Giants Coach Tom Coughlin was not happy after loss to Colts. He may have had a hand in handing the Colts a TD in the second quarter. Photo by Pete Lerro / contrastphotography.com

EAST RUTHERFORD: The Giants are void a lot of talent in many areas for almost the entire season. Injuries to key players have put Big Blue in this position.

Geoff Schwartz, Rashad Jennings, Victor Cruz and Jon Beason, Trumaine McBride and for the better part of the beginning of the season, Odell Beckham, Jr. have missed all or significant stretches of the season.

Roster to roster, the Indianapolis Colts are a much better team than the Giants right now.

In all likelihood Big Blue was going to lose to the Colts on Monday Night Football at MetLife Stadium, but they took themselves out of any chance for an upset but simply not playing smart.

Dumb penalties, dropped passes by both wide receivers and defensive backs, plus a lack of focus by both players and head coach Tom Coughlin all added up to a 40-24 loss.

The Giants fell to 3-5 on the season, a half game ahead of the Washington Redskins who are in last place in the NFC East.

Cornerback Dominique Rogers-Cromartie agreed the Giants have no margin for error with so many players out.

“Definitely,” the former Eagle said. “We’re not battling. We hit a spell of bad runs. We didn’t fight hard enough to come back. We have to go into the film room and see where we can get it right.”

It wasn’t until there 4:21 left in the third quarter, his team trailing 37-10, that kick returner Michael Cox finally took a knee after catching a ball in the end zone after several tries at being an ill-advised hero and only accomplishing terrible field position for Manning and the offense.

The three previous times he ran the ball back he was tackled inside the 20-yard line.

Still Manning would not admit the Giants weren’t prepared for the Colts.
“I thought we had a good plan,” said Manning who was 27 of 52 for 359 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. “They did a good job getting pressure on us. It wasn’t anything we hadn’t seen or weren’t prepared for. It wasn’t anything that we shouldn’t have picked up. They did a good job getting some pressure, throwing the ball a little bit before I wanted to
sometimes. We tried to take some shots down the field, we didn’t connect on any. Just didn’t take advantage of some of the press man and that technique, never got them out of it just because we didn’t hit any plays down the field.”

Coughlin may have handed the Colts (6-3) a touchdown in the second quarter when he appeared to be challenging a ball he thought was fumbled by Colts tight end Coby Fleener after 21-yard reception…so did his defensive players.

The Colts lined up legally snapped the ball, Luck fired a 32-yard touchdown pass to Fleener who was pretty much alone going into the endzone.

Coughlin explained.

“They go fast,” the coach said. “Whenever they make a big play, they go fast. We talked about it all week, our defense prepared for it all week long. All of a sudden, we weren’t getting lined up as fast as we should. I wasn’t sure exactly whether the ball was fumbled or not. I would have done anything to slow them down right there. Obviously that didn’t work. They were
able to take advantage of us in that one circumstance. It’s something they have done in the past after big plays. We have worked on it, we just didn’t line up as well, as fast as we should have lined up.”

Luck finished 25 of 46 for 354 yards and four touchdown passes. He was sacked just once and did not throw an Interception.

Luck said veteran Reggie Wayne spoke to the team about the bye week they were entering after the Giants game.

“Reggie spoke to it before the game last night,” Luck said. “He’s only had one or two in his career, but losses before a bye week stink. Not that we needed any more motivation to come out and play, but it’s good to get a win on this bye week and we’ll go back and see what we did right, see what we did wrong and move on from there.”