Giants Week 13 Report Card: Rinse and Repeat

The Giants lost their eighth straight game, and what’s more alarming than the losing streak itself is how this team seems to keep coming up with different ways of losing games.

Here are our grades after the Giants’ 31-13 loss to the Green Bay Packers in Week 13.

Offense: C-

Daniel Jones tweaked his ankle, but that didn’t stop him from throwing three interceptions, the first of which came after 110 pass attempts without a pick. Two of his interceptions were converted in 10 points by the Packers, and to make matters worse, two of the three balls that were picked off were of the “what the heck is he doing?” variety. 

Otherwise, Jones finished 20 of 37 for 240 yards and one touchdown. Saquon Barkley finished with 83 rushing yards on 19 carries, but only caught three out of seven pass targets for 32 yards. Rookie tight end Kaden Smith continues to be a positive development for this team. He finished as the team leader in receiving yards (70) and tied with Darius Slayton for the most receptions this week (6).

Defense: D

There might be an effort from this unit, but the same mistakes are being repeated, and it’s become tiresome to watch. The Packers recorded four big pass-plays of 20 or more yards as quarterback Aaron Rodgers made it look all too easy on his way to a four-touchdown day that also saw him complete 21 of 33 pass attempts for 243 yards. 

Slot receiver Allen Lazard caught just three passes, but he recorded 103 yards as he was the beneficiary of some large chunk plays coming against the Giants’ inexperienced corners. The Giants were called for two pass interference penalties that led to Packers touchdowns. 

The first came against Sam Beal on a Packers drive that ended the third quarter and wrapped up in the fourth, and the second in the fourth quarter against Grant Haley on the Packers’ final score of the game. The pass rush was nowhere to be found this week as the best the Giants could muster up were two hits against Aaron Rodgers.

The run defense was solid, holding Green Bay to 79 yards on 26 carries and recording three plays for negative yards.

Special Teams: A-

No missed PATs or field goals (two attempts, one from 27 yards and the other from 45 yards) as Aldrick Rosas was more settled. New long snapper Colin Holba stepped in and didn’t miss a beat. 

Da’Mari Scott only had one punt return, that going for 12 yards and Riley Dixon’s punting was once again spot-on as on his single punt of the game, his coverage unit allowed jus a three-yard return. Cody Latimer handled kickoff returns and finished with a 19.3 average.

Coaching: F

Janoris Jenkins has a legitimate beef with how he’s being used as James Bettcher is doing that young defense no favors by continuing to let them try to stay afloat in the deep end of the pool. 

Then there are the other decisions, like continuing to run Saquon Barkley up the middle, letting newbie Da’Mari Scott run a jet sweep instead of the more experienced Sterling Shepard (Scott muffed the handoff), and failing to run a quarterback sneak on the opening drive when they had inches to go. 

head coach Pat Shurmur says there’s progress, but it’s not showing up on the field, and because of that, the Giants have an eight-game losing streak, one game shy of a franchise record that’s not one to be proud of.