PHL 27 NYG 24

I hate the Eagles. I hate losing to the Eagles more. And I hate losing to the Eagles in excruciating implosions. Today was the trifecta.

This one was right up there with 2010’s punt return by DeSean Jackson. That implosion was epic. This one was an implosion with an Agatha Christie twist.

The underachieving of 2017 continued. Do I really need to regurgitate this vomit? That is a little too much pain for me to take. I am not a masochist. None of us are masochists. Giants fans have a tradition of winning Super Bowl titles. But Ben McAdoo is setting the franchise back years. Jerry Reese is setting the franchise back many years. That pick of Eli Apple instead of Laremy Tunsil is looking pretty large right now.

So let’s talk Apple for a moment. The Giants shot themselves in the foot in so many ways. The Eli-Apple-running-into-the-defender on the bomb was the worst kind of foul because it was obvious, stupid, completely uncompetitive, and destructive. Apple cost the Giants more than a few times this game on other plays that prompted the Giants faithful to throw up their hands with his play, before the pass-interference-from-hell call.

The Giants racked up 137 yards in penalties in total. Seemingly all of them had a destructive nature to them. John Jerry got called for a delay of game when an Eagle defender was trying to get off the field. Instead of it being first down at the 11 yard line, it is 3rd and 7 from the 23 and the Giants end up with a FG.

FG? What is that? You are down 7-0 near the end of the first half. With a million scores except none of them stick, it is 4th down and the Giants go for it. The problem is that, as Jim Fassel taught me, you must kick the FG at the end of the half because there is no translation of the Field Position if you do not convert for the TD. So the Giants blow the FG oppty.  Thank you McAdoo. Then in Q3 with it 4th and 2 from the 13, you kick the FG, but this is Ben McAdoo and he goes for it and misses. The problem here is that even if you convert, you may not get into the end zone either, so taking the points and getting off the schneid is correct. So right there is 6 points.

Can the Giants score a TD without there being a strong likelihood of a celebration foul?

After calling ~1 slant in the first 2 games combined, McAdoo went slant happy and called so many of them that it led to an INT. Still, it was a breath of fresh air to see some loosening up of the playcalling in terms of going to more quick short plays to establish a rhythm.

McAdoo made one of the most boneheaded playcalls I can remember when, in Q1 at the PHI 34 on 3rd & 1, he calls… a PITCHOUT. In short yardage or the red zone, this is the worst possible playcall because the defense is already up at the line of scrimmage due to the situation. A pitchout gives too much time for the defense to not only stop the run but securely set it for a loss, which is precisely what happened. Worse, it was a 4 yard loss that pushed the Giants out of field goal range.

All the missed tackles and all the other atrocious penalties actually had a chance of being forgotten in what would have been an amazing comeback. The Giants got their Offensive mojo back with OBJ taking charge and Shepard getting a major YAC TD. Yet they got tied up and had the ball with 51 seconds left and 3 timeouts… and LOST the game in regulation. How is this possible? Easy, it is Ben McAdoo at the helm. The Offense rushes to the line and can’t get set (Flowers), another glorious penalty of ineptitude. The penalties on this short series were remarkable.. the Flowers illegal shift and a Flowers holding. By this point, you just want to run the clock out but (cue more irony) Vereen runs out of bounds. Then a 2010 redux punt nightmare with Wing going only 28 yards. This enabled the Eagles to get a 19 yard pass play with 0:01 sec left for a 61 yarder. It was 2010 Eagles and 2003 Dallas Quincy Carter all rolled into one. That’s double epic implosion. It is not often where you get to watch your team blow the same game twice.

The Giants are 0-3. Cue the depression. I have been blogging for over 10 years but I did not sign up for masochism. The last thing I want to be doing after losing in spectacular fashion is to be blogging this bullsh*t. I may take off some time from doing this until the Giants (read: McAdoo) show me that they do not want to self-destruct and underachieve. 

McAdoo is in denial about so many things. The entire media/fan community was aghast when he stated after Week 2 that Flowers was “absolutely” his starting LT. That intransigence is a big part of why the team failed to make the changes needed to win. The playcalling improved but still had enough critical mistakes to warrant change. I am not enough of a masochist to watch & blog teams that pitchout on 3rd and 1. McAdoo didn’t do that when he was Offensive Coordinator. He’s doing it now because he won’t delegate that role. The Giants are underachieving as a result.