Cardinals, Giants Banking on Familiarity in Fight for First Win

It's a tale of two sides that know each other awfully well.

The Arizona Cardinals and New York Giants aren't exactly known heated rivals, though they were members of the same division from 1970-2001. Since 2011, the two sides have met five times with Arizona winning the last four.

There's no secret ingredient to success in the National Football League: If you don't play well, you typically don't win. Margins of error are slim.

Familiarity in the league (outside of divisional play) is rare, and often leads to close matchups thanks to tendencies discovered from the coaching staff to the players on the field.

That will be the case on Sunday - where Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon and defensive coordinator Nick Rallis will play chess for 60 minutes against a familiar foe.

Gannon was the defensive coordinator for New York's division rival Philadelphia Eagles the prior two seasons. Rallis was his linebackers coach during that stretch.

Now, both find themselves in more prominent roles in the desert, and both are trying their best to undersell the familiarity factor with the Giants.

“Every year is a new year, so my familiarity is they’re two really good players and understand how we have to defend them because of their skill sets," said Gannon on game-planning for QB Daniel Jones and RB Saquon Barkley.

Rallis on balancing prior experience with new additions:

"I think you look at it all. Obviously they had some roster changes this offseason that you definitely have to take into consideration, some really good players that they've added. You got to look at it all - I know it wasn't how they planned to have that game go the other night, but you got to take in every bit of information and try to funnel it to what is this story telling us for how we got to go out and play on Sunday."

Even down to Arizona's starting quarterback in Josh Dobbs, there's some familiarity. Dobbs was with the Pittsburgh Steelers from 2017-19 (plus again for 2020-21) and faced current Giants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale often when he was with the Baltimore Ravens as their DC from 2018-21.

That's something both sides highlighted during the week.

"They have a really good front as well. They're very multiple on defense. Wink Martindale as their DC, I spent a lot of time in Pittsburgh when he was in Baltimore. They can be very multiple and aggressive on defense, and that's where they're able to create splash plays," said Dobbs.

Martindale on Dobbs:

"I've gone against him in the AFC a lot. I think he's a very smart quarterback that knows where he wants to go with the football. He’s mobile enough too to still hurt you if you're taking his reads away from him. So, I think there’s a reason why he's been on so many different teams is because everybody sees the same thing in him about how he can, I don't want to say he's a game manager because I think some quarterbacks look at that as a dig. He really does know how to take care of the football and try to keep the sticks moving."

Giants offensive coordinator Mike Kafka dealt with Gannon's Eagles defense numerous times - five times to be exact during Gannon's tenure in Philadelphia. The Giants went just 1-4 against the Eagles in that span and scored point totals of 13, 10, 22, 16 and 7.

"Coach Gannon’s a really good coach. He’s smart, he’ll get those guys rolling. You can see some familiarity there from Philadelphia, some of the scheme stuff. They’ve only had one game and some preseason games so you’re trying to kind of work through all the tape on that, but they play fast. They’re a tough team so we’re looking forward to the challenge," said Kafka earlier this week, who said to look no further than their safety usage to recognize some similarities:

"Budda Baker is just about everywhere on the field. He’s an impressive player. You can tell he’s one of those guys that kind of gets everyone lined up, he flies to the football. He plays hard, he plays fast so he’s a guy that you’ve got to know where he’s at on every snap … They have some scheme flexibility and they’ve got athletic people on the perimeter with great speed so you can see how they used some of the safeties in Philadelphia last season to where you can see some of that same kind of concepts showing up for them."

Giants head coach Brian Daboll agreed.

"Yeah, there's some similarities. Different players, but I think they got after it pretty good. They had a defensive touchdown, another interception, another fumble recovery. They turned the ball over, they’re fast. (Cardinals safety) Budda (Baker), you’ve got to know where he’s at. He's a really good player. I thought they played a really good game, that first game against Washington. There’s some similarities. I'm sure they're going to add their own touches to it as he runs his own team," Daboll said.

Daniel Jones added on by saying: "I mean, it's the same system, obviously, with some different players and a few different things here and there. But it's the same system and it's good a system, so I’ll be ready for it. … I know they play a lot of two-safeties deep; they play a lot of quarters. … It's a good bit of quarters, but they do a good job with the fronts and how they use kind of edge players in different ways to still be strong against the run. Yeah, they’re smart, they understand what they're doing and present some problems for the offense that way."

It's not often two out of division teams approach a game with such insight and awareness on each other, which should make for a compelling 60 minute chess match at State Farm Stadium.