The New York Giants prevailed against the Carolina Panthers, 19-16, in their home opener in East Rutherford.
This game was brutal to watch as both teams committed many errors and could not get anything going offensively. Nevertheless, excitement surrounding this team will continue as the Giants are now 2-0 and first in the NFC East.
Here’s a quick breakdown of what we saw during the game and how we graded the Giants in this win.
Offense: D
Even though Big Blue’s offense did enough to win on Sunday, they played abysmal.
Just as a whole the team scored 19 points and one touchdown to go along with 265 offensive yards and a horrid 3.8 yards per play. Other than the one touchdown drive which saw some nice throws from Daniel Jones and runs from Saquon Barkley, the Giants looked dysfunctional out there.
It all starts with the offensive line which could not open any run lanes for Giants rushers (averaging 3.1 yards per carry this week as opposed to 7.4 yards per carry last week). The struggles continued in pass protection as Jones was hit nine times and sacked three times.
As for Jones, he completed about 65-percent of his passes for one touchdown and no turnovers but he did not change the game at the quarterback position. He only had 176 yards through the air and the Duke product didn’t see several open targets.
Overall, the Giants were gifted with great field position several times and did not take advantage of it. If New York’s offense played a little more inspired they would have been able to put this game away earlier.
Defense: B
Allowing only 16 points and 275 offensive yards is always something that deserves praise. Especially against a team that has one of the most electric running backs in the league in Christian McCaffery and an extremely dynamic receiver in D.J. Moore.
Big Blue was able to hold Baker Mayfield to less than a 50-percent completion percentage and only 145 passing yards, which is a phenomenal performance without their No. 2 cornerback in Aaron Robinson.
The team was also able to sack the former No. 1 overall pick twice and had him moving out of the pocket all day. The Giants were also able to win the turnover battle off of a Robby Anderson fumble that was recovered by Adoree’ Jackson which gave the offense an instant three points.
However, it was not all positive from this New York defense as they still have much to improve. After a great showing from the run defense in Nashville, the Giants’ run defense allowed McCaffery to go for 102 yards rushing on 6.8 yards per attempt. While almost half of this came on a 49-yard rush, this is still something the middle of the defense will need to improve on.
While the Giants have some lighter rushing threats in the coming weeks it will be imperative that they step up in this department.
Special Teams: A-
The special teams unit all but saved the day in East Rutherford. Other than Jamie Gillian putting up a subpar punting display which included zero punts inside the 20, one touchback, and an average of 50.6 yards per punt (two that were returned for a total of 17 yards) the special teams unit played near perfect.
On the opening kickoff, the Giants forced a fumble which resulted in three instant points from a Graham Gano field goal. Gano’s field goals became the theme of the day as he ended up making four in the game including two from over 50 yards, the final being 56-yards out to give New York the game-winning lead.
Coaching: B+
While the coaching staff could have been better, one can not really fault a brand new staff with two wins and zero losses under their belt.
Brian Daboll seemed to have his troops ready from the get-go as they were able to force a first-play turnover. His time management and decision-making towards the end of each half seemed reasonable and there was not anything to really write home about one way or the other. In the end, New York came out with the win, and Daboll’s record as a head coach improves to 2-0.
As for the coordinators, one would have probably liked to see some more creative play calls from Mike Kafka. The offense did not look great and after putting their playmakers in space failed to work on the first two drives they started to go away from it and run a vanilla offense. A more downfield passing attack would have prevented the box from being stacked and opened up running lanes for the Giants’ best player, Barkley.
Finally, the Giants’ play-calling needs to improve in the red zone as they were only able to score one touchdown on three red zone trips
On the other hand, many would say that Wink Martindale won the game for the Giants. The former Ravens defensive coordinator got the very best from a defense that is clearly lacking in talent. He schemed up pressure to bother Mayfield, a quarterback he has seen a few times over the past couple of years.
Martindale also had the Giants playing amazing red zone defense as the Panthers only scored one touchdown on four red zone trips. Hopefully, for Big Blue, this masterclass can continue from Martindale as he plays the Dallas Cowboys without Dak Prescott on Monday night.
