Last season Coach Burn assured everyone that Daniel Jones was the starting quarterback for the New York Giants, then the draft came. As coach Burn saw the top ten quarterback continue to fall, he had no choice but to act. He traded pick 28, a third, and a second next year in order to get pick 22 from the Seahawks. The selection was in and the Giants officially took quarterback CJ Stroud from Ohio State. Stroud was a great quarterback who had a shot at being a superstar. He was a mixed bag in preseason, throwing for 12 touchdowns, 14 interceptions, and 1282 yards on 108 attempts. Preseason is a time to see what players can do and Stroud showed superstar potential, however, he was only given star status. This wasn’t enough to deter coach Burn from declaring him as the official starter for week 1.
In week 1, the Giants headed over to Glendale to face off against the Arizona Cardinals. The Giants coaching staff had two scenarios for this game, both of which required their gameplan to change to focus on the passing game. CJ Stroud was required to throw for 300 yards, and beat the Cardinals, while the Giants as a team were required to throw for 350 yards passing and beat the Cardinals. In knowing this, Coach Burn opted to choose a medium passing game approach. He felt that the rookie could take advantage of the Cardinal secondary while not making too many mistakes.
The game started off as bad as could be for the Giants. On the very first carry of the game, Barkley spun away from a tackle only to get knocked into oblivion by JJ Watt which resulted in him fumbling the football. On their next possession, Stroud did a great job driving down the field, only to throw a bullet pass to Barkley that was intercepted by Leonard. If he would have thrown a lobbed pass to the left, Barkley would have easily walked in for a touchdown. On their third possession, Stroud saw a free man running to the sideline, however, he overthrew the pass right into the hands of Murphy Jr. This resulted in the Giants going down 13-0 to start the game. After these three turnovers, Stroud and the Giants settled down. Stroud would drive down the field, and this time hit Ross on the slant for a touchdown. On the Cardinals ensuing drive, Murray attempted to test Crossen and was rewarded with Crossen running the distance for a pick six. After being down for most of the first half, the Giants were able to take the lead going into halftime. With Stroud commanding the offense, he put up yards and points against the Cardinals defense. The defense did what they needed to and the Giants won the game 31-28. The Giants won the game, however, didn’t throw for 350 yards passing. Despite not getting the passing yardage, every member of the Giants were rewarded with 1000 xp points.
CJ Stroud had some rookie mistakes in his first start, however, adjusted and did what he needed to in order to get his very first win. Stroud threw for 3 touchdowns, 2 interceptions, and 330 yards on 29 passing attempts. Outside of a few throws he was very accurate, as he ended with a 79.3 completion rate. He was able to hit his goal for his scenario and was given the option for extra xp or attribute points. He chose the attribute points and was rewarded with +4 deep throw accuracy. This will help his deep throws that are a staple in the Giants offense.
The defense had the hard task of stopping one of the fastest players in the league. On most plays coach Burn contained his defense, however without Thibodeaux who was hurt earlier in the first quarter, they were no match for Murray’s speed. A few times during the game Murray showed off his speed and arm strength by getting out of the pocket and throwing deep to the opposite side of the field. They were able to get some pressure on Murray later in the game which resulted in bad interceptions. Had it not been for these bad interceptions, the game would have ended in a different result.
After a rough start, the Giants did what they wanted and won the game. When the offense doesn’t make mistakes, they can be one of the best in the league. The defense has the players to be one of the best in the league but will need to change some things up in order to take advantage of their strengths. All in all this was a good win versus a dangerous team and it was the win Stroud needed so he can become more comfortable in this offense. Next week, the Giants will face off against the Dallas Cowboys.
