The Giant had a lot of things to second guess and do better during Monday night’s 24-10 loss to the Detroit Lions. The team was expected to bounce back from their loss to the Cowboys last week. Many people making DraftKings NFL Picks felt that Manning was a good candidate to put up some fantasy numbers and that Brandon Marshall would be a good selection as well against the Lions defense.
After a Week 1 contest in which they scored only 3 points, the Giants finally scored its first touchdown of the season. However, their effort against the Lions yielded only 62 rushing yards, and Eli Manning ended up getting sacked on five occasions. New York’s offensive line troubles were yet again an issue, as the Lions dominated the line of scrimmage and, and were able to contact Eli Manning multiple times. Those hits clearly had an impact on his ability to throw the ball throughout the game.
Eli did make a critical mistake in the game though that had nothing to do with the Lion’s physicality. The gaffe occurred late in the third quarter. At that point, the Giants were down 17-7 and found themselves in a fourth-and-goal situation from the Lions’ two-yard line. The Giants initially opted to go for a touchdown instead of kicking the chip shot field goal. New York lined up to run a play, however, Eli Manning did not snap the ball before the play clock ran out, forcing the Giants to settle for a field goal after getting hit with a five-yard delay of game penalty.
Head coach Ben McAdoo was meeting with reporters after the game and was asked about Eli’s delay of game penalty. He made no effort to lay the blame elsewhere and singled out Eli Manning for the error.
“Sloppy quarterback play,” McAdoo said. “Quarterback and the center need to be on the same page there. We got to get the ball snapped.”
Reporters then questioned by McAdoo had not called a time out to preserve extra time and prevent the delay of game pentalty. Here is his response:
“Because we have a veteran quarterback who’s played a lot of football,” he said. “I expect us to get the ball snapped.”
New York is 0-2 and has had an awful start to the year. However the season is nowhere near over and it’s a bit early to criticize your starting quarterback if you’re a head coach. It will be interesting to see how Manning responds to his head coach after being singled out to the media.