Giants get a hard-fought victory, but lose their best offensive player
Hey, the New York Giants won a football game on Sunday. Let’s see if we remember how to write about a victory, something we have rarely had a chance to do here at Big Blue View the past couple of seasons.
Kudos to …
Jaxson Dart — Head coach Brian Daboll said Dart’s performance wasn’t perfect. Dart agreed. It was, though, something the Giants had only experienced once in their previous 15 games a victory.
The Giants did not ask Dart to carry too much of a load in the passing game. He went 13 of 20 for just 111 yards and took five sacks, at least a couple of them his own fault for not getting rid of the ball. He ran for 54 yards and a touchdown, though. He did not turn the ball over. None of his passes, in fact, were thrown into real danger.
Dart played with toughness that has to be infectious. He worked through a left hamstring injury that mostly took the designed quarterback run out of the Giants’ playbook. He worked through the loss of star wide receiver Malik Nabers. He took hits and kept getting up, saying only that “it was just a football game.”
Dart made winning plays. None were bigger than a third-and-5 completion for 13 yards and a first down to Theo Johnson that put the Giants in position to run out the clock with 2:38 remaining against a Chargers team that had no timeouts remaining. It was a play that Dart and Johnson had basically drawn up in the dirt, modifying the way it is designed in Daboll’s playbook.
Dexter Lawrence — We wondered throughout the season’s first three weeks when the game-changing version of the best defensive tackle in football would show up. That happened in the first half on Sunday when Lawrence batted a Justin Herbert pass into the air, intercepted it and rumbled 37 yards to the Chargers’ 3-yard line to set up a Jude McAtamney field goal.
Lawrence did finish with just one tackle, but it was for a loss. I guess that if you are going to make plays, you might as well make big ones.
Lawrence, though, is going to need to explain getting tackled by a quarterback inside the 5-yard line.
Cam Skattebo — The rookie running back averaged only 3.2 yards per carry, but toted the rock 25 times. Combined with what Dart did on the ground and through the air, Skattebo kept churning out just enough yardage to keep the Giants’ offense on schedule. Like Dart, he plays with a toughness and energy that have to rub off on his teammates.
Abdul Carter/Kayvon Thibodeaux/Brian Burns — What Carter, Thibodeaux and Burns did on Sunday was what Giants defensive coordinator Shane Bowen — and Giants fans — dreamed about when Carter was selected No. 3 overall. They took advantage of an already-wounded Chargers offensive line that saw star left tackle Joe Alt suffer an ankle injury early in the game to make life miserable for Los Angeles quarterback Justin Herbert.
Burns had five tackles, one four loss, four quarterback hits and a crucial fourth-quarter sack of Herbert on a third-and-9 that forced the Chargers to punt right around the three-minute mark. Los Angeles didn’t get the ball back until there were :18 left in the game. One of Burns’ quarterback hits came on an interception by Dru Phillips. Pro Football Focus credited Burns with six total pressures.
Carter had five quarterbacks, with PFF crediting the rookie with an astounding nine pressures.. One of Carter’s QB hits came on third-and-5 at the Giants 15-yard line and forced Herbert into a harassed intentional grounding penalty that led to a field goal. Carter also had a pressure on a third-and-2 early in the fourth quarter that forced a Los Angeles punt.
Thibodeaux finished with two tackles, one for loss, a sack and three quarterback hits. PFF gave him credit for five pressures.
Per NextGen Stats, with slightly different numbers than PFF:
The Giants pressured Justin Herbert on 47.7% of dropbacks despite Herbert averaging a 2.63-second time to throw.
Abdul Carter (8), Brian Burns (6) and Kayvon Thibodeaux (6) each generated multiple pressures against the Chargers offensive line. The Chargers were without left tackle Joe Alt (ankle), who left the game midway through the first quarter and did not return. Alt’s replacement, Austin Deculus, allowed a team-high six pressures on his pass-blocking snaps.
Dru Phillips — The second-year slot cornerback was picked on repeatedly during the first three weeks of the season. The way he played on Sunday, teams might reconsider that strategy.
Brian Daboll — The move to Dart by the Giants’ head coach paid off. The Giants should have beaten the Dallas Cowboys in Week 2, though we know they got in their own way, and should be 2-2. This will quell the noise around the embattled coach for a while, especially if the Giants can defeat the New Orleans Saints next week.
The Giants played hard even after the demoralizing loss to injury of Malik Nabers.
As much criticism as Daboll has deservedly been getting, today is not a day for that.
Wet Willies to …
Football Gods — Can’t the Giants ever be allowed to have nice things? And keep them? So many great things happened for the Giants on Sunday. An upset victory over a good team. Promising play from Dart. Some game-altering plays on defense. And yet, a lot of the air was taken out of the excitement by the likely season-ending injury to Malik Nabers.
Couldn’t the Football Gods have given the Giants a single day to feel good without throwing some cold water on it. Sheesh!
Kwillies to …
Jude McAtamney — The second-year placekicker, who played in just one game for the Giants last season, made chippy field goals of 22 and 31 yards. That was fine. I doubt, though, that putting two kickoffs into the end zone for touchbacks, with the ball coming out to the 35-yard line, was part of the plan. All in all, though, if he makes kicks then it’s all good.
Offensive line — Dart was sacked five times and the Giants averaged just 3.8 yards per carry. Look at those numbers and you would think the line deserved a ‘Wet Willie’ instead of even moderate praise. I would disagree.
The pressure on Dart was often the rookie quarterback’s own fault for holding the ball too long and at times trying to do too much. The Giants did run the ball well enough to get 42 carries in the game for 161 yards. Sure, you’d like to get a little more out of 42 carries and you’d like to get a little better work in short-yardage but 161 yards is nothing to sneeze at. Without spoiling Tony DelGenio’s Monday look at the PFF grades, three of the five Giants’ offensive linemen graded out very well in PFF’s early scoring.
Deonte Banks — The much-maligned third-year cornerback had a defensive holding penalty that gave the Chargers, trying to mount a comeback, a first down with less than five minutes to play. He was one of the two Giants in coverage on a 36-yard touchdown pass to Quentin Johnston. Banks, though, had a pass defensed, had a fourth-and-2 interception nullified by a penalty on Carter and contributed a pass breakup. Oh, and he snuck in a 33-yard kickoff return in his first action in that role as an NFL player.
Category: General Sports
