Giants-Bengals Week 6 story lines: Can the Giants win a game at home, and in prime time?

There are some factors that could work against the Giants Sunday night

The New York Giants will try to climb to the .500 mark for the first time since Week 2 of the 2023 season when they host the Cincinnati Bengals this week on Sunday Night Football. The Giants (2-3) are 3.5-point underdogs to the 1-4 Bengals.

Here are some of this week’s story lines.

Home cookin’

The Giants are 0-2 at home this season and 2-1 on the road. The Giants were demolished at home by the Minnesota Vikings Week 1, 28-6, and then lost to the Dallas Cowboys in Week 4, 20-15.

Good teams are not usually worse at home than on the road. The Giants, obviously, need to start winning games at MetLife Stadium.

Of course, as Big Blue View’s Tony DelGenio pointed out on Tuesday, it doesn’t help when your quarterback historically plays better away from home team fans, when all they can do if he makes a mistake is yell at their TV screens.

It’s fair to wonder if Daniel Jones getting booed three plays into the season, and then facing this kind of abuse when he is just trying to go home impacts the way he plays in front of home fans.

Prime time problems

Knowing that the answer is ‘because they play in a major market,’ I have often wondered over the years why the networks keep putting the Giants in prime time spots. TV executives have to be holding their noses when they do that.

The Giants have played in 27 prime time games since 2017. They are 4-23 in those games, with many of them being lopsided stinkers. Look at that and it’s no wonder the Giants are looked down upon by football fans and media around the country. Whenever they are subjected to watching them, the Giants either get Hulk-smashed or find ways to lose winnable games.

So, Sunday night is a double whammy for the Giants to try and overcome. They are on national TV in prime time. And, they are in front of their home town fans.

Will Malik play?

Star wide receiver Malik Nabers missed Sunday’s game against the Seattle Seahawks with a concussion. Head coach Brian Daboll did not offer any indication on Monday regarding Nabers’ status for this week.

We should get an idea where Nabers is in the league’s concussion protocol based on what he does during Wednesday’s practice.

The status of running back Devin Singletary, who missed the game against Seattle with a groin injury, is also unknown. The missed game was Singletary’s first since his rookie season in 2019. It probably cost him playing time going forward as rookie running back Tyrone Tracy Jr. starred in Singletary’s absence.

Defenseless Bengals?

Cincinnati is 31st in the NFL in points allowed, giving up 29.0 per game. The Bengals have surrendered 103 points over their past three games (34.3 per game). Coming off a season-best game with 420 total yards of offense against a good Seattle defense, the Giants should be able to move the ball and put up a healthy number of points.

Then again …

The last time it looked like the Giants had an opportunity against a struggling defense was in Week 4. The Dallas Cowboys entered that game with the league’s worst run defense, and the Giants fully expected to take advantage of that.

The Giants somehow managed to rush for only 26 yards on 24 attempts (1.1 yards per carry) against Dallas.

They have to avoid a similarly disappointing effort on Sunday night.

Keeping the heat on

The Giants lead the NFL in quarterback sacks with 22. Question is, can they keep it up?

The incredible Dexter Lawrence has 6.0, second in the league. What he is doing is amazing for a 360-pound man. The edge duo of Brian Burns and Kayvon Thibodeaux, expected to be the other parts of a dominant Big Three of pass rushers with Lawrence, has only two apiece. The other 12 have come from an assortment of places, including three from safety Jason Pinnock.

Some of the other pass rush statistics provide a perhaps more concerning picture of the true nature of the Giants’ pass rush.

• The Giants are 27th in the NFL with a 7.0% hurry rate.
• They are 21st in the league with 11 quarterback knockdowns. Their knockdown rate of 7.0% is 22nd.
• The Giants are 18th with 41 quarterback pressures. Their pressure rate of 21.6% is also 18th.

So, Giants pass rushers have gotten home a lot. On a down-to-down basis, though, the Giants have not been that good at making opposing quarterbacks uncomfortable.

The Bengals have one of the league’s most prolific passing offenses with quarterback Joe Burrow, and wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. If the Giants allow Burrow to be comfortable, it will be a long night for their secondary.