A brief recap of Giants offensive ineptitude
Remember when watching the Giants was fun? Me neither!
Here I was, enjoying (well, “enjoying”) my Tuesday morning, when a tweet came across my feed from NFL writer Marcus Mosher referencing the Dallas Cowboys’ offensive production with QB Dak Prescott under center as of late.
I immediately read this and thought to myself how infrequently the Giants have scored 35+ points lately, let alone have looked like a competent offense over 60 minutes. Using 2016 as the starting point (2015 was Eli’s last truly great season), I quickly scanned through the Giants schedule each year since 2016 to see how often they’ve scored 35+ points each year.
In 2016, Odell Beckham’s last great season and the last time the Giants made the playoffs (remember making the playoffs?) the Giants scored 35+ points a grand total of zero (0) times. The most points the Giants scored that season was 28, and they only hit that number once. The defense carried them that season — shout out to Snacks on his recent retirement — and the success they had was a mirage, unfortunately.
Running Counter of 35+ Games: 0
In 2017, the last year of the Ben McAdoo Experiment, the Giants, led by offensive genius McAdoo scored 35+ points…zero times! You’ll recall that this was the Brandon Marshall season, in which every WR (more or less) got injured against the Chargers and the season was tanked instantaneously. The Giants did, however, top their season high from 2016 by putting up 29 points in a loss to the Eagles, which is not coincidentally the last time I stepped foot inside MetLife Stadium. Oddly enough, both highest scoring games in 2016 and 2017 came against the Eagles.
Running Counter of 35+ Games: 0 (still)
In 2018, the Giants had not one, not two, but THREE (3!) games scoring at least 35 points! Furthermore, they actually won two of those three games, both of which heavily featured Saquon Barkley during his breakout rookie campaign. Plus, in five additional games — going 3–2 over these — the team scored at least 27 points. Not too shabby, especially considering 2016–2017 was a black hole of offensive production for the franchise.
Running Counter of 35+ Games: 3!
Before we continue, don’t forget this all started because the Cowboys have scored 35+ in nine of Dak Prescott’s last 14 starts. Unreal.
Anyway, in 2019, the last season during which Eli Manning would feature as the starting QB for the franchise, the team crossed the 35+ threshold twice during the season, including — fittingly — Eli’s last start of his career. The Giants actually went 35+ on back to back weeks at the end, one started by Eli and the other by Daniel Jones against Washington, the OT thriller that continued Jones’ hot streak against Washington.
Running Counter of 35+ Games: 5
Enter Jason Garrett. I’m combining 2020 and 2021 to stress how bad an OC Jason Garrett has been for the Giants. In 2020, the team cleared the 27 point mark just twice all season, finishing 31st in points scored, only ahead of the Adam Gase-led Jets. After a 2019 season where the team started to show a bit of life on offense under Daniel Jones, Garrett made sure none of that continued.
Now, in 2021, they’ve scored at least 27 points twice, in a loss to WFT and a win against New Orleans (their most impressive performance of the season), but have scored 35+ zero times since 2020. Zero. Jason Garrett is a walking offensive vacuum, ensuring no consistent productivity takes place on that side of the ball while he’s in charge. It’s borderline impressive to watch him oversee such a poor offense for a season-plus, considering how much offenses have boomed as of late.
There’s a special irony in the Giants hiring Garrett, the former Cowboys HC as their offensive coordinator, and then watching that same Cowboys team thrive offensively under a new regime. Even after a 31st-best performance in 2020, the franchise decided to stick by Garrett and his backwards, totally predictable style of play calling.
Thanks for joining me on this stumble down memory lane. Here’s hoping the Giants can at least start fresh in 2022 and give the fans some remote hope for consistent offensive production for the first time since the Obama administration.
