It’s still the same old story. A fight for love and glory. A case of do or die. But for the New York Giants, it’s mostly dying as time goes by.

Monday night was the kind of disheartening loss the Giants have suffered too many this season – another game against a team that had two playoff losses that they could have won (there have been three now) but lost because of mistakes and failures to rise to the occasion at key moments. Yes, you are what your track record says, but they are not far off from a much better track record. Let’s take a look at who played well, who didn’t, and how much in the 26-18 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Offence

PFF grades

Courtesy of Pro Football Focus

The Giants didn’t play very offensively last night. Unfortunately, there were some notable exceptions in one important category.

• Daniel Jones had a great race (64.4), but that’s the problem. He’s often just fine and can’t go out and win the game for the Giants. Jones actually went down the field quite a bit: six passes of more than 20 yards, six more of 10-20 yards. And he completed half of it. He was under a lot of pressure (53.5% of dropbacks) and he handled it well:

Courtesy of Pro Football Focus

Jones’ success rate under pressure was only slightly worse than when kept clean, and he was barely affected by the blitz. He had two big throws… but also two turnover-worthy plays, one of which was intercepted and sealed the loss. He also caught four passes from his receivers, which is becoming the norm. That’s kind of the story of the game: the foul isn’t far from a snap, but small mistakes prevent it from happening.

• The offensive line, of course, had a rough game in pass protection against one of the NFL’s best pass rushes. The worst offenders were Chris Hubbard (9.3) and Jermaine Eluemunor (40.4), who faced Alex Highsmith and TJ Watt, as well as Jon Runyan Jr. (46.8) was poor, while Greg Van Roten (77.4) played well and John Michael Schmitz (63.7) was also okay. Hubbard gave up one sack, six hits and five hurries, while Runyan was charged with one hit and five hurries and Eluemunor one sack, one hit and two hurries. The offensive line did much better in run blocking, with no one scoring below average and Hubbard (91.0) and Van Roten (87.3) scoring excellently. The line was also assessed five penalties, with only JMS not being marked.
• Tyrone Tracy had an excellent run grade of 80.4, while Devin Singletary posted a grade of 62.2 in limited action. We hope Tracy’s concussion is not a long-term problem.
• Malik Nabers (71.5) and Darius Slayton (69.9) had pretty good receiving games, but Nabers’ two drops reflect a nagging problem with him. Wan’Dale Robinson was slightly below average (53.1). Tight end Chris Manhertz scored an excellent 86.0 receiving grade and should have had a TD if not for the penalty; he also passed well (72.4). Theo Johnson also passed well (75.5); his grade of 60.4 reflects a decline he had.

Snap counts

• Once again, Jones and the starting offensive line, this time with Chris Hubbard at left tackle, played every second. Evan Neal had a photo too! (On the ill-fated two-point conversion attempt.)
• Slayton also played every snap and Nabers all but one snap, while Robinson played 86% of the snaps, i.e. (1) the Giants played a lot with 11 men, (2) Jalin Hyatt was on the bench all night.
• Theo Johnson has solidified his position as TE1 with 70 snaps, with Chris Manhertz getting 11 and Daniel Bellinger seeing the field on offense just once.
• Tracy is now the clear RB1, with Devin Singeltary still seeing key snaps and Eric Gray only making cameo appearances.

Defense

PFF grades

Courtesy of Pro Football Focus

A number of defensive players performed well. To the extent the defense contributed to the loss, it was due to sixteen (yes, sixteen) missed tackles by nine different players (for comparison, Pittsburgh had six) and overall poor play from the secondary. The Giants didn’t have a single player score above average against the series.

• Looking at the lowest numbers, we see Jason Pinnock (42.3), Deonte Banks (47.8), Tyler Nubin (50.0) and Dru Phillips (52.9) as four of the worst five, while Nick McCloud (57 .8) is slightly below average. Good. Phillips (six targets, six receptions, 115 yards) was picked up mainly by Russell Wilson. Only Greg Stroman Jr. (75.2), who replaced Banks, scored well.
• Bobby Okereke (81.3) had his third good game in a row and his highest score of the season. Maybe he’s finally gotten used to Shane Bowen’s system and is starting to remind us of the player we saw last season. Micah McFadden (77.6) also played well after three weeks of underperformance. Isaiah Simmons did well in limited action (74.2); he has only played defense in three of the past five games, but has been effective in each. Darius Muasau (57.5) was okay, but slightly below average in limited numbers.
• The defensive line generally had one of the quietest games. You have to say that Pittsburgh’s offense handled them more effectively than the Giants offensive line handled the Steelers’ DL. Dexter Lawrence was, as always, above average (72.2) and strong in pass rush (87.5 with one hit and two rushes), but like other defensive players he tackled poorly. Elijah Chatman played well (67.4), as did Armon Watts (65.3). Brian Burns (65.1) had a sack, a hit and two hurries, while Azeez Ojulari scored just 54.0, and only averaged a 62.0 pass rush despite collecting two sacks and two hurries . Tomon Fox was average (63.8) as a rotational edge defender. Keep an eye on DJ Davidson (55.6), who appears to be slowly improving over time, with near-average or above-average grades in five of the past six games. He’s recently split snaps almost evenly with Rakeem Nunez-Roches (44.6), and last night it was in a game that was tied in the fourth quarter.

Snap counts

• As usual, Okereke, Pinnock and Tyler Nubin played every snap. McFadden played the majority of the snaps opposite Okereke, while Simmons and Muasau split the rest of the time.
• The big story in the secondary was Banks being removed late in the second quarter in favor of Stroman. Phillips and McCloud played about 80% of the defensive snaps.
• Ojulari played the most snaps at the edge of any Giants, a few more than Burns, with Fox occasionally filling in for one of them. Lawrence was the workhorse inside as usual, and as previously mentioned, Davidson and Nunez-Roches split time while Chatman played less than Watts.