Whoever the head coach and general manager of the New York Giants are next season, they won’t be able to replace all 53 players. That’s about the only reason I can think of to look at Pro Football Focus grades and snap counts for a game as dispiriting as the New York Giants’ 16-13 loss to the Minnesota Vikings. To be honest, the defense had one of its better games of the season. The same can’t be said for the offense, at least for the passing game. Let’s take a look.
Offense
PFF grades
First let’s look at the entire
offense:
There were actually some good performances on the offense yesterday. Unfortunately few of them were by the skill players, who can be found mostly at the bottom of the chart. The one thing to point out is nine penalties by the offense, which is awful.
Let’s move on to the passing game, such as it was:
Jaxson Dart usually handles the blitz well; in fact 8 of his 13 TD passes this season have come when blitzed even though he’s only been blitzed on about one-third of his dropbacks. Not yesterday, though. Brian Flores dialed up blitzes on 57.9% of Dart’s dropbacks, and Dart completed only four passes in seven attempts for 8 yards. Were there not “hot reads” for Dart to go to? Was he just unable to find them? Whatever the reason, this was Dart’s worst game as a Giant.
One way to counter the blitz is to use play action or RPOs. The Giants have used play action on 25% of Dart’s dropbacks this season. Not yesterday, though. Mike Kafka called for play action only three times. He shares responsibility for Dart’s poor game. Dart didn’t even throw a pass until 1:44 was left in the second quarter.
How about the pass protection?
Dart was sacked five times and had two more potential sacks negated by unnecessary roughness penalties for helet-to-helmet hits. Only one was charged to his blockers. Dart was charged with one sack allowed by PFF, which means the other three came from unblocked rushers. The one sack charged to a blocker was Theo Johnson’s fault, part of his miserable overall game. Most of the offensive linemen played all right when asked to pass block, especially John Michael Schmitz before his injury, Jermaine Eluemunor, and Marcus Mbow. Mbow did give up 2 hurries after replacing Andrew Thomas, who gave up a hurry in four snaps before injuring a hamstring and leaving the game.
Now the run blocking:
The Giants actually had one of their best run blocking efforts of the season. Thomas, Jermaine Eluemunor, Austin Schlottman, and JMS all blocked well, and Aaron Stinnie, Mbow, and Greg Van Roten were all average or close to it.
Now, the receiving:
There wasn’t much of it to grade as Mike Kafka kept Jaxson Dart in bubble wrap most of the game, but the Giants’ two best receivers yesterday were running backs, which pretty well sums things up. Darius Slayton had another drop, at a crucial point in the fourth quarter when the game was still up for grabs. And speaking of drops, Theo Johnson dropped the ball literally and figuratively yesterday, twice. One of those led to an undeserved interception of Dart by Byron Murphy.
Finally, the running backs:
Nothing spectacular, but Tyrone Tracy and Devin Singletary both had solid games. As usual the bulk of their yards were after contact. Tracy had two explosive runs and forced four missed tackles. Note that Dart carried the ball only twice yesterday, one on a QB sneak. Personally I feel that it’s a mistake to take that part of his game away. There’s a middle ground to be found.
Snap counts
- Dart played the entire game, but only three offensive linemen did because of the Andrew Thomas and JMS injuries. They were replaced by Mbow and Schlottman, respectively.
- Chris Manhertz and Daniel Bellinger combined played almost as many snaps as Theo Johnson, who played all but two, i.e., the Giants were almost exclusively in multiple TE sets.
- Robinson played almost every snap, Slayton most of the snaps, and Isaiah Hodgins 36% of snaps. Other than Gunner Olszewski, who played a single snap, no other WRs played on offense.
- Tyrone Tracy played a bit more than half of the snaps.
Defense
PFF grades
Here are the overall defense grades:
It was one of the defense’s best efforts of the season, what a shame for it to be wasted by an inept offensive effort. Let’s look at the details, starting with the pass rush:
This is an example of numbers not telling us the whole story. Abdul Carter had another great game, with six pressures including a sack … except for his penalty for lining up in the neutral zone which negated Jevon Holland’s pick-six. Arguably the Giants come away with a win if not for that. Of course then the No. 1 draft pick wouldn’t be so much in play, so take the good with the bad. Dexter Lawrence actually had six pressures yesterday including a QB hit. Chauncey Golston saw a decent bit of action for a change and had his best game as a Giant, with a sack and a hurry. Brian Burns had two more sacks but did nothing else in the pass rush. The rest of the IDL, as usual, was just…there.
Now, the pass coverage:
Again, more good performances than we’re used to from this defense. Maybe Charlie Bullen was the right choice. Admittedly this was against two rookie quarterbacks. Bobby Okereke awoke from his two-year slumber to have his best game of the season, giving up only two catches in three targets for 8 yards. Paulson Adebo had his best game of the season, with only one reception for 6 yards and an interception. Jevon Holland only allowed one catch for 2 yards and should have had a pick-six. Tyler Nubin was victimized for two receptions and 27 yards but he did have the 27-yard fumble return for a TD, even though we’re still waiting for his first INT. Cor’Dale Flott gave up a reception for 16 yards before being injured. His replacement, Deonte Banks, also graded poorly but only gave up one catch for 6 yards.
Finally, the run defense:
Again, we’re unaccustomed to seeing a Giants defense play the run well, but for the most part they did yesterday. Chauncey Golston’s great game included 4 tackles, all of them stops, an assist, and no missed tackles. In fact the Giants only missed two tackles all day,by far their best effort. Bobby Okereke completed the trifecta by playing well in run defense,with eight tackles, an assist, and only one miss. Jevon Holland and Tyler Nubin were strong in run support, and when if ever have I been able to say that? On the other end, there were a few subpar performances including Abdul Carter, Roy Robertson-Harris, Elijah Chatman, and Deonte Banks, who had the other missed tackle in his only tackle attempt.
Snap counts
- Abdul Carter was on the field for all but a few snaps, Brian Burns for 72% of snaps, and Chauncey Golston for 41%, continuing his pattern of usage since returning from injury. Tomon Fox got 18% of snaps.
- Dexter Lawrence played 85% of snaps, Roy Robertson-Harris 62%, Darius Alexander 41%, Elijah Chatman 31%, and D.J. Davidson only 10%.
- Bobby Okereke as usual played every snap, and Darius Muasau 57%.
- Paulson Adebo played every snap and Cor’Dale Flott 54% due to his injury. Deonte Banks mostly got the rest, with Korie Black only playing 3 snaps. Dru Phillips played 46% of snaps, almost all in the slot.
- Jevon Holland played every snap, Tyler Nubin 82%, and Dane Belton 64%, i.e., the Giants were in dime a lot of the time.
