Pat Shurmur defends himself after Odell Beckham’s “game plan” comments

After Sunday’s loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, Odell Beckham Jr. raised eyebrows when he said that attacking the Eagles’ injury-ravaged secondary “wasn’t in our game plan.”

On Monday, coach Pat Shurmur disagreed.

“We had seven explosive gains in the passing game. Only team we played that we had more was Carolina, we had eight,” Shurmur said.

“You’ll have to ask him to define it (his comment) after he watches the tape. I felt like we were trying to do the things necessary to win the game.”

The Giants did have seven passing plays of at least 18 yards, the longest of which was a 39-yarder to Beckham. Barkley also had runs of 51 yards (for a touchdown) and 26 yards, giving the Giants nine explosive plays (plays that gained at least 15 yards) in the game.

“We still got production in the running game. Had a couple of third-down calls in the red zone that were close. We get those in it’s a different story,” Shurmur said.