Big Blue View
There isn’t much positive to say about the New York Giants after their embarrassing 34-24 defeat by the San Francisco 49ers. Pro Football Focus grades can often tell us something about who played well and who didn’t, but when a good part of the problem is the coaches, as it seemed to be yesterday, we have to think about them in a different light. Let’s try to do that.
First, let’s look at the offense as a whole, because it has something interesting to tell us:
This is a team that had put 10 points on the board with 8 minutes left in the game against an opponent missing its All-Pro edge defender and linebacker, as well as several other starters. Yet according to PFF, five Giants offensive players played very well, another seven played at or a little above average, and only five were below average, none of them awful. That’s what happens when your coaches give you an unimaginative offensive game plan that involves few downfield shots, lots of passes short of the sticks, lots of keepers that let your prized rookie quarterback take needless hits, and taking a field goal on 4th and goal when you’re on your opponent’s 3-yard line down 13 in the second half. Everyone gets a good grade when the exam is easy. Keep that in mind as we look at position groups below.
Let’s start with the QB:
Jaxson Dart played well yesterday, although you wouldn’t necessarily know that from his meager 191 yards passing. Dart was only pressured 25.6% of the time and when kept clean he was 24 of 29 for all of his 191 yards, with 2 TDs, 2 big-time throws, and no turnover-worthy plays, grading 81.0. When pressured he was 0 of 4. His grade when blitzed was a poor 47.7, but he was still 3 of 5 with a TD.
The problem was his distribution of passes:
Only two passes were thrown more than 15 yards downfield, one of them completed to Gunner Olszewski for a TD and the other a potential TD that was stripped out of Darius Slayton’s hands as the fell to the ground in the end zone. The pass distribution reflects the conservative routes called for by Mike Kafka – you might have thought the Giants were celebrating a Joe Judge – Jason Garrett Ring of Honor induction the way the offense was run. The Giants’ coaches clearly have no confidence in their receivers to make explosive plays in the absence of Malik Nabers. There are ways to beat the 49ers’ Cover 3 and quarters zone defenses, using seam and post routes, flood concepts, etc., but this staff seems to avoid that. Dart deserves better.
Olszewski’s catch is a great example of PFF’s grading system for receivers. One target, one reception, TD, open between two defenders, nice back-shoulder catch (and a great pass by Dart). That’s how you grade almost 90:
The rest of the receivers were just...
