Giants - Washington: Week 4 Preview
The entire tenor of the Giants season has changed, courtesy of Daniel Jones. There’s a new sheriff in town and he’s going to make life, at the very least, very interesting around these parts.
Let's talk about those changes as we delve into this week’s opponent, Washington.
Giants on Offense
Washington is 0-3, coming off a discouraging loss at home to a good Chicago Bears team. Washington went down 28-0 and hung around in the second half before the agony ended at 31-15.
Quarterback Case Keenum lost two fumbles and was intercepted three times. The Bears' touchdowns included one Pick-6 and three short drives. To say the Washington offense let down their defense is to put it mildly.
That being said, Washington's offense can be a bad matchup for the Giants' defense because, well, it’s the Giants' defense.
Washington's strength is its plethora of small, quick receivers that the Giants secondary will surely have problems containing.
Keenum, if he gets over his foot injury and plays, throws best short and quick.
His best receiver is rookie 3rd round steal Terry McLaurin from Ohio State. He’s both quick and fast and he’s got the best hands on the team. He’s dangerous and very hard to cover one-on-one.
Vernon Davis and Jeremy Sprinkle will be this week’s tight ends gashing the middle of the Giants defense.
Davis may be 35 but he can still run. Speaking of running, the Skins don’t do that very well but still feature 34-year-old Adrian Peterson. Their offensive line has not been good.
Ex-Giant bust Ereck Flowers is starting at left guard and holding his own. Washington's best player on offense, tackle Trent Williams, remains on the sideline as a holdout. Washington's offense is kind of a mess.
Washington's defensive strength is up front. Former first-round pick defensive tackle Da’Ron Payne is really tough to move, and underrated defensive tackle Matt Ioannidis has found his game and leads the front in tackles.
Another former first-round pick, defensive tackle Jonathan Allen is working through knee problems. Meanwhile, 31-year-old outside linebacker Ryan Kerrigan played 57 snaps on Monday night and didn’t dent the stat sheet.
On the other edge, 2019 first-rounder Montez Sweat has been very active and looks the part. As a unit, this group is tough to run against, especially with ex-Giant safety Landon Collins running downhill.
Throwing the ball against Washington is the way to beat them. Like the Giants, Washington has trouble covering anyone.
The big names – Collins and cornerback Josh Norman – can’t cover. And who out there wouldn't want to see Collins isolated against Evan Engram? Simply put, there should be match-ups galore out there for the Giants to exploit.
With the loss of Saquon Barkley, the Giants will still run their regular offense with a bit heavier reliance on the pass.
They should try to get the ball out of Daniel Jones’ hand quickly, and try to re-discover the tight end population that isn’t named Evan Engram.
We think they should move Jones’ pocket from time to time, use the naked bootleg, and we’d really like to see some play-action but that only works if you can run the ball. Without Barkley, that won’t be easy.
We suspect that Washington will dare the Giants to run the ball, fall back into zone coverage and force New York to dink and dunk their way down the field. It makes sense, as this would protect their beleaguered secondary.
If there’s room to run, Wayne Gallman may just have himself a big first half, which would open things up for the offense immeasurably.
We wouldn’t advise Washington to blitz Daniel Jones too often because he killed the Bucs’ blitzes with quick reads and accurate throws.
We still think it’s to Washington's benefit to test Jones’ patience. He’s always looking downfield first. See if the kid has what it takes to take what the defense gives him.
We like the Giants’ offensive line's chances against Washington's above-average front. They won’t be coming at left tackle Nate Solder with great speed on the edge, but regardless, Solder needs to get back on his game.
Playing at home will help the Giants offensive tackles, as the silent count wasn’t really working last week and gave the Bucs pass rushers a big leg up.
Giants on Defense
We’re not too worried about the Giants on offense; that’s how much confidence we’ve already got in Daniel Jones and his ability to make the players around him better.
It’s the defense that concerns us, specifically the pass coverage. Veteran safety Antoine Bethea needs to get his men on the same page out there. There needs to be a body on a body on every down. It’s time to start playing some team defense. The communication has been bad.
We’re curious to see what the absences of captain Alec Ogletree and speedy Tae Davis will have on the short and intermediate zones.
Ogletree’s a bit of a cowboy out there and that’s no way to play team defense. The Giants will miss his blitzing which has been quite good, and they will miss Davis’ speed, but more disciplined linebacker play from the likes of Ryan Connelly, David Mayo and Nate Stupar will certainly look different.
None of these guys are coverage specialists, however. The defense may have to play a lot of nickel and even dime, which means Grant Haley and even rookie Julian Love, inactive last week, may have bigger roles.
This also may be the week where the coaches bring Jabril Peppers up to the line of scrimmage in more of a "joker" role. They can always plug Love, Michael Thomas or Sean Chandler in at safety which would release Peppers to serve as a quasi-inside linebacker in certain situations.
Giants on Special Teams
The Giants special teams have looked pretty special three weeks in. Aldrick Rosas and Riley Dixon are near the top of the league in kicking tandems, while newcomer Cody Core and Antonio Hamilton have been playing out of their minds at gunner.
Rookie Corey Ballantine has been a gunner-blocking machine, freeing up resources for punt returner C.J. Jones to exploit space. Ballantine is also the kick returner, and he may have some opportunities this week.
Neither Washington kicker is as good as the Giants' tandem. None of the Washington returners are scary.
The Giants have been winning their special teams battles every week, but with the wane of the kickoff return, the importance of special teams is not as big as it used to be.
