Baldy Breakdown: Giants’ Wink Martindale a ‘situational football’ expert

When New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll chose their coaching staff, a new era of Giants football began.

One of the bigger names on staff was Wink Martindale — Big Blue’s newest defensive coordinator who came over from the Baltimore Ravens.

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Martindale’s play calling has already been highlighted through two preseason games and it seems to be frustrating opponents.

One thing we have seen so far during the preseason is that schematically, the Giants look better on both sides of the ball. And for the defense, there may be no greater example than the play that sealed the game on Sunday night against the Cincinnati Bengals.

With nine seconds left and the Giants up by three, the Bengals tried to gain a few more yards while getting out of bounce to set up for a game-tying field goal. The play was perfectly played by the Giants defense, securing the victory.

Brian Baldinger broke the play down:

.@Giants DC; Wink Martindale, shows you what “situational football” is all about! You can’t play this final play any better to preserve the win #BaldysBreakdowns pic.twitter.com/6ckjIQR1Wy

— Brian Baldinger (@BaldyNFL) August 22, 2022

Baldinger highlighted the prevent defense and situational football as the Giants had the sideline clearly covered. Despite being in a prevent coverage, they were still able to be aggressive when the play developed as Tomon Fox quickly closed on the ball carrier, causing a fumble and essentially ending the game.

With the young talent on defense, there is a lot for the Giants’ new defensive coordinator to utilize going forward. Clearly, Martindale and the Giants defense played that final play perfectly and hopefully this is something that continues into the regular season.

As we know, Martindale is known for his aggressive, blitz-happy defensive play calling and it seems as though he’s already showing signs of having his defense prepared.

The Giants have lost plenty of close games over the last few years, so this should give the team and fans some hope that those days are now behind them.