The New York Giants has unfinished business to take care of this weekend when it visits FedExField to face the Washington Commanders in a critical NFC East game.
The winner will gain the head-to-head tie-breaking advantage and, according to the website FiveThirtyEight, improve its chances of gaining a postseason berth.
The loser, while not eliminated from the postseason hunt, will have a lower chance of slipping into the tournament.
And as far as Giants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale is concerned, the last thing he wants to see is a repeat of the 20-20 tie in the first meeting in which the Commanders gained 411 yards of offense--the fourth-highest yardage total allowed by the Giants defense this season.
While elements from that last game will likely find their way into the defensive game plan, Martindale hinted he had a few new tricks up his sleeve for this weekend.
“Every game’s a new game. I know you’re trying to be 1-0 at the end of this week, but that’s what you felt like afterward coming out of there," Martindale said.
Among the work that the defense needs to address is in the run game. The Giants have one of the worst run defenses in the NFL, allowing the most yards per carry (5.4) and fourth most rushing yards (1,946).
When the two teams met two weeks ago, the Commanders ran for 165 yards and averaged 4.6 yards per carry. Last week against the Eagles, the Giants were demolished on the ground, allowing 253 yards, four touchdowns, and 8.2 yards per carry.
If the Giants want to beat Washington, they’ll need an answer for teams running at the edges and generally gashing the defense for big chunk runs.
“I think there’s a multitude of things that we’re working on to try to remedy that," Martindale said, declining to go into detail.
One thing the Giants could be looking to do is get safety/inside linebacker Landon Collins, who is currently on the practice squad, back into the mix. Collins hasn't been on the 53-man roster since a Week 8 loss to the Seahawks and has been a forgotten factor in the defense, largely due to injuries that have forced the team to use their standard practice squad elevations elsewhere.
But this week, Collins could be elevated and be active for the game at the expense of fellow inside linebacker Tae Crowder. Per Pro Football Focus, Collins has played one run-game snap (in two games, the rest of his snaps being in coverage), and his one solo tackle was considered a STOP.
Collins would be just one potential solution. Martindale said that improving the defense, not just against the run but overall, is an ongoing process that has, in part, been dictated by how the roster was initially constructed.
“We understood the process of building a roster of what we needed to do. It’s been a struggle. We’ve played with more DBs than we ever have this year just to change things up. So, I think that’s part of it," he said.
"I think teams are just running the ball more, and we’ve played three really good mobile quarterbacks."
If the Giants want to come out on top, stopping the run is paramount, even if it's not an easy task against the 14th-ranked rushing offense (124.5 yards per game) that bears the two-headed attack of Brian Robisnon, Jr and Antonio Gibson.
'I have great respect for the team and especially that offense--they’re very talented, they’ve got talented skill, they’re talented up front, and they’re talented running backs. So, we’ve got our work cut out for us.”
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