The struggles of the New York Giants defense were on full display on Thursday night against the San Francisco 49ers. Granted, they were on the field for two-thirds of the game, but a lot of that was of their own making.
The Giants missed tackle after tackle in the game, allowing the 49ers to move the chains, extend drives, and stay on the field. Depending on whose metrics you want to use, Wink Martindale’s unit missed upwards of 16 tackles in the game.
Buy Giants Tickets“Definitely an area we’ve got to get better at,” head coach Brian Daboll told reporters on Friday. “We’ll continue to work at it every week, but it’s something that we’ve got to do a better job of.
“I’d say it’s just overall not where we need to be. So, we’ll continue to work at it. That’s an area that’s got to get better.”
An understatement if there ever was one.
It’s as if the Giants forgot they were playing a contact sport. They were not very aggressive, took lousy angles, and did not play with the physicality required and expected of NFL defenses in 2023.
Retired Giants, great Carl Banks, who is also the team’s top radio analyst, didn’t sugarcoat his feelings about the defense’s performance.
#FootballFact: A poor tackling defense is a perpetual liability..
This was embarrassing the amount of missed tackles tonight
— Carl Banks (@CarlBanksGIII) September 22, 2023
Inside linebacker Bobby Okereke, brought in this past season as a free agent to bolster the run defense, knows the effort on Thursday isn’t going to cut it.
“I mean, obviously we need to put more of an emphasis on tackling,” Okereke told the New York Post. “We have a lot of missed tackles across the board at different positions. Execution-wise, guys just have to do their job, starting with me. I have to be better.”
