The New Orleans Saints are traveling to New York/New Jersey to take on the Giants. The Giants are actually doing very well under first-year head coach Jim Harbaugh, especially considering they lost starting quarterback Jaxson Dart for the season. The Giants are 3-1-1 on the year right now and are feeling very confident.
The Giants’ defense is led by Dennard Wilson, who was with the Titans last season. The Saints struggled against the Vikings’ heavy-pressure defense, and Wilson and the Giants will
bring a lot of the same. The two most blitz-heavy defenses last week were the Vikings and Giants, respectively.
The Giants are not as formidable as the Vikings, but they are still a very good defense nonetheless. Currently, they rank 15th in total defense and seventh in passing defense. The advantage the Saints would like to exploit would be against their run defense, which ranks 25th in the league.
They are also a top-10 scoring defense, allowing only 21.2 points per game. They rank third in the league in interceptions with six and have eight total takeaways on the season.
The Saints’ offense does not match up too well against this defense. The struggles they experienced last week in the Dome could very well plague them again on the road.
The best way for the Saints to attack this team would be through the running game, but that’s something the Saints have yet to figure out how to do consistently.
New Orleans will have to find a way to get the offense into third-and-manageable situations. The Giants rank 27th in the league in third-down defense, and if the Saints can find a way to stay ahead of the chains, they could potentially find themselves in the red zone.
If they make it into the red zone, this is another area where the Giants’ defense struggles. They allow touchdowns on 69.2% of opponents’ red-zone possessions.
Third-down and red-zone conversions are actually strengths for this Saints offense, as they currently rank sixth in third-down conversion rate and third in red-zone touchdown conversion rate.
The problem is that they are either giving the ball away or putting themselves behind the chains with pre-snap penalties and poor execution in the running game.
The Saints have a chance, but which Saints team will travel to New York? Will it be the team that went to Baltimore and upset the Ravens for their lone win of the season, or the team that embarrassed themselves against the Falcons?
