The New York Giants are coming off their first victory since September 29th in a 36-20 win over the Miami Dolphins.
This was also a sentimental victory as it was likely Eli Manning’s final home start of his career or at least in a Giants jersey. Manning was solid, going 20-of-28 for 283 yards and two touchdowns, but also three interceptions. Regardless, the Giants racked up their most points in a game since Week 15 of last year and had their most balanced attack of the season with Saquon Barkley rushing for 105 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.
With the likely return of rookie Daniel Jones under center, Manning will go back to the bench. While one might think a Week 16 matchup between two three-win teams would be meaningless, this game will likely decide who receives the No. 2 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, where Ohio State defensive end Chase Young is expected to be taken.
To be frank, the loser of this game could truly be winners in the long run if they are in line to draft an impact player such as Young.
Regardless, let’s look at five reasons the Giants could come out on top versus the Redskins (hopefully not so they get Young).
Dwayne Haskins
The Giants defense had their best performance of the season in their last matchup with the Redskins, holding them to only three points back in Week 4. Haskins was unfairly thrown into the fire in the second half of the game and struggled throwing three interceptions including a pick-six to Jabrill Peppers.
Despite having his best game of his career last week against the Eagles (19-of-28 for 261 yards and two touchdowns), Haskins has struggled mightily in his rookie season throwing for only 1,232 yards with a 56.9 completion percentage, five touchdowns and seven interceptions. The rookie also has a 2.7 touchdown% with a 3.7% interception rate.
Haskins had a chip on his shoulder after the Giants passed him up with the sixth pick when they selected Daniel Jones over him. If you look at the numbers and watch the two signal callers performances this season, it is like night and day how much more prepared Jones (18 TD 11 INT 2,784 yards 62 completion percentage) was than Haskins.
Stopping AP
Adrian Peterson has been the Redskins motor horse dating back to last season and rushed for 66 yards and a touchdown against the Eagles and their top 10 run defense last week. Peterson’s touchdown score was quite impressive late in the game on a cutback in the red zone on what seemed to be a broken play.
His production surely complements a young and inexperienced QB and if the Giants can shut him down, it could be a long day for the rookie Haskins. While the Giants defense has given up over 100 yards rushing over the past two games, they have minimized big plays in the running game neutralizing opposing offenses.
Rookie secondary improving
Despite being their biggest Achilles heel this season, it is beginning to look like the Giants young secondary is starting to develop. The Giants are currently starting four rookies in their secondary including Sam Beal (essentially a rookie), DeAndre Baker, Julian Love, and Corey Ballentine. All four have had their growing pains and ups-and-downs as to be expected in any young defensive back, but all four have also taken major strides recently.
Although Beal was selected in the 2018 supplemental draft, he sat out his entire rookie season with a torn labrum. After missing the first half of this year with various injuries, Beal has improved each week and had his best game against the Dolphins on Sunday recording a tackle for a loss in the end zone for a safety and a pass deflection.
First-round draft choice DeAndre Baker has also shown vast improvement since the bye week as he has been playing more to his strength in press coverage closer to the line of scrimmage. In this time, he has only allowed five completions on 19 targets and has five pass deflections in the previous two weeks.
Julian Love has been one of the Giants’ best defenders in the backfield since receiving a dramatic increase in snaps dating back to Week 12 against the Chicago Bears. Love has an interception and two pass deflections in this span. He also recorded three tackles for a loss in his last two games including a big 4th-and-1 run stop on Sunday.
Ballentine continues to have his ups-and-downs in the slot but has shown some progress in a solid game against Miami last week. The sixth-round pick played in 87% of snaps and recorded a pass breakup in this matchup, as well.
Saquon Barkley
Barkley finally looked like his vintage self again for the first time since the injury last week. The second-year back ran wild on the Miami Dolphins rushing for 105 yards on 24 carries while punching in two touchdown runs. He also made a vicious cut on a 12-yard run to make a Dolphins defender lose his footing and look rather silly.
Give credit to the offensive line too as this was their best run blocking game of the season. Part of the reason was due to the stellar performance of Nick Gates, who filled in at right guard for Kevin Zeitler and shined in pass protection while bullying defenders in the running game. He also led the way on Barkley’s second touchdown score.
The Redskins have the 28th ranked run defense allowing 136 yards on the ground per game. If Barkley and the run blocking can get going, it’ll be a long day for the Skins defense as the Giants put up 36 points last week with this effective game plan.
Daniel Jones
Jones has missed the previous two games with a high ankle sprain but is assumed to be healthy and is expected to be back out on the field this Sunday. After watching Eli Manning go 1-1 the last two weeks and play decently well, the hope is Jones picked up on some things from the future Hall of Famer.
For starters, Manning knows how to pickup yardage and does not throw down field on every single play, as the rookie often tries to. This is likely part of the reason that the Giants offense lacked rhythm on their nine-game losing streak. That is something Manning understands and hopefully Jones picked up on this in order to find that same rhythm to take control of the game.
Manning targets Barkley on average of five times per game while Jones only throws to him around four times. If Jones learns to check down more, he can control the short yardage game to open the downfield passing game.
Manning also gets rid of the ball quicker, which is something Jones needs to work on. While Manning is immobile, he was only sacked once last week because he is not holding onto the ball too long.
Keep in mind, Sam Darnold struggled mightily in the first half of his rookie season with 11 touchdowns and 14 interceptions before suffering a foot injury that kept him out three games. He also had an abysmal performance against the Miami Dolphins throwing four interceptions before suffering the injury.
While he was out, veteran Josh McCown stepped in as Darnold healed up. Once Darnold returned, he was a different quarterback throwing six touchdowns and one interception in four games. He tossed an impressive game winning touchdown against the Buffalo Bills in first game back and put on impressive displays against the Texans (24-of-38, 253 yard, two touchdowns) and Packers (24-of-35, 341 yards, three touchdowns).
Jones has had a much better first season than Darnold with a 61.6 percent completion rate, 20 total touchdowns to only 11 interceptions and nearly throwing for 3,000 yards. If Jones picked up on some of the areas Eli excelled in over the past two weeks, the kid could be primed for big performances in the seasons final two weeks.
