The New York Giants will emerge from their long-awaited bye week to take on a reeling divisional foe in the Washington Commanders.
Neither team is where they expected to be at this point in the season. Prior to the season, Washington was hoping to build on Jayden Daniels’ meteoric rookie season and their NFC Championship appearance. The Giants, meanwhile, were expecting a bevy of defensive investments to pay off while rookie Jaxson Dart developed.
Now, the Giants are 2-11 while the Commanders are 3-10
and dwelling in the cellar of the NFC.
The Commanders are familiar foes for the Giants as NFC East rivals, and we have a pretty good idea of what the Washington offense wants to do, and how they’ll go about it. That familiarity usually makes for some competitive games between division rivals.
This game, however, there are some bigger overarching questions for both the Giants’ defense and the Washington offense.
- How will the Giants’ defense emerge from their bye week?
- Can the Giants slow down Washington’s run game?
- Will Jayden Daniels play?
Let’s take a closer look at those questions as we get ready for Sunday’s game.
A recharged defense?
The Giants’ defense has been, in a single word, putrid this year. Their pass defense has been better than their run defense, but that’s a low bar to cross. Just about every starter except Brian Burns and Cor’Dale Flott either regressed in Shane Bowen’s second year as defensive coordinator. Some may have expected a defensive turnaround when Bowen was fired after the Giants’ overtime loss to the Detroit Lions, but that was never really going to happen.
We did see some changes in how interim defensive coordinator Charlie Bullen called the Giants’ defense, with more aggressive and creative blitz schemes against the Patriots.
The larger problem seems to be systemic and that needs more than a change in play caller to rectify. It takes time to fix the underlying system and for those changes to breed results. The Giants were never going to get that kind of time mid-season, but we’ll at least get to see this week if the pause and another week of practice leads to tangible results on the field.
We heard prior to the game against the Patriots that Bullen was concentrating on more fundamentals during practice. That’s something the Giants should have been emphasizing from OTAs onward, but hopefully we’ll get to see some sort of progress on that front. If a different mid-week process leads to better attention to detail, communication, and faster downhill play in the final four games, it’s a good sign for the off-season. That could show that coaching was the problem, not the talent in-house, and getting the coaching hire right could unleash the talent in 2026.
The other side of the bye week coin is on the injury front. The Giants’ defense was beat up over the month of November, losing Kayvon Thibodeaux, Paulson Adebo, Jevon Holland, Tyler Nubin, Deonte Banks, Cor’Dale Flott,
The Giants hope that Thibodeaux will be back from the shoulder injury that cost him the three games prior to the bye week. Likewise, Dexter Lawrence will have had time to get further treatment on the elbow that’s plagued him since last year. We probably shouldn’t expect either player to be fully healthy, but getting Thibodeaux back and Lawrence being more disruptive in the middle would certainly help a beleaguered defensive front. Likewise, getting the secondary back as close to full strength as possible would go a long way toward dealing with Deebo Samuel and Terry McLaurin.
The health of the Giants’ defense coming out of the bye could go a long way toward determining this game.
Can the Giants stop the run? At all?
The last time these two teams met, Washington put up 220 yards and 2 touchdowns on the ground, averaging 6.9 yards per carry.
It was a warning sign of what was to come, and the Giants simply haven’t been able to consistently slow down opposing rushing offenses all season. There have been stretches within games where they’ve had some success, however they always seem to give up a big play before wilting.
The Giants’ defense is coming off of one of their best performances of the season, giving up just 119 yards on the ground to the New England Patriots. We mentioned Charlie Bullen emphasizing fundamentals in run fits and tackling in the Giants’ practices before Monday Night Football, and the team did seem to respond. It does bear mentioning that the Patriots’ offensive line was depleted by injury, but the Giants’ secondary and linebackers did improve in how they fit the run.
We’ll need to see more of that improvement this week against the Commanders. Even if Jayden Daniels doesn’t play — more on that in a bit — they will still want to base their offense on their rushing attack. Washington has a formidable rushing offense, even with Daniels missing a significant amount of time this year, and it absolutely makes sense that they’d want to rely on it.
The Commanders are 11th in rushing attempts, 6th in yards per attempt, and 4th in rushing yardage. Their rushing touchdowns lag a bit at 14th, but that shouldn’t detract from the threat their running game poses.
The Giants’ first priority on defense needs to be to blunt their rushing attack, and force the ball into the quarterback’s hands.
Obviously, the injuries to Jayden Daniels play a role, but the fact of the matter is that Washington’s passing attack is much worse than their rushing attack at the moment. Where they have a Top 10, or even Top 5 rushing attack, their passing attack is generally ranks in the 20’s league-wide. Notably, Washington is 22nd in sack rate and 25th in interception rate, both of which could be opportunities for the Giants’ defense to generate the kind of big plays they’ve largely been unable to make this year.
Forcing the quarterback to beat them through the air could be most useful if Jayden Daniels’ elbow injury keeps him out. Marcus Mariota is a very good backup, but he’s not as dynamic (and personally dangerous) as Daniels, while also being more turnover prone.
Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores was aggressive in dialing up pressure against Washington’s offense this past week, and the Commanders were utterly unable to deal with Minnesota’s pressure packages. That could be significant as Charlie Bullen was much more aggressive and creative in scheming pressure against the Patriots. However, the Giants have to put the Commanders in passing situations to give themselves the opportunity to pressure the quarterback, whoever that may be.
Jayden Daniels absence
2015 second overall pick Marcus Mariota will make his eighth start of the year in place of Daniels, already ruled out because of his left elbow injury. Mariota has been a solid backup for the Commanders and his game mirrors Daniels’ closely enough that they don’t need to radically alter their offense when he’s in the game. Like Daniels, Mariota has a strong arm an can attack downfield to involve the duo of Terry McLaurin and Deebo Samuel. Mariota is also an athletic quarterback who can extend plays or pick up yards himself.
It’s also very notable that Washington will be without veterantight end Zach Ertz, who tore his ACL against the Vikings. They’ll likely turn to John Bates and Ben Sinnott in Ertz’s absence, though that is a significant step down. Ertz is the Commanders’ second leading receiver behind Deebo Samuel, with 31 more targets and 17 more catches than Terry McLaurin. He also leads the team in first down receptions with 25 on the season. The loss of Ertz is a significant one, and a potential break for the Giants.
In a common refrain, the Giants’ defense will need to be disciplined in their assignments against the Commanders. All 11 defenders will need to execute their run fits and waste little time in rallying to the ball in run defense. And when it comes to pressure, it doesn’t mean that they should only rely on a four-man rush and not bring pressure. But rather, everyone needs to be assignment sound when they do bring pressure. Rushers can’t freelance and create escape lanes for the quarterback, and coverage players need to be crisp in their communication and drops.
The Giants should have opportunities to get after the Washington quarterback, but they’ll need to avoid letting them off the hook with mental mistakes.
