Martellus Bennett (Getty Images)
Martellus Bennett (Ai Wire /Landov)
Martellus Bennett is surrounded by reporters, answering question after question about the poor play of Eli Manning, with little changing but the adjectives phrased to the Giants tight end.
Bennett isn’t asked about his dropped pass or the touchdown he would have had, had he kept both feet in bounds, in Sunday’s 31-13 loss at Cincinnati. But he knows he bears responsibility for the questions that have risen about his quarterback and reminded everyone that Manning isn’t the only one under-performing.
“If he makes a throw, he’s having a tough game, you can’t drop it,” Bennett said this week. “Sometimes we have to make plays for him. It’s not just on him. It’s on everybody. It starts with me. I got to make more plays for him and do different things for him to make things easier for him. I just got to get better for him.”
The season couldn’t have started better for the first-year starter, after four seasons in Dallas. Bennett had three touchdowns and 185 yards in the first three games, but has 226 yards and no touchdowns in the past seven.
With Hakeem Nicks playing at less than 100 percent and no consistent third wide-receiver threat having emerged, tight ends coach Michael Pope said he thinks teams have made a concerted effort to limit Bennett’s impact.
“He’s not less of a target than he has been,” Pope said. “After that first month, people started playing him with much tighter coverage, battering him as he’s coming off the line of scrimmage and made his job harder. He has to play a lot harder against that type of coverage. It’s the player’s and the coaching staff’s responsibility to do whatever we can to try and continue to keep him as a weapon.”
Another reason for Bennett’s limited production may stem from a hyperextended knee suffered on Oct. 7 against Cleveland, which he said has been “messed up” since and bothers him every game. He has not missed a game, and doesn’t expect to, and hopes the rest from the bye week will help him recover from a torn capsule in the knee and bruising to the ACL and PCL. The loquacious tight end found himself tongue-tied when asked how much the injury has affected his play, sandwiched between what may be true and a desire to not make excuses.
“I still run fast,” he said. “I don’t think I’m as fast as I would be. I have a hard time, sometimes when the guys are heavy and they start pushing back on me, I have a hard time planting on my leg, but everybody’s playing in pain right now.”
With defenses playing over the top and taking away deep passes, Bennett thinks the team needs to stop trying to hit home runs all the time and focus on shorter routes. But even singles were hard to come by on Sunday, as Bennett was targeted nine times and finished with four catches for 37 yards. The chances are there, but offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride needs to start seeing results.
“They’re so heavily concerned with Victor [Cruz], it just gives opportunities to [Bennett]” Gilbride said. “He’s having chances. He just has to capitalize.”
howard.kussoy@nypost.com