Good, Bad & Ugly of NY Giants’ Week 5 Loss

For the first time this season, the Giants' run defense showed up and delivered. New York held the Saints to just 88 yards on the ground on 30 rushing attempts, a 2.9 yards per carry average.

And unlike previous weeks, there were no gushing runs against them save for a triple play of 11 yards by Kendre Miller, Alvin Kamara, and Spencer Rattler, each of whom found an open lane to exploit. 

Now, if the Giants can carry that over into their game against the Eagles' rushing attack led by old friend Saquon Barkley, that would be a nice development in a game that many are anticipating will be lopsided.

Also notable this week was the Giants' special teams play. On kickoffs, the Giants held Velus Jones and Kendre Miller to two returns for 27 yards, a 13.5 average, and they kept Rashid Shaheed from returning any of Jamie Gillan’s two punts. 

Meanwhile, the Giants’ return game saw them average 32.0 yards on kickoff returns, thanks in part to Deonte Banks’s 46-yard return, which gave the Giants a winning starting field position. New York’s average starting field position was its own 36-yard line, while the Saints started their drives on their 26-yard line. 

Lastly, there was the play of the tight ends, who saw their biggest role collectively to date. Daniel Bellinger led the way with a team-leading 52 yards on four receptions (out of four targets), and Theo Johnson wasn’t too far behind him, catching six out of seven pass targets for 33 yards and both of the Giants’ touchdowns. 

The tight ends were especially busy in the red zone, something we have been calling for for the longest time. Of the 12 red zone plays against the Saints, five went to either Johnson or Bellinger.

Four of those five red-zone pass targets were complete, and two went for scores. That’s pretty decent production by a position group that’s been something of an afterthought in the red zone of late.

Bad: The Receivers

Whenever there is an injury, coaches talk about the next man up, a phrase that is one of the most overused clichés in sports.

We’re not talking about robots that come off an assembly line and are built to identical specifications; we’re talking about human beings who have different skill sets and abilities. 

While deep down we know that the coaches realized that there was no replacing receiver Malik Nabers, to inexplicably not reinforce the position with Lil’Jordan Humphrey for this game was a head scratcher, given that the Giants put two receivers out there–Jalin Hyatt and Beaux Collins, who have limited experience at the NFL level.

But that wasn’t the worst of things. Darius Slayton and Wan’Dale Robinson, both of whom have a lot of experience, weren’t way better.

Slayton, in fact, had one of the worst, if not the worst, games of his NFL career between his turnover and his struggles to land with contested balls–we’re talking about a receiver who has a career contested catch rate of 39.8%.

What’s worse is that the Giants' receivers took several steps backward. Wan’Dale Robinson, who had been seeing snaps on the outside, went right back to being featured in the short passing game, averaging just 6.0 yards on five receptions (out of seven pass targets). 

Of those pass targets in Week 5, the game film showed that Robinson saw just two pass targets on the outside versus five from the slot.

Ugly: Five Straight Turnovers

Turnovers are bad. Five consecutive turnovers are worse. However, the capper was that the Saints got 13 points, which was enough to give them the win, while the Giants lost out on an expected 28 points in the process.

And before anyone says it’s all part of the growing pains brought about by the youth movement that the Giants have turned to, we disagree because it’s not as though those involved with the turnovers were playing in their first NFL game.