New York Giants: Main Focus Should Not Be Odell Beckham’s Emotions

While everyone is talking about how to control Beckham, they are ignoring the real problem: how the offense has underachieved under Ben McAdoo.

Almost every headline about the New York Giants is centered around wideout Odell Beckham Jr’s emotional volatility. While everyone is talking about how to control Beckham, they are ignoring the real problem: how the offense has underachieved under head Ben McAdoo.

The conservative play-calling and lack of risks have sent this offense into a downward spiral and has sunk the team to the bottom of the NFC East. Clouding this concern is the talk about Beckham going out of control.

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Beckham’s emotional outburst, last year, against the Carolina Panthers and Josh Norman brought his emotions to the forefront of the media. Against the Washington Redskins, there was a huge spotlight on Beckham vs. Norman.

When cameras caught Beckham throwing his helmet at the kicking net, people thought he was losing control again. He was reacting to Eli Manning throwing an interception after Beckham carried the offense downfield. Against the Minnesota Vikings, Beckham drew a taunting penalty after shouting at the player who hit him late out of bounds.

In the first case, my concern was the kicking net could’ve injured him, not with him getting mad. In the latter, Beckham should’ve been informed how in today’s NFL, even verbally reacting will result in a flag. The increase in taunting and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties this year is far too much, and the fact that it was Beckham in the situation led to a quick flag. The game against the Panthers “marked him” and he needs to understand that he has an extremely short leash now, whether fair or unfair.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with Beckham displaying his emotions on the sidelines. I don’t think this “distracts” his teammates if it doesn’t affect the game. Unless he’s getting a 15-yard penalty, it actually shows that he is invested in the game.

Tom Brady often gets angry on the sideline, but no one draws attention to that. Because of Beckham’s incident with Norman, the spotlight is all on him. I think the main focus should be on how bad the offense has performed under McAdoo. His conservative play-calling does not suit this personnel and has lead to poor offensive performances by his team.

Discounting the offensive struggles in the preseason, their first four games have been horrible from an offensive standpoint.

In Week 1, they scored only 20 points against a depleted Cowboys defense. In Week 2, they could not score an offensive touchdown against the Saints, who have one of the worst defenses in the entire league. In Week 3, the offense was dormant in the second half and did not come through when the game was on the line. Against the Vikings, other than one screen pass to Paul Perkins, the offense did absolutely nothing.

This underachievement reflects the conservative play-calling under McAdoo and has not resulted in offensive success for a long time. People can point to Manning’s “career years” under McAdoo and how his accuracy has significantly improved, but this is misleading because this offense takes minimal risks. Within Kevin Gilbride’s vertical offense, Manning’s deep ball was showcased. Within McAdoo’s, most of Manning’s throws are short or medium. Most of the big plays have been short completions where the receiver runs for big yardage after the catch.

McAdoo’s offense has not utilized Manning’s arm potential and has instead become too conservative (and predictable). 3rd-and-long? Shotgun hand-off or screen pass to the running back. This offense does not take risks and has not extracted the full potential of having Beckham, Victor Cruz and Sterling Shepard lined up together.

Manning also deserves some blame for the offensive struggles. He has been too reliant on his check down receivers (usually the running backs) and has not been getting the ball to the dynamic wide receiver trio. Last night,

Last night, Bobby Rainey had as many targets (nine) as Beckham. In other words, the fourth-string running back was thrown to as much as a top-three receiver. Against the Redskins, his interceptions were on passes to Shane Vereen and Will Tye. It’s a bit more justifiable if Manning throws picks on balls towards his big-time receivers and not when he’s targeting lower options.

McAdoo was promoted to head coach because John Mara handpicked him. He was enamored by the low-risk offense and did not carefully analyze whether McAdoo can maximize the team’s potential. Aside from his age, Tom Coughlin was forced out last year because of clock management problems and how he mishandled the Beckham situation, which led many people to assume that he was losing control of the team.

This year, McAdoo hasn’t done any better. The Giants have committed 26 penalties thus far, and many of these had a large impact on the games. Fumbling and “taking care of the Duke” have gone through the roof as well.

The Giants managed the clock poorly at the end of the first half against the Vikings, settling for a field goal when calling a timeout would’ve given them another chance for a touchdown. The same fans who wanted Coughlin out the door are finally realizing that he was not the issue.

Next: Giants: Five Takeaways from Loss to Minnesota Vikings

The Giants offense must get better to have any chance of making the playoffs. Instead of emphasizing Beckham’s emotions, they should adapt a more aggressive approach to their offense.

McAdoo should pay extra attention when they play the Steelers in Week 13. The Giants have a better wide receiver trio than Pittsburgh, yet the Steelers are the team averaging 27 points per game because of how aggressive their offense is. The Giants have equal potential and fans should hope McAdoo realizes his conservative approach will not translate to wins against good teams.