Giants stars were invisible as defense lets Saints make it look easy

NEW ORLEANS — It all looked too easy for the Saints in the Big Easy on Sunday.

It was stunning how little resistance the Giants offered, particularly in the second half of their 24-6 loss to New Orleans at the Superdome considering they’d forced 12 turnovers — 11 on defense, one on special teams — in the previous three games.

In this one, the Giants not only failed to force a turnover, they didn’t come close to doing so, nor did they make any big plays on defense.

Their star playmakers — Kayvon Thibodeaux (one tackle) and Dexter Lawrence (two tackles) — might as well have been in witness protection they were so invisible.

Cornerback Adoree’ Jackson played his worst game as a Giant, having a hand in two Saints TDs and keeping a New Orleans scoring drive alive with a needless holding penalty.

Safety Jason Pinnock gave up too many big plays, as did everyone on the back end of the Giants’ defense, which played so far off the New Orleans receivers all game it was as if they were afraid of catching the flu from them.

When asked to describe the Giants’ defense in a few words, linebacker Bobby Okereke said, “Not very good. That’s my assessment.’’

The Giants barely touched Saints quarterback Derek Carr all game (one sack) and he finished with only five incompletions on 28 attempts, threw three TD passes and had a 134.8 passer rating.

The Saints were 6-for-12 on third downs while the Giants were just 2 of 16.

Too easy.

The killer difference was the failure to create turnovers, which had catapulted the Giants during the three-game winning streak they took into this game.

“Takeaways are the ultimate eraser in this game,’’ Okereke said. “When we play great, we’re getting turnovers, making big plays and creating momentum for this team to win.’’

The Giants trailed only 7-6 in the first half.

Then they allowed the Saints to march 68 yards in 10 plays to open the second half and take a 14-6 lead on a 23-yard Carr scoring pass to tight end Juwan Johnson with Jackson and Pinnock way late in coverage.

Then came Jackson giving up an inexcusable 16-yard reception to Foster Moreau on third-and-16.

Five plays later, on third-and-goal from the 6-yard line, Pinnock needlessly interfered with Saints receiver A.T. Perry in the corner of the end zone to give them a first-and-goal from the 1-yard line.

Carr connected with Jimmy Graham for a TD on the next play for a 24-6 lead.

Again, it looked too damned easy for New Orleans.

“It’s not what we wanted, having won three in a row,’’ Pinnock said. “We wanted to keep the momentum going. Unfortunate.’’

He called the pass interference penalty “from my perspective, a bad call.’’

“Me personally, this was probably one of my worst games production-wise,’’ Pinnock said. “I didn’t like it. It was a tight throw on Juwan Johnson and the PI … I’ve got to do better.’’

Pinnock, too, lamented the Giants’ failure to create turnovers.

“We’ve been getting the rock,’’ he said. “When you don’t, this is the result. If you go back and look at our record and look at the games where we’re up, we’re getting the ball. We’ve got to get the ball. We know that.’’