The Giants attempted to shake one of the most embarrassing losses in recent franchise history against the Falcons this week, but ended up mismanaging the clock yet again, resulting in a 24-20 loss.
Here's what we learned...
- Tom Coughlin shouldered his fair share of criticism throughout a stunning run in New York that brought the Giants a pair of Super Bowl wins in the last decade. He is a future Hall of Famer. That being said, this is the worst a Giants team has ever looked under his watch, including the putrid 0-6 start from 2013. After one of the worst displays of clock management in recent NFL history in the season-opener, the Giants torched a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter this week by once again failing to take time off the board. Eli Manning could not get a snap off on a decisive third-and-7 with 3:27 to go and Atlanta out of timeouts. The result? A third-and-12 and a bizarre play call that landed seven yards short of the marker. Their porous defense was not good enough to hold Matt Ryan out of the end zone and by the 1:14 mark, they were down by four points, soaking up a roundly deserved cacophony of boos. What a disaster.
- The Giants' woes are not confined to clock management. This is a team that, on the Falcons' game-winning drive, failed to ensure a receiver was tackled after he caught a ball and fell down. This is a team with an offensive line full of first- and second-round picks (and high-priced free agents) that got allowed their quarterback to be stripped of the football twice in one game. This is a team relying on Preston Parker in tight spots to come up with big catches despite his inability to prove he can catch passes at a level consistent with an NFL wide receiver. This is a team that needs to take a serious look at themselves from top to bottom.
- Kudos to Dan Quinn. As I wrote last week from Atlanta, he has something special brewing. He's the first Falcons head coach since Jim Mora in 2004 to begin his career 2-0 and he's doing it behind a brilliant pass rush and a secondary that looks night and day from a season ago. Quinn took the most accessible parts of Seattle's defense and brought them to a place where he could plug in and play immediately. Their matchup with the Cowboys next Sunday just got a whole lot more interesting.
- Julio Jones is a monster. In the spirit of Odell Beckham's one-handed catch, he delivered an incredible defensive back-surfing grab at a crucial time late in Sunday's game. He had 13 catches for 135 yards bringing his TWO GAME season total to 22 catches, 277 yards and a touchdown.
- This is the third season in a row the Giants have started 0-2. This is also looking like the fourth season in a row in which they'll miss the playoffs. There has been plenty of speculation about Coughlin's job in the past, but it feels completely appropriate to wonder who will be coaching the Giants in 2016.
