly by the fact that when your starting quarterback, Drew Lock, has the absolute lowest grade on the offensive side of the ball (38.6), you’re probably not going to win the game.
• Malik Nabers, despite two more penalties, played well overall (75.6). Wan’Dale Robinson played fairly well also (66.4), while Jalin Hyatt (56.3) and Darius Slayton (51.5) are the forgotten members of the receiving corps. For Hyatt it’s been that way all season after he showed some promise as a deep threat as a rookie. For Slayton this is a recent occurrence: After being targeted 23 times in the Seattle and Cincinnati games, he has seen the ball come his way only three times in the past two weeks combined.
• Tyrone Tracy (63.8) was just average overall, but that was the net result of an 89.7 receiving grade on his beautiful, leaping, toe-tapping TD reception at the back of the end zone combined with an awful 9.3 pass blocking grade that came from the QB hit and two pressures he surrendered. Devin Singletary (63.4) and Eric Gray (53.0) were nothing special.
• The offensive line overall was mediocre, despite the disastrous complete breakdown of the right side of the line on the second pick-six:

Courtesy of Pro Football Focus

If we’re looking for a flower blooming in the desert from yesterday, John Michael Schmitz (57.2 overall) had an 85.0 pass blocking grade on 44 pass blocking snaps, by far the highest of his two-year Giants career. JMS did have two penalties, but one at least seemed questionable. After pass block grades in the 30s and 40s 4 times in his first seven games, he’s only had one terrible pass blocking game since (the Tampa Bay rout). His run blocking has been solid if not great most of the time.

Elsewhere on the line, UDFA Jake Kubas, in his first NFL start, played all right (67.2). He was above average run blocking (76.7) but poor in pass blocking (39.1), though he only gave up one hurry. (If a blocker gets beaten on a play but it doesn’t affect the outcome, e.g., if the QB got the ball out before he was pressured, PFF still scores that as a fail by the blocker.). Greg Van Roten (53.5) had a rough day with a sack and three hurries, though overall his blocking scores were only a little below average; the impression watching the game is magnified by his whiff on Zach Harrison that caused the second pick-six. Speaking of which, Evan Neal (50.6), who whiffed on Arnold Ebiketie on the same play, had a poor pass block grade of 37.2 and two hurries, but another good run block grade of 72.5. Jermaine Eluemunor (61.9) did give up a sack but overall had a good 75.2 pass block grade.

Snap counts

• Drew Lock and the starting offensive line once again played the entire game, with Josh Ezeudu getting a couple of snaps in jumbo packages.
• The Giants played mostly 11 personnel, with Wan’Dale Robinson, Malik Nabers, and Darius Slayton all being on the field for at least 50 of the 59 offensive plays and Jalin Hyatt getting 12 snaps. Brian Daboll called 44 pass plays to only 14 run plays…but without a good QB it was all for naught.
• The flip side of that is that there was only one TE on the field most of the time, usually Daniel Bellinger, with Chris Manhertz and to a lesser extent Greg Dulcich sometimes replacing him.
• Tyrone Tracy, Devin Singletary, and Eric Gray saw the field in that order of occurrence.

Defense

PFF grades

Courtesy of Pro Football Focus

• It says a lot about the team’s health that the only defensive players who graded above average were either bench players (Tomon Fox, 76.2), practice squad elevations (Boogie Basham, 76.9), or practice squad players who had to be signed to the 53-man roster after three elevations (Ty Summers, 75.6).
• Among players who are supposed to be keys to the defense, Kayvon Thibodeaux had one of his better games of the season (68.2), with a hit and two hurries, while Brian Burns, who was questionable with an ankle injury, had a poor 33.0 overall grade, seemingly due to a short pass reception he gave up that became a 15-yard gain plus his failure to get any pressures on Michael Penix Jr.
• The patchwork defensive line did get Rakeem Nunez-Roches (47.3 with one hurry) back, but the best player was Elijah Garcia (69.1). The sad state of the defensive line overall is reflected by the fact that four of the five worst Giants grades on defense were linemen: Cory Durden (38.8), Elijah Chatman (29.0), and Jordon Riley (28.2), in addition to Nacho.
• Micah McFadden only had an average game (62.9 with a hurry, three tackles, and an assist), but in addition to Summers’ 75.6 grade, Darius Muasau graded 63.1, with a hit, a hurry, eight solo tackles (six of them stops) and three assists, his second pretty good game in a row as a starter. If I’m Joe Schoen’s “attorney” pleading for a stay of execution to John Mara and Steve Tisch, my Exhibit A is that he may have hit on all six of his draft picks this year after committing criminal negligence in his first two drafts. If your sixth-round pick can be a useful backup, in addition to getting one elite player and four starters from the first five rounds, that’s very good.
• The secondary was a mixed bag. The highest grades went to another practice squad elevation, Raheem Layne (67.9), who was not targeted but had three tackles, one of them a stop; and Deonte Banks (67.3). Banks was visible for the wrong reason when he committed DPI to give up a big gain, but on the bright side, at least he stayed with his man and tried to make a play on the ball. Overall, he only gave up one completion in four targets for 19 yards and a 46.9 passer rating. Baby steps, but perhaps progress. Dane Belton (67.6) also had a pretty good game, with one completion for 5 yards in three targets plus four tackles andtwo assists. Adoree’ Jackson graded 64.0 but gave up two receptions for 41 yards in three targets. Jason Pinnock (62.4) bounced back from a poor game last week with seven tackles and an assist but two receptions allowed in three targets for 24 yards. Dru Phillips (50.1) returned to the lineup with four tackles, three assists, but he gave up four receptions in five targets for 23 yards. Cor’Dale Flott was not good overall (49.9 with four targets in four receptions for 43 yards), but he did have three tackles and an assist and that rarest of Giants’ sightings, an interception.

Snap counts

• Darius Muasau played almost every snap, but Micah McFadden left with a burner midway through the game and was replaced by Ty Summers.
• In the secondary, Dru Phillips played almost every snap in his return to the lineup, and then in decreasing order, Adoree’ Jackson, and then Deonte Banks and Cor’Dale Flott (each with 41 snaps). At safety, Dane Belton and Jason Pinnock played most of the snaps, but Raheem Layne got in for 22 snaps as well.
• On the edge, Brian Burns and Kayvon Thibodeaux each played two-thirds of the snaps, with Tomon Fox and Boogie Basham getting the rest.
• Rakeem Nunez-Roches, Elijah Chatman, and Jordon Riley played about half the snaps in the interior, with Cory Durden and Elijah Garcia splitting the rest.