Our friends at Pro Football Focus are out with their grades for this week's New York Giants at Houston Texans game. Things, obviously, went well for the Giants. Let's see just how well, according to the folks at PFF.
Offense
First, let's look at the good.
- You would figure that Hakeem Nicks would rate well after his 12-catch, 130-yard, two-touchdown effort. He did, with a +3.4, the best of any offensive players.
- Eli Manning ended up +2.2, even with two interceptions and his weekly delay of game penalty.
- Here is a number that might get your attention. Shawn Andrews played 19 snaps at a variety of spots along the line and ended up with a +1.5 grade. He is becoming more and more important to the offense.
- Steve Smith (+1.5), Rich Seubert (+1.0), Kevin Boss (+0.9), Kareem McKenzie (+0.7) and ahmad Bradshaw (+0.5) were all also noteworthy on the plus side.
Now, the bad news on offense.
- I thought left tackle David Diehl played well enough Sunday that I included him in my Monday 'Kudos.' Well, PFF disagrees. Their analysis left Diehl with a team-worst -5.0 grade, faulting him for five pressures and two hits on Manning. Diehl, by the way, now has a -16.5 grade for the season. The only tackle in the league with a worse mark is San Diego's Brandyn Dombrowski, who is at -19.2.
- Judging from PFF, it's a wonder the offense got anything done at all. Center Adam Koets was marked at -3.1 and even Pro Bowl guard Chris Snee came in at -2.5 after allowing three pressures.
- Mario Manningham and Bear Pascoe were both -1.3. I can't kill either guy. Little to nothing was thrown Manningham's way, and Pascoe was playing extended time at fullback for the first time in his career.
Defense
As you would expect, very little to be unhappy about here.
- Every defensive lineman had a plus grade. Osi Umenyiora led the way at +3.5, Justin Tuck was +3.3, Rocky Bernard +2.9, Chris Canty +2.4, Barry Cofield +1.2, Dave Tollefson +1.0, Jason Pierre-Paul +0.4 (in 20 snaps) and Linval Joseph +0.2 (in seven snaps).
- Among the linebackers, Michael Boley was +1.5 and Jonathan Goff +0.8. Goff, by the way, has the sixth-best ranking among middle linebackers in the league through five games, a +7.3. Clint Sintim, you ask? Sintim played a season-high 20 snaps against the Texans, and ended up with a pretty good +0.7 score. No big plays, but the mark indicates he did what he was supposed to do on most plays, and that's progress for the second-year linebacker.
- Corey Webster (+0.9) and Kenny Phillips (+0.3 in just 20 snaps) had the best grades among the secondary. Surprisingly, Aaron Ross (-0.1), Deon Grant (-0.9), Antrel Rolle (-1.0) and Terrell Thomas (-1.6) all graded negatively. I can't recall anything obvious to pick on about the way any of them played.
Special teams
- Lawrence Tynes had a good day, and ended up with a +2.3.
- Matt Dodge did OK, and his +0.3 score reflects that.
- Returner Darius Reynaud is still an issue. He averaged just 4.4 yards on punt returns and ended up with an overall score of -0.4. We already knew there is still work to be done there.
Football Outsiders
We can't leave out the great work done over at Football Outsiders when we talk about statistical analysis. In FO's weekly DVOA (Defense-adjusted Value Over Average) rankings, the Giants now have the league's No. 1 defense. And the folks at Outsiders can't figure them out.
Here is what they had to say about the Giants.
The surprising and extremely confusing New York Giants are now in the top spot for the NFC, narrowly passing Atlanta and Green Bay. The Giants are just one of a number of teams having a ridiculously inconsistent season so far, especially on defense. The Giants' defensive variance of 26.1% is nearly twice that of any other team. Even more inconsistent overall have been the Chicago Bears. The Bears are the only team with a higher overall variance than the Giants, and they've been super inconsistent on both sides of the ball: 32nd in variance on offense, 31st on defense.