Brian Daboll’s Giants lived and died by the coach’s aggressiveness and desperation on Sunday Night Football against the Cincinnati Bengals.
The third-year head coach put his foot on the gas as the offensive playcaller after the Giants were shut out in the first half, converting multiple fourth downs on a third-quarter touchdown drive to tie the game.
But then Daboll turned down a long field goal in the fourth quarter and rolled the dice one too many times.
Bengals corner DJ Turner II batted down Daniel Jones‘ pass intended for Darius Slayton with 3:01 remaining on fourth and three at Cincinnati’s 36-yard line, and Joe Burrow and the Bengals’ offense drove to ice the game in a 17-7 Giant loss at MetLife Stadium.
Kicker Greg Joseph had missed a 47-yard field goal with 10:27 remaining in the fourth quarter, which factored into Daboll’s decision to go for the failed fourth down. Joseph later missed a 45-yard try with 51 seconds remaining during garbage time, as well.
But the real issue was that Daboll’s Giants (2-4) scored only seven points all night to fall to 0-3 at home this season. They have now scored one total touchdown in three games at MetLife.
That squandered a strong performance from pass rushers Brian Burns (eight tackles, one sack) and Azeez Ojulari (four tackles, two sacks), who took advantage of his opportunity with Kayvon Thibodeaux (wrist) having surgery and going on injured reserve.
Sunday was especially disappointing given that the Giants lost to the Bengals (2-4), a bad and undisciplined team whose defense was allowing 29 points per game coming in, good for 30th in the 32-team NFL.
Giants rookie running back Tyrone Tracy Jr. (107 yards and a touchdown) encouragingly had a strong game for a second straight week in place of injured veteran Devin Singletary.
But the Giants fell to 1-1 without star rookie receiver Malik Nabers, who missed a second consecutive game with a concussion — although NBC’s Mike Tirico said the Giants “look to have him back next week” against Saquon Barkley and the division rival Philadelphia Eagles (3-2).
Jones completed 22-of-41 passes for only 205 yards and an interception, and he added 11 carries for 56 yards. His home-road splits are concerning to say the least:
Jones has thrown six touchdown passes and no interceptions in three road games, and he’s thrown no TD passes and four interceptions in three games at home.
The Giants trailed 7-0 at halftime Sunday. They were held scoreless in the first half for the second time in their last 13 games, including last season’s Week 10 loss at Dallas. And they were fortunate to be down only one score.
Daboll’s offense managed only 119 yards of offense through two quarters.
Jones threw an ugly red zone interception to Bengals linebacker Germaine Pratt on the Giants’ second drive of the game, late in the first quarter, while attempting a throwback to tight end Theo Johnson.
When Jones finally hit a huge 56-yard completion to Slayton late in the second quarter, it was negated by an illegal man downfield penalty on left tackle Andrew Thomas – the second infraction of the half on Daboll’s offense.
Bowen’s defense kept the Giants in the game by forcing five straight Cincinnati punts going into halftime. But they only did that after letting the Bengals into the end zone on the game’s opening drive.
Cincinnati’s Taylor won the coin toss and elected to receive the opening kickoff, and it only took the Bengals three and a half minutes to drive downfield for a touchdown.
Burrow sprinted for a 47-yard rushing TD on third and 18, diving for the front right pylon and doubling his previous career-high rush of 23 yards.
The 47-yard run also matched Burrow’s career high for rushing yards in an entire game.
The Bengals quarterback recognized an overloaded formation and immediately took off through a gap to his right, beating Jason Pinnock and Isaiah Simmons to paydirt.
Ojulari, Burns and the Giants defense flustered Burrow with an impressive pass rush the rest of the half, though, keeping the 7-0 deficit steady into the half.
Ojulari sacked Burrow twice in the first half. Burns sacked him once. And Chase dropped a pass wide-open on another third down.
The strong defense helped the Giants enter the locker room with their heads held high despite the shutout deficit and some boos from the home crowd as Jones knelt on the ball to run out the clock.
