Giants need to corral Houston ground game
These coaches always like to make lists, detailing the priorities for the week. It comes as no surprise that sitting atop defensive coordinator Perry Fewell’s sheet for the Giants for their matchup with the Texans is the need to deal with running back Arian Foster.
“It’s been one, two, three, four and five on our list this week,’’ Fewell said.
That’s a great deal of attention for one player, but the Giants know the route to their first victory of the season and it starts with Foster, who takes so much of the pressure off journeyman quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick in the most grounded offense in the NFL.
“Make him put the ball in the air,’’ defensive end Jason PierrePaul said. “We have to make him want to throw that ball. Stop the run and they will start throwing it. I promise you that. They will start throwing it.’’
That’s the goal for the Giants. Foster is coming off a workhorse performance in Oakland, rushing 28 times for 138 yards and the Giants most likely will try to stop him without their best run-stopper, middle linebacker Jon Beason, who has not practiced all week after reinjuring his right foot.
It all revolves around the run game because the Texans do not want to put the ball in Fitzpatrick’s hands and ask him to win the game for them. History says he cannot do it, at least not very often. Now in his 10th NFL season — not bad for a guy from Harvard — the heavily bearded Fitzpatrick has started 79 games for the Rams, Bengals, Bills, Titans and Texans. He is 29-49-1 in those starts with a quarterback rating of 78.2.
This is no secret. The analysis of Fitzpatrick always falls back on the way Giants coach Tom Coughlin assessed him: “Ryan Fitzpatrick has played very well, managed the game extremely well for his team.’’
You will get no argument from Texans coach Bill O’Brien, who has seen Fitzpatrick complete 68 percent of his passes with three touchdowns and no interceptions this season.
“He has done a good job of preparing during the week and making good decisions in these games,’’ O’Brien said. “That is what he needs to do. That is his job.’’
In other words, don’t expect any fa n t a sy- fo o t ba l l points sprees from Fitzpatrick.
The Texans have run 121 plays on offense: 80 runs, 41 passes. That comes out to running the ball 66 percent of the time. No team in the league has run it more often than the Texans — the Benga l s and Je t s , with 71 rushing attempts, are the two m o s t ground-oriented teams after Ho u s to n . Th e best p l ay for the Texans is handing the ball to Foster. The second best play is the same play. It hasn’t hurt that the Texans have had the lead in six of the eight quarters they have played, meaning they have not been forced to do anything they do not want to do.
“They a re a smart fo o t - ball team,’’ Antrel Rolle said. “When I say smart, they don’t beat themselves. They have a great offense, great run scheme, obviously. Great play action off the run scheme.’’
The Texans try to sucker you in with run, run, run and then spring a play-action pass to the old Andre Johnson and the young DeAndre Hopkins. Get the defensive backs creeping up a step or two, peeking in, expecting Foster to carry the ball, and then beat them over the top.
“It’s that oldschool mentality when it comes to football,’’ safety Stevie Brown said. “They want to establish the run, they want to get the run to set up the passing game, they want to run the ball to control the game clock. I look at it as Arian Foster is the key to their offense.’’
Knowing what to emphasize is one thing, stopping it is something else. Foster has an NFL-high 55 carries and 241 ya rd s , ave ra ging 4.4 yards per attempt.
“Fo s t e r is one of the best in our league, great vision,’’ Fewell said. “It’s unbelievable his vision, how he can see the small creases, his acceleration into those small creases, his ability to get yards in a small crease to move the chains four, five, six [yards].’’
The Giants know what to expect.
“I like it,’’ Pierre-Paul said. “If it’s gonna be a running game it’s gonna be a running game. We’re gonna be physical with ’em. They can bring it, they’re gonna bring their running game and we’re gonna be prepared for it.’’