New York Giants News

Giants news, 12/13: Playoff odds, Lawrence, Love, offensive woes, more headlines

New York Giants headlines for Wednesday

By JamesPHickey Dec 14, 2022, 6:00am EST

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Postseason berth largely comes down to beating Washington

By the Football Outsiders formula, the Giants have a 90 percent chance of earning a wild-card playoff berth if they win, and only 31 percent if they lose. That corresponds pretty closely to the New York Times playoff simulator, which recently made those numbers 91 and 38 percent. The Giants knock Washington’s chance of reaching the playoffs all the way down to 28 percent with a victory.

The biggest problem the Giants have — other than needing to win on Sunday night — is the head-to-head losses to the Seattle Seahawks and Detroit Lions. The Giants’ Week 13 tie vs. Washington could work in their favor, though, as a tie obviously equates to one less loss in the final standings.

From Big Blue View

Other Giant observations

Dexter Lawrence wants the Giants to do “a little bit more” to prepare for Commanders | ProFootballTalk

Defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence said he believes “this game is a playoff game” and that he’d like to see the team’s leaders use that as a way to prod the team to raise their preparation to another level ahead of this weekend.

“Just continue to challenge the guys around us and ourselves,” Lawrence said. “Challenge each other. Challenge guys to watch a little bit more, study their matchups a little bit more. It’s just doing what we already do, just a little bit more type of thing. That’s how you see it change in your play, your confidence and your belief.”

Julian Love: Giants-Commanders 'is our first playoff game’ | WFAN.com

Giants safety Julian Love said on “Tiki and Tierney” that it’s being viewed as a playoff game.

“We’re ready, we’re ready to go for sure,” Love said. “This is – people can get excited – this is our first playoff game. This is the (opportunity) right here. This is kind of essentially all or nothing, so we have to really lock in and take it to them, because we have before."

Offensive line continues to be an issue in the Giants passing game

The #Giants offense faces the second highest pressure rate in the NFL, just behind the Chicago Bears

The Giants have been pressured on 44.9% of their drop backs

For reference...

WAS 37.1% (7th)
PHI 31.7% (20th)
DAL 31.7% (21st)
— Nick Falato (@nickfalato) December 13, 2022

One thing we learned about each NFL team in Week 14 | CBSSports.com

Andrew Thomas and Evan Neal immensely struggled against Eagles front: The Giants offensive line allows a sack rate of 10.3% (31st in NFL) and and pressure rate of 44.3% (31st in NFL), so Sunday’s matchup against the Eagles was going to be tough.

Thomas and Neal struggling was unexpected, as the pair combined to allow two sacks and 11 pressures in 66 pass blocking snaps. Neal has struggled throughout his rookie year, yet allowed no sacks and no pressures in his return to the lineup against Washington (which has a strong defensive front).

Giants’ offense continues to come up small when it comes to making big plays - nj.com

The Giants, for the second straight season, are last in the NFL in plays of 20-plus yards. A year ago they had 31 passing plays of 20-plus yards and nine running plays for a total of 40.

This season, they have just 21 pass plays and 12 running plays of 20-plus yards for a total of 33. That’s 27 fewer than the Eagles, who are second in the league and first in the NFC East with 60. Kafka’s former team, the Chiefs, lead the NFL with 60 pass plays and 68 total plays of 20-plus yards, and that’s after losing Hill to the Miami Dolphins.

3 Takeaways from Giants’ Week 14 Loss vs. Eagles | Bleacher Report

The Giants’ offense hasn’t performed great when playing from behind, especially when they’re in a large hole. They need the game to remain at least competitive, as they can then lean on star running back Saquon Barkley, who is the team’s top playmaker.

Is the Giants season slipping away? 10 reasons why they have stumbled after a fast start | The Athletic

The Giants don’t have the depth to replace their few top-level players. Losing Jackson and McKinney has had a devastating effect on a defense that relies on man-coverage cornerbacks and a rangy safety patrolling the deep part of the field.

The rookie class has been decimated by injuries. Second-round pick Wan’Dale Robinson, fifth-round pick Marcus McKethan, fifth-round pick D.J. Davidson and sixth-round pick Darrian Beavers have all suffered torn ACLs. First-round pick Kayvon Thibodeaux (two games), first-round pick Evan Neal (four games), third-round pick Josh Ezeudu (three games), third-round pick Cor’Dale Flott (six games), fourth-round pick Daniel Bellinger (four games) and fourth-round pick Dane Belton (one game) have all missed time with injuries.

Tiki Barber Giants looked ahead to playoffs too soon | WFAN.com

“The New York Giants got so focused - as a team, a fanbase, a staff - about what they can do to get to the playoffs. they still had nine weeks to go,” said the former Giants running back. “The only thing they’ve done since the bye week was beat the Texans…in a game that was tighter than it should have been, they lost to Detroit, lost to the Cowboys, got a gross tie with the Commanders, and got blown out of the water by the Eagles.”

“Everyone seemed to be focused on the playoffs instead of focused on why the Giants were winning.”

NFL Week 14 winners and losers | PFF

EDGE KAYVON THIBODEAUX, NEW YORK GIANTS VS. LT JORDAN MAILATA, PHILADELPHIA EAGLES

Thibodeaux continues his impressive rookie season. The Philadelphia Eagles’ passing game is arguably the league’s hardest to rush, yet Thibodeaux racked up four pressures across only 15 pass-rush snaps against Mailata.

Notebook: Giants turn focus ‘all on Washington’ | Giants.com

The Giants spent Monday both reviewing what happened and pivoting toward Washington.

“We definitely looked at some particular plays that we have to get fixed because they’ll usually show up again, and we looked at some things that were good,” Daboll said. “They’re meeting right now going through some of those things. And then we’ll turn it pretty quickly to Washington. We just played them last week; they had a bye week. You got to turn it fairly quickly this time of year anyways.”

O’Connor: Daniel Jones deserves Giants return, real chance to earn more | New York Post

So barring an improbable meltdown over these final four games, starting against Washington on Sunday night, Jones has earned the right to return next year through the franchise tag, the transition tag, whatever. If that means he gets at least slightly overpaid for one season at approximately $31.5 million (franchise tag, per Overthecap.com), or at approximately $28 million (transition), before team and player either break up or commit to a long-term relationship, so be it. There are worse players to overpay for one year than Daniel Jones, whose professionalism and work ethic are acknowledged on every level of the organization.

Eli Manning roasts Bill Simmons over David Tyree catch vs. Patriots in Super Bowl

Eli Manning is not going to sit idly by with Bill Simmons complaining about Super Bowl officiating. pic.twitter.com/EAnYHBVqfz
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 13, 2022

Giants’ Brandon Brown attending NFL’s front office accelerator program | USA Today

New York Giants assistant general manager Brandon Brown will be the franchise’s candidate at this week’s Front Office Accelerator Diversity Initiative taking place in Dallas on December 13-14.

The conference will be led by management counsel director Kevin Boothe, a former Giants offensive lineman who was a member of two Super Bowl championship teams. Boothe is a 2005 graduate of Cornell University who earned an MBA from George Washington University in 2013.

This week’s opponent

Ron Rivera Presser: Injured players are trending in the right direction | Hogs Haven

Ron Rivera spoke to the media and gave them a rundown of Washington’s injured players, and where they stand coming out of the Commanders’ bye week.

Chase Young (ACL) - Good place. Right direction. Ramp himself up into the weekend. Still waiting for his return to the field after tearing his ACL 11/14/21.
Benjamin St-Juste (ankle) - Missed the last two games with a mid-ankle sprain. Good day of treatment, and headed in the right direction.
Montez Sweat (concussion) - Still in the concussion protocol. Should be able to return to practice Wednesday or Thursday.
Trai Turner (knee/ankle) - Missed the first Giants game. Bye week was helpful for his return
Sam Cosmi (ankle) - Team will see how he handles the injury that took him out of his first start at guard.

Notes & Quotes | All eyes on Daniel Jones | Commanders.com

When asked about improvements the Commanders could make in the rematch against the Giants, Rivera said the defense must do a better job of containing Daniel Jones, who rushed for 71 yards in Week 13. Jones is "an elusive runner," Rivera said, and the team must be able to counter him.