New York Giants News, 9/16: “An Awful Lot Of Bad” On Offense

Offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan met with the media Friday for the first time since the New York Giants’ 19-3 loss to the Dallas Cowboys. He was, of course, grilled about the abysmal offensive performance.

“The key thing – the point that I want to make is that it was not just the offensive line. You can point to all the positions. You can point to coaching. There was an awful lot of bad in that first night and so there’s enough blame, if you will, to go around and a lot of disappointment,” Sullivan said. “But, the thing that we really focused on is, it is just one game. Fifteen years of doing this. The one thing I know beyond a shadow of a doubt is that where teams are after the first week of the season – there’s no direct correlation to where they are at the end of the regular season or at the end of the postseason.

“So, a lot of work to do. A lot of errors for improvement across the board, but we’ve zeroed in more on that rather than, ‘Oh, it’s a huge disappointment,’ despite reviews or a continuation of the things from last year. Whatever. That’s all to the side. We’re just rolling our sleeves up and trying to zero in on how we can get better.”

“If There’s No Hole, Make One”

Running back Orleans Darkwa had a solution for the Giants’ issues with the running game.

“If there’s no hole, make one,” he said on Friday.

That, of course, is easy to say and difficult to do. The Giants had 12 carries for 35 yards against Dallas, just 2.9 yards per carry.

“Whatever we averaged, yards-per-carry wise, it’s not good enough,” Darkwa said. “We want to be better as a group and, so we look at it. We’re not going to sit here and hold our heads down because of it. We’re just going to keep churning and I think it will show on Monday.”

DRC: Defense Expects To Dominate

The Giants gave up only 19 points to Dallas, but couldn’t force any turnovers or make any game-altering plays. Cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie said Friday that the group expects better.

“We come in, we put together this unit last year and you bring most of the guys back, ready, it should be the same thing. We’re not sneaking up on anybody. Expectations should be to go out there and dominate,” Rodgers-Cromartie said. “When we have a chance to get off the field, or to make those plays, I think we should make them.”