The New York Giants had their two-game winning streak snapped in a 28-10 loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday.
Now on a short week, the Giants face their toughest task all season, heading up to Foxborough to take on the undefeated New England Patriots on Thursday night without top target Sterling Shepard (concussion) and Wayne Gallman (concussion). They will also be without running back Saquon Barkley (ankle) and tight end Evan Engram (sprained MCL).
Let’s look at five possible scenarios that would help the Giants pull out the incomparable upset this week.
Daniel Jones
It all starts with rookie quarterback Daniel Jones, who will be facing the biggest challenge of his young career thus far without his top four offensive weapons. To add insult to injury, he is also taking on the best team in the NFL on the road, against the greatest quarterback-coach duo of all time in Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.
The Patriots defense has been stellar, too, giving up the fewest total points (34) and points per game in the league (6.8). Through the first five games, their defense has only allowed two touchdowns.
Jones hasn’t necessarily lit up the box score in the last two weeks, but if you watch the film, he has still looked impressive. The rookie signal caller was 8-for-16 on third-down attempts on Sunday and drove the ball up and down the field, although the offense could not finish in the red zone.
Their lone touchdown of the game came on a beautiful 35-yard dime from Jones, who dropped the ball in the bucket to Darius Slayton for the score. Of course, there were also two missed touchdown throws to Shepard in this game, as well, that Jones wishes he had back. On a brighter note, Jones was under heavy pressure on one of these passes where he was blasted by Anthony Barr, causing a slight overthrow just out of the reach of Shepard.
Once Gallman exited with a concussion last week, Pat Shurmur completely abandoned the run game, opting to give his remaining backs only 12 more carries. This essentially made the Giant offense one-sided, creating a 7-on-7 matchup versus a very good Minnesota defense.
This blueprint is not a recipe for success and Shurmur needs to fix this despite missing several weapons in his personnel. This leads me to my next point of running the football.
Stick with the running game
Although they will be down their top two running back options in Barkley and Gallman, the Giants must stick to the run game this week behind Elijah Penny and rookie Jon Hilliman.
Penny had three rushes for 15 yards, but broke off a nice 12-yard run, which was negated by a holding penalty. Penny has shown some ability to run the football and should be utilized more, as he is not your prototypical fullback.
As for Hilliman, the undrafted rookie has 19 carries for 53 yards in two games but has been productive in short-yardage situations, bulling his way for five first-down runs.
The coaching staff should set a goal for Penny and Hilliman to combine for at least 20 touches between them. This game plan will help limit the exposure of Jones and hopefully keep him from throwing the ball an excessive amount against the best defense in the league, without his top playmakers.
Golden Tate
Tate did not get off to the hottest start in his Giants debut on Sunday, totaling a mere three catches for 13 yards. Tate expressed his disappointment in the media for his lack of involvement in the Giants’ offense but walked that back a bit on Tuesday, saying that he “understands.”
With Shepard suffering his second concussion in three weeks, Tate will now absorb his role in the slot full-time, which is his natural position. Tate leads the NFL with 2,736 yards after catch since 2014 and is second in third-down receptions with 124 in that span.
This creates a viable option for Jones, who has thrived on third down, converting over half of his attempts (53.6%). Expect Tate to be heavily involved with Shepard and Engram out on Thursday.
Pass rush
As anyone around the Giants knows, the only way to stop Tom Brady is by consistently putting pressure on him and that starts with defensive coordinator James Bettcher. The Giants defense collected three sacks in their fourth straight game last week, but only produced four hits on Kirk Cousins. The Vikings, on the other hand, had four sacks and 12 hits on Jones.
Bettcher needs to do a better job of designing creative blitz schemes in order to make sure Brady does not stay comfortable in the pocket. If this game plan fails, it will be another long day for Big Blue’s defense, as the Patriots have the No. 6 passing offense in the NFL through the first five weeks.
According to Pro Football Focus, Brady has a 31.9% completion rate when pressured, which ranks last among 13 quarterbacks with a minimum of 190 dropbacks. On Sunday, the Patriots offensive line surrendered nine hits and four sacks, which were both good for season highs against the Washington Redskins front seven.
Markus Golden (4.5 sacks) and Dexter Lawrence (2.5 sacks) picked up two out of three quarterback takedowns of Cousins last week and look to lead the pocket disruption against Brady. The Giants will also most likely get inside linebacker Alec Ogletree back, who leads his team’s position group with five linebacker pressures.
Secondary
Janoris Jenkins and Deandre Baker continued to hold their own against an impressive aerial attack on the Minnesota offense. Both players shared the tough assignment of guarding Adam Thielen, who got the best of Baker on one of his two touchdowns, but also saw Baker bat down several passes thrown his way.
It can be assumed that both players will split duties covering the Patriots’ top receiver, Julian Edelman. The concern is that Belichick will target struggling slot corner Grant Haley by playing Edelman there for much of the game, which could wreak havoc. Haley also can’t cover deep, which has been evident in the past several games, so the Giants may at least ponder the idea of sticking rookie Corey Ballentine in there if Haley falters.
As for the safety group, they will most likely be in a lot of three-safety sets with Michael Thomas. For some odd reason, Thomas’ snaps were down from 49% against the Redskins to 18% last week versus the Vikings. It is highly questionable that Bettcher opted against this scheme, despite its success on this unit in Week 4 (three points allowed).
Jabrill Peppers has been playing more towards the line of scrimmage recently, which is where he excels. Even after another strong performance in the box score last week (five tackles, forced fumble), Peppers still missed five tackles, which he needs to clean up. If Peppers continues to trend in the right direction as a playmaker, he could step up big against the high-powered Patriots offense.
Another area the coaching staff needs to clean up is in the pre-snap positioning of free safety Antoine Bethea. The 35-year-old safety was lined up 20 yards off the ball on a specific third-and-5 situation, where the defense could not give up anything in front of them.
Bethea has also taken some poor angles when trying to take down ball carriers, which has resulted in some big plays, as well. If Bethea struggles again, this could open the door for rookie safety Julian Love to replace him. Love led the NCAA in pass breakups with 37 in the last two years, but has yet to play a snap on defense in his professional career.
