The good news is that it's still preseason and thus there is still time to iron out the wrinkles. The bad news is that these are the type of wrinkles that the Giants have been trying to iron out for awhile to no avail. The ugly news is once again, the offense line.
With a slow and somewhat frustrating start that saw Eli Manning move the ball around with mostly short passes as he went 10-14 for 80 yards and a still non-existent run game, the offense left many disappointed. Paul Perkins seems to have won the starting running back job by default (6 carries for just 10 yards) but watch for rookie Wayne Gallman to begin working his way up the depth chart with a solid performance tonight (5 carries 22 yards)Despite some high draft picks being invested into the offensive line, there still is no push upfront whatsoever. No lanes for anyone to cut through. That being said, the much maligned Ereck Flowers held his own for the most part against the physical freak that is first overall pick Myles Garret. While it was anything but dominant, it was still encouraging to see Flowers keep up with a speed rusher.
Of course the Giants couldn't let people go through a preseason game without an injury scare and we got just that when Odell Beckham went down from a low but clean hit which forced him to the locker room. As I'm writing this, its being labeled as a sprain. Here's to hoping.
For the actual good news. The Giants defense looks like it in midseason form. Jason Pierre-Paul and Olivier Vernon looked just as deadly as they did at any point in 2016. Working together in a tipped pass by Vernon leading to an interception by JPP. An even more impressive play was when Vernon managed to cover ultra athletic tight end David Njoku step for step 30 yards down field and defended the pass. BJ Goodson appeared to take a step up tonight into that starting role at the MIKE by making reads and leading the team in tackles as well as collecting a sack.
Battles for kicker and backup QB are all but wrapped up at this point with Aldrick Rosas winning the kicking job and Geno Smith continuing to outplay Josh Johnson.
That pretty much wraps up the high/lowlights of Week 2 of preason. Hopefully next week's dress rehearsal will have less wrinkles and with some luck, they might finally get into the endzone.
Side note spotlight: Keep an eye on newcomer Rhett Ellison. Hes been primarily a blocking tight end his whole career but with Evan Engram still learning the position and being not much a blocker, it wouldn't be a surprise if Rhett Ellison ends up reminding people of a healthy Jake Ballard at some point.