Cover 3: Takeaways from Giants vs. Bengals

The Giants.com crew reacts to the 17-7 loss to the Bengals on Sunday Night Football:

John Schmeelk: It's rare that one stat can embody the reason for a loss, but I think there is one this week that comes pretty close. The Giants' longest play from scrimmage against the Bengals on Sunday night was 15 yards. The Giants had four such plays, with one of the four coming on the final drive of the game when the result was most likely already decided. It is nearly impossible to score enough points to win a game when you cannot execute explosive plays with any regularity.

The Giants did draw one pass interference penalty that moved the ball 18 yards, which unsurprisingly then led directly to their lone touchdown of the game. It took the Giants 16 plays to move 79 yards on that drive, including two fourth down conversions. It is a very hard way to live and score points when it takes that many plays to move the ball down the field.

Can a team survive on only hitting singles? Sure, but it requires an elite level of efficiency the Giants don't have yet. Missing two of their best offensive weapons in Malik Nabers and Devin Singletary doesn't help, nor does throwing an interception on one of the team's two red zone appearances.

In the modern NFL, it takes explosive plays to score points consistently, and the Giants do not get enough of them. The Bengals scored 17 points. One touchdown came on a Joe Burrow 47-yard touchdown run. The other came on a 30-yard touchdown run by Chase Brown, which occurred two plays after an Andrei Iosivas 29-yard catch. Their field goal came on a drive where Ja'Marr Chase caught a 33-yard pass. The Bengals had five plays at least nine yards longer than the Giants' longest of the night, and four of them led to points. The Bengals needed four of those five plays just to score 17 points.

The Giants connected on long plays against the Seahawks last week and they won. They failed to this week and lost to the Bengals. It is not a coincidence.

Dan Salomone: A week after winning on a special teams play in a tough road environment, the Giants couldn't stitch together all three phases under the lights at home against the Bengals. That's why coaches preach the importance of complementary football, especially when points are at a premium.

With Graham Gano already on injured reserve, the Giants' kicking battery changed again after left-footed punter – and holder – Jamie Gillan appeared on Friday's injury report with a hamstring injury on his kicking leg. He was ruled out on Saturday, which led to the signing of veteran Matt Haack to take his spot on Sunday. Playing in his 100th regular-season game and first for the Giants, Haack held on two unsuccessful field goals by Greg Joseph, who had made all eight of his attempts in the previous two games. Both hooking wide left, Joseph lined up for a 47-yard attempt that could have tied the game 10-10 early in the fourth quarter before another 45-yarder that could have cut the game to one possession with 51 seconds left.

"Hats off to the way the defense played," coach Brian Daboll said after the Giants held the high-powered Bengals to 17 points. "Missed two opportunities in the kicking game. And then didn't score enough points offensively. That starts with me. It's hard to win games when you score seven points. That's the reality of it."

Matt Citak: While the Giants ultimately fell short against the Bengals, the defense deserves credit for its performance. Heading into Sunday Night Football, the Bengals had scored at least 33 points in their previous three contests with an average of 417 total yards and 23 or more first downs in each game during that span. Joe Burrow had four consecutive games with multiple touchdown passes and a total of 12 over that stretch, while averaging 301.5 passing yards per game with a 117.2 average passer rating. Cincinnati had also been thriving when it came to situational football, ranking as a top five offense on both third downs and inside the red zone.

But the Giants' defense has also been firing on all cylinders.

Cincinnati finished with just 17 points, 304 total yards, and 13 first downs, all of which were their lowest totals since a Week 1 loss to the New England Patriots. Burrow completed 67.9 percent of his passes for just 208 yards, both representing his second-lowest marks of the season, with zero touchdowns for an 89.6 passer rating, although he did get into the end zone on a 47-yard run. Considering the fact that Burrow is currently being discussed as an MVP candidate, containing him through the air was an impressive feat for the Giants. The unit also held the Bengals to just four conversions on 11 third down attempts, while keeping them out of the end zone on their lone trip inside the 20-yard line. The defense has now allowed five touchdowns on opponents' 12 trips inside the red zone, with their 41.7 percent red zone defense ranking as the sixth-best in the NFL. The Giants also have the league's 11th-ranked defense on third down (34.3 percent).

A big reason for the defense's success this year has been the pass rush. The Giants got to Burrow for seven quarterback hits and four sacks, with the latter being the most he's been sacked all year. Brian Burns had one, marking his third sack in the last four games with a total of six quarterback hits during that span, and Dexter Lawrence notched his seventh sack of the season. The Pro Bowl defensive lineman is now just a half-sack shy of his previous career-high of 7.5 sacks set in 2022.

The most disruptive player on Sunday Night Football, however, was outside linebacker Azeez Ojulari, whose workload increased due to Kayvon Thibodeaux landing on injured reserve with a wrist injury. Ojulari registered two sacks and, according to Next Gen Stats, finished with a team-high six pressures on 26 pass rushes. It was his highest pressure rate in a game since Week 18 of the 2021 season, according to NGS. Prior to Monday Night Football, the Giants' 26 sacks on the season are four more than any other team, while the unit ranks inside the top 10 in both points and yards allowed. Despite the team's 2-4 record, Shane Bowen's defense is playing great football.

"We've played well," Burns said after the game. "Like I said, there is still so much more that you can do and there are some opportunities that we have to take advantage of in order to change the game. Just speaking from a holistic view, we have been playing well."