Offensive ineptitude casts large shadow over Giants victory

The New York Giants spirited 27-point fourth-quarter rally Saturday for an unlikely 27-26 preseason victory over the Indianapolis Colts could not mask the real story of the night. That story, of course, is that the Giants re-structured offense was once again not very good. It was, in fact, atrocious.

"We are realists. We are looking at what looked to be a very poor performance in the first half by the 1s," head coach Tom Coughlin said following the game. "That's something that we're going to have to drastically improve."

Quarterback Eli Manning went just 1-for-7. The Giants first-team offense averaged just 1.8 yards per play and totaled 48 yards. The Giants first team got five first downs, three thanks to Indianapolis penalties.

"It wasn't impressive at all. We didn't get a whole lot done. It is disappointing, but we'll go back to work. that's all we can do," Coughlin said. "There's no production. There's nothing to look at from a production standpoint, and that's disappointing."

"Well, it just wasn't good enough," Manning told Giants.com after the first half. "I'm not concerned right now, but we know we"ve got to get better. We've got to play better. We've got to start executing better and start making some plays."

Offensive guard Geoff Schwartz tweeted his thoughts following the game.

Need to be better. No denying it. And we will. Trust the process ... Great job fighting back to win the game tho. Loved that. #NYGiants

— Geoff Schwartz (@geoffschwartz) August 17, 2014

The Giants have two more preseason games to show that the process will eventually lead to results. At this point even the smallest signs of progress would be welcome.