EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – In each of their last two games, the Giants put together a pair of offensive possessions that were very similar except for the final play.

On their first series eight days ago in Seattle, they traveled 79 yards in 16 plays, the longest an 18-yard pass from Daniel Jones to Eric Gray. Alas, Gray fumbled on a fourth down from the one-yard line and the Seahawks' Rayshawn Jenkins returned it 102 yards for a touchdown. The Giants won, 29-20.

On Sunday night against the Cincinnati Bengals, the Giants had another 16-play, 79-yard drive. The longest play was a 10-yard Jones pass to Tyrone Tracy. After a pass interference penalty on Cincinnati's DJ Turner II, the Giants were again on the opposing one-yard line. This time, the handoff went to Tracy, who barged into the middle of the line and scored a touchdown to give the Giants their only points in a 17-7 loss.

The series in Seattle consumed 10:01, while the one vs. the Bengals took 6:45 off the clock. Both games ended with the Giants holding a significant time of possession advantage. But the fact that they won the first and lost the second accurately indicates that time-consuming marches are not always the best way to travel.

"It makes it tough when you have to do that in this league," Jones said. "I think credit to their defense, their scheme and their plan is to prevent some of those plays, but we've got to execute and find a way to generate some of them."

The Giants would like to succeed on more plays that gain bigger chunks of yardage.

"Our inability, I would say this game, to generate explosive plays, whether that's through the run or through the air is not where I want it to be right now," coach Brian Daboll said Monday. "So, we'll keep doing it. Keep calling them. And we just got to keep on improving in that area. Again, 16-play drives for touchdowns, it's hard to do on a consistent basis. So, couple that with red zone and some missed opportunities in the kicking game throughout, I'd say, the course of the past couple weeks. We got to score more points."

That was hammered home last night, when the defense held one of the NFL's most prolific offenses to 17 points, but the team still lost by 10. The Giants had won three straight and 18 of their last 21 games in which they held their opponents to less 20 points.

But last night, they hit just one play, a 56-yard catch-and-run by Darius Slayton - but it was nullified by Andrew Thomas' penalty for being an ineligible receiver downfield. Of their 74 plays that counted, only 10 gained more than 10 yards. They topped out at 15 yards four times, including fourth-quarter passes to Wan'Dale Robinson and Slayton. It was the first time since Jan. 2, 2022, a lopsided loss in Chicago, that the Giants had no play longer than 15 yards.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, in six games this season the Giants have 13 completed passes that gained 20 or more yards. That places them 26^th in the league. The top three teams are San Francisco and Green Bay, each with 23, and Indianapolis, with 21.

Because opposing defenses know the Giants haven't completed many long passes, they are focused on challenging the shorter throws.

Daboll and the players would like to increase their number of chunk plays.

"That's something that's just kind of football – you got to nail the big ones," Robinson said. "You don't get a lot of opportunities in this league to hit 40-yarders, 50-yarders or whatever that may be. So, whatever you can especially nail it and get in the end zone, you gotta be able to nail it. You can't take those things for granted at the end of the day."

Slayton said the Bengals did nothing unusual defensively to thwart the Giants' deep intentions.

"They threw a couple of different looks, but I would also say we just didn't hit them," he said. "We had a couple of chances at some shots, but we just couldn't connect on them for whatever reason. They came up with a decent gameplan."

"I think they had a good game plan, some different things here and there, but it was largely what they do, and we've just got to execute," Jones said. "It's about what we do and making sure we're doing what we've got to do to move the ball and score points."

The next opportunity for the 2-4 Giants will be Sunday, when they host the 3-2 Philadelphia Eagles.

Of course, the Giants chances to succeed and score points rise significantly when Jones plays well. He did in the four games prior to last night, including three games in which he threw two touchdown passes, no interceptions, and had a passer rating of 100.0 or higher. But he threw a costly red zone interception against Cincinnati and didn't place the ball on other passes as well as he could have liked.

Daboll said the Giants would like Jones to be more consistent.

"That's what you're always trying to do with a quarterback, whether it's completion plays, chunk plays, quarterback runs, move the pocket, screens," Daboll said. "Again, you touch the ball on every play and your goal as a quarterback is to come out of that game making a proper decision on every play. Certainly, that's not going to happen all the time. Daniel, like I've said plenty of times, he'll do everything he can to be as good as he can be."

With two losses already in NFC East games, the Giants need Jones to step up when the Eagles invade MetLife Stadium.

"Yesterday, we talked about (the interception)," Daboll said. "We moved on. Look, it was a play that, obviously, he would like to have back. Told him I have a lot of confidence in him. You're always communicating with your players. Quarterback, obviously, when you're talking to him on a play-to-play basis and all the time you spend with him during the week. So, you're going to have some of those, just like every player is going to have some of them. You talk, you coach, you teach, you listen, and you move on."

The Giants are on to Philadelphia.

*This season, the Giants are 2-1 on the road and 0-3 at home.

"It's not that we had any magical plays on the road that we don't have at home," Slayton said. "We just didn't make the ones (last night) that we did last week."

*Daboll did not have an update on left tackle Andrew Thomas, who suffered a foot injury in the game.

*Greg Joseph missed both of his field goal attempts last night, from 47 and 45 yards – both wide left in the fourth quarter. Asked if he might turn to anther kicker, Daboll said, "I'd say we'd stay with Greg."