How the running game has sparked a midseason turnaround on offense
Three weeks ago, the Giants limped into their bye week with a dysfunctional offense. They scored only six points until a meaningless last-minute touchdown at home against the Redskins. The first half of the season offered little optimism, because for various reasons the Giants struggled to be productive with a wealth of playmakers.
Since New York had a week off, though, the picture has changed a bit.
After a Monday night win last week in San Francisco, the Giants returned home Sunday and dropped 38 points on the Buccaneers — their most in any game since November of 2015.
So what’s been different for the Giants (3-7), whose slim NFC East hopes are still alive?
Many of the answers lie up front with protection schemes and the running game.
“It’s something we looked at during the bye week as a group with the running backs and tight ends and everyone,” center Spencer Pulley said after Sunday’s win. “It’s something that we’ve really worked on. We’ve got a great quarterback, no doubt, but we don’t want to pass the ball 60 times a game.”
The offensive line has struck a chord with Jamon Brown in the lineup for two games. The Giants claimed the 340-pound right guard off waivers Oct. 31 after he became expendable to the Rams, who tabbed a new starter when the NFL suspended Brown for the first two games for violating the league’s substance abuse policy.
“They found a way quickly to work well together,” head coach Pat Shurmur said Monday. “We still had a couple breakdowns last night, but for the most part, I think they’ve played their best two games as a unit, and we can see the impact it has on a football game.”
For starters, take the Giants’ balance through a newfound commitment to running the ball. Saquon Barkley has 47 carries in the last two games. He averaged 13.9 in the first eight games.
Of course, that’s an easier plan to adhere to when you get off to a strong start and are not playing from behind. New York led Tampa Bay early in the second quarter, 140, thanks to arguably the best pair of back-to-back drives all season.
Credit the offensive line, but also the Giants’ coaching staff for deploying the necessary personnel to establish a power running game.
On 14 of those first 18 plays, the offense kept at least six men on the line of scrimmage to block. Eight times the Giants used a two-tight end set with Rhett Ellison and Scott Simonson. They had one play with three tight ends (including Evan Engram) standing up on the right side as Barkley caught a 6-yard touchdown in the flat.
Ellison appears to have usurped Engram as the team’s primary tight end. Known mostly for his blocking, Ellison played 40 snaps, including nine of the 21 plays in which the Giants used 11 personnel (one tight end, one back, three receivers).
Engram, the team’s 2017 firstround pick, saw his playing time dip to 17 snaps. He did have a critical 54-yard catch on the Giants’ gamesealing drive in the fourth quarter, but on the whole, Ellison’s blocking has a bigger role in the offense than Engram’s pass-catching right now.
“Rhett and Scott did a hell of a job blocking,” Engram said. “That’s the package that we can lean on to get tough yards, so anytime they’re coming in, anytime I’m in, we’re doing our job to get — we’re doing it together. It does feel good when those times do come, especially in big moments.”
Barkley started the game with three straight runs for eight yards, one yard and six yards, which helped set up a 41-yard play-action pass from Eli Manning to Odell Beckham Jr.
Shurmur also got creative on the Giants’ second drive with a reverse. Manning pitched the ball to Barkley, who then pitched it to Beckham for an 11-yard run. The Giants fooled the Bucs’ defense by motioning Ellison to the right side, where Barkley was initially running with the ball.
“In that first series there, we had some effective runs and then we hit a long play-action pass, so I think it’s all connected,” Shurmur said. “That’s the way I would like to play every game, get ahead and then be able to stick with the run because it has a good effect on the game. At times, the game doesn’t play out that way and you have to go a different direction, but the way it played out yesterday is the way you’d like them all to work.”
In scampering to a career-high 142 yards, Barkley stayed relatively consistent hitting holes throughout the game. Of his 27 carries, only one resulted in negative yardage. Sixteen gained at least four yards. His longest run was 23 yards.
Barkley, who topped the century mark in rushing only twice in his first nine games, said his biggest adjustment was speeding up his pace in the ‘mesh’ — the handoff sequence between a running back and quarterback.
“Le’Veon (Bell), everybody knows his style — he has more of a patient type of pace going through the mesh. Other backs are faster,” Barkley said. “This week, coach challenged me to get dirtier in the runs and get those three- to four-yard runs. If I quickened up my pace through the mesh, getting to the line of scrimmage faster than what I’ve normally been doing, it will help things develop a lot quicker.”
Schematically, the Giants also adjusted in the backfield by increasing the volume of fullback Elijhaa Penny. The third-year pro played 16 offensive snaps Sunday, including seven on the tone-setting first two drives.
But even on an I-formation play where the Bucs blew up the right side of the line where Penny was helping block for Barkley, the Giants’ electrifying rookie continued to steal the day with a cutback across the field for a 9-yard gain to set up his second touchdown.
“I thought today was the best he ran,” Manning said after the game.
For the first time all season, the Giants have an identity on offense. The question going forward is how sustainable this production is against better defenses. San Francisco and Tampa Bay are two of the league’s worst teams. Five of New York’s final six opponents have a .500 record or better. Philadelphia looms Sunday, and Chicago’s premier front should pose the toughest challenge in two weeks.