Traveling 4,000 miles for their next game might be the best thing for the New York Giants after they dropped to 0-5 at home with Sunday’s 27-22 loss to the Commanders. But before the Giants’ game against the Panthers in Germany on Sunday, here’s a final review of the Commander’s loss:
Mistakes of youth
The Giants are leaning heavily on rookies this season. That should be good for the future. It won’t always be good for the present.
The Giants’ rookie class has been a bright spot for much of the season, but there have been some growing pains recently. Sunday’s game was mostly forgettable for the group.
First-round pick Malik Nabers didn’t have a catch until the third quarter. He finished with nine catches for 59 yards on 11 targets, and expressed frustration with the run-heavy game plan in the first half while pointing out that “I’m not the play caller.”
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It was well-documented during “Hard Knocks” that Nabers would be unhappy with not being heavily involved in the offense. That wasn’t an issue early in the season, as he was getting targeted at an astronomical rate and producing at a record pace.
Nabers remains the focal point of the offense. His 32 targets during the past three games after a two-week absence due to a concussion are tied for second-most in the league over that stretch. But he has been nowhere as explosive, averaging just 8.6 yards per catch. That ranks 111th in the league.
Nabers’ postgame comments didn’t cross the line, but the Giants need to get a handle on his frustrations before they become a problem.
Second-round pick Tyler Nubin has been ultra-reliable, leaving the field for just two snaps this season. Nubin’s ball-hawking skills from college haven’t yet translated — no interceptions, no passes defended — but he had been a solid tackler. Sunday was an exception.
Nubin was late to pick up Commanders running back Austin Ekeler on a crossing route on third-and-9 midway through the fourth quarter. Nubin then missed a tackle at the first down marker, allowing Ekeler to gain 28 yards. Nubin also lost Olamide Zaccheaus in coverage just before the two-minute warning, enabling the receiver to get open for a 42-yard gain that iced the game.
WE SEE YOU O.Z. 👀
📺 #WASvsNYG FOX pic.twitter.com/QPqNpPEbdx
— Washington Commanders (@Commanders) November 3, 2024
Third-round pick Dru Phillips was the Giants’ best defensive back for the first seven games, bringing physicality in the run game and limiting receivers in coverage. That changed in last week’s 26-18 loss to the Steelers when Phillips was picked on in coverage and gave up two long completions.
Phillips suffered a costly blunder on Sunday, missing a tackle on a short pass on third-and-18 with time running low in the first half. Phillips’ missed tackle allowed receiver Dyami Brown to gain 24 yards and put Washington in position for an 18-yard touchdown pass with 11 seconds remaining in the half. Phillips also allowed Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels to escape the pocket for a 16-yard scramble when he failed to break down after getting into the backfield untouched on a blitz.
Nubin and Phillips displayed admirable accountability after the game. Phillips was particularly hard on himself saying, “I need to grow up.”
Fourth-round pick Theo Johnson has been the Giants’ No. 1 tight end all season. That’s a lot to put on the plate of a raw rookie, and there have been predictable ups and downs. Johnson failed to make catches on some well-thrown balls Sunday before finishing on a high note with a 35-yard touchdown grab on a seam pass. That’s the second straight week Johnson has made an explosive play on a seam route, which needs to become a bigger part of the offense to take advantage of his 6-foot-6, 264-pound frame.
Daniel Jones to the rookie Theo Johnson for the TD!
📺: #WASvsNYG on FOX
📱: pic.twitter.com/sdIyUDY5hE— NFL (@NFL) November 3, 2024
Fifth-round pick Tyrone Tracy remained the clear No. 1 running back on Sunday. Tracy didn’t have any of the explosive runs that have defined his best performances, but he grinded out 66 yards on 16 carries. The Giants were overdue to find a quality running back in the later rounds of the draft, and the early indications are that they’ve done so with Tracy.
Sixth-round pick Darius Muasau has mostly been a special teamer with a defensive series sprinkled in occasionally. He didn’t play any snaps at linebacker on Sunday. Undrafted rookie Elijah Chatman had a steady role as the defensive tackle next to Dexter Lawrence on passing downs, but recently signed veteran Armon Watts took some of those snaps Sunday.
A rough game or two isn’t an indictment on this rookie class, just as the group shouldn’t have been crowned after a handful of promising showings. There’s still plenty of cause for optimism about this draft class, but it will be interesting to track how the rookies progress in the second half of the season.
New week, same question
Giants coach Brian Daboll fields a question each week confirming that Daniel Jones is still his starting quarterback. That says a lot about the state of the team.
It looked like a benching could be possible at halftime Sunday after Jones had an absurd stat line: 4-for-6, 0 yards, one touchdown, no interceptions and a fumble. But Jones wouldn’t go quietly, completing 16-of-20 passes for 174 yards and a touchdown in the second half.
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Jones added a 2-yard touchdown run when he trucked Commanders cornerback Mike Sainristil at the goal line. Jones had seven carries for 54 yards, as he had his most effective game of the season when keeping zone reads.
🚨 DANIEL JONES TD 🚨
It’s Jones’ first TD pass at MetLife Stadium since Jan. 1, 2023.
🎥 @NFLpic.twitter.com/Bo218fyURl
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) November 3, 2024
It’s obvious that Jones’ $23 million injury guarantee isn’t influencing his standing as the starter. But the Giants are tied for the worst record in the league, and they’re last in scoring, so there are other factors that could lead to a quarterback change. Jones’ second-half performance Sunday earned him another start, and now he gets to face Carolina’s league-worst defense.
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The other question that’s going to loom over the second half of the season is Daboll’s job security. Co-owner John Mara recently gave a vote of confidence to Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen, vowing not to make any changes during the season. Mara hedged on the future saying, “I do not anticipate making any changes in the offseason either.”
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There’s no reason to expect Mara to reverse his stance on making any moves during the season, but tension would run high if the Giants travel to Germany and extend their losing streak to five games against the woeful Panthers.
A 23-22 loss to the Panthers on Sunday was the final straw for Dennis Allen, who was fired as the Saints’ head coach on Monday. It was the seventh straight loss for the Saints. Allen had an 18-25 record in two-plus seasons. Daboll has a 17-25-1 record with the Giants.
Trade time?
Another question is if outside linebacker Azeez Ojulari will still be a Giant after the trade deadline at 4 p.m. on Tuesday. The Giants have reportedly engaged in trade talks surrounding Ojulari, who has five sacks in the past four games.
One potential suitor for Ojulari is out of the running after the Cardinals traded a sixth-round pick to the Broncos for outside linebacker Baron Browning. That trade should help set the market for Ojulari.
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Browning, 25, was a third-round pick in 2021 and is in the final year of his rookie contract. Ojulari, 24, was a second-round pick in 2021 and is in the final year of his rookie contract.
Browning doesn’t have any sacks in five games this season and has just 9.5 career sacks. Ojulari has been far more productive as a pass rusher with six sacks this season and 22 career sacks.
The Giants should be able to get more for Ojulari, so a fifth-round pick seems like a reasonable expectation. The Browns got a 2025 fifth-round pick and a 2026 sixth-round pick for Za’Darius Smith and a 2026 seventh-round pick in a trade with the Lions on Tuesday. That leaves the Falcons as an obvious trade partner for Ojulari.
Staying or going?
The Giants’ other trade chip is wide receiver Darius Slayton. A complication is that Slayton suffered a concussion during Sunday’s game. There’s no way of knowing when Slayton will clear the NFL’s concussion protocol.
Technically, this is Slayton’s second concussion of the season. But he said his entry into the concussion protocol in Week 2 was triggered by him asking the team’s medical staff for aspirin because he had a headache the morning after the season opener. Slayton said he didn’t have any other concussion symptoms, and he quickly passed through the protocol to play in Week 2.
Like Ojulari, Slayton is set to become a free agent after the season. But it seems less likely the Giants will move on from their most consistent receiver. Schoen and Daboll would need to believe they have ultimate security to remove Slayton from the NFL’s lowest-scoring offense, especially when Daboll is so closely tied to that side of the ball.
Limited vision
Pre-draft projections ranged from the third round to the fifth round for Wan’Dale Robinson in 2022. Schoen explained that there was a vision for how Robinson would be used after taking the receiver in the second round (No. 43 overall).
This can’t be the vision. Robinson’s 6.9 yards per catch ranks 82nd out 82 qualifying wide receivers. He made three catches for 10 yards on Sunday. It was the second time in three games Robinson has averaged fewer than four yards per catch.
There were always going to be limitations for how the Giants could deploy the 5-foot-8, 185-pound Robinson, who has historically short arms. It seemed like the Giants had a formula early in the season with back-to-back games of 61 yards and 71 yards mostly as the result of yards after the catch. But Robinson has been a complete non-factor recently and there’s no clear vision for how they can get more out of the third-year receiver.
Robinson had a 3-yard touchdown catch taken off the board when Slayton was called for a ticky-tack offensive pass interference while running a pick play. It’s not just in your head that the Giants have gotten called for offensive pass interference more than other teams recently.
It was a major issue during the 2022 season when the Giants were flagged a league-high six times for OPI. The Giants had avoided the penalty over the past two seasons, but it cropped up at a critical moment in Sunday’s game.
Two-point try harder
Daboll’s decision to go for two after scoring a touchdown while trailing by 14 points in the fourth quarter can be debated. Plenty of smart people have explained why it’s the right call.
Regardless of the decision, the play calls on the Giants’ two failed two-point attempts left plenty to be desired. On the first play, the Giants called a pass concept that wasn’t a good counter to Washington’s zone defense. With no one open, Jones was forced to scramble after right guard Greg Van Roten got beat. Jones was stopped short of the goal line.
The play call on the second two-point conversion attempt was uninspired. Nabers and Jalin Hyatt ran fade routes on each side of the formation, while Robinson ran an option route from the left slot. There were three defenders in the area as Robinson broke out, so Jones didn’t pull the trigger. There was no backup option because the Giants kept Tracy and Johnson in to block, so there were only three receivers running routes. Jones scrambled to buy time but still couldn’t find a receiver and was sacked.
Daboll explained that the two-point play calls were “this play or that play.”
“Check-with-me plays,” Daboll said. “If they give us one look, we get to the other look.”
Daboll resisted placing blame on Jones for not checking out of either of the doomed two-point play calls.
“I would just say that the guys are trying to do everything they can do to make it right, and Washington did a nice job. Give Washington credit,” Daboll said.
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Irish goodbye?
Daboll didn’t share any details on the oblique injury kicker Greg Joseph suffered in Friday’s practice. Joseph had made 13-of-16 field goals in six games in place of Graham Gano, who went on injured reserve after injuring his hamstring in Week 2.
Joseph’s injury forced the Giants to elevate practice squad kicker Jude McAtamney for Sunday’s game. The Irish-born McAtamney was expected to spend the season developing on the practice squad as an international exemption. Instead, he made a 31-yard field goal and his lone extra point attempt in his first NFL game. McAtamney’s run as the team’s kicker may be brief, as Gano could be activated off of injured reserve this week.
Joseph was put on IR on Saturday. That’s the fifth time the Giants have placed a kicker on IR in the past two seasons. Gano, Randy Bullock and Cade York all were placed on IR last season.
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Additionally, punter Jamie Gillan has missed the past four games with a hamstring injury suffered in practice. Gillan wasn’t put on IR, so the Giants have been carrying two punters on the active roster for the past four weeks. Gillan could return this week as well, which would lead to the release of Matt Haack.
(Photo of Theo Johnson: Julian Leshay Guadalupe / NorthJersey.com / USA Today Network)
