Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports
2019 Week 5: Player by Player Review Plus a Look at the Strategy and the Play Calling
A LOOK AT THE PLAYCALLING
By Chris Pflum
The New York Giants suffered their first loss of the Daniel Jones era Sunday.
But it isn't so much that they lost as it is how they lost. The Giants came into the weekend as more than 5-point underdogs at home.
It was expected that they would lose, but the problem is that they lost in a 28-10 drubbing that could have been much more lopsided.
Whenever a game like this happens, there are a number of factors at play.
The Vikings boast a good, veteran roster that is in its prime on both sides of the ball and a defense in particular that is a legitimate championship caliber unit.
The Giants were simply outclassed from a personnel perspective. They played hard, but between their recent rash of injuries and where their roster is from a construction standpoint, they just didn't have the players to get it done.
But there are also questions to be asked about the Giants' coaching decisions, on both sides of the ball.
For instance, we could easily look at how the Giants and Vikings performed in the same situation.
In the first case, Vikings started their second drive of the game from their own 2-yard line following a great punt and coverage from the Giants' special teams.
On the first two downs, the Vikings ran the ball as expected, with the Giants playing with nine defenders in the box and with good gap integrity.
Then came 3-and-8 from the Vikings' 4-yard line. That is a situation in which defenders are expected to become hunters.
Discipline is all well and good, but this is an obvious passing situation and a dream situation for an aggressive defense.
But rather than playing the Vikings aggressively, jamming receivers at the line of scrimmage and sending extra rushers after Kirk Cousins, the Giants' defense backed off just before the snap, apparently content to give up an underneath pass and try to defend the first down marker.
However, the Giants weren't able to bring Adam Thielen down and the Pro Bowl receiver was able to pick up the first down, launching a 98-yard touchdown drive for Minnesota.
Just before the final two minutes of the first half, we saw the roles reversed. The Giants had the ball from their own 1-yard line following a fantastic play by Jabrill Peppers, who knocked the ball away from Dalvin Cook.
Peppers' play prevented a touchdown and got the ball back for the Giants' offense, but it put the offense in a difficult position playing out of their own endzone.
The Giants, predictably, decided to run the ball. However, Mike Zimmer saw that coming and lined up with his interior defensive line heads-up on the Giants' guards and center. It was a clear indication that he was getting ready to unleash one of his famous A-gap blitzes.
The Giants had to know that the Vikings were going to be aggressive in this situation, but still went with the predictable and “safe” play call.
The result was an unblocked blitzer right up the middle, who hit Jon Hilliman almost as he took the hand-off.
While Minnesota wasn't able to come away with the touchdown on Cook's run, they were still able to come away with two points from the safety and get the ball back in great field position just before the two-minute warning.
These trends popped up again and again from the Giants, with the offense repeatedly taking what the defense gave it.
Granted, the Giants were without a running game with Saquon Barkley injured and Wayne Gallman exiting the game with a concussion.
However, the Giants seemed to let the fact that they had to carry an anaemic running game impact how they called their game.
They repeatedly tried to simulate a running game with quick passes around (or behind) the line of scrimmage, only to see their players swarmed by the Vikings defense.
Other times, they tried to use receiver Sterling Shepard or tight end Evan Engram as a stand-in with sweeps, but these were quickly identified and countered by Minnesota.
On crucial third downs, we often saw the Giants throwing well short of the first down maker and hoping one of their players could make a play.
That isn't to say that the Giants never attacked downfield, but too many of their passes were too close to the line of scrimmage.
Daniel Jones was once again under heavy pressure, but it doesn't take much longer for a receiver to run 10 yards than it does for him to run four.
When it came to defense, we just didn't see the same level of aggression that we saw against Tampa Bay and Washington.
The Giants' defensive backs had some good reps, but they were few and far between.
Often, they were retreating into soft coverages at the snap and while the Giants were able to be effective when they got pressure on Cousins, they didn't bring pressure often enough.
While the Giants were able to sack Cousins three times, their fastest sack of the game still took 4.1 seconds per NFL NextGen Stats – a virtual eternity in the NFL.
And even when the Giants played their defensive backs close to the line of scrimmage, they were allowing the Vikings' receivers to free releases off of the line of scrimmage.
With route runners like Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs, that is a dangerous gambit and one which allowed Cousins to complete over 80 percent of his passes.
The Giants showed that while they have promise and are willing to play hard against better teams, they just aren't yet ready to really compete at that level.
However, Pat Shurmur, Mike Shula, and James Bettcher are experienced coaches who have competed at the highest level.
They don't have much time before they have to face the New England Patriots, but the Giants' coaching staff needs to take the opportunity to look in the mirror before Thursday night.
QUARTERBACK
Daniel Jones: Anyone who thought that the rookie had a sub-par game this week needs to go back and study the game a lot more closely.
Jones was impressive going up against a top NFL defense with an undermanned supporting cast that was missing Saquon Barkley and thus had no real running game.
He was also hamstrung by a lack of a true No. 1 receiver, a defense that couldn’t get off the field, and an offensive line that didn’t protect him very well.
The Vikings defense had only tight end Evan Engram to focus on besides Jones, and that’s just not fair for any rookie.
Still, from start to finish, Jones kept his eyes downfield and ignored the pass rush that was constantly raging around him.
He absorbed a ton of punishment, including this week’s four sacks (two of which could have been penalized for roughing), but Jones just kept getting back up without complaint.
He stood strong in the pocket even late in the game when the Vikings were pinning back their ears, and he kept stepping into his throws and looking downfield.
His lone interception came on a 4th-and-2 with 3:26 left in the game. Big deal.
The first-half time of possession numbers were one-sided in the Vikings’ favor—20:40 to 9:20—because the defense couldn’t get off the field.
Jones’ four first-half possessions (that’s right, four) ended in two pooch punts, a touchdown, and a safety.
This week’s game can be used as a measuring stick and as a learning experience for the rookie.
He sure measured up to everything that Minnesota threw at him. It’s never going to go smoothly.
The throws he’d like to have back (by the way, EVERY quarterback has throws he’d like to have back EVERY Sunday) both targeted Sterling Shepard, and each one could have gone for touchdowns.
Those were the plays Jones rued in his post-game interviews, but the reality is the first pass was influenced by a heavy hit right in his face but was still a ball that a receiver with a second gear (which Shepard doesn’t have) would have reached, while the second miss was a touch pass to the back of the end zone where Jones had to throw over several players and still drop it into the smallish Shepard.
Put a good-sized receiver in this spot and it’s a touchdown.
Still, Jones will accept responsibility because he’s a good teammate, and that’s how it should be. He needs more talent, including a tackle or two who can pass block a little bit and speed on the outside.
We thought he gave his team a chance simply by the way he competed. We loved how he kept on getting up after being knocked down, and still standing tall in the pocket.
We’d like to see him start checking down to some open receivers when under pressure or on the move (he had a few opportunities) but taking these check-downs doesn’t seem to be in his DNA, as he’s always looking downfield.
Taking the short stuff is just being smart with the football and that will come with experience.
One of this week’s more encouraging developments was Jones continuing to build on his connection with receiver Darius Slayton (4-62) which included the offense’s lone touchdown, a perfectly executed 35-yard touchdown throw and catch.
Jones finished 21 of 38 for 182 yards, 1 touchdown 1 interception. He was pretty good out there.
RUNNING BACKS
Wayne Gallman: Gallman’s second successive start in place of the injured Saquon Barkley ended early when he suffered a concussion on his second carry, an 11-yard burst between the tackles, the head injury coming on a rather innocuous hit.
Gallman left the field under his own power but never returned. Prior to that, he came up short on a deep throw from the pocket, Gallman failing to read an inside blitz which got right into his quarterback’s face and hurried the deep throw into an incompletion.
This play could have gone for seven but Gallman did not help out his quarterback by failing to recognize the blitz until it was too late.
Jonathan Hilliman: Getting a lot of snaps after Gallman went down, Hilliman did little to excite, but he also didn’t have much space to work with.
He went 9 for 20 yards on the ground and caught one screen pass for 4 yards. His best play came late in the game when he finally found a little space and turned it into a 6-yard gain.
However, the offense looked better with Elijhaa Penny toting the rock, which we’ll get to in a moment.
We like how Hilliman runs low to the ground and keeps his legs churning, and this week his ball security was sublime.
However, there’s not a lot of burst to his game. Speed kills in this game. You can’t make big plays without it. In the future, this organization really needs to focus on improving its speed at the skill positions.
They have to give their impressive rookie quarterback a chance to shine.
Elijhaa Penny: Penny had one of his best games as a Giant, which included a ton of physical lead-blocking and blitz pickups. We didn’t see him miss a blocking assignment all day long.
Penny was also a plus player with the ball in his hands, catching one ball out of the backfield for 9 yards, gaining 15 yards on 3 carries, and having his best play of the day, a pretty bounce-out around the corner for 13 yards called back on what we thought was a very questionable hold.
TIGHT ENDS
Evan Engram: Leading his team with 6 catches this week, Engram never could shake free for one of his patented runs-after-catch big plays and averaged a mere 7.0 per catch.
His most productive catch was a 14-yarder, but all the rest were tackled short as the Vikings predictably kept a close eye on him no matter where Engram went.
We thought Engram’s blocking was solid for the most part. He failed on one second-half run block and was called for a very iffy edge hold when he tied up a Vikings defensive end and kept his hands inside but was still called for the hold.
Rhett Ellison: Continuing to contribute with his blue-collar game and work ethic, Ellison is having a solid year doing all the little things that he does.
He’s always hitting someone on every play (as he did this week), and most of his snaps reaped positive results.
He had his misses, but they weren’t always noticeable. Ellison caught one pass for 3 yards. The more we watch him this year the more we appreciate what he brings to the table.
He’s solid across-the-board, a complementary type of contributor (the Giants have a ton of these types) whose value will become apparent when you surround him with big playmakers.
RECEIVERS
Golden Tate: It didn’t take long to get him involved in the offense as he made a catch on the first offensive play from scrimmage. It was a simple slip screen and a good way to get him involved.
Tate also ran an out and up pattern late in the third quarter and ran right into Xavier Rhodes. The pass fell incomplete but illegal contact was called.
We were surprised by the call as we thought Tate ran right into the defender, but we’ll take it.
Unfortunately, that was pretty much all she wrote from Tate, who surprisingly wasn’t used as much as we thought he might be.
We believe that Tate is going to have to be a bigger part of this offense as the season progresses.
It was his first game in a while, so perhaps that was behind the lack of targets—at least we hope that is the reason as we’d hate to see this become a weekly practice.
Sterling Shepard: Shepard was wide-open on a fly pattern early in the first quarter, and he made an out and up move to completely fool the defender.
Unfortunately, the ball was overthrown by Jones, but Shepard cannot get into another gear which is often needed to get under a deep route and which was the case here.
Shepard made his first catch in the middle of the second quarter. He sat in the underneath zone and made the grab underneath. Shepard is one of the better receivers in the league working over the middle against a zone.
He followed that up a couple plays later with another catch over the middle. He is truly fearless when he runs routes over the middle.
He had to go up top in the end zone to try and catch a pass from Daniel Jones and the result was he fell out of bounds and the pass was properly ruled incomplete.
Jones went deep to separate late in the third quarter. Again it was a deep route where Shepard ran the route too close to the sideline. This just gives the quarterback no window to throw the football.
Cody Latimer: Latimer tried to go deep down the left sideline midway through the first quarter. He was covered tightly by cornerback Mike Hughes and the pass was incomplete.
Latimer did his part to help Hughes out by running the route too close to the sideline, giving Jones a very small window to throw the football.
In fact, this was the case on a number of deep passes in this game.
Latimer went deep on Trae Waynes late in the third quarter. It looked like good coverage, but a late flag came in for defensive pass interference.
It looked like a close call and the play was challenged. The pass interference was upheld.
Darius Slayton: The Giants deep threat is this rookie out of Auburn Slayton and we hope that in the coming weeks, we see more from this intriguing rookie.
Early in the second quarter, Slayton beat Xavier Rhodes at the line of scrimmage then outmuscled him down the field. The ball was thrown perfectly, and Slayton reached out and caught the pass just as it appeared the pass may be a bit long.
Rhodes is a good defender and Slayton did a nice job breaking free.
Slayton made his second catch early in the third quarter. The nice thing here was he was fearless going over the middle and worked himself back to the quarterback to make the catch.
We really like the way he is playing.
OFFENSIVE LINE
Nate Solder: The perception is that Solder had bad game this week, when the fact of the matter is, he was responsible for only one of this week’s four sacks (the last one), while going up most of the day against one of the better pass rushers in the league, DE Everson Griffen.
Griffen did beat Solder with a neat inside spin move when the game was long out of reach and had his way with Solder on a handful of other pass rushes, but the pressure was coming from all angles this week.
Seeing Solder’s name showing up every week on the injury report with a neck issue is what concerns us most. His poor 2018 season was attributed to neck issues.
He started out strong this year, but he’s taken a step back the last couple of weeks.
His run-blocking this week was decent enough but his pass-blocking was choppy, as especially when his edge is challenged with speed, he just goes into panic mode.
That being said, the Vikings have a really tough front. Every unit on the offense struggled this week.
Mike Remmers: Matched up against the Vikings’ best edge rusher in defensive end Danielle Hunter, Remmers continued to get pushed back into his quarterback’s lap this week on much too regular a basis.
Oddly enough, Remmers has been beaten on the pass block most often this year with power, not speed.
His excellent kick-out usually takes away most of any edge rusher’s space, but when they re-direct right up into his face he’s getting walked back into the quarterback’s lap like a dance partner.
He’s playing much too high, a career-long back issue preventing him from bending at the knees and playing lower. His run-blocking remains a weakness on this unit.
Will Hernandez: Playing his worst game of the year, Hernandez was beaten on a couple of stunts, and when that happens, it means your quarterback is getting the pressure right up in his grill, and that’s the worst place that needs to happen.
Hernandez likes to fire out and meet his man at the line of scrimmage on passing downs, and most of the time, it stones his man.
This week, he got a bit over-aggressive on a couple of snaps and was found in trail mode chasing a “look-out block.” That’s a scary situation.
The Vikings’ inside power game was also standing up to Hernandez’s own power and neutralizing him. He wasn’t getting any push one-on-one, and to make matters worse, the coaches rarely used Hernandez on the pull, which has been quite the staple of the running game of late.
We didn’t see Hernandez deliver a single defining blow this week as the Vikings handled the Giants inside power trio rather handily.
Kevin Zeitler: The one pass block that Zeitler blew this week—he doesn’t blow very many—resulted in a heavy sack of Daniel Jones (it should have been flagged for a high hit on the quarterback), but the sack was overturned by a flag in the secondary.
Zeitler was very slow reacting to this play’s stunt and was the obvious culprit for the big hit on the franchise quarterback.
Zeitler was also part of the Vikings tackle in the end zone for a safety when he and his center had a bad miscommunication. We’re pretty sure we know who was to blame on this, but regardless, the run-blitzing backer did zoom right past Zeitler’s left shoulder for the big penetration and hit.
Other than having a hand in these two blatant errors, Zeitler had another very positive pass-blocking game, but his run-blocking continues to create very little space out there.
He’s leaning on rather than hitting people and that’s just not going to get the job done on running plays.
Jon Halapio: We saw two really bad plays from Halapio. The first came on the safety when it was rather obvious to these eyes that Halapio was the guilty party with the poor read, leaving the inside linebacker to shoot his center-guard gap and penetrate into the end zone untouched for the safety.
This is all on the center, at the very least for a case of miscommunication, but also, it’s poor decision-making and that just cannot happen at the goal line.
Halapio was also beaten much too easily by a quick upfield move by a Vikings defensive tackle that swallowed up his quarterback before he could even set up.
It seemed the entire offensive line was a step too slow on this snap, which is another reflection on the center who is most responsible for getting his unit moving in the right direction at the snap.
Halapio was being stood up and pushed back once again by power this week, which isn’t supposed to be happening by your big physical blocker.
This reflects on Halapio’s average balance as well as average quickness off the snap. His team was playing at home.
Your center should not be getting beat off the snap at home, which was happening this week by a Vikings interior not particularly known for its quickness.
They’re a power front between the tackles, which Halapio and company had very little success contending with.
DEFENSIVE LINE
B.J. Hill: On a day where the defense gave up 211 yards on the ground, it’s hard to find something nice to say about anyone who lined up in the pit.
Hill somehow got in on five tackles on the stat sheet, but they were five of the quietest tackles that we’ve seen.
Hill is making most of his tackles in pursuit, rarely at the point of attack. He’s still not getting any pass pressure to speak of and continues to struggle to get off the snap well.
To these eyes, he’s taken a step back from his game as a rookie. He’s getting walled off with ease inside and not playing with physicality or flash.
On the plus side, he’s doing some of his best work as the initiator on stunts, which is opening up opportunities for inside stunters coming from the outside.
This means that he’s looking his best when he’s got one job to do, which makes him the aggressor right off the snap.
On all other snaps, he perhaps may be trying to do too much and it’s slowing down his reactions. He really needs to get back to more of an attacking player he was last year, not the absorber that he is playing like this year.
Dalvin Tomlinson: When a defensive starter doesn’t even make it onto the stat sheet the assumption is that he was invisible out there.
However, that was not the case with Tomlinson, whose job is to absorb blocks and place a space-eating type of game.
Last week, we got a little spoiled with Tomlinson’s pass-rushing success, but this week the Vikings were playing so much naked bootlegging and misdirection that there was rarely a pocket for the Giants defense to attack.
Tomlinson was therefore left to fuddle around inside on a lot of snaps with not a whole lot to do.
The Vikings did not attack the Giants defense up front; they went off-tackle and around its edges with ease. That’s a reflection on the defensive ends and the entire linebacker corps, not Tomlinson.
We feel comfortable in stating that he played a solid game, even if the defense gave up those 211 yards on the ground. Most of it came with the Vikings running away from him.
Dexter Lawrence: Continuing to be the most disruptive player on his unit, Lawrence had one sack, another sack taken away from him via defensive penalty, he forced a fumble (which popped down right into the fumbler’s arm, ergo no turnover), and he finished with five total tackles.
It seemed like on every pocket formation that Lawrence was the lone insider pushing his man and collapsing the pocket. His combination of athleticism, balance and pure overwhelming power is really hard to deal with one-on-one.
He’s also very active in pursuit when he’s not fighting the good fight at the point of attack.
He’s becoming one of the few playmakers on this defense and would really look good when the organization surrounds him with a few more playmakers out there.
It’s not going to happen this season, but the off-season looms with lots of money to spend plus more draft picks.
Olsen Pierre: Getting his rotation snaps per usual, Pierre made one of his two tackles in the backfield on the edge, but his pass rush was rarely effective this week.
We like that he always plays hard in attack mode but he’s another one of those complementary types who will look a whole lot better when the organization adds a couple of much-needed playmakers to its front seven, hopefully, this off-season.
R.J. McIntosh: This second-year player, whose game and potential we’ve been trumpeting ever since he finally made it onto the field late in 2018, notched his first NFL sack in the first quarter when he swam his way up the field with an aggressive attack right off the snap.
McIntosh then simply poured through his man’s block to swallow up the quarterback with those long arms of his for the big play finish.
It seems the key for the Giants young pit players is to get off the mark and into attack mode on a more regular basis. This puts the offense on its heels and allows their talent to show forth.
There’s been too much reading with this front this year. We want to see more attack out of them.
McIntosh also got in on a run-game tackle, those long and powerful arms swallowing up the ball carrier.
We like how McIntosh can handle all of the rough stuff that comes his way inside, but we really would like to see him show more of the explosive side that we saw out of him in college, where he was such an active interior penetrator.
He had a great swim move right off the snap, which is what we’d like to see more of.
OFF-BALL LINEBACKERS
David Mayo: When you’re a starting linebacker and you accrue nine total tackles on the stat sheet, you’d think that guy had a pretty darned good game.
Mayo surely did make all those tackles, but he fell off a couple that should have and could have been made, while being party to a defense that allowed 211 yards on the ground and another 306 through the air.
Eighty-six of those passing yards came on screen passes and check-downs to Dalvin Cook, who Mayo and company failed woefully to contain.
With that said, Mayo was actually the best of the inside linebacker bunch out there, making a lot of good reads but also getting taken to task on some of those off-tackle big plays that he and his friends were so helpless to stop.
Mayo had a chance to make a couple of big plays, but he was a step slow to the party on these plays.
We like how hard he competed and wouldn’t mind seeing more of him and the size he brings to the action, but there are athletic and speed components to his position that he doesn’t quite reach.
He needs to be a little bit quicker with his reactions and get to the hole a lot faster. There wasn’t a single big play from Mayo this week as he just never could quite get to the action on time.
Nate Stupar: Getting the start this week as a message to the Vikings that the Giants were going to focus on stopping Dalvin Cook and the Vikings ground game, Stupar did manage to find the ball carrier three times and get in on the hits but there were too many snaps where he was beaten to the punch because of slow reads and false steps.
Stupar also fell off a couple more tackles (he was a big tackle-whiffer in pre-season as well) and did not make a single bit of difference out there in any aspect of this week’s game.
The defense was gashed. Stupar is a special teams demon but he just can’t seem to find that level of excellence as a linebacker.
Josiah Tauaefa: Getting the first snaps of his career after being promoted from the practice squad, Tauaefa got in on three tackles himself but in very limited snaps.
They all came later in the game with the final score no longer in doubt, but we still liked a couple of things that he did.
Two of his three tackles came behind the line of scrimmage where he read the wide run and shot the proper gap to beat his blocker to the punch.
We also liked how Tauaefa fought through blockers and shed. He was running around out there like a headless chicken at times, but he seemed to settle down and adjust to the speed of the game. We’d certainly like to see more of him.
EDGE RUSHERS
Markus Golden: Continuing his resurgent season with another sack and five more tackles, Golden is not quite the play-to-play threat that this team needs from their outside linebackers—a play-making position if there ever was one in this sport—but he plays a team-oriented game with a touch of spice and aggressiveness that is a reflection as much on his experience as his talent.
He’s physical against the run, especially when closing down on it inside, though we’d like to see more of a physical presence against the edge runs that have been gouging the defense all year.
However, most of those gouges have occurred away from Golden, who has been nothing short of a positive off-season signing.
His sack this week came on an edge speed rush from the weakside, which is something we haven’t seen from Golden a whole lot—speed.
He’s more of a physical, relentless type of pass rusher with a good bull rush and a very aggressive inside move, especially on stunts where he loves to be part of.
Oshane Ximines: Getting more snaps this week with Lorenzo Carter inactive, Ximines continues to be the target of opposing offenses on the ground, especially when he can be isolated on the weak side where he simply does not stand up to solo blocking.
The kid may never be big enough or strong enough to handle the physicality of it, so he’s going to have to be able to avoid the block with quicks and be smart enough to anticipate the play and defend it with quick positioning.
Whatever the solution, Ximines has been the weak spot in this team’s run defense all season long, and it continued this week.
We were actually stunned to see him handle a run targeted inside of his edge, holding up well to a big blocker and shedding for the tackle, but it’s the runs targeted outside his shoulder that he’s just not defending very well.
He still makes the occasional play, one of his four tackles coming in the backfield this week.
We like how he buzzes around the pocket and always seems to have a plan, but he’s just as clueless, and plan-less, against running plays.
The playing time Ximines is getting in this his rookie season is invaluable because he’s going to have to take a big step up next year if he’s going to continue getting on the field so often.
Tuzar Skipper: We will always like Skipper’s edge physicality—it’s the best on the entire team right now—but he’s such a liability in coverage that it’s tough for the coaches to get him on the field a lot.
His occasional pass rush responsibility this week was invisible, and he never did show up against the run.
We’re not sure why the coaches didn’t get Skipper on the field in relief of Ximines a bit more, especially against such a run-heavy team like the Vikings.
Skipper’s one big play came in hustle pursuit when he ran down a long run from the opposite edge and recovered a fumble at the 1-yard line.
It should have been a huge play in this game, but the subsequent safety put the Giants back on their heels and ended the first half on a very sour note.
DEFENSIVE BACKS
Sean Chandler: On the second play from scrimmage, Kirk Cousins went on a play-fake roll out and found Stefon Diggs wide open on the right sideline.
It was obvious, at least to us, that Cousins would be targeting Diggs early and that is just what he did. Chandler, interestingly enough, played some slot cornerback in this one, perhaps because of the run-heavy offense the Giants anticipated.
Chandler finished with a very quiet three tackles.
DeAndre Baker: On the first possession, Baker was lined up man-to-man against Adam Thielen on 3-and-5.
Thielen simply worked across the field and ended up wide open. Baker got caught up with all the traffic and lost Thielen in the process.
A couple of plays later, the Vikings ran a screen to Baker’s side. Dalvin Cooke caught the screen and Baker could not disengage from the block which resulted in a long gain and an eventual field goal for the Vikings.
On an underneath pass to Cook late in the second quarter, Baker took a bad angle which allowed Cook to get to the edge and get a first down inside the 5-yard line.
He also committed a bad unsportsmanlike penalty in the middle of the third quarter when, with his team behind, he decided to taunt Cook after making a tackle. This gave the Vikings first down and really put an end to the Giants' chances.
After the penalty, Baker was beaten by Thielen for an easy touchdown. Thielen put on a clinic all afternoon against the Giants defensive backfield.
Finally, Baker delivered good coverage against Thielen on a slant route early in the fourth quarter. This was the first 3-and-out the Giants forced all afternoon.
Jabrill Peppers: Despite the poor play by the defense on the whole, Peppers had a spirited affair.
On the first possession, he came up on a sweep by Cook and completely disrupted the play. A few plays later, he did it again.
After the Vikings were forced to start their drive at their own two-yard line they handed to Cook, and Peppers knifed in to make a tackle for no gain. He really played the run well in this game.
Peppers made a very nice play late in the second quarter as he chopped the ball away from Cook as he was about to get in the end zone. He was one of the few defenders who had a good game.
With the issues at linebacker, a lot is going to be expected on Peppers in the coming weeks. We think he’s more than ready for the challenge.
Grant Haley: On 3-and-6 inside the 20, the Giants dropped into a zone. For some reason, Haley and Sean Chandler were about five yards past the first down marker so as soon as Thielen caught the pass he simply turned and ploughed forward for the first down.
Both defenders needed to be much tighter in coverage on this one.
On the same drive at the top of the second quarter, Thielen easily beat Haley off the line of scrimmage and found himself alone in the end zone for an easy touchdown catch.
Thielen worked from the slot which meant he was lined up against Haley, the slot corner, who beat Haley like a drum.
Early in the second quarter, wide receiver Olabisi Johnson caught a sideline route in front of Haley. In this case, Haley was much tighter in coverage and made a nice tackle. Johnson, however, is not a receiver of the same caliber as Stefon Diggs or Thielen.
Antoine Bethea: Late in the second quarter, Thielen worked from right to left and he ended up in the zone being occupied by Bethea. He easily caught the pass and then ran past Bethea as if he was standing still.
He then scampered down the field for a 44-yard gain. Bethea just does not have the speed to stay with receivers down the field and unfortunately has looked every bit of his 35 years of age of late.
Late in the third quarter, Cook had a 49-yard run. Bethea could not get to Cook and this one resulted in a 49-yard run which set up a touchdown.
Janoris Jenkins: Jenkins had Thielen covered well on an out pattern late in the second quarter.
Thielen made the catch anyway for an important first down.
The Vikings stayed away from Jenkins for most of the first half but on this one, he was targeted and beaten for the first down.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Aldrick Rosas: Rosas converted a 32-yard field goal and an extra point, and his first two kickoffs resulted in touchbacks.
The coaches then had Rosas mortar kick his next kickoff, and it was a good one, but his coverage was not so good, and the resulting 33-yard return gave the Vikings good field position for another one of their scoring drives.
With the Giants offense so effective neutered this week by the Vikings, Rosas didn’t have a whole lot to do out there and isn’t that a shame?
Riley Dixon: Dixon averaged 44.7 yards on his three punts, two of them of the pooch variety. His first punt (37 yards) was downed spectacularly at the 2-yard line but his second one (56 yards) bounded harmlessly into the end zone for a touchback for his first touchback of the season.
Dixon’s only other punt was a 41-yarder at the end of the first half that pretty much ended the half without incident.
He also had a 52-yard free-kick after the Giants safety, which was covered very well by his guys. Dixon once again handled every place kick snap with absolute aplomb.
Zak DeOssie: One of DeOssie’s punt snaps was low, and none of them had any real speed or “snap” to them.
We suspect that DeOssie’s slow punt snaps are going to contribute to a blocked punt somewhere down the road.
The 35-year-old veteran has had more difficulty with his place kick snaps this year. We suspect he’s on his final contract with this team as they need to get younger wherever there’s any age on this roster.
Also of note this week was the blatant personal foul that ex-Giant Linval Joseph laid on DeOssie while he was snapping for a field goal.
We’re not sure what Joseph has against DeOssie, but the big former Giant went after DeOssie like he had stolen his lunch.
The resulting penalty gave the offense the ball back in the red zone with a whole new set of downs, but they couldn’t do anything with it.
Golden Tate: Getting the punt returning job with his re-activation from the Suspended List, Tate looked sharp fielding his lone return opportunity and taking it 17 yards downfield.
That’s right, folks, the Vikings punted only once this week, that one time being the ONLY time the defense was able to get off the field.
We feel a bit warmer inside that the Giants now have a return man who can do something with the ball (Tate has done good things with the ball in his hands his entire career).
He may be slowing down a bit, but he might perk up with the fine blocking that this team is getting out of its gunner blockers.
Corey Ballantine: This rookie once again did a fine job of holding up a gunner without committing a penalty on the Giants lone punt return this week, contributing to a 17-yard return.
The coaches have been leaving Ballantine solo on most of these blocks all year but this week they gave him some double-team help in the form of Michael Thomas, and they worked well together.
Ballantine also contributed on two kickoff returns this week. His first resulted in a big 52-yard return that was one tackler away from going the distance.
Ballantine showed good vision and decision-making on this return, but he stumbled a bit on one of his breaks which might have made the difference between getting tackled and going all the way.
With the Giants trailing 28-10 and just four minutes left, we had no problem with Ballantine taking a kickoff eight yards deep and taking it out.
He was trying to make a play, and good for him. Alas, he was tackled at the Giants 17-yard line.
Sean Chandler: On the Vikings big 33-yard kickoff return, Chandler was playing a safety contain role and made the sure tackle to keep the return from making any more damage.
Rhett Ellison: Ellison got credit for the Giants lone punt coverage tackle when he ran the Vikings returner out of bounds to close out the first half.
Julian Love: On the Giants free-kick (after their safety) Love made the sure tackle to limit the Vikings returner to nine yards.
Love hasn’t been flashing very much on specials, but it’s about time that he starts getting into more of the action as his rookie year could slip away from him.
I ON STRATEGY WITH MIKE IANNACONI
People will point to the defense as the chief catalyst in this game, and we think that’s a fair assessment.
People will also point to the injuries at linebacker as a major issue, which we think is part of the problem. When we look at other teams around the league, they too have injury problems and don’t get taken to the cleaners the way the Giants did.
For example, the Jets defense is missing a lot of key players on their unit, but this week they weren’t hosed by the Eagles the way the Vikings and their so-called struggling pass offense shredded the Giants.
The point is that injuries aren’t an excuse. It takes execution and creative coaching to overcome personnel shortcomings and unfortunately, the Giants got neither this week.
It wasn’t until early in the fourth quarter that the Giants defense created a three-and-out and forced the Vikings to punt. It is very difficult for a team to win games if the defense is going to perform this way.
There continue to be a number of issues with the defense.
First is the secondary continues to be below average at best. Adam Thielen complained going into the game about opening up the offense and getting the football.
There was no better recipe to fix this then to be up against the Giants defense.
Thielen worked from a slot often in the first half. Since he was working from the slot, he was up against slot corner Grant Haley in what was a complete mismatch.
We never understood why defensive coordinators don’t consider moving their best corner into the slot if it just so happens the slot cornerback is the best receiver on the team. And this is what we mean when we talk about the coaching element.
The simple move of putting their best receiver, Thielen in the slot resulted in the Giants being at a complete disadvantage on defense, and the Vikings rode this matchup all game long while the Giants didn’t even bother bracketing Thielen.
DeAndre Baker continues to have issues in coverage and safety Antoine Bethea just does not have the speed to cover anyone down the field or give the necessary deep help to the cornerbacks.
Baker shows flashes of getting better and it will be interesting to see how he progresses this season.
On the other hand, Bethea may be past his prime and we really are not sure if he is going to improve.
The Giants need a deep safety who has the speed necessary to help the cornerbacks and Bethea just is not that type of player.
Julian Love, we think is the long-term plan at free safety, but apparently the coaches don’t feel he’s ready to play. We wonder though if at this point, he can be any worse than what they currently have.
The linebackers were terrible against the run. They were unable to get off their blocks which left huge holes down the field.
Nate Stupar is a good special teams player and spot player but is not someone you want in the line-up on a regular basis.
The same can be said for David Mayo. In fact, it is amazing how much the Giants missed rookie linebacker Ryan Connelly who was really playing the linebacker position the way it was meant to be played.
On offense, the loss of Wayne Gallman early in the game really hurt. Gallman is not a flashy runner but he is dependable and proved last week that he can be a weapon in the short passing attack.
Without him in there, the opposition was able to key more on the downfield receivers.
The Giants tried to go deep on a number of occasions in this one. They only had limited success.
Rookie Darius Slayton is really the only receiver who has the ability to beat a defender down the field based on his sheer speed.
The others need to do it with route work which is not as easy.
The one issue that was prominent throughout was the receivers were running their routes too close to the sideline, thus giving Daniel Jones a small window to throw the football.
The offensive line was not as solid in this one. The drive that changed the game was when tackle in the end zone resulted in a safety.
The Giants were at their own two-yard line faced with a first and 10. They opted to run the football.
The Vikings sniffed this out from the beginning. They came with a run blitz which led to an easy safety. The linemen needed to block to the inside, not letting anyone break free over the guard or the center.
The Giants will have to get Golden Tate involved in the offense more next week. He received the first pass of the game but from there was not very involved in the offense.
He should help open things up for Engram and Shepard, especially while the Giants are still waiting to get Saquon Barkley back on the football field.
CORRECTION FROM LAST WEEK
In last week’s issue, we wrote that the offensive pass interference called against Cody Latimer was a “touchy” call because he had made contact within the first five yards off the line of scrimmage.
We’ve been advised by the Ref that it was actually a correct call based on Rule 8, Article 4 which (emphasis added by us) states: “It is pass interference by either team when any act by a player more than one yard beyond the line of scrimmage significantly hinders an eligible player’s opportunity to catch the ball.”
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