Big Blue View
Is there such a thing as an important game against a team from the other conference in Week 7 of the NFL season? The New York Giants’ road trip to face the Denver Broncos turned into that during the week. Suddenly, the downtrodden (by their own play) Giants had become a “thing” with their convincing victory over Philadelphia on a national stage, both because of their excellent play in that game and the “aura” developing around the Giants’ two confident (brash?) rookies, Jaxson Dart and Cam Skattebo. Maybe Abdul Carter a bit, too. Suddenly, Broncos players were making snippy comments to the press, inciting a war of words between Giants and Broncos fans on social media. Even the Denver press was getting into the act.
In truth, this game against a good opponent would be a referendum on whether the Giants have actually taken a step toward relevance, or whether previous wins over the Chargers and Eagles were just fools’ gold. So what did we learn from the Giants’ 33-32 loss to the Broncos?
Some teams actually use draft picks on kickers. Others make sure they have a capable backup kicker in place in the event that the starter gets injured. The Giants, though, are always figuring it out on the fly. There was a time when Graham Gano was one of the best kickers in the NFL. Now, for the third season in a row, he can’t stay healthy. How bad must Younghoe Koo be at this point in his career that he won the competition over Jude McAtamney? McAtamney missed an extra point last week but it didn’t matter because the Giants won easily. Today he missed two more, costing the Giants the game. This would seem to be the end of McAtamney’s time as a Giant.
Some teams can run down the clock with a lead because they have a punishing, dominant run-blocking offensive line. That is not the Giants. The offensive line has run-blocked better this year, but against a stout defensive line like Denver’s, you can’t assume they will just run out the clock for you. True to their nature, though, when the Giants got the ball back ahead 26-16 with 5:13 on the clock, they ran Cam Skattebo twice up the middle for a total of 5 yards, forcing Denver to use its first two timeouts. I get it as strategy, but the best strategy is just to keep the ball until the clock runs out. Dart finally passed on third down when Denver knew he had to and was intercepted, leading to a TD that narrowed the margin to 26-23.
The next time the Giants got the ball back, they ran again on first and second down, getting a total of only 2 yards, and Dart was long on a pass to Wan’Dale Robinson on third down....
