The New York Giants were defeated once again, this time on New Year’s Eve by the Los Angeles Rams, 26-25.
The Giants nearly pulled off the upset but fell short twice — once on a late two-point conversion attempt and another time on a potential game-winning field goal. The Giants now fall to 5-11 and third in the NFC East.
Here’s a quick breakdown of what we saw during the game and how we graded the Giants in this loss.
Offense: C
The offense failed to get much going for a lot of the game and was bailed out by defensive takeaways and a special teams score.
The offensive line remains an issue as Tyrod Taylor was hit 10 times and sacked six times. Taylor is not without blame, though, as he did throw one interception and missed on some big throws on third and fourth down. However, no miss was bigger than when he missed a wide-open Saquon Barkley on a potential go-ahead two-point conversion.
It’s clear that next season, there needs to be an investment in playmakers (as there is not enough separation and too many drops) and offensive line play whether or not the Giants have Daniel Jones at quarterback.
It was not all bad on Sunday, though. Wan’Dale Robinson had a nice 24-yard touchdown run to open up scoring for Big Blue. Darius Slayton also added his second-straight week with a long touchdown catch, this time coming from an 80-yard strike to cut the deficit to four points.
The only other note was Taylor added a big run to set up the potential game-winning field as he did his best Lamar Jackson imitation.
Defense: B
The biggest problem was that the defense allowed too many big plays.
Puka Nacua had an 80-yard catch, Kyren Williams had multiple big runs — his longest being 28 yards — and Demarcus Robinson had a 37-yard reception. This helped the Rams total 391 yards of offense.
However, there were a lot of positives from this defense. They held Williams to his lowest rushing yard output since early October. They also forced three turnovers (all of which came from Dane Belton, who had an all-time game). The defense also forced a turnover on downs on the opening drive of the game, leaving the Rams to walk away from a long drive scoreless.
The defense also forced three straight drives that lasted four plays or less in the fourth quarter, giving the offense plenty of opportunities to win the game.
Dexter Lawrence and the hog-mollies up front played a big part in this as they clogged up the running lanes. But Bobby Okereke’s contributions can not go unnoticed as he finished with 10 tackles, 1.5 sacks, and one tackle for loss.
The defense as a whole generated a lot more pressure on Sunday sacking Matthew Stafford four times and hitting him seven times.
Special Teams: C
This was a rollercoaster performance from the special teams.
We can start with Gunner Olszewski, who let one punt go over his head and also wrongly fielded a punt inside the five-yard line. However, he made up for this and more with a 94-yard punt return to cut the deficit to one point.
However, all this was counteracted by an awful performance from Mason Crosby, who, despite hitting two field goals and one extra point, missed a crucial extra point and a game-winning field goal.
Jamie Gillan pretty much played up to par as he averaged 44.4 yards per punt and landed one inside the 20.
Coaching: C+
Brian Daboll did a pretty good coaching job — except in the final minute — but could not walk away with the win. He started on the first drive with a monumental successful challenge which ended a drive for Los Angeles. He also put together a game plan against one of the best coaches in football to keep this game competitive and give his troops many opportunities to win the game.
Mike Kafka did not do the best job as a play-caller as he started off the game okay with some aggressive play calls but at the end of the game, the play-calling was too vanilla, and did not use his resources well enough to win the game.
Kafka did not pass the ball on the final drive when he probably should have as the team knows that Crosby is not a reliable kicker from deep, especially at this point in his career. Getting the extra yardage would have put the Giants in a much better position to win the game.
Wink Martindale had a phenomenal outing. He had his players in the right position to succeed as even on Nacua’s big reception there was a missed tackle. The pressure and stunts he drew up were phenomenal. None was bigger than when he sent Isaiah Simmons on a blitz (in which he sacked Stafford) and dropped Kayvon Thibodeaux back in coverage, confusing the protection and setting up a punt in which the Giants had the chance to come and win the game.
The defense also held the Rams to 25 percent on third downs and no conversions on fourth down.
