New York Giants right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor isn’t giving T.J. Watt his flowers for his Monday night performance against him. Dunked on by the Internet for his pre-game comments about wanting to be on an island versus Watt and then proceeding to give up a crucial strip-sack against him, Eluemunor says he did a good job against T.J. Watt.
“I’m not gonna sit here and fricking hype him up when you can go watch the tape and see what he did all night,” Eluemunor told WFAN Daily’s Sal Licata Tuesday. “He didn’t do anything for three-and-a-half quarters and he had one impact play.”
A recap of how all this started. Last Thursday, Eluemunor told reporters he was confident facing Watt and wanted the coaching staff to leave him on 1v1 against him.
“I want to be on an island with him all day,” he said days before kickoff in comments that drew plenty of headlines.
During the game, the Giants, as all teams do, gave him plenty of help with tight end and running back chips along with sliding the protection Watt’s way. While that slowed Watt down for moments, it allowed Alex Highsmith to have 1v1 chances on the other side. He dusted ex-Steeler Chris Hubbard, signed by the team earlier the week and making his first start of the season.
Late in the game with the Giants needing to throw, Eluemunor had more one-on-one chances against him. And Watt made plays, none bigger than a strip-sack of QB Daniel Jones on third down with New York deep in Pittsburgh territory following QB Russell Wilson’s fumble. Watt fell on the ball and put the Steelers’ offense right back on the field.
After the game, Giants head coach Brian Daboll said TE Theo Johnson was supposed to be motioned over to help Eluemunor. But Jones never shifted him that way, leaving Eluemunor 1-on-1 and losing the battle. He blames the miscommunication for giving up the play.
“It was a crappy set expecting help, but still I need to be able to adjust to that somehow. It is s gonna be dirty and grimy and it’s gonna be ugly. But if I can just get T.J. around the quarterback and try get [Daniel Jones] to step up, then we’re not having this conversation right now most likely.”
It’s easy to rewrite the game with “what ifs” and every tackle would be perfect if they could go back in time and have a do-over. That’s not what happened. Eluemunor may have expected help but obviously knew he wasn’t getting it when Johnson failed to shift over. Ultimately, he allowed the sack. It’s funny to see him tout how well he did against him 1v1 and then point to a lack of help on the biggest play Watt made Monday night.
Watt finished the day with multiple pressures and a pair of sacks to give him 4.5 0n the season and 103 for his career. Eluemunor thinks he lost a few battles but won the war. And those island comments? Eluemunor has no regrets and if given the chance to face Watt again, would want the same thing. A one-on-one matchup.
“Like I said, I’m confident,’ Eluemunor told the show. “I said last week I wanna be on the island with him. I was on an island with him for a majority of the game. And he didn’t do a damn thing. So I’m not gonna sit here and fricking sing his praises. I’m not like that and I never will be.”
Earlier in the day, we cut up all of the “island” matchups between the two. You can decide who got the best of the other, though remember pass rushers don’t win 80-percent of their reps. If a lineman is losing most of the time, he simply isn’t good enough to play in the NFL. And Watt won the most critical moments of the game.
To his credit, Eluemunor is a good offensive tackle. One who has improved against his career. And he certainly won some of these reps against Watt, a couple of them convincingly. But Watt got better as the game went on and the idea Watt “didn’t do anything” up until his strip-sack is clearly incorrect.
Following the game, Watt didn’t bury Eluemunor any more, though admitted he was aware of his comments. Probably through his brother J.J. Watt, who clearly was keeping receipts.
“I respect each and every player,” Watt told reporters via the team’s YouTube channel,” in the National Football League. They work hard like I work hard. I’m just trying to make plays when they’re presented to me.”
Eluemunor is entitled to his perspective of the game. All that matters is Watt made the plays when they counted the most and the Steelers won the game, heading towards a playoff run while the Giants are already thinking about 2025. Sometimes, the best thing a player can do after taking the ‘L’ on the scoreboard and on tape is to say nothing at all.
