Big Blue View
The New York Giants have seemingly made their decision on their outside cornerback opposite Paulson Adebo, and it appears to be Cor’Dale Flott.
Cornerbacks Flott and Deonte Banks have split snaps as the “starting” outside cornerback opposite Adebo all year long, dating back to training camp. When the Giants released their initial depth chart, they listed Flott and Banks as “co-starters” on the outside. They held to that through the first four games, rotating the two players over the course of the game.
Then something seemingly changed in Week 5. Banks was coming off his most active — and best — week against the Chargers, only to play just 8 snaps against the New Orleans Saints. He then played just 3 defensive snaps against the Philadelphia Eagles.
To be fair, Flott was generally more consistent and is a more versatile corner. He is more advanced at the catch point and his game more easily lends itself to blending man and zone principles. At the same time, Banks was flagged for a pass interference penalty against the Saints that wiped out a Jevon Holland interception and marked the start of the Giants’ collapse.
Fans and writers alike wondered why the Giants even bothered putting Banks on the field in the first month of the season. That led to a certain amount of satisfaction when the third year corner was a virtual non-presence against the Philadelphia Eagles. We’ve seen proclamations from several outlets that Thursday night’s game, and Flott’s game-sealing interception, have ended the experiment.
And that may be, or even probably is, the case.
However, it’s also possible that the snap distribution against the Eagles was planned — something of a one-off and part of the plan to facilitate the gameplan.
Tony Del Genio noted in our staff chat that reports prior to Thursday Night Football indicated that the Giants could abandon the rotation and rely solely on Flott opposite Adebo against the Eagles.
I responded that “Man coverage makes less sense tonight. Banks has been awesome at forcing tight windows, but Flott is definitely better at zone coverage.”
I won’t rehash my entire preview of the Eagles offense, but zone coverage and disciplined defense was the key to the Broncos suffocating the Eagles in Week 5.
That’s notable because the Broncos are the NFL’s premier man coverage team. They ran man coverage at the highest rate in the NFL through Week 5, calling it on 62.8 percent of plays per FieldVisionSports. That’s a full 5 points higher than the next highest rate and 9 points higher than the man-heavy defense called by the Giants this year.
Yet the Broncos flipped the script against the Eagles and used zone coverage to keep the play in front of them while also preventing the running game form getting on track.
The Giants clearly went to school on the Broncos defense and used zone coverage and disciplined rushes to frustrate the Philly defense (much to the frustration of some fans who wanted them to...
