East Rutherford, New Jersey — In a game that was dubbed as a must-win game for the New York Giants, they were absolutely pummeled by the Seattle Seahawks 24-3 on Monday Night Football.
With the loss, New York not only drops to 1-3, but they now been outscored in their two home games by the margin of 64-3 this season. Before the season started, some were predicting the team would make the playoffs for the second consecutive season. But based on how the team has performed in the first quarter of the season, it will take something miraculous if the Giants expect to be playing football in the middle of January.
Aside from punter Jamie Gillan averaging 53.6 yards per punt, it’s hard to come away with anything positive for New York.
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There were numerous negative takeaways from Monday night’s game, but we’ll examine the four biggest negatives.
The New York Giants offensive line can’t protect Daniel Jones
Even with All-Pro Andrew Thomas missing his third game due to a hamstring injury and the fact that starting center John Michael Schmitz Jr. left the game due to a shoulder injury, there’s no excuse to allow your quarterback to be sacked 10 times.
When you include that Parris Campbell was sacked when he attempted a pass, the Seahawks registered a total of 11 sacks on the evening. Daniel Jones was running for his life the entire evening and never had a chance to test Seattle’s secondary deep because he didn’t have enough time.
Through four games, Jones has now been sacked a total of 22 times and is beginning to turn the ball over at an alarming rate including two interceptions on Monday where one was returned 97 yards for a touchdown by Devon Witherspoon, and a fumble that led to Seattle’s first touchdown. The team may get Thomas back for their game against the Dolphins on Sunday, but it will take more than his return to resolve the line issue.
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Big Blue’s first-half woes continue
One of the reasons the Giants sit in last place in the NFC East is the fact that they continuously get off to slow starts. On Monday, Seattle took a 14-3 halftime lead. New York has now been outscored 77-9 in the first half of games this season, and it has yet to score a touchdown within the first 30 minutes of any game.
What makes this even more concerning is that the team had 11 days to prepare for this after their 30-12 defeat at the hands of the San Francisco 49ers in Week 3. In his postgame press conference, head coach Brian Daboll stated that he and the team have to get better, but said there will not be any changes to the personnel.
Considering the Giants play the high-powered Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills on the road the next two weeks, they’d better resolve the slow start issues fast. If not, those games will be over by halftime.
Poor tackling is still plaguing the New York Giants’ defense
The game was actually close late in the second quarter with the Seahawks leading 7-3 with 3:05 remaining in the half. But then Drew Lock came in briefly for an injured Geno Smith and connected with tight end Noah Fant down the right sideline. Fant broke tackle attempts of Bobby Okereke and Adoree Jackson before being tackled at the one-yard line after a 52-yard gain . Kenneth Walker would score on the next play to extend Seattle’s lead to 14-3.
Although the defense only allowed 281 yards for the game, the miss tackles on this play gave the Seahawks a firm command of the game that they would not relinquish.
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The Giants can’t get Darren Waller and Jalin Hyatt going
With Saquon Barkley missing his second game due to a high ankle sprain, it was imperative that the team get their next two explosive playmakers Darren Waller and Jalin Hyatt involved in the offense. New York mightily failed in trying to accomplish this goal.
The duo of Waller and Hyatt were targeted five times, and came away with just five receptions for 33 yards.
Some of this can be attributed to the poor line play not giving Jones enough time to find them, but some of the blame also falls on Daboll and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka not being able to find a way to get the duo open with schemes.
If the team can’t resolve these issues amongst others, they’re on their way to a double-digit loss season.