The New York Giants travel to New Orleans to face the 0-4 Saints this week. The Saints had a respectable loss in Buffalo against Josh Allen and the Bills, 31-19. It was a three-point game midway through the fourth quarter before the Bills finished the job. The Saints were blown out in Seattle in Week 3 and narrowly lost their two home games to the Cardinals and 49ers in Weeks 1 and 2, respectively.
The Saints are marching back into the Caesars SuperDome after a two-game road trip on opposite ends of the country, and they’ve been competitive each week other than in Seattle. Playing in New Orleans is challenging, and the Saints are playing better football than their record suggests.
Saints’ defensive statistics
New Orleans’ defense allows 30.3 points per game, ranking them 30th in the NFL, ahead of just the Cowboys and Ravens. The unit ranks 18th in the league, surrendering an average of 324 yards, with 118 of those yards coming on the deck, which ranks the Saints 18th in the league. New Orleans ranks middle of the pack (15th) in pass defense, allowing 205 yards per game.
The Saints allow a 42.5% third-down conversion rate, which ranks 27th in the league, just behind the Giants (42.3%). Saints defensive coordinator Brandon Staley uses the blitz moderately, blitzing at a 20.2% rate and earning pressure at a 19.4% clip. The Saints have 11 sacks on the season: Carl Granderson (4.5), Cameron Jordan (2.5), and Bryan Bresee, Alontae Taylor, Chris Rumph II, and Pete Werner all have one.
Bresee leads the team with 11 pressures; Jordan has eight, and Granderson has seven. Veteran linebacker Demario Davis has the third-highest run defense grade overall, according to Pro Football Focus. He has 16 STOPs, but has also missed six tackles (14% missed tackle rate); the 36-year-old is still playing at a high level.
Staley has relied more on middle-of-the-field closed looks than middle-of-the-field open. The defense is not overly aggressive and plays soft-to-off more than pressed up on the line of scrimmage, unless it’s short-yardage. The defense employs a variety of nickel formations, including 2-4-5 and some 3-3-5, with more base personnel (3-4), against certain 12 personnel looks.
The Giants’ red zone woes may be corrected by the Saints’ 30th-ranked red zone touchdown percentage. Through four games, the Saints have allowed a 76.92% touchdown rate when opposing offenses make it to the red zone. Only the Indianapolis Colts and New England Patriots rank worse in 2025.
The matchup
The Giants had a rudimentary approach against the Chargers. They preserved a lead and allowed Jaxson Dart to take advantage of the defense’s actions through read-option plays and runs tagged with throwing options (RPOs). Nine of Dart’s 13 completions against the Chargers were either passes to the flat, a simple three-route shallow horizontal stretch combination, or a shovel pass underneath (the Theo Johnson touchdown).
Dart found the stick route (once to Malik Nabers and twice to Darius Slayton) on the aforementioned horizontal stretch combination. His other four completions were a pair of 13-yard passes to Daniel Bellinger and Nabers, as well as the 18-yard comeback to Slayton, and the 10-yard catch to help seal the game to Johnson. The snag/spacing concept below were three of Dart’s 13 completions:
This is excellent against zone, especially Cover-3, which Staley has run at a high rate in 2025. Still, the Saints have tape on the Giants now with Dart at quarterback, and they saw this specific concept — from that same boundary stack formation — helped the Giants each time. New York may want to get to this concept from a different formation against the Saints, but New Orleans should be aware of this quick game concept.
Brian Daboll spoke about the Giants’ desire to establish the run and win with physicality in the red zone, as well as overall. Cam Skattebo provides the physical element, but New York needs to improve up front. On the road, in a hostile environment, I expect the Giants to run the football with the RPO tags, similar to Week 4, while using the threat of Jaxson Dart’s legs to keep backside defenders in place.
When the Saints’ defense aligns in Cover 4 or Cover 6 — as they did frequently in Week 4 against the Bills — the Giants should look to run DUO or power/gap concepts that force New Orleans to fit the run from depth.
As for the passing attack, the Saints’ cornerbacks have surrendered a high catch percentage. Kool-Aid McKinstry and Alontae Taylor have surrendered five touchdowns between them, and the former has over a 75% catch rate, while the latter has 66.7%. Taylor will see a lot of Wan’Dale Robinson in the slot, and safety Justin Reid also drops down in certain sub-packages.
Safety Julian Blackmon is injured, and Jonas Sanker is playing in his stead. Sanker has the lone Saints’ interception on the season, which came against Josh Allen; Sanker also had two passes defended in Week 4.
Tiring this defense out and controlling the clock is a path to victory. The Saints have missed 47 tackles this season. Comparatively, the Giants have only missed 29, and they have not been the most sound-tackling team in 2025.
The building will be LOUD in New Orleans. Communication could be an issue for a rookie quarterback making his second start. I expect to see a more loaded box than Staley used against Buffalo; if that’s the case, I do hope the Giants take some shots to Slayton and Johnson.
The loss of Nabers fundamentally changes the offensive approach. Nabers was the fulcrum of the offense, and he received considerable attention from opposing defenses. Now, Daboll and Mike Kafka will look for a more balanced approach. A mixture of condensed formation vs. man coverage to naturally create separation in quick game, combined with the spread formations the Giants have employed to open up the middle of the field.
Tempo should be when the Giants are in a rhythm, especially if Staley leaves base personnel against an 11 personnel look for the Giants. Again, the Saints used Base personnel over 40% of their snaps.
Final thoughts
Jaxson Dart will make his second career start on the road against a deafening crowd. Historically, New York struggled in the Superdome, but the Giants earned that epic 2021 victory, where Kenny Golladay caught six passes for 116 yards in the Giants’ 27-21 overtime win. The Saints are a team searching for an identity, trying to determine if their quarterback, Spencer Rattler, is the future. It’s a winnable game, but not one that the Giants definitely should handle — no games are like that for this team at the present moment. Still, Daboll and the Giants can assist in flipping the season’s narrative with a win that would bring their record one game closer to five-hundred.
See More:
