PFF grades: Good, bad, ugly for Giants vs. Washington

Because it seems to be the position that draws the most interest, let’s start this wee’s look at the Pro Football Focus grades from the New York Giants’ 23-20 victory over the Washington Football Team with the offensive. There’s good, bad and ugly just in that position group.

The good on the offensive line is the work of Andrew Thomas, Matt Peart, Nick Gates and — if you just talk pass blocking — even Cam Fleming.

Thomas, the much-maligned rookie left tackle, continued his upward arc by allowing just one pressure in 36 pass-blocking snaps. Peart played 24 snaps, 12 in pass-blocking, and did not allow a pressure. Gates, getting better and better at center, had the best overall grade among offensive linemen (74.5) and allowed one pressure in 41 pass-blocking snaps. Even Fleming allowed no pressures in 36 pass-blocking snaps and had a team-best 76.5 pass-blocking grade.

I hadn’t noticed the shuffling during the game, but PFF has Thomas playing a snap at right tackle and at guard, and has Fleming playing two snaps at left guard.

The bad? How about scores of 47.1 for Kevin Zeitler and 40.5 for Fleming in run blocking?

The ugly? That’s easy. Shane Lemieux’s pass blocking. Again. The rookie guard got an awful 12.1 pass-blocking score in his first start last Monday vs. the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He wasn’t much better Sunday. Lemieux finished with 20.8 pass-blocking grade, being charged with a sack and three total pressures in 39 pass-blocking snaps.

Now, let’s move on from the offensive line.

Daniel Jones was sacked, officially, five times on Sunday. The weird part as I watched the game was that it seemed like, for the most part, the offensive line was acquitting itself pretty well despite the pressure Jones seemed to be under.

Well, PFF has charged Jones with two of those five sacks himself, as well three of the 12 overall pressures it says he faced. So, PFF is saying Jones’ actions in the pocket are directly responsible for 25 percent of the pressure he faced. PFF says Jones’ passer rating was 113.7 when not pressured, and just 47.9 under pressure.

The two highest-graded offensive players, amazingly, were running back Alfred Morris (85.6) and wide receiver Austin Mack (76.3).

Let’s turn to the defense.

The top five grades belong to Blake Martinez (74.4), James Bradberry (67.5), Dexter Lawrence (65.7), Leonard Williams (65.3) and Isaac Yiadom (60.9).

to be honest, the Yiadom grade surprised me. He missed a tackle on Terry McLaurin’s 68-yard touchdown, and ended up with a ‘Wet Willie.’ PFF has Yiadom with a 158.3 passr rating against after giving up 3 catches on 3 targets for 109 yards, 82 of which came after the catch. I’m not sure how he would up with a top five overall score.

There are also a couple of surprises — at least for me — in PFF’s bottom five defenders. Those are:

David Mayo (29.3 in just 6 snaps), Kyler Fackrell (46.8), Dalvin Tomlinson (47.5), Jabrill Peppers (51.6) and Trent Harris (52.4 in 14 snaps).

The Peppers’ grade jumps out at me, as I thought this was one of his most impactful games as a Giant. PFF dings Peppers for 2 missed tackles and only has him with a 44.8 coverage grade, which — without studying the film — I have to disagree with.