ARLINGTON, Texas — Someone nudge the Giants offense. Let those guys know the season has started.
“No part of the offense was functional,’’ Ben McAdoo said.
When functional is the baseline, something is terribly wrong. No, the Giants were not functional on offense as they opened their season with a dismal flop of a performance. Their offense, often so inept in 2016, was even worse and their offensive line, so worrisome last season, was even worse than feared. The result was predictable, as the Giants were manhandled Sunday night from start to finish in a 19-3 loss at AT&T Stadium.
“The offense was very disappointing,’’ McAdoo said.
That is an understatement. This was the fewest points scored by the Giants in a season-opener since 1995, when they were blanked 35-0 by Emmitt Smith and the Cowboys. Sure, the Giants played without Odell Beckham Jr., who was declared inactive after testing his sprained left ankle in pregame warmups. Without their star receiver, the Giants got nothing done on offense, but this woeful outing was about more than one missing player. When a team fails to reach the end zone and gets all its points on one field goal from a rookie kicker, it is a bad, bad thing.
“Obviously he’s a tremendous player, but we have players and we have to play better than that,’’ said Eli Manning, who was under duress early and often.
“Obviously you miss the best player in the NFL not being out there, but we need to be able to run the ball, control the ball, get first downs, at the very least don’t go three and out,’’ guard Justin Pugh said.
The Giants, who swept the two-game series from the Cowboys last season, did not get their initial first down until the second quarter. They did not cross midfield until early in the third quarter. Manning completed 29 passes, but never looked comfortable and had to settle for short passes that amounted to little, or nothing.
In many ways, this was an easy game for the Cowboys. They controlled the ball as if they owned it, with Ezekiel Elliott doing his thing (24 carries, 104 yards) and Dak Prescott not having to ever leave his comfort zone. The lone touchdown was Prescott’s 12-yard strike to tight end Jason Witten in the second quarter, giving the Cowboys a 13-0 lead with 1:41 remaining in the second quarter.
Not only did the Giants not mount a scoring drive, they went three-and-out — Manning threw wildly behind invisible Brandon Marshall on third down — and took only 22 seconds off the clock. The Cowboys got the ball back in plenty of time to get in position for Dan Bailey to drill his third field goal and the Giants headed into their locker room to lick their many wounds.
“We didn’t play good enough to win,’’ cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie said. “We didn’t give up many touchdowns, that’s a good thing, but we definitely got to play better.’’
Down by 13 points near midfield, the Giants early in the fourth quarter had a glimmer of hope, but it quickly faded when on third down, Manning threw to Marshall, his new target, but came up empty as Marshall — with room to run — barely reached out for the pass as it sailed past him.
“There were plays that could have been made that we didn’t make,’’ Manning said. “I think the whole offense needs to make improvements, starting with me. I got to do a better job. I’ve got to be better prepared to make this team better.’’
Too bad Manning cannot block for himself. Everyone knew the disparity in the offensive lines of these two teams was wide, but this was a chasm that stretched clear across the great state of Texas. Manning’s pocket in the first half was a collapsing mess and even on the rare plays where he had time to throw, he looked as if his feet, brain and arm were all worried about incoming pressure.
In a truly pathetic first half, the Giants got so little done on offense that you had to wonder if they realized the game, and the season, had officially started. They were outgained in yards 265-49. The Cowboys had 16 first downs, the Giants had two. This was far from yeoman work by the Giants defense, but that sagging unit was on the field for 47 plays and 20:33 in time of possession. The Giants ran only 19 plays and held the ball for 9:27.
To put the Giants out of their misery, Manning after a 31-yard pass to rookie Evan Engram fired behind Roger Lewis and the result was an interception for Anthony Brown with 7:48 remaining.
“It’s cliché to say, the first game of the season, luckily, because we’re not where we need to be,’’ Pugh said. “I don’t know what it was. Beating them last year two times, maybe we had a little lull, thinking it was just going to happen again for us, but we got our butts kicked.’’