Press "Enter" to skip to content

Julian Love issues challenge to Giants after Jake Fromm is benched in Philly laugher

PHILADELPHIA – Giants safety Julian Love issued a challenge to his teammates after Sunday’s 34-10 laugher of a loss to the division rival Philadelphia Eagles:

Show up Wednesday ready to put the team first or don’t. It’s up to you.

“The guys who are ready to work, who are ready to put this team first, will show up come Wednesday,” Love said. “They’ll get the corrections. Guys are coachable. So far, we’re taking a step forward as a team. That’s what I’m gonna look for.

“That’s what Coach Judge preaches,” Love continued. “He wants to see—he has a thing called the look in people’s eyes. Who’s gonna fold and who’s gonna step forward? So I know a lot of guys are gonna decide that in these next couple days for sure.”

Whether Love’s comments were motivated by something he saw, or whether he was simply echoing Joe Judge’s locker room message, it had to be said.

Because as Jake Fromm said of his first NFL start: “I don’t think it gets much worse than that.”

Fromm threw for a grand total of 25 yards—seriously—before getting benched in the third quarter for Mike Glennon, whom Judge had benched for Fromm last week.

Rearranging the deck chairs on this Titanic of an offense predictably didn’t improve the result at Lincoln Financial Field. The Giants (4-11) didn’t go over 100 yards of offense for the game until the fourth quarter.

“It’s not good enough, point blank,” Judge said. “I’m not gonna make any excuses and try to church it up there.”

The Eagles (8-7) are in the playoff race during a season when they were supposed to stink. The Giants, on the other hand, were officially eliminated from the playoffs for a fifth straight season and the ninth time in the last 10 years.

They look like they won’t win another game this season. That wouldn’t be the worst thing at this point, either.

They hold two top-10 picks in April’s NFL Draft: theirs and the Chicago Bears’. Their own pick improved Sunday. One of the two picks will improve next week, too, when the Giants visit the Bears at Soldier Field.

There was a Sunday morning ESPN report that said the Giants (read: ownership) plan to bring Judge and Daniel Jones back for 2022. But the report hedged and said those conversations would occur later with a new GM, which amounted to a non-story leaked on the wrong day.

Co-owner Steve Tisch walked silently by a couple members of the media after the game.

“I’m never gonna comment on any hypotheticals on jobs, mine or anybody else’s,” Judge said twice when asked about the report.

The Giants’ first half defense was the only positive to hang their hat on Sunday. Everything else was an abject disaster.

The score was 3-3 at halftime thanks to a smart Giants defensive game plan and several Eagles dropped passes. The Giants’ offense had 17 yards on its first 12 plays, and somehow they were still in the game.

Then the wheels came off.

Fromm completed a pathetic 6-of-17 passes for 25 yards and an interception on the day. He was inaccurate even on unchallenged throws.

Judge also said of the Giants’ offensive plan with Fromm under center: “You don’t want to play with some of the limitations we had in the first half.” The head coach even at one point huddled up his wide receivers on the sideline. He claimed it was to discuss schematics.

The offensive line continued to stink. Matt Peart, starting at right tackle in place of Nate Solder (COVID–19), got smoked twice by Josh Sweat for third down pressures on Fromm that killed the Giants’ first two drives.

Fromm eventually threw two passes that should have been picked, and both were caused by Giants offensive guards getting shoved into his lap.

Right guard Will Hernandez was tossed into Fromm by Philly defensive tackle Milton Williams on a second quarter throw that Eagles corner Darius Slay Jr. dropped.

Then left guard Matt Skura got shoved back into Fromm, forcing a high throw and interception to Eagles safety Rodney McLeod on the opening drive of the second half.

That pick sealed Fromm’s fate. It led to a Boston Scott Eagles touchdown, and Judge gave Fromm only one more three-and-out drive before pulling him for Glennon.

“Obviously we didn’t do anything good enough on offense,” Judge said. “I decided to make the move from Jake to Mike because we weren’t getting anything going offensively.’

Glennon’s 0-3 record in the previous three games had fans clamoring for the recently-signed Fromm. But Sunday’s outing called to mind former Giants coach Pat Shurmur’s comment about Kyle Lauletta’s horrifying debut in 2018.

“I fielded enough questions regarding Kyle Lauletta, that those of you that were interested in seeing him, hopefully you got a chance to see what you were looking for,” Shurmur said three years ago at Washington’s FedEx Field.

“I wish the ball would have been exactly where I wanted it to be,” Fromm said of his inaccurate incompletions.

Not that Glennon’s presence made any difference. Billy Price committed a snap infraction on Glennon’s first snap, and off they went as inept as ever.

The rout was on.

Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson caught a 5-yard TD pass and leapt into the stands in celebration. Then Glennon had an interception returned for a touchdown by Eagles linebacker Alex Singleton, one of a couple second half mistakes that Judge called “inexcusable.”

Glennon tacked on a late touchdown pass to Evan Engram, but most Giants fans probably didn’t even see it. As one fan said in a text to the News: “That was so bad, between both teams in the first half and the Giants in the second, that I turned the Jets on.”

The end of the season can’t come soon enough.


Source: Berkshire mont

Be First to Comment

    Leave a Reply