Giants grades vs. Rams: Final report card of 2023 not one to be proud of
Saquon Barkley of the Giants is tackled in the second half against the Rams at MetLife Stadium on Sunday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
OFFENSE: D
The Giants did pretty good on the long plays like a beaut of an 80-yard bomb to Darius Slayton for a touchdown, a 24-yard end-around scoring play by Wan’Dale Robinson, and the long scramble at the end by Tyrod Taylor. It’s the short distances that do them in, like on the 1-yard two-point conversion fail, the fumble on the fourth-and-1 attempt in the first half, getting stuffed on an earlier fourth down, and even the run with 37 seconds left (misguided though it was) that was pushed back for a loss of 2. Taylor completed 27 of 41 passes for 319 yards but also had an interception and was sacked six times. Saquon Barkley had just 58 yards on 15 touches. The Giants were 0-for-2 in the red zone and 0-for-1 on goal-to-go while the Rams were 3-for-3 in each of those categories.
DEFENSE: C
They were one missed tackle by Adoree’ Jackson that led to an 80-yard passing play away from a really strong performance and at the end they kept feeding opportunities to the offense and special teams with sacks that forced two punts in the final four minutes of play. Two fill-ins played well in the secondary: Dane Belton, who replaced injured Jason Pinnock early on, had three takeaways (two interceptions and a fumble recovery) and Nate McCloud, starting at corner for injured Deonte Banks, had eight tackles. The Rams were held to 2-for-9 on third and fourth downs. Bobby Okereke led the team with 10 tackles and 1.5 sacks.
SPECIAL TEAMS: C
It’s really hard to have a 94-yard punt return for a touchdown and not ace the subject, but there were plenty of other mistakes by the unit to drag the grade down. Chief among them was the miss on the potential game-winning 54-yard field goal by Mason Crosby but he also missed an extra point earlier in the game that wound up being a costly point. Even Gunner Olzsewski, whose thrilling return scored what should have been the tying- or go-ahead touchdown with 3:27 left, misplayed an earlier punt allowing a line drive to go over his head and pin the Giants at their own 9. Darnay Holmes’ silly holding penalty on the final punt wound up being a costly 13-yard swing.
COACHING: D
First Brian Daboll took the tying point off the scoreboard when he accepted the penalty on the extra point with 3:27 remaining to try a two-point conversion (which wound up being a well-designed play that failed because of a poor throw) and then, with the Giants just about in field goal range but with no timeouts left, they baffled the world by running the ball (for what wound up being a loss of two) instead of trying to get veteran kicker Mason Crosby more precious yardage for a shorter attempt. There were some good parts, though, such as the well-timed end-around to Robinson on offense and the blitz-heavy defense that occasionally flustered Matthew Stafford. And Daboll did win two coaches challenges on the first drive of the game. When the Giants needed a smart, poised, instinctive call on the headset at the end, though, they made the wrong one.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
