It’s not much fun reviewing a game in which the New York Giants played poorly for much of the game, and that was the case Sunday in Philadelphia. You probably already know who some of the guilty parties are. Let’s see, though, how the analysts at Pro Football Focus saw the game and who might deserve some praise despite the loss.
Offense
PFF grades
Here are the grades for the offense as a whole. It’s not pretty when only three of your offensive players who played most of the game were graded at least average or higher:
Courtesy of Pro Football Focus
Let’s look at Jaxson Dart’s passing performance in more detail:
Courtesy of Pro Football Focus
The offensive line didn’t have a great day. Dart was pressured on an unacceptable 48.4% of dropbacks (NFL Pro had it at an even higher 54.8%). On three of his five sacks, Dart had some responsibility – not a surprise given how he tries to extend plays behind the line of scrimmage.
Nonetheless, Dart graded a stellar 81.1 overall, with three big-time throws and no turnover-worthy plays. He also had an impressive 11.6 ADOT considering the pass rush he faced. The amazing thing is that he scored better, and had two of his BTTs, on pressured dropbacks. The one red flag was that he was worse when blitzed than when not. That’s just a small sample, but last week in Denver we saw the same thing, with Dart grading much worse when blitzed than when not. The great QBs don’t mind being blitzed because it opens up an uncovered receiver and they make the defense pay for it. It’s possible that Dart’s instinct is to escape the blitz rather than make a quick decision to get rid of the ball to the vacated area. Still, he had his only TD on a blitz, so it’s not all bad.
Now, the offensive line, which was part of the story yesterday. First the pass blocking:
Courtesy of Pro Football Focus
The pass blocking wasn’t terrible (14 pressures), and as we saw, Dart brought several of those on himself. However, the left side of the line was leaky. Even Andrew Thomas (50.0) allowed four pressures, as did Jon Runyan Jr. (48.5) next to him. John Michael Schmitz (40.9) also graded poorly although he gave up only one sack and one hurry (that means he was getting beaten more often but on plays where Dart either moved or got the ball out quickly so the rusher didn’t register a pressure). The right side of the line held up well, though: Jermaine Eluemunor (84.7) had a clean stat sheet, while Greg Van Roten (78.1) gave up a hit and a hurry.
Now, the run blocking:
Courtesy of Pro Football Focus
Not much to see here, as usual. The Giants’ offensive line mostly run blocks adequately but not well. On Sunday, Eluemunor (65.4) and JMS (63.2) were the best and Runyan (43.1) the worst. The same thing goes for the tight ends. If you want to see what a good run blocking line looks like, look no further than the Eagles:
Courtesy of Pro Football Focus
Brett Toth isn’t even their starting center, and Fred Johnson isn’t a starter either (I left out Jordan Mailata, the only offensive lineman who run-blocked poorly at 53.4). Saquon Barkley didn’t just magically improve when he moved to Philadelphia.
Anyway, let’s move to the receivers:
Courtesy of Pro Football Focus
When your three highest-graded receivers are running backs, you know things are bad. Darius Slayton (49.0) and Theo Johnson (58.5) were the biggest problems yesterday, each with a crucial drop when the game was effectively being decided in the first half. Dart’s stat line should have looked much better than the 14-of-24 for 193 yards he accumulated; PFF’s 80.9 passing grade for Dart reflects the fact that his receivers let him down, not vice-versa.
Finally the running backs:
Courtesy of Pro Football Focus
The running game was just mediocre yesterday overall. There were no explosive runs (10+ yards) against that stout Eagles defensive line. Tyrone Tracy (78.8) ran well but only had 39 yards on 10 carries, though he did force two missed tackles. Cam Skattebo going down early was obviously a big part of the story.
Snap counts
- The starting offensive line and Dart played the entire game except for one play in which Marcus Mbow replaced Eluemunor.
- Tracy had most of the running back snaps due to the Skattebo injury, with Devin Singletary playing sparingly.
- Johnson played almost every offensive snap at tight end, with the Giants going with two tight ends less than half the time, presumably as the score got out of hand in the second half.
- With Jalin Hyatt inactive, Wan’Dale Robinson played almost every snap, Slayton and Lil’Jordan Humphrey (who was not targeted at all) played about two-thirds of the snaps, and Beaux Collins played some in garbage time.
Defense
PFF grades
It’s not much better when only four of your regular defensive players grade average or above:
Let’s start with the pass rush:
Courtesy of Pro Football Focus
Among the defensive linemen, Dexter Lawrence (77.0), who has had a quiet season, whether because of double-teaming, his elbow injury, or something else, had two pressures yesterday. Abdul Carter (71.2) is still looking for his first solo sack, but he battled future Hall of Famer Lane Johnson well and managed 5 hurries. Kayvon Thibodeaux (61.3) had a hit and two hurries but was graded down because of a penalty. Rakeem Nunez-Roches (59.2) managed a sack and a hurry, while Brian Burns (53.7) had a sack but otherwise had a quiet game. Darius Alexander (61.7) had his first NFL sack, and Bobby Okereke (83.3), who rushed the passer twice, had a sack and a hurry.
Now one of the two main reasons the Giants lost – the run defense:
Courtesy of Pro Football Focus
Thibodeaux (93.2) had three tackles, one of them a stop, and no missed tackles, though he did have a penalty. Abdul Carter was average (66.2), though two of his four tackles were stops. Various players in the secondary played average with no missed tackles (Dane Belton, Dru Phillips, Deonte Banks, Cor’Dale Flott).
The real problem was the sheer number of players who were really bad on run defense. None were worse than Darius Muasau (26.4 after a 29.1 grade last week) and Tyler Nubin (32.4), who shared responsibility for Saquon Barkley’s 65-yard TD run on the second offensive play of the game. Between them they had 5 missed tackles, and I don’t even know if that includes the Barkley TD, where they were so far out of position they would have needed a stamp to communicate with him. Amazingly, Dexter Lawrence was terrible (34.0), though at least he didn’t miss a tackle; it’s hard not to believe that he is not healthy. Various other members of the defense graded in the 40s, with Darius Alexander, Bobby Okereke, and even Brian Burns missing a tackle.
Finally, the other main reason they lost, the pass coverage:
Courtesy of Pro Football Focus
Jalen Hurts passed only 18 times yesterday, but he completed 15 and had a 147.7 NFL passer rating. That tells you most of what you need to know. Tyler Nubin (73.0) and Dru Phillips (72.8), both of whom I’ve been critical of this season, actually played mostly well in pass coverage, with minimal yardage conceded and each one with a pass breakup. Nubin did give up a TD, though. Dane Belton (68.8 and just one catch for 5 yards) also played all right.
On a day in which A.J. Brown didn’t play, you’d hope that the boundary corners would have success, but when your CB1 is out, that’s not necessarily the case. Deonte Banks (57.4), with two catches conceded for 26 yards, was not that bad. Cor’Dale Flott (39.0, 49 yards on three receptions in four targets) and Korie Black, seeing his first NFL action (32.3, a 40 yard reception in his only target) was worse, although the penalty on him was a bad call, one of many in this game.
Snap counts
- Nubin, Okereke and (out of necessity) Banks played every snap, and Belton missed only one. Black was forced into action after Flott suffered a concussion. Phillips played a little over half the snaps and Raheem Layne got a few.
- Muasau played about 80% of snaps, as did Carter, who once again played almost exclusively on the edge rather than off-ball as he did several times early in the season. Burns and Thibodeaux each played a bit less than two-thirds of the snaps.
- In the interior, Lawrence, Roy Robertson-Harris, and Nunez-Roches each played more than half the snaps, in decreasing order of number of plays. D.J. Davidson and Darius Alexander played less than 30% of the snaps.
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