There will be one fewer winless team in the NFL by the end of Sunday Night Football. The question is whether that will be the New York Giants or the Kansas City Chiefs.
The Giants’ offense is coming off of one of their most impressive performances of the last decade, putting up 506 total yards and 37 points. They’ll face a Kansas City Chiefs defense that is currently 13th in yards allowed and 20th in points allowed through two games.
The Giants could be getting some good news up front if left tackle Andrew Thomas is able to make his season debut, which in turn could boost an anemic rushing attack. On the flip side, Russell Wilson is coming off of his best performance since 2017, and one of the best quarterbacking performances in Giants’ history.
So what can the Giants do move the ball and score points on the Chiefs’ defense.
Can the offense stay warm?
It’s unrealistic to expect that the Giants’ offense maintain the torrid pace they established in the fourth quarter against the Cowboys. The bigger question, however, is whether the offense can stay warm.
The Giants flashed the ability to move the ball well against the Commanders, and moved between the 20’s relatively easily against the Cowboys. Being able to sustain drives and move the ball between the 20’s will be the first step for the Giants in this game. Obviously the explosive plays are exciting and we should probably expect them to be a vital piece of the offense. Hitting those 10, 15, or 20+ yard plays forces the defense to respect the vertical aspect of the offense and prevents them from devoting too many resources to defending the short to intermediate area of the field.
Russell Wilson delivered one of the finest performances ever by a Giants’ quarterback last week, but it was marred by the offense’s inability to finish drives and convert in the red zone.
The Giants have been poor in the red zone for… a while now. They ranked 28th in red zone percentage (the rate at which a team reaches the red zone and scores a touchdown) in 2018, 16th in 2019, 31st in 2020, 32nd in 2021, 7th in 2022, 31st in 2023, 32nd in 2024, and currently rank 31st in 2025.
Figuring out the red zone will be key to sustained success for the Giants’ offense. Scoring inside of the 20’s isn’t perfectly correlated to offensive success — after all, the Chicago Bears and Carolina Panthers were both Top 10 teams in terms of red zone success last year. However, being able to score touchdowns instead of settling for field goals is obviously good.
Wilson proved last week that he can still pick apart defenses at all levels of the field. Adding that long-missing element back into the Giants’ offense went a long way toward curing the feeling that the offense was constantly iceskating uphill. Being able to get the tough yards when the field is constricted and the game speeds up is the next piece.
Whether or not the Giants can do so, be it through the air or on the ground, might be the biggest thing to watch for this week.
Mind Chris Jones
It all starts with number 95 up front for the Chiefs.
Jones might be 31 and in his 10th year in the NFL, but he remains one of the most dangerous defensive tackles in the NFL. He’s currently tied for sixth among defensive tackles in Pass Rush Win Rate despite being doubled on 64 percent of his pass rush snaps.
It isn’t just that Jones is capable of being a dominant force up front, but that the Chiefs move him around their defensive formation. He plays on both the left and right sides of the line, as well as out at defensive end, and he’s capable of being disruptive from any alignment. Like most great players, Jones has a habit of impacting plays even when he isn’t the one making the play.
We can expect that all three of the Giants’ interior linemen will see plenty of Jones, but he’ll likely be harassing guards Jon Runyan Jr. and Greg Van Roten. Jones primarily lined up at right defensive tackle over the left guard against the Chargers, playing 24 snaps on that side as opposed to 12 on the defensive left (over the right tackle). However, he split his snaps evenly between the left and right sides against the Philadelphia Eagles.
That could be due to the Chiefs considering Zion Johnson (the Chargers’ left guard) a better matchup than Mekhi Becton, or they noticed a tendency in the Chargers’ offense that wasn’t present in the Eagles’ offense.
Interestingly, Jones hasn’t been lining up as a defensive end that often in 2025.
Per NextGenStats, Jones has only rushed the passer from the end on 9 of his 57 pass rush snaps (15.8%), which is down from the 29.4% of his rushes in 2024. That said, the Giants can practically expect to see Jones at end in third-down situations. He’s played defensive end on nearly 50% of his third down rushes through two games (8 of 17), which is right in line from his rate a year ago.
He’s also posted a good pressure rate from the end at 18.2%, compared to 10.9% from other alignments.
Two games is a bit too small of a sample size to say that Jones will be inside on most regular downs. Likewise, we can’t say for certain whether he’s being moved inside due advancing age, or due to the Chiefs wanting rookie edge defender Ashton Gillotte on the field.
Kansas City may opt to move Jones to the edge more often against the Giants to test their left tackle — whether that’s Thomas in his first action back from injury or rookie Marcus Mbow. Regardless, the Giants will need to pay attention to Jones and his alignment. They might not want to roll protection away from George Karlaftis or create opportunities for blitzers to get free runs, but they also can’t allow Jones to dominate 1-on-1 matchups.
Press and pressure
Giants fans know Spags. Giants fans love Spags.
And if there’s one thing we’ve learned through two stints with Steve Spagnuolo, it’s that he’s an aggressive play caller. Spags loves to pair man coverage with exotic pressure packages to free up extra rushers, keep the ball in quarterbacks’ hands, and scheme extra pressure.
Per NextGenStats, the Chiefs have pressed outside receivers at the highest rate in the NFL (52.6%), and they’ve also been the most blitz-happy defense in the NFL through two weeks. So far this year, the Chiefs have sent a blitz on 43.9 percent of passing plays, which is the third-highest rate since 2022. Granted, that’s only two games, but it’s still significant. It’s also significantly higher than their 31.6% rate from a year ago — though that was still good for 4th in the NFL.
The good news is that Malik Nabers has been one of the most effective receivers against man coverage in the NFL this year.
Nabers has faced press man coverage on a third of his routes this year (33.3% per NextGenStats), and his 105 yards and a touchdown lead the NFL in production against press man coverage. Nabers has also caught 3 of his five tight window (1 yard or less of separation), for 85 yards and a touchdown. Nabers’ ability to separate against tight coverage could force the Chiefs out of their preferred coverages and limit the ways in which Spags is able to attack the Giants’ offense.
As noted above, Jones is obviously a threat. Karlaftis and Gillotte are powerful and high-motor defenders, but they aren’t natural speed rushers off the edge. They can win through play strength, technique, and sheer effort, but they don’t tend to beat blockers quickly. That said, they can occupy blockers and create opportunities for blitzers.
The Chiefs have pressured opposing quarterbacks 24 times this year, and have blitzed on 10 of those pressures. Their blitz schemes usually involve one or both of linebackers Dru Tranquil and LB Nick Bolton. Likewise, they usually seem to feature A-gap pressure.
There are a few ways that the Giants can combat Spags’ pressure schemes. The first is to use play-action, setting a running back up to help with protection on the interior. They should also make sure to keep a check-down or hot-route available on every play. The Eagles made good use of Saquon Barkley in the passing game as a check-down option. One of the weaknesses of blitz-happy defenses is that they take defenders out of coverage, creating faultlines or voids that can be attacked if the blitz is identified and picked up. The Giants have also struggled some with chip blocks, with their young skill position players either failing to deliver chips or getting hung up on defenders. Improving their chip blocks would go a long way toward blunting slot or safety blitzes.
