New York Giants Week 7 Victory: By the Numbers

Coming into their Week 7 dance with the Jaguars, the red-hot New York Giants still faced their fair share of doubters.

Despite their best start to a season since 2009 and dominating the NFL’s top storylines, the Giants entered Jacksonville as the underdogs for a contest at a place where they hadn't previously won as the visiting team. But the one element prognosticators seemed to forget with Brian Daboll’s bunch was their fourth-quarter resiliency which showed up again for another thrilling finish.

Behind crisp performances by quarterback Daniel Jones, running back Saquon Barkley, and huge defensive stops in the second half, the Giants hung on to a 23-17 win to defeat the pesky Jaguars and improve to 6-1 on the season. It was a game where the final minute felt like an eternity, and even had a heart-stopping moment as the Jaguars came within one yard of snatching the victory away from the Giants. Still, the heroics of the secondary at the goalline came through to give New York their fifth comeback effort and first victory in the city of Jacksonville.

On the offensive side, the Giants had to right the ship from an injury-ridden first half that saw them lose offensive linemen Ben Bredeson and Evan Neal and tight end Daniel Bellinger to compete with the Jaguars' fiery attack. Between the “next man up” stepping up and the combined 217-yard rushing showcase by Jones and Barkley, the Giants remained composed and found a way to be competitive on another contentious scoreboard.

“It’s always tough to see guys go down, big players and key players for us,” said Jones about his unit’s toughness amid injuries. “I thought the guys came in, stepped up, and played well; Josh [Ezeudu] and Tyre [Phillips] did a great job throughout the game.”

There were also timely contributions from a handful of new, under-the-radar Giants that altered the course of the game when it mattered most. Recent additions such as linebacker Jaylon Smith, safety Landon Collins, and cornerback Fabian Moreau stepped up to make game-altering plays. This reality paints a good picture of how the Giants have found success in this miraculous season.

Now it's on to the next week for head coach Brian Daboll and these Giants, as Daboll still believes his team has room to improve as they take their new best start since 2008 to Seattle next Sunday.

“Like I say every week, there are things to clean up, and this week is no exception," he said. “There are some good things we did. … there are always things to clean up.”

Between the good, the bad, and the ugly, it’s time to break down some critical numbers.

A Stunning Affair

Say what you may about the entirety of quarterback Daniel Jones’ tenure in New York and whether he deserves a contract extension beyond this year. Still, there is little doubt the gunslinger is having the best campaign of his career under the Daboll-Kafka offensive regime.

Through his first three seasons, the 25-year-old Jones had been bogged down by constantly changing offensive systems, a lack of healthy playmakers, lingering injuries, and turnover problems. Having a fresh, revolutionary playbook and a group of gritty teammates surrounding him, he’s suddenly morphed into the prospect the Giants’ envisioned him to be when they drafted him sixth overall in 2019.

With a strengthened offensive line at his disposal, Jones has enjoyed increased protection, lending to the quarterback remaining composed in the pocket and playing smart with his throwing decisions. In the six games before Sunday’s matchup, Jones completed 107 completions for 1,021 yards, five touchdowns, and two interceptions, the latter stat ranking second-best in his position.

As opposing defenses put an increased focus on slowing down the impact of Saquon Barkley from the backfield, Jones has also torched weak zone defenses with his legs to the tune of 47 rushes for 236 yards (5.0 average) and two touchdowns. He’s already on track to smash his numbers from last season and sits second on the team’s rushing leaderboard.

The story of Jones’ stunning 2022 season was no different in Jacksonville, where he gave the Giants’ brass another reason to think carefully about one of their most important off-season decisions. Playing against the Jaguars’ aggressive pass-rush defense, Jones went 19-of-30 for 202 yards and a touchdown while being sacked once and finishing with a 94.0 passer rating.

Earning his third consecutive game with at least a 63 percent completion percentage and second 200+ passing yard performance this year, Jones once again displayed complete confidence, composure, and competitiveness from the Giants’ first offensive possession. In what was marked a 4:39 opening series, the Duke product commanded New York nine plays and 75 yards downfield, capping off the drive with a 32-yard touchdown pass to receiver Darius Slayton to give the Giants an early 7-0 advantage.

Following the strong start, Jones would lead the Giants’ offense through five more drives of 60 or more yards, with only one possession ending without any points on the scoreboard. Four of those sequences went beyond ten plays from scrimmage and saw Jones connect with nine different receivers, including three that secured at least three catches and 58 yards in the air.

“Played good,” said Daboll about his quarterback’s play after the game. “ Everybody knows we have Saquon, so it's tough sledding. I thought Kaf [Offensive Coordinator Mike Kafka] did a great job coming out throwing, moved the ball down, scored on that first drive, kept them honest…Yeah, played good again, played the way we need him to play.”

Knowing the talents of Barkley would take away the defensive focus of the Jaguars, Jones made the weary interior coverage pay by flashing his legs on 11 rushes for 107 yards and a touchdown. The score, his third of the season and first since Week 4, came in the fourth quarter after a boatload of Jaguars’ penalties placed the Giants’ 10-play, 79-yard drive at the Jacksonville 1-yard line and helped the quarterback secure his first 100-yard rushing game in the NFL.

Jones credited the defensive concern towards his star running back for opening up the running lanes for him along the outside and noted the impact of his protection in creating the opportunities to stack up chunks of yardage on the ground.

“I think that was a big piece of it. [Saquon] attracts a lot of attention, and then some things opened up off of it. I thought the offensive line did a great job controlling the line of scrimmage throughout the game and cleared some opportunities for us to make plays.”

Under Jones’ leadership, the Giants’ offense has seen one of their most compelling campaigns since they last performed well on that side in 2016. The best part of all that is his consistency, especially in protecting the football and avoiding mistakes he would commonly make in the past. He’s also finding ways to distribute the football to different names every Sunday, a miracle given the weakness of the Giants’ receiving corps amid injuries.

If this streak continues, what Jones will be praised most for is his ability to carry the team to victory in the fourth quarter, something he’s already done five times in the first half of the season. Holding the competitive spirit it takes to thrive in those situations, he understands the only way to sweeten the load now is by continuing to improve his sharpness in the pocket.

“A couple of them we got lucky today on, and try to keep doing that, keep putting the team in a position to make plays at the end of the game. That's what I'm focused on, and certainly some plays I could do that better, and I'll look to correct moving forward.”

What a Rush!

In my preview of the Jaguars offense, one strength touched upon was the team’s rushing attack. Entering Sunday’s contest, Jacksonville held a top-10 backfield in attempts, yards, and average yards per rush.

That didn't stop Saquon Barkley from continuing his masterful 2022 rushing campaign with his third 100-yard game, tallying 24 carries for 110 yards with an average of 4.6 per attempt. He now sits one century-mark performance away from the total he set back in 2019 and ranks second among league backs with 616 total yards.

However, throughout the first half, that hasn't been the case. Despite good protection by the offensive line, the Jaguars defensive front limited the Giants’ star rusher to nine carries for 18 yards, something he credited to a disillusioned mentality early on.

“I was running soft, thinking about the wrong things. (The) O-line was playing lights out. I've got to do a better job hitting the hole,” Barkley said. He doubled down on his response, saying the initial effort wasn’t the No. 26 himself nor Giants fans have known during the first quarter of the season.

Returning for the second frame, the former No. 2 overall pick in 2018 would rediscover his prime form and turn that into 92 yards on the ground, earning moderate chunks of yardage to help the Giants’ offensive possessions advance into scoring territory. His most notable contribution came with 6:30 left in the fourth quarter when he took a first down-and-10 carry for 18 yards to the Jaguars’ 11-yard line a few plays before the Giants punched in a score with the legs of Daniel Jones.

What was most impressive about the Giants’ second-half rushing performance was their ability to run the same plays with Barkley down the Jaguars’ interior and do it with consistent success. Beyond an inability to stop such plays later, Barkley attributed his newfound effort to his teammates taking the attention off the backfield and allowing the offense to fall back on the downhill attack.

“A lot of teams will come and do different things to make sure to slow down the run game, but when that happens, guys got to step up and make plays, which they've been doing all year.”

“DJ (quarterback Daniel Jones) has been balling, Slay (wide receiver Darius Slayton) going up top, David (wide receiver David Sills V), Richie (wide receiver Richie James), all the guys, the tight ends, all those guys coming in and making plays when we need them. As that continues to happen, you soften up a little bit. You can get back to just getting downhill and trusting the run.”

Trusting the run seemed to not only be the motto of the Giants backfield, as the Jaguars’ offense was very dominant in that department behind second-year ball carrier Travis Etienne Jr. Earning a majority of the team’s reps on Sunday, but Etienne also torched the Giants’ defense for 114 yards and a touchdown, including a long run of 49 yards to lead all Jacksonville rushers.

The Dropsies

On 4th-and-2 at the Jaguars’ 3-yard line, the Giants had a big decision to take the easy three points in a close third quarter or bet on the receivers to convert a play and punch the ball into the endzone for six and the lead.

Trailing 17-13, the latter choice was made, but one that resulted in no more than a rarely frustrated Daniel Jones walking toward the sideline.

Most animated I’ve ever seen Daniel Jones.

“Catch the ball!” pic.twitter.com/x73QErbf7k
— Jimmy Randazzo (@JimmyRandazzo) October 23, 2022

Throwing a quick, breadbasket slant pass to the right side for receiver Marcus Johnson, the Giants looked to have an easy conversion and score to take a 20-17 advantage on the Jaguars. Instead, Jones’s beautifully placed ball fell and spun on the turf, giving the ball back to Jacksonville, to the utter dismay of the Giants’ quarterback.

As the offense strolled off the field, still trailing by four points, cameras caught a shockingly irate Jones yell the words “catch the ball” to his receiver. That finished Johnson’s day, the receiver logging three targets and zero receptions, a frustrating line that Jones admitted didn’t warrant his response in the heat of the moment.

“Yeah. [It was the] heat of the moment, and I wish I could have that situation back,” he said about the situation with Johnson. “I pride myself on being composed in those situations. I've got full faith and confidence in the world in [Giants WR] Marcus [Johnson], and yeah, [I'm] disappointed I let that happen.”

While the remorseful response from Jones was nice for locker room camaraderie, it didn’t seem unfair for the quarterback to show some disappointment with the performance of his receiving corps Sunday, who, per Pro Football Focus, was credited with two drops. Along with Johnson’s drop, the unit failed to show up on numerous throws early in the game, stunting the Giants’ drives and putting the offense back into a one-dimensional style of play seen in their recent victories.

Throughout the first half, the Giants went 15-of-22 for 168 yards on the passing game and had four receivers not come up with catchable balls in that span. The struggles were most obvious on the second offensive series of the game but continued throughout the half to force an 0-2 red zone efficiency at the halftime whistle.

On the aforementioned possession, after a fairly clean opening drive that ended in a Darius Slayton touchdown, Jones first went left to slot receiver Wan’Dale Robinson looking for the first down conversion. Robinson, who scored his first NFL touchdown last week against Baltimore, dropped the goods this time and placed the Giants in a third and long at their own 34-yard line.

Following defensive offsides by the Jaguars on third down-and-8 that overturned a sack and fumble by Jones, the Giants had another opportunity to extend their drive. This time, Robinson came through with a 10-yard reception to get the first down, but it was right back to an incomplete pass on the next play.

After that mishap, two of the next four snaps for the Giants saw incomplete passes dropped by Johnson and Richie James, capping the Giants’ drive short of field goal range and forcing the team to punt.

By the end of the contest, the Giants offense went 19-of-30 through the air with a total of nine dropped receptions by five different receivers, the most egregious being Johnson’s, who fared much better in his recent efforts coming off the team’s practice squad.

Despite their successes on the ground, the Giants offense continues to see a major blemish with their wide receiver room. Injuries and lack of contributions in the red zone by critical players have greatly inhibited the unit, which ranks 26th or below in attempts, yards, and touchdowns. For much of the seven-game stretch, the result has been Jones relying on a crew of rookies and practice squad hopefuls to push the ball, then the legs of him and Barkley when even that can’t do the job.

The Giants played against a Jaguars’ defense that ranked near the middle of the league in allowing the same opposing categories, which may have allowed them to experience some turnaround in the second half, where they finished with 202 yards and a touchdown. If they don’t figure it out soon, it may lead to burnout in the rushing game, the worst fear of the Giants’ stifled offense in previous seasons.

Still, Jones recommitted his trust to the resilient group with the receiving hysteria building. He also indirectly emphasized that patience needs to be a virtue just a little longer, and they will figure out how to contribute effectively to the team's offensive success. That message starts with him, but hopefully, it’s received on the other end as the catching woes hit their worst in Jacksonville.

“I want to be composed in those situations. I think just I'm competitive, it was heat of the moment. I think you get fiery. Obviously, you want to score there. I've got a lot of confidence in him, and [I] don't want to do that to any teammate.”

Three Big Defensive Plays

Looking back on Sunday’s result against the Jaguars, one could point to several plays that pushed the envelope and guided New York to its third come-from-behind thriller in as many weeks. Yet, none were more important than three made by several under-the-radar players to prevent the Jaguars from running away with an upset win.

The first came in the second quarter, with the Jaguars’ offense on the verge of putting their team ahead by two scores. After marching 76 yards in five plays to the Giants’ 17-yard line, the home team faced 2nd down-and-10 with seemingly gaping holes in the defensive interior for Travis Etienne Jr. to run through.

Handing the ball off to their lead rusher on the day, the Jaguars got to the Giants’ 12-yard line and nearly broke free for six points when safety Xavier McKinney came in and plucked the ball loose from Etienne’s hands. The ball was picked up in the end zone by defensive back Julian Love, who decisively took the touchdown and kept the Jaguars’ lead at a slim 11–10 advantage.

Love called McKinney’s forced fumble in the red zone “huge” and added it to the list of crucial defensive plays throughout the affair, the second of which came early in the second half when Jacksonville looked to make another quick stab into the Giants’ heart.

Taking the first possession of the third frame, quarterback Trevor Lawrence commanded the Jaguars down a seven-play, 72-yard drive that included a 49-yard run by Travis Etienne Jr. and was capped off by the Clemson product diving over the goal line for the one-yard score. Leading 17-13, the Jaguars looked to buy another point worth of space, this time electing to settle for the extra point by Riley Patterson.

However, on the PAT attempt, the Jaguars were penalized for a false start on the kick formation, sending the playback five yards. On the ensuing retry, rookie corner Nick McCloud stormed into the scrum, jumped up, and got a finger on the kick to send it spiraling back toward the ground for the miss. With that tip, the Giants kept the game at a one-score deficit for the remainder of the third quarter.

Moving into the fourth quarter, the Giants defense has their best frame of the contest, holding the Jaguars to 44 yards between two drives and stopping them on 4th down-and-1 at their 20-yard line thanks to a stuff by Jaylen Smith and Landon Collins. Little did they know it would take one more “backs against the wall” type play to seal the Jaguars’ losing fate.

After the Giants’ nine-play, 61-yard drive that ran 3:25 featured an infamous reversed inbounds contact ruling by the officials and ended with a 34-yard field goal by Graham Gano, the Jaguars received the ball for their last licks with 1:04 remaining in the contest.

By the 1:04 mark of the fourth quarter, the Giants had a 23-17 advantage with another Gano field goal, and they started to feel the 6-1 start within their grasp as the game clock ticked down to 25 seconds. Then, in a sudden turn of events, the officials reversed a play by Saquon Barkley, ruling him out of bounds on a give-up play to put the clock back to 1:04 in the hands of the Jaguars.

At that moment, the Giants knew they needed to make one more stop to seal the deal, and they almost didn’t get it. Starting at their own 25, the Jaguars marched ten plays, and 74 yards downfield, guided heavily by a few untimely and questionable penalties called on the Giants and stopped at the New York 17, where they could sniff the endzone on one big passing play.

The Giants defense forced Lawrence incomplete on first and second down, leading to a final play on third down-and-10 from the same spot with five long seconds remaining. Playing the prevent game on defense, it nearly came back to bite them as Lawrence connected with receiver Christian Kirk on a go-route down the middle that was caught on the 1-yard line directly in front of the scoring plain.

As Kirk was about to fall back into the endzone and create the heartbreaking game-winning play for the Giants, an unexpected hero came to the rescue to stop him in his tracks and prevent the score. Cornerback Fabian Moreau, who was recently called up from the practice squad, flew down from his perch in the secondary to hit Kirk and keep him shy of the goal line as defenders swarmed the area.

While it wasn’t a clean tackle, the play stunted Kirk long enough to allow extra Giants’ defenders to finish the deal as time expired, and the Giants held onto victory for the fourth consecutive week. It took a heads-up play to save their game, another story that has defined this incredible Giants season.

Daboll was relieved his team made the big play for another week, but he made it clear he’s started to get weary of the hectic finishes to his team’s winning affairs.

“Just watched the ball thrown, came up short, and watched the guys compete for that yard. Good to get a win. Shouldn't have come down to that, though.”

Saquon Barkley also chirped in on the play, taking responsibility for putting his team in that situation and pledging to improve situational football moving forward.

“I've got to be way better in situational football there, not even putting us in that situation, giving Jacksonville another opportunity with that much time on the clock,” he said. “But the defense had my back, not only my back but the offense's back. We trust each other, and we were able to get a win.”

Get another win they did, and they did it for the first time on Jacksonville soil. Heading to Seattle next Sunday, one of the many goals will be leaving without a nervous sweat at the end of the fourth quarter.

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