When your team’s offense puts 32 points on the board against one of the best defenses in the NFL, they should win. When your team’s defense shuts out its opponent for three quarters, it should win. Yet neither of those things happened yesterday. New York Giants’ players – and coaches, and general manager – looked at the 2010 Matt Dodge – DeSean Jackson game film and said, “Hold my beer.”
This game was as much on the coaching staff and general manager as it was on the players. Pro Football Focus doesn’t grade Joe Schoen, Brian Daboll, and Shane Bowen, though, so we’ll restrict this discussion to the performances of the players, and who was out on the field at the scene of the crime when it happened.
Offense
PFF grades
First, the offense as a whole:
Courtesy of Pro Football Focus
Now the individual pieces. First, the passing. Jaxson Dart received PFF’s lowest grade of any Giants offensive player. That may surprise you (it surprised me), given his heroics and role in putting 32 points up against a good defense, but the detailed stats and pressure breakdown shed some light on their grade:
Courtesy of Pro Football Focus
Dart was pressured on a bit more than a third of his dropbacks, a bit higher than is typical but not an unreasonable amount. Even when he was kept clean, he only completed 11 of 24 passes…albeit for 213 yards and 3 TDs. Dart overthrew Wan’Dale Robinson and Jalin Hyatt on critical throws that could have iced the game. More importantly, his interception, a big turning point in the game, came on a blitz, one of two turnover-worthy plays he had.
Now the offensive line. First the pass blocking:
Courtesy of Pro Football Focus
The line was nothing short of outstanding yesterday. It allowed only one sack and six total pressures against the Broncos’ league-leading pass rush. Nik Bonitto, the NFL sacks leader, was rendered invisible by Andrew Thomas (85.5), so much so that Denver eventually waved the white flag and moved him to the other side… where Jermaine Eluemunor (83.5) did just about as good a job. Jon Runyan (81.5), Austin Schlottman (73.1), and Greg Van Roten (71.4) also pass blocked well, although Van Roten did give up one sack to Zach Allen.
Now the run blocking (shown for the offensive line only):
Courtesy of Pro Football Focus
The run blocking was OK but not great. Jermaine Eluemunor (42.7) had a rough time, while everyone else was near or slightly below average, although Andrew Thomas did have that one great block on Tyrone Tracy’s TD run. The larger picture in this autopsy, though, is that the Giants’ offensive line isn’t dominant enough to dictate to the defense and just run out the clock, which is why Jaxson Dart threw his ill-fated pass on third down. Ideally, you run for three downs, but IMHO you do it to retain possession and just run the clock to zero, not to just take another 20 seconds off the board or force your opponent to take a time-out. The Giants gambled on third down and it came up snake eyes.
Now let’s look at the receivers:
Courtesy of Pro Football Focus
Wan’Dale Robinson (75.9) continued his eye-opening fourth NFL season. Giants fans will forever lament Joe Schoen not taking George Pickens, but this year Robinson has become much more than just a get-a-few-yards target. The skills he’s showing now were there on his Kentucky tape, but were almost never used as a Giant until this season. Otherwise, the Giants’ receivers were merely near or slightly below average. Both tight ends had TD catches (Theo Johnson on the bounce-off from Wan’Dale’s hands), but each of them also had a drop. Jalin Hyatt got open on a deep ball late that would have iced the game but was overthrown by Dart. Beaux Collins was only targeted once; he should at least get style points for convincing the officials that he was interfered with (he wasn’t).
Finally, the running backs:
Courtesy of Pro Football Focus
Not much to say here. All three running backs were near or slightly below average, although Cam Skattebo had his signature yards after contact being more than half of his total rushing yards. Tyrone Tracy of course had the 31-yard TD run, but most of the credit on that goes to Andrew Thomas.
Snap counts
- Dart and the offensive line played all 77 offensive snaps
- Johnson and Bellinger both played the majority of snaps, with Chris Manhertz getting a few. That’s 1.66 tight ends per offensive snap on average, indicating the Giants’ continued reliance on 12 personnel as their primary offensive set in the post-Nabers era.
- The wide receivers are the odd men out in that arrangement. Lil’Jordan Humphrey is now the de facto WR1, and Robinson the WR2. Humphrey played about three-quarters of snaps wide and one-quarter in the slot, and Robinson just the reverse. Jalin Hyatt saw about one-third of snaps, with Beaux Collins getting a few (one very consequential) and even Gunner Olszewski getting one.
- Skattebo continues to be the lead running back, but Tracy is seeing increased play time as he continues his recovery from his early-season injury. Devin Singletary only got one series.
Defense
PFF grades
Again, the Giants offense didn’t lose this game. The headlines are the failures of the defense. Let’s look at the details. First, the D as a whole:
Courtesy of Pro Football Focus
Lots of orange and red there, and much of it from players who played the majority of the game. You don’t want to see that. Let’s take a closer look, first at the pass rush:
Courtesy of Pro Football Focus
The pass rush was OK yesterday (2 sacks, 15 total pressures), though not dominant as in the Chargers and Eagles games. Dexter Lawrence (89.7) had his highest pass rush grade of the season, with a hit and 3 hurries…yet he was not on the field for Denver’s final offensive play. Explain that, Shane Bowen. The rest of the pass rushers had average to slightly below average grades. Brian Burns did have 2 sacks and a hurry, and Abdul Carter had 3 hurries. Of note, Roy Robertson-Harris had 2 QB hits.
Now, the pass coverage:
Courtesy of Pro Football Focus
Cor’Dale Flott (90.1) had an outstanding game, allowing only 2 receptions in 10 targets for 19 yards, only 4 YAC, 2 pass breakups, and a measly 39.6 NFL passer rating against. Flott has become perhaps the best player in the Giants’ secondary. This is a bit of a recurring theme about the 2022 draft class – although much of the attention focuses on the failed Evan Neal pick, Flott, Wan’Dale Robinson, Daniel Bellinger, and Micah McFadden have all become good NFL players, and Dane Belton (only 52.1 yesterday, but only 12 yards on 5 receptions in 6 targets, albeit one a TD) has his moments as well.
At the other end of the spectrum we find the biggest reason for the Giants’ collapse yesterday. Dru Phillips (38.3, 5 catches in 6 targets for 86 yards) is showing us that he can’t cover. He’s more a strong safety or undersized linebacker than he is a slot corner – someone who’s great around the line of scrimmage but a total liability downfield. Yesterday, he was beaten on Nix’s 31-yard completion to Marvin Mims Jr. on 3rd and 11 on the Broncos’ next to last drive. He missed a tackle on Evan Engram that turned a small gain into 20 yards. Most egregiously, he didn’t react (as he himself admitted) on Nix’s 29-yard completion to Mims at the start of Denver’s final drive. That’s a common theme among Giants’ defensive backs – not even contesting catches, much less breaking them up.
Contested catches, you say? That reminds me of Deonte Banks (56.2, 3 catches in 3 receptions for 40 yards and a TD), who has seemingly never seen a pass he wanted to try to defend. Banks was “defending” Courtland Sutton on the 22-yard pass play on the final drive that turned a potential 61-yard game-winning field goal attempt into a much easier 39-yard attempt. He was covering Troy Franklin in the end zone and standing next to Cor’Dale Flott when Flott deflected Nix’s pass. Franklin alertly dove for the ball and caught it for a TD, while Banks stood and watched like a high-diving judge rather than diving himself. Banks also lost outside contain on Nix’s 18-yard TD run, something he fails at consistently; again on the film, you can see him just watching rather than trying to defend once Nix pops outside. Banks’ interview after the game indicates that he didn’t even identify the Nix contain and the end zone deflection plays as things he thought he could do better. This almost complete lack of awareness is shocking.
The Giants’ high-priced free agents, Paulson Adebo (61.5) and Jevon Holland (63.2) were OK before both left the game with injuries. Neither one, though, is making important stops or turnovers for the Giants. That said, Denver put zero points on the board when Adebo and Holland were in the game, so while they might not be spectacular, they’re solid. That’s a big improvement on the ineptitude we saw after they left the game.
Finally, the run defense:
Courtesy of Pro Football Focus
Roy Robertson-Harris (71.4) has low-key become a solid contributor to the Giants’ interior run defense. Yesterday was his third consecutive game with a PFF grade in the 70s. He hasn’t had a sack, but he did have 2 QB hits yesterday. Elsewhere, Bobby Okereke (62.3) had an OK game with 2 tackles, both of them stops. The problem is that too many players had bad run defense grades, including Darius Muasau (29.1, 1 missed tackle), Kayvon Thibodeaux (31.7, only 1 tackle and a penalty), and Rakeem Nunez-Roches (37.0, didn’t make the stat sheet). Note also that Dru Phillips had 2 missed tackles and a penalty in run defense, on top of his poor pass coverage performance.
Snap counts
- Tyler Nubin, Cor’Dale Flott, and Bobby Okereke all played every defensive snap, while Darius Muasau, Dru Phillips, and Dane Belton played most of them. The secondary numbers are biased because of the injuries to Paulson Adebo and Jevon Holland, which pressed more DBs into service, mostly Deonte Banks, but also, for one fateful play when Shane Bowen only decided to rush three, Nic Jones and Beau Brade.
- Kayvon Thibodeau, Brian Burns, Dexter Lawrence, and Abdul Carter all played 60-70% of snaps, with Victor Dimukege seeing the field as well for 10 snaps.
- In the interior, Roy Robertson was IDL2 after Lawrence, playing almost half the snaps. Rakeem Nunez-Roches, Darius Alexander, and D.J. Davidson, in descending order, played less than half the time.
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