NFL power rankings: Giants can’t improve after Monday’s loss to Bucs

It’s that time of the week: NFL Power Rankings. The (3-7) New York Giants lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night 30-10 after New York was shut out on offense in the second half. As a result, offensive coordinator Jason Garrett was relieved of his position on Tuesday. Freddie Kitchens, the former Cleveland Browns interim head coach, will likely take over play-calling in the wake of Garrett’s firing.

Some media outlets were particularly scathing in their reporting, including CBS Sports, which said “the offensive line is so bad that it just bleeds over to the entire offense.” The Sporting News suggested Monday night’s loss felt like “a big knockout punch,” while Pro Football Network said that the game “felt like the epitome of this season.” Meanwhile, Yahoo! Sports questioned whether the Giants should keep anyone this offseason. Yikes.

Aggregating several rankings from around the Internet, the Giants come out to an average ranking of No. 26 (last week: No. 26) in the 32-team NFL. Our figure averages all the rankings below except for DraftKings, which bases its ranking on point spread differential.

Let’s check out what outlets around the league are saying about the Giants after Week 10:

NFL.com: No. 25 (was 24)

The Giants finally got most of their playmakers back on the field at the same time on Monday night, but the same issues continued to plague the Jason Garrett-run offense in a 30-10 loss to the Bucs. New York moved the ball well at times, but repeatedly faltered in critical situations. When New York needed to make some plays to get back into the game in the second half, Daniel Jones threw a pair of interceptions to remove any semblance of tension from the affair. A prime-time road matchup against the defending champs is a tall order for any team, but the Giants desperately needed a performance that would jump-start their season. Didn’t happen.

NBC Sports: No. 28 (was 28)

Average quarterback play gets you fired in the NFL. That’s bad news for everyone associated with the Giants unless Daniel Jones miraculously turns the corner in the final seven games.

CBS Sports: No. 27 (was 24)

The offensive line is so bad that it just bleeds over to the entire offense. That’s been a problem for this team for a long time.

ESPN: No. 26 (was 27)

Most memorable Thanksgiving game: LT leads Giants past Lions on Nov. 25, 1982

There are not many games to choose from here. The Giants have played only four Thanksgiving Day games in the modern era. This is their only win. It was capped by a legendary Lawrence Taylor moment. He had 92-yard interception return for a touchdown despite sitting out the start of the game during this strike-shortened season. It was the only touchdown of the game and gave the Giants their first win that year. — Jordan Raanan

ESPN Football Power Index: No. 26 (-3.3) (was 25)

Sporting News: No. 26 (was 27)

The Giants saw the Cowboys lose in Week 11, but with Washington and the Eagles both winning, it’s getting tougher for them to stay out of last place in the division after finishing second a year ago. The Buccaneers game feels like a big knockout punch.

Pro Football Network: No. 26 (was 25)

The Giants don’t do anything particularly well. They’ve thrown assets at the offensive and defensive lines. General manager Dave Gettleman has tried to build through the trenches, but that project has failed miserably on the offensive side of the ball.

Defensively, New York has a ton of talent, but Patrick Graham’s defense has underachieved thus far in 2021. On offense, the hiring of Jason Garrett was a bad idea from the start. It’s done nothing but stunt the growth of Daniel Jones, despite the Giants’ attempt to load up with offensive weapons.

Their Monday Night Football game against the Buccaneers felt like the epitome of this season. The Giants hung in there for a bit but fell apart in the second half. They were fortunate the Bucs gifted them a pick-six to make it a 10-10 game. Once Tampa Bay scored again, it felt over because the Giants couldn’t get anything done offensively. They finished the night going 1-of-9 on third down.

Yahoo! Sports: No. 27 (was 27)

Should the Giants keep anyone? Among general manager Dave Gettleman, coach Joe Judge, quarterback Daniel Jones and offensive coordinator Jason Garrett, which of them would Giants fans actually endorse coming back in 2022?

New York Post: No. 26 (was 23)

Eli Manning looked comfortable at home analyzing his former team on ESPN2. He’s not Brady’s nemesis anymore. Daniel Jones dropped to 0-8 in prime time in his career, including three head-to-head losses to Brady. The schedule gets easy again now, but the Giants have no margin for error and are too reliant on their defense.

Sports Illustrated: No. 24 (was 27)

What a brutal way to come out of the bye week, with an offense that remains completely disjointed despite having the quarterback and the weapons in place. It doesn’t help that the offensive line couldn’t handle Tampa Bay’s second- and third-stringers up front, but that couldn’t have been a surprise. At some point, there has to be a method to the play-calling.

DraftKings: No. 16 (was 14)

DraftKings has moved from subjective assessments to using spread differential. Point differential is a helpful tool for figuring out the best and worst teams. However, point spread can offer a little more context to how good or bad teams might be.

You can see all of the lines on upcoming Giants games at DraftKings Sportsbook.