The New York Giants battled valiantly on Sunday night but ultimately fell to the Buffalo Bills, 14-9, at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park. The loss stings a bit more because Big Blue not only had their chances to win but because they beat themselves and not the other way around.
Led by quarterback Tyrod Taylor, the Giants failed to score at the end of each half, stalling at the 1-yard line both times.
Just before halftime, Taylor inexplicably checked into a run with no timeouts and Saquon Barkley couldn’t find the endzone. The clock then ran dry.
At the end of the fourth quarter, the Giants had an untimed down but Taylor was unable to connect with Darren Waller, sailing the ball high while the tight end was also arguably interfered with.
Here are the snap counts that contributed to the Giants’ most recent defeat.
Offensive snaps: 77
Defensive snaps: 61
Special teams snaps: 21
In his first game back off the couch, offensive lineman Justin Pugh took all 77 of the offensive snaps. He started the night at left guard but quickly kicked out to left tackle after Shane Lemieux exited the game with an injury.
Barkley, meanwhile, returned after missing three games with a high-ankle sprain and wasn’t on any sort of a pitch count. He took 60 offensive snaps.
Wide receiver Sterling Shepard was again criminally underused, taking the field for just a single snap in the loss.
Defensively, the Giants ran so short on personnel that linebacker Carter Coughlin managed to sneak in a few snaps.
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