[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbx61yex5whq8aq player_id=none image=https://giantswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]
The New York Giants’ defense has struggled so far in 2021, with the unit ranking in the bottom five of the NFL in total yards and rushing yards allowed — but there’s more to the unit’s struggles than that.
The Giants have also had issues in the pass-rush with just eight sacks, tied for the second-fewest in the NFL, and the tackling has been terrible, to put it nicely.
But Giants great Carl Banks isn’t putting it nicely. As is the case with all Giants fans, he’s fed up with what he has watched on the field this season.
“It’s bad. You can’t be this bad of a tackling team. Not with the players you have,” Banks said on his podcast. “This is awful. You can’t sit there and say: ‘Well, the backs that we’re facing have all been great.’ No, they’ve been great against you.”
Banks is also frustrated with the fact that players are not trying to make an impact when they go unblocked on some plays, which makes things much easier for opposing offenses.
“If I’m not blocked on the backside, I’m sprinting down the line of scrimmage to knock the (expletive) out of somebody,” Banks explained. “The running back doesn’t see you. You haven’t been accounted for. And it’s like they sprint down there just to kinda put two-hand touch on them.
“But if you’re running down the line of scrimmage and you’re not in full sprint to hit that running back, you’re not helping your defense. Then when you sprint down there and you don’t lay that guy out, you don’t get a good shot on him, you’re not helping your defense.”
Banks named Oshane Ximines, Azeez Ojulari and Lorenzo Carter specifically, while also giving them some advice.
“That’s my message to Ojulari, Carter and Ximines: Be that other guy when they aren’t counting on you to be that other guy,” Banks said. “Because once they have to account for you, then you just made two or three other guys better.”
The two-time Super Bowl champ had one final, blunt message for the Giants:
“Get off your ass and let’s go. There’s too many games left for you guys to be this (expletive) bad.”
[listicle id=677735]