The return of Saquon Barkley wasn’t enough for the New York Giants, whose comeback fell short on Sunday afternoon in a 27-21 loss to the Arizona Cardinals.
New York trailed by as much as 17-0 in Week 7, but rookie quarterback Daniel Jones was unable to put the Giants over the top despite outscoring the Cardinals 21-10 over the final three frames.
Arizona’s pass rush overwhelmed the Giants’ week offensive line as they racked up eight sacks on the day, ensuring the hosts couldn’t settle into an offensive groove.
Jones completed 22-of-35 passes for 223 yards, a touchdown, and an interception while the returning Barkley put up 72 rushing yards and a score.
The rushing superlatives on Sunday, however, belonged to Cardinals running back Chase Edmonds — who played his collegiate ball at Fordham — as he posted 126 yards on the ground with three touchdowns.
The Giants defense was initially ripped apart by the Cardinals — more specifically, Edmonds.
The second-year running back torched the Giants for a pair of 20-yard touchdowns on Arizona’s first two drives of the afternoon.
He became the first Cardinal since 1989 with two rushing scores in the first quarter.
Meanwhile, Jones and the Giants’ offense were completely stifled, gaining just three total yards in the first 15 minutes.
Following a field goal that put the Cardinals up 17-0 early in the second quarter, the Giants woke up.
On the ensuing drive, Jones quickly led New York 79 yards in 2:02 to get them on the board.
The young Giants quarterback accounted for 62 of those yards, capping things off with a 28-yard touchdown pass that was perfectly lobbed into the arms of backup tight end Rhett Ellison.
The Giants defense finally found a way to stop Kyler Murray and the Cardinals offense, sacking the rookie for a 15-yard loss on a third-down to force the visitors to punt from deep in their end zone.
On the punt attempt, Giants safety Michael Thomas broke through the line and blocked Andy Lee’s kick, which was recovered in the end zone by Eli Penny for the touchdown to bring the Giants within three.
Jones’ second turnover turned out to be a costly one after he was stripped-sacked by Chandler Jones — who had four sacks on the day — at midfield with 7:33 left in the third. Within three plays, Edmonds scored his third touchdown of the game, a 22-yard rush this time.
Barkley — who was hobbled on multiple occasions throughout the afternoon — got the Giants to within three once again with a seven-yard touchdown rush, just his second of the year.
Giants comeback hopes took a hit in the game’s final minutes when Pat Shurmur called up a draw play on a 3rd-&-18 on his own 30-yard-line after Jones was sacked with 3:11 left in the game.
He opted to go for it on 4th-&-15 only to see Jones strip-sacked again to give the Cardinals possession on the 17-yard-line.
Arizona would only settle for a field goal to go up six before the two-minute warning when Murray inexplicably ran out of bounds on a 3rd-&-10 with 2:13 left. But the defense would sack Jones two more times to close things out.
