New York Giants secondary performance is a primary concern
By Ed Stein
This season is all but lost for the New York Giants. While there have been many problem areas on the team, the play of their secondary his been horrible this year.
It’s been so frustrating watching the New York Giants play this season. Constant turnovers have killed promising drives. They haven’t found a way to get star running back Saquon Barkley into space. There is little to no pressure on opposing quarterbacks and running backs have run all over the Big Blue defense.
With all that, one of the biggest problems the G-Men have is their secondary. Receivers have run rampant in the open field, which has burned them several times. On paper this should be a good group. NFL football isn’t played on paper and the results speak for themselves. Big Blue is 25th in defensive passing yards allowing at 263.6 yards a game and 25th with 16 passing touchdowns yielded.
Much of this is on the secondary. Cornerback Janoris Jenkins can blame the pass rush all he wants. The group certainly deserves criticism. Anyone who knows football, knows that defensive backs can’t stay with a receiver indefinately, there has to be some heat on the opposing quarterback.
But the reality is it doesn’t matter right now. The Giants can’t cover man-on-man, with the exception of Jenkins. Additionally the defensive backs allow huge cushions to opponent’s receivers. They must play soft or otherwise they will get torched deep.
For example, according to NFL.com’s Next Gen stats the league average for receiver separation is 2.83 yards. Monday night every Dallas wide receiver and tight end was over the average. Conversely, while the Giants tight ends did well, their best wide receiver had 2.11 yards of separation. The Cowboys corners were on them tight.