Giants have become a numbing blur of failure under Joe Judge
Nov 2, 2021 8:08:59 GMT -5
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Post by Bigjeep on Nov 2, 2021 8:08:59 GMT -5
The problem is a simple one, and a sobering one:
Bad teams find a way. Week after week after week.
Bad teams figure out how to play 50 minutes of inspired ball and allow it all to be sabotaged by 10 minutes of miserable ball. Bad teams commit brutal, ill-timed penalties — and don’t get the benefit of the doubt when one of them turns out to be a phantom call.
Bad teams, always, are the ones who wind up inventing postgame issues like Joe Judge did with the Giants’ faulty headsets, a bad look all the way around. Judge wouldn’t say if that’s a team issue or a league issue, and it’s best to drop it now; if it’s a team issue someone should be fired at once; if it’s a league issue you have to wonder why the Giants have been the only ones to complain about this.
Mostly: bad team squander golden opportunities. They lose games like the one the Giants lost to the Chiefs on “Monday Night Football,” a 20-17 gut-stomper at Arrowhead Stadium that featured so many of the greatest hits the Giants have assembled in 24 games under Judge.
Gritty defense that wasn’t gritty enough across 60 minutes.
Equal helpings of Good Daniel Jones (two touchdown passes) and Bad Daniel Jones (an inexcusable early pick that completely handed back the momentum after the Giants intercepted Patrick Mahomes in the end zone on his first drive, to go along with taking a couple of terrible sacks on the Giants’ last desperate drive of the night).
Penalties of all varieties that impaired the Giants’ effort: an unsportsmanlike call against Elijhaa Penny that offset a big gain on their penultimate drive; an offsides against Oshane Ximines — on second-and-20, no less — that nullified what would have been a game-changing interception by Darnay Holmes; and the coffin-sealer, 15 yards against Tae Crowder when he may or may not have grabbed Travis Kelce’s facemask, the key play on the Chiefs’ game-winning drive.
Judge’s usual postgame praise offering “A”s all around for effort — “We did a lot of positives.”
Followed by his usual postgame counterbalance: “Ultimately, it wasn’t enough.”
Joe Judge’s Giants let another winnable game get away against the Chiefs.
That’s the thing though. It never seems to be enough. There are too many of these close-but-no-stogie games when they do not offer up anything but a reminder that the Giants are excellent at exactly one thing: losing football games.
Especially winnable football games.
“We wanted to play on our terms tonight,” Judge said, “and for the most part we did.”
Didn’t matter. Almost never seems to matter. The Chiefs aren’t what they’ve been, anyone who’s paid attention to this football season understands that. They are shockingly vulnerable, even at home, even at Arrowhead Stadium, where John Elway once said, “They yell at you in person for three hours, and then they stay in your ears for three weeks
Burden of overcoming Giants’ flaws proved too big for Daniel Jones
And they were there for the taking Monday night. Last year, on the way to a 1-7 start, there were achingly close calls against the Rams, Eagles, Cowboys and Buccaneers. There have already been a couple of gut-busters this year against the WFT and the Falcons.
And now this. The Chiefs aren’t the pinball machine they used to be. Mahomes looks amazingly mortal. The Giants’ defense frustrated Mahomes all night, took away all of his deep looks, waited him out until he or one of his teammates ran out of patience and made a mistake. It was setting up for a glorious evening hard by I-70.
Seventeen seconds into the fourth quarter, Daniel Jones hit Evan Engram on a gorgeous 5-yard out for a touchdown. The Giants were up, 17-14.
It was good to freeze that snapshot. Because the next 14 minutes and 43 seconds were a study, one more time, in what happens when a team lacking the necessary muscle memory to seize an opportunity runs into a team with such a large surplus of that skill that even playing their “C” game, the Chiefs were able to survive.
“They made the plays they had to make,” Jones said. “At the end, we didn’t.”
At the end, it seems, they never do, or at least not enough. Too many of these games follow the exact same blueprint. Bad teams don’t learn. Bad teams don’t get favorable whistles. Bad teams engage in weekly slapstick with their own communication equipment. Bad teams lose and lose and lose, a numbing blur of failure.
Bad teams find a way. Week after week after week.
nypost.com/2021/11/02/giants-follow-familiar-blueprint-in-painful-loss-to-chiefs/
Bad teams find a way. Week after week after week.
Bad teams figure out how to play 50 minutes of inspired ball and allow it all to be sabotaged by 10 minutes of miserable ball. Bad teams commit brutal, ill-timed penalties — and don’t get the benefit of the doubt when one of them turns out to be a phantom call.
Bad teams, always, are the ones who wind up inventing postgame issues like Joe Judge did with the Giants’ faulty headsets, a bad look all the way around. Judge wouldn’t say if that’s a team issue or a league issue, and it’s best to drop it now; if it’s a team issue someone should be fired at once; if it’s a league issue you have to wonder why the Giants have been the only ones to complain about this.
Mostly: bad team squander golden opportunities. They lose games like the one the Giants lost to the Chiefs on “Monday Night Football,” a 20-17 gut-stomper at Arrowhead Stadium that featured so many of the greatest hits the Giants have assembled in 24 games under Judge.
Gritty defense that wasn’t gritty enough across 60 minutes.
Equal helpings of Good Daniel Jones (two touchdown passes) and Bad Daniel Jones (an inexcusable early pick that completely handed back the momentum after the Giants intercepted Patrick Mahomes in the end zone on his first drive, to go along with taking a couple of terrible sacks on the Giants’ last desperate drive of the night).
Penalties of all varieties that impaired the Giants’ effort: an unsportsmanlike call against Elijhaa Penny that offset a big gain on their penultimate drive; an offsides against Oshane Ximines — on second-and-20, no less — that nullified what would have been a game-changing interception by Darnay Holmes; and the coffin-sealer, 15 yards against Tae Crowder when he may or may not have grabbed Travis Kelce’s facemask, the key play on the Chiefs’ game-winning drive.
Judge’s usual postgame praise offering “A”s all around for effort — “We did a lot of positives.”
Followed by his usual postgame counterbalance: “Ultimately, it wasn’t enough.”
Joe Judge’s Giants let another winnable game get away against the Chiefs.
That’s the thing though. It never seems to be enough. There are too many of these close-but-no-stogie games when they do not offer up anything but a reminder that the Giants are excellent at exactly one thing: losing football games.
Especially winnable football games.
“We wanted to play on our terms tonight,” Judge said, “and for the most part we did.”
Didn’t matter. Almost never seems to matter. The Chiefs aren’t what they’ve been, anyone who’s paid attention to this football season understands that. They are shockingly vulnerable, even at home, even at Arrowhead Stadium, where John Elway once said, “They yell at you in person for three hours, and then they stay in your ears for three weeks
Burden of overcoming Giants’ flaws proved too big for Daniel Jones
And they were there for the taking Monday night. Last year, on the way to a 1-7 start, there were achingly close calls against the Rams, Eagles, Cowboys and Buccaneers. There have already been a couple of gut-busters this year against the WFT and the Falcons.
And now this. The Chiefs aren’t the pinball machine they used to be. Mahomes looks amazingly mortal. The Giants’ defense frustrated Mahomes all night, took away all of his deep looks, waited him out until he or one of his teammates ran out of patience and made a mistake. It was setting up for a glorious evening hard by I-70.
Seventeen seconds into the fourth quarter, Daniel Jones hit Evan Engram on a gorgeous 5-yard out for a touchdown. The Giants were up, 17-14.
It was good to freeze that snapshot. Because the next 14 minutes and 43 seconds were a study, one more time, in what happens when a team lacking the necessary muscle memory to seize an opportunity runs into a team with such a large surplus of that skill that even playing their “C” game, the Chiefs were able to survive.
“They made the plays they had to make,” Jones said. “At the end, we didn’t.”
At the end, it seems, they never do, or at least not enough. Too many of these games follow the exact same blueprint. Bad teams don’t learn. Bad teams don’t get favorable whistles. Bad teams engage in weekly slapstick with their own communication equipment. Bad teams lose and lose and lose, a numbing blur of failure.
Bad teams find a way. Week after week after week.
nypost.com/2021/11/02/giants-follow-familiar-blueprint-in-painful-loss-to-chiefs/