NY Giants studs and duds vs. Washington: Dexter Lawrence gaffe costly

NY Giants head coach Joe Judge should probably make Dexter Lawrence run the 220 miles from FedExField to East Rutherford.

That would make as much sense as running players on penalty laps during training camp has proven to.

For all of the talk about how grueling training camp practices and penalty laps were supposed to mold a disciplined football team, Judge’s NY Giants looked like anything but over the final five minutes of Thursday’s 30-29 loss to the Washington Football Team.

Rock bottom, of course, was Lawrence jumping offsides allow Dustin Hopkins a retry after he missed a 48-yard field goal in the game’s waning seconds.

Thanks to Lawrence’s penalty, and five extra yards, Hopkins split the uprights on a 43-yard attempt, and the NY Giants dropped to 0-2.

Along the way on the sojourn to Lawrence’s penalty, the Giants were forced to burn a timeout because they didn’t have enough defenders on the field, and consistently gave Washington quarterback Taylor Heinicke plenty of time in the pocket and his receivers plenty of cushion to systematically pick apart the defense.

Good to great teams find a way to win one-score games, as the reigning NFC East champions showed at FedExField. The flip side of that equation is inexperienced, undisciplined, and poorly coached teams find ways to lose.

That’s exactly what the NY Giants did in Week 2, and seemingly what they are at the moment.

Here’s a look at the studs and duds from Thursday night’s NY Giants loss:

NY Giants WR Sterling Shepard: STUD

There’s no doubting it now, Sterling Shepard is Daniel Jones’ favorite target and maybe his most important weapon in the vertical passing game.

Not only has Shepard consistently found a way to get open, but he’s clearly cemented his place at the top of Jones’ target hierarchy.

Thursday night, one week after finishing as the NY Giants’ leading receiver, Shepard caught nine of 10 targets for 95 yards, and a touchdown.

Even after the NY Giants committed $45 million guaranteed to prized free agent addition Kenny Golladay, and drafted Kadarius Toney in the first-round, Shepard has been the NY Giants’ most consistent receiver.