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ATLANTA – Saquon Barkley was not satisfied with his performance Monday night, as the Giants lost again, this time against the Falcons 23-20 at the Mercedes-Benz stadium.
"Personally, I did not play a good game," said Barkley afterwards. "The first half, the second half, I was not the player I usually am. I have to keep growing there, go back to the drawing board. "
Barkley struggled to find a single piece to run, finishing with only 43 rushing yards in 14 attempts. He had 7 yards in eight races in the first half. He caught nine passes for 51 yards.
In the third quarter, coach Pat Shurmur called Barkley with the Giants on the Atlanta line. The Falcons were not surprised and Barkley was stopped without gain. In the third and second quarter of the fourth quarter, Eli Manning returned the ball to Barkley, but there were three defensemen on the ground and Barkley was dropped for an 8-yard loss.
"We thought he was a man and we had a zone and Saquon was pushed back," Shurmur said. "It was a bad one."
Shurmur won a replay challenge in the third quarter that thwarted an order from the Falcons. A half-time pass from Matt Ryan to Julio Jones was contested by cornerback Janoris Jenkins and was deemed incomplete as both players fought for football. The balloon escaped and Eli Apple retrieved it on the 20 yard line of the Giants. Shurmur pitched the red challenge flag and was rewarded when the rehearsal canceled the call, making a full pass and a turn-over, with Jenkins at the origin of the fumble.
Apple left the field at the end of the match, ankle injury in the second quarter, and was replaced by rookie Grant Haley, who made his NFL debut in his hometown. Haley, a Penn State unregistered freestyle player, was signed late in the week out of the training squad. Apple was able to come back in the second period.
Kerry Wynn took Ryan out of the pocket and Olivier Vernon did everything for his second bag in as many games in the first series. Defense co-ordinator James Bettcher called for a blitz and cornerback B.W. Webb delivered, racing intact to drop Ryan for a 12-yard loss. At the end of the first quarter, rookie Lorenzo Carter rushed in and took Ryan for a six-yard bag, forcing a Falcons punt.
Peyton Manning attended the match and attended the warm-ups on the field. … Kurt Warner, the quarterback sent off the bench after 24 games in 2004 to usher in the Eli Manning era, worked the match on the radio for Westwood One Sports. Warner spoke with Manning on the pitch before the match.
WR Russell Shepard was classified as suspect with a neck injury and did not play. He was one of seven inactive Giants players. The other inactive were Patrick Omameh, WR Jawill Davis, quarterback Kyle Lauletta, S Kamrin Moore, BC Mike Jordan and DT John Jenkins.
Omameh did not make the trip, left home with a knee injury. Even though he was in good health, he would not have started guarding right when the Giants made the decision to put a bench on Omameh, which turns out to be a bad free agent.
Matt Ryan has continued producing and preparing a great season despite the loss to Atlanta. He completed 31 of 39 passes for 379 yards and one touchdown for a 115.7 pass. Ryan was at his best when he counted, helping the Falcons to convert 7 of 13 tries in the third run, a 54% success rate. His 47-yard strike for Marvin Hall hit the catcher from a distance.
Nate Solder was signed to provide a granite-like presence at the left tackle. It was not that. He granted two sacks in the first half and did not play at the level of an offensive lineman in the franchise. Given the state of the line, the Giants can not afford to give much help to Solder, and the assumption was that he did not need much. This does not prove to be the case.
Sterling Shepard can not do much more than he did in this defeat. He caught five passes for 167 yards, which earned him 58, 53 and 38 yards. Upon receiving 38 yards, he used his strong legs to jump over cornerback Robert Alford. Shepard has a good season, despite all the bad games around him.
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