For the New York Giants, every week seems to be a referendum on the entire season, the roster, the coaching staff, the general manager, and even the owners. Fans were despondent after two losses to open the season. One surprising win in Cleveland later, there was hope…which was extinguished four days later when the Giants lost to Dallas without scoring a single touchdown. All seemed lost when the Giants had to travel to Seattle without their star rookie receiver and face a team that had beaten them handily each of the past two years. Then they gave their best effort of the season and won, against all expectations.

Tonight they returned home to face:

• a bad team with no defense and a 1-4 record that they should beat? Or
• a dangerous team with a top 5 quarterback and top 5 wide receiver that was just waiting to get their season on track?

What then did we learn from their 17-7 loss to a Cincinnati Bengals team that looked like neither of those?

Bad MetLife Daniel Jones showed up again

Watching on TV, I couldn’t hear any boos until halftime. And give Jones credit for being a tough sonofagun, rushing 11 times for 56 yards and taking a lot of punishment in the process. But Jones was terrible in the passing game. With Cincinnati up 7-0, he drove the Giants deep into Bengals territory. Then, pressured up the middle by ex-Giant B.J. Hill, Jones tried to pass on first down in the red zone while backpedaling instead of taking the sack, his arm was tipped, and the ball was intercepted. He did a similar thing a few weeks ago in Cleveland, but that time Malik Nabers saved him by breaking up the potential interception.

It’s the type of thing we’ve seen all too often from Jones, but it wasn’t the only problem. Jones was inaccurate on too many of his passes, not just a couple of deep shots that he overthrew, but tight window shorter throws as well. On a key fourth down pass he was a bit late on a timing route, allowing Cincinnati’s Mike Hilton to break it up. Several times he seemed to force passes to his first read when someone else was open.

All of this against one of the worst defenses in the NFL.

It wasn’t all Jones’ fault, though…

The offensive line had one of its worst games of the season

Jones faced probably the most pressure he’s seen since the Cleveland game. Formally, he was only pressured 12 times and sacked two times, which isn’t awful, but it would have been more than that if he hadn’t been adept at scrambling. Bengals defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo was often able to create traffic in the backfield, sometimes by blitzing and sometimes with just his front four. That was partly because tackle B.J. Hill was wreaking havoc inside against center John Michael Schmitz while edge defender Trey Hendrickson got the better of Andrew Thomas. Thomas has had an uneven season against several of the league’s best pass rushers; tonight he apparently injured his left foot.

The defense played shallow, daring Jones to throw over the top to beat them (which he couldn’t when he tried except for one 56-yard pass play to Darius Slayton which was called back because Thomas had drifted too far past the line of scrimmage). As a result Jones often couldn’t find anyone to throw to, even when he did have time.

The reports of the defense’s death are greatly exaggerated

When Shane Bowen replaced Wink Martindale as defensive coordinator, there was trepidation among many of us about how effective he could be with what sounded like a less aggressive approach. Things didn’t look good in Game 1 when Sam Darnold completed his first 12 passes, or in Game 2 when Washington managed not to punt once and defeated the Giants with seven drives that ended in field goals.

Since then, though, the defense has mostly played admirably. It held Cleveland, Dallas, and Seattle to 15, 20, and 20 points the past three weeks. Sunday night it mostly frustrated Joe Burrow and held the Bengals to 10 points until the final minute of the game.

Tonight the Giants managed to get a good amount of pressure on Burrow from Azeez Ojulari, who looked like his rookie self, on one side and Brian Burns on the other, sacking him four times (once by Dexter Lawrence). For a good part of the game, Cincinnati’s elite wide receivers JaMarr Chase and Tee Higgins were mostly held in check by good coverage, with Chase often getting bracketed by two defenders. Cincinnati had scored 26, 38, 24, and 41 points in its previous four games.

Tyrone Tracy is becoming THE MAN

When the Giants selected Tracy in the fifth round of the draft, he was seen as a work in progress – a converted wide receiver who had only one year of experience at running back. Last week in Seattle, with Devin Singletary sidelined with injury and Eric Gray going to the doghouse because of a goal line fumble, Tracy got his chance and showed out.

Tonight, now the lead back, Tracy again compiled over 100 yards of offense (50 rushing and 57 receiving). He got some tough yards behind a line that didn’t open big holes, he made defenders miss numerous times, and when he didn’t his contact balance enabled him to make key first downs. He appears to be one of the great values of the 2024 draft.