The 2-5 New York Giants are readying for their trip to Detroit to face the 2-3-1 Lions this Sunday. The three coordinators spoke with the media as they do every Thursday to provide updates on the state of their respective units.
Offensive coordinator Mike Shula
The questions about Daniel Jones are becoming redundant. He is a rookie quarterback navigating through the schedule for the first time. Shula didn’t have much to add other than to say that they are working hard to clean up his ball security issues and decision making.
The one question that was actually newsworthy was the one regarding the subpar play of the Giants’ two tackles — Nate Solder and Mike Remmers — who have allowed a combined 50-plus pressures thus far this season.
“We, obviously, look individually at how certain players are playing,” said Shula. “We also look at scheme and maybe… There are a lot of times, too, that kind of just show up on stats where it kind of looks like it’s a pressure by a certain guy but it’s really not. It’s caused by maybe something over here, or it’s caused by the quarterback holding onto the ball, or it’s caused by maybe not a great play.
“We kind of evaluate. We talk specifically. But kind of in general, yeah, you do that if you have certain guys that are struggling. You want to have the ability to help them out. That’s kind of, in general, not necessarily this week I’m saying. But just in general, you want to make sure you’re doing things scheme wise and matchup wise that give him, as well as everybody else, the best chance to go play well and play fast.”
In other words, Shula doesn’t have many solutions.
Defensive coordinator James Bettcher
The Giants’ defense has been so inconsistent this season, you’d be hard-pressed to pinpoint their identity. Perhaps they were missing a player in the middle of the defense that could provide some cohesion.
The signing of linebacker Deone Bucannon, a former Arizona Cardinal who played “money backer” for Bettcher several years back, is the guy. Bettcher was asked what exactly we can expect from Bucannon.
“My history with Buc, the things I know for certain about him, he loves football, he plays fast, he’s a guy that was always much more physical than the frame and the stature of the guy, that’s really what stick out to me. I think just getting him out here the last couple of days, getting back into our system and our scheme, we are able to have some of the conversations reflecting back to Arizona and some of the things we did. He’s working hard and he wants to try to earn some time,” he said.
The Giants are missing a playmaker at the second level and Bucannon has always been a very solid tackler.
“The game is big people to go smaller looks and space people out. I think there is a lot of value in guys that can tackle in space, whether that’s a safety that tackles in space, or a linebacker that tackles in space, whoever he is, I think that’s certainly a necessity because of the game. From a matchup standpoint, when things become horizontal, even if you are playing zone defenses, you have to tackle in space and you have to play and manipulate your body in space to play the zones in space. It goes hand in hand, whether you are matching up in man or playing zone defenses,” he said.
Special Teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey
The teams, as they are known, have slipped the past few weeks, making both errors of commission and of omission. Last week, the sure-footed kicker, Aldrick Rosas missed a very makeable field goal and the week before, Riley Dixon had a kick blocked.
The Giants inserted rookie Darius Slayton into the kick returner slot last week and he took a kickoff out of the end zone instead of letting go for a touchback. With the Giants down by a touchdown with time of the essence, they got the ball on the 12 yard line instead of the 25.
“Coach (Shurmur) wants to be aggressive, and that’s the whole thing,” said McGaughey. “Like we just talked about, our whole mentality is an aggressive mentality. I tell our guys all the time, we err on the side of being aggressive. That’s our mantra as a group and as a unit. We’re not going to shy away from anything, we’re going to play fast, we’re going to play physical, we’re going to try to make a play,” he said.
