Biggest Takeaways from New York Giants' Week 14 Win
Don’t look now, but as the calendar moves into the latter part of December, the New York Giants are still in the playoff hunt.
That’s a refreshing change of pace from the last three seasons, when the Giants would embark on the equivalent of exhibition football right around Thanksgiving as their frustrated fans ticked off the weeks until the season ended and the early mock draft projections began.
By coming up with a 31-24 win over Miami on Monday night, the Giants kept pace with Washington and Philadelphia, who at 6-7 share first place in the division.
As this race seems destined to go down to the final week, here’s a look at the takeaways from New York’s latest victory.
Odell Beckham Jr. Really Is "Sick"
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So let’s get this straight.
Last week, receiver Odell Beckham Jr. came down with a stomach bug and an attack of seasonal allergies, two ailments that would probably cause most people to curl up on the sofa with a bottle of ginger ale and a nearby trash can.
What did he do?
Right. He sucked it up and posted a new season high in receiving yardage (166) and had his second multi-touchdown game of the year.
If that wasn’t impressive enough, Beckham, who told reporters after the game that he needed three IVs— including two at halftime to treat early signs of dehydration—scored his two touchdowns in spectacular fashion.
His six-yard reception channeled his inner Amani Toomer, the former Giants receiver who made catching passes along the sideline an art form. The replay showed that Beckham just barely got his first foot in bounds before dragging his second foot and controlling the ball. The result? A tie game at 24-24.
On his second touchdown reception, he caught an 84-yarder over the middle as cornerback Brent Grimes helplessly tried to snag him, to no avail. That score gave the Giants the 31-24 lead, which turned out to be the final score.
P.S. According to the NFL Network, Beckham now has six straight 100-yard receiving games, the first player in Giants history to accomplish that feat.
Imagine just how sick he would have been against the Dolphins had he not, you know, actually been sick.
The Running Back Commitee Is (Hopefully) Done
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Regardless of the reason behind the coaching staff’s decision to abandon the four-man running back rotation, by sticking with a scaled-down plan, the Giants' running game had one of its best showings of the season.
Yardage aside, by demonstrating that they could run the ball, the Giants were also able to execute play action, which had also been missing from their arsenal.
“That’s complementary football. That’s how it should look,” running back Rashad Jennings said after the game about the Giants’ run-pass balance. “That’s what we are capable of doing. Since we have proven it, we have to keep that stamina.”
So has Jennings, who ran 22 times for a season-high 81 yards, earned the “hot hand” label moving forward?
“We’ll certainly start that way,” said head coach Tom Coughlin during his day-after conference call with reporters.
Hey, better late than never, right?
CB Prince Amukamara Is in a Slump
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The last three weeks haven’t been very kind to cornerback Prince Amukamara, who returned from a partially torn pectoral.
According to Pro Football Focus, Amukamara has allowed 12 of 14 pass targets to be completed for 187 yards and two touchdowns, one each in the last two weeks alone. He’s also had zero interceptions and no pass breakups over that time period.
What’s more is that the drop-off in his performance isn’t so much because of the injury as it is due to a lakc of basic technique. For example, in the Monday night game, Amukamara was in coverage against receiver Kenny Stills, who beat him 47 yards for the touchdown.
What did Amukamara do? Instead of tracking the receiver once the ball had been thrown, he tried to track the ball through the air. He lost sight of the receiver, who had no trouble scoring.
If Amukamara aspires to get that big-money deal after this year, he’s going to have to be much better in coverage than he’s been the last three weeks.
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Ereck Flowers' Ankle Issue Is a Concern for the Rest of the Season
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Of all the question marks the Giants might have, one thing they don't seem to worry about is the toughness of rookie left tackle Ereck Flowers.
This is a fiery young man who suffered a sprained ankle two weeks ago that was so bad, he had to come out of the game and was on crutches and a walking boot for at least two days.
If there was any doubt about whether Flowers would be able to play against Miami, in front of his hometown crowd, there shouldn’t have been.
Flowers, listed as questionable on the injury report, gutted out any pain for as long as he could. Ultimately he wasn’t able to finish the game and had to be removed in the fourth quarter when he apparently re-aggravated the injury.
“Ereck works hard. He is very optimistic and positive about his own ability to control his pain and his own situation,” head coach Tom Coughlin said when asked if he was OK with Flowers being less than 100 percent.
“By the end of the week, he was feeling good about himself and thought he could go and play. And I think until the point where his ankle was really bothering him, he was very effective.”
Coughlin admitted that Flowers' ankle issue is probably something that might linger the rest of the year. “You’d love to have that heal and be over with, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen,” he said.
With Coughlin expressing some trepidation over Flowers’ determination to continue on a bad ankle, the bigger question is at what point does the head coach step in and tell the rookie to take a seat if the injury continues to worsen and affect his performance?
The Defense's Tackling Has Regressed
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Tackling is one of the most fundamental skills in football, a skill taught to players when they’re young. Yet as they advance through the ranks, it seems that tackling quickly becomes a lost art, which is not a good thing.
Such is the case with the Giants' defense these last few weeks. Per Pro Football Focus, New York missed 13 tackles against the Jets last week and nine tackles against Miami on Monday night.
The best example of the sloppy technique being deployed by the Giants came this week on Lamar Miller’s 38-yard touchdown run.
ESPN broke down the details, missed tackle by missed tackle, in what amounted to a total of five whiffs.
Unfortunately the CBA doesn’t allow teams to practice this skill during the regular season, so defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo has set up a boxing punching bag in an attempt to teach refresher courses.
With the stakes getting higher and the margin for error gone, the Giants defensive players had better reach back into their past and apply those tackling skills they were taught as youngsters.
Patricia Traina covers the Giants for Inside Football, the Journal Inquirer and Sports Xchange. All quotes and information were obtained firsthand unless otherwise sourced.
Follow me on Twitter @Patricia_Traina.
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