Where was the sense of urgency?
After the Cowboys opened up a two-touchdown lead with 8:53 remaining in the fourth quarter Thursday, the expected response from the Giants was to increase the offensive tempo, look for chunk passing yardage against soft-shell coverage and try to get a quick score. Instead, four of the first six play-calls were runs, and more than four minutes came off the clock as the Giants methodically gained three first downs.
At least 32 seconds elapsed between each of the first eight plays on the drive, until an incompletion stopped the clock.
“We were just trying to call plays that gave us the best chance to stay two-dimensional and not just make it a pass game there being down 15 [points],” head coach Brian Daboll said the day after a 28-20 loss. “We had a set time we wanted to score by. Are there times we could have been a little faster? Sure.”
The drive essentially died on back-to-back plays — a 10-yard sack and a 5-yard penalty — that eventually led to a fourth-and-9 incompletion to end hopes of a comeback with 3:17 to go.
“The less explosive plays, the higher level of execution on a consistent basis you need to have,” Daboll said. “We’ve had quite a few long drives, and you have to have usually 11 guys doing the right thing to operate an efficient offense 14, 15 plays in a row. Anytime you can get an explosive, whether that’s a run or a pass, that certainly helps because it just eliminates some of the situations that you’ll be in throughout the drive.”
The order for WR Odell Beckham Jr.’s free-agent visits is Giants, Bills and Cowboys, according to CBS Sports. With Beckham’s visit to the Cowboys penciled in for Dec. 5, according to Fox Sports, that leaves next week as Beckham’s window for a return to the facility where his career began.
The Giants continue to be understated in their pursuit of Beckham, especially compared to the pull-out-all-the-stops Cowboys. Daboll would not commit to a Beckham visit until first speaking with general manager Joe Schoen, who was on the road for college scouting.
“I’ll keep that in-house right now,” Daboll said.
Anyone hoping that Kenny Golladay’s two catches for 29 yards last week against the Lions was the beginning of a breakthrough will be disappointed. Golladay played 19 offensive snaps — fourth-most among Giants’ receivers — and was not targeted against the Cowboys.
“We mixed him in there,” Daboll said. “A lot of our passes were roll-out, naked [bootleg] type passes with people coming across the formation. That’s a difficult defense to just sit there and drop back. You saw what they did in Minnesota [seven sacks] the week before. So, we had a particular way we wanted to play, Obviously, didn’t get it done.”
The only addition to the Giants’ lengthy injury report that could stretch into next week is CB Cor’Dale Flott (concussion protocol), according to Daboll. He sounded optimistic about the potential returns of four starters — TE Daniel Bellinger, RT Evan Neal, LG Ben Bredeson and OLB Azeez Ojulari — after the long layoff.
“I think all those guys are improving,” Daboll said. “They’ll have three good days of treatment here coming up.”
The Giants were given off Friday from practice, setting up a long football-less weekend. The last time the players had that much freedom — on the bye week — safety Xavier McKinney returned with multiple broken fingers after an ATV accident in Mexico, so Daboll sent his players off with a reminder to be smart and careful.
“I just said, ‘We have to take a few days. Get your bodies right, get your minds right, be a pro off the field and come back ready to go on Monday,’ ” Daboll said.
The Giants started seven players signed off the street or claimed off waivers since the end of training camp: WR Isaiah Hodgins, RT Tyre Phillips, S Jason Pinnock, CB Nick McCloud, LB Jaylon Smith and LG Jack Anderson. McCloud and Pinnock both played all 75 defensive snaps.
Such is the remedy for being the NFL’s fifth-most injured team, with 153 games missed this season due to injury or healthy protocols, according to mangameslost.com.
The Giants released OL Devery Hamilton and S Trenton Thompson, both of whom played on special teams Thursday. They are candidates to return to the practice squad if they clear waivers.
