Game 3: Eagles 27-Giants 24 - Game Review

Yesterday’s 27-24 loss to the Eagles was as gut wrenching and painful as any in memory.
 
Minutes earlier, after the great comeback that seemingly had culminated with the Sterling Shepard 77-yard touchdown catch, I had visions of 2007 when the Giants went 0-2 and were looking awful against the Redskins until a goal line stand turned their entire season around.  I thought that is what this blog would be about.  I was wrong.
 
The ESPN app has a chart showing percentage chances of winning. After having little chance while falling behind early and looking bad, the Giants rallied and were showing an 83% chance of winning. A confluence of unlikely events transpired to lead to a loss. It was horrible and as a result the Giants have virtually no chance of making the playoffs. We are still in September and the season is nearly over.
Nearly.
 
I’m going to try to spin some optimism here.  Here it goes.  The Giants were underdogs for two of the three games and were expected to be underdogs for these games when the seasons started.  Even if you projected them for 10-6, you likely had them losing road games in Dallas and Philly.  They are a game behind what they should have been.
 
More importantly, the change in the game plan sort of worked.  Planning to throw the ball quickly to eliminate the liability that is Flowers and the offensive line was working.  Manning had good stats and was relatively clean for most of the game.  I saw a statistic where his average length of holding the ball prior to passing yesterday was 25% shorter than the second quickest team.  It’s not a long term plan that should work but it helped.  They seemed to get some real momentum later in the game as they learn what their personnel can and cannot do.  I assume defenses will respond to it but it was helpful.
 
Other observations:  the Giants run defense which was excellent last year no longer is.  It’s not clear if this is because of the loss of Hankins or something else.  It could be that you can attribute Dallas to being a great O Line and the last two games to the absence of BJ Goodson.  It’s not clear when he will be returning but having an undrafted free agent in the middle is not ideal.  Their pass defense does seem to still be keeping opponents in check, although the last two completed passes on the game ending drive should not have been so easily given up.  At the very least they should have tackled Jeffrey in bounds on that last pass.  The coaching also leaves something to be desired.  Playing from the shot gun on that third down play from the 6-inch line was a bad idea.  Not coaching Shane Vereen to stay in bounds on the Giants last drive was bad.  Darian Thompson is an awful tackler and a liability against the run.  I’m not sure Adams shouldn’t be reinserted into the lineup ahead of him at safety.  Olivier Vernon not being able to play at the end of the game hurt tremendously.  It gave Wentz too much time.  The rushing game is abysmal.  When Hart returns from injury, Pugh should be put at left tackle and they should send Flowers to the bench.  He is done.  This can’t be undone by more work.  He just lacks the talent for the job.  Suggestions that DJ Fluker should see the lineup are clearly being made by people who didn’t a watch the preseason and still grade him from his draft spot.  He was horrible.  Much worse than Flowers.  Perkins has no confidence left.  Even when there are some holes he doesn’t see them Whatever he had last year he has lost. 
 
The Giants certainly were more competitive and seemed to have turned some corner offensively (at least in the passing game) and their defense despite messing up at the end was still overall solid.  As a fan I’m committed to watching each game, but it was a sad day.  End note: OBJ celebration not worth discussing.  It’s all been said.  As for the national anthem, I’ll leave that to others.

-Ari Glass