Hogs Haven
Daniel Jones is 5-2-1 against Washington, but 0-1 against Jayden Daniels
It’s week 9 of the NFL season and the 6-2 Washington Commanders will be facing a 2-6 Giants team on the road in MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ on Sunday at 1:00 pm EDT. The Giants started the season getting blown out by the Vikings at home 28-6. The Giants went on to lose all but two of their next seven games, beating the Browns in week 3 and the Seahawks in week 5. The Giants last 3 games have been decisive, losing to the Bengals, Eagles, and Steelers by multiple scores.
On offense, the Giants are in their third year with Brian Daboll as HC, Michael John Kafka as OC, and Daniel Jones as starting QB. Daboll’s offense is similar to the offense he designed for QB Josh Allen in Buffalo, featuring lots of quick, short passes and QB scrambles to spread out the defense horizontally. Despite the stability in coaching and scheme, the offense has undergone some recent changes. Daboll took back playcalling duties from Kafka at the start of this season and has been running a very pass-heavy offense (with the 8th highest pass rate in the NFL). In addition, the Giants have attempted for the second time under Joe Schoen to rebuild their offensive line, signing all new starting guards and a new RT (Jermaine Eluemunor) in free agency. Although the offensive line looked improved earlier in the season, it is reeling from a season-ending injury to All Pro LT Andrew Thomas sustained in their week 6 matchup with the Bengals.
On defense, the Giants are led by DC Shane Bowen, formerly DC of the Titans under Mike Vrabel. Bowen runs mostly zone coverage and typically rushes 4 DL in a 1-gapped defensive front. Bowen calls blitzes at a 27% rate (13th most in the NFL), but much lower than their blitz-happy former DC Wink Martindale. The Giants have some great players on defense, including All Pro and DPOY candidate DT Dexter Lawrence and Pro Bowl DE Brian Burns, but the overall defense has been middle-of-the-pack so far, ranking 16th in defensive DVOA so far.
I asked Ed Valentine of Big Blue View five questions to better understand the state of the Giants and what to look for in this game.
1) Overall, what do you think of the job done by GM Joe Schoen and how does the Giants roster now compare to when he started?
I think Schoen’s performance has been a mixed bag. I think the philosophy/plan is on point. I don’t think the execution always matches up. The Giants had picks 5 and 7 in 2022 and got Kayvon Thibodeaux and Evan Neal. Not good enough.
I think that Schoen and the Giants actually were waylaid by the success they had in 2022. It led them to do things that they hadn’t planned on doing, like committing to Daniel Jones and trading for Darren Waller, rather than continuing on...
