(Reuters) – Six days after taking heat for being in party mode in Miami, wide receiver Odell Beckham endured a nightmare playoff debut for the New York Giants on Sunday as his team lost 38-13 to Green Bay in a National Football Conference wild card game. Beckham, who recorded his first 100-reception season in 2016, never found his rhythm with quarterback Eli Manning and caught just four of 11 targets for 28 yards.
“I’m not sure how many targets Odell had,” Giants coach Ben McAdoo told reporters. “I thought we had the opportunity to get him the ball a few times. Ball skills weren’t great today. “I thought Eli was fairly sharp throwing it. In the elements, you’ve got to handle the ball better.”
Beckham, a Pro Bowl selection for the past three seasons, was widely panned for his decision to spend Monday’s day off partying in South Beach with fellow receivers Sterling Shepard, Victor Cruz and Roger Lewis. For Beckham, there was no link whatsoever between Monday’s leisure time and Sunday’s playoff defeat in Green Bay.
“There was nothing that could connect seven days ago to today and how we came out and played and executed,” he said.
“There’s just nothing in the world, that’s not realistic. I think it did a great job at creating distractions for us.
“It’s unfortunate. That’s just the way this world is. There’s just no way you could connect something that happened seven days ago to this game today.”
(Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes in St. Augustine, Florida; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
Reuters
