There will be plenty of people who blame the Giants' loss to the Packers -- a humiliating 38-13 blowout at Lambeau Field -- on a group of Giants receivers, including Odell Beckham, taking a trip to Miami during the week to hang out on a boat and with Justin Bieber.
During the Fox broadcast, Joe Buck brought it up repeatedly, couching everything with "fair or not" before implying the receivers hanging on the boat caused them to drop passes.
After the game, Beckham, when he wasn't allegedly punching holes in walls, firmly denied any connection between the boat trip and poor play.
"There was nothing that could connect seven days ago to today and how we came out and played and executed," Beckham said to reporters after the game. "There's just nothing in the world, that's not realistic. I think it did a great job at creating distractions for us. It's unfortunate. That's just the way this world is. There's just no way you could connect something that happened seven days ago to this game today."
So OBJ, Sterling Shepard, Victor Cruz, and Roger Lewis flew to Miami last night, went clubbing, and are on a boat. Living life. #Giantspic.twitter.com/SE6QqfuYfT
— Justin Witmondt (@JustinWitmondt) January 2, 2017
This is where the boat thing gets interesting. Being on a boat a week before, by itself, did not make Giants receivers play poorly. But there is a possibility that being on the boat and hearing seven days of criticism about the boat was distracting, and Beckham admitted as much.
Hot takes about the boat ruining the Giants' season, as if New York's offense was some juggernaut rolling through the season, is silly. But even Ben McAdoo admitted something was off and Beckham's "ball skills weren't great today."
"I'm not sure how many targets Odell had," McAdoo said. "I thought we had the opportunity to get him the ball a few times. Ball skills weren't great today. I thought Eli was fairly sharp throwing it. In the elements, you've got to handle the ball better."
The nature of the media market involved here combined with the visibility of Beckham combined with the Giants' struggles is going to lead to plenty more discussion -- at least a week's worth! -- about whether the Giants receivers cost their team the game by being on a boat.
