It was a flat, uninspired, listless, unexciting and inefficient performance by the Giants in Sunday’s 24-6 loss to the Saints.
Whatever faint playoff hopes they carried into New Orleans were extinguished, and their record of 5-9 assures they will have a losing season one year after winning nine games and making the playoffs.
There was far more bad than good coming out of the game for the Giants. Here are a few of the lowlights and highlights:
— For the fifth time this season, the Giants did not score a touchdown on offense.
This was the fourth game in which they were held scoreless in the second half.
With 193 total yards, this was the fifth game this season in which the Giants had less than 200 total yards.
Their 60 rushing yards was their third-lowest total of the season.
These are some truly rotten offensive numbers in a truly rotten offensive season.
— Tommy DeVito did nothing great but he did not come apart at the seams amid the constant pressure.
He cannot thrive when there is a complete lack of a running game, other than the four times he kept it himself (he picked up 36 yards).
DeVito did not turn it over on a fumble or an interception and that is at least a small positive that came out of the game.
He has not thrown an interception in his last 121 passes.
“It’s tough, there’s a lot of stuff that was outside of his control,’’ wide receiver Isaiah Hodgins said. “I’m sure the outside world will try to sit there and blame him, but a lot of stuff that happened wasn’t his fault.’’
Last week, DeVito was not sacked in a 24-22 victory over the Packers. There was finally continuity along the offensive line and that unit was playing its best ball of the season.
This was a regression.
The interior of the line, especially left guard Justin Pugh and rookie center John Michael Schmitz, did not handle the twists and movement from the Saints defensive line.
As a result, there were far too many free runners at DeVito, who was sacked seven times.
Could he have avoided a few of these by getting the ball out of his hands? Certainly. But he was under too much pressure and the line got exposed.
“It’s a little bit of everything,” DeVito said. “I mean, at times sometimes it’s just the pressure look, sometimes it’s a cover sack, sometimes I can get the ball out and I’d maybe just missed somebody. I mean it’s all three of those that goes into it, I think I’ve said in the past when we’ve had a couple other sack games just it’s not just on the offensive line. It’s not just on the quarterback, not just on the receivers. Kind of a different scenario every time.”
— It was a successful return for tight end Darren Waller in that he did nothing to aggravate the hamstring strain that cost him five games right smack in the middle of the season.
Waller was on a snap-count restriction and was on the field for 26 of the 62 snaps on offense — exactly what the pre-determined plan was for him.
He caught four passes for 40 yards and looked like himself on a catch-and-run that produced a 29-yard pickup.
Waller’s first season with the Giants is coming to a close and it has been filled with unfulfilled promise.
He is second on the team with 40 receptions for 424 yards and had only one touchdown.
Waller has been held back by the struggles of the passing game, a removing door at quarterback and his own absence on the field.
— The Saints came into the game with a record of 6-7 and played like a team interested in making a playoff push. The Giants did not.
“Our record and their record, we both knew this was a must-win for both of us,’’ linebacker Bobby Okereke said. “I thought they came out with great juice, their offense played great and their defense played great.’’
Thank goodness for punter Jamie Gillan making a 40-yard field goal on the final play of the first half to add some spice to a bland outing by the Giants.
Gillan hit the first field goal of his five-year NFL career after Randy Bullock hurt his hamstring in the first quarter.
During the 2020 season, Gillian attempted a field goal while he was playing for the Browns, a 61-yarder to end the first half in a game against the Jets. That did not go well.
“Missed the crap out of it,’’ Gillan said. “Wasn’t close. It was terrible. I put it about five [yards] deep in the end zone. I put it like a kickoff and they returned it and I was like ‘Oh no.’ ’’
Gillan actually felt his left leg tighten up after the field goal, as he said the leg motion as a field goal kicker is completely different from the motion used by a punter. He put a sleeve on his left leg and was able to continue punting for the remainder of the game.
Bullock hit a 56-yard field goal in the first quarter.
After Gillan made his one and only field-goal attempt, this became the first game in 29 years that the Giants had two different kickers make a field goal. It happened Oct. 23, 1994 when David Treadwell and Brad Daluiso both made field goals in a 10-6 loss to the Steelers.
Another game, another learning experience for Jalin Hyatt.
The rookie wide receiver was on the field for 44 snaps on offense — that’s 71 percent — and yet did not catch a pass. He was targeted three times.
Hyatt is so skinny that he finds it difficult to deal with physical defensive backs in the middle of the field. He was bodied off the ball by in the second quarter by cornerback Paulson Adebo while running a slant and this is an area Hyatt needs to improve if he is to reach his goal of becoming a complete receiver.
He can run deep – that has already been established. An offseason in the weight room, adding some muscle to his slight frame, should be the plan for him.
Saints quarterback Derek Carr was booed during the pregame introductions and was booed again after the offense went three-and-out to start the game.
Carr is in the first season of a four-year, $150 million contract he signed with the Saints and patience for him is not running high.
He was struggling getting the ball down the field — until he faced the Giants, who made Carr look like Drew Brees, the former Saints quarterback who usually wreaked havoc in the Superdome.
Carr completed 23 of 28 passes for only 218 yards but he also tossed three touchdown passes for a quarterback rating of 134.8. Carr’s completion percentage of 82.1 was the highest by a Giants’ opponent since Baker Mayfield connected on 84.3 percent of his passes for the Browns late in the 2020 season.
The book on Carr is he can be rattled if swarmed in the pocket. The Giants rarely got close enough to him to make sweat. Their lone sack came in a blitz by safety Jason Pinnock.
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