These 7 Giants are to blame in 26-16 loss to Steelers: Saquon Barkley can’t get going, but was that his fault?

It was a bizarre Monday night at MetLife Stadium. The parking lots were empty, no tailgates. The stands were desolate, save a few security guards and photographers. No Giants fans in sight. A reporter attempted to watch the game from the upper deck and was sent away. Crowd noise was pumped into the stadium speakers, but it never felt real. Coaches wore masks, a mandate by the NFL amid a pandemic. There were no recorded boos, even if there were a few occasions where that’d have been deserved.

If you were looking for normalcy, though, the Giants brought plenty of that on the field in their season-opening 26-16 loss to the Steelers.

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There were Daniel Jones turnovers, shoddy offensive line play, missed opportunities and an outmatched secondary. It wasn’t all bad, certainly. Darius Slayton, Lorenzo Carter, Leonard Williams and even Jones, at points, had their moments. The Giants only trailed 16-10 at the start of the fourth quarter, giving a talented Steelers team trouble for much of the night.

At the end of the day, though, the Giants made too many mistakes to give Joe Judge a victory in his first game. There is plenty of blame to go around.

Here are seven people to blame for the Giants’ loss on Monday night:

RT Cam Fleming

Fleming sits alone here at No. 1.

The Giants signed Fleming with visions of making him their backup swing tackle, as he’d been for most of his career with the Patriots and Cowboys. The idea: Andrew Thomas and Nate Solder would start, Fleming would back them up, and rookie Matt Peart would develop for the year. Then, Solder opted out of the 2020 season.

Now, the Giants are stuck with Fleming at right tackle, and it’s clear there’s a reason he’s always been a backup.

Fleming struggled all night to both protect Daniel Jones and keep defenders outof the backfield on Saquon Barkley rushes. Late in the second quarter, he was bum-rushed by two Steelers pass rushers … and didn’t block either of them, so Vince Williams sacked Jones. Early in the third quarter, the Giants backed up deep in their own territory, Fleming missed Williams again and he tackled Barkley for a loss of four yards.

That was a frequent occurrence.

QB Daniel Jones

The young quarterback was off to a very good start on Monday night, but things took a turn late in the third quarter. His first half was highlighted by a beautiful 41-yard touchdown throw to wide receiver Darius Slayton, perfectly placed where only the receiver could haul it in.

The Giants had been keeping the game close deep into the third, 16-10 with about three minutes left. At the tail end of a long, 19-play drive, Jones rolled out to the left and as he was about to be sacked, he tossed the ball toward the end zone for an easy interception. He should’ve either thrown the ball away or taken the sack. He did neither.

The Giants need him to cut back on turnovers, and he threw two interceptions on Monday night. He finished 26 of 41 for 279 yards and two touchdowns, adding a team-high 22 rushing yards.

RB Saquon Barkley

It was a rough night for Barkley. In the first half alone, he had six carries that lost yards. He went into the locker room with negative-three yards on nine carries. How much blame he deserves for that would be a fair question.

The truth: The offensive line was awful in run blocking, particularly in that first half. Barkley had no room to work. Center Nick Gates in particular was struggling to hold his blocks in the running game.

The Giants won’t face many front sevens with the quality of talent of this Steelers defense, but it was still an alarming start considering this offensive line was expected to be better at blocking on runs than on pass attempts this season.

Barkley was quite good in the passing game, though, most impressively gaining 38 yards on a first half catch where he hurdled a defender. On the flip side, he allowed a sack of a blitzing cornerback (Mike Hilton) early in the fourth quarter.

His final rushing line: 15 carries for six yards.

TE Evan Engram

If this is supposed to be a breakout season for Engram, it got off to a bad start. He started the game with a drop on a pass that hit him on the hands. He seriously struggled as a blocker — long considered a weakness — and appeared to run the wrong route on what would’ve been an easy touchdown in the first quarter. He finished with two catches (on seven targets) for nine yards.

C Nick Gates

In his first-ever game playing center, Gates struggled. It was a tough spot for him to make his debut at such an important position, going against the Steelers defense, but the Giants need him to play better.

CB Isaac Yiadom

The Giants traded a seventh-round pick for Yiadom last week before the Broncos were going to cut him, and he received notable playing time at outside corner on Monday night. The Giants didn’t have much of a choice — their options at cornerback are a concern — but Yiadom didn’t exactly hold his own, and got beat on a 10-yard Juju Smith-Schuster touchdown.

GM Dave Gettleman

The Giants fielded a secondary that had Corey Ballentine and Yiadom spending most of the time at the outside cornerback spot opposite James Bradberry. That’s been an obvious hole on the roster ever since it became clear DeAndre Baker would not be playing for the Giants this season, and yet Gettleman has done nothing to actually address the position with any usable players.

That Ben Roethlisberger exploited those players throughout Monday night’s loss is on Gettleman.

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