BACK IN BLUE
Return of dominance by Collins and defense is what got Giants off schneid and can keep them off
Ben McAdoo’s surrender of playcalling duties made a difference in the Giants’ first win in Denver, but the cameo of a dominant Big Blue defense won last Sunday night’s game. “Our defense played the way I thought they were going to play all year,” co-owner John Mara said Wednesday at the NFL owners meeting in Battery Park City.
The previous three weeks, the Giants defense had surrendered five fourthquarter leads to lose to the Eagles (two), Bucs (two) and Chargers (one). They also had let Philly drive to beat them with the game tied, given up 23 points and 139 yards rushing per loss, and forced only three turnovers through their 0-5 start.
Last Sunday, however, the Giant D held the Broncos to 10 points and 46 yards rushing, forced three turnovers to double their season total, and recorded four sacks.
“I think it was very important for everybody, especially on the defense,” corner Eli Apple said Thursday. “I think we were trying to make a statement that when we’re locked in and playing together, we’re one of the best defenses in the NFL. So we’ve just got to do it on a consistent basis now.”
So does this mean the Giants defense, a surprising weak spot early on, is officially back?
“Not yet,” strong safety Landon Collins said Wednesday. “We’ve got to showcase it again, and once we showcase it again, then we could possibly say that, but not yet. We’ve got to just put it on film one more time.”
This is the perfect week to do it. The Giants (1-5) on Sunday host the Seattle Seahawks (3-2), whose Legion of Boom has been the NFL’s standard in ferocity, physicality and dominance from a defensive unit for the past five seasons.
Dominating defensively for a second straight week and outplaying the Seahawks’ defense head-to-head would send the Giants into their bye week on a two-game winning streak with confidence that they have rediscovered their recipe for victories.
“They’ve looked very difficult to deal with,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said Wednesday of the Giants’ D. “When they were effective against Denver, the (Broncos) had a hard time throwing it and they had a hard time running it. (The Giants defense) did everything well.”
Seattle QB Russell Wilson, of course, is light years better than Denver’s Trevor Siemian, and the Giants aren’t going to be able to prey on Wilson and force him into mistakes.
Still, it bodes especially well that the Giants’ five most prominently-used defensive players this season were five of their best players last week in Denver: Apple (defense-high 93% of snaps played this season), Collins (92%), free safety Darian Thompson (92%), Jason Pierre-Paul (91%) and Janoris Jenkins (82%).
Apple had his best game of the year with only five receptions for 38 yards against him, a pass breakup and a fumble recovery. Collins (92% snaps played in 2017) intercepted Siemian and affected the game despite a bad ankle limiting him to 52 snaps.
Thompson (92% snaps played) notably has raised his game the past two weeks, beginning with a team-high 11 tackles and his first career interception against the Chargers in Week 5.
“I think I’m just starting to feel more comfortable out there and just playing football like I used to do,” Thompson said Wednesday.
Thompson most importantly has been finishing plays after missing too many tackles in the first four weeks of what is basically his rookie year, having missed most of 2016 due to foot surgery.
Pierre-Paul, meanwhile, recorded three sacks. And Jenkins returned an interception for a touchdown, forced the Demaryius Thomas fumble that Apple recovered, and made the initial hit on Broncos back C.J. Anderson on the Giants’ fourth-quarter goal line stand.
It wasn’t just the stars, though, which included strong run defense from Damon Harrison.
Avery Moss, the rookie defensive end out of Youngstown State, also played a season-high 42 defensive snaps in just his third game active and stood up Broncos tight end Virgil Green on that same goal line stand, holding his ground as Jenkins, Jay Bromley and Collins arrived.
“I saw number 85 across from me, and I knew how he could block from the tape we watched, and I just thought, ‘I gotta run through him,’ ” Moss told the Daily News. “That was real.”
Still, remember, the defense was playing without Olivier Vernon (ankle) and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie (suspension). DRC is back Sunday, and so is the defense’s swagger. Now they need another result to try to resuscitate the season and turn those first five weeks into an anomaly and not the norm.