The New York Giants were humbled on Monday Night Football in Week 2. New York got humbled by Los Angeles in a 28-6 beatdown in front of a national audience. Now the Giants are left with plenty of questions after a disappointing Week 2 showing following their win in their season opener.
The biggest development from this game was Jaxson Dart's knee injury suffered during the first quarter. New York will know more about Dart's recovery timeline after the second-year quarterback has an MRI on Tuesday.
Unfortunately, the Giants did not look great once Dart left the starting lineup. If Dart ends up missing an extended chunk of time, that could lead to more ugly games for New York.
But who is most to blame for Monday's loss against LA?
Here are the Giants most to blame for the team's huge flop on Monday Night Football against the Rams.
Jameis Winston couldn't move the offense like Jaxson Dart
Dart's gruesome injury during the first quarter was a huge inflection point in this game. New York does deserve some blame for not having backup Jameis Winston ready to go.
Winston struggled to move the offense on Monday night, going 11-of-27 for 111 passing yards with one interception. He was also sacked twice and had two rushing attempts for just one yard.
It was clear that Winston did not have the proper chemistry with his receivers. After all, Malik Nabers only received four targets and finished with one reception for one yard. New York's receiving group is already pretty thin, but taking Nabers out of the equation makes everything much worse. Those issues seemed to compound with Winston under center.
Part of the problem was simply Winston not being able to connect with his receivers when he did target them.
Winston had an off-target percentage of 33% against the Rams in Week 2, per ESPN's Jordan Raanan. That is the second highest rate in the league through two weeks, trailing only behind Jordan Love's 35% off-target percentage in Week 1.
Giants fans have to be hopeful that Dart will return to the starting lineup soon. If he misses an extended chunk of time, New York may struggle to string together any wins.
Giants played terrible in the trenches on both sides of the ball
The Giants got beat in the trenches on both sides of the ball on Monday.
Starting on offense, New York struggled mightily to run the football. They finished with a total of 52 rushing yards, with Cam Skattebo leading the charge at 36 yards. New York's inability to move the ball on the ground stopped the offense in its tracks, especially after Dart got hurt.
The Giants also struggled to protect the quarterback, allowing the Rams to log two sacks, three tackles for loss, and eight quarterback hits on the night.
Surprisingly, the situation is not that much better on the defensive side of the ball.
New York was supposed to have a truly fearsome pass rush unit. Remember, they have Brian Burns, Abdul Carter, Kayvon Thibodeaux, and Arvell Reese in their front seven. But after two games, the entire defense has just one sack courtesy of Carter.
The Giants' inability to harass the opposing quarterback puts a lot of pressure on their secondary.
New York has to play better on defense moving forward. Fortunately, New York has a much easier matchup against Tennessee in Week 3.
John Harbaugh made a few questionable decisions on Monday Night Football
Harbaugh and the coaching staff deserve some blame for a few questionable decisions from Week 2.
One strategic decision that looks flawed in retrospect is running the football so much. The Giants only had 21 rushing attempts, but their early plays revealed that this may not have been the smart way to attack the Rams' defense. Of course, once Dart got injured, that made everything more difficult.
Another Harbaugh decision almost lead to an injury to a crucial defensive player. Late in the fourth quarter, the Rams decided to go for it on fourth down. The Giants had not shuffled out many of their starters by this point, leaving them all on the field. That included edge rusher Brian Burns, who is not an ideal player to deploy on fourth-and-short.
That decision almost became a calamity when Burns suffered an ankle injury on the play.
The silver lining is that Burns' low ankle sprain is apparently nothing serious. At this point, it sounds like Burns will not miss much time at all with that injury.
Fans are right to criticize Harbaugh keeping his best players on the field after the game was already decided. If Burns had suffered a major injury, it would have been for absolutely no reason.
NFL coaches never want to throw in the towel and admit that they've been beaten. But with just six minutes left in the game, it certainly felt like this game was out of reach.
Hopefully the Giants can stay competitive for a full 60 minutes in their next matchup.