Can the New York Giants go on their first winning streak since 2023?
That’s what they’re looking to accomplish against the New Orleans Saints. While rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart has been the story of the Giants’ first win, it was the Giants’ defense that kept the Los Angeles Chargers to 18 points.
The Giants’ defense had quarterback Justin Herbert under pressure all game. If the Giants want to establish a winning streak and keep the Saints winless, they’ll need their defense to show up. What can they expect from the Saints offense on Sunday?
Kellen Moore’s scheme
New Saints’ head coach Kellen Moore is one of the sharpest offensive minds in the NFL. He’s had success with the Dallas Cowboys, Buffalo Bills, and Philadelphia Eagles since hanging up his cleats and picking up a whistle.
The Saints’ offense seems to be based on spread concepts, using route combinations and spacing to stress the defense and create opportunities. They mix a wide variety of personnel groupings and the passing offense does a good job of spreading the ball around. The Saints have five players with at least 15 targets and 11 receptions, with wide receiver Chris Olave leading in targets (43) and receptions, while tight end Juwan Johnson leads the team in yards (204).
They also make heavy use of pre-snap motion as well as play-action. The use of motion and misdirection both help to reveal the defense’s intentions, hide the offensive play, and gives the skill position players and advantage at the snap.
The Giants will need to maintain their discipline to prevent the Saints from manipulating their defense. The Giants’ defense is coming off of a great game, but they don’t want to allow too many easy yards for Spencer Rattler and Alvin Kamara.
Disrupting Spencer Rattler
I was tempted, sorely tempted, to make a pun with this sub-head. I toyed with things like “Rattling Spencer” or “Shake Rattler and Roll” on my way back from the gym this morning. But instead I decided to keep it professional — and besides, those have probably already been done to death.
But the point remains: If the Giants want a repeat of the success they had against the Chargers, it starts with pressuring Rattler.
Of course, that’s a bit easier said than done as Rattler has a similar skill set to Kyler Murray or Pat Mahomes. That isn’t to say he’s as good as either (certainly not Mahomes), not by any stretch. However, Rattler is a quick, twitchy athlete with good agility in the pocket and burst as a runner. He has the ability to make undisciplined rushers pay or extend the play before finding a receiver with an off-platform throw.
Discipline will once again need to be the watch word for the Giants’ defense. Rattler is nowhere as dangerous as Jayden Daniels, Mahomes, or Herbert, however the Giants can’t be reckless in their rushes. That means their rushers not getting deeper than the QB, nor letting voids open in the middle of the defensive line.
Rattler has generally proven decisive in finding his check-downs when his pre and post-snap reads align. Likewise, he understands how to find his hot read if he identifies a blitz (and the blitz is picked up.
That said, Rattler is a more pressure-sensitive quarterback than usual. He can be prone to having his eyes drop when under pressure, missing open receivers or abandoning the pocket unnecessarily.
The Giants should be able to get pressure with just four rushers thanks to concerns on the Saints’ offensive line.
The Saints are fielding rookie left tackle Kelvin Banks Jr., second-year right tackle Taliese Fuaga, and will be without starting guard Cesar Ruiz Jr. thanks to a high ankle sprain last week. We also don’t know the status of Dillon Radunz, the Saints’ other starting guard, as of this writing. If Radunz’s toe injury continues to sideline him, the Saints will have rookie Torricelli Simpkins at left guard next to the rookie Banks.
Banks and Fuaga have very high ceilings as young players, but they’ll be at a disadvantage against the Giants’ hyper-athletic rushers. Likewise, Erik McCoy is among the best centers in the NFL, but the Giants should be able to generate interior pressure against reserve guards.
Can the Giants stop the run?
The Chargers did the Giants an incredible favor by leaning so hard into their passing game. And in fairness, I get it. They have one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL and were going against a rookie quarterback and a pass defense that had looked vulnerable the previous two weeks.
But that also opened the door for the Giants’ pass rush to make Herbert’s life hell.
We should probably expect the Saints to be much more run heavy in their game plan. Not only do the Saints have a very recent example of the Giants’ pass rush taking over a game, they have a pre-existing tendency to be run heavy. The Saints have the 10th most carries in the NFL, and are good at running the ball with 10.18 expected points added (sixth-most).
The Giants have fielded the worst run defense in the NFL through four games. That’s obviously bad on the face of it, but things are a bit more complicated than that.
Interestingly, the Giants’ defensive line ranks 12th in the NFL in Run Stop Win Rate, per ESPN. Likewise, the Giants have the fourth-fewest missed tackles on the NFL (17). Taken together, those two stats suggest that the defensive line is generally doing its job in run defense, and the Giants aren’t missing many tackles around the line of scrimmage. However, when they do miss a tackle it tends to be catastrophic. That’s backed up by the fact that a full quarter of the Giants 612 rushing yards allowed came on four explosive runs.
Age finally seems to be catching up to venerable veteran Alvin Kamara, who’s only averaging 3.9 yards per carry, though he remains dangerous in the passing game. He’s splitting time with third-year runner Kendre Miller, who’s averaging 4.4 yards per carry.
The Saints are primarily a zone blocking team, though they mix their alignments pretty freely. They run out of the shotgun, with Rattler under center, and from the pistol, presenting a wide variety of looks to the defense. They also had success with an interesting play that starts with Rattler alone in the backfield in an empty set, only to motion Kamara from the slot to the backfield just before the snap. From there, Rattler would hand off for an off-tackle outside zone run. The alignment and late shift stresses the defense and puts individual defenders on an island with the veteran runner.
As with the Giants’ pass rush, the Giants’ linebackers and safeties will need to be disciplined in their run defense. The defensive line has been doing its job, but the explosive runs have come when second level players have failed to come up and properly fill their run fits, or make good tackles when they have the opportunity.
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