New York Giants: Once Again, Odell Beckham Jr Rescues Ben McAdoo
After a game filled with more disappointing New York Giants offensive play calls, Odell Beckham Jr.’s excellence bailed out head coach Ben McAdoo and deflects the blame off of him once again.
The New York Giants escaped with a victory against the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, due largely to the performance of Odell Beckham Jr. Finishing the game with eight catches for 222 yards and two touchdowns (including the game-winning 66-yarder), Beckham saved head coach Ben McAdoo from having to explain his continued conservative playcalling and clock mismanagement issues.
The first half of Sunday’s game was very disappointing for the Giants’ offense. Most of Eli Manning‘s passes were designed screen plays and the running game was not established (as usual). Even against a depleted Baltimore defense, McAdoo was not being aggressive with the offensive playcalling. The Giants trailed the Ravens 10-7 at
The Giants trailed the Ravens 10-7 at halftime, but were lucky to not be down by more. The Ravens defense dominated the Giants offense in the first half, holding them scoreless during their first four drives. A critical fourth-down conversion to Victor Cruz set up a 24-yard touchdown pass to Roger Lewis Jr and allowed the Giants offense to gain some confidence.
Following the touchdown, McAdoo displayed his clock mismanagement skills, causing the Giants to leave points on the field. After Lewis’s touchdown, the Ravens had the ball with 2:28 left before halftime. After stopping the Ravens on their first two downs, Landon Collins sacked Joe Flacco with 1:22 remaining. Instead of immediately calling their final timeout, McAdoo inexplicably allowed 13 seconds run off the clock before signaling for the timeout with 1:09 left.
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These 13 seconds would prove to be costly, and the Giants were unable to score after getting to the Baltimore 45-yard line. Those 13 seconds would have been useful in allowing the offense to advance the ball further downfield within field goal range, but the lack of time led to an interception instead.
The Giants started the second-half by leaving more points on the field, being unable to score a touchdown after a 1st-and-goal from the 1-yard line. A field goal tied the game at 10, but their next drive consisted of short passes to the backup tight-end and fourth-string running back before another interception led to a Baltimore go-ahead field goal.
In a shocking turn of events, McAdoo called an aggressive play on the very next snap, in which Beckham caught a 75-yard touchdown. McAdoo finally utilized Eli’s deep ball and Beckham rewarded him.
When the Ravens re-took the lead in the fourth quarter, Manning and the Giants had 2:04 left in the game to score. After an incompletion to Bobby Rainey and two short passes to Larry Donnell, McAdoo called a short slant pass on 4th down in which Beckham broke loose and scored the game-winning 66-yard touchdown.
No one will question the successful call on fourth down, but had Beckham not converted, the blame would be on the conservative playcalling on 1st, 2nd on 3rd down on their final drive. Instead, Beckham bailed McAdoo out once again and scored another long touchdown.
The Giants narrowly escaped behind their conservative playcalling this week, but as seen in previous weeks, this type of offense will not lead to victories against quality teams. Sunday was the first time this season that I’ve seen Manning throw deep, and this aggressiveness led to a touchdown.
Yes, these risks will lead to occasional interceptions, but they will also lead to touchdowns. In previous years, nearly all of the big plays under Ben McAdoo’s offense had been short passes to Beckham where he breaks a tackle and uses his speed to burn the defense. This time (although short-lived), we saw flashbacks of Eli’s success launching the ball downfield.
Next: Ravens vs. Giants Recap, Highlights, Final Score, and More
McAdoo’s offense is not great, but Beckham took the system and made it respectable. McAdoo’s game clock management near halftime was poor, but Beckham bailed him out at the end. Instead of talking about the continued fumbles and penalties, we are talking about a late game win. Instead of talking about how McAdoo’s conservative offense is costing them games, we are talking about Beckham carrying the team once again.