There were plenty of stories that came out of the New York Giants 36-24 win over the Arizona Cardinals in Week 4.
One of the biggest was how the Giants’ defense transformed itself after the Cardinals’ second drive. The story of the game has been how the Giants’ front seven took over the game, but the development of the secondary was just as important.
Veteran cornerback Greg Newsome II has been a steady presence on the outside for the Giants, and was one of three players to intercept Jacobi Brissett
on Sunday. His experience and demeanor has led to him becoming one of the leaders on the back end of the Giants’ defense.
He was careful, though, to credit front seven players like Abdul Carter, Brian Burns, Tremaine Edmunds, and D.J. Reader.
“Guys are hunting,” Newsome said. “Guys are giving us chances to get our hands on footballs. It’s also great in the secondary that we’re playing tight coverage. We’re getting our heads around and just trying to find the football. But, like I said, once again, it’s rush and coverage working together, so without those guys up front, we wouldn’t have 14. Shout out to those guys up front.”
We anticipated before the season that Dennard Wilson would want to base his defense on “Step” coverage — that is, coverage with the cornerback within a step of the receiver. The philosophy is to challenge quarterbacks to consistently make tight window throws. Each of the Giants’ corners has upside in press-man coverage, and Newsome has been one of the best in the NFL in playing tight coverage.
The tight coverage combined with the pressure generated by the Giants’ front seven has the Giants among the league leaders in takeaways. The Giants are tied for third with eight total turnovers and tied for first in the NFL with six interceptions.
Newsome explained that the Giants’ secondary makes a point of practicing taking the ball away during the week.
“First, our coaches. Just how we structure practice,” he said. “We’re always doing takeaway things before we get into team activities and things like that. Obviously, I think our d-line, our front seven, the guys that are blitzing. I think they’re doing a great job of just pressuring the quarterback, affecting the quarterback, and just giving us a chance to make plays out there.”
It didn’t look so good to start the game against the Cardinals. The Giants’ defense made some plays, but were ultimately little more than a speedbump on the Cardinals’ first two drives. While the interior of the Giants’ defense was stout against Arizona’s runs, the perimeter proved vulnerable to well-schemed off-tackle runs.
The game was flipped on its head when Dennard Wilson began to call a much more aggressive defense and used the Giants’ speed to disrupt the Cardinals’ running game as well as their passing attack. That put the ball in Brissett’s hand and Brissett in less advantageous positions.
“Them stopping the run makes teams one-dimensional,” Newsome said. “It helps us out on the back end. It helps the linebackers not have to bite up on play fakes and things like that. I think with them doing such a great job up there with the front seven, it definitely helps our job, and just getting them on passing downs, allowing our guys to go up there and attack, so I think they’ve been doing an amazing job.”
This Giants team is playing with much more confidence and tenacity than fans are used to seeing from their squad. It shows in how they’ve won their last two games: Walk-off interceptions in the closing seconds of the game. However, John Harbaugh seems to be channeling Han Solo and is coaching his players to not let their confidence turn into cockiness.
“We’re underdogs every week, so that’s enough humbling for us,” Newsome said. “We’ve got to continue to keep going 1-0 each week. We don’t get too high, we don’t get too low. It’s a long season, so it’s great to be 3-1, but we have a lot of football left to play.”
Newsome mentioned “going 1-0”, which has been the message from the Giants’ front office and coaches. Observers noticed that the Giants’ brass was wearing tee shirts emblazoned with a “1-0” prior to Sunday’s game. The message is that the players need to focus on getting to a 1-0 record each week. The team seems to have bought into the mantra while they embrace the underdog mentality.
“I think we have a lot of vets in here that have played meaningful football that know how much each win matters,” Newsome said. “So we just focus on the next opponent. We don’t really care too much about the last game. It’s in the past, and now we’ve got to find a way to go 1-0 this week.”
The Giants have a 3-1 record and lead the NFC East, but you wouldn’t know it from how Newsome says the team is carrying itself.
“For sure you can play with an underdog mentality,” he said. “3-1 can easily turn into 3-14. That can easily do that. If you’re not careful enough, and if you have too much – if you’re not humble, you will get humbled. So, at the end of the day, we have to continue to have that mindset that we had in the beginning of the season, and we’re going to carry it the entire way. We definitely will keep that mindset.”
