Blitz-happy Bucs give Giants some clues vs. Falcons
Todd Bowles’ Buccaneers defense just gave the Giants a blueprint for beating the Falcons in Week 3: Get pressure on quarterback Matt Ryan. Bring blitzes. Send extra pass rushers. Disrupt the savvy but immobile veteran QB.
That’s not great news for Pat Graham’s Giants defense.
The Giants rank 22nd out of 32 teams in pass-rush win rate, per ESPN Stats & Info, after pressuring Washington’s Taylor Heinicke on a measly five of 46 dropbacks in Week 2, per NFL NextGen Stats.
Maybe the Falcons’ Achilles’ heel can be positive reinforcement for the Giants defense, then, to figure out one of its biggest weaknesses: that the pass rush doesn’t get home.
“As long as you’re disrupting the quarterback, it can be anybody on defense,” safety Logan Ryan said Monday, downplaying the need for a great D to have an elite pass rush. “I think it’s third down. I think it’s two-minute. I think it’s points allowed (that matters more). Those are just some situations we’re talking about that we need to be better in and keep the points down.”
Here is the lesson the Giants should learn watching the film, though: Matt Ryan threw three second-half interceptions in Sunday’s 48-25 Falcons road loss at Tampa, including two returned for touchdowns by Bucs corner Mike Edwards.
The Bucs brought five or more pass rushers on all three plays, including a double-corner blitz with six rushers on Ryan’s second pick-6.
The pressure either rushed Ryan into a bad decision or created tipped passes that the Bucs snagged. Edwards became the first player with two interceptions returned for a TD in the same game since 2012.
The Giants (0-2) are three-point favorites for Sunday’s 1 p.m. kickoff at MetLife Stadium. The Falcons (02) are widely considered one of the NFL’s worst teams.
However, Atlanta kept it close against the reigning Super Bowl champions, trailing 28-25 with 1:45 left in the third quarter. Only Ryan’s INTs broke the game wide open.
And if the Giants’ defensive line isn’t going to do its part, Graham is going to need to blitz more.
Dexter Lawrence said before the season that “we take on the responsibility as the D-line of setting the tone. However the day is going to go, it’s going to go how we set the tone.”
And that’s been true so far. The Giants had 14 pressures in the opener vs. Denver, but that number dropped to five against Washington in a back-breaking loss.
They have only three sacks as a team: two by rookie Azeez Ojulari and a sack split by Austin Johnson and Logan Ryan. And this is after the Giants (31%) finished dead last in pass-rush win rate in 2020, per ESPN Stats & Info.
Defensive end Leonard Williams, the highest-paid player on the team, has eight pressures, no sacks, two hits and six hurries on 77 pass-rush snaps, per Pro Football Focus. He has missed two or three tackles while pursuing the QB, too.
Ojulari has six pressures, two sacks, one hit and three hurries on 50. Lorenzo Carter has been terribly quiet, with five pressures, no sacks, one hit and four hurries on 57 pass-rush snaps. And Lawrence has no QB hits or sacks, with his five pressures all hurries, on 57 snaps.
Johnson actually has generated four pressures, including a half sack and three hurries, on 42 snaps. But Oshane Ximines has just two pressures, both hurries, on 34 snaps.
The secondary’s coverage has been subpar, too. It deserves plenty of blame for poor play and personnel shortcomings. But for a defense to be consistently imposing, its pass rush needs to be consistently disruptive.
Most disappointingly last Thursday, the Giants generated no pressure on Heinicke in critical spots, especially the two-minute situations that Logan Ryan cited as so important.
They got nowhere near Washington’s QB on the 12-play, 84-yard touchdown drive to end the first half. Heinicke had all day to throw on the two-play, 75-yard TD drive in the fourth quarter on completions to J.D. McKissic and Ricky Seals-Jones.
And the line’s only two meaningful contributions on Washington’s winning field-goal drive were penalties. Carter gave them a first down with a neutral zone infraction, and Lawrence gave them the game by jumping offsides on the first Dustin Hopkins FG attempt.
GATES ON IR: The Giants placed center/guard Nick Gates (broken left leg) on injured reserve. His season is over.