Giants must find a way to create more explosive offense
This Giants season feels like one big chess match between the team’s offense and the rest of the NFL, and now it’s time for New York to launch a counterattack.
When the Giants started 6-1, they ranked second in the NFL with 173.4 rushing yards per game. That number has dipped to 116.4 (18th in the NFL) in the last five games, and unsurprisingly they have a 1-3-1 record
in that time.
This team, in Brian Daboll’s first season, was never built to feature a dominant passing attack. But they have faced unexpected hardships with Kenny Golladay never honoring his preseason vows to live up to his contract, Kadarius Toney becoming so unreliable that the Giants traded him to Kansas City, and second-round pick Wan’Dale Robinson appearing in only six games before tearing his ACL three weeks ago.
Still: Can this creative coaching staff find a way to generate some passing and get the running game back on track?
That is the challenge Sunday when the Giants (7-4-1) host the NFC-leading Eagles (11-1). As New York continues its fight to make the playoffs, this feels like a game where a loss inevitable without a touchdown on defense or special teams … unless the offense gets more explosive.
“Each week is different,” said offensive coordinator Mike Kafka, a former Eagles quarterback. “Each opponent you go through, depending on what their defensive structure is, is different. You got to go into each week with a fresh mind and think about how you can attack a defense in the run and pass game.”
That has been Kafka’s typically vanilla response when asked about specific personnel groupings or play designs, which makes sense from a gamesmanship standpoint to not give anything away to the upcoming opponent.
But now it’s incumbent upon Kafka, who was garnering head-coaching candidacy buzz earlier in the season, to actually fix some of the problems plaguing this offense.
For starters, the Giants need to get Saquon Barkley more involved in the passing game. The star running back is averaging only 3.3 receptions per game and is far from the pace he set as a rookie when he finished with 91 receptions for 721 yards and four touchdowns. Barkley’s route running has never been Christian McCaffery-esque, but he clearly has the ability to boost an offense lacking legitimate talent on the outside.
Head coach Brian Daboll said the Giants wanted to get Barkley open on a wheel route down the sideline during a two-minute drill in last Sunday’s 20-20 tie with Washington when the Giants settled for a field goal before halftime, so perhaps more of that is in the cards.
“I think I’ve shown that in my career, the ability to catch the ball out of the backfield. But you know, every season, every week is a new challenge and you’ve got to show something different,” Barkley said. “As the season continues to go on, could that probably
be in the near future? You never know. Whatever they ask me to do, go out there, play to the best of my ability and when the play is called try to make a play for the team.”
It also makes sense because Barkley has stalled in the trenches lately perhaps because of a heavier workload. After turning a career-high 35 carries into 152 yards against the Texans four weeks ago, he is averaging only 2.8 yards per attempt but remains on pace for a career-high 322 carries.
Running the ball effectively will be a challenge again Sunday because the Eagles are allowing only 97.3 yards per game in the past three weeks while recently signing veteran defensive linemen Linval Joseph and Ndamukong Suh.
Still, the Giants can help their cause up front by utilizing more two-back sets and deploying heavy personnel packages (multiple
tight ends) more frequently to grind out yards. They don’t need to commit to running the ball 30 times, but they have to get back to being efficient.
That seems like essentially the Giants’ only chance create any shots downfield, because Philadelphia does such a good job of creating pressure up front and covering in the secondary. The Eagles have the second-most sacks despite ranking 19th in blitz percentage. They allow the fewest passing yards per game, have given up only 28 completions of 20-plus yards (third in the NFL) and lead the league with 23 takeaways and 15 interceptions.
Daniel Jones has only 20 completions of 20-plus yards (fewer than two per game), but the Giants have also missed on a few golden opportunities recently.
Kafka took heat for airing it out three straight
times late in the fourth quarter against Washington, but Darius Slayton had a took angle on a deep ball that should have won the game. Slayton did tie his career high with a 55-yard catch in the second quarter and remains the team’s best deep threat until offseason moves are made.
Until then, it’s on these heralded Giants coaches to step up their preparation.
“Each week we go through it, go through our process. What are our favorite runs? What are our favorite looks? Personnel groupings? Really detail all that stuff out,” Kafka said. “We go with what our guys do best. We go and we practice it, we detail it up, and that’s what we end up going with each week.”