The Giants had an team scrimmage on Friday that was televised on Saturday night. The quality of that television scrimmage left much to be desired. The TV production seemed like nothing more than highlight clips by quarter. Maybe the Giants did not want to show the Steelers more than that, Here are a few takeaways from the scrimmage TV presentation.
Lorenzo Carter was credited with 4 sacks in what were really like a two hand touch football game. It is highly questionable if any of those would have translated into actual sacks in a real game. However they were valuable i that they could be considered actual quarterback pressures. Carter got thru the offensive line and was able to get a hand on the quarterback while he had the ball. QB pressures are regarded by some NFL coaches as a better indication of how good a pass rush you have than sacks are. In 2019 Carter was second on the Giants in QB pressures. His 23 pressures in 2019 made the Giants one of only four team rosters in 2020 that have three players that had 23 or more pressures in 2019 as I document in my post Teams With Strong 2020 Rosters For QB Pressures.
Wayne Gallman scored two touchdowns in the game with a 44 yard touchdown run and a 5 yard touchdown reception. In 2019 Wayne Gallman’s 9.5 yards after the catch per reception would be tie for third best in the league but he only had 11 receptions. He would have needed 19 receptions to qualify for season stats.His receptions per broken tackle of 5.5 would have been ninth best if his receptions qualified. In addition Gallman had zero drops on his targets. Gallman had a decent 3.8 yards per attempt on rushes.
Graham Gano made all four of his field goal tries, including a 47-yarder and a 41-yard “game winner” as the clock expired.
Leonard Williams applied pressure to the quarterback. Though not credited with the sack there was one play that looked like he should have got credit on it. In 2019 Leonard Williams played only eight games as a Giants yet Williams was third on the team in quarterback hits, quarterback pressures and quarterback hurries. He was second on the Giants in quarterback knockdowns. Williams along with Lorenzo Carter and Markus Golden were the three players on the Giants that put the the Giants among the four teams mentioned in my article on teams with strong rosters for QB pressures.
Rookie Darnay Holmes had a nice pass breakup on a pass targeted to Sterling Shepard. Holmes suffered an injury late in the scrimmage that hopefully is not serious.
Getting close to the real season. I hope the next scrimmage televised on Friday September 4th will be a little more game like and not an abbreviated highlight film.
