The New York Giants are preparing to face their co-tenants, the New York Jets, this Sunday at MetLife Stadium. The Jets are 1-7 on the season and headed nowhere, while the Giants, who began the year 2-2, have lost five straight games.
The Giants three coordinators briefed the media on their units on Thursday.
Offensive coordinator Mike Shula
Shula answered the weekly questions about rookie Daniel Jones’ turnover issues and discussed what is being done to crest them. Basically nothing new on that front. Jones just has to be smarter and protect the football better, plain and simple.
Left tackle Nate Solder has struggled this season after a strong finish last year. He is no better than the man he replaced, Ereck Flowers, and is costing the Giants a heckuva lot more money.
“He’s been like a lot of us, kind of been up and down,” Shula said of Solder. “I think last week was better. He had the one (sack) late at the end of the game. That was tough. We were in the two-minute mode and trying to get the ball out quicker. I think he and some other guys, all of us, again, as coaches and players, we’re just not quite doing all of the things right consistently. Then when you have one thing go wrong, sometimes it just feels like when you’re losing games, it kind of gets magnified.
“You just have to kind of fight through that. We haven’t put everything together yet. When we do, we feel like he’s going to be a big part of that reason why we do because, as we know, he’s a good football player. He’s talented, he has good experience. He and all of us have to come together a little bit better and more consistently.”
The Giants need Solder to play better, but it remains to be seen if he can. There is no viable Plan B if he doesn’t shape up.
Defensive coordinator James Bettcher
The Giants’ defense is an abomination this season, surrendering a league-high 11 plays of over 40 yards and allowing 28.3 points per game. Bettcher was brought in last season to mold the same type of defense he did in Arizona, one predicated on pressure and getting after people.
The defense is disorganized and overwhelmed by his scheme. Patient quarterbacks and offensive coordinators are picking them apart weekly and there appears to be no end in sight.
Bettcher was asked if he thought his defense would be way ahead of where they are right now.
“I think that no matter where we were at, right now, I would want more, that’s just me,” he said. “I think there are certainly moments in time, you can’t do this, but you take out two passes against a passer that’s not having a good year but a great year, I think it was 145 (yards) other than those two passes on numerous attempts. Do you just dwell on what wasn’t well? That’s not how you build. You accentuate what you did well, make sure you understand why did we execute something well here, why did we create a turnover here, then you look at the snaps that we didn’t play well on and you compare those things.
“We came in and we watched approximately thirty snaps of the game on a Wednesday, that’s not something you would normally do. We had 30 snaps pulled out, we watched them, and we coached the heck out of it, our players were locked in on it, that’s how you get better. I think there are some areas that we’re getting better and some players are getting better. We have to keep pressing forward to get the other things out of our game.”
Special Teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey
After a near-perfect 2018 season in which he was named to the Pro Bowl, placekicker Aldrick Rosas has missed kicks in three consecutive games. McGaughey was asked if he had any concerns.
“None,” he said. “Just have to go back to the drawing board. It’s a rhythm thing, he’s starting to get more into a rhythm. Sometimes he has a tendency to get a little fast, he gets a little anxious. He has to calm himself down, slow down and go through his mechanics and go through his progressions and not rush through anything. That has been his issue right now, he just has to stay within himself and be himself.
“He’s a Pro Bowl kicker, the kid has a ton of talent. You have to realize, too, he’s a young player, young players make mistakes and he has to make sure he limits those mistakes.”
With inconsistency being a huge part of the job, McGaughey was asked why he felt so confident in Rosas.
“He is really good at self-correcting. Sometimes he has a tendency to get a little fast. He is such a big, strong guy, and he likes to make good, solid contact with the ball. He has to understand he doesn’t have to swing (hard), he is so much bigger and stronger than everybody else, 65 percent of his leg swing is 90 percent for most people. He just has to stay within himself,” he said.
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