The Internet at large has wanted to throw daggers at New York Giants’ defensive coordinator Shane Bowen for Sunday’s historic collapse against the Denver Broncos, letting the Broncos score all five times they had the ball in the fourth quarter and losing, 33-32.
Bowen, of course, deserves his share of the blame. It is his defensive scheme. As head coach Brian Daboll always says, though, losses are “collective.”
A review of the Giants’ defensive handiwork over the final five Denver possessions, covering the game’s final 17:41, shows a cumulatively catastrophic series of errors by the players on the field.
I went through all of this ugliness thanks to the All-22 film from NFL Pro. This comes a day later than I wanted to do it thanks to the Monday Amazon Web Services outage. I understand if you want to move on rather than take this blow-by-blow ride with me, but if you are willing to go through it with me let’s do it.
A reminder: I do not claim to be able to break down film in the intricate way Nick Falato and Chris Pflum can. I do have some context after listening to Carl Banks break things down on Monday’s ‘Bleav in Giants’ podcast. This, though, is more of a layman’s perspective than a deep dive into how each play should have worked.
We will pick up the action with the Giants leading 19-0 and Denver starting first-and-10 at their own 22-yard line with 2:41 left in the third quarter.
Much of this will be a Dru Phillips and Deonte Banks horror show, just to let you know.
I will highlight the key plays and the ones where there are what I see as mistakes or missed opportunities by the Giants. Here we go:
First-and-10, Denver 22-yard line, 2:41 in Q3: J.K Dobbins runs 9 yards. Tyler Nubin misses a tackle that gives Dobbins an extra 5 yards.
First-and-10, Denver 36, 1:25, Q3: Bo Nix hits Courtland Sutton for 16 yards. Banks is close, but not close enough to make a play.
First-and-10, Giants 48-yard line, :47, Q3: Dobbins runs 32 yards to the Giants’ 16-yard line. Carter misses a tackle in the backfield.
First-and-10, Giants 16-yard line, :07, Q3: Dobbins runs for 2 yards. I only highlight this play because Phillips shot into the backfield and missed a tackle that would have been roughly a 4-yard loss.
Now, we move to the fourth quarter with Denver at the Giants’ 2-yard line.
First-and-goal, Giants 2-yard line, 14:17: Not a bad play, but a missed opportunity at a game-changing one. Roy Robertson-Harris gets both hands on a Nix pass and can’t reel in the interception. On the next play, Denver scores and the 2-point conversion makes it 26-8 with 14:14 to play.
That touchdown by Denver was a 2-yard pass to Troy Franklin. Cor’Dale Flott made a fantastic play at the goal line to deflect the ball. Unfortunately, Banks, seeming to assume he was not involved in the play, was just jogging near Franklin. By the time Banks tried to re-accelerate it was too late.
Theo Johnson’s 41-yard touchdown catch then makes it 26-8. Denver gets the ball back with 10:09 to play.
First-and-10, Denver 26-yard line, 10:09: Dobbins runs 7 yards. To my eyes, it appeared Darius Muasau abandoned his gap and overran the play. Again, though, others know a lot more about responsibilities of defenders than I do.
Let’s fast forward to a crucial fourth-down play.
Fourth-and-3, Giants 44-yard line, 6:38: Dru Phillips commits defensive pass interference on a slant intended for Pat Bryant. It was a clear, drive-extending penalty. Make that stop, the Giants almost certainly win. The shame of it is, even without the penalty I don’t think the pass gets completed.
First-and-10, Giants 40-yard line, 6:35: Nix scrambles for 21 yards after edge defender Victor Dimukeje gives up outside contain.
Second-and-goal, Giants 7-yard line, 5:19: Nix scrambles 7 yards for a touchdown. Kayvon Thibodeaux crashes to the inside, leaving no one to stop Nix once he sidesteps Thibodeaux to the outside.
The 2-point conversion makes it 26-16 with 5:01 to play.
Denver then gets the ball at the Giants’ 19-yard line after the Jaxson Dart interception. Whatever you think of that play, it is not part of the discussion here. This is focused on the defensive lapses.
Third-and-5, Giants 14-yard line, 4:15: Thibodeaux barrels offside, giving Denver first-and-goal at the 9-yard line.
Second-and-goal, Giants 2-yard line, 3:55: Nix hits running back RJ Harvey in the flat for the touchdown. This is a difficult cover for off-ball linebacker Bobby Okereke, and he can’t get to Harvey in time.
The score is now Giants 26, Broncos 23.
Denver gets the ball back with 2:42 remaining, still trailing by 3 points. This was a disastrous drive for the defense.
Third-and-11, Denver 31-yard line, 2:14: Nix hits Marvin Mims for 31 yards with Phillips in coverage. This was a back shoulder throw, and someone else can tell me if Phillips can be faulted or if this was just a great throw.
Second-and-10, Giants 38-yard line, 2:04: Nix hits ex-Giant Evan Engram on a short pass. Phillips ‘ole’s’ his effort to push Engram out of bounds around the 35-yard line, barely swiping at him. Engram runs to the 18-yard line for a 20-yard gain.
You know what comes next.
First-and-10, Giants’ 18-yard line, 1:56: Nix runs 18 yards around left end for a go-ahead touchdown. Banks gives up outside contain by jumping inside. Something Banks pointed out on his show is that Thibodeaux, aligned on that side, gets pinned to the inside by wide receiver Courtland Sutton and can’t help make the play. Getting pinned by a wide receiver with the game on the line is something that simply can’t happen for an edge defender like Thibodeaux.
The Giants then re-take the lead, 32-30, setting the stage for the final :33.
First-and-10, Denver 23-yard line, :33: This is the ‘rush three, drop eight’ play that has Giants Nation ready to make Bowen walk the plank.
First, it is true that Dexter Lawrence and Abdul Carter were not on the field. Why? I’m sure Bowen will be made to answer for that on Thursday when he speaks to the media.
The Giants’ defenders on the field were:
Robertson-Harris, Burns, Thibodeaux, Okereke, Banks, Phillips, Flott, Nic Jones, Dane Belton, Nubin, Beau Brade.
With a three-man rush, Nix has plenty of time. He ends up heaving the ball downfield in Mims’ direction. Unfortunately, Phillips is just jogging alongside Mims, doesn’t appear to recognize the play coming to him, and makes no effort to challenge Mims for the ball or dislodge it from him. He just collects Mims on the ground after a 29-yard catch that put the ball at the giants’ 48-yard line.
Brian Burns offside: I am putting this in a separate category. After the completion to Mims, a hobbled Burns could not traverse the 30 or 35 yards in time to get back onside, resulting in a 5-yard penalty. Why head coach Brian Daboll did not use the timeout he had left to prevent the offside that moved the ball to the 43-yard line, making a field goal attempt from there 61 yards — makeable in today’s NFL — I don’t know.
First-and-5, Giants 43-yard line, :18: Nix finds Sutton for 22 yards, making the game-winning field goal attempt by Wil Lutz a mundane 39 yards. Banks, as we have seen again and again … and again and again in his three seasons, is in great position. He simply has no idea where the football is as it flies over his head and into Sutton’s arms.
On the next play, of course, Lutz made the field goal and the Giants’ epic collapse was complete.
Okereke said on Monday that “it’s better to point the thumb” than to criticize Bowen or other players. Clearly, many Giants defenders need to have pointed the thumb at themselves for Sunday’s disaster.
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