Is there such a thing as an important game against a team from the other conference in Week 7 of the NFL season? The New York Giants’ road trip to face the Denver Broncos turned into that during the week. Suddenly, the downtrodden (by their own play) Giants had become a “thing” with their convincing victory over Philadelphia on a national stage, both because of their excellent play in that game and the “aura” developing around the Giants’ two confident (brash?) rookies, Jaxson Dart and Cam Skattebo. Maybe Abdul Carter a bit, too. Suddenly, Broncos players were making snippy comments to the press, inciting a war of words between Giants and Broncos fans on social media. Even the Denver press was getting into the act.
In truth, this game against a good opponent would be a referendum on whether the Giants have actually taken a step toward relevance, or whether previous wins over the Chargers and Eagles were just fools’ gold. So what did we learn from the Giants’ 33-32 loss to the Broncos?
No team loses more often because it doesn’t value the kicking position than the Giants
Some teams actually use draft picks on kickers. Others make sure they have a capable backup kicker in place in the event that the starter gets injured. The Giants, though, are always figuring it out on the fly. There was a time when Graham Gano was one of the best kickers in the NFL. Now, for the third season in a row, he can’t stay healthy. How bad must Younghoe Koo be at this point in his career that he won the competition over Jude McAtamney? McAtamney missed an extra point last week but it didn’t matter because the Giants won easily. Today he missed two more, costing the Giants the game. This would seem to be the end of McAtamney’s time as a Giant.
Playing not to lose usually causes you to lose
Some teams can run down the clock with a lead because they have a punishing, dominant run-blocking offensive line. That is not the Giants. The offensive line has run-blocked better this year, but against a stout defensive line like Denver’s, you can’t assume they will just run out the clock for you. True to their nature, though, when the Giants got the ball back ahead 26-16 with 5:13 on the clock, they ran Cam Skattebo twice up the middle for a total of 5 yards, forcing Denver to use its first two timeouts. I get it as strategy, but the best strategy is just to keep the ball until the clock runs out. Dart finally passed on third down when Denver knew he had to and was intercepted, leading to a TD that narrowed the margin to 26-23.
The next time the Giants got the ball back, they ran again on first and second down, getting a total of only 2 yards, and Dart was long on a pass to Wan’Dale Robinson on third down. Denver got the ball back at their 32 with 2:42 left. Bo Nix promptly drove the Broncos for the touchdown that gave them their first lead on a drive that took less than a minute off the clock.
The Giants were fortunate to get a questionable pass interference call that helped temporarily gave them the lead back after a 1-yard keeper by Dart, but they never should have been in that position in the first place. Play to win.
Pass coverage is still the Giants’ Achilles heel
Yes, the Giants lost both of their big free agent signings, Paulson Adebo and Jevon Holland, to injury during this game. To be honest, though, neither one has been all that much of an impact player so far this season. It seemed today that Adebo was getting picked on a bit. Of more concern is Dru Phillips, who was picked on relentlessly by Nix. The most important came on third down with a little more than two minutes left, when Nix completed a 32-yarder to Marvin Mims Jr. with Phillips in coverage. That set up Denver’s go-ahead touchdown three plays later. In Phillips’ defense, he had nine solo tackles today…but some of those were on receivers who’d caught passes on his coverage.
The Giants do have a couple of defensive backs who are playing well. Cor’Dale Flott had an excellent game last week against the Eagles and it seemed that he played well today, with two passes defensed. Dane Belton had 6 tackles and 4 assists in relief of Holland. Still, if I am an NFL offensive coordinator, I’m not worried much about the Giants’ secondary.
Look on the bright side of life: The offensive line
Coming into this game, all I heard about was the fearsome Denver pass rush, and most notably edge defender Nik Bonitto, who led the NFL with eight sacks coming into the game. He left the game still with eight sacks. Giants left tackle Andrew Thomas handled Bonitto with ease – so much so that Broncos’ defensive coordinator Vance Joseph, who to this point had almost exclusively lined Bonitto up on the right side of the defense, switched Bonitto to the other side in the middle of the game because Bonitto was getting nowhere against Thomas. Denver did manage to sack Jaxson Dart four times on Sunday, but Bonitto had none of them.
See More:
