Giants vs. Redskins Week 3 Analysis/Grades

After what was an absolutely horrific loss to the Washington Redskins, the New York Giants need to make some changes. The Giants just played poorly as a team with the exception of a few players. Now preparing for what will be one of their toughest games of the season against the Minnesota Vikings in Minnesota, the Giants have a lot to work on. Quite obviously, if the Giants don't clean up their act and adjust parts of their game plan, they will be sure to embarrass themselves against a very talented, undefeated Vikings team. For now, we must take a look at the few things the Giants did well, and the many things the team poorly in their week 3 loss.

The Good

Odell Beckham Jr:

Odell Beckham Jr had by far the best performance out of anyone on the Giants. He consistently beat Josh Norman in lieu to racking up 7 receptions for 121 yards. He would have accumulated plenty more yards and at least one touchdown if it weren't for Eli Manning's inability to find him on the many plays that he was open. Beckham Jr was exceptional after the catch and made a fantastic catch grabbing the ball with one hand and maintaining possession of the ball while taking a big hit and being able to stay inbounds. Beckham Jr failed to beat Norman in one aspect during Sunday's game: mentally. The receiver found himself throwing a temper-tantrum on the sideline, crying and kicking the kicker's net, which ended with Beckham Jr getting hit in the face by the net. At the end of the day, Beckham Jr had a viable reason to be upset as he played as well as he could have yet failed to receive the amount of targets he should have thanks to the poor performance by Manning. Grade: A-

Linebackers:

The linebackers are finally able to say that they had a somewhat solid performance. Keenan Robinson delivered some big hits including one big time tackle on a third and short. Kelvin Sheppard played well and also made some key tackles. There isn't all that much for the linebackers to brag about, but overall, they had themselves a solid game following poor performances from the previous 2 weeks. Grade: B

The Bad

Eli Manning:

Manning was atrocious. There is simply no other way to put it. He had two interceptions, but could have easily had five interceptions. He threw one pass at the goal line to Will Tye which was easily intercepted by the Redskins. The obvious interception was the game-ending pass to Shane Vereen that was low and behind Vereen and easily intercepted by Su'a Cravens. Manning had a pass early in the game that was way behind Beckham Jr and dropped by Norman. Later in the game, Manning threw a ball to Vereen who ran an out pattern while there were three defenders in the area. The ball was tipped off of the hands of two redskins' defenders and luckily dropped. Lastly, Manning threw a pass to Bobby Rainey in the corner of the end zone which was nearly ruled an interception. Manning's poor performance is being overshadowed by the fact that he only accounted for 2 interceptions while he  could have easily had 5 interceptions on the day. Looking past his interceptions, his throws were just inaccurate all day. He had his passes batted down at the line of scrimmage multiple times and just failed to hit his open targets. Most notably, at the beginning of the 4th quarter, Manning had a wide-open Beckham Jr running wide-open down the sideline but Manning ultimately decided to dump the ball off to Sterling Shepard for 10 yards. Combing his decision-making and accuracy, Manning had himself a pathetic performance. Grade: D+

Shane Vereen: 

With Rashad Jennings out due to injury, Vereen was given an opportunity to prove his worth and possibly show why he should be the starting running back. Vereen failed at his task, fumbling the football two times. His routes were mediocre all throughout the game. This was a game to forget about for Vereen. Grade: C-

Special Teams:

Forgetting about the punt recovery early on in the game which was purely luck, the Giants' special teams unit was terrible. In what could have a game-winning punt block, safety Andrew Adams, who was called up from the practice squad the day a few days ago, committed a foolish unnecessary roughness penalty which cancelled out the punt block. So rather than getting the football just outside of the redzone, the Giants got the ball on their own side of the field. Adams should pack his bags as he single handedly threw away what was likely the game-saving play for the Giants. Finally, after a good punt by Brad Wing, Eli Apple missed a tackle and Jamison Crowder took the ball all the way down the field into Giants territory. After a great special teams performance during week 2, the special teams unit was a key contributor to the week 3 loss. Grade: C-

Will Tye:

On the limited snaps in which Tye was in the game, he played badly. He gave up on a route that resulted in an interception by Manning.  I wouldn't say Tye was one of the main reasons for the loss, but he definitely had a bad game. Grade: C

Secondary:

Just when the Giants' secondary started to look like one of the best units in football, they reminded us all how bad they were last year. DeSean Jackson had a 44 yard touchdown early on in the game, and Jamison Crowder flew by everyone in lieu to a 50+ yard touchdown on what should have been a short gain had tackles been made. No excuses for the secondary; everyone played bad. Grade: C-

Coaching:

This game can be summarized by one play: Bobby Rainey running a fade route on third and goal. This play is unexplainable. You have one of the best, if not the best wide receiving unit in football, and you throw a fade route to the 5-8 running back, Bobby Rainey. It was one of the worst designed plays I have ever seen. I hope McAdoo can explain the logic in sending the shortest player on the team out to run a fade route because it seems to be just a horrible idea due to the fact that it nearly ended in an interception. Additionally, why would Andrew Adams, a player who was called up from the practice squad due to injuries, be on the field with the special teams unit? It makes no sense at all considering there are plenty of other experienced players who wouldn't have committed a penalty which prevented a game-deciding punt block. Lastly, the Redskins managed to pull of a fake punt in which Tress Way threw a ball down the sidelines and easily completed a first down. There are many other plays that can be examined and concluded to be poorly designed, and the fact that the plays didn't work against a mediocre Redskins' defense is scary considering the Vikings elite defense awaits the Giants. McAdoo better get his act together if he wants to have a chance in next week's game. Grade: D

Penalties:

You have to include the 11 penalties that amounted for 127 yards when looking at what the Giants did poorly. They played sloppy; that's all it is. It was a classless football game which they ended up losing, rightfully so, due to their lack of discipline. Grade: N/A