Giants getting laughed at for ‘embarrassing’ quarterback sneaks
Call them the “Surrender Sneaks.”
One week after giving up a safety to the Bears when pinned against the shadow of their own end zone, the Giants essentially waved a white flag on the state of their dismal offense Sunday by calling back-to-back quarterback sneaks into the teeth of Washington’s defense rather than trying to execute a real play.
They avoided a tragic mistake, but they accumulated embarrassment.
Facing second-and-11 from inside the 2-yard line, the Giants lined up in what resembled the victory formation – it’s hard to remember what that looks like after five straight losses – and Jake Fromm plowed forward for 2 yards. Then, with room to breathe, the Giants did the same thing on third-and-9 from the 4-yard line, which set social media ablaze with wisecracks.
ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky posted a film breakdown on Twitter.
“There’s absolutely no way that a four-win team on the last game of the year is actually going to run quarterback sneak. This is brilliant by the Giants,” Orlovsky said facetiously. “They actually ran quarterback sneak on third-and-9. That’s embarrassing.”
Giants great Tiki Barber, the new co-host of the midday program on WFAN, wrote on Twitter, “I don’t think the Giants players have quit … but it sure looks like whoever is making the play-calling decisions has” — added a thumbs down emoji.
The Giants trailed 3-0 at that point. It might as well have been an insurmountable deficit.
It just keeps getting worse for an offense that entered the game with one touchdown on its last 35 possessions and threw for -7 net yards last week. Not good for play-caller Freddie Kitchens or head coach Joe Judge as he tries to cool off his hot seat.
In this scenario, the Giants tried a first-down pass from the 3-yard line – Fromm short-armed an incompletion on a simple route run by fullback Eli Penny – before the surrender sneaks. Then came a false start penalty, which reminded the Giants that their woeful offensive line actually could cost them two points by not blocking or committing a penalty in the end zone.
In a football sense, it wasn’t the worst idea to avoid putting the ball in harm’s way and play to the team’s strength on defense. The optics are inexcusable, however.