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The Joe Judge era began for the New York Giants in bizarre fashion with no fans in the stands due to the coronavirus pandemic restrictions. Judge broke the team down before the game to further his bond with his players.
For the first time since 2004, the Giants started a quarterback other than Eli Manning in Daniel Jones. Unfortunately for the Giants, they picked up right where they left off in 2019, playing losing football. They dropped their season debut, 26-16, to the Pittsburgh Steelers at MetLife Stadium on Monday night.
Although the Giants had some life to them and they hustled, they were no match for the Steelers, who had Ben Roethlisberger under center and a defensive front that just simply dominated the Giants’ new-look offensive line.
The Giants surprisingly put quite a bit of pressure on Big Ben, sacking him twice, but the future Hall of Famer made the best of his opportunities, tossing three touchdowns — one to James Washington and two to JuJu Smith-Schuster.
The Giants scored their first touchdown on a 41-yard touchdown strike from Jones (26/41, 279 yards, 2 TD, 2 INT for a 79.2 QBR) to wide receiver Darius Slayton. That was really the lone highlight of the evening. The rest was not very pretty.
The offensive line was overrun by Pittsburgh’s front seven. Nick Gates, playing his first game at center was less than impressive, whiffing on several blocks and the communication seemed to be lacking. Jones was hit often and Saquon Barkley was smothered on most plays. He gained just six yards on 15 carries.
Jones was prone to errors again in this game, throwing two puzzling interceptions that proved to be costly. The first one was right into the leaping arms of an anticipatory T.J. Watt on the Giants’ 35 yard-line that was turned into a Pittsburgh touchdown six plays later.
The second was an ill-advised throw against the grain in the red zone where Bud Dupree hit the ball out of Jones’ hand causing the ball to pop up in the air for an easy pick by Cam Heyward. Jones should have either taken a sack or try to run for it rather that throw.
The defense did show some improvement but still allowed 26 points. Inside linebacker Blake Martinez led the way 12 total tackles. The Steelers lost James Conner to an injury in the first half and was spelled by Benny Snell, who rushed for 113 yards.
Did I mention that Darius Slayton caught six of his nine targets for 102 yards and two touchdowns? Well, he did and could been his way o that breakout year.
One player who is not on his way to a breakout season is tight end Evan Engram, who caught two of seven targets for nine yards and had a reception called back on an offensive pass interference call. He also had two drops.
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