One lousy touchdown isn't enough

Rating the Giants' 17-7 loss to the Bengals on Sunday:

attack

Not good enough.

Not even close.

Lots of first downs (24), but only 5 of 15 on third down – and 3 of 5 on fourth down.

One lousy touchdown isn't enough. Daniel Jones (22 of 41, 205 yards) threw a huge interception.

The passing game wasn't exactly crisp – the longest completion was only 15 yards. Jones (11-56) was also the leading rusher, which isn't ideal.

Rookie Tyrone Tracy (17-50) started late.

LT Andrew Thomas was cleanly beaten by Trey Hendrickson for a nine-yard sack in the second quarter.

Thomas was later charged with an illegal man downfield penalty that negated a 56-yard completion to Darius Slayton.

Not ideal.

Slayton (6-57) was targeted 11 times. There wasn't enough production.

Wan'Dale Robinson caught just five of 11 targets. Bad stuff everywhere.

Grade: F

defense

This was a convincing performance in many respects.

The Bengals averaged 28 points and had 10 points by the final minute.

Joe Burrow (19 of 28, 208 yards) was well below his season average. Tee Higgins (7-77) and Ja'Marr Chase (5-72) were good, but not great.

Burrow was sacked four times and backup starter Azeez Ojulari picked him off twice in a strong game.

Brian Burns came to play. He had a sack on the first series and dropped Zack Moss on third down for a 4-yard loss.

Micah McFadden forced two fumbles – Bobby Okereke recovered one, but Jason Pinnock failed to recover the other.

A bad mishap early on allowed Burrow to run 47 yards for a touchdown, and a mishap late gave Chase Brown a 30-yard TD run. The Bengals only had 13 first downs.

Grade: A-

Special teams

Greg Joseph has had better days. He attempted 47 and 45 field goals and missed both wide left.

That's called a bad day at the office.

New player Matt Haack made his Giants debut without any mishaps.

He dropped a 43-yarder in the second quarter that tied the Bengals back to their 12-yard line.

He averaged 46.8 yards on his four punts.

Grade: D

Coaching

Brian Daboll was “The Gambler,” finishing in fourth place five times.

I have to admit that it looked like a desperate and ill-advised gamble on Daboll's part when he attempted 4th-and-2 on his own 37-yard line early in the fourth quarter.

It didn't cost the Giants, but it was still an odd decision.

Daboll, as a game manager, needs to find a way to generate more big plays and figure out why his team can't find the end zone when playing at home.

Shane Bowen's defense kept Burrow under pressure and did enough to win.

Grade: C