Inside Packers-Giants: Saquon Barkley, Tommy DeVito, Key Matchup

Let’s go behind enemy lines to get the inside scoop on the Green Bay Packers’ opponent on Monday night, the New York Giants.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers (6-6), winners of three consecutive games, will visit the New York Giants (4-8), winners of two in a row and coming off their bye, on Monday night at MetLife Stadium.

Let’s get the inside scoop on the Giants from Patricia Traina, the beat reporter for SI.com’s Giants Country. (And here’s the Green Bay version of this Q&A.)

We’ll get to the positive here in a moment, but what happened to the Giants? The arrow seemed to be pointed up after upsetting the Vikings in last year’s playoffs. I know Daniel Jones is out, but their problems predated his injury.

The most popular – and easiest answer – is injuries. Daniel Jones, Darren Waller, Saquon Barkle, and Andrew Thomas have played around 40 snaps together all season long, which is a wild stat.

But I’m going to go a little deeper and say that I honestly don’t believe the team was ready for the start of the season. Coach Brian Daboll, in trying to keep guys healthy, made a head-scratching decision to sit most of the starters throughout the preseason. We only saw the first-team offense in its entirety for one series against the Panthers.

So, I question just how ready they were for the game speed in Week 1. Judging by the results, they weren’t. So, they ended up getting punched in the mouth in that game, and I don’t think they really recovered.

The Giants have won two in a row, which would seem to signal this won’t be an automatic win for the Packers. What’s gone right the last couple games, and is that reason for hope or fool’s gold?

I hate to be a negative nelly, but they played two bad teams in the Commanders and the Patriots, teams that in the basements of their divisions. And against the Patriots, they only managed to score 10 points.

But that said, if I had to point to something that has gone right, I’ll point to the play of the defense. In the last two games, the Giants have forced seven fumbles (three recovered) and have six interceptions. When you can win the turnover battle – they’re an incredible plus-8 the last two games – chances are you’re going to make things a lot easier to win games.

Let’s talk Giants quarterback Tommy DeVito. I was looking up where Jordan Love ranked in passer rating the last three weeks. Love is third; DeVito is second. What have you seen?

I see an enthusiastic young quarterback who has embraced this opportunity before him. The game doesn’t seem too big for DeVito, who has pretty much handled being thrown into the deep end of the pool without a life preserver.

That said, I also see an “all or nothing” quarterback, meaning he’s been good with the deep ball, but not so much with the shorter stuff. I think a good number of his 28 sacks this year are on him more so than the offensive line because he’s holding onto the ball much too long. Per PFF, he’s averaged 3.08 seconds to throw, which is way too long. He has a bad habit of breaking the pocket early at the first hint of trouble versus trying to buy some time with his legs.

The Packers couldn’t stop the run if they put 14 players in the box. Is Saquon Barkley still, you know, Saquon Barkley?

Pretty much. He dealt with an ankle injury earlier in the season, but when you look at his season numbers this year versus last year, this year’s numbers aren’t that far off.

Barkley has become the Giants’ offense given the quarterback situation and, in three of his last four games, he’s averaged at least 5.1 yards per carry. They’ve also been getting him involved in the passing game more this season, so I would say Giants opponents are seeing the best of what Barkley can deliver.

What’s the big matchup?

Probably the Packers’ pass rush vs. the Giants’ offensive line and DeVito. Last week, the Packers managed three sacks against Patrick Mahomes of the Chiefs, who is generally fairly good at bailing out of trouble. So, I don’t even know what to think about how many sacks the Packers’ pass rush is going to record this week against a Giants offense that in its last three games is averaging 6.66 sacks allowed per game (again, not all on the offensive line, but still …).

Watch: Packers-Giants Monday Night Preview