Written by Jordan Ranaan at ESPN.com
An injury to wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. was about the worst thing the New York Giants could have imagined Monday night in their 10-6 preseason loss to the Cleveland Browns. It happened.
Fortunately, X-rays on Beckham’s ankle were negative and the Giants calling it a sprain. Beckham will have further tests when the team returns home. Combine that with wide receiver Brandon Marshall leaving the game and needing an X-ray on his shoulder and it wasn’t a good evening for the Giants.
They are an offense built around big-play weapons. They can’t afford to lose any of those weapons — especially Beckham — considering their ground game again looks non-existent. Starting running back Paul Perkins managed 10 yards on six carries against the Browns as the first-team offense failed to impress for a second straight game.
It looked a lot like last season’s Giants. Their starting defense played well, and their offense stumbled and didn’t score points. It’s the second straight week the first-team offense hasn’t impressed.
As if that wasn’t enough, then Beckham and Marshall were injured. It was close to the Giants’ worst nightmare.
QB depth chart: Eli Manning started after sitting out the preseason opener and was 10-of-14 passing for 80 yards. There weren’t many shots downfield. It was mostly wide receiver screens and quick-hitters. Geno Smith again showed promise, much like last week, until making a costly mistake. He was 11-of-17 passing for 79 yards, but his interception near the end zone and sack in the two-minute drill late in the first half ruined an otherwise fine performance. It’s these kinds of mistakes that hurt Smith’s chances of making the team.
Josh Johnson also didn’t impress in the fourth quarter, although he was hurt by a fumble that appeared to be rookie running back Wayne Gallman’s fault. Johnson finished 2-of-4 for 6 yards and was unable to lead a winning drive in the final minutes.
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