NY Giants: Evaluating their First Half Struggles

Giants vs Cardinals Week 14

The Giants game against Arizona started off as bad as any football can team can ask for. The Giants received the game’s opening kickoff and disaster struck their offense early.

Daniel Jones, in his first game back from injury, got rocked by ex-Giant Markus Golden on the game’s 5th play. Jones never saw Golden and he came free off the edge and blasted Jones into oblivion and caused a fumble that was returned near the Giants’ goal line.

Thankfully, the defense bailed out the offense got a massive goal-line stop on 4th down, and got the ball back for NY. The offense again failed and punted to Arizona giving them another short field for an easy field goal.

The Giants offense had a punt party and a fumble fiesta in the first half. They punted or fumbled on every possession.

After three straight punts and a fumble, the team let up another field goal on short field position. On the ensuing kickoff, Dion Lewis got hit and the ball was literally kicked out of his hands and recovered by Arizona. Kyler Murray responded with his first touchdown of the day to go up 13-0.

The Giants responded again by punting twice more to close the half. The Giants ended the first half down 13-0 with a paltry 44 total yards, three first downs, and only one possession crossing midfield.

These dreadful numbers set the tempo for the second half and the Giants never found their footing all game. The team was sleepwalking from start to finish all day.

This game snapped the team’s four-game winning streak and was a preview of more to come over the next three weeks.

0 points, 3 first downs, 44 yards, and 1 possession across midfield won’t cut it in any NFL opening half.