New York Giants: Week 1 Report Card

With emotions still fresh from watching the New York Giants making some of the worst time management blunders in recent memory, I felt it would be best take a little time to digest the bitter pill of defeat in order grade each position fairly for Big Blue. It was as tough of a loss as it gets for the G-Men but there were some bright spots that the team can build on going forward and hopefully put this debacle behind them forever. Let’s start with one of those bright spots, the offensive line.

Offensive Line- B+. Coming into last night’s game the Giants’ offensive line was one of their biggest question marks but they played solid all around last night. Rookie Ereck Flowers had a couple of typical rookie hiccups but for the most part held his own in his first real game at left tackle. The rest of the line did a very good job of not only protecting Eli Manning, but also opening up big holes for Rashad Jennings, Andre Williams and Shane Vereen.

Defensive Line- F. The Giants pass rush was non-existent which isn’t to surprising when you look at the disparity of talent between the Cowboys massive offensive line and the average at best Giants defensive line. One bright spot was defensive tackle Johnathan Hankins who is by far the most talented lineman on the Giants. Defensive end Damontre Moore made the most out of the whopping 8 snaps he played despite being the team’s best pass rusher. It is clear that this team misses and needs Jason Pierre-Paul in the worst way, even if he only has one good hand.

Receivers (Wide Receivers and Tight Ends)- D. Look I get that Manning wasn’t as sharp with his passes as he usually is, but the dropped passes and lack of effort against an average Cowboys secondary is inexcusable. While former Giant James Jones was back in Green Bay looking like an all-pro receiver, Preston Parker is still on the team dropping crucial passes left and right leaving many potential points on the board.

Odell Beckham Jr was for the most part bottled up due to getting a lot of extra attention from the Dallas secondary and also due to the fact that Parker and Reuben Randle did absolutely nothing to help him out and quite frankly looked like they weren’t even trying. Tight Ends Larry Donnell and Daniel Fells were good but not great in terms of overall production.

Running Backs- B. Playing behind an offensive line that did a great job opening up holes, the committee of Rashad Jennings, Andre Williams and Shane Vereen made some big plays. Jennings looked healthy and carried the ball well and Williams ran as hard as ever. Vereen lived up to his billing by making several plays as a receiver and as a tail back.

Linebackers- C+. Since Jon Beason suffered his annual stream of injuries, the Giants linebacking corps is once again lacking in depth and relying on unproven players. Such is the case with Uani Unga. Unga is a raw young talent with a lot of upside but is not yet eady for a full-time starting role. He finished last night’s game with 12 solo tackles and an interception but struggled to contain perennial Giant killer Jason Witten. Fellow linebackers Devon Kennard and J.T. Thomas played about as well as can be expected with zero pass rush but it wasn’t good enough to earn a better than average grade.

Secondary-B+. Price Amukamara and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie were outstanding last night. It’s no easy task to cover weapons like Dez Bryant and Jason Witten for ages without any pass rush, but these two did just that. They were aggressive and made play after play despite DRC being flagged for doing nothing except his job. Plus the huge turnovers by DRC and safety Brandon Merriwether should have been enough to win the game for Big Blue. Speaking of Merriwether, he and rookie Landon Collins also played well by forcing turnovers and limiting big plays.

Quarterback-F. Let me start by saying I am a huge Eli Manning supporter and I believe he deserves way more credit than most people give him but he cost his team the game last night. His blunders on the last drive of the game from not knowing how many timeouts Dallas had or running plays without running the clock down to throwing an incompletion on a key third down that gave the game gift wrapped for the Cowboys who took advantage and gashed a worn out Giants defense in just over a minute.

Plus telling Rashad Jennings not to score when it would have put the Giants up by 10 with less than a minute to go is flat-out mind-boggling. These were mistakes you would expect from a rookie, not a 12 year vet with two Super Bowl MVP and fresh off signing a new $100 million deal. Manning will be fine going forward but he must be held accountable for one of his worst performances as a pro. Hopefully he can put this nightmare behind him and get back on track at home vs Atlanta.

Next: New York Giants: Five Takeaways From Week 1

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