The Giants were dominated on both sides of the ball by a mediocre team

After enduring some of the NFL’s top teams in their first six games, the New

York Giants were always expected to make their playoff push in the later

stages of the 2023 season against less-than-stellar opponents. Those aspirations

were dashed by depressing losses to the Jets and Raiders in weeks seven and

eight, each of whom stopped one of the Giants’ quarterbacks. Then, on the path

to a top 2 draft pick, an amusing event occurred (you have to admit that the

Tommy DeVito phenomena has generated equal amounts of laughter,

confusion, and excitement). All of a sudden, the Giants and half of the NFC’s

clubs were one win away from an NFC Wild Card berth.

Next up were the New Orleans Saints, a

dangerous yet beatable opponent. Either

the almost unattainable goal would survive for a more week, or the Giants

would join the ranks of clubs that had to wait until the next season when the

Saints arrived. Regretfully, the latter was the case. Guys, get working on your mock

drafts. After the Giants’ 24-6 loss to the Saints, what can we conclude?

The offensive line problems are back

The Saints don’t have one of the best pass-rushing groups in the league, but today they looked like one. The DL

consistently got pressure up the middle, often against Justin Pugh, who was just

out-muscled several times while inexplicably being beaten on stunts as

well. John Michael Schmitz had a bad day at the office as well in an otherwise

promising rookie year. Saints’ edge defender Tanoh Kpassagnon had a field

day, with 3 sacks and 4 QB hits. DeVito was affected by the pressure, and he took

a beating (part of the job description for a Giants QB).

Meanwhile, the Giants’ running game was almost non-existent. Saquon Barkley had only 14 yards rushing and Matt

Brieda only 10. Most of the Giants’ rushing

yardage came on DeVito zone-

read runs. This was a key to the game because the Saints’ defensive line had

been vulnerable to the run. Run the ball effectively, draw the defense closer to the

line of scrimmage, and opportunities open up in the passing game. Not today.

Without that, though, the Saints’ excellent defensive backs and linebackers could blanket the Giants’

receivers. Combine a relentless pass rush with receivers not getting open, and

DeVito looked a lot like early-season Daniel Jones – right down to some

troubles reading the defense and his leaving the game and going to the

medical tent after sliding too late on a zone read run. DeVito only completed

58.8% of his passes with 7 sacks and no touchdowns – the Giants didn’t even sniff

the end zone today. Was DeVito confused by the looks the Saints gave him, or did

he just not have a chance? Probably some of both.

On the positive side, this was good practice for DeVito, who will face Haason

Reddick and the Eagles’ pass rush next week. Yikes. Merry Christmas.

Without a pass rush, the Giants defense is vulnerable

The Saints have a mediocre offensive line. With their best pass blocker, Ryan Ramczyk, out today, it figured that the

Giants’ pass rush would make life miserable for Derek Carr and force

hurried passes and mistakes that might lead to turnovers.

Carr is widely known to be a quarterback who looks great when he

has a clean pocket and wilts when he gets pressure. You’ll have to take my

word for that last part, because today, he had time to survey the field and hit open

receivers almost at will. No Chris Olave? No Michael Thomas? No problem. The

Giants had only one sack on the day…by safety Jason Pinnock on a blitz.

Did you notice Dexter Lawrence (1 tackle, 1 assist) on the field today, other than the occasional time the cameras

would zoom in to show him sucking air? I did see Kayvon Thibodeaux and Azeez

Ojulari occasionally getting late pressure. I saw A’Shawn Robinson stuffing the run

a few times (7 tackles, and 1 assist today). I also saw Alvin Kamara knifing through

a soft middle for big gains too often, though.

Pump the brakes on the Giants’ secondary

There has been a lot of excitement about the development of the Giants’ secondary

as the season has progressed. Tae Banks looked really good from the start, Jason

Pinnock has come on to be an effective strong safety, Xavier McKinney has

shown out the last few weeks, and Cor’Dale Flott has had his moments. Fans

have been making a lot of noise about Banks and Pinnock especially.

Today put a damper on the excitement. Good quarterbacks who have time to

throw can exploit these defensive backs. Carr went 23 for 28 and had a 134.8

passer rating as he methodically picked apart the defense. It seemed to me that

Adoree’ Jackson, who may be playing himself out of a free agent offer, was the

biggest offender, but Banks gave up a few completions and Pinnock made

mistakes too, adding to the list of Giants’ defensive backs who don’t look back for

underthrown balls and wind up running into the receiver. The Giants’ secondary

created no turnovers and had no passes defensed today against a less-than-stellar

group of pass-catchers. They got no help from the defensive line today, but they

are not yet close to elite. The Giants probably need to draft a potential

starting cornerback or sign one in free agency next spring.

If you wanted to see an elite secondary, you should have looked at the guys in

black and gold. Ex-Giant Isaac Yiadom had 3 passes defensed today, and Paulson

Adebo added one. Giants wide receivers had only 88 yards today, and only two

(Darius Slayton and Wan’Dale Robinson) caught any passes at all.

Jamie Gillan is a pretty valuable player

We had to learn something positive from this game, right? The offense and defense were both a mess. So let’s turn to special

teams. Jamie Gillan is far from being the best punter in the NFL, but overall he has

improved since the first half of the 2022 season, getting the Giants out of some big

holes with some booming punts and doing much better at angling the ball

toward the sideline to prevent long returns.

Today, though, we saw another side of his talent. After Randy Bullock kicked a field goal to briefly put the Giants up, 3-0,

he injured a hamstring (what’s new?) on the ensuing kickoff. When the Giants

drove deep into New Orleans territory (yes, they did that once), I thought they

might just have a go for it on fourth down. Instead, Gillan came out and

hammered a 40-yard field goal right through the uprights. I won’t say it was

picture-perfect, but it would have been good from longer, and he looks perfectly

capable of being the kicker if Bullock is out for an extended period. The Giants

will probably elevate Cade York this week to take over, but it’s nice to know

that Gillan is an acceptable emergency kicking option.