NY Giants Week 16 Game Balls and Gassers

The New York Giants' game plan made a ton of sense: rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart was being asked to rely mostly on the running game to avoid facing the Minnesota Vikings' vaunted pressure defense.

In one regard, the plan worked on a day when both teams scuffled to find much success against each other's defense. 

In fact, the game was tied early in the fourth quarter, and the Giants, trailing by three points, had the ball at midfield with less than three minutes remaining. But this left them no room for error, and a fourth-down sack allowed the Minnesota Vikings to escape with a 19-16 victory at MetLife Stadium.

"Part of the plan was getting to the run game a little bit more, and that's part of the process we went through this week," interim head coach Mike Kafka said. 

"When you have a coordinator that likes to pressure, and that's a strength of theirs, you can minimize it by a couple of things, whether it's screens, whether it's max protecting it, or the run game, which helps neutralize that."

However, the Giants couldn't offer any semblance of balance because the passing game faced significant pressure. Dart, who was sacked five times, went 7-of-13 for 33 yards with a second-quarter interception that bounced off the hands of tight end Theo Johnson.

"I didn't think that there was anything that I felt like I hadn't seen on film," Dart said. "We kind of knew how they were in early downs, and when they got into exotic downs, depending on where the ball was on the field, what we were going to see.

"Opportunity-wise, I think that you just have to be great when you have those opportunities to throw the ball, and a lot of them are -- on third down, you have to be able to make those plays and have everybody be on the same page."

The Giants also gave back a defensive score late in the second quarter when rookie pass rusher Abdul Carter was flagged for being in the neutral zone on Jevon Holland's 96-yard interception return for a touchdown.

Check out the latest edition of the Big Blue Breakdown podcast for this week's “Game Balls and Gassers” in the video above.