EAST RUTHERFORD — At least the paying customers at MetLife Stadium finally witnessed a Giants touchdown. But once again, it was a painfully inept performance by the offense at home as the Giants fell to the Bengals on Sunday night, 17-7. This was just about the worst possible outcome if you’re a Giants fan. It would have been completely understandable to lose a shootout to Joe Burrow and Cincinnati’s high-powered offense, but one touchdown against the NFL’s second-worst scoring defense? That is pathetic. For reasons that are beginning to look purely psychological, this is an offense that can’t walk without tripping over its own shoelaces when playing on its home turf. The numbers so far: Three games, one touchdown and 28 total points. “We’ve got to produce for these fans. We’ve got to be better for these fans,” wide receiver Jalin Hyatt said. “They came out here and paid their hard money to come see us play, and we failed them. As a team, we take that personally, and it hurt us. It hurts us being at home, especially with a great crowd that came out tonight on Sunday Night Football. We had a good game plan, but we just didn’t execute and I blame myself for that as well. I’ve got to get better, and I will.” It was a bluntly harsh assessment from a second-year receiver who struggled to get onto the field this season until rookie Malik Nabers suffered a concussion two weeks ago. He had only one catch for six yards on four targets in this game, but this offense’s struggles run much deeper. There is obviously a lack of consistency, and considering the offense totaled five touchdowns in road wins at Cleveland and Seattle, one can only surmise at this point that the Giants are pressing at home. Again, this was Cincinnati — not a top-flight defense. Is producing at MetLife Stadium simply a physiological challenge right now? “No, not really,” wide receiver Darius Slayton said. “We had plays there, we just didn’t make them. But it doesn’t have anything to do with the venue or phycological things or anything. We just didn’t hit them.” Slayton also joked that it’s a coincidence because it’s not as though the Giants have “magical plays” on the road that they don’t have at home. But no one is disputing what the team is capable of doing on their home turf. The fact that it’s not happening, though, comes across as at least partially a mental failure to execute when you’re faceplanting against a bad defense. “They threw a couple different looks, but I would say we also just didn’t hit them,” Slayton said. “We had a couple chances, had some shots, we just couldn’t connect on them for whatever reason, but they came in with a decent game plan.” The Giants didn’t have a completion of more than 15 yards. Naturally, a 56-yard catch on a slant by Slayton in the second quarter — which would’ve been the team’s longest pass play of the season — was negated by left tackle Andrew Thomas being declared an illegal man downfield. Slayton chalked that up as a penalty that sometimes is “hard to avoid” because it was a run-pass option where linemen are blocking for the run. Big plays in the passing game aside, the Giants also couldn’t get the running game going as they averaged only 3.8 yards per carry with quarterback Daniel Jones (56 yards) outgaining running back Tyrone Tracy (50 yards) through scrambles and read-options. “They did a good job of moving up front. They brought some different pressures,” Thomas said. “We saw pressure on film, but we just didn’t do a good job of executing.” Thomas had the toughest assignment up front with three-time Pro Bowl edge rusher Trey Hendrickson, and then he injured his foot during the Giants’ third-quarter touchdown drive and was limping for the rest of the game. He said he would undergo an MRI on Monday, which is troubling news for an offense that can’t afford to lose its top lineman for any length of time. Anything serious would be especially bad news for quarterback Daniel Jones, whose career stats show a staggering difference at home versus the road. In 33 games under both conditions, Jones now has 27 touchdown passes with 30 interceptions at home versus 41 touchdown passes with 14 interceptions on the road. Since totaling four touchdowns against the Colts in Week 18 of the 2022 season, Jones has made five consecutive starts at home without recording a single passing or rushing touchdown. For all the clutch throws and tough runs he made last week in Seattle, the sixth-year pro reminded a national audience why he’s simply not franchise quarterback material with his inconsistency. Jones had another pedestrian performance where he averaged five yards per pass attempt and lofted a terrible interception while being pressured in the first quarter. He said postgame that he was trying to simply get rid of the ball out of the endzone, but it didn’t have nearly enough air on it. The Giants’ defense remarkably stood tall throughout the game despite the Bengals having scored at least 25 points in four of their first five games. New York forced a punt after that interception. It also recovered a fumble after the Giants didn’t convert a fourth-and-2 from their own 38. But the offense once again laid an egg at home. “It’s hard to win games when you score seven points,” head coach Brian Daboll said. “That’s the reality of it.” If that doesn’t change soon, the Giants’ playoff hopes are going to fade quickly.