The Giants got stuffed like a crust

After the Giants defeated the Vikings in what was an interesting undercard fight, there became a media narrative that they had suddenly stepped up to contender status. All week leading to the game the media tried to make the Giants more than they were.

Dan Duggan of The Athletic had multiple articles gushing over the Giants coaching staff, claiming Brian Daboll, Mike Kafka, and Wink Martindale give New York a “schematic advantage.” At least he didn’t say “decided schematic advantage.”

Daboll and his staff appear to have given the Giants a level of competence they haven’t had since the peak of the Tom Coughlin era, but the list of coaches whose best year was their first is long and will forever grow. We’ll see how Daboll does with raised expectations next year, but for this year his team ended with, as he put it, a crash landing.

7 points was the fewest the Giants scored all season. On the brightside the Giants did score on every trip to the red zone!

The Giants offense crossed midfield twice the entire game. At halftime they had 3 first downs. Three.

Daniel Jones, who talking heads went crazy about after playing well against a Vikings defense that gave up 329 yards to Teddy Bridgewater, 369 yards to Mike White, and 382 yards to Mac Jones, looked every bit the backup caliber QB he is against the Eagles.

-His 53.8 passer rating was the 4th worst of his career. The three games that were worse were all games where he threw 3 interceptions, last night he only threw 1.

-The 5 sacks he took were the 5th most of his career.

-His 135 passing yards were the 6th fewest of his career in a start.

-His 4.0 yards per rush was the 19th worst in his 55 career starts and 2nd worst against the Eagles, the worst one coming last year. For all the criticism going his way, Jonathan Gannon does not let Daniel Jones beat him on the ground.

No, no he is not.

With his QB struggling, Brian Daboll and his genius coaching staff kept Saquon Barkley out of the game. Barkley’s 11 touches were the joint fewest of his season along with the 48-22 loss to the Eagles where he also had just 9 carries and 2 receptions.

I guess that’s why Brian Daboll punted from his 42 down 21 in the 4th quarter of an elimination game. Weird.

It all added up to the 227 yards the Giants gained being their 2nd fewest of their season, behind only 225 in a loss to the Seahawks.

The Giants defense, which has been okay at best and inconsistent all season, got equally embarrassed.

ESPN’s Jordan Raanan correctly pointed out that the defense the Eagles would face on Saturday was different from the one they put up 48 points on. But he incorrectly claimed that “New York is in significantly better shape now.”

Actually, to be fair to Jordan, the Giants only gave up 38 points, which was a 20% improvement. But the 416 yards the Giants gave up was the 4th most of their season, the 268 rushing yards given up was the most of their season.

Wink Martindale downplayed that Boston Scott simply can not be stopped when he plays the Giants.

Wouldn’t you know it, Boston Scott scored, and not in garbage time.

Connor Hughes told Giants fans to not panic “because if anything you’re actually getting the Philadelphia Eagles at the right time” pointing out that the Giants are relatively healthy and the Eagles are not.

Whoops.

This wasn’t just a beat down by season standards, this was one of the worst playoff games in Giants history.

-The 38 points given up was the 3rd most in Giants playoff history, their 7 points scored the 8th fewest. The 31 point loss was the 2nd worst in Giants playoff history, surpassed only by when they gave up 6 rushing touchdowns to the 49ers in the 1993 playoffs.

-The 26 first downs the Giants defense gave up was the 2nd most in Giants playoff history, one behind the epic 1958 NFL Championship Game that went to overtime. The 268 rushing yards given up by the Giants were the worst in franchise playoff history, and the 416 total yards was 5th worst.

-The 227 yards on offense was the 7th fewest since the 1970 merger, as was the 109 total passing yards. The 13 first downs gained by the Giants was the 5th fewest.

Thank you for participating New York. It was nice having you.