Giants lose to the Bills 14-9

"I wasn't expecting much considering the level of competition the Giants were facing tonight. Daniel Jones was injured and not playing, and Tyrod Taylor was in at his spot. The offensive line seems to always be a mixture of players, and the only good thing was that Saquon Barkley was back. Both teams started 3-and-out, but then Bobby Okereke caused a Bills player to fumble, and Micah McFadden recovered the ball.
The Giants were able to make some plays on this drive, including a 27 yard catch by Darius Slayton, and got down to the Bills 11-yard line where Graham Gano kicked a 29 yard field goal. In the second quarter the Bills had a chance to tie the score, but missed on a 52-yard field goal attempt. The Giants capitalized on the good field position right away with Taylor hitting Wan'Dale Robinson with an 8 yard pass, and then one to Darren Waller for 20 yards to the Bills 30-yard line. There was another pass to Robinson for 10 yards two plays later, but they soon had to settle for a Gano kicking a 43-yard field goal.
Okereke and McFadden were at it again on the Bills next drive. Quarterback Josh Allen threw a pass that was deflected by Okereke, and McFadden caught it for the interception. The Giants had the ball at their own 41-yard line with about two and a half minutes left in the half. Three plays later there was a completion to Slayton for 31 yards that had them at the Bills 21-yard line with two timeouts and 1:20 left on the clock. A few plays later the timeouts were gone, they were at the Bills 1-yard line with 14 seconds left.
You could see Taylor audible at the line, and Barkley tried to run it in but was stopped. The time ran out before they could run another play. Nobody could believe it, including head coach Brian Daboll as you watched his reactions on the sideline. The offense blew a chance to put three or maybe seven points on the board to add to their 6-0 halftime lead.
The Giants got the ball to start the third quarter, and got just past midfield before they decided to punt. The Bills had to start from their own 11-yard line, and the way the Giants defense had been playing I thought they would keep them in check. There were a lot of plays that took up 10 minutes of game clock as the Bills traveled all the way to the Giants endzone for their first points of the game, that gave them a 7-6 lead.
It was encouraging to see the Giants offense come right back with a drive that got them from their own 10-yard line down to the Bills 11-yard line with all running plays, but on the 3rd-and-1, instead of giving Barkley the ball, Taylor threw a pass incomplete to avoid a sack. They didn't go for it on fourth down, and Gano kicked a 29 yard field goal to give the Giants back the lead at 9-7.
You can only hold the Bills back so much, and they finished their next drive with another touchdown, and had a 14-9 lead with less than four minutes to play. The Giants didn't get very far, and with less than two minutes on the clock, went for a 4th-and-8 play from their own 38-yard line. The Bills took over with great field position, but the Giants defense kept them from moving the ball. When they missed on their 53-yard field goal attempt, it gave the Giants a real shot at winning this game.
They had the ball near midfield with 1:25 left on the clock. The offense did a good job getting all the way down to the Bills 9-yard line, but there were just 2 seconds left. Taylor threw a pass to Waller in the end zone, and the Bills were called for pass interference. Now the Giants were at the 1-yard line, and Taylor threw again to Waller towards the back of the end zone.
It looked like another interference call should have been called, but the refs didn't, maybe because it was too high to have been caught. So the Giants lost this game 14-9 to the Bills. It was a great effort by the Giants, especially the defense working against a real tough team. The offense will have to get their act together and play smarter. I'm hoping Jones will be back and looking forward to seeing the Giants get their first win at MetLife Stadium next week."

"The Giants shuffled offensive line was shuffled again not long into this game. They were already doing without left tackle Andrew Thomas and center John Michael Schmit, and had Justin Pugh in at left guard. That's right Pugh, who was a first round draft pick and played five seasons with the Giants, and then five after that with the Arizona Cardinals. They had put him on IR last year after a game six injury, and Pugh hadn't played since. Available as a free agent, he was signed on to the Giants practice squad less than two weeks ago.
It turned out to be a good move. On the Giants second possession their back up left tackle Joshua Ezeudu left the game with a toe injury. Pugh was moved from left guard to left tackle, and Marcus McKethan came in at right guard. Pugh handled the unexpected workload, and surprisingly, the whole shifting of the offensive line was decent enough for Tyrod Taylor and Saquon Barkley to work their plays. The Bills lead the league in sacks and takeaways, and they came up with 3 sacks on Taylor, but had no takeaways.
Barkley was rusty at the start in his first game back. In the first half Barkley's 16 carries totaled just 23 yards, and considering one went for 9 yards, the rest didn't amount to much. Taylor was hitting his receivers well. Darius Slayton, Wan'Dale Robinson and Jalin Hyatt caught every pass he threw. Darren Waller was one of two, but it was a long 20 yard catch. It's too bad the running game wasn't supporting those efforts in the first half. Still the Giants were up 6-0, and could have been up more if Taylor hadn't changed a call on the last play of the second quarter.
That changed in the second half, where Barkley's 8 carries totaled 70 yards, and Taylor helped himself running 5 times for 24 yards. Still it's all about points, and the Giants defense did their part holding the high scoring Bills to just 14 points. The leading tacklers were inside linebackers Bobby Okereke and Micah McFadden, who combined for 18 of the team's 56 tackles. There were no sacks on quarterback Josh Allen, but they held him to his lowest passing yards and completion average on the season, and McFadden had one interception. McFadden also came up with the ball when Okereke forced a fumble in the first quarter. They held the Bills to the lowest score they have put up this year, as the Bills had averaged 32 coming in, but 14 was enough tonight. The Giants defense hung tight, and it all came down to the last play of the game. We'll see if the Giants can do better when the Washington Commanders show up for their game next Sunday."

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