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New York Giants: Why the Giants lost to Detroit

By Michael Stewart

The New York Giants continue their losing ways with a 24-10 defeat at home against the Detroit Lions. The Giants offensively still look out of sync and the Defense could not make any big plays at all. This is not what the Giants were expecting and if they can’t fix these problems (which seem like a lot), they are in for a very long season.

Top reasons why the Giants lost

  1. Lack of a running attack: The Giants needed to run the ball better against a Detroit defense, but only manage 62 yards as opposed to Detroit rushing for more than double with 138 yards. The lack of a running game in the first 2 games is not a surprise as many projected the Giants would struggle running the ball in 2017. However; I don’t think anyone expected the Giants to have under 100 rushing yards (total) over the 1st two games.
  2. Pass rush: The Lions put enormous pressure on Manning with 5 sacks (3 by Ansah) and countless pressure and hits. The Giants managed 3 sacks with 2 coming late in the game when the outcome was already in hand. This is not what was expected coming into the season and if this trend continues, the Giants defense will not be as dominate as expected.
  3. Battle in the trenches: Once again, like the season opener, the Giants were outplayed and out muscled in the trenches. The Giants OL looked overmatched; especially Ereck Flowers who surrendered 3 sacks to Ansah. The inability to not run the ball will affect the passing game and make it tougher to protect Manning who has no time at all to make plays down the field. Until this changes, expect the same results and outcome.

Hero: Ameer Abdullah ran for 86 rough yards (more than the entire Giants team of RB’s). Also, got to give Mathew Stafford a vote as well with a solid game with 15/21 with 2 TD passes.

Goat: The entire Giants team: Home opener and the Giants showed no emotion and heart. Horrible OL blocking (running and pass protection) horrible WR play as 5 catchable passes were dropped. Defense front 7 were pushed and bully by the Lions OL and the secondary didn’t fair too well throughout the game, especially on the 2 TD in the 1st half.

Final Thoughts: The Giants have started at 0-2 before with 2015 being the most recent; which they finished that year at 6-10. Can’t see how Head Coach Ben McAdoo is going to fix the OL which is the major cause to this early season debacle. Fixing the OL will fix the running and passing game and give the Giants a much better chance to win. Unfortunately; this will be impossible to accomplish during the season.