Giants OT James Hudson benched after historic penalty-filled opening drive

The Giants were hurt by Andrew Thomas’ absence in Week 1. 

His replacement, James Hudson III, allowed a total of six QB pressures in the opener.

It didn’t take long to be hurt by Hudson again as Thomas remained out in Week 2. 

With Big Blue’s offense quickly moving the ball deep into Cowboys territory during the game’s opening drive, the backup left tackle was called for four different penalties in a row, something that hadn’t happened this century.

He jumped early for a pair of false starts and committed two unnecessary roughness penalties, one of which was a dirty blow to the head of Dallas pass rusher James Houston, which could’ve warranted an ejection. 

Head coach Brian Daboll was seen during the broadcast telling the coaching staff to pull Hudson and put versatile rookie Marcus Mbow into the game, however the veteran remained in through the end of the drive. 

Mbow finally replaced him as the Giants took the field for their second drive. 

“He had a number of penalties,” Daboll said. “I just told them let’s put Mbow in, settle it down a little bit, and I just the coaches to keep an eye on it. Again, it’s not like he wants to go out there and commit these penalties -- Hudson is a competitor, he's a competitive kid."

The 26-year-old had to calmed down by teammates and coaches as Mbow took his place on the field. 

While Hudson was the biggest culprit, he wasn't the only member of Big Blue to be flagged in Sunday's loss. 

The team was called for 14 penalties on the afternoon for a total of 160 yards, and they had seven more either declined or offset, something they know they have to clean up.  

"We can't do that," WR Malik Nabers said. "We kind of beat ourselves today, our first drive coming out on offense we had like eight penalties starting the game off. If we don't have those eight penalties we have explosive plays and we're in the red zone with chances to get points, so that really hurt us early in the game."