To say the New York Giants 2024 season has been a disaster would be an understatement, it's been a season filled with heartbreaking moments and downright awful on-field performances.
They dropped their fifth straight game on Sunday at the hands of the Carolina Panthers, 20-17 in Munich, Germany as they head into their bye week at 2-8. From costly turnovers, questionable coaching decisions, and the inability to get the offense going, this latest loss is a new low for Big Blue.
Despite rallying from a ten-point deficit and pushing the game into overtime, this felt like a must-win for the G-Men. They were up against a team that finished with the league’s worst record last season, and on top of that, they entered as the favorites. There were plenty of failures and questionable moments in this latest Giants loss.
3 failures that led to unforgivable loss for the NY Giants
3. Brian Daboll's questionable playcalling
It's been the same old offense with Brian Daboll at the helm as for the seventh time already this season, the Giants failed to score at least 20 points. New York's offense has just been a disaster all season long and this latest horrendous play call by Daboll tried to make was a complete and total failure.
Big Blue's offense struggled to get anything going throughout most of the game. When the Giants' head coach finally decided to get creative to try and catch the Panthers' defense off guard, it simply didn’t work. On a third-and-one, the Giants attempted a flea flicker, but the play call was so poorly executed that Daniel Jones couldn’t even get the ball out in time and was sacked. An aerial view of the play showed both Malik Nabers and Wan’Dale Robinson wide open, but it was all for nothing.
I love the idea of running a flea flicker, especially since they generally work well, but in this case, you only needed one yard, and it was third down. When you have a running back like Tyrone Tracy Jr., who is starting to solidify himself as a true number-one and was having yet another great game, just give him the ball. To put it bluntly, that play call was an abject failure at that particular point in the game.
2. Giants fail to take advantage of overtime possession
After the Giants tied the game on a last-minute field goal that sent the game into overtime, they also won the coin toss to get the ball first in overtime. This was a golden chance for New York to march down the field and get out of Germany with a win. But after one play, disaster struck for the Giants.
One play into their first overtime drive, Tracy, who was having another great game, fumbled the football, and Carolina recovered. The Panthers needed only a field goal to win, and that’s exactly what they got. The failure to do anything with the ball in overtime was inexcusable. While it’s understandable that Tracy was playing well, it’s overtime, and the offense needs to show a little more urgency.
Even if the rookie running back hadn’t fumbled the ball, it was still a minimal gain, and with how the Giants' offense had struggled throughout the game, that drive could have ended quickly anyway. It was a total failure on the Giants' part for not being able to capitalize on having the ball first in overtime.
1. Daniel Jones turnover problem continues
After throwing for two touchdown passes and rushing for one last week against the Washington Commanders, there was hope that Daniel Jones would build off that strong game going up against a bad Panthers defense. But it’s Daniel Jones, and that wasn’t the case, as his time in New York looks like it’s running out. Sunday was another rough game for Jones, with turnovers once again being a driving factor.
On the day, New York's signal-caller managed only 190 yards through the air with two more interceptions, completing less than 60% of his passes. What made Jones' performance, and the Giants' loss, even worse was that one of his interceptions came in the red zone on a terrible throw, deflected into the arms of Carolina’s Xavier Woods. With Big Blue losing by just three points, that pick proved costly.
It was just a bad game for the Giants' quarterback and his lackluster performance on Sunday and two turnovers were without question a failure.