Giants Fans Left In Awe By Barkley And Sick By Others
Saquon Barkley would run to history under the bright lights in his outstanding start to his NFL career.
Someone forgot to tell the rest of his teammates on offense that a game was going on.
In unsurprising news, the Giants sucked balls on Thursday night vs the Philadelphia Eagles. Not literally, I mean that would be funny trying to see a guy literally try to suck … OK, never mind.
The Giants just weren’t very good vs their NFC East division rivals, and in the midst of their embarrassment on national television in a 34-13 loss to the Eagles on Thursday night at MetLife Stadium as they ruined a huge night by their rookie phenom.
Saquon Barkley finished the game 229 total yards from scrimmage with 1 TD on Thursday night.
The 229 yards from scrimmage is a New York Giants franchise-record for a rookie running back, but it would be wasted by the Giants ineptitude first on offense and soon enough on defense.
New York Giants’ quarterback Eli Manning would get the festivities rolling the opposite way with a interception on the Giants second play from scrimmage to linebacker Kamu Grugier-Hill, who returned the ball 24 yards to the Giants 16 yard-line.
Philly capitalized on the interception deep in Giants territory by getting a touchdown on a play where the Giants laughable pass rush allowed Wentz to scramble out to his right before finding wide receiver Alshon Jefferey on a broken play for a 13-yard touchdown to go up 7-0 in the first quarter.
The offensive line allowed their typical tour into the Giants offensive backfield with Nate Solder looking particularly off the ball. On the Giants third possession of the game Manning was sacked by shoulder padless super hero Michael Bennett near the Giants one yard-line, losing the ball but it would be recovered by Solder.
Manning would be sacked four times and hit a total of 13 times as he finished the game 24-for-43 for 283 passing yards and 1 INT.
The Giants offense went 0-for-3 on third down with 46 of their 75 total yards coming off a 46-yard run on the Giants second possession of the game by Saquon Barkley, who seems to be the only thing optimally pleasant about the Giants offensive unit these days.
Barkley once again would show off his amazing ability in the open field in the second quarter by making the Eagles miss tackles left and right on a thrilling 55-yard reception off a screen pass that may be his finest of the season to this point.
Saquon Barkley was great on Thursday night, but it wasn’t enough. Photo by Elsa/Getty Images
The defense was fine, never great, but fine enough for New York to stay in the game until the offense continued to reward them with three-and-outs.
The stats won’t show that a Giants defense that surrendered their fair share of big plays forced the Eagles into three punts after Philadelphia’s touchdown with a short field to open the game.
The stats will rather show that they surrendered big plays on broken plays like Nelson Agholor’s 58-yard reception. Eagles’ quarterback Carson Wentz, almost dead to rights on a rollout to his right, fired a ball down the field to the wide open receiver who broke off his initial route and lost Giants’ cornerback Eli Apple on the play.
Wentz put together his finest outing since his return from a ACL injury last season as he finished the game with 278 passing yards and 3 TDs for the defending champs.
What led to the Giants defense being unable to slow Philadelphia after a fine start? It may have something to do with New York going 0-for-8 on third down as Eli Manning, under pressure as well as unwilling to throw down the field, had a ugly first half.
If you take out what was probably the millionth screen pass dialed up by head coach Pat Shurmer in the first half that turned into a highlight reel play for Barkley, Manning finished the half 9-for-22 for 107 passing yards and 1 INT as New York trailed 24-6 at the half.
It didn’t get better in the second half (Haha!!! Of course it didn’t!) as we got Odell Beckham Jr. — who finished the game with 6 receptions for 44 receiving yards — using his helmet against a cooling fan on the sideline before throwing some solid combinations against it.
He also left for the locker room early before the half as he shook his head in frustration over what many Giants fans in attendance and watching all season have been shaking their heads at as well.
The New York Giants (1-5) are all but done for the season. It’s arguably the most underachieving team in the NFL given their talent level and if it continues down this road, folks in the Big Apple will begin to start second guessing the coaching hire of Pat Shurmer.
Shurmer deserves some blame for New York’s inability to move past the stage of a Division II college offense, but not for their 1-5 mark. This has overall been a team-wide meltdown for New York.
No, it’s hard to say they’ve quit. The effort is there, but the difference between good teams and bad teams is execution in all phases of the game and the Giants aren’t remotely close to executing at a high-level in any phase.
Of course, Saquon Barkley deserves better, but so do Giants fans who have watched their team for three games now at MetLife Stadium score under 19 points.
The upcoming schedule is not particularly challenging as Big Blue’s next five opponents are all .500 or below, but that might not mean much for a team that’s arguably the worst team in the NFL at the moment.
Debate at your own risk.
What are your thoughts on the Giants falling to 1-5? Leave your comments below!
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