Giants Wild Card Round Preview
If you’re not already nervous, are you really a fan?
The New York Football Giants play real, live playoff football this Sunday.
Who would’ve thought after that loss in Green Bay in January 2017 that it’d be six miserable years until the Giants made it back? Let’s quickly highlight just some of the things we’ve dealt with in the interim: the McAdoo era, Eli’s benching, Gettleman’s hiring, the Shurmur era, Deandre Baker, Joe Judge’s false hope and QB sneaks, and more.
It’s been rough.
Additionally, I just realized this is the first time the Giants have made the playoffs since I started writing for Gotham nearly six years ago. It’s a bit of a strange feeling, being nervous all week for a playoff game I’ve waited years to watch. Yet, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
That’s the beauty of sports. You spend all this time rooting for your favorite teams, hoping they can provide you with that brief moment of joy every so often. That moment arrives, you sit back and soak it in, and then you’re onto the next one. In between those moments are the downtimes, the bad seasons, the poor coaching. You go through those awful seasons because it makes tasting victory that much sweeter.
At least that’s what I tell myself as a Mets and Tottenham Hotspur fan.
I’ve said it multiple times in my posts throughout this season, but the Giants have been playing with house money for months now. This is year one of a rebuild, year one of what will hopefully become the most prosperous era of Giants football in a long time. The roster is far from a finished product, featuring multiple players pulled from practice squads across the league and starters who probably wouldn’t start for any other team.
But none of that matters now. As I sit typing this out, the Giants are three-point underdogs to the Minnesota Vikings for Sunday afternoon’s NFC Wild Card showdown. Furthermore, the Giants — scarily, if I might add — seem to be a favorite “upset” pick among many in the sports media industry. What a world!
As we all know, the Giants lost to the Vikings in Minnesota back on Christmas Eve on a last-second 61-yard field goal from the leg of Greg Joseph. (Obviously we as Giants fans knew that kick was going in the second it left his foot. So it goes.) The second that game ended, I started praying to the football gods that the Giants would get a second crack at the Vikings in this very round of the playoffs.
Well, here we are. The Giants have their shot at redemption, and furthermore, it will come against a Vikings team missing their stud right tackle Brian O’Neill and starting a third-string center. That will be MASSIVE for a Giants’ defensive line that has come on strong as the season’s progressed. Near-consensus pick for All-Pro Dexter Lawrence has played like one of the best four-five DTs in the entire league, while edge rushers Kayvon Thibodeaux and Azeez Ojulari should be primed to go after Kirk Cousins all game long.
Speaking of Cousins, he’s generally known as a passer who does not perform well under pressure, but against Wink Martindale’s defense a few weeks ago, he did a great job of getting the ball out in time to Justin Jefferson and TJ Hockenson. The key for the Giants defense is going to be generating enough pressure on Cousins with their defensive line, allowing Wink to drop players in coverage to attempt to stop Jefferson.
I say “attempt” because it’s going to take a lot from the Giants to keep the league’s best WR in check. The first time they played, he finished with a 12–133–1 line, including the key catch on 3rd down to set up the game winning FG (which, I’ll note, came against a blitz from the Giants, one I saw coming a mile away). The Giants may have CB Adoree’ Jackson back, which would provide a huge boost to their secondary.
If the Giants can do their best to limit Jefferson from taking over the game, they should put themselves in a position to win. On top of potentially having Jackson back, the Giants will definitely have their defensive captain Xavier McKinney this time around. How Martindale uses him to help neutralize both Jefferson and Hockenson — who also went for 100+ yards — will be crucial.
As for the offense, the scary thing is how confident I am in their ability to take advantage of a very weak Vikings pass defense. The Vikings rank near the bottom in just about any pass defense metric (yards allowed, yards per attempt allowed, and more), and Daniel Jones had arguably his best game as a passer this year when the teams last met. Isaiah Hodgins, Richie James and Darius Slayton all cleared 70+ yards and found holes in the Vikings defense throughout.
I trust Brian Daboll and Mike Kafka to get Saquon Barkley the touches he needs early on to keep the defense honest, and I expect Barkley to be used out in space in the passing game as well. This shouldn’t be a game where points come at a premium. It will, however, be extremely important that the Giants continue playing mostly mistake-free football.
If the Giants can generate pressure on Cousins without having to rely on the blitz (your time to shine, Kayvon), I am very confident in their chances on Sunday. They’ve played mostly mistake-free thanks in great part to the excellent job Brian Daboll and his staff have done throughout the year. If that continues on Sunday, I think the Giants go into Minnesota and upset the NFC North champs.
My prediction: Giants 28-Vikings 24.
