In a warm-up game with substitutes, the main aim is to keep the star players safe on the sidelines while also completing valuable tasks at the back of the squad.
And so the Giants’ 10-6 loss to the Jets on Saturday night in their annual summer duel at MetLife Stadium meant nothing to the guys who will actually be out there when the action gets serious.
Other than center John Michael Schmitz, none of the Giants’ expected starters were on the field as the Giants finished a lackluster 1-2 preseason.
Schmitz was sidelined with an ankle injury and it will be interesting to see if he returns in two weeks when the Giants open their season at home against the Vikings on September 8th.
What happened was important for the individual players on the roster, but what happened earlier in the week was more of a gauge of how ready the Giants first team is for the decisive games.
The Giants and Jets participated in a joint practice last Wednesday, and it’s safe to say that as the Giants boarded their buses back in Florham Park, they knew they had a lot of work ahead of them on both sides of the ball.
On defense, some of the Giants’ worst fears – or worries – came true as their secondary struggled to keep the ball from flying over their heads and into the hands of the Jets’ receivers.
On one play, Aaron Rodgers threw a ball to Garrett Wilson, who was running free as Deonte Banks and Nick McCloud were having a lot of success against him. Allen Lazard hit Tre Hawkins for a touchdown.
Tyrod Taylor, who had served as the Giants’ backup quarterback for the past two seasons, threw one of his high-flying deep balls and Jason Brownlee ran under it.
“There were two long balls,” safety Jason Pinnock told the Post. “When you look at it closely, one of them is something we just need to keep our eyes down and be more disciplined on the field. It was one of those things, Tyrod hit his back foot and let it fly, (Brownlee) caught it on the run, fell and ran forward. We’re in the NFL. Great ball, great catch. The other one was more of a bust. Unacceptable, something we need to change.”
On the field, where the Giants’ offense faced off against the Jets’ robust defense, things were not quite so one-sided.
Daniel Jones ran for a touchdown and threw a touchdown pass to tight end Chris Manhertz. In the two-minute drill, Jones was supposed to throw a long pass to Malik Nabers, but the rookie dropped the ball.
The Giants appeared mostly methodical, with Jones opting for check-down throws and handing the ball off to his running backs.
Why so conservative?
“Overall, I think we did pretty well,” receiver Darius Slayton said. “Their defensive tactics are to take away the depth and make them take the long, hard route, which looks very mundane in a practice setting and makes it seem like we’re not getting anywhere. If you don’t tackle people, you have no idea how far someone would have run with a ruck or a running back with a broken run. At the end of the day, it looks like a five-yard gain or whatever. That’s how they play defense and we just took what they gave us all day. You can’t just force it.”
The Jets enjoyed their victory against the Giants.
“I’m sure they came away feeling good, they did a pretty good job of keeping us in check,” Slayton said, “but I would say in a real game, you can’t play back for four quarters, at some point you have to catch up. That’s just the way it is.”
Two joint practices with the Lions and one with the Jets provided the Giants’ starters with more ongoing challenges than anything they experienced this summer, as their preseason game practice was limited.
“I think it was good work, good competition,” Pinnock said. “When you can go against a different team, against a different scheme, when they’re trying to figure us out and we’re trying to figure them out, it’s a challenge for us and a challenge for them. Just the live action and finally that action against a different color.”
The next live action counts, really.
