Big Blue View
The New York Giants defeated the Los Angeles Chargers, 21-18, in Jaxson Dart’s first career start. Dart became the first quarterback in the last 20 years to win his first career start against a team that was 3-0 or better, according to CBS.
Dart did not set the world ablaze against a Jesse Minter coached defense that allowed just 158 passing yards per game before Week 4. Dart finished 13 of 20 for 111 yards (5.6 average) with one passing touchdown; he added 54 yards on the ground on ten carries, along with a rushing touchdown. Dart was sacked five times.
The rookie quarterback had a 65% completion rate with a +0.63 clean pocket EPA per dropback, and a 96.0 passer rating. His overall EPA per dropback was -0.06.
The Chargers primarily used nickel personnel (60% of the time) and they used a few different DIME personnel looks as well (24% of the time), while blitzing at a season high 47% rate; a lot of those “blitzes” were simulated pressures, but the rate was still higher than any of the previous three games.
Overall, one must be pleased with a rookie quarterback who won a game after losing the fulcrum of the offense to a torn ACL. Still, the game plan was rudimentary from a passing perspective, which allowed the Giants to run the football 42 times. The Giants rushed 27 times against the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 3, which was their previous high of the season. When an offense leads the entire game, running the football becomes a conservative crutch to lean on as the clock gets closer to zero.
The Giants did not reinvent the wheel with Dart under center. The offense was rudimentary and conservative, but the threat of the rookie’s legs kept defenders in place. The Giants’ rushing plays were tagged with RPOs that also forced defenders to exhibit discipline. Fake tosses to the outside horizontally displaced defenders, which created openings for backside routes.
Nine of Dart’s 13 completions were either passes to the flat, a simple three-route shallow horizontal stretch combination, or a shovel pass underneath (the Theo Johnson touchdown). Dart found the stick route (once to Malik Nabers and twice to Darius Slayton) on the aforementioned horizontal stretch combination. His other four completions were a pair of 13-yard passes to Daniel Bellinger and Nabers, as well as the 18-yard comeback to Darius Slayton, and the 10-yard catch to help seal the game to Theo Johnson.
Let’s go through those five completions.
On the Giants’ opening drive, Dart foundNabers over the middle of the field for 13 yards one play before calling his own number on the 15-yard QB draw for a touchdown:
New York aligned in an EMPTY formation and ran a switch release to the three receiver side that occupied the safety. Nabers was aligned as the slot receiver on the two-receiver side on this first-and-10 play. Minter dropped two defensive linemen off as underneath defenders or...
