Breaking Down the New York Giants' Week 1 Running Game Woes

Following the New York Giants' complete meltdown against the Detroit Lions on Monday Night Football, my Twitter account lit up like how the Giants should have lit up the scoreboard with their new offense.

Instead of delivering answers, the Giants' performance merely raised more questions as not one phase—the running or passing game—looked anywhere near ready to start the season.  

In this analysis, we'll look at the running game's issues. In having reviewed the tape, it’s not just one person creating the breakdowns.

The offensive line had breakdowns on nearly every play, with each man taking his turn at missing an assignment that was directly responsible for a play gaining little to no yardage. 

So let's take a look at some of where the breakdowns were in Week 1, and then try to come up with a solution to get the running game humming moving forward.  

The Bad and the Ugly

Let’s take a look at a couple of plays what went for little to negative yards against the Lions.

The first instance comes on the Giants’ opening drive. Running back Rashad Jennings, on 1st-and-10, takes the handoff and loses two yards.

via NFL Game Rewind

This frame shows where the three breakdowns were on the play.

Box A shows fullback Henry Hynoski missing defensive tackle Nick Fairley. This miss, however, didn’t have as much of an impact on the play, though it did set the wheels in motion.

The biggest impact was center J.D. Walton (Box B), who loses his battle against Ndamukong Suh.

By the time the play is over, Suh, who stunted inside, has Walton on the ground, enabling him to join Fairley in the backside pursuit of Jennings.

It doesn’t matter, though, as in Box C, tight end Daniel Fells is on the ground after failing to block linebacker DeAndre Levy, who gets the credit for the two-yard loss.

In short, three Giants blockers were overpowered by the Lions, thus giving this play no chance of succeeding.

Now let’s look at the ensuing play, in which the Lions again impose their will against the Giants’ blockers, the outcome being just a one-yard gain for Jennings, circled in orange.

via NFL Game Rewind

The culprit here is John Jerry (Box A), who took a poor angle against linebacker Stephen Tulloch, who can be seen moving past Jerry in this frame.

Meanwhile, Fells can’t handle defensive end Ziggy Ansah, who can be seen here crushing Fells to the ground.

Given that Jennings now has a wall to his right and Tulloch is closing in in front of him, his only escape route is to his left. However, that is gone quickly as Ansah is right there.

Jennings then tries to force his way straight ahead only to be stopped for a one-yard gain by Tulloch.

By the time the night was over, the Giants had rushed 22 times for—wait for it—53 yards, an average of 2.4 yards per carry. They also had the one rushing touchdown, by Jennings.

According to Pete Damilatis of Pro Football Focus, who distributed some statistics of note from their breakdown of the Giants film, not one starting Giants offensive lineman earned a positive overall grade, the result of the poor run blocking.

Peter Morgan/Associated Press

Where Do They Go From Here?

What does the Giants' running game have to do to get back on top?  

The good news is that this weekend, against the Arizona Cardinals, the Giants will face a defensive front that is not at full strength.

The Cardinals will be missing defensive tackle Darnell Dockett (ACL), linebacker Daryl Washington (nine-game suspension) and linebacker John Abraham (concussion/left team).

While head coach Tom Coughlin wouldn’t confirm any upcoming changes to his lineup, one change that must be made if the running game is to move forward is to replace right guard Jerry, who had the worst run-blocking grade (subscription required), minus-2.8, of the Giants offensive linemen.

Uncredited/Associated Press

To be fair, going up against Suh would be a tough assignment for most anyone in the league. However, it might be easier to excuse Jerry for his performance were it not for the fact that Jerry earned a minus-8.0 grade in run blocking (subscription required) last year while with the Miami Dolphins.

That means that no matter who the opponent, Jerry simply isn’t as effective as you’d like him to be in the running game, a trend that continued into his tenure with the Giants.

If Brandon Mosley, who has been slowed down by a back problem, is ready to go—and it’s a good sign that Mosley was not on the Giants’ Wednesday injury report—insert him into the starting lineup as he’s a bit more of a mauler than Jerry.

The other thing the Giants are going to need if the run game is to get untracked is better blocking from the fullback and tight ends.

Starting fullback Hynoski, who won the job over John Conner, graded out with a minus-1.0 run-blocking grade against the Lions (based on five snaps). 

David Richard/Associated Press

Fells, who participated in seven run-blocking plays, earned a minus-0.3 run-blocking grade. 

The other thing that might just help the Giants running game get going is to identify where the strength of their still-jelling offensive line is.

According to the 2014 regular-season play direction report at NFL Game Statistics and Information Systems (login required), the Giants rushing office ran seven plays behind the left-tackle spot. (The plays weren’t always run behind left tackle Will Beatty, but rather they were run through that particular hole.)

New York averaged 2.86 yards per gain running through the left tackle hole, good enough to put it 17th in the NFL. That’s also its best ranking out of all the directions it chose to run behind and its best average yards per gain. 

There’s a lot of room for the league’s 31st-ranked rushing offense (based on average yards per game) to improve. In time, it will happen so long as injuries don’t start forcing additional changes along the offensive line or to the running back rotation.

All grades and snap counts are via Pro Football Focus (subscription required). Follow me on Twitter, @Patricia_Traina.