EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The magic formula had been working for the New York Giants. Play good defense, run the ball and make enough plays in the passing game to win a low-scoring game.
The formula worked as the Giants won four straight and averaged 21.5 points per game. But with their quarterback hobbled Sunday and the pass game nonexistent, it all came to a crashing halt. The Giants endured a 26-7 loss to the Arizona Cardinals at MetLife Stadium that dropped them out of first place in the NFC East. They're now a game back of the Washington Football Team.
Fingers can be pointed squarely at the offense and special teams, which strangely had been one of the league's best units before three rough performances. They need to do better.
Sunday's loss casts doubt on how sustainable that magic formula can be for the Giants (5-8). You need to score points (generally lots of them) to consistently win games. And the only team in the NFL that has scored fewer points than the Giants this season is ... the winless New York Jets.
The Giants' offense under offensive coordinator Jason Garrett has topped 23 points twice in 13 games. Their offensive efficiency has them among the NFL's bottom five with quarterback Daniel Jones having thrown eight touchdown passes in 12 starts with 10 fumbles. He has thrown fewer touchdown passes than both Cowboys quarterbacks Dak Prescott and Andy Dalton combined (18).
It's a tough way to live, leaving little margin for error, even when your quarterback is healthy. At some point, the Giants will need to be more efficient and score significant points if they want to win the division.
There are legitimate questions about whether Jones is healthy enough to hold up his end of the bargain, but they need him; Colt McCoy isn't necessarily the answer. The Giants needed a big second half to get to 17 points in their Week 13 win at Seattle.
Still, there are three more chances, against Cleveland, Baltimore and Dallas.
"Yes. We're playing complementary football is the goal right there -- all three phases playing together there," Giants coach Joe Judge said when asked about his offense needing to explode at some point. "We're trying to finish drives and work as hard as we can to stay on the field. We didn't do a good enough job of that [Sunday]. We have to do a better job next week."
The Giants' next opportunity is Sunday when they host the Cleveland Browns (8:20 p.m. ET, NBC). First, they will need to decide if Jones, who was clearly hurting after the loss to the Cardinals, can do enough to make it happen. He finished 11-of-21 passing for 121 yards and zero rushes, the first time in his young career he didn't have one rushing attempt.
"Yeah, it wore on me a bit during the game," Jones conceded Sunday before adding he didn't think it would hurt his chances of playing this week.
The Giants' limited offense has relied on Jones' legs to make plays this season. He's second on the team with 403 rushing yards.
Sunday's flop was also because the offensive line had its worst game in weeks, allowing eight sacks. And the Giants' receivers and tight ends averaged a paltry 1.5 yards of distance between them and the nearest defender when targeted.
Sure, chalk it up to a bad game or not having an explosive player such as running back Saquon Barkley available this season. Those are both fair reasons for the eight losses, but at some point Jones needs to put it together and have a big game. He hasn't thrown for 300 yards or tossed three touchdowns in a single game this season. Is it even reasonable to expect it now that he has a tender hamstring?
The Giants have relied on Wayne Gallman and their grind-it-out running game. But that will only take them so far. Jones and the Giants need to make more big plays in the pass game to ease the stress on their defense. Their 28 pass plays of 20-plus yards is tied for the second fewest in the NFL this season. They had two Sunday.
"I mean, we always say, 'If they don't score, they don't win,'" Giants cornerback James Bradberry said. "That's our goal as a defense, we don't worry about special teams or what the offense is doing, we just worry about what we can control."
That's a fine mindset to have, but it's also not realistic to shut out every opponent, or limit every team to under 20 points. The Giants, whose defense is ranked 12th in the NFL, are 1-6 when allowing opponents to score 20 points or more this season.
If they truly want to play complementary football, that means the offense needs to carry the team on occasion. Score 30 points and it can erase a rough or mediocre day from the defense.
Your turn, offense. That is, if the Giants want to win the NFC East and show they are really on the right track.