Table of Contents
Grading the Giants’ 17-7 loss to the Bengals on Sunday:
Offense
Not good enough.
Not even close.
Plenty of first downs (24) but only 5 of 15 on third down — and 3 of 5 on fourth down.
One lousy touchdown is not gonna cut it. Daniel Jones (22 of 41, 205 yards) threw an egregious interception.
The passing game was not exactly crisp — longest completion was only 15 yards. Jones (11-56) also was the leading rusher, which is not ideal.
Rookie Tyrone Tracy (17-50) got started too late.
LT Andrew Thomas was beat cleanly by Trey Hendrickson in the second quarter for a nine-yard sack.
Thomas later was flagged for an illegal man downfield penalty to wipe away a 56-yard completion to Darius Slayton.
Not ideal.
Slayton (6-57) was targeted 11 times. There was not enough production.
Wan’Dale Robinson caught only five of 11 targets. Bad stuff all around.
Grade: F
Defense
This was a winning performance in so many ways.
The Bengals came in averaging 28 points and they had 10 until the closing minutes.
Joe Burrow (19 of 28, 208 yards) was held far below his season averages. Tee Higgins (7-77) and Ja’Marr Chase (5-72) were good but not great.
Burrow was sacked four times and fill-in starter Azeez Ojulari got him twice in a strong outing.
Brian Burns came to play. He had a sack on the first series and dropped Zack Moss for a 4-yard loss on third down.
Micah McFadden forced two fumbles — Bobby Okereke recovered one of them but Jason Pinnock failed to secure the other one.
Huge breakdown early allowed Burrow to race 47 yards for a TD and a breakdown late handed Chase Brown a 30-yard TD run. Bengals had only 13 first downs.
Grade: A-
Special teams
Greg Joseph has had better days. He attempted field goals of 47 and 45 and missed them both, wide left.
That is called a bad day at the office.
New punter Matt Haack handled his Giants debut with no mishaps.
He dropped down a 43-yarder in the second quarter that pinned the Bengals back on their 12-yard line.
He averaged 46.8 yards on his four punts.
Grade: D
Coaching
Brian Daboll was The Gambler, going for it on fourth down five times.
Have to admit, it looked like a desperate and ill-advised risk by Daboll, going for it on 4th-and-2 on his own 37-yard line early in the fourth quarter.
It did not cost the Giants but it was a strange decision nonetheless.
Daboll as the play-caller has to find a way to generate more big plays and figure out why his team cannot find the end zone when it plays at home.
Shane Bowen’s defense kept the heat on Burrow and did enough to win.
Grade: C
