Highs and Lows from 1st Quarter of New York Giants' 2015 Season
Say whatever you want about the New York Giants' 2015 season, but the one thing you can’t say is that it hasn’t had its share of ups and downs.
From the 0-2 start to the current two-game winning streak, the first quarter of regular-season play has been filled with some interesting twists and turns.
Remember, there's still a lot of football left to play, and the highs and lows listed could easily morph into something else. For now, let’s look at some of those and see how they have impacted the season so far…for better or worse.
High: The Run Defense
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Last season, the Giants run defense, which allowed 135.1 yards per game, finished 30th in the league.
So there is no confusion, that ranking came about despite the fact defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul and defensive tackle Johnathan Hankins were probably the Giants’ best run defenders.
This year, the Giants have a new defensive coordinator, Steve Spagnuolo, and have revamped their defensive ends.
Gone are Pierre-Paul and Mathias Kiwanuka; in their places are Kerry Wynn and George Selvie, with Robert Ayers—currently injured—likely to return to the starting lineup once his balky hamstring is under control.
The Giants also have a more mature Devon Kennard and the return of middle linebacker Jon Beason, plus the addition of hard-hitting safety Landon Collins.
All of those factors combined have led to the Giants run defense being one of the most pleasant surprises of the first quarter of 2015. New York is currently allowing opposing offenses 69.1 rushing yards per game.
What’s more, the Giants run defense has limited two top-10 rushing offenses, including the top-ranked Washington rushing attack, whom the Giants held to 84 yards in Week 3, and the seventh-ranked Buffalo Bills offense held to 55 yards on Sunday.
That makes New York the league’s No. 1 run defense—a remarkable turnaround from a year ago and one that no doubt has head coach Tom Coughlin, who always preaches the importance of stopping the run, very happy.
Low: Jason Pierre-Paul
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Technically, the saga of defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul began before the season, but the fact it has continued on has certainly not made it any less bizarre.
To recap, Pierre-Paul finally allowed the Giants to examine his hand once training camp ended and the flow of regular-season paychecks was to start.
The Giants, however, were stunned to learn Pierre-Paul’s injured right hand was even worse than they were led to believe—so much so that according to ESPN’s Dan Graziano, there are some in the organization who don’t believe Pierre-Paul will be ready to play this year.
The two sides parted with a plan in place to reconvene in about six weeks, according to Fox Sports' Jay Glazer. Well, that six-week period is almost upon us, and according to B/R’s Jason Cole, Pierre-Paul is planning to again meet with the Giants in two weeks. They will then evaluate how much further along the 26-year-old defensive end is in his recovery.
Newsday’s Bob Glauber reported now the Giants are hopeful Pierre-Paul, whose Twitter and Instagram activity has picked up of late, can return for the final four games of the season.
There’s no telling what turn this strange story will take, but unless the Giants are in the thick of a playoff hunt in the final four weeks of the season, it probably doesn’t make sense to activate Pierre-Paul.
What’s more, as Glauber pointed out, the Giants and Pierre-Paul have until Nov. 17 to sign a contract—otherwise Pierre-Paul cannot play for the team this year regardless of his hand’s condition.
Would the Giants take that gamble on a player who isn’t in football shape and who has missed large chunks of the classroom sessions of defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s complex defense?
It doesn’t make sense, but then again, this whole story hasn’t made much sense since the news initially broke.
High: Nikita Whitlock
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At the start of camp, it looked like 5’10”, 250-pound Nikita Whitlock—listed as a fullback—had zero chance of beating out incumbent Henry Hynoski, Pro Football Focus’ second-best fullback in 2014, for the starting job.
Not only did Whitlock make Hynoski, nicknamed “the Hynocerous,” extinct, but Whitlock has proved to be as rare as a northern white rhino.
That’s because the 24-year-old Whitlock—the very definition of a true football player—can play fullback, defensive tackle and special teams—all at a high level.
A blue-collar type who would have probably been a welcome part of Bill Parcells’ lunchpail group of the 1980s, Whitlock has in consecutive weeks come into the game at defensive tackle, the position he played in college, to help give the sluggish Giants pass rush a boost.
In limited snaps, he has one quarterback hit, that coming in Week 3 against Washington, and one sack, that coming Sunday against Buffalo.
He also has the respect of his teammates.
“I feel so bad for those guys who have to block that guy,” said center Weston Richburg.
“He’s a mismatch when he gets in there, especially at the end of games when guys are tired. It’s fun to watch him, though. I’m extremely happy for that guy. He does a great job.”
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Low: Victor Cruz's Setback
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Receiver Victor Cruz was supposed to make his triumphant return from a ruptured patellar tendon injury suffered last October in Week 1 this year.
Unfortunately, he has battled with a calf ailment in his other leg, an injury that just doesn’t seem to want to go away.
Cruz, who last week hoped to return for the Giants’ Week 4 game against Buffalo—he was so sure he’d be back that he participated in a B/R “Uninterrupted” video to share his excitement—has not done so, obviously. In fact, in his very first practice last Wednesday in more than six weeks, Cruz had another setback.
On Friday, Cruz told reporters he had a PRP (platelet-rich plasma) injection to help expedite the healing of his ailing calf.
The Giants were supposed to reconvene with Cruz on Monday to see how he was feeling. But according to Dr. David J. Chao, the San Diego Chargers' former head team physician, PRP treatments can take anywhere from two to six weeks to work.
That means Cruz’s long-anticipated return will remain on hold, a problem that at some point the Giants may have to address if they are uncomfortable carrying five receivers indefinitely.
High: The Offensive Line
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Remember when the offensive line was supposed to be the Giants’ Achilles' heel?
The starting five members—Ereck Flowers, Justin Pugh, Weston Richburg, Geoff Schwartz and Marshall Newhouse—apparently remember as well, which is why that group has made it a personal mission to prove the naysayers wrong.
It has done just that with its play. In four games, the group's allowed four sacks, putting it 30th in the NFL for most sacks allowed.
According to Pro Football Focus, quarterback Eli Manning has only been under pressure on 35 of his 150 dropbacks this season.
All of that production, by the way, has come against some pretty good defensive fronts, most recently Buffalo’s, who only managed to record one sack against the Giants—that coming from defensive back Corey Graham.
“I will say this: They did perform well,” head coach Tom Coughlin said about the offensive line’s showing on Sunday.
“We pass-protected well. We did have some occasions to run the ball—we rushed for 92 yards, they rushed for 55 yards, so we had more yards there. There was an awful lot that went into it from a cerebral standpoint in the game, and the guys did a good job with it.”
Low: The Eli Manning-Odell Beckham Jr. Connection
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By now, everyone knows the story of receiver Odell Beckham Jr., who last year missed four games yet quickly became quarterback Eli Manning’s top receiver.
How good was the Beckham-Manning connection in 2014? Per Pro Football Focus, Manning’s rating was 127.6 when he threw to Beckham, the third-best rating for a receiver-quarterback combination in the league based on the receiver taking a minimum of 50 percent of the targets.
This year, things are quite different—this perhaps largely due to opposing defensive coordinators finally having had the time to figure out ways to minimize the damage Manning and Beckham can do.
Although Beckham leads the Giants receivers with 40 targets, he’s only caught 24 for 307 yards and two touchdowns for a 100.7 rating. That rating is behind that of Rueben Randle’s 109.4 mark.
Besides being clamped down on, Beckham already has two drops this season, which match the number he had in 12 games as a rookie.
What about the deep ball (20 or more yards), you ask? In 2014, Beckham caught 10 of 27 deep pass attempts for 366 yards and three touchdowns; this year he’s caught just two of eight deep pass attempts for 56 yards and one touchdown.
No, the bloom isn’t off the rose regarding Beckham, but opponents aren’t making it easy for him to top his rookie season so far. What’s more, that he and his quarterback don’t always appear to be on the same page despite having worked together all summer long is certainly disappointing.
High: Special Teams
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When it comes to the Giants special teams, the worm has certainly turned.
The Giants special teams—an inconsistent and sometimes laughingstock group under coordinator Tom Quinn—took a page out of the Philadelphia Eagles’ book this past offseason by making a conscious effort to upgrade this critical unit.
They swapped punter Steve Weatherford for Brad Wing. They upgraded their returner situation by signing former Dallas Cowboy receiver Dwayne Harris.
They also added new faces such as linebackers Uani’ Unga and J.T. Thomas, running back Orleans Darkwa, fullback Nikita Whitlock, receiver Geremy Davis, and safety Craig Dahl to an existing core of Mark Herzlich, Zak DeOssie and Josh Brown, just to name a few.
No, it hasn’t always been pretty—the unit did give up a 101-yard kickoff return to Washington’s Rashad Ross.
Still, the Giants’ coverage has otherwise been able to minimize those times when a punt or kickoff hasn't been ideal, and it also has a blocked punt that went for a safety.
So what does all this mean for the Giants? Forget about league stats and where they rank in each category.
The important stat to note is the Giants have yet to lose the starting field-position battle in each of their first four regular-season games, which was the goal all along.
Patricia Traina covers the Giants for Inside Football, the Journal Inquirer and Sports Xchange. All quotes and information were obtained firsthand unless otherwise sourced.
Follow me on Twitter, @Patricia_Traina.
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