Giants at Commanders week 2: What to expect when Washington has the ball

Can the Giants’ defense get on track against the Commanders?

The New York Giants hope to bounce back from a disastrous start to their season this week against the Washington Commanders.

The Giants are coming off of a 28-6 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, and while the Giants’ offense has drawn most of the criticism from fans, the defense hasn’t escaped blame. The Giants’ defense only gave up 21 points, however they were dissected by Sam Darnold through the air and gashed by Aaron Jones on the ground.

The defense will get a chance to redeem itself against the Commanders this week. Quarterback Jayden Daniels is a wild card, but Wshington also only scored six points that weren’t off of quarterback runs.

What should we look for when the Giants’ defense is on the field?

Stats that matter

Note 1 – These stats are purely from Week 1 and should be treated as a small sample size. They’ll be updated and more useful as the sample size increases.

Note 2 – Pass and Run Win Rates refer to Pass Rush and Pass Block, and Run Stop and Run Block win rates, respectively. They’re retrieved from ESPN.

Contain Jayden Daniels

It’s been more than a decade since anyone has really feared Washington’s quarterback. Other than a brief period with Alex Smith, the last time a defense had to truly respect the Commanders’ QB was Robert Griffin III before his ACL injury.

Rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels doesn’t quite have RGIII’s raw arm strength, but his ability to throw accurately deep and his raw athleticism are reminiscent of Griffin. He also has the kind of dynamic athleticism that makes a quarterback hard to defend and a defense play true 11-on-11 football.

Head coach Dan Quinn said this week that wants Daniels to limit his running to designed quarterback runs. However, most of Daniels’ rushing yardage came on scrambles, which is to be expected of an athletic rookie. They tend to default to relying on their athletic ability if they’re pressured or reads are muddied. Daniels’ athleticism makes him dangerous and allows him to convert first downs that might not be there otherwise, and that’s something for which the Giants will need to account.

One of the more confusing decisions from the Giants’ loss to the Vikings was that Isaiah Simmons didn’t play despite his athleticism and versatility. The Giants used Dane Belton in the moneybacker role in sub packages. This game could be a golden opportunity to employ Simmons in a variety of roles. His range, athleticism, and coverage ability allow the Giants to counter running backs Brian Robinson and Austin Ekeler, as well as tight end Zach Ertz. But perhaps more importantly, Simmons’ athleticism and role diversity would give the Giants a natural spy for Daniels. His versatility could allow him to be aligned in a variety of positions that forces the rookie to track and ID the spy at the start of every play.

Daniels’ athleticism is going to be a problem for every defense that faces them. And right now he is the biggest problem on their offense — at least until their passing game gels.

Tackle Brian Robinson

If Daniels was Washington’s biggest threat in Week 1, but running back Brian Robinson was their second biggest threat. Robinson didn’t have many yards on the ground, just 40 yards on 12 carries, but he was tied for the most targets with four. Overall, he had 15 touches for 89 yards and 1 touchdown which is fine but not spectacular.

But what does stand out is that Robinson was one of the most elusive players in football in Week 1. Per NFL NextGenStats, Robinson was fourth in the league in forced missed tackles with 7 on his 15 touches (46.7 percent).

The Giants had big issues with leaky yardage against the Vikings, and not just because of penalties. Aaron Jones gashed the Giants’ run defense for 94 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries (6.7 yards per attempt). That’s bad enough, but a full 74 of those yards came after contact. If that was his total production, he still would have averaged nearly 5.3 yards per carry. The Giants, meanwhile, were only charged with four (4) missed tackles per Pro Football Reference.

They can’t allow the Washington offense to have too many extra chances, and tackling efficiently will be key to that. Allowing Washington to string together first downs — particularly if those drives end in points — will put pressure on the offense to respond. The Giants will also need to force Washington into obvious passing situations so they can turn their pass rush loose on the rookie quarterback.

As mentioned above, the Giants can’t be reckless in their rushes, but getting in the position where they know Daniels has to throw the ball will make the game worlds simpler. Making sure Robinson gets on the ground when they tackle him is the first step.

Give the pass rush time

Outside of Dexter Lawrence, the Giants’ pass rush took it on the chin from fans following the game against the Vikings. And given that it was Sam Darnold who dissected the defense and they generated 1 sack, and 1 QB knockdown that’s understandable. But what the traditional box score doesn’t show is that the Giants’ pass rush was a definite problem for the Vikings offense while the game was still in contention.

ESPN has the Giants ranked eighth in pass rush win rate (50 percent), with the Giants applying pressure on 11 of Darnold’s 26 dropbacks (42 percent) per PFF. Kayvon Thibodeaux even ranked second in the NFL in terms of improved get-off compared to last year.

The problem was two-fold. First, was the nature of the Vikings’ offense. First, Kevin O’Connell did a good job of anticipating Shane Bowen’s coverages and building answers answers into his passing concepts such that Darnold could find a way to advance the ball. Second, the Giants’ secondary wasn’t up to the task of containing the Vikings’ myriad weapons. Minnesota’s offense used both play-action and sliding pockets to get Darnold away from the Giants’ quick pressure, which forced the secondary to hold up longer than is ideal.

To a certain extent, this could set the tone for the Giants defense this year as a whole.

Their defensive front will be disruptive, but how successful (and productive) they’re able to be could come down to the opponent they’re facing. Offenses that can exploit the secondary will be difficult for the Giants to slow down. However, if the opposing offense doesn’t have the passing game to beat the Giants’ rush, the defensive front could take over the game.

The good news is that Washington is one of the teams that might not have a passing attack in place to be a real threat to the secondary. Terry McLaurin is still a very good receiver, and both Brian Robinson and Austin Ekeler can be dangerous out of the backfield. However, Jayden Daniels is rookie preparing for his second professional game and Kliff Kingsbury doesn’t have the time with this group of players that Kevin O’Connell does the Vikings. Their offense is still new, has yet to gel, and attempting to find a real identity.

It’s also worth noting that the Washington offensive line struggled badly against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Both tackles were beaten repeatedly and they ranked 24th in pass block win rate.

Most notably, Daniels struggled to get the ball to McLaurin, targeting him four times with two receptions for 12 yards. The Giants can’t expect him to stay quiet forever, but it’s fair to believe that they can keep him contained while Daniels adapts to the NFL game.

All of that presents a real opportunity for the Giants’ secondary to find its footing. 2024 could be feast or famine for the Giants defense, and this is a game where the secondary could set the table for the front to eat.