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History repeats itself...
Just like in the first meeting, the Washington Football Team came out against one of the worst teams in the NFL and laid an egg. If Daniel Jones played Washington every game, he’d be well on his way to the Hall of Fame. The Jones’ led Giants are 4-0 against us. Conversely, when he plays the rest of the league, he’s 1-17! This is what The Football Team seems to do on a regular basis - make bad teams look good.
If the loss to a division rival, again, wasn’t bad enough, we had another quarterback break his leg on about the same spot on the field where Alex Smith suffered his horrific injury. Kyle Smith was beginning to show signs of serious progress after taking over for Dwayne Haskins - that is until he was leg-whipped by a blitzing Jabrill Peppers, ending his season.
Ah - fun times!
Moving on...Below are my Studs and Duds of the game followed by some notes.
Studs:
Terry McLaurin - F1 is like a beacon of light on an otherwise dark and foggy evening. The second year wideout and newly anointed team captain hauled in seven receptions for 115 yards and a touchdown on the afternoon. At the team’s halfway point of the season, Terry is on pace for 100 receptions and over 1200 receiving yards. This kid is something special!
Cam Sims - Many of us had hoped that Cam Sims would be given an opportunity to shine over these past two seasons. He had yet to really break out - that was until Sunday! Sims had three catches for 110 receiving yards on the afternoon. Hopefully his production continues throughout the season.
Daron Payne - Payne was a big pain in the butt for the Giants’ offensive line, collecting seven tackles, one for a loss, and two quarterback pressures.
Kendall Fuller/Ronald Darby - The duo played very well on the afternoon, limiting the big plays to the wide receivers they were covering. In fact, the two biggest plays that the Giants had on offense (the 50 yard reception by Mack and the touchdown by Engram), both came against Kam Curl.
Dustin Hopkins - I almost can’t believe I’m writing this, but Hopkins drilled both field goal attempts, and they were both beyond 40 yards!
Duds:
Alex Smith - You can argue about this one all you want, but when you are in a position to put points on the board, or in the middle of a drive and you turn the ball over, you come out a DUD! Sure he moved the football and found open receivers, and you can say the first interception wasn’t even his fault - but then I’m going to say, why was he throwing a 2 yard pass anyways with two defenders bearing down on McKissic before he slipped to the turf? The last two interceptions were just inexcusable!
Logan Thomas - Thomas was dreadful on the afternoon. He dropped two passes - one a perfect strike on a third down rollout by Kyle Allen that would have moved the chains. And if that wasn’t bad enough, he was called for a holding and couldn’t recover a fumble that he had a CLEAR shot at early in the first quarter.
The Offensive Line - Although they allowed just two sacks, the o-line was dreadful in the running game - which saw our efforts go for just 37 total rushing yards on nine carries. Throw in multiple penalties and pressures allowed, and you have a recipe for disaster. This was not a good look for this unit coming off a bye!
The Linebacking Corps - Bostic, Pierre-Louis and Holcomb were not in sync Sunday afternoon. The trio allowed the Giants ball carriers to accumulate 166 yards rushing and a touchdown. If you look at the stats, you may be misled, as many of their combined 16 tackles came WELL past the line of scrimmage.
The Coaching Staff - I’m going to pin a TON of blame here on the coaching staff. To come off a bye week and look as unprepared and flat as this team did was inexcusable! And I’m sorry, but any team who in their career is 0-4 against Daniel Jones needs to be HEAVILY criticized! I know the coaches can’t go out and play the game for the players, but the general sloppiness was unacceptable.
Notes:
- Rookie safety Kam Curl had a rough afternoon. He was certainty not Troy Apke bad, but he was burnt in coverage on a few occasions. He did pick up his first career sack and played pretty well against the run, which is why you do not see him on the naughty list.
- Antonio Gibson caught three passes for 35 yards and scored a rushing TD, but his fumble on Washington’s opening drive proved to be very costly.
- J.D. McKissic outperformed Gibson on the afternoon, both running the football, and catching it out of the backfield. He led the team in receptions with nine, and had 17 yards rushing on three carries.
- Where was Steven Sims Jr.? In fact, before his injury, WHERE WAS STEVEN SIMS JR.???
- Wright made a bad rookie mistake on his punt muff. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen again. I really don’t know what else to say about that, except you can see how incredibly costly a mistake it was.
- Both Chase Young and Montez Sweat were pretty much neutralized this game.
Slow Starts:
Here is what happened in the first quarter of Sunday’s game.
First possession:
- Antonio Gibson has a great run after the catch, but fumbles. Logan Thomas, instead of just falling on the football, tries to pick it up and run with it. The Giants end up recovering.
Second possession:
- Logan Thomas drops a pass on third down that would have resulted in a first.
Third Possession:
- OH...we didn’t have one because Wright fumbled the punt!
fourth possession:
- Kyle Allen dislocates his ankle and breaks his leg - all because of a Peppers leg-whip!
ALL I CAN SAY IS WOW...