New York's offense takes Giant step back

The expectations were that Year 3 in Ben McAdoo's system combined with the return of Victor Cruz and the drafting of rookie Paul Perkins would take the New York Giants' offense to newer heights.

After all, the Giants' offense finished eighth overall in average yards per game (372.0), sixth in scoring (26.2 points per game) and seventh in passing (271.4 yards per game) in 2015.

It never happened.

The Giants fell to 17th in passing (242.4 yards per game), 26th in scoring (19.4 points per game) and 25th in total yards (330.7 per game). The numbers are frightening considering the team did not suffer any devastating injuries.

Each week, members of the offense, including McAdoo, the architect and play caller, insisted that the offense was close to clicking on all cylinders.

Even quarterback Eli Manning held on to that belief during the team's "baggy day" media briefing.

"I thought we were close. I thought teams weren't giving us a whole lot of opportunities to get the ball down the field. They gave us a few and we had the right calls at the right times to possibly hit some. We took them. We had an opportunity to hit big plays," he said. "The points left out there - you have to make those plays."

So what happened?

"We felt that we the talent and the coaching and the scheme to have a better year than we had," McAdoo said. "We need to go back and take a look at the film, do the personnel evaluation, do the scheme evaluation and look at everything."

Does that include his role as the play caller?

"Everything," he repeated. "We need to look at everything."

While McAdoo wasn't of much help in identifying the offense's shortcomings, there are several very strong reasons for what transpired. The first begins with McAdoo's overuse of the 11 personnel package and with it, slants and certain limited intermediate routes that made game-planning against the Giants easy.

Another, more glaring reason was the absence of a running game. The Giants posted only one individual 100-yard rushing performance, that of Perkins in the regular-season finale against Washington. With the Giants unable to run the ball, that made them one dimensional and easier to defend.

There were problems with the offensive line as well, particularly at the offensive tackle positions. Bobby Hart was removed from the starting lineup toward the very end in favor of Marshall Newhouse, whom Hart replaced earlier in the year after Newhouse suffered an injury. Meanwhile on the left side, Ereck Flowers, the No. 9 draft overall pick two years ago, regressed badly as a pass protector, raising some doubt as to whether his NFL future is at left tackle.

The biggest problem was the continued struggles in the red zone. This year, the Giants scored touchdowns on just 51.1 percent of their trips inside the opponents' 20-yard line (23rd in the league, a slight increase over the 44.4 percent conversion rate they had in 2015 which put them 29th in the NFL.

Regardless of the key reasons are for the offense's struggles, the focus is now on how to fix the unit.

"We have to go back and break everything down," left guard Justin Pugh said.