Beckham didn’t stink because he went on the boat. But he sure did stink. No one wanted to be lumped in with crotchety sportswriters or back-when-I-played analysts, so the performance itself in some corners went overlooked. The boat may not have affected Beckham’s performance. In the aftermath of his dud, it provided him a certain kind of cover.

In the first playoff game of his career, Beckham caught four of the 11 targets his way for 28 yards, with no scores and a long of 11 yards. The dismal showing was not all his fault. Quarterback Eli Manning overthrew him several times, and the Packers shifted their defense to contain him — in one extreme example, two cornerbacks treated him like a special-teams gunner on a third down.

AD

AD

Beckham was far from blameless in his no-show. A possible touchdown pass floated through his outstretched hands early in the first quarter. It would have been a great catch, but not the kind of catch Beckham hasn’t proven capable both of making, and making seem routine. He dropped at least two other passes that would have been routine for any receiver. The Giants lost for many reasons, starting with Aaron Rodgers’s brilliance, but to overcome Rodgers in Lambeau, they needed a representative game from their best player. They didn’t get it, and he seems to be aware of that.