GB 23 NYG 16

The score does not represent how badly the Giants were outplayed tonight. Not ready for prime time. Not ready for any NFL team that is credible.

Shoddy tackling.

Zero pass rush. None. Zippo. Zilch. Nada. Not even a whiff of Rodgers’ cologne.

Eli was horrible, his worst game since the 2007 regular season. Inaccurate. Happy feet. Nervous hands? Afraid to take a hit? Arm strength? It was like he just got old the past 3 weeks. I’d like to believe it is “just” his OL doing this to him, but we’re not so sure.

Pass protection disgusting.

9 penalties. Let’s recite them because the official stats will undercount them. 12 men on field. OV Personal Foul (bs, but called). Flowers hold. Hart false start. Special teams interference on punt return. Jenkins hold. Holding Pugh. Defensive holding. Illegal shift.

So in these 3 losses, we have had 14 penalties vs WAS, 9 penalties vs MIN, and 9 penalties vs GB. That is 32 total penalties in 3 consecutive games. Unacceptable.

Late in the first half, with the Giants getting outplayed and down 14-6, they are somehow in this game.  That had to do with Jenoris Jenkins with 2 picks, which swung the game 10 points in the Giants favor by stopping a TD drive in the red zone and generating a FG.   Two plays sum up the NY Giants season:

1. Eli has a wide open Will Tye, who can practically walk into the end zone, as he is 5 yards past the defense. Eli overthrows Tye, who only gets a few fingers on the ball.
2. The very next play, Hart is beat in pass protection on the edge, and a sack strip of Eli causes a turnover. GB cashes in with a FG as the clock runs out at the half.

Those two plays are a microcosm on so many levels.  Defenses are focusing on the 3 headed monster of OBJ/Shepard/Cruz, so there are other players with opportunities. Tye, the overachieving UFA from Stony Brook, has the chance. But Eli misses him. Eli has not been good here in 2016, and in this game we are seeing more of the “Bad Eli” that we saw in full bloom vs Minnesota. The very next play.. poor pass protection.. Eli coughs up the ball. Everyone is saying it, but I will reiterate it- Eli is a scared cat in the pocket. He is not holding onto the ball well, and he is playing fearful of the sack/hit. I do not know what is going on but if you can’t take the hit, you can’t play QB.  I’ve never seen it this bad from Eli.

Rodgers did not play a great game, and the Giants secondary did an admirable job considering they had to cover each snap for ~10 full seconds. Throw in those 2 INTs by Jenkins and the Giants were somehow able to stay in the same zip code, else this game could have easily been a full-fledged rout. So the true culprit is your offense. The Packers had backup CBs playing. Shields, their best guy, was out. SO do not tell me that there were not opportunities to target matchups. Yet we got the same result as we saw vs a depleted secondary of the Saints. Quicksand.  Considering that 3 pts came off of one gift-wrapped turnover from Jenkins and a TD came in garbage time at the end of Q4, that means the Giants offense generated a whopping 6 pts. That is a travesty. That is underachievement. That is McAdoo as the Head Coach this far in 2016. Wonder: “What was the Giants Offensive Gameplan?” It was at best incoherent. They had some limited success in running the ball, so use more play action. But Cris Collinsworth was blunt about it- you’ve got 3 talented WRs vs a depleted secondary, and little to nothing is being done about it.

In the NFL, if you aren’t improving each week, you are going backward. While we watch the Giants atrophy, the Eagles and Cowboys have found themselves young quarterbacks. Optimism for the 2016 was built around a much improved DL. But the pass rush has been nil and it is killing them. With Eli regressing, this ship needs to get righted quickly. The good news is that 2 of the last 3 losses were expected anyway. It is the way they are losing that is the problem. With the play we are seeing from Eli,  the poor pass protection, and the lack of a pass rush, it is going to be a bad year. Those 3 things need to turn around quickly for the slide to stop.