Winter doesn’t arrive for three weeks, yet on the New York Giants’ calendar it’s been winter ever since Week 4, when they lost a very winnable game at home vs. the Dallas Cowboys. Just like real winter, shortly after its start there was Christmas in the form of an uplifting win in Seattle that made fans warm and fuzzy and had them looking forward to finally getting out of the dark. Unfortunately since then it’s been nothing but the cold and barrenness of January and February even though the calendar still says November, with seven straight losses. Still, shoots of green start to pop up through the snow even when spring seems far away, so let’s see if we can find any in yesterday’s 27-20 loss to (again) Dallas.

Offense

PFF grades

Courtesy of Pro Football Focus

• Drew Lock did a decent job yesterday consider the Cowboys’ pass rush, grading 68.9 overall. Here is his more detailed breakdown:

Courtesy of Pro Football Focus

Lock did well under pressure, whether blitzed (35.7% of dropbacks) or not. He had 3 big time throws, more than Daniel Jones had in any game since 2020. Eight of his passes were more than 10 yards downfield, and three of them more than 20 yards downfield. Of course, all of this is a bit like asking, “Other than that, how did you enjoy the play, Mrs. Lincoln?” since his one turnover-worthy play was the disastrous pick-6 by DeMarvion Overshown that wound up being the difference in the game.

• The offensive line continues to march toward 2022 territory because of injuries:

Courtesy of Pro Football Focus

Evan Neal (30.4 with one sack, three QB hits, and three hurries) could not replicate the success he had last week, while Chris Hubbard on the other side was just as bad (41.5 with no sacks but three QB hits and four hurries). Fortunately Jermaine Eluemunor is saying he expects to be back next week. Now if only Tyre Phillips can get into game shape…

On the inside, Greg Van Roten (68.6), the afterthought of the off-season free agency offensive line rebuild, has quietly become a very solid member of the line. He has graded no lower than 58.5 (last week) in any of his past seven games and has been 70 or better in four of them. on Runyan on the other side of center has been less impressive the past five weeks after a good first half of the season, but not disastrous in most games. John Michael Schmitz (59.6) wasn’t bad overall yesterday but PFF charged him with surrendering three of the six sacks Lock took; the clock may be ticking on a decision about him, since he has only been average as a run-blocker, which is supposed to be his strength.

Malik Nabers, despite his recent frustration about being targeted early in games, played well yesterday (78.3), catching 8 of 13 targets for 69 yards. He continues to be the most-used – by far – of the wide receivers from the 2024 draft class:

Courtesy of Pro Football Focus

Nabers also leads the rookie WRs in PFF grade and in receiving yards. However, his 9.9 yards per reception is well behind that of all the other top rookies. This may partly be the source of his frustration. He is not being targeted downfield anymore as Brian Daboll tries to keep his QB-of-the-week upright behind an OL that is leaky on the edges. Once Eluemunor returns it will be interesting to see whether Nabers is asked to run more intermediate and deep routes the way he was doing earlier in the season.

The only other receiver of note yesterday was Theo Johnson (66.5), who caught all five balls thrown to him, but who injured his foot and is now out for the season (of course). Tyrone Tracy bounced back from his recent fumble-itis to play a clean game (73.9), with two receptions in three targets for 33 yards and 32 yards rushing.

Snap counts

Very little changed in Daboll’s usage of offensive personnel from recent weeks, except for a few of the names of players replacing injured teammates:

• Drew Lock and the entire starting offensive line played every snap.
• Tyrone Tracy, Devin Singletary, and Eric Gray saw the field in decreasing order of frequency.
• Malik Nabers played almost every snap, and then in decreasing order of frequency, Wan’Dale Robinson, Darius Slayton, and Jalin Hyatt.
• Theo Johnson, Chris Manhertz, and Daniel Bellinger played in that order of frequency, totaling only 81 snaps, implying that the Giants were mostly in 11 personnel.

Defense

PFF grades

Courtesy of Pro Football Focus

• As a team the Giants only got seven total pressures on Cooper Rush, while Dallas pressured Drew Lock 28 times. The Giants did not have a single sack while Dallas sacked Lock six times. Micah Parsons alone had as many pressures as the entire Giants defense.
• That said, Brian Burns (81.7) and Kayvon Thibodeaux (70.0) each had three pressures, including three QB hits, and Tomon Fox (63.2) had one. That means that the entire IDL did not pressure Rush a single time all game, partly because of the injuries. Rakeem Nunez-Roches played OK (68.3), while Dexter Lawrence was below his standard (59.6). Substitute D.J. Davidson was just below average (58.1), while Elijah Chatman (31.6) and Jordon Riley (31.1) were terrible.
• Bobby Okereke (76.1) had one of his best games of the season, with six tackles and four assists, four of them stops, and no missed tackles. Micah McFadden (61.9) had four tackles and an assist but two missed tackles.
• Adoree’ Jackson played pretty well yesterday (75.8); he gave up six receptions in nine targets but for only 36 yards. Cor’Dale Flott (68.8) had a solid game, giving up a 36-yard play to Jalen Tolbert but overall only allowing three completions in seven targets. Dru Phillips (66.9) is beginning to be exposed a little bit. He gave up four completions in four targets for 54 yards, 41 of them YAC. In his last five games he’s allowed 21 completions in 23 targets for 264 yards, 182 of those being YAC. He is still the second-highest rated rookie cornerback in PFF’s grading, but he’s the only one without a single forced incompletion and he has given up more YAC than any of them, so this will bear watching.
• Safeties Tyler Nubin (67.1) and Jason Pinnock (64.0) had pretty good games, while Dane Belton was below average (46.6). None of them were targeted much or gave up many yards, though. Nubin did have nine tackles and three assists but also had two missed tackles.
• Overall the Giants had 14 more missed tackles yesterday, for a season total of 75 according to Pro Football Reference. This sounds terrible, but it is only the 11th-worst in the NFL, and the majority of teams with fewer have played one less game.

Snap counts

The defensive snap counts mainly tell a story of injuries:

• Elijah Chatman got the most snaps of any interior defensive lineman (48), because Dexter Lawrence (40), Rakeem Nunez-Roches (34), and D.J. Davidson (10) all went down with injuries during the game. Jordon Riley, who had not played even 10 snaps in any game except the Eagles game that got out of hand in the second half, had 31 snaps.
• Kayvon Thibodeaux and Brian Burns played roughly 80% of the snaps, with Tomon Fox getting the rest.
• Bobby Okereke and Micah McFadden got most of the snaps at off-ball linebacker, but it’s worth noting that Darius Muasau is working his way into seeing double-digit snaps on a somewhat regular basis, not only in blowouts. Isaiah Simmons did not see the field on defense.
• Safties Tyler Nubin and Jason Pinnock played every snap as is typical for them. Dane Belton played more snaps than usual, implying that Shane Bowen used dime packages a decent bit. With Tae Banks out, Adoree’ Jackson saw his most action of the season, as did Cor’Dale Flott, who is becoming an important part of the secondary. Dru Phillips played about 75% of snaps.