Keys to a New York Giants Win over the New York Jets

Sunday’s game between the New York Giants and New York Jets is more than just a rivalry.

It’s a game in which the winner likely shores up a hold on a postseason berth while the loser is, for all intents and purposes, done.

The Giants have won the last five regular-season meetings with their stadium co-tenants, but these are not the same old bumbling stumbling Jets who were once pushovers.

Let’s go over a few key points regarding what it would take for the Giants to send their home crowd home happy on Sunday. 

Win the Battle in the Trenches: Giants Offensive Line vs. Jets Defensive Front

Seth Wenig/Associated Press

If the Giants are to come out on top, they had better win the battle in the trenches on both sides of the ball.

On offense, that might be easier said than done. While it looks as though the Giants are going to get left guard Justin Pugh and center Weston Richburg back for Sunday, there is still the matter of the right side of the offensive line.

Right guard Geoff Schwartz is out for the season after suffering a fractured leg. Right tackle Marshall Newhouse is also in danger of missing the game due to a back issue.

Head coach Tom Coughlin told the media this week that rookie Bobby Hart will work at right tackle if Newhouse is sidelined.

Last week, Hart, the Giants' 2015 seventh-round draft pick, played in his first extensive NFL action this season after Schwartz broke his leg. Per Pro Football Focus, the rookie allowed one hit and three hurries while playing right guard, not too shabby, considering he was thrown into the deep end.

At right guard, veteran John Jerry is likely to get the start the rest of the way. Therein lies the problem. Jerry has never been a strong run-blocker, and last week against Washington, he wasn’t too sharp as a pass-blocker either, allowing five quarterback hits.

As football is a game of matchups, it won’t be a shock at all if Muhammad Wilkerson, who leads the Jets with eight sacks, sees a lot of his snaps against that right side of the Giants offensive line.  

If the Giants are to have any chance of moving the ball down the field, they better figure out a way to shore up that right side of the line and keep Wilkerson away from quarterback Eli Manning.

Get After QB Ryan Fitzpatrick

Brian Blanco/Associated Press

While on the topic of the trenches, it’s also imperative that the Giants defensive front—which has combined for nine of New York’s league-worst 12 sacks this season—steps up in this game.

However, to break that number down further, the current starting configuration of ends Jason Pierre-Paul and Robert Ayers and tackles Cullen Jenkins and Markus Kuhn has combined for only 2.5 sacks—two by Jenkins and a half-sack by Kuhn.

That’s not good and it's made worse by the fact that the Giants are about to face a Jets offensive line that’s been like a brick wall, allowing a league-low 14 sacks

According to Pro Football Focus, Jets quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick has been pressured on just 34.2 percent of his snaps, completing 50 percent of his pass attempts under duress.

That places him 16th out of 19 quarterbacks who have taken at least 75 percent of their team’s snaps.

While sacks would be nice, the silver lining for the Giants defensive front is that the Jets offensive line has allowed just two fewer quarterback hits this year than the Giants have allowed against Eli Manning.

Of course that won't mean anything if the defensive front ends up spinning its wheels like an old jalopy stuck in the mud.

Stop RB Chris Ivory

Brad Penner/Associated Press

Back in Week 9, the Giants run defense held Buccaneers running back Doug Martin—currently second in the NFL with 94.4 rushing yards per game—to just 31 yards on 11 carries.

In that game, the Giants would also lose defensive tackle Johnathan Hankins—who finished his abbreviated season as the reigning top-graded run-stuffer, per Pro Football Focus—to a season-ending pectoral injury.

This week, the Giants will face Jets running back Chris Ivory, who is fifth in the league with 76.6 rushing yards per game, and tied for fifth for most runs of 20 or more yards (six).

Per Pro Football Focus, 489 of Ivory’s 766 rushing yards have come after initial contact. If the Giants can get to Ivory early and keep him from getting into a rhythm, that would be a start. The finish would be wrapping him up so that he doesn’t carry defenders with him for additional yards.  

Feed the Beast

Don Juan Moore/Getty Images

It doesn’t matter if cornerback Darrelle Revis is playing this week or not. Giants receiver Odell Beckham Jr. is coming to play, and he means business.

That’s right, Beckham, the dynamic second-year receiver, has become the Giants offense, and it just doesn’t seem to matter what opposing defenses try to do to stop him.

Per Pro Football Focus, Beckham has seen double-digit targets in each of his last three games—45 times to be exact. He’s made 22 catches for 351 yards, two touchdowns and zero drops.

Amazing? Nope, that’s just what Beckham does, and with the inconsistencies of Rueben Randle and the rest of the receiving corps, Beckham has apparently earned 100 percent of both his quarterback and head coach’s trust. 

“I think it’s you want the ball in the hands of the guys who can be the most productive,” head coach Tom Coughlin said earlier this week. “I would say there’s guys contributing and getting open, but you certainly do want the ball in the hands of the guy that can be the most productive.”

Quarterback Eli Manning told reporters on Wednesday that he’d like to see even more production between himself and Beckham, something that the young receiver agreed with and revealed the two were focusing on this week.

“Yeah, it’s just being on the same page. It’s really the littlest thing. It could have been your angle 20-something yards down the field on a go ball,” Beckham said.

“It could be anything, there’s so many things that play a factor in completions. Like they say, it’s a game of inches—one inch out of position and the play can be made the other way. So we talked about it Tuesday and right after the game, just as far as being on the same page.”

Unless otherwise noted, advanced statistics from Pro Football Focus. 

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.