Giants were bound to play a game like this -- and lose it
PHILADELPHIA -- This had to happen eventually. The New York Giants weren't going to go through an entire season without playing any really bad games -- without turning the ball over, without giving up any sacks, without a slew of bad penalties. Every team has at least one real stinker (and usually more) during the course of the season, and until Monday Night's 27-7 loss to the Eagles, the Giants hadn't had one.
"We just didn't play well," guard Geoff Schwartz said on his way out of the locker room early Tuesday morning. "It was bound to happen at some point, I guess."
The Giants turned the ball over three times Monday night. They committed 12 penalties for 92 yards. They were 4-for-13 (30.8 percent) on third down. Eli Manning got sacked three times. These are not 2015 New York Giants numbers.
During their first five games, the Giants turned the ball over a total of three times. They committed an average of seven penalties for 59 yards. They converted 44.4 percent of third downs. Manning was sacked a total of four times.
But while this game appears to have been out of character for this year's group, the way the Giants lost it should give you pause. The fact is, the Eagles weren't a whole lot crisper. They turned it over four times, committed nine penalties for 72 yards and converted only 38 percent of their first downs. They only gave up one sack, because the Giants can't pressure quarterbacks, but the point is they didn't exactly play a brilliant game either.
And yet they won it by 20.
The Giants limited mistakes and played very tough football in their first five games and still managed to win only three of them. They blew double-digit fourth-quarter leads in Weeks 1 and 2. They fought off fourth-quarter comebacks in Weeks 3 and 4. They gave up three long second-half touchdown drives to the 49ers in Week 5 only to have Manning bail them out with a final-minute drive. The point is, they'd been walking a tightrope, and Monday night they fell off.
"From the second quarter through the second half, we just got outplayed," Manning said.
They started off blue-hot, racing down the field for the game's first touchdown, getting a three-and-out on defense and racing back down the field looking like a team headed for big things. But then Eagles linebacker DeMeco Ryans ripped a ball out of Larry Donnell's hands, Damontre Moore got whistled for a roughing-the-passer penalty that extended an Eagles drive, and before anyone knew it the Eagles had the game in their pockets. Philly's a front-running team, and once they were in front they were able to pin their ears back on defense, harass Manning, cover Odell Beckham Jr. and leave the Giants impotent.
"We were pretty much stagnant," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said.
They were handled badly by the Eagles on both lines -- physically dominated in the most physically important aspects of the game. It's not that this hadn't happened yet this season -- it's that when it did, they were able to minimize the damage by playing well elsewhere and taking good care of the ball. They did not do those things Monday, so their deficiencies flared up in more obvious and damaging ways.
And the fact is, that's probably going to happen again. This isn't a great Giants team, and outside the locker room I don't think anyone ever really thought it would be. Prior to Monday, they'd played hard and tough and scrappy and fundamentally sound football, and really kind of overachieved and maximized what they have on their roster. But compared to most other teams in the league -- especially when they show up minus three or four defensive starters -- their roster doesn't have all that much. Which means they operate with no margin for error. And when they show up and play a bad game... well, they're probably going to lose by 20.
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