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The New York Giants are a bad football team. That's the primary takeaway from Sunday's 31-7 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, dropping them to 0-4 for the first time in a non-strike season since 1979.
The Giants have been outscored 146-61 this season. They commit inexcusable turnovers and penalties. Their special teams are horrendous, with the exception of Damontre Moore. They can't score. They can't rush the passer. Besides all of those obvious things, let's look at five things we learned on Sunday.
1. Damontre Moore has to play. The rookie partially blocked a punt. He made a handful of nice special teams plays. He played with enthusiasm. The Giants have to begin to give him significant defensive snaps to see if he can make a difference.
2. Jason Pierre-Paul isn't right. Another week, another no-show for the guy who used to be the Giants' best defensive player. He had offseason back surgery and you keep waiting for the 2011 JPP, who had 16.5 sacks and was an All-Pro, to show up. It's starting to look like he may never come.
3. What's with Hakeem Nicks? After being targeted only once a week ago and failing to make a catch Hakeem Nicks said "I can't throw the ball to myself." Eli Manning threw the ball to him plenty of times Sunday, and Nicks kept failing to come up with it. He had three drops Sunday, all on plays down the field that could have been big gains, leading a frustrated Manning to say "I thought we had some chances on some plays, just didn't make ‘em." Nicks, a free agent at the end of the season, is costing himself a lot of money playing this way. If he doesn't turn things around the Giants might not even mind if he leaves.
4. The special teams aren't special. Josh Brown has missed critical field goals in back-to-back weeks. Steve Weatherford is looking waaaaaay too much like Matt Dodge. The return teams are pedestrian at best. The Giants commit awful, inexcusable penalties on special teams each week. Since when do NFL teams get penalized for not knowing how to line up on field-goal tries.
5. The defense isn't the problem. Everyone thought the season would hinge on the Giants being at least decent on defense. Well, they can't rush the passer but they are at least decent on defense. The problem is that the offense and special teams can't help the defense at all.