How NY Giants Can Beat the Chargers: Three Keys for Week 4

If there is one thing that’s true about the Giants' offense in the first few weeks when Russell Wilson was under center, they sometimes were efficient with deep plays, but often needed as much time as they could get to handle the football and march it downfield to get some points on the board. 

At the same time, the Giants' defense hasn’t done the greatest job at supporting their offense when it comes to getting the ball back into their hands and giving them more cracks at the endzone. That could pose a challenge against a Chargers team that is among the league’s best at controlling the clock and scoring points in their favor. 

Through the first three games of the season, the Giants' offense has been modest, yet effective, in commanding strong drives that ultimately result in points, holding the 12th-best average drive time, 13th in average plays, and 10th in average yards. 

Flip those categories over to the defensive side of the field, and the numbers are much graver. The Giants' defense, currently led by Shane Bowen, ranks at the bottom of the league in opponent drive metrics, including one of the bottom seven teams in third-down and fourth-down conversions. 

Meanwhile, the Chargers are on the complete opposite side of the spectrum. Their offense has been dominant in controlling the pigskin, featuring a strong passing attack and a respectable rushing game, while their defense ranks among the top-10 in forcing their opponents to go under 30 yards on average. 

While the Chargers don’t boast the greatest conversion rate inside the redzone at 29th in the NFL, they can still put up the necessary points that win football games with deep shots to their variety of playmakers from quarterback Justin Herbert, who can just as easily sling it into payday. 

If the Giants want to help out Jaxson Dart and the offense get as many chances to grow in live competition and perhaps shock some people with a solid game, they’re going to need to step up the pass rush, clog up their coverage holes, and make quicker work of the Chargers offense. 

That is no easy feat, of course, but it was a factor in the Giants' 22-9 loss to Kansas City in Week 3. The Chiefs had five drives of at least seven plays, four of which took five or more minutes off the game clock, and when you give Patrick Mahomes that much time to work his magic, the results speak for themselves.

Cash In Scoring Opportunities

When Jaxson Dart got his first taste of NFL action in the preseason, one positive element that many noticed from those exhibitions was his command of the huddle and ability to move and finish drives without conflict. 

Following up on the first key in this piece, the Giants need to see improvement in their execution and cap off more possessions with a basket of six points. If the defense does its part and keeps the Chargers from creating sustained turns all afternoon, there should be more drives for the other side to take advantage of. 

With the leadership of Dart, who saw extensive playing time during the preseason, the Giants were like a crisp operation and scoring points at a level that hadn’t been seen in a long time. The rookie arm helped them go 8-for-10 in redzone visits over that span, and the key difference was that they were notching six points instead of trying to sustain a lead with less valuable field goals. 

Since the regular season began and Russell Wilson had taken over the reins as the true No. 1 quarterback, the Giants efficiency hasn’t been the same, New York has only reached the endzone on two of their 10 total redzone trips in Weeks 1-3, and on a handful of occasions, they’ve left with no points due to Brian Daboll seeking to gamble for a conversion on fourth downs that backfired. 

The frustrations continued to boil over last Sunday against the Chiefs, when the Giants went 1-for-3 behind Wilson, including their final possession of the game, when Wilson threw three incomplete passes out of the back of the end zone and tried to scamper once, with no success, marking the death knell to their primetime defeat. 

Heading into this week’s contest at MetLife Stadium, the Giants rank second-worst in redzone scoring percentage and average 17.3 points per game, just a small notch above the 16.4 they netted last season as a team. That won’t be nearly enough to contend with, let alone outlast, the red-hot Los Angeles offensive attack. 

The Chargers' defense only makes the situation tougher, as they rank fourth in the NFL in points allowed (16.6/game) and boast the No. 1 unit in protecting the goal line with just a 25.0% opponent redzone success rate allowed heading into Week 4. 

As mentioned, it will be an even tougher task just to get the football that close when facing the Chargers, who are among the league’s best at keeping opponent drives short, with an average of 27.7 yards per drive, currently the ninth-best in the league. They hold the 18th-best pass rush win rate to stifle quarterbacks 38% of the time. 

That said, points will be at a premium in this contest, and the Giants have to do better at capitalizing on any extra chances they can get on Sunday. The defense has done its part for a good majority of their first three games, but once weariness sets in, it becomes hard to keep up with the enemy. 

The hope is that Dart’s presence in the huddle brings a new sense of energy and urgency that has clearly been missing behind Wilson. A performance similar to the veteran’s in Week 2 would be just what the doctor ordered to give the Chargers a battle.

Increase the Rushing Workload

The Giants' rushing game is expected to be a little shorthanded in the coming weeks, as starter Tyrone Tracy Jr. is on the sidelines dealing with a shoulder injury he sustained in the loss to the Chiefs last Sunday. 

However, the Giants had a nice breakout game from their rookie counterpart, Cam Skattebo, which served as one of the rare positives from what was another disappointing primetime showing from the offense. Skattebo went for 121 yards from scrimmage and notched his second rushing touchdown in as many weeks to give the Giants some semblance of life on the scoreboard.

Skattebo, whom the Giants drafted in the fourth round of April’s draft to bolster their running backs room and bring a bruising style of rushing to pair with Tracy’s speed and shiftiness, is starting to heat up as he accumulates more reps as a pro football player. The Giants should fall back on his talents more in this weekend’s matchup. 

If the Chargers' defense has its weaker side, it’s in slowing down opponents’ rushing attacks. They stand in the top third of rushing metrics entering Week 4, but allow an average of 5.0 yards per carry, which ranks 26th in the league during the same span. 

Last Sunday, the Chargers allowed 118 yards rushing to the Denver Broncos, who aren’t one of the game’s brighter rushing teams so far. They also gave the Chiefs a near century mark in the season opener, and the Giants were well aware of their still serviceable ground game in their recent loss. 

While the Giants are bound to look to get Jaxson Dart’s arm going and see how he looks in the air, it could be a solid start for them if they can get a good run game going early and tire out the Chargers defense, which should be pesky in coverage. 

Very few players can excel at doing that as well as Skattebo, whose motor never seems to run out, and who dragged a few defenders with him on a handful of his carries against Kansas City and the week before against Dallas. He can also contribute to the passing realm, becoming a distraction that helps the Giants’ real receiving threats get open and find opportunities over the middle. 

One has to go back pretty far to remember a time when the Giants' offense could boast a balanced mix of passing and rushing that dominated the field. We aren’t saying that’ll magically appear on Sunday against the Chargers, but it would be nice to see them put two and two together with the arrival of Jaxson Dart to help inspire hope for the long term.