Eli Manning and the New York Giants lost their third consecutive game, 16-23 to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday night. At one point this team was 2-0 leading the NFC East division and now they are last at (2-3).
For the second straight game, this Giants offense hasn’t been clicking with Manning missing throws to open receivers. Some of this could be attributed to the offensive line play specifically from Erick Flowers and Bobby Hart. Flowers has been poor since the beginning of the season and it continued in this game. There were many instances where he got beat and forced Manning to get out of the pocket and rush his passes. He just hasn’t played disciplined football with him committing six penalties already this year. It also doesn’t help that he shoved ESPN reporter Jordan Raanan after the game and he should be suspended for doing that. Hurt hasn’t played much better and is part of the reason Manning looks so uncomfortable out there.
While the offensive play has been awful, you also have to put some of the blame on Manning, who looks like he’s playing hurt and hasn’t looked right since the 3rd quarter of the Washington Redskins game. This isn’t the same player that won two Super Bowls and a Super Bowl MVP. The score could have been a lot worse considering how bad the offensive looked and how much time Aaron Rodgers had to throw the ball because the Giants had a lack of a pass rush.
The Giants secondary and special teams kept them in the game which is a polar opposite of what happened last week against Minnesota. They were given great field position numerous times in this game, but couldn’t capitalize on it. Victor Cruz and Sterling Shepard were almost non-existent combining for 2 catches for 14 yards. Odell Beckham is the only wide receiver of the trio to have a decent game with 5 catches for 56 yards and a touchdown. This kind of production is not acceptable especially considering that Green Bay was missing their top two corners in Sam Shields and Damarious Randall.
Manning had another lackluster game completing 18-of-35 of his passes for 199 yards and a touchdown. While Rodgers had an average game completing 23-of-45 of his passes for 259 yards, two touchdowns, and two picks. Janoris Jenkins looked like the best player on the field for the Giants Sunday picking off Rodgers twice to keep the game within reach yet his performance alone wasn’t enough for them to get the win.
With the Giants upcoming schedule, they are going to need to figure out their offensive woes fast or they can kiss their playoff hopes goodbye.