At least for three quarters the Giants showed some life. Of course effort by itself is not enough to win ball games, and that was the case Sunday at MetLife Stadium as the Cowboys stormed past the Giants 30-10 to send Big Blue to a 2-11 record. At the very least the Giants gave a better effort than they had in 11 games under Ben McAdoo this season.
Back in the lineup since the infamous benching that cost McAdoo his job, Eli Manning was good, at least for part of the day. He engineered a 17-play, 62-yard drive that culminated in a field goal to tie the game at three in the first quarter. Later on, he looked like the Eli Manning of old when he dropped a dime in the hands of Evan Engram for a 35-yard completion to the Dallas 21 on a drive that ended in a Manning touchdown pass to Rhett Ellison.With just two minutes to go before halftime the Giants held a 10-3 lead.
But what started out as a hopeful sign that the Giants would turn things around in just their first game of the post-McAdoo era, things got ugly fast.
The offense went into a proverbial shell, mainly because Manning was continually failed by dropped passes from his wide receivers, and the fact the Giants were unable to muster anything creative formations by their offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan.
On top of that, interim head coach Steve Spagnuolo watched his defensive unit completely fail him in the second half. The Giants gave up way too many big plays tot he Cowboys to even think they had a shot in this contest. Every single touchdown the Cowboys had on Sunday was done in four plays or less. That is a case of not only poor tackling, but missed assignments on the part of the Giants.
Perhaps the turning point of the afternoon came on a third and two from Dallas' own 26 yard line, when Dak Prescott found Cody Beasley on a slant, and the speedy receiver did the rest dashing down the sideline for a 54-yard reception. On the next play Prescott went over the top and found his pro bowl tight end Jason Witten for six to give the Cowboys a 17-10 lead.
The dagger didn't come until later in the fourth, when Prescott hit Rod Smith wide open in the flat, and he dashed by a Giants defense that parted like the Red Sea for an 81-yard touchdown to make it 23-10.
And remember Eli Manning playing well? Yeah, that didn't last long either. Manning threw two killer interceptions at the end of the game that sealed the Giants fate.
Inside the numbers: Even though New York had 330 yards of total offense on Sunday, the Cowboys had 450, most of which came in the fourth quarter. The Cowboys 30-10 win over Big Blue solidified a season sweep of the Giants, the first time since 2014 that Dallas has swept New York in a season. Steve Spagnuolo dropped to 10-39 all time as a head coach.
GM Search: The Giants might have their next General Manager in place. Word around the league Sunday is that the Giants are close to naming former Panthers executive David Gettleman as their new GM. Gentleman was with the Giants for 13 years from 1999-2012, and knows this franchise quiet well. However, one has to assume Sunday's game was not a good audition for Manning and Spagnuolo for their presumptive new boss. The Giants could make it official with Gettleman this week.
No comments:
Post a Comment