Changes Giants Might Make on Offense vs. Eagles

While the New York Giants have an experienced postseason play-caller on the defensive side of the ball in Wink Martindale, offensive coordinator Mike Kafka has never called plays in the postseason - mostly because he’s a rookie offensive coordinator.

The regular season games for the Giants vs. the Eagles are both games where you could probably take the film and delete it. The first game in week 14 quickly got out of hand in favor of the Eagles, leaving the Giants to try and play catch-up the whole time before bringing in backups. The week 18 matchup was the Giants playing backups to preserve starters for the playoffs, so another game of just useless film.

Giants head coach Brian Daboll isn’t the offensive play-caller. However, he still has a say in the offensive game plan and has shown throughout his career as a play-caller that when it comes time for the postseason, he’s not only giving his quarterback the green light to run the football - he’s calling designed runs for them.

In the run game, getting Saquon Barkley the ball is important, and that likely won’t change. Quarterback, however, should be a focal point of the run game against the Eagles.

With the Buffalo Bills in 2021, Josh Allen had 38 designed runs in the regular season for 313 yards, but nine carries for 85 yards in the playoffs. That means in the regular season, 42.7% of Allen’s carries came on designed runs, but in the playoffs, that number jumped to 69.2%. Allen became not just a rushing threat; he became a significant part of the rushing attack.

Even dating back to his days as the offensive coordinator at Alabama, Daboll used both Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa as designed runners 59 times for 559 yards during the regular season, good for 57.8% of their quarterback carries. In the College Football Playoffs, those numbers turned to 13 carries for 83 yards, 59% of quarterback carries.

For Daniel Jones, he’s had an incredibly efficient season as a ball carrier on designed runs. Most of these have come on zone reads, which will likely be a major part of the Giants run game in the Divisional Round. In 2022 (regular and postseason), Jones had 38 carries on designed runs for 293 yards - an average of 7.71 yards per carry.

In the Wild Card game against the Vikings, Jones tied his season high with five designed runs and had his second-most scrambles in a game with six. As a runner, expect Jones to match those numbers if he doesn’t top them.

The Eagles, in particular, have struggled with quarterbacks attacking them with either wide runs or scrambles. In games where the Eagles faced quarterbacks who like to run, they struggled to contain the edges. On designed runs outside of the tackle or tight end, they allowed 108 yards on 23 carries (4.69 yards per carry) with nine first downs. On scrambles, they’ve allowed 106 yards on 11 carries (9.64 yards per carry) with six first downs.

The biggest change to the game plan for this matchup should be to work more play-action into the passing game. Daniel Jones had the second-highest play-action rate in the NFL among qualifying quarterbacks. Jones had a play fake on 32.8% of his dropbacks in 2022, finding himself between Tua Tagovailoa’s 43.1% and Justin Fields’ 32.7%.

On those play-fakes, Jones had a completion percentage of 74.4%, 10.3% higher than when he doesn’t have a play-fake. Jones also had a passer rating of 105.4, a 16.5-point increase over his 88.9 rating when he doesn’t have a play-fake.

In the one game against the Eagles that Jones played in, he had a play-fake on nine dropbacks where he went 7/8 passing with 30 yards and a touchdown with a 121.9 passer rating and was sacked once. On plays without a play-fake, Jones went 11/19 passing with 139 yards with an 80.8 passer rating and was sacked three times.

The argument of “the Eagles pass-rush is too good to run play action” is defeated by running zone reads because if the Eagles line penetrates the backfield immediately, they’re subject to Jones taking the ball and running.

To win this game and avoid a 3-0 sweep against the Eagles, the Giants will likely look to get Daniel Jones even more involved as a runner and utilize more play-fakes to make the Eagles respect not only Jones as a runner but also to keep defenders on their toes for Barkley carries.

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