Hogs Haven
It’s week 15 of the NFL season and the 3-10 Washington Commanders will be facing a 2-11 New York Giants team on the road at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey on Sunday at 1:00 pm ET. The Commanders set the tone for the Giants season with a 21-6 drubbing of the Giants in week 1, and the Giants have gone on to win only two games since then, though those two games were against the Chargers and Eagles. Despite the poor record, the Giants season has shown some promise, with the emergence of QB Jaxson Dart and most of their losses being in 1-score games. HC Brian Daboll was fired after a week 10 loss to the Bears and OC Mike Kafka was promoted to interim HC.
On offense, the Giants are coached by OC and interim HC Mike Kafka. The Giants offense under Daboll ran primarily out of shotgun and made heavy use of RPOs once QB Jaxson Dart took over in week 4. When Kafka took over as HC, he introduced more Pistol formation and made a concerted effort to run Dart less and call more downfield passes. Overall, the Giants offense is ranked 15th in passing yards, 13th in rushing yards, and 23rd in total points.
On defense, the Giants were coached by DC Shane Bowen, former DC of the Tennessee Titans. However, Kafka fired Bowen after the Giants week 12 loss to the Detroit Lions due to the defense being unable all season to maintain a lead. Kafka promoted LB coach Charlie Bullen to interim DC, though the defense didn’t look any better giving up 33 points to the Patriots the very next week. The Giants are coming off a week 14 bye, so it will remain to be seen if the bye affords Bullen opportunity to change up the defensive scheme or playcalling. For the season so far, the Giants defense is ranked 24th against the pass, 31st against the run, and 30th in total points allowed.
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) QB Jaxson Dart seems to be mostly a success story, but struggles to stay out of harm’s way. Overall, what’s your scouting report on him, his strengths and weaknesses, and how confident are you (on a scale of 1-10) that he’s a franchise guy?
Dart, in my view, is absolutely a franchise quarterback. I have every bit as much confidence in Dart as Washington fans feel in Jayden Daniels.
Dart has plenty of arm talent, though not the strongest arm in the league. He is a good runner, though we know that relying on a quarterback as a runner — unless you are Josh Allen — is not the best idea. He has toughness. He isn’t afraid. “Moxie” is a word people often use when they talk about Dart. He has leadership ability, and he WANTS to be...
