Establishing the run
The Giants' rushing production against the Bucs was more impressive than it would appear. Tampa Bay sports the league's top rush defense and entered the Week 8 matchup having allowed just 435 yards over its first seven games. The Giants were able to gain 101 yards on 24 carries (4.2 avg.), well above the 3.2 yards per attempt Tampa has given up this year.
With Devonta Freeman sidelined with an ankle injury, Wayne Gallman led the backfield with 12 attempts for 44 yards and a touchdown. Veteran back Alfred Morris was elevated from the practice squad prior to the game and gained 28 yards on eight carries. Jones added three carries for 20 yards and has already topped his rookie rushing numbers (45 for 279 yards), gaining 316 yards on 34 rushes (9.3 avg. and 39.5 per game).
Washington heads into Week 9 allowing an average of 123.3 rushing yards per game, ranking 17th in the league, while surrendering eight rushing touchdowns. Prior to the Week 7 win over the Cowboys, Washington had allowed 129+ rushing yards in five consecutive games. In the Week 6 meeting between the division foes, Jones rushed for 74 yards on seven carries while Freeman took 18 rush attempts for 61 yards, giving the Giants 135 rushing yards for the game.
Continued development of the rookie offensive linemen
Following Will Hernandez's placement on the Reserve/COVID-19 list last week, rookie guard Shane Lemieux started the first game of his NFL career. Lemieux represented the third rookie offensive lineman to start a game for the Giants this season, the first time this has happened for Big Blue since 2003. The fifth-round pick had a difficult assignment in Buccaneers DT Ndamukong Suh, but he held his own.
"Shane got in last night, he definitely had a good first job out there, moving around and getting caught up with some things," Judge told reporters this week. "There are some things to clean up with Shane, obviously. But I'll tell you what, the level of competitiveness he plays with, some nasty, he definitely gave us some juice in there. Look, you line up for your first snap in the NFL and you're seeing Ndamukong Suh across from you right there, that's a 'welcome to the NFL, buddy.' But this guy didn't blink. He didn't shy away from anything. He really answered the bell for us."
Matt Peart was on the field for 24 offensive snaps in Week 8, including 14 pass blocking snaps. Peart didn't allow any pressures on those snaps and earned a 79.0 pass blocking grade from Pro Football Focus. Peart has been on the field for 74 offensive snaps this year and earned an 81.1 overall grade from PFF, including a strong 87.4 run blocking grade. Andrew Thomas played all 74 offensive snaps at left tackle Monday. He allowed four pressures on 49 pass blocking snaps and received a 65.7 pass blocking grade from PFF, the highest pass blocking grade the rookie left tackle has earned this year.
"I saw some good improvement from all three of those guys tonight," Judge said. "Some of the good things is we don't notice them being out there particularly, that means that things are going in the right direction."
Washington has done a great job of getting after the quarterbacks, ranking sixth in the league with 22 sacks. Second-year edge rusher Montez Sweat leads the way with five sacks in seven games, including two in the Week 7 win over Dallas. Veteran DE Ryan Kerrigan is right behind Sweat with 4.0 sacks, while No. 2 overall pick Chase Young has recorded 2.5. Washington also has some talented pass rushers in the middle with Jonathan Allen and Da'Ron Payne, both of whom have registered seasons with 5.0+ sacks in their young careers.
"follow" - Google News
November 05, 2020 at 10:03PM
https://ift.tt/36a5LDd
5 storylines to follow as the Giants hit the road to take on Washington in Week 9 - Giants.com
"follow" - Google News
https://ift.tt/35pbZ1k
https://ift.tt/35rGyU8
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "5 storylines to follow as the Giants hit the road to take on Washington in Week 9 - Giants.com"
Post a Comment