New York Giants: 3 takeaways from 24-3 Week 4 win over Redskins
By Ed Stein
Ball control
Warning, this is the Debbie Downer section. It isn’t fun to write about but it is very important.
The New York Giants were very careless with the football on Sunday. They had four turnovers and it could have been even worse. Thankfully they were playing against a bad team, Washington, who not only couldn’t capitalize on the turnovers but threw four interceptions themselves.
As mentioned above, Jones threw interceptions on back to back possessions in the first half. Actually it was twice in three plays. Skins cornerback Quinton Dunbar jumped in front of underthrown balls to make his picks. It’s something the rookie will have to work on, especially playing much better defensive backfields the next two weeks (Minnesota and New England).
Jones fumbled twice in his first start against Tampa Bay. Sunday he did a much better job of holding onto the ball. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for his teammates. Return man TJ Jones muffed a pair of punt returns and was briefly replaced by Peppers. Had he not been able to regain possession, the outcome may have been very different.
No one is going to confuse any of the other Giants running back for Saquon Barkley. Gallman and Jon Hilliman performed adequately for what the G-Men had planned on Sunday. The pair combined for 99 rushing yards. Each man, however, fumbled in the second half resulting in turnovers. While neither of them can come close to replacing Big Blue’s star running back, they are expected to hold on to the football.
The bottom line here is that the Giants can’t afford to turn the ball over four times in a game. They got away with it on Sunday, because their opponents were bad. It can’t happen again because if it does, they will lose.