One touchdown.
That's what the Giants offense gave fans at MetLife Stadium in three home games this season.
Not surprisingly, the Giants have lost all three of those games, the most recent being a boring 17-7 loss to the Bengals on Sunday night.
The good news is there was one touchdown in Sunday night's game.
The bad news is, it wasn't nearly enough — even on nights when the defense played well against an explosive Cincinnati offense that entered the game averaging 35 points over the past three games. was also not enough.
He has one touchdown in three home games.
“It's really unacceptable,” Giants left guard John Runyan Jr. said. “You can't win a game by kicking a field goal.”
Well, the Giants weren't able to do that again Sunday night, with replacement kicker Greg Joseph missing a field goal try from 47 yards (that could have tied the game 10-10 in the fourth quarter) and then ending the game. He missed 45 yards at the end.
“I know the home crowd wants to see us win, and we have to score at home,” Runyan said. ” [home] The audience attendance was really good. We can feel the energy from them supporting us and it means a lot. We have to give them something to cheer about. ”
The Giants gave their home fans little cheer on this night, but they did it on a day when the NFC East rivals brawled — Dallas and Washington lost, Philadelphia advanced and beat Cleveland.
Had the Giants won Sunday night, they would have been in the thick of division contention with a 3-3 record. Currently at 2-4, they desperately need a win against the Eagles at home next week to stay in the standings.
Of course, that would require scoring a touchdown at home.
“It's hard to win a game when you score seven points,” Giants head coach Brian Daboll said. “That's the reality. It starts with me.”
Daboll did everything he could to launch a sputtering attack.
He raised some eyebrows when, on the Giants' first offensive series of the second half, trailing 7-0, he chose to go for a fourth-and-2 from his own 38-yard line.
The Giants were eliminated in the first half. Its major blunders were due to their own lapses, including a terrible interception thrown by Daniel Jones in the red zone and a subsequent penalty to killer Andrew Thomas that nullified Jones' 56-yard pass play to Darius Slayton. It was something. within the territory of Bengal.
Daboll had clearly seen enough stops and starts and decided it was time to shake things up. he wanted more. He needed more. He needed points.
“We didn't have any points,” Daboll said.
The Giants failed to shoot 4-2 from their own 38, giving the Bengals the ball essentially already in field goal range, making the move seem like a failure and risking the Giants potentially losing the game. It looked like.
But shortly after, linebacker Bobby Okereke threw a lifeline to Daboll and the offense, forcing Zack Moss to fumble, which was recovered by Micah McFadden.
And, because sometimes things like this happen in life, when the Giants got possession after that, they were faced with a fourth-and-2 from their own 40 just a few minutes later.
At this point, Daboll was already all in and the cards were pushed into the center of the table. So he tried again, this time to rookie running back Tyron Tracy, who got a first down and took an option pitch from Jones for a 4-yard gain.
Six plays later, it was 4-and-1 from the Cincinnati 35, Daboll didn't make a field goal, and Tracy gained 5 yards and a first down.
The gamble resulted in Tracy's 1-yard touchdown with 5:48 left in the third quarter, tying the score at 7-7.
That's all from the Giants' offensive line.
One touch down.
Daboll and Giants players said after the game that the game plan would be more aggressive. It worked in the short term, but it wasn't enough.
After the Bengals took a 10-7 lead on Ryan Lehkow's 37-yard field goal, Daboll went for it again on fourth down, this time looking for his fourth score on a fourth-and-one from the Cincinnati 46.
This time, keeper Jones gained yards and kept the drive alive.
However, this time he stalled with 4 for 28 at bats and 5 for 5, and Daboll had no choice but to try to get the same point.
At that time, Joseph missed the first of two attempts and hooked a 47-yard attempt to the left side.
Joseph then missed a 45-yard shot with 51 seconds left, and the Giants desperately tried to cut the lead to 17-10.
There were two missed field goals and one touchdown.
“It sucks,” Runyan said. “I felt like we built something the last few weeks, especially last week (29-20 win at Seattle), and then coming here and playing Sunday Night Football at home, we just didn't play up to our standards. That’s… really unfortunate.”
The Giants owe their home fans more. A lot more.
