ARLINGTON, Texas — A healthy Odell Beckham Jr. made a loud return to the field in Week 1, but his encore was a dud.
After being targeted 15 times and hauling in 11 catches for 111 yards against the Jaguars last week, playing for the first time since breaking his ankle last season, Beckham was hardly heard from Sunday night.
Unable to get a whole lot of separation from the Cowboys’ cornerbacks and safeties, and with Eli Manning under siege almost all night, Beckham recorded only four catches for 51 yards as the Giants’ offense remained anemic in a 20-13 loss at AT&T Stadium.
“I didn’t make enough of the opportunities I had,” Beckham said. “There’s going to be games you might get 20 touches, there’s going to be games you get seven. It’s just about making the most of those plays. I don’t feel like I did a good enough job on whatever it was. I gotta be a bigger difference-maker.”
It has now been 625 days since Beckham took part in a Giants win. His first two catches both came in the first quarter, one on the Giants’ first drive and the other on their second. But he didn’t catch another pass from Manning until the fourth quarter when the Giants were desperately trying to make a comeback in the final minutes.
The Cowboys’ scheme largely silenced Beckham, putting two safeties deep to take away the deep ball, which never came.
“We have to make more of the plays and not have to depend so much on those [big] plays. The guys we have on our team, it’s hard to say that because we are some of those home-run hitter guys and the big-play guys. Today we just obviously didn’t have enough.”
Coach Pat Shurmur said the coverages were not anything they didn’t expect, but the Giants still weren’t able to execute.
“They were twisting up-front a little bit, which creates problems at times,” Shurmur said. “It shouldn’t but it did. They weren’t really playing real heroically in coverage.”
The Giants were looking for any kind of a spark in the third quarter, so they finally turned to Beckham as a punt returner. Kaelin Clay had been sidelined by an ankle injury, and while he was eventually cleared to return, Shurmur sent Beckham in to receive a punt late in the third quarter. It only resulted in a 3-yard return.
Beckham spoke during the week about how badly he missed winning, and while that feeling will linger at least for another seven days, he preached patience.
“It’s funny how time works, but time is the only thing that always works out,” Beckham said. “At some point in time, it’s going to get put together. I just hope it’s way sooner than later.
“I hate being like, ‘It’s only Week 2,’ because I don’t like being down 0-2. Today was tough, it was frustrating, I really hate losing. I think at some point in time, it’s going to be hard for teams to play us the way they did.”