After an amazing but heartbreaking game for the New York Giants in Dallas on Suday, perhaps performing a statistical autopsy on Monday is not fans’ favorite thing to read about. Nonetheless, it’s useful to get an idea of who played well and who didn’t, and if possible why. Let’s see what the analysts at Pro Football Focus thought of individual players’ performances, and who was and was not on the field for most of it.
Offense
PFF grades
Courtesy of Pro Football Focus
Courtesy of Pro Football Focus
Russell Wilson had what must be one of the most amazing games of his career yesterday, with 450 passing yards and 3 TDs. Unfortunately his one awful pass in overtime led to the winning field goal, but that shouldn’t take much away from the rest of his performance. In advanced stats, he was just behind Drake Maye (19 of 23 for 230 yards and 2 TDs) for the league high in expected points added per play and third in completion percentage over expected:
Courtesy of rbsdm.com
When they write Wilson’s biography and want to show what the term “moon ball” refers to, Sunday’s tape should be the example. Wilson threw 11 deep balls yesterday and completed seven of them for 264 yards, six of them being judged as “big-time throws” by PFF and with a grade of 93.4. Wilson has a reputation of not being great at (or interested in) the short game, but he was 14 of 17 for 106 yards and a grade of 80.9 on passes between 0-9 yards. Wilson’s 13.6 yard ADOT was second only to Jordan Love’s 15.0.
Like most quarterbacks, Wilson was a lot worse when under pressure (56.0) than when kept clean (92.2), and his lone bad play, the interception in OT, came while pressured. PFF had Wilson being pressured on only 22.2% of dropbacks; Next Gen Stats once again differed, saying he was pressured on 33.3% of dropbacks.
Courtesy of Pro Football Focus
The Giants’ pass blocking was once again not exemplary. Wilson was only pressured nine times (by PFF’s reckoning) and sacked once, which is not a lot. Even Next Gen Stats’ higher estimate of pressures was still ninth- best in the NFL through Sunday night’s games. Still, PFF was not impressed with the blocking. Only Jon Runyan Jr. (68.0) and Jermaine Eluemunor (61.6) graded above PFF’s 60.0 threshold for average play among the offensive linemen, with only one hurry between them. John Michael Schmitz (47.8) gave up two hurries, Greg Van Roten (51.1) three, and Marcus Mbow (51.0) a hit and a hurry. James Hudson III (46.8) gave up a sack and had a penalty before he was taken to the argument clinic.
The seeming discrepancy between the generally low blocking grades and the modest number of pressures as a whole says that Wilson was escaping from potential pressures by defensive linemen who’d beaten their blockers and getting the pass off before the rusher could get close enough to affect the QB. That would be consistent with NGS’s higher pressure percentage.
Courtesy of Pro Football Focus
Not surprisingly, Wan’Dale Robinson (85.3) and Malik Nabers (84.3) both had elite receiving grades. Robinson’s grade was his highest ever as a Giant and only the third time he has exceeded 80 (the other two were the Legend of Tommy DeVito win against Green Bay in 2023 and the win against Indianapolis last season that cost the Giants the No. 1 pick). Nabers’ grade was his fourth time above 80 in 1+ seasons (the others being the first Washington, Cleveland, and Indianapolis games last season) and second highest yards total to the Indy game. No other receivers distinguished themselves, although Theo Johnson (four of five targets) held onto the ball today. Unfortunately both Cam Skattebo and Tyrone Tracy (in addition to Nabers) had a drop.
Courtesy of Pro Football Focus
Something to keep an eye on is a possible changing of the guard at running back. Cam Skattebo (82.8) yesterday got many more carries than Tyrone Tracy (61.7). Neither had impressive run numbers, though Skattebo got his first NFL TD. More telling about the state of the Giants’ running game was that 35 of Skattebo’s 45 yards were after contact, and that Tracy’s 17 yards after contact exceeded his 15 total rushing yards. Skattebo’s large percentage of YCO is largely a feature, not a bug; it’s why Kyle Brandt loves him. Tracy’s large YCO is also a feature, but Tracy does it with contact balance and moves rather than Skattebo’s battering ram modus operandi. The key thing for both is that the Giants’ run blocking is poor (9th worst in the NFL according to PFF):
Four of the five starting offensive linemen had run block grades of 50.4 or lower. A side benefit of Hudson’s implosion yesterday was that Mbow (62.3) did a decent job run blocking.
Snap counts
- The starting offensive linemen played the entire game other than Mbow replacing Hudson.
- Jaxson Dart saw his first action with three snaps that seemed to serve no good purpose, but Skattebo took a handoff and broke the first one up the middle for 24 yards and almost a TD, so what do I know?
- Malik Nabers and Darius Slayton played almost the entire game and Wan’Dale Robinson about two-thirds of the game on offense, i.e., the Giants were in 11 personnel most the time, as is Daboll’s preference. Jalin Hyatt has not yet played a snap in two games.
- Skattebo and Tracy shared most of the snaps, with Devin Singletary now a bit player, but we can see a shift toward Skattebo as the lead back starting to happen, even if Tracy is the starter. Whether this is a real trend or a game-by-game thing, we’ll have to see.
- Theo Johnson once again got most of the snaps, with Daniel Bellinger and Chris Manhertz each playing 20-25% of the game.
Defense
PFF grades
Courtesy of Pro Football Focus
The figure above is ordered by pass rush snaps for players who rushed at least 7 times (a few non-linemen rushed once or twice). The Giants got a decent number of pressures (25) and 3 sacks on Dak Prescott. Dexter Lawrence graded the highest (80.9), but his three pressures did not include a sack or a hit, while Brian Burns (75.7) got four hurries and a sack. Abdul Carter (66.6) had a more quiet game than last week, with a hit and four hurries but also two penalties, one of them declined. Kayvon Thibodeaux (64.1) had a sack, a hit, and 3three hurries. Bobby Okereke (79.8) rushed three times and got two hits and a hurry. Elijah Garcia (67.3) had a sack, Chauncey Golston (65.8) had a hurry, and rookie Darius Alexander (63.7), seeing his first NFL action, had a QB hit. Roy Robertson-Harris (55.1) had a QB hit but also had three penalties, two of them declined.
Courtesy of Pro Football Focus
The defense grades, listed from highest downward, show that Kayvon Thibodeaux (81.7) had an excellent game against the run, with three tackles, all of them “stops” (unsuccessful rushes by the offense). The starting secondary was mostly strong in run support: Dru Phillips (81.6), Jevon Holland (76.3), and Paulson Adebo (72.1).
On the other end, here are the run defense grades from the bottom up:
Courtesy of Pro Football Focus
Tyler Nubin (30.3) had a rough outing against the run, missing two tackles, and Abdul Carter (40.0, 2 misses) did as well. Brian Burns (46.5) didn’t have any misses but neither did he have any tackles, i.e., he was MIA in the run game. Everyone else was near or just below average, although Bobby Okereke (56.9) was at least very active with 4 tackles and 3 assists; his one missed tackle probably was what dropped him below a 60.0 grade.
Finally, here are the pass coverage grades for every player who had at least 10 coverage snaps:
Courtesy of Pro Football Focus
Paulson Adebo (50.8) had a rough outing, conceding 7 receptions in 8 targets for 81 yards and a TD, though he did have one pass breakup. Jevon Holland (50.7), the Giants’ other big free agent signing in the secondary, was basically no better, with five receptions in 6 targets for 70 yards and 20 YAC and a dropped interception (DRI). Dru Phillips (63.8, 11 of 15, 99 yards, 1 TD) was targeted all day. Interestingly, the only DB who stood out in coverage was Cor’Dale Flott (86.5, 2 of 3 for 16 yards), who may be solidifying his hold on the CB2 spot. Deonte Banks had a terrible 31.9 grade, but he was only targeted once for 16 yards; he did have two penalties, but both were declined or offset.
Snap counts
- Jevon Holland played every snap and Dane Belton a bit less than half the snaps.
- At boundary cornerback, Paulson Adebo played every snaps, while Cor’dale Flott and Deonte Banks played the other side at about a 2:1 ratio.
- Bobby Okereke played almost every snap at LB, while Darius Muasau went out with an injury after 23 snaps. He was partly replaced by Chris Board, but PFF lists 13 different players as having played at least a few snaps in the box, including all three safeties, LB Swayze Bozeman (5 snaps), and even Brian Burns (6 snaps) and Abdul Carter (8 snaps).
- Speaking of defensive linemen, Shane Bowen apparently heard Giants’ fans complaints about the under-utilization of Carter – he was on the field for 67 (75%) of defensive snaps. Burns was the iron man among the edge defenders, playing 72 (81%) of snaps, while Thibodeaux played 62 (70%) and Chauncey Golston 21 (24%) of snaps.
- On the inside, Lawrence played 62 (70%) of snaps and Roy Robertson-Harris 45 (51%). Other IDLs seeing action included D.J. Davidson (22%), Elijah Garcia (21%), and Darius Alexander (17%), playing in his first NFL game.
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