RUSSELL ATHLETIC
Wilson not an easy take-down
Russell Wilson is no Trevor Siemian. The Giants defense finally played up to its preseason expectations in last week’s win over the Broncos, sacking Siemian four times, picking him off twice and forcing him to fumble once, but it is going to be a tad bit difficult to repeat that performance against Wilson.
The elusive and dangerous Seahawks quarterback comes into MetLife Stadium on Sunday as the Giants try to build off their first win of the season.
Wilson, who hurts teams with both his arm and his legs, presents an extremely difficult challenge for the Giants defense — which will be without pass rusher Olivier Vernon for the third consecutive week.
“Where he’s deadly is when he can create at the back end of the pocket,” head coach Ben McAdoo said. “He’s good at the top of the drop where he can set it, reverse out and come out on top of the ends on either side or step up and come out. Last thing we want to do is give him a vertical lane where he can step up and run through the defense. So, he’s very dangerous when he can create.”
While McAdoo is analyzing every minute detail of Wilson’s game, Jason Pierre-Paul — who had three sacks last week — is taking a much simpler approach.
“Easy,” Pierre-Paul said. “Just rush the quarterback.”
The defensive end, who has admittedly played poorly prior to last week’s performance, may be oozing with more confidence than usual after his three-sack game. But he still knows Wilson is capable of doing damage.
“Look, he’s a special kind of guy. He’ll be falling down and he’ll throw the ball down field and he gets the completion,” Pierre-Paul said. “So, we really we got to get there.”
Prior to last week, the Giants defense had just eight sacks on the season and Pierre-Paul was noticeably absent with just 1.5 through five games.
The veteran, who signed a four-year, $62 million contract with $40 million guaranteed, said before the season started that he could be Defensive Player of the Year.
While he has not lived up to his own hype and has battled shoulder issues early on, his last game is the boost he needs to play at that caliber.
“I don’t look about what I did last week, or what I’m about to do. I just take it one game at a time,” he said. “Whatever opponent is in front of me, I figure him out and that’s when I get to work.”
Defensive line coach Patrick Graham said when Pierre-Paul is on he has some “juice” that fuels the team.
The Giants may need that “juice” to stop Wilson, and Pierre-Paul left no doubt that it will be there.
“I’m going to bring the juice no matter what,” he said. “At the end of the day, we’ve been counted out, I’ve been counted out plenty of times, but nobody can tell you when it’s your time. As of right now, I’m going to continue playing football the best way I can — stopping the run and getting to the quarterback, pressuring the quarterback. I’m going to do everything in my power to help my team win this game this week.”