J.J. McCarthy threw for 243 yards in the fourth quarter, so the Giants’ 34–27 loss to the Saints quickly turned into a quarterback story. Fair enough.

But while everyone watched McCarthy nearly pull New York back from a 24-point hole, Cam Skattebo spent most of the afternoon watching, too.

Six offensive snaps. No carries. No targets. Six other Giants ran the ball. The back who’d led New York in rushing through five games never got a chance.

That was a much bigger change than it might sound. Skattebo played between 59 and 77 percent of the Giants’ offensive snaps in each of their first five games. He had 81 carries for 294 yards and a touchdown, along with 10 catches for 79 yards. He opened the season with 81 rushing yards against Dallas and had 59 in last week’s tie with Washington. The production wasn’t eye-popping every week, but he was clearly part of the plan. Against New Orleans, he played eight percent of the snaps.

There’s a pretty obvious reason the Giants started rethinking that plan. Skattebo fumbled four times in the first five games, and the one Washington recovered came late in overtime, with New York already in field-goal range. Offensive coordinator Matt Nagy called that mistake “unacceptable.” On Friday, John Harbaugh acknowledged that fumbling could change a running back’s role. Najee Harris started against the Saints.

Skattebo knew something was coming:

I got punished for what I did.

He expected to play less. He just didn’t expect to finish without a touch.

Harbaugh didn't see it that way:

"It was not by design. All those guys were taking equal reps in the first half. We were trying to see who could make something happen, who could get a hot hand and earn it. Nobody has really taken the bull by the horns. Motor (Devin Singletary) really hasn't had a chance to take the bull by the horns. So, we thought we'd get him in the mix, too. So, we put four guys up and see if we can get something going with the running game. That was the idea. They were all pretty equal, I think, in the first half. Second half, we come out, and now we're down by a bunch. And after the first series, we go into kind of a no-huddle type deal. And that's where you start using your third-down guys. And that's just the way it went. So it wasn't by design for him not to carry the ball. Just when he was in there, we didn't call any runs."

The Giants’ New Problem

And what did that new mix do on the field? The Saints came into Sunday giving up 148.8 rushing yards per game. New York’s other three backs combined for 34 yards on 14 carries. Tracy scored twice, including once as a receiver, but nobody really set the tone in the running game. Skattebo’s 3.6 yards per carry this season doesn’t prove he would’ve fixed it, either. But Sunday didn’t exactly show that the Giants found a better answer.

What they’re missing without him is pretty clear. Harbaugh once called Skattebo a “tone-setter,” and after the Dallas opener, he praised the way Skattebo runs with the ball. He runs into contact, keeps his legs moving, and makes defenses deal with him. Before the Saints game, Next Gen Stats had him averaging 3.5 yards after contact per carry. That’s a useful player for an offense that’s still trying to establish a ground game.

Skattebo has to protect the ball, and Harbaugh has every right to make him earn his carries. But after six snaps and no touches, it’s fair to ask: What chance did he really have to earn one back? Houston's next. The Giants’ rotation there will tell us a lot more than another explanation of what happened Sunday.

All stats courtesy of Fantasy Points Data.

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