The New York Giants face off against the Washington Redskins on the road this Sunday. A divisional game for which team falls last in the division. Not a place either team wants to be, for sure, but that’s where the division is at this week.
The Giants get Daniel Jones back, which changes things on the offensive side of the ball. Meanwhile the Redskins secondary could feature new players depending on injuries, which would really shake things up for both teams.
That said, here are this week’s keys to victory for Big Blue:
Show Haskins looks he hasn’t seen
Dwayne Haskins took over as starter for Case Keenum halfway through the season. His debut, however, came against the Giants at the end of September, so this isn’t his first shot at the New York. Since it’s not the first time he’s seen this team, the Giants need to throw some different looks at him on defense than what he saw the first go-round.
James Bettcher needs to come up with some schemes that force Haskins to make bad decisions. Making the rookie have to think about things will make calling out coverages and changing the play at the line more difficult. The more he is confused, the better chance the Giants defense has at shutting him down.
Don’t turn the ball over
With the return of Daniel Jones, this old mantra also returns. The Giants rank 30th in turnover ratio this season and Jones is responsible for about half of New York’s turnovers. He’s thrown 11 interceptions and two of his three fumbles were lost. Jones himself knows that he has to take better care of the ball and said so in his press conference Thursday.
When asked what the one thing he wants to polish up when the offseason begins, Jones said, “There’s a number of things. Ball security is obviously the big thing and making sure that I’m doing my part in protecting the ball. Making sure as an offense we’re protecting the ball. That way it gives us the best chance to win. That’s the most important thing in these last two weeks, is to win games. My role in that, ball security plays a big part in that. I think that’s the one thing.”
So he’s well aware that this is a problem. No turnovers against Washington would be a great first step in polishing up his ball security.
Keep Saquon hot
Prior to last week, Saquon Barkley had just 610 yards and two touchdowns on 154 attempts this season. That’s an average of 61 yards per game and 3.96 yards per carry.
Last week against Miami, Barkley recorded 112 yards and two touchdowns on 24 attempts, which averages to 4.7 yards per carry. Keeping him hot is going to be huge this week, but it’s not going to be easy. Eli Manning is a veteran who can call out protections without having to think about it. Jones isn’t as versed in NFL defenses, which could cause problems for Barkley.
Pat Shurmur and Mike Shula may have to get creative to get Barkley his touches, but it’s something that needs to happen. With just two games left on the season, Barkley is less than 300 yards from hitting the 1,000 mark. There’s no reason to think he can’t get there, as long as he’s getting his touches. Getting the ground game going will be huge for DJ’s passing ability, so the Giants need to figure
