Giants struggle against Lions' league-worst defense

Daniel Jones stated the obvious:

It was not a good day. Not for him. Not for his teammates on offense. Not for the Giants as a whole.

“We certainly weren’t celebrating,” Jones said tersely after the Giants’ 31-18 loss to the Lions on Sunday at MetLife Stadium. “We’re all pretty disappointed with our effort today and how we played; not up to our standard, to what we’re capable of doing. I think that’s the disappointing part of it. We’ve got to evaluate that, study it and make sure we can’t let those things happen again.”

With their next game Thanksgiving Day in Dallas against the Cowboys, it behooves the Giants (7-3) to absorb the lessons administered by the Lions, specifically on the offensive side of the ball.

Even though their second loss in their last three games was a collective effort, the Giants struggled against the NFL’s worst defensive team for much of the afternoon.

The Giants totaled 413 yards of offense, much of which was attributable to Jones. The quarterback was 27-for-44 passing for 341 yards and a touchdown and added 50 yards and a score on seven carries. However, he also threw two interceptions.

The first occurred midway through the second quarter and pretty well encapsulated how the rest of the game was going to play out.

With the Gians leading 6-3 and facing a third-and-6 from their own 31, Jones looked for Darius Slayton — and did not see Lions defensive end Aidan Hutchinson, who had dropped into coverage. The second overall pick in 2022 leaped, picked off Jones at the 38 and returned the ball to the 18.

“He caught me by surprise, too,” Slayton said of Hutchinson. “Obviously, I had vision on that side of the field as I was going across and I [saw] the linebackers [probably] as DJ did and thought it was wide open. He jumped back and made a great play. It’s not easy to do if you’re a defensive end, to reach up and grab it like that.”

Three plays later, Jamaal Williams scored on a 4-yard run — his first of three touchdowns — to give the Lions a 10-6 lead. D’Andre Swift added a 4-yard scoring run in the fourth quarter.

Meanwhile, their more celebrated counterpart was rendered a non-factor. Saquon Barkley was held to a season-low 22 yards on 15 carries, and his longest run was four yards. He also caught two passes for 13 yards.

The Lions swarmed to Barkley every time he touched the ball, essentially daring the Giants’ other skill-position players to hurt them.

They did not, and now the Giants have four days in order to course-correct.

“Give credit to Detroit,” Barkley said. “They did a really good job of stopping the run. That’s collective as a group. We have to do a better job as a group. That starts with me. I have to be way better, especially starting off a little faster for us. Have to watch film, move on, get ready for Dallas.”