Week 6: Tales from the timeline

A social media-driven look at Sunday’s game

The New York Giants lost at home against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday Night Football. The 17-7 game was competitive until the end, but the Giants’ ineptitude on offense returned after a brief vacation. The Giants failed to create explosive plays, hardly ran the football in the first half, and a catastrophic Daniel Jones mistake transpired in the red zone.

After the game, Brian Daboll regretted the play call with the result. New York has attempted the throwback play in four of five games. Every one of them was a near disaster except last week against Seattle, where Darius Slayton scored a 30-yard touchdown. Still, even with the redundant play call, the quarterback is in year six — it’s inexcusable to make this kind of mistake on a first-and-10 in scoring range.

Daniel Jones did a complete 180 from last week’s win. He threw the ball 41 times and only managed 205 yards. He had a few questionable short-yard passing decisions that went incomplete on third- and fourth-down when the Giants had either a numbers advantage or leverage.

Jones also skipped a first-and-10 under center on a comeback to Darius Slayton, which resulted in an incomplete pass to start the second half. He missed an open Wan’Dale Robinson on third-and-8:

Crosser from No. 2, top of screen

Bottom of screen

The offensive line did struggle in Week 6. Still, Jones’ inability to connect and find solutions, while offering very little with his explosive play ability, hindered the Giants’ efforts, as the defense played well for much of the game.

The Giants operated primarily out of shotgun. Their under-center plays were usually play action or some unique play design (throwback, 13 Personnel deep shot sack, etc.). Their game plan heavily emphasized the RPO (run/pass option). They even executed a true fourth-and-short option play:

The Giants ran one counter out of shotgun that earned 4 yards, a few draws (halfback/quarterback), a BASH run, split-zone out of shotgun/PISTOL, and three successful DUO runs.

The Giants only averaged 3.8 yards per carry, but much of that was Daniel Jones’ designed and scramble runs; he finished with 53 yards on 11 carries. Rookie Tyrone Tracy Jr. only had 50 yards on 17 carries (2.9 YPC). However, I was impressed with Tracy’s ability to earn tough yards and maximize runs. He also tied Slayton as the leading receiver (both finished with six catches for 57 yards).

I also love the physicality and blocking ability of the three Giants’ tight ends. New York only needed 1 yard to score their first home touchdown of the season, which is found below:

Theo Johnson (84) motions toward Chris Manhertz (85) with Daniel Bellinger (82) as the full-back. Manhertz stood up and gained some ground on Myles Murphy, who is 280 pounds. Johnson did his job, and Bellinger took on the linebacker who attempted to fit.

The Giants’ offense had drives of 16, 11, and 10 plays in the second half, and they came away with just seven points. They attempted to play “gut it out” football, but execution failed them when it mattered most.

Lou Anarumo threw a change up at Daniel Jones on three separate third downs:

The Giants haven’t seen much drop-eight this season — it doesn’t happen frequently in the league — but other teams have experienced success.

Giants’ defense

The Bengals were the hottest offense in the league before playing the Giants. They scored 105 points over the previous three games, with at least 30 points each. It was great to see the Giants make Joe Burrow uncomfortable and play sound defensive football for much of the game. Team defense!

Brian Burns was the star of the game for the Giants. He finished with six STOPS, five pressures, and a sack:

Azeez Ojulari started for the injured Kayvon Thibodeaux. He had a huge impact, recording six pressures with a pair of sacks:

Dexter Lawrence received much attention and had a quiet game by his standards. He recorded one pressure and a sack on third down while being dominant as a run defender:

The secondary held Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins in check, as the Giants’ pass rush sacked Burrow four times and pressured him 17 times. Tae Banks built on his impressive performance against D.K. Metcalf in Week 5. Banks and Flott both played well, and here’s a solid speed turn from the second-year cornerback out of Maryland:

The Giants’ defense did enough to win this game. The few times Cincinnati got the best of them were timely and well executed by Joe Burrow and the offense.

The above play was one of the only rushing attempts that the Giants did not keep the continuity of the defense intact.