Big Blue View
When your team’s offense puts 32 points on the board against one of the best defenses in the NFL, they should win. When your team’s defense shuts out its opponent for three quarters, it should win. Yet neither of those things happened yesterday. New York Giants’ players – and coaches, and general manager – looked at the 2010 Matt Dodge – DeSean Jackson game film and said, “Hold my beer.”
This game was as much on the coaching staff and general manager as it was on the players. Pro Football Focus doesn’t grade Joe Schoen, Brian Daboll, and Shane Bowen, though, so we’ll restrict this discussion to the performances of the players, and who was out on the field at the scene of the crime when it happened.
First, the offense as a whole:
Now the individual pieces. First, the passing. Jaxson Dart received PFF’s lowest grade of any Giants offensive player. That may surprise you (it surprised me), given his heroics and role in putting 32 points up against a good defense, but the detailed stats and pressure breakdown shed some light on their grade:
Dart was pressured on a bit more than a third of his dropbacks, a bit higher than is typical but not an unreasonable amount. Even when he was kept clean, he only completed 11 of 24 passes…albeit for 213 yards and 3 TDs. Dart overthrew Wan’Dale Robinson and Jalin Hyatt on critical throws that could have iced the game. More importantly, his interception, a big turning point in the game, came on a blitz, one of two turnover-worthy plays he had.
Now the offensive line. First the pass blocking:
The line was nothing short of outstanding yesterday. It allowed only one sack and six total pressures against the Broncos’ league-leading pass rush. Nik Bonitto, the NFL sacks leader, was rendered invisible by Andrew Thomas (85.5), so much so that Denver eventually waved the white flag and moved him to the other side… where Jermaine Eluemunor (83.5) did just about as good a job. Jon Runyan (81.5), Austin Schlottman (73.1), and Greg Van Roten (71.4) also pass blocked well, although Van Roten did give up one sack to Zach Allen.
Now the run blocking (shown for the offensive line only):
The run blocking was OK but not great. Jermaine Eluemunor (42.7) had a rough time, while everyone else was near or slightly below average, although Andrew Thomas did have that one great block on Tyrone Tracy’s TD run. The larger picture in this autopsy, though, is that the Giants’ offensive line isn’t dominant enough to dictate to the defense and just run out the clock, which is why Jaxson Dart threw his ill-fated pass on third down. Ideally, you run for three downs, but IMHO you do it to retain possession and just run the clock to zero, not to just take another 20 seconds off the board or force your opponent to take a time-out. The Giants gambled on...
