Ben McAdoo Upset With The Offense’s Inability To Score Touchdowns

It did not escape notice last night that the New York Giants have yet to score a touchdown in preseason.

In their week one game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Giants had a touchdown wiped off the board because Roger Lewis Jr. stepped out of bounds before making the catch. Against the Browns the Giants were in position before Geno Smith threw a bad interception and Wayne Gallman lost a fumble.

The Giants’ scoring offense was virtually nonexistent in 2016 outside of 18 touchdowns from Odell Beckham Jr. and Sterling Shepard. So far Ben McAdoo is not happy with what he is seeing.

“We held the team to 10 points,” McAdoo said. “We have to win the ballgame.”

The Giants had a chance to execute a big play early in the first quarter when Brandon Marshall separated down the sidelines. Eli Manning had him in stride, but the ball slipped through his fingers before he took a big hit.

“We got to hit that first one to Brandon,” McAdoo said. “We got to complete that ball.”

Failures to execute and turnovers hamstrung the offense and infuriated the coach, who went so far as to say that he takes those turnovers personally.

“Yes, yes, I do, [take turnovers personally]” he said. “We need to take care of the ball. If we don’t take care of the ball, we give up 10 points and lose the ballgame. That is not good enough. It doesn’t matter what season it is. Regular season, preseason, postseason.”

Eli Manning was efficient in his preseason debut, completing 10-of-14 passes (71 percent), but it wasn’t good enough.

“We got to do better,” Manning said. “We got to throw and catch the ball better. Convert on third down (the Giants were 3-for-12). Made some plays, we did some good things, just couldn’t connect on plays that would have been helpful moving the chains and getting us in better situations.”

Left guard Justin Pugh agreed that the team needs to play better, and thinks that they have the personnel to turn things around.

“We just have to be able to move the ball a little bit better. Three three-and-outs in that first quarter is not what we are looking for. We have been a home run offense in the past, but I think with the personnel we have now, we can be more multiple and really dink and dunk our way down the field. We don’t have to rely on that big slant for a touchdown or a deep ball, so I would like to pick up some more first downs, but we have to get better there.”

One thing is for sure, the Giants really need to take care of the ball and get in the endzone this Saturday against the New York Jets. Otherwise they might be too busy running laps to take the field against the New England Patriots in the preseason finale.