The New York Giants may not be entirely sure what they are. Are they rebuilding? General manager Dave Gettleman would scoff at the notion. Are they in playoff contention to win now? All levels of their leadership have indicated that Eli Manning will continue to start over 2019 sixth-overall draft pick Daniel Jones until the Giants are out on playoff contention.
That might be sooner rather than later.
The Giants are not a good football team. The Buffalo Bills, by all accounts, seem to be farther ahead in the team development process and should be expected to win this upcoming game. The odds-makers in Las Vegas apparently agree—positioning the rightful New York football team as two-point favorites at the time of this writing even though they’re on the road.
Road favorites? THESE Buffalo Bills?
You better believe it. There are rightful expectations for this team in Sean McDermott’s third year as head coach. In order to achieve them, however, strategy must be utilized. How can the Bills beat the Giants and come back to Buffalo at 2-0 for the home opener against the Cincinnati Bengals? I have some ideas...
Subpackage, subpackage, subpackage
The Giants have two players on offense who legitimately scare me: Saquon Barkley and Evan Engram. BOTH of them are offensive weapons who I would not want to ask the vast majority of linebackers in the league to cover. Engram is essentially a wide receiver who plays in line with his impressive speed and smaller frame, and Saquon Barkley is quite simply a monster worthy of a third “It” movie.
The response to both should be that base defense be used as little as possible by the Bills. I don’t want to see Lorenzo Alexander attempting to cover Engram on a drag route or Barkley out of the backfield. Even the more athletic Matt Milano had notable problems with Le’Veon Bell last week.
This may be a game where we need Siran Neal to play like the versatile playmaker he was at Jacksonville State. This is a week where’s it’s not good to have Taron Johnson laid up with a hamstring injury. Perhaps you see Dean Marlowe on the active roster this week. Whatever coverages we choose to use to combat the TE and RB who are the Giants’ offensive keys to victory, we need to not be in base defense.
Pick on the rookie
DeAndre Baker was...uninspiring against the Dallas Cowboys. To play cornerback at a high level, a short memory is necessary and a crisis of confidence is devastating. Let’s strike while the iron is hot. John Brown is a savvy outside route runner and can kick the rookie while he’s down with enough target share.
Giants aren’t snacking on Bills’ interior offensive line
The NFC’s New Jersey representative had the best interior run stuffer in the league on their roster at the start of 2018. They elected to trade him to Detroit for a bag of footballs and a slice.
The New York interior defensive line doesn’t resemble their Meadowlands partner’s. The hesitation the Bills may have had last week to run right at the Jets’ duo of Leonard and Quinnen Williams should not exist this week. Whether through Goring (you see what I did there?) or using Singletary, the Bills need not be frightened of losing the push up front.
Blitz more out of necessity
The Giants’ offensive line is notably better than the Jets’ and part of that is related to the weakening of their defensive line. The trade for Kevin Zeitler in the offseason showed up right away in Week 1 and the offensive line made Eli Manning look like a perfectly reasonable NFL quarterback. You may not see the same push with four that you did against the Jets and blitzing might be necessary. This is where Siran Neal, aforementioned Swiss army knife, needs to once again come into play. He showed blitzing capability in the offseason and if the Bills decide to spend the majority of their time in subpackage defenses, he may be called upon to help generate pressure from the slot position. Neal is my sleeper “key to the game” this week.
You know where Saquon will be lined up
Pat Shurmur will never be confused with the most creative and exotic of offensive minds in regards to formations and play design, so seeing Saquon lined up in the slot frequently would be a surprise. It’s a very traditional Giants offense, and everyone knows where Saquon will be located. The Bills need to use this to their advantage—run more man coverage and dare the Giants to beat them on the outside with their other weapons. If Cody Latimer and Bennie Fowler win this game for New York, so be it.
...and that’s the way the cookie crumbles. I’m Bruce Nolan for Buffalo Rumblings. You can find me on Twitter @BruceExclusive and look out for new episodes of “The Nick & Nolan Show” on the Buffalo Rumblings podcast feed every week.