New York Giants Week 6 Notebook

On Sunday, the stars were out in abundance at MetLife Stadium, gathered together for what was another honorary weekend for the Giants’ organization in their 2021 calendar.

On the field, however, the brighter ones hailed from 3,000 miles away, while the greats of the home franchise and the fans were left recollecting the history books for memories of success amid present disaster.

Daniel Jones threw three interceptions, fumbled once, and the Rams scored four touchdowns in the second quarter as Los Angeles routed the New York Giants, 38-11, to send Big Blue to a disastrous 1-5 record. The Rams offense got off to a slow start in the first quarter, but once they found their groove against a struggling defense, there was little opportunity for the Giants banged-up offense to counteract 365 yards of total offense.

To make matters worse, the relentless injury woes, like the Rams offense, didn’t ease off the Giants' depth chart for the third straight week. The Giants finally got back one of their starting wide receivers in Sterling Shepard after he missed two games with a hamstring injury. 

On the flip side, it was rookie wide receiver Kadarius Toney’s turn to succumb to the injury carousel. Along with the first-round draft pick, offensive lineman Andrew Thomas suffered his own ankle injury, and fellow receiver C.J. Board left the turf with a broken arm to join a list of banged-up Giants’ skill players.

Sunday’s game marked the Giants organization’s 10-year commemoration of the 2011 team and their accomplishments that went all the way to the franchise’s fourth championship in Super Bowl 46. 

In a special halftime ceremony featuring the return of faces like Tom Coughlin, Eli Manning, Justin Tuck, and Victor Cruz, among others with the Super Bowl trophy, the former Giants head coach offered a word of advice when reminding the fan base booing the present team of the trials of the 2011 season.

“It’s a long season,” Coughlin said. ”Seventeen weeks when we played, eighteen weeks now. Becoming a winning team takes a process.”

It sure is going to be a long process back to that glory for the Giants.

Since joining the Rams via trade in the offseason, quarterback Matthew Stafford has made his case for MVP with incredible performances that have given his team a 5-1 start.

That dominance continued against the Giants, as Stafford completed 22-of-28 passes for 251 yards and four touchdowns, two of which went to wide receiver Cooper Kupp.

Stafford also found Robert Woods and running back Darrell Henderson in the end zone, finishing with 16 touchdown passes through the first six games of the season.

"I'm proud of the way we just stuck to it," said Stafford, who threw two of his four touchdown passes to Kupp. 

"Our defense did a great job in the second quarter giving us some short fields and we were able to score points."

Daniel Jones made his return to the field after spending the majority of the week under the league’s concussion protocol following his scary helmet-to-helmet hit against the Dallas Cowboys that was diagnosed as a concussion. 

Jones was a limited participant for most of the Giants’ practices but had passed all the necessary steps to be cleared on Friday for gameday participation.

While Jones said the decreased reps in practice and the aftermath of his injury bore no impact on his performance, it was clear the Rams defense had his number from the start. Playing the entire 60 minutes,

Jones went 29-of-51 for 242 yards to go along with three interceptions, two of which went to Rams safety Taylor Rapp who undercut his intended routes. Jones also fumbled on a strip-sack by Ogbonnia Okoronkwo that eventually led to the Rams' second touchdown of the second quarter.

“I think we got behind the sticks in a lot of situations and didn’t execute,” said Jones about the pace of the game when the Rams dominated. “We had a good plan and we just didn’t execute it. Obviously, the turnovers were a big deal and that set us back.”

Fullback Eli Penny, known more often for leading the charge for Saquon Barkley into the end zone, had his one moment in the sun of the endzone. 

On 1st-and-goal, Penny powered his way onto the blue turf to give the Giants their sole touchdown of the game in the fourth quarter, making the score 38-11 after a successful 2-point conversion by tight end Kyle Rudolph.

Head coach Joe Judge defended his team’s motivation levels amid the 1-5 start and doubting questions from the media, declaring the amount of the ball left to be played and that the team’s mentality isn’t to quit.

“There’s a lot of ball left to be played,” Judge said. “We’re in Week 6, so to turn around and start tapping out now--I don’t know what kind of mentality other people have, I don’t quit things, these players don’t quit things.”

“Did you just think you were going out there, roll the ball out and walk over every opponent? It’s the National Football League, teams are good. You’ve got to play better than them in those 60 minutes every Sunday to have success. In terms of the motivation aspect, our motivation is to improve and perform for the man next to us.”

The Giants fell to 0-3 at home this season and have been outscored by opponents 82-38. They also have a 19-51 record since the start of the 2017 season, which is the worst record in the NFL over a five-year span.