Giants can win in Miami with Glennon despite Jones injury
History has a funny way of coming full circle, and it just may be déjà vu for the Giants on Sunday in Miami.
Exactly one year ago, the Giants went into Seattle and pulled off an upset win with a backup quarterback. They will attempt to do the same this year at Hard Rock Stadium — albeit with a different quarterback and not quite as challenging of an opponent.
The bad news is that Daniel Jones is missing time with an injury for the third straight season — this time with a neck strain. That is suboptimal with the Giants running low on time to decide whether Jones is the future of the franchise, especially considering they switched play-callers last week and need to be more productive on offense in order to make an improbable run at the playoffs.
But for the time being, let’s consider the reality that going from Jones to journeyman Mike Glennon shouldn’t actually be a significant drop-off.
Injuries, schematic problems and other excuses aside, Jones has simply not been very productive this year with only 220 passing yards per game, 10 passing touchdowns, seven interceptions and seven fumbles in 11 games.
Glennon actually averaged more yards per attempt (7.8 to 6.7) and per completion (12.5 to 10.5) than Jones this season when he subbed in late in the second quarter against the Cowboys in Week 5 and threw 25 passes. And that was without running Saquon Barkley and receivers Kenny Golladay, Sterling Shepard and Darius Slayton. Barkley, Golladay and Slayton are playing Sunday.
“I took the reps this week and feel ready to go,” Glennon said. “Excited to get down there, play in a game and hopefully help our team win down there.”
Glennon doesn’t present the running threat that Jones (62 rushes for 298 yards and two touchdowns) did, which will essentially remove zone reads from the Giants’ playbook. Jones’ problem is that he keeps getting hurt because he runs quickly yet not elusively. But that’s a conversation for another day.
The bottom line is Sunday boils down to how well Glennon protects the football and executes in the red zone against the Dolphins’ aggressive blitzing.
“They create challenges obviously with their pressure looks,” Glennon said. “That’s something that we know that we’re going
to have to do a good job of if we want to win this game. Obviously, it’s been something that we’ve spent a lot of time on this week, and I think we have a good plan and how to attack it.”
New York and Miami have both thrived defensively in that regard lately. Each team has 10 takeaways in the last four games, which heightens the importance of turnovers this week.
Glennon threw two interceptions against the Cowboys, but he also showed off his big arm with completions of 35 and 26 yards and had a 3-yard touchdown pass. The Giants could use some red-zone accuracy in Miami because Jones, for instance, misfired on an endzone fade route to Golladay last week against Philadelphia.
Given that Miami’s passing defense ranks 28th (262.5 yards per game) and New York’s defense is surging, the Giants have a viable formula to secure their third straight win.
New York’s defense has an interception in eight straight games, which is the NFL’s longest active streak and tied for the longest in team history since 2001. It has already held two opponents (Carolina and Philadelphia) to seven points or fewer for the first time since 2016, which was the last time the Giants made the playoffs.
Success should continue against the Dolphins, whom defensive coordinator Patrick Graham knows well schematically since he worked under head coach Brian Flores in 2019.
“They present a lot of challenges, whether it’s the quarterback playing at
an alarmingly great rate in terms of efficiency, (running back Myles) Gaskin, they’ve got (running back Phillip) Lindsay now, they’re running the ball pretty good,” Graham said. “All the gadget stuff they do in terms of the Wildcat, the reverses, the jet sweeps there to the guys, so it’s a challenge. It’s a challenge.”
Although the Giants’ defense has been worse on the road (29 points per game), keep in mind Tampa Bay was a significantly tougher matchup two weeks ago.
Miami’s offensive line is arguably the worst in the NFL, so the Giants’ secondary won’t have to cover all day like it did against Tom Brady. Plus, defensive captain Logan Ryan is back at free safety after missing two games on the COVID-19 list.
The Giants and Dolphins, in a way, are quite similar. Each has an offense that is predicated on getting the ball out quickly behind a leaky line. Both feature an opportunistic defense.
And the Dolphins, like the Seahawks last year, are favored to continue a winning streak.
The Giants overcame those odds with Colt McCoy. Why not Glennon?
“Every week, Mike’s job is to be prepared that if his number is called at any point in time, either before or during the game, he’s ready to go in and run our offense,” head coach Joe Judge said.
We’ll find out Sunday.