Last week, the New York Giants were flying high after a victory at home against the Washington Redskins.
This week, the Giants took a few steps back and looked like a rebuilding team in a 28-10 loss at MetLife Stadium to the Minnesota Vikings.
The Giants had so many chances to stay in this game and be competitive in it, but the Vikings were just too much for Big Blue and made them pay.
Now, in less than four days, the Giants will have to shake it off and head to Foxborough to take on the reigning Super Bowl Champions in the New England Patriots.
After Week 5, whose stock was up and down for the Giants following the loss to the Vikings?
Stock up: Darius Slayton
The rookie wide receiver got his first career touchdown on Sunday after Daniel Jones connected with him on a 35-yard strike in the second quarter.
For the last few weeks, Slayton has slowly become a reliable target for the Giants offense and for Jones, who is still figuring out the offense.
While players like Sterling Shepard and Evan Engram have already established themselves in the offense, Slayton continues to take steps to proving that he can be a big-play threat.
Stock down: Nate Solder
For the last few weeks, we’ve wondered about Solder and his struggles. Last year, we knew he was playing through injuries, but that doesn’t seem to be the case this year.
Whether he’s starting to lose a step due to age or it’s simply struggling, Solder hasn’t been playing well and it’s gotten to the point where he’s been the weak link on the line.
Solder surrendered several quarterback pressures and sacks on Jones, and committed a few penalties, too. Overall, just another poor performance for one of the league’s top paid linemen, who hasn’t played like one.
Stock up: Markus Golden
The Giants are desperate for their young pass rushers to step up. But while they figure it out, Markus Golden continues to get back to the form he had in 2016 when he had 12.5 sacks for the Arizona Cardinals.
Golden had another sack on Sunday, which gives him 4.5 sacks on the season and leads the Giants defense. He also had five total tackles in the game.
Through the first part of the season, Golden has been by far the Giants’ best pass rusher and continues to get better each week and continues to rack up the sacks for a defense that needs them.
Stock down: Deandre Baker
Baker’s biggest mistake of the game was acting like an inexperienced rookie and making a bonehead move.
Instead of the Vikings being put in a third-and-long, Baker got flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct and gave the Vikings a first down. The Vikings eventually scored on the drive (over Baker) and put the game out of reach.
Had Baker not been called for that penalty, the Giants may have kept the game in reach and could have stayed in it. But that penalty seemed to start the Giants slow spiral downwards.
Stock up: Dexter Lawrence
Many wondered if the Giants would ever replace the presence the defensive line lost when they dealt Damon Harrison last season, but they are slowly figuring out that Dexter Lawrence could do that and more.
While his numbers don’t jump out at you, Lawrence is clearly making his presence felt inside and on Sunday, he was causing havoc against the Minnesota offensive line.
To go along with it, Lawrence recorded a sack of Kirk Cousins, which was his second of the season.
Lawrence continues to get better each week and if he can continue clog up the middle like he demonstrated thus far, it could open up things for guys on the outside to make plays themselves.
Stock down: Golden Tate
Sunday was Tate’s debut for the Giants after serving a four-game suspension for PED’s and it was a rather lackluster performance.
Heading into the fourth quarter, Tate had just one catch for five yards. He ended the game with three catches for 15 yards.
Tate is supposed to be one of the Giants go-to threats in the offense and on Sunday, you would have never known he was on the field.
Granted, it was his first game back on the field after sitting for a month, but the Giants really could have needed a bigger impact out of Tate and he was practically invisible. And then he griped about it.
