Giants coach John Harbaugh said Cam Skattebo's zero touches in Sunday's 34-27 loss to the Saints were "not by design," per Pro Football Talk and Yahoo Sports. Skattebo saw it differently. Yahoo's headline put the two accounts side by side as "conflicting answers."

Skattebo spoke after the game, in a quote that circulated on r/nfl: "I got punished for what I did (last week). I understand it. I gotta be ready when Coach calls my name and that wasn't today." He added: "I didn't expect to have zero, but I was expecting to not play as much like I did." Pro Football Talk's Josh Alper wrote that he barely played. CBS Sports' Tyler Sullivan called it an apparent benching and reported that Skattebo has lost his starting job to Najee Harris. That starting-job detail comes from CBS. The other outlets we have don't repeat it, and Harbaugh's comment cuts against the idea that it was a deliberate move.

The "punishment" Skattebo means is the previous week's fumble. Yahoo's Chris Cwik tied the benching to a critical overtime fumble. BenchScout's box score for the 27-27 draw at Washington on Oct. 11 shows Skattebo fumbled once in that game and lost it. He carried 13 times for 59 yards and caught two passes for 12 yards. Cwik counts four fumbles in five games, and our season tables match that: three on his carries and one as a receiver. Only the Washington fumble was lost. He fumbled in four of the five games, and the one he didn't was the Oct. 4 win over Arizona.

Before Sunday he was heavily used. He had 81 carries for 294 yards, a 3.6 average, with one touchdown, plus 10 catches for 79 yards. That is the 91 touches Pro Football Talk cites. His workload had been steady, between 12 and 20 carries every game. Zero is a sharp break from that.

In the loss to New Orleans, Najee Harris took over the backfield snaps but didn't do much with them, carrying four times for two yards. Tyrone Tracy Jr. had six carries for 18 yards and a touchdown, and Devin Singletary had four for 14. The Giants ran only 20 times, against 47 pass attempts. They threw three interceptions and lost four turnovers in all, against one for the Saints. Quarterback J.J. McCarthy and Jameis Winston both played. The Giants gained 461 yards to New Orleans' 319 and still lost.

The Giants are 3-2 and still first in the NFC East, but they have lost their last game and haven't won since the Oct. 4 Arizona game. They visit Houston on Sunday, Oct. 25. The open question is whether Skattebo gets carries again there, and whether Harbaugh's "not by design" holds up if his touches stay at zero.