Giants Offense Struggled, but Here's Why It's Too Soon to Panic

The Giants' first-team offense only managed to score three points on five drives in Friday’s scrimmage. But here’s why it’s not time to panic (yet) about the offense’s sputtering performance.

The Giants' first-team offense saw more sacks than points scored during the team's Blue-White scrimmage. The Giants' projected starting unit only produced a field goal in five drives while quarterback Daniel Jones was sacked five times.

But before anyone thinks the Giants offense is doomed, head coach Joe Judge reminded everyone about the purpose of the scrimmage.

"There are some different tools we can use to help these guys in games,” Judge told reports after the scrimmage ended. “We chose to keep this a little bit vanilla so it takes a little bit of tools you can use through game planning away from it. We have to see more improvement in the one-on-one matchups and how they handle it across the board."

That said, the one-on-one matchups did, at times, appear to be concerning. Tackles Andrew Thomas and Cameron Fleming struggled to hold off the Giants’ first-team defense pass rush as led by outside linebacker Lorenzo Carter, who unofficially recorded 4.5 sacks and at least three other pressures on the night.

That’s something the Giants don’t want to see in 2020, not after quarterback Daniel Jones absorbed 38 sacks as part of 152 pressures, per Pro Football Reference.

Pressure aside, Jones knows he also has to be better and has shown he can stand up to pressure.

Last year, he recorded a 73.3 passer rating, +0.2% completion rate above expectation, and 53.1% completion rate while under pressure last season, ranked in the top ten of all quarterbacks.

"I have to make sure I’m conscious of my depth in the pocket and step up in the pocket, and making sure I’m getting the ball out on time consistently," Jones said of his performance Friday night. "I’ll continue to work on those things."

All was not a total washout for the Giants offense. The team can take solace in knowing that there is depth in the running back corps with Dion Lewis, who recorded several impressive runs, and Wayne Gallman, who scored two touchdowns.

"Dion’s a guy, you give him the ball in space, he has an ability to make plays and make guys miss. You get him between the tackles, sometimes he’s hard to find," Judge said.

Judge also liked what Gallman, thought to be on the roster bubble, showed. "He’s a guy who’s really flashed over the course of the entire training camp. He’s a guy that we’ve challenged and told him we want to see how he responds in competitive situations."

The Giants running game could be a key for the offense this year while the offensive line finds its footing in pass protection. If the Giants can avoid being one-dimensional, that should keep the opponents from homing in on Jones and the passing game on every play, as was the case a few years ago when the Giants became too reliant on the passing game to carry the offense.