Defense breaking under weight of offensive futility, Williams trade, more
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Wink Martindale understood the gravity of surrendering 640 yards to the Dallas Cowboys and becoming Texas toast.
“It doesn’t happen very often, or you wouldn’t have this job very long,” the Giants’ defensive coordinator said Thursday.
Allowing the second-most yards in franchise history will turn the heat up on everyone.
Only the 1943 Giants gave up more in a single game: 682 yards in a 56-7 loss to the Chicago Bears. And the Cowboys likely would have topped that if Dak Prescott had played the fourth quarter.
“Quite honestly, it’s like we didn’t have our fastball, our curveball or our change up,” Martindale said of Dallas having an answer to every coverage and call. “They just hit it out of the park whatever we threw at them …It was one of those games that you make a call, and you feel real good about it until the ball is snapped, and then you are like, ‘Oh, no.’”
This is two straight games now, though, that the Giants defense has looked like a shell of itself.
The Las Vegas Raiders raced out to a 24-0 lead in Week 9 before the Cowboys bludgeoned the Giants with their 28-0 first half “avalanche,” as Martindale termed it.
So it has to get better Sunday at Washington (4-6), or else these losses will continue to be blowouts, and that’s what costs coaches and coordinators their jobs.
But it’s not clear if the Giants (2-8) defense is capable of stopping the snowball from rolling downhill now that it has gained steam.
Free safety Xavier Mckinney’s first locker room interview since criticizing his coaches was tense on Thursday.
“We’re all just trying to win games,” Mckinney seethed repeatedly.
When asked if he was pleased that head coach Brian Daboll hadn’t benched him, Mckinney responded: “Was I supposed to be benched? I’m just trying to win games.”
It feels like Mckinney and the Giants are both finished with each other and just playing out the season. Martindale blasted Mckinney publicly last week. It’s not clear how Daboll handled it internally. The disparity in public responses there was curious to say the least.
The offense’s futility undoubtedly has taken a huge toll on the defense and has prompted these frustrations, breakdowns and fracturings on defense.
The Giants’ offense is averaging a league-low 11.1 points per game (it’s 11.8 as a team including Jason Pinnock’s interception return for a TD in Week 5). The Giants have been outscored an obscene 153-42 in the first halves of games this season.