By Michael Stewart/@golferbad
Introduction: The New York Giants had history against them last night in which they haven’t won at Philadelphia since October of 2013. Despite this the Giants played hard and led the Eagles 21-10 with only 6:17 remaining in the game and then the Giants defense forgot how to play defense and allowed the Eagles to score 12 consecutive points to win a nail biter 22-21. This loss will be a tough one to swallow for many reasons and the Giants record is now at 1-6. Here are my top 5 reasons why the Giants lost the game:
- Finishers: The Giants just can’t play a complete game and to make it worse is that they don’t know how to finish games. Taking nothing away from the Eagles, but with an 11 point with slightly six minutes in the game and with a defense that has been your brightest area all season in terms of performance; you must win this game.
- Battle in the Trenches: The Giants offensive line continues to make mental mistakes in terms of their blocking assignments and last night’s game was no exception as I counted as least a dozen missed blocking assignments primarily on defensive stunts. The main culprits were the left-side of the Giants line of Thomas and Hernandez.
- Takeaway/Giveaways: The Giants were -2 last night in this category and each one was a back breaker as it squandered any momentum the Giants had. Turnovers and bad teams go hand in hand and at this point, the Giants will need to suffer through this until they learn how to hold onto the ball.
- Redzone/3rd down conversions: The Giants were improving in both of these categories over the last couple of weeks and although they were 2/2 last night in the Red Zone, they allowed the Eagles to be in the Red Zone 8 times (3/8). They’re fortunate the Eagles are a bad team and didn’t capitalize on their opportunities. In 3rd down conversions, the Giants took a step back with an inept performance of 30% (3/10).
- Big Play Disappearance: Quarterback Daniel Jones stat- lines this season usually doesn’t generate passing yards over 200 yards as many uneducated fans will point to Jones as the reason. However; a closer look for this is the inability of the offensive line to allow Jones to check off his receivers (progression) and the inability of the wide receivers to stretch the field and create separation. Aside from Darius Slayton who is the only Giants receiver with receptions over 40 yards. This was evident in last night’s game as Jones could only look 10-15 yards down field.
Final Thoughts: The Giants rushed for 160 yards in the game; which is what you want to see. However; you don’t want to see your leading rusher be the quarterback as Jones has been in every game. Many non educated Giant fans will once again point as Jones fumble with seconds to play and somehow blame him for the lost. However; the main reason why the Giants lost this game was the inability of their defense to make a play when it was needed the most. Next up for the Giants will be the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Tom Brady. The Giants will have a few extra days to lick their wounds and recover from the worse lost of the season thus far.