{"id":376557,"date":"2026-10-19T01:22:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T01:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/376557\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T01:22:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T01:22:21","slug":"4-things-we-learned-from-the-giants-34-27-loss-to-the-saints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/376557\/","title":{"rendered":"4 things we learned from the Giants\u2019 34-27 loss to the Saints"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s an annual tradition. How long do we have to wait for the first MetLife stinker of the year by the New York Giants? In 2023 and 2024, the Giants got that out of the way in their opening game. In 2025, it wasn\u2019t until the Kansas City game in week 3, but that was only because the first two games were on the road; it was still the first home game.<\/p>\n

This year, things were different for a while at MetLife: A stirring opening win over Dallas, then two squeakers over bad Titans and Cardinals teams but in poor weather conditions. Today, the weather was beautiful at MetLife, and it looked like the Giants might be on their way to another home win. They jumped out to a 10-0 lead against the New Orleans Saints and were controlling the game. Then Daniel Carlson kicked a 58-yard field goal with 1:16 left in the first half. Charlie Jones fumbled on the ensuing kickoff, and it was all downhill from there, to the tune of 34 consecutive points by New Orleans.<\/p>\n

Yet the score wound up 34-27, and the Giants were within one end zone play of sending the game to overtime. What did we learn from this infuriating loss, the Giants\u2019 fourth in four years to one of the NFC\u2019s bottom feeders?<\/p>\n

Take my offensive coordinator, please<\/p>\n

I just do not like the Matt Nagy offense. Up to this point he\u2019s run too often on first down, and usually between the tackles. It\u2019s not getting the offense anywhere. More on that in a minute. But first, the passing game:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Courtesy of Pro Football Focus<\/p>\n

Zero pass attempts beyond 20 yards for Jameis Winston. Only two pass attempts outside the hash marks at intermediate depths. And this against one of the poorer pass defenses in the NFL. For some perspective, let\u2019s look at the same chart for Winston from last year in the Brian Daboll-Mike Kafka offense:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Courtesy of Pro Football Focus<\/p>\n

Notice the ball being distributed all over the field. Other than Martin Emerson Jr., a good but not great cornerback, the rest of the Saints\u2019 secondary is ordinary at best.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not just the passing depths. It seems to me that almost every pass attempt is a contested catch opportunity rather than a route that is designed to create conflicts in the defense. I\u2019m seeing a lot of stuff into the flat with no blockers in front of the receiver. I\u2019m not seeing the high-low route combinations, the intermediate crossers, etc. that are the staple of explosive offenses.<\/p>\n

Finally when J.J. McCarthy came into the game, we saw some passes downfield (other than his first brief appearance, when Nagy had him run another one of those useless RPOs). By then, though, he had no choice and the Saints were playing soft to not give up the big play (which they actually did not do very well). Whether J.J.\u2019s performance has created a quarterback controversy or not, I don\u2019t know. What I do know, though, is that Winston is not being given a fair chance to show what he can do in the ultra-conservative, unimaginative offense he\u2019s been asked to run.<\/p>\n

Malik Nabers had 165 yards on 12 catches today\u2026but many of those came after the Giants fell behind. Isaiah Likely caught six passes for 99 yards. Between them, Darnell Mooney, and Malachi Fields, it should be possible to run up big passing yards before you get to the fourth quarter. Try it, Matt.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure Cam Skattebo has learned his lesson\u2026has John Harbaugh learned his?<\/p>\n

I get it. Skattebo has fumbled four times already this season, and his last one cost the Giants a victory in Washington. I\u2019m all for a little discipline to get a point across to a player (and to his teammates). But there\u2019s an old expression about cutting off your nose to spite your face. John Harbaugh cut the nose off the Giants\u2019 offense by effectively benching Cam Skattebo, the Giants\u2019 best running back, for the entire game. Najee Harris (four carries, 2 yards) is not the answer. Tyrone Tracy (six carries, 18 yards, but a TD and also two receptions for 27 yards and a TD) is part of the answer. Devin Singletary (four carries, 14 yards and a 19-yard reception) can be part of it, too.<\/p>\n

But Cam Skattebo is the Giants\u2019 lead back. You want to teach him a lesson? Let him sit for the first quarter, or even the first half. Point made, point taken. But once the Saints had changed the momentum and the teams went in at halftime tied, it was time to get Skattebo back into the lineup to give the offense a jolt. Skattebo did play six snaps, but he didn\u2019t touch the ball once. Giants\u2019 running backs accounted for a total of 34 yards against one of the NFL\u2019s worst rushing defenses. The Giants\u2019 run blocking is bad, but these Next Gen Stats tell us that the running backs are a big part of the problem:<\/p>\n

If only D.J. Reader could play every snap<\/p>\n

As opposed to the Giants\u2019 anemic running game, the Saints\u2019 running backs racked up 143 rushing yards today. It seemed to me that most of those came either when D.J. Reader was off the field or when they didn\u2019t rush to his side. Every time I saw a Saints\u2019 RB stuffed, It seemed I saw #98. He made 7 tackles overall (5 solo, 2 assists). Shelby Harris, who is usually on the field with him, seemed to play fairly well too ( 1 tackle, 2 assists).<\/p>\n

The run defense degrades considerably when Reader is off the field. Darius Alexander (1 tackle, 0 assists) at this point is a real liability in run defense. I don\u2019t know what the Giants can do about it, other than get far enough ahead that teams are forced to abandon the run. Until they can, though, this will continue to be a problem.<\/p>\n

Other than the kicker and punter, the special teams are not special<\/p>\n

Jordan Stout has been as advertised, and Dominic Zvada seems not to have been shaken too much by his three missed field goals last week in Washington. The Giants return teams, however, have been awful. The game-turning play was obviously Charlie Jones\u2019 fumble on the kickoff late in the first half, which allowed the Saints to tie the score at the half.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not all. It seemed to me that every time the Giants had a kickoff or punt to return it was called back by a penalty. Overall the Giants had 10 penalties for 73 yards to the Saints\u2019 7 for 52. I\u2019m not sure how many of those were on special teams, but I\u2019m not the only one who thinks it\u2019s a problem:<\/p>\n

For someone who earned his chops as a special teams coordinator before becoming a head coach, Harbaugh has a very undisciplined return unit.<\/p>\n

The shame of all this is that the Giants now go into Houston to face the resurgent Texans at 3-2-1 rather than the 5-1 they should have been.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s an annual tradition. How long do we have to wait for the first MetLife stinker of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,7692,11,10],"class_list":["post-376557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-giants-analysis","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}