The New York Giants lost to the Washington Commanders on Sunday, 27-22, and did so in all-too-familiar fashion. The offense didn’t do enough, the defense bent just enough to be outlasted by a talented Washington unit, and New York put forth another disappointing performance in front of the home fans. Part of that lackluster effort came down to play-calling.
Luke Johnson-Imagn Images There is no easier way to play Monday morning quarterback than to critique plays that didn’t work. We won’t sit here and suggest, from an outside perspective, that Daboll needed to call different passing concepts or take advantage of different mismatches. But Daboll’s play-calling was unconventional.
And when one breaks from the norm, and fails, that’s going to get critiqued – fair or not. Most notable was Daboll’s insistence on running the football early in the game. The Giants ran for 115 yards in the opening quarter, establishing the ground game with 17 attempts.
However, by virtue of game script and game plan, New York ran the ball 14 times the rest of the afternoon. Jones finished with 26 pass attempts and was sacked twice. Clearly, getting the ball out of his hands quickly and limiting his volume was a point of emphasis.
But the seismic shift from one quarter to the next caught the eye of receiver Malik Nabers. “I don't call the plays, so I mean, I don't know,” Nabers said . “When you run the clock out in the first half, you're scratching in the second half to try to scor.
