Big Blue View
The New York Giants 2025 season is winding down, with just three more games before we get to the offseason.
The Giants will face the Minnesota Vikings in Week 16, as the two struggling teams try to end on a positive note. The Vikings are currently 6-8 on the season and riding a 2-game winning streak after beating the Washington Commanders and Dallas Cowboys.
The Vikings were fielding one of the NFL’s worst offenses prior to Week 14, scoring 19, 17, 6, and 0 points from Week 10 to Week 13. Over the last two weeks, however, they’ve scored 31 and 37 points and racked up 640 total yards.
The Giants, meanwhile, have had a highly disappointing defense that’s largely failed to live up to expectations or its talent level. Can the Giants’ defense do enough for the team to notch a win as 2025 winds down?
If we can sum up the Giants’ issues on defense in a single word, “discipline” is likely the most apt. They have talent on the defensive side of the ball, and there are indivudual flashes on most plays. However, defense — and run defense in particular — is a team game, and the defense’s most persistent issue has been lapses in discipline compromisign the overall structure of the defense.
Too often against the Commanders we saw instances of multiple defenders attacking the same hole, leaving a free escape elsewhere, losing contain or not understanding where help is, or biting too hard on play-action.
In coverage, there were a few too many instances of the defender seeming to guess on the route, turning the wrong way at the break or playing short routes only to react late to deep routes.
Kevin O’Connell’s scheme for the Vikings’ offense will likely try to exploit lapses in discipline on the Giants’ defense. Minnesota makes heavy use of play-action to slow pass rushers while pulling second and third level defenders out of position. O’Connell even uses jet motion from receivers to create a run-action fake in the absence of a run threat from the back.
They frequently combine their play-action with bootleg rollouts, taking advantage of J.J. McCarthy’s athleticism to move the pocket, change angles, and create separation from pass rushers. Those rollouts can transition into quarterback scrambles if the opportunity presents itself. The Vikings also make use of designed quarterback runs as well as read-option plays in their offense.
The good news is that the Giants did show improved discipline at times against the Commanders. They did a much better job of being assignment sound last week, particularly early in the game.
The Giants’ front seven does an excellent job of holding then discarding blocks, keeping themselves clean, and flowing to the ball. Bobby Okereke has the running back, while Brian Burns and Roy Robertson-Harris wash the blockers down. Darius Muasau takes on the pulling tight end, with Dane Belton and Tyler Nubin coming downhill as erasers. They aren’t necessary as Okereke fills his gap...
