Washington Commanders vs New York Giants: Five Questions with Big Blue View

It's week 9 of the NFL season and the 6-2 Washington Commanders will be facing a 2-6 Giants team on the road in MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ on Sunday at 1:00 pm EDT. The Giants started the season getting blown out by the Vikings at home 28-6. The Giants went on to lose all but two of their next seven games, beating the Browns in week 3 and the Seahawks in week 5. The Giants last 3 games have been decisive, losing to the Bengals, Eagles, and Steelers by multiple scores.

On offense, the Giants are in their third year with Brian Daboll as HC, Michael John Kafka as OC, and Daniel Jones as starting QB. Daboll's offense is similar to the offense he designed for QB Josh Allen in Buffalo, featuring lots of quick, short passes and QB scrambles to spread out the defense horizontally. Despite the stability in coaching and scheme, the offense has undergone some recent changes. Daboll took back playcalling duties from Kafka at the start of this season and has been running a very pass-heavy offense (with the 8th highest pass rate in the NFL). In addition, the Giants have attempted for the second time under Joe Schoen to rebuild their offensive line, signing all new starting guards and a new RT (Jermaine Eluemunor) in free agency. Although the offensive line looked improved earlier in the season, it is reeling from a season-ending injury to All Pro LT Andrew Thomas sustained in their week 6 matchup with the Bengals.

On defense, the Giants are led by DC Shane Bowen, formerly DC of the Titans under Mike Vrabel. Bowen runs mostly zone coverage and typically rushes 4 DL in a 1-gapped defensive front. Bowen calls blitzes at a 27% rate (13th most in the NFL), but much lower than their blitz-happy former DC Wink Martindale. The Giants have some great players on defense, including All Pro and DPOY candidate DT Dexter Lawrence and Pro Bowl DE Brian Burns, but the overall defense has been middle-of-the-pack so far, ranking 16th in defensive DVOA so far.

I asked Ed Valentine of Big Blue View five questions to better understand the state of the Giants and what to look for in this game.

I think Schoen's performance has been a mixed bag. I think the philosophy/plan is on point. I don't think the execution always matches up. The Giants had picks 5 and 7 in 2022 and got Kayvon Thibodeaux and Evan Neal. Not good enough.

I think that Schoen and the Giants actually were waylaid by the success they had in 2022. It led them to do things that they hadn't planned on doing, like committing to Daniel Jones and trading for Darren Waller, rather than continuing on a teardown/rebuild path. So they aren't in the place they thought they might be in Year 3. They have tried, but haven't as yet been able to put a successor to Jones in place. Getting that done, and getting it right, will be critical.

As for the roster, it is interesting that Dexter Lawrence insists this Giants team is better than the one that made the playoffs in 2022. In a lot of areas, I think he's right. The Giants are simply showing an uncanny ability to be their own worst enemy. Pre-snap penalties, mystifying drops on simple plays, game day roster decisions that have backfired, and more.

Well, the big one is that they need to move on from Jones. All of the mistakes I talked about above could have, at least at times, been overcome by top-tier quarterback play. Jones is fine when things around him are fine. He just doesn't lift his team, or make plays above the Xs and Os that overcome mistakes. He succumbs when they break down.

Whether they are able to get a long-term quarterback of the future in the draft, or have to put a veteran bridge QB who isn't Jones in place while they continue to hunt for the right guy, they have to do something different.

I don't know if Johnson was scapegoated. I do know that Daboll and Johnson worked together with the Bills and had a good relationship, and that Daboll wouldn't have fired him unless he thought he had to.

The Giants offensive line was a mess last year. Injuries were part of it. There were, though, a lot of head-scratching personnel and lineup decisions. I don't know if those were Johnson's ultimate decision, but I have to believe he had something to do with them.

The other problem was a lack of development from the four young linemen — John Michael Schmitz, Evan Neal, Josh Ezeudu, Marcus McKethan — Schoen drafted in 2022 and 2023.

It just wasn't working with Johnson in New York, and changes had to be made.

On offense, that's running back Tyrone Tracy. If he plays. Tracy is dealing with a concussion suffered Monday night and it's questionable whether or not he will clear the protocol in time to play. A rookie fifth-round pick, Tracy has taken over as RB1. He had a 129-yard rushing Week 5 against the Seattle Seahawks and posted 145 yards against the Steelers on Monday.

On defense, second-round pick Tyler Nubin has played every defensive snap at safety and is emerging as a solid player.

On offense, I think you want to run the ball. The Giants have the worst run defense in the NFL. Do that, put yourself manageable down and distance situations so the Giants — who lead the league in sacks — can't fully turn their pass rush loose. Don't be afraid to take the deep shots when they present themselves.

On defense, I think you start by bracketing Malik Nabers. I also think you crowd the line of scrimmage. That isn't because of a great Giants run game, although it isn't bad. It's because of the Giants lack of ability to create explosive plays. They are playing what I call "offense by inches." They are grinding out everything, throwing the ball short, looking for yards after catch. They haven't taken, or been successful, on enough deep shots. Crowd the line, challenge Jones to take those shots and hit them. Put pressure on Jones to cloud his decision-making.

A companion to this with my answers to Ed's questions can be found here .

Thanks again to Ed Valentine for taking time out of his day to answer our questions about the Giants.