The New York Giants’ offense is an abject disaster this season, and their offensive line has been to blame quite a bit for that. Right tackle Evan Neal, the second overall pick in the 2021 draft, has been the subject of a particularly high amount of fan rancor this season, and after Big Blue’s Monday night loss to the Seattle Seahawks — a 24-3 thrashing in which Seattle posted 11 sacks — Neal let it loose regarding the disapproving fans.
“Why would a lion concern himself with the opinion of a sheep? The person that’s commenting on my performance, what does he do? Flip hot dogs and hamburgers somewhere?
“And how can you say you’re really a fan when we’re out there battling our asses off — and the game wasn’t going well — but the best you can do is boo your home team? So how much of a fan are you, really?”
Neal later apologized for those comments.
“I’m remorseful. I definitely could’ve used a better choice of words. Coming from humble beginnings myself, I never want to belittle anyone, regardless of their financial status or their occupation. So I really just wanted to apologize for what I said.
“I want the fans to know that I’m a human, like everyone else. If you ask anyone that’s ever been around me, they always speak highly of me. Nobody’s perfect, including myself.”
So… with all that out of the way, there was the matter of New York’s Sunday game against the Miami Dolphins, which the Giants lost, 31-16, to fall to 1-4 on the season. Included in that game was this sack of Daniel Jones in which edge-rusher Emmanuel Ogbah and defensive tackle Christian Wilkins met at the quarterback. It looked for all the world that Neal missed Ogbah and just didn’t pick him up, leading to the takedown.
Fan reaction was… well, what it was going to be.
I may be a fair-weathered sheep who flips hot dogs and hamburgers, but maybe Evan Neal can explain what’s happening here. #NYGiants pic.twitter.com/4vQASDwEP6
— Jaime Eisner (@JaimeEisner) October 8, 2023
Which is understandable, but when you look at the whole play, things appear to be more than you might think.
Ogbah and Wilkins get in for the sack on third down pic.twitter.com/r6dyFBEilC
— FinCuts (@FinCuts) October 8, 2023
With the running back releasing to the flat, empty protection takes over, and in this case, Neal was responsible for Jerome Baker, the blitzing linebacker, as opposed to Ogbah. Here, it’s up to Jones to throw the hot route to the flat. Given that it was a third-and-7 situation, maybe you want Jones to make a protection call to keep the back in for a chance at something more vertical, but things are what they are in that department.
Anyway… don’t take my word for it; take the word of two former NFL offensive linemen who observed it correctly.
Hard to see the full picture but it looks like empty protection and he's on the sift side. His backer comes so he goes to block him. This appears correct from him https://t.co/wAJfr2cTR1
— Geoff Schwartz (@geoffschwartz) October 8, 2023
Schwartz also said that the exception would be if the Dolphins overloaded to Neal’s side with three linemen, which they didn’t.
Hey @NYGToday I understand the negativity towards Neal but before furthering the narrative maybe understand the play before posting what you “think” rather than “know”. Neal has a sift on backer in empty protection which he does. This is all on Jones. Needs to throw hot!
— AQ Shipley (@aqshipley) October 8, 2023
Has Neal played badly this season? More often than not, yes. But in this case, he did what he was supposed to to, though the result was far from optimal.
