The New York Giants hit a new rock bottom Sunday afternoon at MetLife Stadium. In front of their hometown fans, Saquon Barkley and the Philadelphia Eagles came in, lit everything up, and went home laughing.
Against his former team, Barkley gained the most yards ever at MetLife, which he accomplished while wearing rival colors. He outscored the Giants’ entire offense, which allowed just three points.
The game was marred by bad coaching, drops, missed tackles, and players who literally gave up on the field and conceded after the fact.
As we enter Week 8, let’s take a look at where the Giants rank in various power rankings.
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One of the more notable storylines of the season is that 340-pound DL Dexter Lawrence II, who usually plays double-teams, leads the league with nine sacks and is on pace for 22 sacks.
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The Giants had 119 yards of offense. Saquon Barkley ran for more yards than the entire Giants offense had.
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Andrew Phillips, a third-round pick earlier this year, is one of the most productive defensive backs in the league. According to Next Gen Stats, he is tied for second on the Giants as a nickel cornerback with one loss and six tackles, and as the nearest defender, he has allowed just 50 yards receiving on 12 targets. General manager Joe Schon praised the physicality and aggressiveness of Phillips, a Kentucky native. That seems to be impacting the NFL as well. Phillips, 22, has a chance to become one of the best nickel corners in the league.
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Ben Rolfe, Pro Football Network:
If the Giants didn’t decide to move Daniel Jones before this season, they should make sure to do so now. New York’s offense ranks 29th in the league and has only topped 21 points twice. They fooled us a little bit with their performance in Seattle (29 points). That’s because in the three games before and after that, they only scored a total of 25 points.
The defense is good, ranking 14th overall, but it’s not good enough to sustain an offense this bad. New York’s overall schedule has gotten easier as the year has gone on, but the Steelers and Commanders are next on the schedule.
The Giants are now 3-7 with a bye and could almost officially be eliminated with seven games remaining.
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The biggest reason for the home loss was the run defense against Saquon Barkley, so Brian Daboll will install Daniel Jones as QB. The Steelers defense won’t be able to help Jones next Monday.
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The Giants replaced Drew Lock with Daniel Jones in the fourth quarter against the Eagles on Sunday. Brian Daboll immediately said Jones was still the starter. But once that process begins, it won’t be long before the Giants take action, even if things don’t improve.
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Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio has a long track record of shutting down predictable offenses and bad quarterbacks. Still, there’s no excuse for how incompetent the Giants offense looked against a vulnerable Eagles defense on Sunday. The Giants allowed eight sacks and went 3-of-14 on third down.
It was one of the worst offensive performances in the league this season — and it was and Malik Nabors is back on the field. But this might be for the best, as each kick in the butt brings the Giants that much closer to the hard reset their offense needs.
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The gut-wrenching impact of Saquon Barkley’s monster game against New York resonated days later because it spoke volumes about several elements of this Giants franchise. Barkley exposed an untackable defense and the Giants’ run game brought in nada. This double whammy shouldn’t have gone down well with team officials, including owner John Mara, who was eager to have Barkley back this offseason. Despite having no turnovers on Sunday, the Giants endured their toughest offensive performance of the year, punting 11 times all game and traveling more than 21 yards on one possession, with Daniel Jones in the first half of the loss to Philadelphia. He was ejected early in the 4th quarter. It feels like the progress Jones made after a tough Week 1 was undone by two poor performances. The Giants currently have one TD and three field goals on their past 29 possessions, dating back to the third quarter of Week 5’s game against Seattle. The Giants sit at 2-5, while the Steelers and Commanders are a combined 10-4. This season is next.
