What to Watch For: Giants vs Patriots

Running Attack

Given the reported weather conditions for Thursday night’s game, the Patriots running attack could be the focus of the offense.

After struggling through the month of September, New England’s ground game to life last week against the Redskins, especially in the second half.

Sony Michel finished the game with 16 carries for 91 yards and a touchdown, while James White finished with six carries for 26 yards.

In total, the Patriots rushed for a season-high 130 yards in the game.

“I think one thing that did help was the play count got up there pretty high. We had quite a few plays by halftime. Anytime you feel like you do that, you feel like you're going to wear the other team out and those three-yard runs become six and then finally, you can break one,” said Patriots quarterback Tom Brady after the game.

Entering Thursday night, the Giants are giving up an average of 4.4 yards per carry and 130 yards per game on the ground.

Last week, the Giants gave up 211 rushing yards to the Minnesota Vikings in a 28-10 loss.

“They're a pressure defense, they try and turn the ball over, they're going to be physical with you, so it'll be good for us to get off to a good start, block the blitzes, and the run game, passing game – really get everything going,” said running back James White during his press conference on Tuesday.

PHOTO: Jeffrey Beall/Wikipedia

Mike Nugent

The Patriots kicker position may not be set in stone for the remainder of the season.

According to ESPN’s Mike Reiss, the Patriots worked out free agent kicker Nick Rose on Tuesday at Gillette Stadium.

Rose has played with six different teams since entering the league in 2016, but has not played an NFL game since 2017.

New England also has Younghoe Koo on the practice squad. 

This comes after new kicker Mike Nugent made his Patriots debut on Sunday against Washington and missed his first extra-point attempt wide to the right.

Following the game, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick was asked if the kicker position needed to be evaluated.

"I don't think so. We just need to do things better. We can do them better in all phases of the game – offense, defense, and special teams. We'll keep working on it,” Belichick said.

Nugent went on make two fields, one from 37 and one from 23 yards, and the remainder of his extra points.

His final extra point make of the game clinged off the post and bounced in. 

Bennett's Snaps

As GoLocalProv highlighted last week, Michael Bennett's snap count and percentage have been on a gradual decline since week one of the season.

The decline continued last week against Washington where Bennett played just 25% of defensive snaps (15 total snaps) in the game.

In those snaps, he recorded half a sack, one tackle, and one quarterback hit.

“He’s been good. He's really tried hard and worked hard to embrace what we've asked him to do, which again, is quite different than what he's done in Seattle and Philly, even in Tampa. So, yeah, he's been fun,” said Belichick during his press conference on Tuesday.

Belichick was then pressed on Bennett’s declining snap count.

Belichick responded, “Well he's on our team. I don't really care what happened on some other team. I don't really know what that was or wasn't. We'll try to do what's best for our team, and that's everybody. It's him, that's everybody else. I mean, Devin McCourty's snap count is down, too.”

Belichick was then pressed on McCourty’s snap count and responded, “I mean, we've played 20 players on defense the last four or five weeks. So, naturally, you start splitting it up between 20 guys, that's what you're going to get. Show me how many teams play 20 players on defense. I don't know. There's not too many.”

On the year, Bennett has 2.5 sacks and four solo tackles.

Bennett signed a two-year, $16,750,000 contract with the Patriots in the offseason and has a cap hit of $6.5 million this season.

Belichick vs Jones

Thursday night’s game will feature Giants rookie quarterback Daniel Jones going up against Patriots head coach Bill Belichick.

Since taking over as head coach of the Patriots, Belichick is 19-5 against rookie quarterbacks, including 12-0 at Gillette Stadium.

Jones was selected sixth overall by the Giants in the 2019 draft and has started each of New York’s last three games after replacing Manning.

“He's very athletic, he's mobile. I wouldn't say he's just go back and start running, but if he needs to run, if the protection breaks down or if there's an opening there. If he gets outside of the pocket, he can cause a lot of damage with his speed and his ability to extend plays. But, he's a very accurate quarterback and has good poise. He's shown good toughness in the pocket,” added Belichick.

So far, Jones has completed 70 of 109 passes for 760 yards and four touchdowns with three interceptions.

“I think one of the things you watched last week, he did a great job of just staying in the pocket. He took a few hits, but he hit the double-move to [Darius] Slayton, just staying in the pocket doing a good job of making sure he gets the ball where it’s needed. So, you could tell right away he’s a tough kid and smart,” said Patriots safety Devin McCourty during his press conference on Tuesday.

The last time a rookie quarterback beat the Patriots was Geno Smith in 2013 with the New York Jets.

Ben Roethlisberger in 2004 and Russell Wilson in 2012 are two other rookie quarterbacks to have beaten the Patriots in the past.

Tight Ends

The Patriots released tight end Ben Watson on Monday afternoon leaving them with Ryan Izzo and Matt LaCosse at the position.

Izzo has played in all five games and has four catches on five targets with one touchdown.

LaCosse played in three of the five games and has three catches for 55 yards. He has mostly served as a blocker.

He was on the field for 72 of 77 offensive snaps against the Redskins. 

"They're both younger players who are developing. We feel like they have some upside, done a decent job for us. We certainly have a ways to go, but have had enough production that we want to keep working with them,” said Belichick during his press conference on Tuesday.

In total, the two tight ends have combined for seven catches for 138 yards and one touchdown on 11 targets.

"Those guys are competing hard. I think they're trying. Matt hasn't been out there as much as we all would've wanted. Certainly what he would've wanted. Ryan's done quite a few things for us. We're trying to get out there and utilize the reps in practice that we can to talk about things, communicate through the things that come up in practice so that we can execute when we need to in a game,” said Brady during his press conference on Tuesday.

The Patriots will need increased production out of the tight end position as the season moves along.