The Giants lost their third straight game on Sunday to Arizona 27-21 to fall to 2-5 on the season. They are now 1-3 at home. The offense totaled just 265 yards, their third consecutive game with less than 300 yards.
The Giants ran for 107 yards. This almost matches the previous 2 game rushing output of 116 yards against Minnesota and New England. Saquon Barkley returned from an injury and had 18 carries for 72 yards and one touchdown. “It felt good to get back out there and compete with your teammates. Unfortunately, we lost so that part of the game you are never happy with, but the good thing is you play a full season and we just have to go back to the drawing board and get ready for Detroit.”
A huge reason the Giants lost this game was how they protected their quarterback. They did not do a good job. Daniel Jones was sacked 8 times. Four of them by Chandler Jones. It had been over 10 years since a single Giants Quarterback was sacked 8 times in a single game. Eli was dropped 8 times against the Cowboys in 2008.
Jones had to give credit to the Cardinals D-Line when asked about the pressure he received all game long, “Yeah, they did a good job upfront. They have some good pass rushers over there, and they did a good job. But I need to do a better job of getting rid of the ball, getting through my reads and getting the ball out. But yeah, they deserve some credit.”
As for Chandler Jones, 4 sacks in a single game is a career high. Jones was excited to find that out. “It feels great. I mean, I thought I was at three [sacks in a single game], so wow this is a career-high [for me]. Four is even better.”
This game also marked the first time since 2015 that the first two Quarterbacks selected in the same draft squared off against each other. The 2015 matchup was between Winston and Mariota. It was only the 9th game since the 1970 merger where two top 10 quarterbacks drafted in the same class played each other.
Here are the 9 games:
11/07/1971 New England’s Jim Plunkett (No. 1) Houston’s Dan Pastorini (No. 3)
09/19/1993 New England’s Drew Bledsoe (No. 1) Seattle’s Rick Mirer (No. 2)+
10/04/1998 Indianapolis’ Peyton Manning (No. 1) San Diego’s Ryan Leaf (No. 2)+
10/10/1999 Cleveland’s Tim Couch (No. 1) Cincinnati’s Akili Smith (No. 3)
09/25/2011 Carolina’s Cam Newton (No. 1) Jacksonville’s Blaine Gabbert (No. 10)
11/04/2012 Indianapolis’ Andrew Luck (No. 1) Miami’s Ryan Tannehill (No. 8)
09/13/2015 Tampa Bay’s Jameis Winston (No. 1) Tennessee’s Marcus Mariota (No. 2)+
12/09/2018 Jets’ Sam Darnold (No. 3) Buffalo’s Josh Allen (No. 7)
10/20/19 Arizona’s Kyler Murray (No. 1) Giants’ Daniel Jones (No. 6)+
The higher draft choice is now 6-3 in such games. The home team is 4-5 overall.
Kyler Murray threw for only 104 yards with no touchdowns. He was 14/21. He did have 10 rushing attempts for 28 yards. “We really just took care of the ball when it’s bad weather like that. That’s really the goal. We did that today. We ran the ball well. The o-line blocked great and the defense played great. I’m not too into the numbers. I’m just glad that we got the win.” Murray when asked about his performance considering the rain.
The Cardinals have now won three straight after their 0-3-1 start. They sit at 3-3-1 with a trip to New Orleans next week. When Kyler was asked about what’s the difference between the team from being 0-3-1 to 3-3-1 he responded, “I think that earlier in the season, we just weren’t finishing. We had a couple mishaps here and there with a lot of negative plays. We just have been adjusting each and every week, getting better each and every week, coming to work and just trying to get better, honestly. I think we fixed some of those things that we were messing up on earlier in the year. I think you see we’re playing more complementary football. Guys bought in. Guys are trusting each other. We’re just really all in it and doing whatever it takes to win.”