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Giants tight end Evan Engram ran through the usual talking points. Execution, he said, is the key.
“We can score from far, we can make the big plays but we got to finish and execute in the red zone,’’ Engram said Wednesday after practice.
He then got to the heart of the matter. The Giants have been about many things the past few years and not much of it has been enjoyable. Not much in the way of providing viewing pleasure. Most difficult to watch: The way they operate, and often fail to operate, on offense.
“Three points is good, you always want to come away with points,’’ Engram told The Post, “but we need to be more consistent and get into the [end] zone. And it’s more fun too.’’
Yeah, it’s more fun. The end zone is the place to be. It is where the fun resides, but pleasure and enjoyment are not the standard by-products of the Giants’ offensive thrusts. That has to change if this team, coming off the bye with a Monday night game at Tampa Bay, is to put together a more robust second half of the season.
If it is indeed a scoring league, the Giants are practically in a league of their own. They produced just 16 touchdowns on offense in their first nine games (they scored one touchdown on defense, via Xavier McKinney’s interception return). How paltry is the 16-touchdown total? The winless (but not tie-less) Lions have 16 touchdowns on offense. Just the Bears (14) and Texans (14) have foraged less successfully when venturing into the end zone.
Why go down memory lane with this now? Funny you should ask. No team in the NFL is more proficient at scoring touchdowns this season than the Buccaneers. They have 34 of them, matching the Cardinals for tops in the league. If a team is judged by the company it keeps, the Giants are the dregs of the neighborhood. Inside their own division, the NFC East, the Cowboys have 31 offensive touchdowns. The Eagles have 27 (in 10 games). Washington has 19.
The Bucs have five players with at least four touchdowns, led by Mike Evans with nine receiving TDs. The Giants? Two players, Saquon Barkley and Devontae Booker, lead the way with just three touchdowns apiece. Daniel Jones has just eight touchdown passes. Tom Brady has 27.
Coach Joe Judge said the Bucs are the NFL’s highest-scoring team because of their “down-in-and-down-out execution.’’
Judge, asked if the Giants are one of the lowest-scoring teams in the league because of their failings on a down-in-and-down-out basis, was not interested in public analysis of his stagnant offense.
He did say the coaching staff, during the bye-week break, studied the offensive tendencies and came away with some intel as to possible solutions to improve the product.
“In terms of maybe how we’re calling the game and then plays we have to make when they’re in front of us,’ ’Judge said. “We’ve got to do a better job all the way across the board and make sure we finish drives with touchdowns.’’
It is not about any drastic difference in defensive performance with these teams. The Giants have allowed 216 points and the Bucs check in at 212 points allowed. It is mostly about points generated and the Giants generate points worse than almost everyone in the league. Hence the opposite records of the Bucs (6-3) and the Giants (3-6).
Is there hope for the Giants? Yes, there is. It looks as if they will have Barkley, Kenny Golladay and Kadarius Toney on the field, and close to full health for the first time since that trio was up and running in Week 4 at New Orleans. The Giants that day amassed a season-high 485 yards of offense and ripped through a formidable Saints defense in the second half with 17 unanswered points for a 27-21 overtime victory.
Getting most of the band back together — Sterling Shepard remains out — has those involved excited for the possibilities.
“It definitely has our energy up and with our skills and our leadership skills put together, we can make it happen,’’ Engram said.
Engram’s countenance revealed a mixture of surprise and disgust when he was told the Giants have just 16 touchdowns on offense this season.
“We got to build on that,’’ Engram said. “We got to get that number up. Our sense of urgency is high. We can do all the work we can but in that moment, in that setting in the game we got to execute.’’
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