The New York Giants had a miraculous comeback win against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday afternoon.
New York picked up a much-needed win in Glendale in Week 2. They defeated the Cardinals, 31-28, in what was one of the biggest comebacks in franchise history.
Buy Giants TicketsHere’s a quick breakdown of what we saw during the game and how we graded the Giants in this win.
Offense: B
A total of 31 points jumps out as something that would normally receive a much higher mark than B but the start to the day for the Giants was simply horrendous.
Big Blue started the game with two scoreless quarters which marked six straight quarters without a point for the team. That was embarrassing considering that this game was supposed to be a bounce-back opportunity against a struggling franchise. However, the offense came out groggy and posted two three-and-outs and one turnover in their first five drives.
All that changed in the second half as Daniel Jones put the team on his back and led five straight scoring drives to end the game with a win. The offense looked like a completely different unit as Jones was moving in the pocket better and making some amazing decisions with the ball. His scrambles proved to be very useful as he extended several drives and had a 15-yard rush to get the Giants their first points of the day.
New York’s deep threats also came to play as Jalin Hyatt caught both a 58-yard and a 31-yard pass, while Darren Waller and Darius Slayton both posted grabs of over 25 yards. This helped Jones finish the day with 321 passing yards and a 103.5 passer rating.
One can not forget about Saquon Barkley, who posted 92 scrimmage yards and two touchdowns, one of which was a diving score for the pylon to cut the deficit to seven.
Plays like these helped inspire this team and will hopefully continue into next week as the Giants have a hard test against the San Francisco 49ers.
Defense: C-
A common theme throughout the report card will be the improvement in second-half play.
After allowing a touchdown on the opening drive of the third quarter for Arizona, the Giants’ defense forced three straight punts (and two three-and-outs) to help facilitate the comeback. They finally made Joshua Dobbs and the Cardinals come back down to earth after a monstrous first half in which they dominated the Giants.
Nevertheless, the same problems are there for the Giants’ defense as they recorded zero sacks on the day and forced no turnovers.
On paper, the Cardinals have the worst offensive talent in the NFL and to allow this team to score 28 points and put up 379 yards is simply terrible. Both the run defense (allowed 5.2 yards per carry and 151 yards) and the pass defense (99.9 passer rating allowed) did not show up to play and made the Cardinals look like a competent offense.
There will need to be a huge improvement by Thursday if they do not want the 49ers to score almost every drive against them.
Special Teams: B
The special teams unit played up to par on Sunday.
Graham Gano made all four of his extra points and a game-winning field goal, making him the best part of this unit. Eric Gray also had a big 14-yard punt return in the fourth quarter which helped to set up the game-tying score.
Unfortunately, bringing this grade down is Jamie Gillan, who only averaged 37 yards per punt and had one inside the 20.
Coaching: C+
For Brian Daboll to let this team go down 20 points at the half after an embarrassing Sunday Night Football scoreless loss is concerning. The team had a week to prepare and wash the bitter taste out of their mouth but they came out flat and paid the price for it.
Luckily, Daboll made up for it with what was probably a potentially season-saving halftime speech to rally the troops and get the win. Even so, the Giants should have never been in that position in the first place and need to come out on Thursday night with some energy for once.
As for the coordinators, Mike Kafka came out with a great second-half script that featured a great balance of aggressive play-calling and strong runs. Why the Giants could not start the game like this is unknown but hopefully Kafka has finally figured out how to put his players in positions to succeed and there will be no more scoreless halves.
On the other side of the ball, Wink Martindale put up another dud. Getting no pressure against an inexperienced Dobbs is unacceptable and allowing James Conner to run all over the defense was embarrassing. The Giants currently look like one of the worst defenses in football and this needs to improve quickly.
