High-paid Nate Solder new poster boy for Giants OL shortcomings: 'I blame myself'

ATLANTA — With great riches comes great responsibility.

Now that Giants draft bust Ereck Flowers is out of town and Patrick Omameh is on the bench, the poster boy for the offensive line's continued struggles is Nate Solder, who probably skirted blame for longer than he could have expected because his teammates were under fire.

The seventh-year left tackle allowed two first-half sacks Monday night in a 23-20 loss to the Falcons. Each of the Giants' first three drives was killed by a sack, including one allowed by left guard Will Hernandez.

"I wouldn't blame it on anybody else," Solder said. "I would blame it on myself. I didn't come out fully prepared and ready to go."

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Solder is the second-highest paid offensive lineman in the NFL, averaging $15.5 million per year on a four-year contract worth $62 million with $36 million guaranteed. The philanthropic Solder made it clear he plans to use some of his wealth to reinvest in the community and charities.

But that won't buy him a pass from Giants fans upset with his performance through his first seven games since leaving the Patriots and quarterback Tom Brady's blind side. 

Solder has allowed five sacks and entered the game with a 66 percent pass block win rate, which is the second-lowest total among starting offensive tackles, according to ESPN. The only one worse is Giants right tackle Chad Wheeler, a second-year undrafted early-season replacement for Flowers.

"From my standpoint, I didn't play well enough," Solder said. "(Rookie defensive end) Takkarist McKinley had some pressures and then he had the sack. There were a couple things I just screwed up. I didn't play right in the beginning. About the third drive, I was on top of it and we got on top of their speed and their rush moves. It wasn't a problem for the rest of the game."

The Giants only allowed one sack the rest of the way, but the offense still had just six points with five minutes remaining against one of the NFL's worst scoring and third-down defenses.

Stud rookie running back Saquon Barkley finished with 14 carries for 43 yards, including seven carries for eight yards in the first half.

"It's just unacceptable," center Spencer Pulley said of the sacks. "You need to have none.

"We've got a quarterback who has been dominant for a long time. When we protect, you see what happens. We've got some great receivers and an awesome quarterback. We have to be able to protect better and we need to be able to run the ball better. Those are very closely correlated."

It was Pulley's first start with the Giants after making 16 with the 2017 Chargers. He was the third different starting center, with Jon Halapio (leg) undergoing season-ending surgery and John Greco moving from center to right guard to make room for Pulley and replace Omameh.

Four games ago, Wheeler replaced Flowers, who since was released. In other words, coach Pat Shurmur is trying to make changes to generate better results.

He just isn't finding them.

"I thought the protection was better later in the game than early," Shurmur said. "New guys in there battling. Somebody asked me this week about developing players. They are out there getting development. We slide new guys in there and we go."

Ryan Dunleavy may be reached at rdunleavy@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @rydunleavy. Find our Giants coverage on Facebook.

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