This weekend the Giants play their first divisional game and have a chance to move within a half a game of first in the division. Here are some key points for a Giant victory.
Pick up the blitz
Daniel Jones is the most blitzed quarterback this season. His 69 times he was blitzed is ten more than the next quarterback who happens to be Dak Prescott. Three other young quarterbacks round out the top five – Josh Allen, Sam Darnold and Joe Burrow, Carson Wentz comes in at number six. The combined record of these top six quarterbacks for times blitzed are 7-15-2. It is interesting to note that 4 of the 5 top blitzed quarterbacks are 24 years old or younger. The site nfldraftnetwork.com had two of their three draft profiles on Jones as raising issues with his poise under pressure. Is this something teams are keying on and blitzing Jones more? Jones’ pocket time before pressure collapses the pocket of 2.5 seconds is 10th best in the league. That would indicate the blame does not fully rest on the offensive line. Daniel Jones is fearless in the face of the blitz and will stand in the pocket waiting for the open receiver. Some reports have Jones as being relatively unfazed production wise when blitzed. Anyways picking up the blitz should help Daniel Jones in the game and to make positive as opposed to negative plays.
Run the ball
The Giants are last in the league in rushing attempts with 78 over four games. On a positive note they had their highest rushing attempts of the season in their last game with 25 and a season high 5.4 yards per carry. The Giants net yards per pass attempt of 4.94 yards is 30th in the league. Their 3.92 yards per rush attempt is 24th in the league. The difference between them of 1.02 yards is 28th in the league. The league average of rush attempts is 104.6 over four games. At 78 rush attempts the Giants are well below the average. With such a low difference between pass attempt average and rush average you would expect the Giants to rush more often. It helped against the Rams to eat up the clock. We had our highest time of possession for the season. For the first time we went over half the game with 33:17 time of possession. This will be a key against Dallas to minimize the time the Dallas offense has on the field. The line had nice blocking on the Wayne Gallman run in the Rams game for 26 yards. The Giants need to continue the higher rush attempts.
Keep targeting Engram
Daniel Jones is 28th in the league in intended air yards per pass attempt at 6.6 yards. With a quick short pass attack the yards after the catch is a critical function. Evan Engram leads all Giants in yards after the catch per reception with 5.0 yards. The next closest Giant is Golden Tate at two yards. That is a concern for prior to this season Tate led all wide receivers in most yards after the catch for the previous five seasons. Tate needs to pick up that aspect of his game. But in the mean time continue to ride the hot hand with Engram in yards after the catch. Engram also leads the Giants in targets. So continue to target Engram at a high level and get those yards after the catch.
Contain Dak Prescott
This season Prescott has rushed 16 times for 8 first downs, 3 touchdowns, a 5.4 yard average and 21.5 yards per game. In addition Prescott plays well when outside the pocket. In November 2017 Pro Football Focus had Prescott with the second highest passer rating outside the pocket. The following diagram from FiveThirtyEight.com from 2019 has Dallas as one of the top ten teams in excelling from outside the pocket.
Stop the Run Game
In the last 20 regular season games (2019-2020) Dallas has lost 8 of the 11 games where they rushed for under 5 yards per carry. Their win percentage was 27th in the league for teams rushing under 5 yards per carry. They rushed for over 100 yards in only three of the 11 games and two of those were losses. two of there there losses this season were with under 5 yards per carry and under 100 yards rushing.
The Giants are only 1.5 games out of first in the NFC East. A win against Dallas would put them in a great position in the division. The Eagles play the Steelers and Washington the Rams. The Steelers are undefeated and the Rams are 3-1. The Eagles and Washington could both easily lose those games. If so a win by the Giants would put them only half a game out of first. Go Giants!
