Giants lose to the Steelers 26-18

"It's been hard to watch the Giants games the way things have been going. Pittsburgh got the ball first, and they were moving it well. Getting near the endzone, Russell Wilson threw a touchdown pass to George Pickens. The good news was that the Steelers drew a flag, and they weren't able to overcome the penalty yardage. They settled for a field goal, and the Giants got off to a nice start on their turn. There were three runs for a first down, and then Daniel Jones first pass was a 43 yard catch by Darius Slayton. Soon after a delay of game penalty had Greg Joseph kicking a 29-yard field goal to tie the game at 3-3. The Steelers added another field goal, and then the Giants offense looked good moving downfield.
They converted on a 4th-and-2 with a five yard catch by Malik Nabers, and a seven yard run by Devin Singletary once again had them in the Steelers red zone at the 16-yard line. Jones next pass was a touchdown to tight end Chris Manhertz, but it was taken off the board because of an illegal shift penalty. There were five penalties ( two declined) on this drive, which ended with Joseph coming in for a 39-yard field goal. Before the half ended both teams added another field goal, and it was all tied up at 9-9. The Giants had a lot of good plays, but as usual points were hard to come by, and it helped that the defense was doing its job.
The Giants got the ball first in the third quarter, and it was good to see Tyrone Tracy have a 26 yard run after looking to be hurt earlier. Jones got the group down to the Steelers 31-yard line, but then after taking back to back sacks, the offense was out of range for a field goal. On the Giants second drive, they lost yardage drawing two penalties, and Jones was sacked. That seemed as bad as you could get until their punt was returned 73 yards for a touchdown, putting the Steelers up 16-9.
They drew only one penalty on their next three-and-out, but the defense could hold Russell Wilson off for only so long. His 29-yard touchdown pass gave them another seven points. It was the fourth quarter now, and I wasn't expecting much from the Giants at this point. On their third play, an offensive holding penalty had them facing a third-and-16. To my surprise, Jones completed a 16 yard pass to Nabers. Then another surprise when two plays later Tracy broke off with a 45-yard touchdown run. Yet one more surprise, the Giants went for the 2-point conversion, and no surprise, it failed. Instead of 7 points, the Giants now trailed by 8 points, 23-15.
The Giants had more catching up to do when the Steelers added another field goal, and they did the same on their turn. An opportunity opened up less than a minute later when Wilson was sacked, and the Giants recovered at the the Steelers 37-yard line. Any thoughts I had of a comeback disappeared a few plays later when Jones was sacked by T.J. Watt, causing him to fumble, and the Steelers had the ball back with three minutes left.
Surprisingly, with the Giants using all their timeouts, they had another shot with about two minutes left. Helped by two big catches by Johnson and Nabers, Jones was down to the Steelers 35-yard line when a pass to Singletary was intercepted. It wasn't meant to be, just as this whole season seems as if it wasn't meant to be. The Giants ended up with a 26-18 loss. Looking over the night, the Giants hung in there for the first half, made some good plays, but the game ended as expected."

"The Giants haven't shown us much on the offensive side of the ball. In their last two games they've come up with just 10 total points. They surpassed that tonight, but it's just baby steps for a team that needs at least, maybe nine or ten wins to creep into the playoffs, and hope they can suddenly turn it on. A win or two after that would show they are a possible contending team, and give hope to the players, and their home town fans.
By the end of the first half, with the score tied at Steelers 9 Giants 9, the Giants showed they were in a game they could win. The five penalties, with a few more declined, killed some opportunities to score more points. Daniel Jones actually had more passing yards than Russell Wilson, 141 to 116, but the total rushing yards Steelers 122, Giants 42, told a different story. The Giants needed to fix some obvious things if they wanted to go on to win this game. In the second half they improved on their rushing attack.
Most notable was rookie running back Tyrone Tracy, who totaled a season high 145 yards on 20 carries, including his 45-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter. Darius Slayton had some big catches in this game, totaling 4 for 108 yards. Malik Nabers caught a team high seven passes for 71 yards. Jones completed 24 of 38 passes for 264 yards, with no touchdowns, and one interception. He was sacked four times, with a costly fumble when the Giants were in striking range near the end of the game. Jones interception followed that on their last possession. On defense, the Giants added four more sacks to their impressive total of 35 on the season, but still, wins are hard to come by. Azeez Ojulari sacked Russell Wilson twice. Brian Burns had a one sack, and Bobby Okereke and Micah McFadden split one sack.
Okereke also forced and recovered a fumble, giving the Giants a chance late in the fourth quarter when they were unnecessarily trailing by 8 points. That was due to Brian Daboll deciding to go for a misplayed two point conversion for no aparent reason earlier on. Coaching matters, and throughout this game the penalties just kept coming, holding the offense back. The Giants had 11 accepted penalties costing them 65 yards. Next Sunday the Washington Commanders come to town, and the Giants have a lot to clean up before then.

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