In their first home game of the 2014 season, the New York Giants fell to the Arizona Cardinals.
Prior to the opening kickoff, Cardinals’ starting quarterback Carson Palmer was ruled out with a shoulder injury. Drew Stanton played in place of Palmer and he did a sufficient job. Despite facing pressure for the majority of the game, Stanton was able to lead Arizona to a victory. Stanton showed poise and made good decisions, as he never really put the ball into harms way. Behind Stanton was Andre Ellington, who had a good game as he rushed for 91 yards on 16 carries.
Although the Giants lost, the main reason was not poor play, but rather mental mistakes. The Giants had four turnovers and nine penalties that would ultimately prove to be too much to overcome.
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The first penalty came when linebacker Jameel McClain failed to hear a whistle, and proceeded to tackle Drew Stanton, which warranted a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. Following the initial penalty, the Giants’ play would be littered with defensive holding penalties and illegal hands to the face.
When it wasn’t penalties for the Giants, it was mental mistakes. Victor Cruz, who told the media more targets to him would fix the offense, had some awful drops that came at pivotal junctures of the game. Cruz dropped two passes during a fourth quarter drive. That drive would end when Rashad Jennings fumbled the ball inside the red zone. Jennings was not touched during the fumble. Jennings lost his footing and fell to the ground, which caused the ball to come out.
Prior to Jennings’ fumble, Tedd Ginn Jr. torched the Giants for a 71 yard punt return. Although it looked like Zackary Bowman had Ginn wrapped up, Ginn escaped and made the Giants’ special teams unit look ridiculous.
Despite all of the negatives for New York, the offense did look significantly improved from last week’s debacle. The group came back from a 10 point deficit and seemed poised to win the game.
“I thought our execution was better on offense, I thought at times we had the no huddle thing going pretty well. But again, points, games are about points.”
Eli Manning was much, much better this week, and he did not shy away from Patrick Peterson’s side. Manning finished with 277 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions (the second interception coming in the fourth quarter in garbage time.) As previously mentioned, Manning didn’t get a lot of help from his supporting cast, as his receivers seemed incapable of catching anything. Rueben Randle had a touchdown, but he also had a drop that would’ve given the Giants a first down when they were trying to tie the game.
The run game wasn’t great, but Manning seemed a whole lot more comfortable this week. Once again, Larry Donnell played exceptionally well, as he finished the game with 7 receptions for 81 yards. The emergence of Donnell is obviously good news for the Giants, as many believed they were completely devoid of a tight end.
For what it’s worth, Patrick Peterson had an uncharacteristically poor performance. Peterson was not his typical ‘lock down’ self, and his play allowed the Giants’ offense to remain in the game.
This is not the game tape Patrick Peterson should submit when making his case as the NFL's top CB.
— Dan Hanzus (@DanHanzus) September 14, 2014
The defense for New York was decent, as they held the game together for the most part, although they were unable to force any turnovers. The secondary held Stanton to 167 yards through the air, and kept Arizona’s playmakers in check.
The unit lost defensive captain Jon Beason, as well as nickel corner Walter Thurmond III. A bright spot for the Giants was Jason Pierre-Paul’s performance. A week removed from a solid outing against Detroit, JPP recorded 1.5 sacks and a batted pass. The ferocious defensive end is starting to look more and more like his old, healthy self.
Despite the few bright spots, it’s hard to escape the obvious, and the obvious is that the Giants are not a good football team right now. They’re not even a decent football team right now. They’re bad.
The Giants are now in sole possession of last place in the NFC East, and it seems like they’re only digging a deeper hole. I have to imagine everyone within the Giants’ organization is worried. After watching this team play broken football for two weeks, New York being one of the worst teams in the NFC isn’t out of the realm of possibility.
They failed to capitalize against a backup quarterback, and they look nothing like a Tom Coughlin coached team. Mental mistakes, penalties and a litany of dropped passes plagued the Giants throughout the game.
Coughlin spoke to Giants.com following the loss. “I saw some good things today, that were better, there was improvement along the lines,” Coughlin said. “I thought our execution was better on offense, I thought at times we had the no huddle thing going pretty well. But again, points, games are about points.”
For Arizona, the win propels them to 2-0, and it keeps them on par with the San Francisco 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks. The Bruce Arians led Cardinals proved they’re not just going to roll over for the aforementioned NFC West teams. With impending games against San Francisco and Denver, being 2-0 puts Arizona in a great spot.
For the Giants, they drop the 0-2 for the second consecutive year. Sunday’s game certainly had more positives than the loss against Detroit, but there still is a lot of work that needs to be done for Big Blue. New York’s next game is home against the Houston Texans, and I think that’s a winnable game for the Giants. Furthermore, it’s a crucial game for the Giants if they want to remain somewhat relevant in a tough NFC. It’s hard to imagine a Tom Coughlin team falling to 0-3, but that’s exactly what we all said last year too.