Getty Daniel Jones #8 and Nick Gates #65 of the New York Giants point to a defensive formation of the Chicago Bears.
Safe to say the beginning of the 2020 NFL season has not gone the way the New York Giants had hoped for. Currently sitting at 0-3 on the year, the G-Men are staring up at every other NFC East team in the division, and center Nick Gates is starting to sound fed up.
“We’re pissed off, we want to be better. We don’t want to go out there and lose,” Gates said to members of the media on Monday. “We don’t want to go out there and not run the ball. We’re not trying to go out there and play bad. We practice every week, we go to work every week. We put a lot of effort and a lot of work into going out there and learning the defense. It is frustrating when you go out there and you can’t run the ball and you can’t protect well. It’s frustrating.”
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Gates, Giants Red Zone Offense Must Improve, Fast
Gates continued on, harping on the offenses’ struggles inside the 20-yard line. “It’s frustrating not getting the ball in the endzone and settling for three points instead of six,” Gates said. “When we get down there in the red zone, we have to score. I forget where we were, but we’re not good enough in the red zone. I don’t even think we got to the red zone last game. We just have to be better. I wouldn’t have believed you if you said we’re only going to score 12 points a game.”
The Giants currently score touchdowns on just 33.3-percent of their red zone visits this season, tied for dead last in the NFL alongside their MetLife roommates, the New York Jets.
While the play of Big Blue’s o-line has been disappointing across the board, Gates may very well be the biggest culprit in the unit’s poor performance. The former Nebraska Cornhusker’s transition to the center position has gone anything but smoothly thus far. After posting an impressive 77.0 Pro Football Focus grade in 2019 as a tackle/guard combo, Gates’ grade has stumbled all the way down to a mere 49.7 over the first three weeks of 2020.
O-Line Coach Loves Group’s Attitude
While Giants offensive line coach Marc Colombo is well aware of his group’s struggles to start the season, he applauds the approach they’ve taken to their flawed play.
“I love that they’re pissed off,” Colombo said. “That’s, that’s the type of group we want.”
Colombo, a former nine-year veteran offensive lineman himself, believes the unit has the type of work ethic needed to take their game to new heights, but noted that time is running out.