Grading the Giants vs. Kansas City in NFL Week 8
Darius Slayton of the New York Giants misses a pass as Charvarius Ward of Kansas City defends during the second half at Arrowhead Stadium on November 01, 2021. Credit: Getty Images/Jamie Squire
OFFENSE: C
The bottom line is if you hold Kansas City to 20 points, you need to win the game and the Giants managed only 17 points. Plus their turnover on Daniel Jones’ interception gave Kansas City a short field on which to score its first touchdown. The biggest breakdown for the group, though, came at the end of the first half when they threw a mind-boggling 2-yard pass on third-and-4 that led to a field goal and then bungled a drive in the closing minute that should have given them a chance at a desperation pass or maybe even a long field-goal attempt from Graham Gano. They got neither.
DEFENSE: B
The Giants checked just about every box they thought they needed to in order to win. They even came close to securing the victory with a takeaway in the final five minutes on Darnay Homes’ interception. Obviously, the offside penalty on Oshane Ximines negated that. Even after it, though, the Giants held Kansas City to a field goal on that drive and got the ball back to the offense with a minute to play. The Giants allowed six points in the second half, which is impressive, but all in the final 8:53 after they took a 17-14 lead, which allowed Kansas City to win.
SPECIAL TEAMS: C
When the Giants needed a big punt from Riley Dixon, he came up small. He wobbled a 34-yard effort on his final kick of the game with 4:41 left, a poor effort that was compounded by an illegal touching penalty against Cam Brown that gave Kansas City the ball at the 29 to start its drive for the go-ahead points. The Giants did not allow any return yards at all on punt or kickoff coverage. They even dabbled with Kadarius Toney as a punt returner after Dante Pettis muffed an early try and hurt his shoulder while doing so. That pretty much sums up the Giants’ season, an injury that comes on a muff.
COACHING: D
Penalties continue to haunt the Giants and cost them plays that should be positives. It’s the players who taunt and jump and grab and hold and push when they are not supposed to, but ultimately those gaffes come down to the coaching staff. They must be exorcised if the Giants are ever going to be anything more than a team that plays close games and then loses. The Giants were left without any timeouts at the end of each half, and boy, would they have come in handy. Joe Judge has issues with his headsets that he says have been a problem all season. We’re eight games in. Figure it out.
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.
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