What to Watch For When the Patriots Face the Giants
Joe Calabro, GoLocalProv Sports Team
What to Watch For When the Patriots Face the Giants
"They're a good team. I mean, they've always played us pretty tough, so we're expecting their best. They've got some really good players. They're obviously really well-coached, so they're just a tough team. We've always played them, I mean, we've always had very, very close games against them even when we've won. We just haven't won as many of them as I would've liked to have won," said Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in his weekly press conference.
Despite being only one game over the .500 mark, the Giants are currently sitting in first place in the NFC East.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThis is Not 2007... or 2010
Playing the New York Giants brings back a lot of memories/nightmares for Patriots fans after what happened in 2007 and then again in 2010. However, it should be noted that this version of the Giants is not the even close to those Super Bowl teams.
"I'd much rather have won them than lost them, but they won't have any bearing on this week or what the matchups are. It's a totally different team and game and situation and so forth, but they just have a great organization," said Brady.
Defensively
This Giants team does not have much of a pass rush, only registering nine sacks on the season so far and their passing defense is ranked at the bottom of the league, second to last to be exact.
New York has gotten some reinforcements in the form of Jason Pierre-Paul but he is playing with one and a half hands. Patriots coach Bill Belichick still spoke highly of him.
"I think he played 50-some plays last week against Tampa, so his conditioning looks fine. I'm sure he'll be in there most of the time like he was last week, so he'll be there. He's long, he's athletic, he's got good feet, good quickness, good edge speed, so he's definitely a force. We're going to have to do a good job on him."
Offensively
Eli Manning is still there of course, but many of the weapons around him are out including tight end Larry Donnell and Victor Cruz. New York's run game has not been effective at all as they are only averaging 3.9 yards per carry and only have three rushing touchdowns on the season.
New York's offense ranks 14th best in the league in passing and 24th in the league in rushing.
For more on the game, see the five takeaways slideshow below.
What to Watch For: Patriots vs. Giants
Not 07 or '10 G-Men
There has been a lot of talk leading up to this game about the two Super Bowl games that the Patriots lost to the Giants.
I get it, it's the logo's on the helmets, it makes for good talk while sitting at a bar and so on.
But it should be made clear, this is not the same Giants team from those years, not close.
This team does not have a pass rush, they don't have a running game and Eli's receivers are banged up.
I'm not guaranteeing a Patriots win or anything like that, but to fear this Giants team because of 07 or '10, is not reasonable.
Beckham Jr.
Odell Beckham Jr. is just about the only offensive weapon that the Giants have, other than Eli, obviously.
Beckham averages 6.6 catches for 84 yards per game and has seven touchdowns on the season.
The Giants two running backs Rashad Jennings and Andre Williams and they average 3.8 yards per carry on the season with only three touchdowns.
Tight end Larry Donnell is out and Victor Cruz continues to be out.
Patriots will load up on Beckham Jr. and force other guys to make plays.
O-Line
Bryan Stork returned to the lineup last week but the Patriots lost Vollmer to a concussion and he has been ruled out this week.
As highlighted by GoLocal this past week, the Giants have little to no pass rush with only 9 sacks on the season. New England's Chandler Jones has more sacks (9.5) than the entire Giants team.
However, what makes me nervous is just the O-line being a mix and match group and vulnerable in some areas.
James White
Dion Lewis is out for the season which means the Patriots will look to James White and Brandon Bolden to step up to fill the void.
So far this season, White has been in and out of the lineup, only totaling seven carries for 15 yards and seven receptions for 52 yards.
Brandon Bolden has also been in and out of the lineup and his numbers are not too much better. Bolden has seven carries for 14 yards and five receptions for 41 yards and a touchdown.
Turnovers
While the Giants defense has not been very good this season, they have been great a forcing turnovers.
The Giants have 13 interceptions on the season and have forced 12 fumbles.
New York is good at holding players up while others begin ripping the ball out.
This is the one thing that could derail the Patriots offense, turnovers.
