5 Takeaways from NY Giants’ 34-24 Loss to 49ers

The only reason why defensive coordinator Shane Bowen should be allowed in the building on Monday is to turn in his keycard.

This defense, which has far better talent than it’s shown, has now allowed 30+ points in three straight games.

There seem to be breakdowns at least a handful of times per game in coverage, and the aggressiveness and creativity we saw in the Week 6 win against the Eagles have vanished.

Truth be told, Bowen’s dismissal should have come a lot sooner. Team co-owner John Mara, in his comments to reporters at the end of last season, said he was tired of seeing opponents march up and down the field on the Giants' defense.

Imagine how he must feel these days seeing the defense, again, with far better talent, get gashed week in and week out on the ground.

When you think about it, how much did the defense’s collapse against Denver pull all the air out of the team’s balloon?

They were riding high after the win against the Eagles and the 3+ quarters of solid play against the Broncos.

But to lose that game the way they did? Suffice it to say, the Giants haven’t been the same since.

Trade for a Receiver?

Yes, the Giants indeed need another playmaking receiver in the worst way. But at this point, there’s no way that general manager Joe Schoen should trade for one, not when it looks like he might be picking in the top five of next year’s draft—assuming that he keeps his job. 

You draft a receiver, and now you have your young offensive core — Jaxson Dart, Cam Skattebo, Malik Nabers, the TBD receiver, future offensive line starter Marcus Mbow, and tight end Theo Johnson — all on their rookie contracts. This leaves you flexibility to spend on a much-needed CB1, which the Giants don’t have.

If this team were one player away from a run, that would be a different story. They are not. And they should not trade for a top-shelf receiver, which is sure to cost them premium assets they probably don’t want to part with next year.

Rinse and Repeat

At this point, we’ve probably heard Giants head coach Brian Daboll say, on multiple occasions, that the team needs to do better, that they need to coach better, that they need to do everything better whenever they lose.

But what he can’t seem to answer through actions is how to enact that improvement, which is perhaps the most alarming thing of all. 

The roster is what it is, and yes, it has injuries, but all this talk about “next man up” is just that —talk. There doesn’t appear to be any adjustments made to fit the talent of the next man up, and oftentimes, the execution that the players talk about just seems like certain guys are chasing a pie in the sky.

Ask yourself this. How often have the Giants had an injury at a position, and the next man up has filled the void, the same or better than the guy originally intended to be in there?

The answer is not enough, and it’s part of a broader problem with the direction this team is heading.

Yo Dex!

A lot of eyes were on defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence and how he would respond after being called out by Giants great Carl Banks last week. 

So what did Lawrence do this week? He had one tackle on the stat sheet, a tackle for loss at that. 

But don’t let the stats fool you. Yes, Lawrence continued to get double-teamed as per usual. He did, however, clog up the middle, though the 49ers' rushing attack went mostly to the edges, which have been soft these past few weeks.

On the rare occasions Lawrence drew a single team, he did collapse the front of the pocket. 

But here’s the big thing about Lawrence that maybe goes unnoticed. To get him single-teamed, the defense needs to blitz more, which isn’t going to happen given the back end, which is right now struggling to stay afloat. 

Absent a legitimate playmaker back there, Lawrence is going to continue to see double-team blocks at a super high rate.