The New York Giants are coming off their seventh straight loss and have now gone winless in the months of October and November for the first time in franchise history.
They face a tough task this week against the 8-3 Green Bay Packers, who will be seeking revenge after the San Francisco 49ers crushed them by 29 points on Sunday night.
Although unlikely, let’s look at five reasons why the Giants can pull off the upset of the Packers.
Offensive rhythm
The Giants struggled to find any rhythm on their offense last week against the Chicago Bears, scoring only seven points until the final 10 minutes of the game. They also had minus-two total yards in the second half up until the fourth quarter when they switched to a fast tempo offense. After this change was made, Daniel Jones and the Giants offense racked up 131 yards and a 23-yard touchdown pass to Golden Tate, which cut the deficit to five points.
The Giants had several opportunities to win this game and despite giving up 335 total yards, the defense did their job holding the Bears to only 19 points. It’s time for the stagnant, unbalanced and inconsistently designed offense to step up. Instead of waiting until their final two possessions this week, Pat Shurmur must make the necessary adjustments to break out of the frequent offensive slump Big Blue endures each week.
Bend, but don’t break defense
The Giants’ 30th-ranked passing defense (260 yards per game) has a tough matchup ahead of them as future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers rolls into Met life. Rodgers had a season low 104 passing yards, seven points and was sacked five times against the 49ers defense, so you can anticipate he is focused on having a bounce back game in Week 13.
James Bettcher’s defense allowed 335 total yards to the Bears offense and 278 passing yards to the struggling Mitchell Trubisky. The assumption is that Matt LaFleur will plan on having Rodgers take several shots down field and challenge the Giants weak secondary. The Packers are only averaging 23 points and 341 yards of total offense per game, which is 21st in the league.
The Giants defense will most likely give up their fair share of yards, but if they can keep the Packers scoring to a minimum, they will give their offense a chance to win the game.
Consistent pressure
As previously mentioned, the 49ers defense was able to get to Rodgers last week, taking him down for five sacks and holding to 104 yards. If the Giants defense is going to have any chance against this Packers passing offense, Bettcher needs to get creative and dial up consistent blitzes on passing downs.
If the Giants try to keep Rodgers uncomfortable and collapse the pocket, it will force him to make arid throws and prevent the Packers offense from getting in any sort of rhythm. If Rodgers obtains a groove against this defense, it will be a long night for Bettcher, but it is up to the defensive coordinator to properly game plan and adjust if the quarterback starts to beat them.
Saquon Barkley
It has been a rough go for Saquon Barkley since his return from a high ankle sprain suffered in Week 3. After the initial recovery time was deemed 4-8 weeks, Barkley made his miraculous return to the lineup missing only three games. Since coming back to the team, he has not quite looked like himself averaging an anemic 41 rushing yards per game.
In his last three games, Barkley has rushed for 88 total yards on the ground, which is a career-low stretch for the tailback. Although he continues to insist, he is healthy, it is clear that Barkley is not as explosive since the injury. Last year, the Giants line was ranked 27th in the league, but Barkley was still able to make up for this weak unit racking up 2,000 scrimmage yards. This season, the Giants run blocking is even worse averaging 10 less yards. The difference in 2019 is that Barkley is not at full strength health-wise, which makes him unable to make up for their abysmal play.
If Barkley is put in a position to succeed despite the limitations of his ankle injury, he can still do damage, for example when he broke off a 65-yard screen play versus the Cowboys in Week 10 despite only rushing for 28 yards. It is up to Pat Shurmur to find a mismatch for Barkley and involve him in the passing game to break off big play yardage chunks and move the ball down the field.
Daniel Jones
While Jones didn’t have his best week against the Bears, throwing for 150 yards on 21 completions, he did have two touchdowns and zero interceptions. He now has 11 touchdown passes and one interception in his last four games. He also threw a beautiful 23-yard touchdown pass to Golden Tate on a 4th-and-18 with heavy pressure in his face.
Jones committed his league-leading 10th lost fumble when Khalil Mack beat Nate Solder badly and got to Jones for a strip sack. Despite the fumbling issue, Jones had a pretty clean game with the ball and did a really nice job escaping the pocket when it was collapsing. If he continues to trend in the right direction throwing the football, he could give the Packers and their 23rd-ranked passing defense fits.
