The New York Giants: The Tale Of Two Offenses

Even though the New York Giants have a super bowl caliber defense, their super bowl hopes rest on which offense decides to show up. For the majority of the past three seasons, the Giants have implemented an offensive system that is heavily dependent on the quick passing game. One of the reasons the team put this system in place was to showcase the breakaway speed of Odell Beckham. The team realized very early on that provided he had man-to-man against a corner, corners would be unable to keep up with his speed. As a result of this, the organization felt into the habit of calling quick passing plays that focused on slants, screens and out routes because they wanted to give him the ball as fast as possible. While these passing plays allowed the team to score points within a blink of an eye, it also increased the likelihood of the offense having the ball for less amount of time because of a quick touchdown, 3 and out or turnover. In fact, according to teamrankings.com the teams average time of possession has declined over the past three seasons from 30:44 in 2014, 28:28 in 2015 and 28:18 in 2016. The decrease in time of possession has forced the defense having to go back on the field without the proper amount of rest. Which led to the defense giving up more yards and points late in games because they were not able to regain some energy between possessions to be able to stop the opposing offense.

However, over the last three weeks, the team has decided to alter the system from a predominantly passing offense to a balanced offense. As a result, Eli became more of a game manager who is in charge of handing the ball off more often in hopes of getting the defense to stack the box. In fact, before week fifteen the team averaged 23.2 carries per game but since week fifteen the team is averaging 32.3 carries per game. The renewed commitment to running game has forced the opposing team to put men in the box, which makes it easier for the receivers to get open because they are facing more man to man coverage. This allowed the team to keep drives alive while forcing the opposing team to put more players in coverage to decrease the likelihood of big plays consistently happening thus giving the running backs room to run the ball again. Therefore allowing the offense to stay on the field for a prolonged period, which means that the defense is receiving the proper rest between drives. In fact, over the last three weeks, the offense has held the ball for an average of 33:24 minutes thus the defense was only on the field for an average of 26:36 minutes.

If the Giants continue their commitment to the running game, they should reach the super bowl. But if they revert to depending on the passing game it should be an early exit.