Three Keys to a NY Giants Week 11 Win vs Green Bay Packers

The New York Giants are caught up in the middle of what has been another disappointing season for the franchise that sits at 2-8 entering Week 11, but have entered the start of a new era with the elevation of offensive coordinator Mike Kafka to the interim head coaching role in relief of Brian Daboll, with whom the franchise parted ways on Monday.

As is usually the case when a mid-season coaching change happens in the NFL, a team likes to find that extra bit of juice to take into their first game under their new leader. It’s a big opportunity for Kafka to prove himself as that leader, but also for the Giants locker room to show they still have enough healthy talent to compete for wins down the stretch.

Even with that renewed energy and desire to give another strong performance at home for the blue faithful, the Giants will have a tough task in facing the Green Bay Packers on Sunday. The Packers are sitting at 5-3-1 on the heels of a rough two-game skid that has them clinging to the edge of the NFC postseason picture.

That means their visit to MetLife Stadium against a struggling Giants team will be viewed as a must-have for an opponent eyeing their piece of the playoff bracket. The Giants will have a chance to play the role of spoilers in this matchup, and it’s one that they have taken in the last two contests in such fashion.

To do that this time around, these are our weekly three keys to defeating a desperate Green Bay foe and getting the Mike Kafka era off to a positive start.

Contain Micah Parsons

Green Bay Packers outside linebacker Micah Parsons — Nov 10, 2025; Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA; Green Bay Packers defensive end Micah Parsons (1) during the game against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lambeau Field. | Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

It’s been a few weeks since the Giants faced a team with a defensive player who is capable of taking over a game by himself. Green Bay Packers outside linebacker Micah Parsons will surely be that guy, and they need no reminders about the type of player he has been against them.

Parsons, the 12th overall pick in the 2021 draft, is a name that the Giants have been familiar with since he came into the league as an elite pass rusher from Penn State.

He was viewed as a prospect they could have had in that draft before the general manager, Dave Gettleman, chose to move down the board and select former wide receiver Kadarius Toney with the 20th pick. At the same time, Parsons would end up in the division with their rival, the Dallas Cowboys.

That became a poor decision that has marred the Giants in the years that have followed, as Parsons quickly became a game-wrecker for the Cowboys, especially in his matchups with New York. The four-time Pro Bowler has faced the Giants eight times in his career and has logged 14 tackles and 4.5 sacks against them.

The Cowboys traded Parsons to the Packers ahead of the 2025 season after a long, drawn-out period of fruitless contract negotiations with team ownership, where Parsons signed to a lucrative four-year, $188 million deal that made him the highest-paid non-quarterback in league history.

Since signing that deal, the 26-year-old has already been making it worthwhile to his new organization as he chases his fifth straight season with double-digit sacks.

Parsons ranks 13th in the league with 6.5 sacks through his first nine games and holds the sixth-best pass rush win rate amongst his fellow position group players in that same span.

As much as he can be a problem against the pass, he can also clog things up in the trenches. The Packers can rely on him and defensive tackle Karl Brooks to use their blend of size and speed to fill in the rushing lanes at a 33% run stop clip, and that won’t bode well against a Giants offense that has fallen off a little in the run since losing Cam Skattebo to an ankle injury.

The only difference for Parsons in this latest meeting with his former divisional rival is that the Giants have an improved offensive line, which has been a major help to the quarterback.

The return of left tackle Andrew Thomas has certainly fueled their rebound, along with the mobility of Jaxson Dart, which hasn’t allowed more than two sacks in four of the games he has played in.

On the select games where the offensive line wasn’t as sharp, the cause could be attributed more to Dart holding onto the ball for too long or being replaced by a less mobile arm in Russell Wilson in the fourth quarter of the loss to Chicago, which gave the Giants’ offense four total sacks for 25 yards on the day.

The actual performance of the offensive line has yet to be fully outweighed by one of their opposing pass rushers trying to shut down their game plan.

Still, Parsons is an incredibly talented player who can be lined up at various spots along the line of scrimmage and take advantage of certain matchups with his unique skill set.

It’ll be an intriguing matchup to see him spar with Thomas on the right defensive edge, but the rest of Thomas’s teammates will need to rise to the occasion when it is their turn to keep Parsons from becoming a fixture in the Giants' backfield.

Slow Down the Passing Attack

Nov 10, 2025; Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA; Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love (10) looks downfield against the Philadelphia Eagles in the first half at Lambeau Field. | Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

While the Packers offense could find ways to produce in both phases in this matchup against a floundering Giants defense, the side New York should focus on more is their passing attack, which might not be at full strength this weekend.

With each week that has passed since their last victory against the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 6, the Giants' defense has fallen further from the preseason expectations that were once held for a highly invested group that was projected to be among the most active in opposing backfields this fall.

Despite still ranking among the top 15 teams in pass rush win rate and bringing some heat on every snap, there haven’t been as many tangible results for Shane Bowen’s group, which has dropped down to the 27th and 29th-ranked defensive huddles in total points and yards allowed, respectively.

The more glaring issue for the Giants unit has been stopping an entourage of running backs from running rampant and compiling 100+ yard outings on the ground, something they’ve allowed each of the team’s previous four opponents to achieve with a season-high 276 yards in their Week 8 loss to the Eagles.

That’s not to say that their defense hasn’t been eaten up over the middle either. The Giants’ second and third levels have been marred by another swing of injuries to key starters, and it’s resulted in their coverage metrics nearing the league basement in some categories, such as attempts (27) and yards (23).

Not having a strong presence in the deep field has given the Giants’ foes untapped confidence to sling the football, especially in the critical moments of those four games when they were ahead by a couple of scores yet showing signs of fading down the stretch.

The Giants’ latest loss to the Chicago Bears was the perfect example of that, as the Bears took advantage of the Giants’ weariness and crumbling offense behind Russell Wilson to orchestrate two quick drives with a combined 11 plays and 144 yards.

They punched in two touchdowns, took away the 24-20 lead, and eventually won in the final minutes of the fourth quarter.

To add onto that, the Bears found four chunk plays on those two possessions, including a pair of 20+yard throws and large runs in open space that set up the game-winning rush by Caleb Williams.

If they let that happen again, it’s going to be a long afternoon contending with a Packers offense that loves to throw the football at the 19th highest rate in the NFL.

Green Bay has turned those many attempts into the ninth-highest passing yards total entering Week 11 and the seventh-highest average toss of about 7.1 yards, which is an entire yard over what the Giants have averaged in the same span.

For a team that also owns the fifth-best pass block win rate, that combination will be a problem if the Giants don’t find a way to clamp down and play clean coverage on the biggest plays.

One possibly positive piece of news is that the Giants are expected to get cornerback Paulson Adebo on the outside, and his presence will likely help get some more deflections on Jordan Love’s throws.

The Packers are also dealing with numerous ailments in their wide receiver corps, which could leave their ranks a little bare if none of their reserves can step up in the production department.

So, the Giants must take advantage of a potentially shorthanded Packers passing attack and force them off the field quickly, as they can convert late downs with the best teams in the league and are a solid bet once they are inside the red zone.

Win the Fourth Quarter

New York Giants quarterback Jameis Winston (19) cheers on New York Giants defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence II (97) during a week 9 game between New York Giants and San Francisco 49ers at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025. | Julian Leshay Guadalupe/NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

If the Giants are holding a lead or in the middle of a tight contest on Sunday, all eyes will be watching to see how Mike Kafka gets his team to handle the pressure of finishing the game in the waning minutes of the fourth quarter.

That final frame has been the biggest difference between the Giants being a 5-5 team with at least some relevance in the developing postseason discussion and where they currently sit at 2-8, heading into their eighth campaign in the last decade without making the dance.

With each of their four fourth-quarter collapses, we’ve seen a boatload of poor coaching decisions or gameplan miscues that were completely avoidable and led the Giants to leave important points on the table.

There were also total breakdowns by the players on the field in the heat of adversity, which only gave their opponents the momentum to mount their comebacks.

Last Sunday’s game against the Bears is still the freshest in the minds of those players in the Giants’ locker room, especially since there was the feeling of letting down their coaching staff with the ultimate departure of Brian Daboll as head coach after a dismal record in almost four years at the helm.

The Giants held a 20-10 lead heading into the fourth quarter and had a high-volume Bears offense stymied through the first three periods with an aggressive pass rush. The weather conditions at Soldier Field alternated with Chicago’s heavy pass attempts.

As soon as New York lost quarterback Jaxson Dart to a concussion, it was as if the Bears could smell blood in the water, as the Giants couldn’t get the ball moving very much with Russell Wilson replacing Dart for their final two drives.

The defense suddenly lost its edge and opened up as well, whiffing on numerous attempts to bring down Caleb Williams for sacks, who turned their miscues into a grand dishing of the pigskin that went 77 yards in under three minutes as part of Chicago’s two game-winning drives.

That simply cannot happen again on Sunday against the Packers if the Giants want to close out their third home game of the season with a victory. Green Bay is currently the top team in the NFL with 103 fourth-quarter points this season, as opposed to the Giants’ 115 points given up, which also sits at the bottom of the league.

A portion of the responsibility should fall on the offense to take better care of their scoring opportunities, which should come against a Packers defense that ranks 18th in opponent redzone scoring percentage and whose one weakness is getting off the field quickly.

The new offensive-minded leadership of Mike Kafka could help the cause, along with newly named starter Jameis Winston having a good sample of game-winning drives under his belt in 10 pro seasons.

More importantly, it's time for the Giants' defense to finally live up to their preseason expectations and lock in when it matters most. If they play sound coverage and don’t leave gaping holes in the run game where Green Bay can execute with some power rushing, it will set up the Giants to finally close out a game instead of being the victim of another disastrous finish.