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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Jeevan Kirkland

Giants report card: How we graded Big Blue in Week 4 loss

The New York Giants were blown out once again in prime time, this time on Monday Night Football to the Seattle Seahawks.

Big Blue fell, 24-3, in a home loss to Seattle. This was once again a game where the Giants failed to get anything going. The team came out flat and never improved.

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Here’s a quick breakdown of what we saw during the game and how we graded the Giants in this loss.

Offense: F

Sarah Stier/Getty Images

It seems like the Giants offense could not receive a passing grade almost every week this year.

The same problems continued in Week 4 for the Giants. It all starts with the offensive line, which suffered additional injuries as John Michael Schmitz exited early in the first half. This resulted in Shane Lemieux coming in at guard and Ben Bredeson shifting over to center which was an absolute disaster.

Daniel Jones was pressured on practically every play that the Giants did not have seven players blocking. Giants’ passers were hit 14 times and sacked 11 times on the night. It was arguably one of the worst Giants’ offensive line performances of all time.

However, Jones is not without blame. While he was good on the ground with his legs rushing for 63 yards, he by no means had a good game. He threw two interceptions (one of them being a game-ending pick-6 on the goal line) and also had a bad fumble behind the line of scrimmage.

Whenever the offense is responsible for more points for the other team than they score you know it was a terrible day. This offense needs to turn it around and do so quickly or there will definitely be some house cleaning come the 2024 offseason.

Defense: B

Sarah Stier/Getty Images

The defense got the short end of the stick in this one.

A Jones fumble set up the first score of the game for Seattle as Geno Smith & Co. got the ball seven yards away from the end zone. Other than this, the defense only allowed 10 points on the night. The defense also forced four punts and two turnovers on downs.

The defense was also pretty active in this game as they defended four passes and made six tackles in the backfield. They also held Smith to a season-low 110 passing yards (Drew Lock did add 63 yards passing in which 51 of them came on a broken play).

However, the biggest problem for the defense is the same as it has been all season which is tackling. Missed tackles were a killer and allowed Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet to rush for a combined 110 yards on only 22 carries. It also contributed to Noah Fant’s 51-yard scamper which set up Seattle’s touchdown towards the end of the first half.

Special Teams: D

Al Bello/Getty Images

The only thing that would have made this special team’s performance worse would have been a touchdown surrendered by the unit.

Being penalized six times on special teams is unacceptable. Eric Gray also muffed a punt in the first quarter which would have been a devastating blow early if not recovered.

Overall, the only positive in this unit was Graham Gano who nailed his sole field goal attempt from 55 yards out.

Coaching: D-

Al Bello/Getty Images

Brian Daboll is putting together a string of embarrassing coaching performances after winning the 2022 Coach of the Year Award. For a person who is praised for his personality and his grit, he seems to have not spread any of it to the 2023 roster.

This team just looks like they do not want to play football and that is on Daboll. To make matters worse, his in-game coaching is no better than his lackluster preparation. The decision to go for it on fourth down on the opening drive resulted in three fewer points on the board, the team was penalized at a staggeringly bad rate, and there seems to never be any halftime adjustments.

As for the coordinators, Mike Kafka is a ghost of his 2022 self when it comes to play calling. This team runs the same zone runs and checkdowns on every play and Seattle just took advantage of it.

While Kafka does not have the best tools to work with, this offense does have speed and it seems like he can not scheme anyone open. Kafka also is unable to build protection for Jones without running a max protect set which sends two receivers deep who fail to get open making it completely illogical. There are clearly a lot of talent problems when it comes to the players on offense but when it comes to the coaches the talent is also not there.

On the other side of the ball, Wink Martindale had his best game yet as a defensive coordinator. He helped hold the Seahawks to just a 25-percent conversion rate on third downs while also holding the team to their second-lowest output in both yards (281) and points (17). The only problem is that this defense does not force turnovers and when the offense turns it over at such a high rate it is hard to win without matching.

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