Wearing their Legacy uniforms on Sunday, the New York Giants welcomed their division rival Washington Commanders. Despite it being ugly, they got the job done. The Giants vs. Commanders game ended in a 14-7 for the home team. Now sitting at 2-5, they are one game behind for a wild-card spot.
Here are what the Giants did well, not so well, and completely messed up on.
The Good For The Giants
Offense (sort of) had their way
Starting his second straight game this season, Tyrod Taylor led this Giants’ offense with fluidity and veteran leadership.
Efficiently throwing the football, he had 279 passing yards and two touchdowns. He found tight end Darren Waller seven times (98 yards, one TD), making him the clear favorite target right now. Taylor also hooked up with wideout Jalin Hyatt for two big plays, as the rookie finished with 75 yards on just two catches.
Saquon Barkley had a day himself, rushing for 77 yards while also racking up 41 receiving yards and a score. A solid game that hopefully starts a hot streak for the rest of the year.
Despite only scoring 14 points, they had a total of 356 yards of offense. This is their highest yardage total since their win against Arizona in week two.
Oh, and the offensive line wasn’t bad :).
The Defense Got To Howell… A Lot.
Defensive coordinator Wink Martindale had a plan: to make Sam Howell‘s life as miserable as possible. How? By sending blitzes left and right.
Well, it worked. Washington was held to just seven points and 273 total yards. More importantly, Howell was sacked six times by the Giants’ defense.
Dexter Lawrence II led the team with two sacks, followed by Kayvon Thibodeaux‘s 1.5 sacks. It’s safe to say this defensive front had a day.
Deonte Banks recorded his first career NFL interception in the first half, a great accomplishment for what has been a solid debut season for the cornerback.
Gosh this is great ball by Deonte Banks. Baiting Howell while playing his zone pic.twitter.com/pAzHxYgHEZ
— Bobby Skinner (@BobbySkinner_) October 22, 2023
The Bad
No Points In The Fourth
I think this is the only bad thing I could think of. If the opponent wasn’t Washington, the Giants likely would have added to their losing streak. You cannot survive in this league scoring 14 points in a game.
The deep plays were encouraging. But, we need more of those and to not be stagnant for long periods of time on offense.
The Ugly
Special Teams
Holy.
A missed field goal on the team’s second drive. Not one, but two muffed punt returns (by Eric Gray and Sterling Shepard). An awful showing by this unit.
New York clearly needs someone specifically for kick/punt returner. No more of this idea of throwing guys to perform a job they have little or no experience of doing. Ridiculous. To make it worse, the Giants could have had a shutout if not for Shepard’s fumble that led to a recovery by Washington.
Thank you for reading “Giants Survive, Defeat Commanders 14-7“! Make sure to visit Belly Up Sports every week and follow me on Twitter/X! Also, check out The Case and Nate Podcast on Spotify and on YouTube, where we discuss everything about the NFL.
Featured Image: Dustin Saltoff/Getty Images
