The largely below-average NY Giants managed to reel off a few big offensive plays in their Monday Night Football matchup against Russell Wilson and the Pittsburgh Steelers, but they may have just lost all of their positive momentum with what became the goofiest-looking play of the 2024 NFL season to date.
The Giants have largely condemned former top pick Evan Neal, who burned all his goodwill with the fanbase last season after his hamburger-flipping comments, to the bench this year. After a Tyrone Tracy touchdown run, the Giants managed to screw things up like only they can.
The two-point conversion went as bad as humanly possible. The Giants tried to set up a swinging gate screen to Malik Nabers, where he follows the blockers in. Instead, Nabers was hit immediately. Daboll seems to be getting either too cute or too desperate with that one.
What was this 2-point attempt from the Giants? 🤔pic.twitter.com/zWgzNfuFTN
— Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) October 29, 2024
Jones was livid with the play, as none of the team's linemen seemingly knew the snap count. Neal can be seen looking around without any knowledge of what's going on, all while Steelers pass rusher Alex Highsmith charges through the defense and makes him pay with a huge hit.
Daniel Jones is pissed after that debacle of a two-point conversion play got completely blown up when apparently no one on the picket fence knew the snap count.
— Dan Duggan (@DDuggan21) October 29, 2024
That was Evan Neal's first snap of the season, btw.
Evan Neal messed up on goofy Giants 2-point conversion fail
Neal has been benched this season, and new additions like Jermaine Eluemunor and Jon Runyan Jr. have both proven to be gigantic upgrades. It remains hard to see a future where Neal sticks around with the Giants. His pro prospects seem to be dwindling elsewhere after lowlights like this.
This play immediately brings to mind that Infamous Colts fake punt in which the ball was snapped to a wide receiver with no blockers. While that play at least can be excused becuase it was not designed to be snapped and was exclusively to get the other team to call a timeout, this is just a bad idea executed poorly.
To make matters worse, Wilson connected with George Pickens on a deep ball that led to another Chris Boswell field goal that put Pittsburgh back up by two scores. Even when he's a backup, Neal manages to rear his head and negatively impact the Giants.