The first pass of the night from Eli Manning was behind Rueben Randle, who could have made the catch, but did not. The second pass, aimed at Randle on the right side, looked as if the two had never met each other.
“I thought, he thought, those kinds of things,’’ Tom Coughlin said with more than a hint of frustration.
The ball sailed one way as Randle cut the other. Incomplete. It could have been posted on a billboard to advertise the 2014 Giants preseason, one they completed Thursday night with a 16-13 victory over the Patriots to go 5-0 with about as imperfect a perfect record as you’ll ever see.
The regular-season opener against the Lions in Detroit is 11 days away, and between now and then some sort of hypnotism or Jedi mind tricks might have to be called upon to convince the Giants they are ready for prime time. They hoped their last preseason action would provide some positive momentum, but instead the brakes were hit and the wheels to this new offense nearly came off.
The non-connection between Manning and Randle was, in Coughlin’s estimation, “the worst play of the night,’’ explaining there was miscommunication between the quarterback and the receiver.
“Everybody in this room is tired of hearing that stuff,’’ Coughlin said. “There’s no place for that.’’
Randle said the problem was “timing, that’s it.’’
Manning was more expansive, saying it’s a play he has run in practice but never in a game.
“We just got to get the timing down,’’ Manning said. “I thought it was a little off. I wanted to run it because I knew we needed to work on it in a live situation and sure enough it didn’t go like we wanted to.’’
Sure enough, it didn’t, But what else is new?
Once again, the reserves bailed out Eli and Company. Ryan Nassib directed a second-quarter touchdown drive and Curtis Painter led a fourth-quarter drive for the winning points on Josh Brown’s 37-yard field goal with 39 seconds remaining. The Giants finished the preseason at 5-0 for the first time since 1985.
In two offensive series, Manning completed one of his four passes for no yards, as in zero. He didn’t come close to mounting a drive against a bunch of Patriots backup defensive players, as Bill Belichick, as usual, kept his starters on the sideline in the last preseason game. Earlier in the preseason against the Steelers, Manning left a game without completing a pass for the first time in his career. Now he leaves another game without a single passing yard.
In 19 possessions this summer, Manning and the starting offense produced three touchdowns and 10 series that ended in a three-and-out or a turnover. Manning did not throw any interceptions in the preseason, although two passes that were picked off were wiped out by penalties. The goal of the new West Coast offense is for the quarterback to complete 70 percent of his passes, which is usually unrealistic. Manning, in the five games, completed 20 of 41 passes for 188 yards, a completion percentage of 49.
Manning wasn’t sweating the ugly numbers.
“I’m always glad preseason’s over with,’’ he said. “My No. 1 goal in preseason is get through it healthy. Only times I ever missed games is getting injured in preseason games so I don’t want to experience that. I know there’s things we need to improve on, that’s why we got another week to work on things.’’
Coughlin said during the week the starters would play 15-18 snaps and hoped that would be accomplished in two series, but after two lousy series the offense only had eight plays. Coughlin admitted he toyed with the idea of keeping Manning and the other starters on the field for a third series but “I overruled myself.’’
And then, with a smile and some sarcasm, he added, “If they wanted to play more they should have made some first downs and stayed out there.’’
The only time Manning and the Giants moved the ball was when he handed it to Rashad Jennings. Other than that, nada.
On the second series, Manning looked for Victor Cruz on a deep cross on second down. Cruz looked as if he had a step, but Manning was high and wide with the throw. These are plays Manning is supposed to make and that he continues to have trouble with supposedly routine passes has to be troubling for the Giants, with the real season nearly here.