6 winners and 4 losers in from NY Giants’ 34-27 loss to New Orleans Saints

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The New York Giants mounted a furious fourth-quarter comeback, but lost to the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, 34-27. That was a disappointing result against a team that entered the game 1-4. Let’s get to the ‘Kudos and Wet Willies’.

Kudos to …

J.J. McCarthy —McCarthy mighyt have won himself the starting quarterback job with an insane performance over the final 11:31 on Sunday.

McCarthy entered with the Giants trailing, 34-10. He quickly threw an interception. After that, though, he led three scoring drives in the final 9:31, with a comeback only falling short when his fourth-and-1 pass from the Saints’ 14-yard line fell incomplete with :06 to play.

McCarthy completed 11 of 21 for a crazy 243 yards in 11 minutes of play, with a touchdown and an interception. He ran twice for 26 yards, ending up as the Giants’ leading rusher.

After the game, head coach John Harbaugh left the door open for a quarterback change. It’s hard to see how he can avoid making one after what McCarthy did on Sunday.

Malik Nabers — Nabers caught 12 passes for 165 yards and a touchdown on 15 targets. The 165 yards was the third-highest total of his career. I have an issue with what I saw as a lack of effort from Nabers to help Winston on a third-quarter interception by Martin Emerson, but his numbers are his numbers. There can’t be much doubt that Nabers is back to dominant form. This was his third straight 100-yard receiving game.

Isaiah Likely — The talented tight end had six catches on 11 targets for 99 yards. What a tandem he and Nabers are turning into.

Ar’Darius Washington/Jason Pinnock — With starter Tyler Nubin sidelined by a neck injury, the two safeties both made bids to take Nubin’s job. Washington had some nice plays in space in the first half. Pinnock had a forced fumble and was used effectively as a blitzer.

Jordan Stout — The Giants’ punter is awesome. Five punts on the day for an average 54.2 yards, with a long of 66 yards.

Dominic Zvada — The rookie placekicker bounced back from the first three misses of his career last week against the Washington Commanders to go 2 of 2 with field goals of 34 and 41 yards.

Wet Willies to …

The McCarthy Package — The Giants used it on one play. McCarthy lost 2 yards. McCarthy may have solved the problem on how to convince the Giants to stop messing around with this package by winning the starting job on Sunday.

Giants’ run game — PITIFUL. ABOMINABLE. ATROCIOUS. NON-EXISTENT. Cam Skattebo was handcuffed by the Giants on Sunday as they did not give him the ball a single time after last Sunday’s overtime fumble. That left the door open for the rest of the Giants’ back to earn some trust. None responded. Najee Harris started and had four carries for 2 yards, Tracy had six carries for 18 yards, and Devin Singletary had four carries for 14 yards.

J.J. McCarthy led the Giants with two carries for 26 yards, getting all of that on a 28-yard scramble on a desperate final drive by the Giants.

The running backs weren’t good, and Harbaugh said as much:

Maybe the Giants need to look for running back help at the NFL Trade Deadline. There is clearly a reason why they were interested in Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker and No. 3 overall pick Jeremiyah Love during the offseason.

They also, though, need to figure out why they can’t run block. If there were any holes for Giants’ backs to run through, I didn’t see them. I don’t know if the Giants have an answer to their woeful run blocking.

The Saints entered the game 26th in the league in run defense, and the Giants could not budge the New Orleans front. That was pretty embarrassing.

“Skattebo” chants — Skattebo played a handful of snaps, but didn’t touch the ball. Late in the third quarter, a smattering of “Skattebo” chants began. Those, to say the least, annoyed me. Fans here at Big Blue View spent a lot of time last week wondering if or when Harbaugh would hold Skattebo accountable for four fumbles in five weeks, including one last week that cost the Giants a chance to win a game.

Harbaugh did hold Skattebo accountable on Sunday. Harris started. Skattebo never touched the ball.

At the end of the third quarter there were a handful of “Skattebo” chants.

Fans cannot have it both ways. You cannot ask for accountability, then complain about a player being held accountable. The coach did what he believed needed to be done. The Giants ran the ball terribly, but Skattebo and his 3.6 yards per carry averages wasn’t going to make a different with noplace to run. The run-blocking was putrid. Whether Skattebo was getting the ball or not was not going to change the outcome of this game.

Kick coverage/return units — There was the Charlie Jones fumble, kickoff returns allowed of 41 and 30 yards, a punt return allowed of 23 yards, and two penalties that negated nice returns by Jones. The Giants have been really good on special teams so far this season. That wasn’t the case for their coverage and return units on Sunday.

Kwillies to …

Charlie Jones — The kick returner/wide receiver had a massive fumble at the end of the first half. After a Daniel Carlson field goal gave New Orleans its first points of the half, Jones lost the ball at the Giants’ 28-yard line. The Saints, who did nothing for the first 28 minutes of the game, capitalized by scoring a touchdown to tie the game at the half, 10-10.

Jones did at least somewhat make amends in the second half. He had two catches for 66 yards, including a 49-yarder from McCarthy during the Giants’ furious comeback. Jones also had a 33-yard punt return wiped out by a penalty. Promising stuff, but the bad outweighed the good.

Jameis Winston — Yes, there is likely going to be excitement about McCarthy after his fourth-quarter performance replacing Winston. I do not believe, though, that this loss can be blamed on Winston.

The quarterback is not responsible for the embarrassingly bad running game. He isn’t responsible for the Jones’ fumble. He isn’t responsible for the lifeless third quarter, and the not-good-enough run defense.

Winston threw two interceptions with the Giants already trailing by double digits. He did not put them in that hole. He simply wasn’t up to the task of digging them out of it.

Tyrone Tracy — The third-year running back scored two touchdowns. Tracy had a 17-yard catch-and-run for a first-quarter touchdown, and a 5-yard fourth-quarter touchdown run. His overall numbers, six carries for 18 yards (3.0 yards per carry) and 2 receptions for 27 yards aren’t great. Touchdowns matter, though.