Giants Country

New York Giants Week 3 Report Card: Detention Time

How did each Giants unit grade out following its 17-14 loss to the Atlanta Falcons?

Patricia Traina

Danielle Parhizkaran/NorthJersey.com via Imagn Content Services, LLC

Grading the New York Giants' Week 3 win/loss versus the Atlanta Falcons.

Rushing Offense: C

The Giants finished with 100 yards on 27 carries 93.7 average). Not horrible, but it sure would have helped if Saquon Barkley had a little more room to run on some of his attempts.

That said, Barkley still does a little too much hesitating for our tastes when there are just times where he should take the ball and punch it up the git as Gary Brightwell did on his lone carry this week and as Wayne Gallman used to do. And maybe it was just us, but they're just seemed like there were yards left out there on the field, as has been the case in the first three games.

Passing Offense: D

The good news is that Daniel Jones didn't throw any interceptions, and he was only sacked twice. He also managed 266 passing yards despite losing two of his top three receivers, Darius Slayton and Sterling Shepard, to hamstring injuries. The bad news? Jones has to take some of the blame for the offense's settling of two first-half field goals.

On a 3rd-an-1 rollout in the red zone, he had Slayton wide open near the goal line but simply lowered his eyes and ran out of bounds to get the first down. He absorbed a huge blindside sack while he was staring down the field, looking for someone to throw to.

And on those rollouts, he not only sees less of what he'd see from the pocket, but his accuracy and touch lose an edge. The offensive line continued to have some communication breakdowns, as did the revamped interior needs to be cleaned up before the quarterback gets hurt.

Run Defense: B

The Giants did pretty well in holding the Falcons to 69 yards on 20 carries, this without inside linebacker Blake Martinez for most of the game, no less. Mike Davis and Cordarrelle Patterson each had runs of 11 yards, but other than that, the Falcons didn't crush the Giants in any of their 20 rushing attempts.

Pass Defense: D

The Giants defense's performance this week will be remembered more for the plays it didn't make than the plays it did. And the ones it didn't make--Adoree' Jackson's game-saving interception in the end zone and a dropped interception by safety Logan Ryan--hurt.

Whether you agree or not with the unnecessary roughness call against Xavier McKinney won't change the fact that it was indeed called, and it was a big penalty that hurt the defense, just as Ryan's pass interference penalty in the end zone set up a Falcons touchdown.

The pass rush-produced three sacks and six hits against quarterback Matt Ryan, but you somehow come away with the feeling it should have been a lot more given Ryan lives and dies in the pocket.

Special Teams: B

Riley Dixon's worst punt of the day came was his last one when punting from midfield, he hit a touchback instead of giving his coverage unit a chance to pin Atlanta inside the 10.

Other than that, the special teams were mostly solid on the day. Graham Gano continues to be Mr. Automatic with his field goal attempts, extending his streak to 37 straight conversions. Decent job by Jabrill Peppers, who finished the night with an 18.0 punt return average that included a long of 19 yards. Not much from the kickoff return unit other than a 6-yard return by C.J. Board.

Coaching: F

The bad grades will continue until there is an improvement. Right now, there are still some head-scratching developments coming from the coaching both on a macro and micro level, which this week included two wasted timeouts in the second half and some struggles by Jason Garrett once his scripted plays ran out.

For a team that wants to take price in being a disciplined bunch, there just seems to be far too many mistakes involving the fundamentals going on this year.

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Patricia Traina
PATRICIA TRAINA

Patricia Traina has covered the New York Giants for 30+ seasons, and her work has appeared in multiple media outlets, including The Athletic, Forbes, Bleacher Report, and the Sports Illustrated media group. As a credentialed New York Giants press corps member, Patricia has also covered five Super Bowls (three featuring the Giants), the annual NFL draft, and the NFL Scouting Combine. She is the author of The Big 50: The Men and Moments that Made the New York Giants. In addition to her work with New York Giants On SI, Patricia hosts the Locked On Giants podcast. Patricia is also a member of the Pro Football Writers of America and the Football Writers Association of America.

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