In two short weeks the New York Giants have half as many wins as they did a season ago. The offense has been clicking for the past few weeks, and it’s no coniconedece that it all stems from playing turnover free football as well as their best player being involved one hundred percent. Week three brings a true test for the Giants as they head down to Tennessee to play the Tennessee Titans.
With Golladay still sidelined, and Toney still hurt for another two weeks, the offensive game plan boiled down to running the football while the defensive game plan was to stop Henery at all costs and force Haskins to beat them. Before the game, the weather called for a heavy downpour which forced an adjustment to the game plan, however, right as the game kicked off the skies were clear.
The Giants got the ball first, and their offense for the first half and mostly second of the game was as bad as it could ever be. The defense seemed to take the stop Henry at all costs gameplan to heart as Haskins carved them up the entire game. The Titans went up early in the game, however at one point the Giants forced a fumble of Hurts to go up 17-14. This would be the last lead the Giants would have as on the next offensive possession Haskins continued his dominance and scored easily. Jones and the Giants offense couldn’t figure out the Titan defense and ended up throwing a pick to end the game. The Titans would run it out and win with an official score of 28-17.
Jones had his worst game of the season as he seemingly reverted back to his play of last season. He did a great job escaping the pocket only to miss several throws to wide open players. His official statline was he threw for 200 yards, 1 touchdown, and 3 interceptions on 29 pass attempts, however, all of his interceptions were not his fault. His interception that was thrown to Engram, bounced off of his hands, hit him in the helmet and was picked off by a defender. This interception was the one that hurt the most as the Giants were driving to potentially take the lead. Barkley was used pretty well in the passing game, but it seemed as if the Giants gave up the run game way too early as he only ran for 40 yards on 12 attempts. Some would say that the game could have gone a different way if Jones’s interceptions were switched with rushing plays instead.
The Giants pass defense folded like a lawn chair from start to finish. They went all in to stop Henry and it worked for the most part, however, they allowed Haskins to look like a 6 time hall of famer out there. Haskins did whatever he wanted, fitting passes into tight windows, while escaping and avoiding pressure at the last minute. Rookie Kayvon Thibodeaux continued his fantastic rookie campaign getting another sack which makes for 4 saacks in three games.
All in all the Giants kept up with a playoff contender in the AFC and should be proud of some things they did in that game, however, they will need to work on their offense if they want to win these games. Next week they face off against another playoff winning team in the Green Bay Packers.
