Giants Report Card vs. Washington

The cynics will point to the New York Giants' 24-3 win over Washington as being one that came against an offense that was missing three-fifths of its starting offensive line and its best receiver.

Well boo-hoo. The Giants were missing running back Saquon Barkley (high ankle sprain), their best offensive player, and their projected top receiver, Golden Tate (suspended).

Well, the Giants not only were down two linebackers (Alec Ogletree, hamstring, and Tae Davis, concussion) entering the game, they also lost promising rookie linebacker Ryan Connelly and edge rusher Lorenzo Carter (neck) to in-game injuries.

The point is the Giants have made steady strides since their Week 1 mess against the Cowboys. They have shown resilience in the face of adversity and appear to be headed int he right direction after all.

Among the notables the Giants managed to accomplish with their 24-3 win over Washington were:

The offensive line held OLB Ryan Kerrigan, who in the four games against the Giants before Sunday's meeting had 6.5 sacks, to ZERO sacks.
The Giants defense, which allowed 91 points int he first ten quarters of the season, have allowed just six points in their last six quarters of play.
The Giants' ground game, without Barkley, produced a season-high 164 yards on 37 carries.
The Giants converted a season-high 62% of their third-down attempts (8 of 13), their highest conversion rate since October 5, 2014, against the Atlanta Falcons at home.

Was Washington at full strength? No, but neither were the Giants which is why it's not fair to dismiss the progress this Giants team has made since the start of the season.

PASSING OFFENSE: A-

Lost among the shuffle is the fact that the Giants offensive line, which last week had its struggles against the Bucs defense, had itself a rebound showing. Quarterback Daniel Jones was not sacked this week and was only hit four times, none by Kerrigan, by the way.

And speaking of Jones, the young man continues to impress with how he handles the pressures that come with the job. He threw two interceptions on back-to-back drives, but rather than curl up into a ball, he got right back up and kept at it, driving his team down the field.

Jones targeted six different receivers this week (the lowest number targeted through four games), and the Giants recorded 225 yards through the air, also their lowest total of the year.

That's not necessarily a bad thing; it means that the Giants ran the ball more (37 times) than they did throw it (31 times), likely a by-product of their comfortable lead throughout.

RUSHING OFFENSE: B+

The only glaring negative in the running game were the two fumbles by Wayne Gallman and Jon Hilliman.

Hilliman's fumble could have been a significant backbreaker as it came at the Washington 5-yard-line. Thankfully the defense stepped in with a big ol' eraser when Jabrill Peppers caught a Pick-6 off Dwayne Haskins off the ensuing drive.

Otherwise, there was a lot to like in this week's rushing attack. Gallman might not have the explosiveness of a Barkley, but he earned every single one of his 63 rushing yards with some aggressive play. He also did an excellent job in pass pro, the other side of a running back's duties.

PASS DEFENSE: A

Remember those tweaks head coach Pat Shurmur mentioned but didn't elaborate on in his postgame press conference?

We'll have a film study coming out Tuesday which goes into a little more detail, but the most significant and most notable difference was the Giants played much better zone coverage.

There were feer gaping holes in the coverage, and this was a result of a small personnel deployment change. This helped the Giants, who, coming into Week 4, had allowed 332.3 passing yards per game, to limit the damage inflicted against them.

On a larger scale, the play of the backend of the defense was vital to getting the pass rush going.

This week the Giants recorded three sacks and eight quarterback hits because the defensive backs did a much better job with covering down the field (plus the defensive interior managed to win most of its one-on-one battles against Washington's offensive line).

Washington’s 121 passing yards were the fewest by a Giants opponent since Tennessee had 86 yards through the air in a 17-0 defeat of the Giants December 16, 2018.

RUSH DEFENSE: A

If the Giants' defensive game plan was to make Washington beat them through the air, mission accomplished.

Washington's longest run play was a 14-yard scramble by quarterback Dwayne Haskins which came when there was a breakdown in contain. Otherwise, the Giants run defense smothered Washington's ground game, holding Adrian Peterson to 28 yards on 11 carries.

SPECIAL TEAMS: B

The Giants once again got some excellent kicking from both Aldrick Rosas and Riley Dixon--Dixon, by the way, has upped his game this year and has benefitted from some outstanding gunner play.

Michael Thomas, who continues to be an underrated performer on the special teams, drew the holding penalty in the third quarter that wiped out an 81-yard kickoff return, reducing it to an 18-yard return from which Washington didn't recover.

The lone negative--and this is a concern moving forward--was the two muffed punts by TJ Jones. Jones, who had looked as though he put his preseason ball security issues behind him in the team's first three games, managed just eight return yards on four punts and appeared on his two muffs to be moving with the ball before securing it.

The coaches removed him from the role after the second muff, but they went back to him after the halftime break.

The Giants need to get better at this position, and with Golden Tate's suspension ending, Jones' roster spot would appear to be in jeopardy. The dilemma the Giants will need to resolve is who do they run with moving forward?

Yes, they have guys--Sterling Shepard, Tate, and Jabrill Peppers--who have done it before, but do they want to put those key players out there and have them run back punts or are they willing to take it week by week and pick and choose their returns accordingly?

Time will reveal the answers to all these questions.

COACHING: A

We often talk about players getting into a groove, but certainly the same can be said of the Giants coaching staff, which after a shaky start has upped its game.

You can start with Pat Shurmur's decision to use two timeouts on defense late in the second quarter to allow for the offense to get into position for Aldrick Rosas' 30-yard field goal as time expired int he half.

And you can also look at Shurmur's growing aggressive playcalling such as going for it on fourth down on the opening drive instead of settling for three points.

Defensively, James Bettcher fixed some of the glaring holes in the team's zone coverage by playing more defensive backs to tighten things up.

This also allowed for deep help to be given to the struggling cornerbacks and limited the big-pass plays down the field, as Washington only had two big pass plays of 20 or more yards.

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