On Sunday night football, The Giants lost to Josh Allen and the high powered Buffalo Bills 14 to 9. However, the Bills were “anything” BUT high powered on a night where the Giants Defense for the most part came to play.
Tyrod Taylor at the helm managed the game well, until he didn’t.
Stats: 24 completeions | 34 Attempts | 200 yards | 5.6 yards a throw | 31 Long | 3 Sacks | 50.3 QBR
The postives for Taylor was his composure and ability to roll out to the weakside, making numerous good throws underneath to Robinson his main target of the game. Taylor doesn’t have the strongest arm but showcased a beautiful touch pass to Waller and Slayton on numberous occassions. Taylor does get the ball out off his hands quickly on any route outside the hash. Like any QB, he missed a few throws and that is expected for guy that hasn’t started many games in the last few years.
With the Giants winnning 6-0 and 14 seconds remaining in the second quarter, Taylor had an opportunity to take an even larger lead as the Giants lined up at the one yard line. However, Taylor made a game changing mistake audibling out of pass play (incomplete stops the clock) to a Barkley run. Barkley was stuffed at the line and time expired with out even a field goal attempt. Those points were the difference in winning and loosing. As a Pro NFL QB, he needs to understand the situation better.
Down the stretch, Taylor was very effienct getting the ball out of bounds quickly to receivers on the sidelines and spiking the ball to stop the clock. The half time blunder is hard to get past. Those points were vital.
Game Plan:
From the opening drive you can see that Daboll and Kafka had a completely different mind set how to approach the Bills with out Jones. And regardless who played Quarterback or Running Back, it was about time the coaches showed some ability to scheme and use the talent on the roster. The Giants were consistantly in a bootleg , or roll out scenario creating space for Taylor. In the second half the Giants even started to “pull” Glowinski as the lead blocker for Barkley. Those efforts worked as Saqoun had a great bounce back game.
Stats: 24 attempts | 94 yards | 3.9 yards a carry | 31 longest
Offensive Line
Matt Peart was who has been passed over and replaced numerous times was out against the Bills, yet his roster spots continues to be secure for some odd reason. His replacement, Ezeudu, a guard, went down with a toe injury ten plays into the game. The Giants were already playing with out Left Tackle, Andrew Thomas and rookie center John Michael Schmitz.
To say this Oline is being held to together with sticks and glue would be an understatement. Offensive Line coach Bobby Johnson has been asleep at the wheel since June. The highlight of evening was Justin Pugh. Pugh a 1st round pick of The Giants back in 2013 from Sryacuse was back in Blue after leaving Arizona with a ACL injury.
As his TV highlight introduction said, “straight off the couch”, Pugh hadn’t started in 364 days and within 10 plays against the Buffalo he moved from starting left guard to starting left tackle. Pugh settled in after halftime bringing some attitude and consistancy.
While the Giants Offensive scheme is still too slow (execution) to punch you in the face and score quickly, they showed some sparks of life sprinkled in through out the game. In the 3rd quarter, Collingsworth had just highlighted that Saquon Barkley was averaging under three yards a carry, when someone in the booth called for Glowinski to pull. Immediately, Barkley started ripping off huge chunks of yardage. A year and half later …they finally know what to do with Glowinski. Don’t throw this play out.
Defense
The defense played great. It’s that simple. Wink Martindale called a good game and kept Josh Allen off balence for most of the game. Allem didn’t make any super natural plays with his arm. He did escape a few sacks which was impressive, however, Leonard Williams, Dexter Lawrence, Micah McFadden and Bobby Okereke had a huge game slowly down the Bills game plan. As much as I want to like Simmons, the Defense runs better with McFadden next to Okereke. And McFadden is superb at the A/B gap blitz.
The Giants will need a legit pass rusher in 2024. Whether that comes via draft or F/A…it needs to happen. The Giants are handicapped against any good QB for the simple lack of ability to finish or set the edge. Consistency at this level is what sets good players apart from great players. Good players are one and done and great players are multi-year contract players. Thibs lacks multi pass rush moves, the ability to get off a blocks, violence with his hands, bend, and the tenacity to be dominate week in and week out.
- Okereke stats: 11 tackles | 2 TFL | 2 PD
- Mcfadden stats: 7 tackles | 1 FR | 1 Int | 1 PD | 1 QB Hit
- Leonard Williams: 6 tackles
- Simmons: Zero Tackles
- Thibodeaux: 1 Tackle