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The Giants Looked Like an Actual Football Team Yesterday

THE GIANTS GET A MUCH NEEDED WIN AT HOME AGAINST CAROLINA

T. Ingals @StickyClickSM


Defensive end Leonard Williams celebrates a sack against the Panthers. Photo by Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post.

The Giants got their second win of the season in an impressive performance at home against what was thought to be a pretty good Carolina Panthers team. The Giants won 25-3, pulling away in the fourth quarter. What makes the win impressive is the fact that the Giants played through a litany of injuries. The Giants were without their top three receivers on their depth chart: Kenny Golladay, Sterling Shepard, and 2021 first round pick Kadarius Toney. On top of that, the Giants were also missing star running back Saquon Barkley and star left tackle Andrew Thomas. The Giants had every reason to lose the game, but they didn't. 

The Defense 

The defense stepped up with far and away their most impressive performance of the season. The defense allowed only 3 points, and even scored 2 points on a safety. They had 5 sacks, 7 total tackles for loss, and an interception. This is the defense Giants fans were expecting going into the season. Last year, the Giants defense was dominant towards the end of the season, but had totally regressed thus far in 2021. Is this a sign of things to come? Or just a fluke? We'll find out in the coming weeks. 2021 second round pick out of Georgia, Azeez Ojulari certainly looks like one of the few "hits" of the Gettleman era. He recorded 2.5 sacks yesterday and has 5.5 on the year. He's someone to look out for as a Defensive Rookie of the Year candidate. 

The Coach

This was an important game for head coach Joe Judge, who I have been highly critical of so far this season. I have felt that a lot of his in game decisions have cost the Giants games, and his phony tough guy act with the media only works when you're winning. Nevertheless, this game was important for Joe Judge because of the man across the field from him; Matt Rhule. The Giants had initially wanted to hire Rhule following the 2019 season. Carolina offered him an absorbent amount of money and control that the Giants weren't willing to offer him. Now, enter Joe Judge. The two had almost identical records coming into this game, with Rhule being one better in the win column. The Giants dominated the Panthers in the 25-5 victory, and the Giants may feel vindicated in their hiring of Joe Judge, though I'd argue the jury is certainly still out on that. 

Daniel Jones is a franchise quarterback

The most important aspect of the game for me was the performance of quarterback Daniel Jones. Jones was without his weapons, even throwing to practice squad players for much of the game. He was under duress the entire game, yet never turned the ball. He finished with a stat line 203 passing yards, one touchdown, no turnovers, and a 95.9 quarterback rating. Jones has had a really impressive season. Aside from the Rams game, Jones has five passing touchdowns, two rushing touchdowns, and two turnovers, with one of them being a hail mary to end the first half against New Orleans that was intercepted. The bottom line is, Jones has played well without a good supporting cast or in my eyes, good coaching. Imagine if Jones was on the Browns? They have so much talent on both sides of the ball and a creative offense, which is what Giants OC Jason Garrett lacks. Despite getting a nice win, the Giants still had their fair share of self inflicting penalties, and poor play calls that killed promising drives. But, a win is a win. And the Giants got a much needed win yesterday.

On to Kansas City

The Giants are going into one of the tougher environments in all of football next week to play the defending AFC champion Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs haven't looked like defending champions thus far this season, sitting at a 3-4 record and just coming off a blowout loss to the red hot Tennessee Titans. The Chiefs are banged up, have a terrible defense, and are one of many teams(including the Giants) who have serious offensive line issues. All these things have caused Pat Mahomes to force things down the field, which is why he's tied for the league lead in interceptions with nine. The Chiefs are certainly able to be had, we know that. If a healthier Giants team shows up to Kansas City and can get pressure on the quarterback the way they did yesterday, they'll certainly have a chance to upset the Chiefs. Could the Giants also get blown out by them? Of course. Nothing would really surprise me at this point. 





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