Odell Beckham Jr. returned but it wasn’t enough to prevent the New York Giants from falling to the Detroit Lions on “Monday Night Football.”
- New York Giants 10 (0-2)
- Detroit Lions 24 (2-0)
- NFL, Week 2, Final, Box Score
- MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey
New York Giants general manager Jerry Reese sure did hit on his free agent pickups during the summer of 2016. Damon Harrison, Janoris Jenkins and Olivier Vernon were the cream of the crop who highlight the group and it led to a pleasant 2016 campaign.
Upon further review, why would we credit Reese for putting himself in a great cap situation during one summer? It came as a result and at the sacrifice of several terrible seasons of bad signings while wasting prime years of Eli Manning‘s career.
Then we get to the first rounders:
Nobody will get on tight end Evan Engram. In fact, the kid caught his first career touchdown on Monday Night Football in this exact game we’re about to review. As ESNY’s Gregg Cambareri so perfectly puts it: “Love the player, hate the pick.”
While left tackle Ryan Ramczyk is protecting Drew Brees‘s blindside down in New Orleans, Ereck Flowers is destroying the Giants chance to score points on almost every possession — in front of the entire world, no less.
That’s right: your New York Giants were held down to the tune of 24-10 by the 2-0 Detroit Lions on Monday night.
At 0-2, It’s time to hit the first level panic button.
It was a game that began with bluster. The return of Odell Beckham Jr. not only had the players hyped, but the entire building. Poor offensive line play led to a final OBJ line of four catches for 36 yards.
The Lions struck first when the other first round bust (Eli Apple, arguably) couldn’t take Marvin Jones Jr. in a one-on-one situation. Landon Collins was seated in a two-deep zone, but elected to take the intermediate route:
The other Eli wasn’t impressive at all. It’s tough to be impressive when the offensive line is as unpredictable as it is. Credit Eli, though (and Ben McAdoo for certain pockets of playcalling), as several three-step timing plays hit early in the contest. One such play resulted in Evan Engram’s first NFL touchdown:
From there, it was pretty much all Detroit.
One play after the Giants defense created a turnover, Manning gave it right back:
Matthew Stafford, who finished with only 122 yards and two scores on 15-of-21 passing, took advantage of the short field with a touchdown to Eric Ebron:
When Matt Prater closed the half out with a long field goal that banked in off the crossbar, New York never seemed to gain control of the game again.
It was just that type of night for the Jints. On a series in the third quarter down 10, McAdoo elected to go for the touchdown on a fourth-and-goal from the one. Instead of getting the play off, the team was hit with a delay of game and the field goal unit inched them to a seven-point deficit.
The absolute capper came on special teams when Jamal Agnew fielded a punt deep and awkwardly yet found a way to take it to the house:
Defensively, New York was stout as usual. The unit held the Lions passing attack to just 122 yards through the air. It was until late when Ameer Abdullah added to his game-high 86 yards on the ground.
As per usual, the Giants rushing attack was non-existent. Shane Vereen went for 28 on six attempts while Paul Perkins could only muster 10 yards on seven carries.
Manning finished 22-of-32 for 239 yards, a score and an interception. He was sacked five times for a loss of 31 yards. Engram finished with a team-high 49 yards on four snags.
At one point in the fourth quarter, Brandon Marshall dropped an all-timer that would have resulted in a nice 30-plus yard gain. He, along with Flowers, Apple and Manning, will all be hearing the negative buzz this week.
At 0-2, the Giants will travel to Philadelphia and take on the Eagles next Sunday in a big-time situation early in the season.