Brian Burns sacks Justin Herbert.
The story coming into the New York Giants Week 4 game against the Los Angeles Chargers was the team’s decision to start rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart.
After the Giants’ upset victory over the Chargers, the story was the rookie quarterback getting his first win and doing so over an unbeaten team. Dart, however, credited the Giants’ defense with carrying the team to victory.
“I thought our defense carried us through this game,” he said after the win. “Our defense played at a really elite level. And as a quarterback when there’s pressure like that, and there’s guys always in the backfield, no matter who you are the game just speeds up.
“Our D-line knew that they had to be playing at a dominant level for us to win.”
It wasn’t a truly dominant performance for the Giants’ defense — their run defense remains a glaring problem. However the Giants’ pass rush was incredibly disruptive and went a long way toward making sure that the Giants didn’t have to try and win a shootout.
Bringing the heat
Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert was the target of a relentless assault Sunday afternoon. It was clear from the opening drive that the Giants’ pass rush was going to be a deciding factor, and that remained true for the entirety of the game. Perhaps it was due to the absence of guard Mekhi Becton, but the Chargers came into the game with a plan to throw the ball. Herbert dropped back to pass 41 times and the Giants recorded 27 total pressures, per PFF.
It didn’t take long before we saw the Chargers change the overall structure of their offense to deal with the pressure. Rather than continuing to attack the intermediate area of the field, they switched to quick timing passes and screens to get the ball out of Herbert’s hand as safely as possible.
The Giants are playing with a five-man line on this play, with defensive tackles D.J. Davidson as the 1-technique over the center’s right shoulder, Elijah Garcia as the 4-technique over the right tackle, and Darius Alexander as the 3-technique over the left guard’s outside shoulder. Brian Burns and Abdul Carter are lined up as stand-up rushers on the defensive left and right (respectively).
The Chargers call a six-man protection while Herbert runs the play-action boot with the fullback responsible for Abdul Carter.
Unfortunately for Herbert, the fullback is too slow to get into position to block Carter, who simply runs past him to pressure the quarterback. Herbert has to get rid of the ball, but has nowhere to go because Paulson Adebo and Tyler Nubin get — and stay — in fantastic position on the play-side, locking down wide receiver Keenan Allen and tight end Tyler Conklin.
A group effort
The Giants’ edge rushers have gotten all the credit, and attention, for the pressure on Herber. They weren’t, however, alone. The Giants’ defensive front as a whole contributed to their success disrupting Herbert and the Chargers’ passing offense.
For example, let’s take a look at Kayvon Thibodeaux’s sack.
Thibodeaux is lined up as the right defensive end outside of left tackle Joe Alt, and opposite Abdul Carter at the left defensive end position. Dexter Lawrence is lined up over the right B-gap while Darius Alexander is over the left guard. Lawrence slants inside, forcing the right guard and center to double team him and creating a one-on-one for Alexander. The rookie does a nice job of using his hands to get under the guard’s pads, turning him perpendicular to the line of scrimmage before shedding the block and getting into the backfield.
The center bails off of Lawrence and is able to get enough of Alexander that he isn’t able to get a hit on Herbert. However, the pressure up the middle convinces Herbert to abandon the pocket and try to scramble for yardage. At the same time, however, Thibodeaux had inside leverage on Alt and was in control of the rush allowing him to disengage and pursue Herbert for the sack.
Thibodeaux did a nice job of bull rushing Alt, driving him back into the backfield and setting a firm edge, while at the same time not allowing himself to get deeper than the quarterback. That said, he likely wouldn’t have had the sack if it wasn’t for Alexander flushing Herbert from the pocket.
The play from the Giants’ linebackers — their entire back seven (linebackers, safeties, and corners) — has been inconsistent this year, but there were flashes of good play coming downhill against the Chargers.
The Chargers began incorporating more screens and quick passes by the second quarter thanks to the Giants’ speed up front. Here we see the Giants in a Cover 1 shell with Darius Muasau walking up slightly to suggest a blitz. The pressure doesn’t come, however, leaving Muasau free to pursue Hampton. He does a great job of reading the screen as well as avoiding the schemed traffic from Quentin Johnston on the crossing route.
That allowed him to come down to get ahold of Hampton, preventing him from gaining yardage until help arrived.
Both Kayvon Thibodeaux (RDE) and Brian Burns (LDE) fired off the ball, but both players avoided over-pursuing Herbert in the backfield. That discipline kept them in place to pursue Hampton and finish off the play that Muasau blew up.
Disciplined aggression
Much of the Chargers’ passing game after the first quarter revolved around trying to use the Giants’ speed and aggression against them. The Giants, however, did an excellent job of staying disciplined in their rushes and rarely over-pursued.
The Giants have struggled to consistently defend the run this year — to say the least. And here the Chargers are using a run-action play fake to slow the Giants’ rush and hopefully create an opportunity for a big play.
And the opportunity is there, as Muasau bites just enough on the play fake that he isn’t able to pick the tight end in coverage. Oronde Gadsden II releases pretty smoothly off of the play fake and is able to quickly get into his crossing route.
Adebo is in man coverage on the bottom of the screen, and stays in good position. However, that creates a pretty huge window for Gadsden to turn upfield if he catches the ball. Fortunately for the Giants (or unfortunately for Herbert), Burns didn’t bite on the run-action fake. Instead, he stays disciplined and pressures Herbert once he sees him pull the ball back. In addition to the pressure, Burns does a fantastic job of keeping Herbert in front of him to ensure that he isn’t able to elude the rush and get the ball out cleanly.
The Giants rush four here, dropping seven into coverage.
Rookie defensive tackle Darius Alexander draws the center/guard double-team on the defensive right, while Brian Burns forces the right guard to help the right tackle with a double team there as well. That opens up D.J. Davidson who’s able to pressure Herbert in the pocket. Once again, nobody truly sells out to pressure the passer on a second-and-5 just past midfield. Davidson does a good job of keeping the quarterback in front of him and not allowing him to scramble.
The Giants’ secondary stays patient and disciplined on the back end, though Johnston runs a good-enough route on the bottom of the screen to generate separation on the come-back. However Adebo’s field positioning forces Johnston to the sideline while Davidson’s pressure forces a poor throw. for the incompletion.
Exotic looks
One of the biggest criticisms of the Giants’ defense has been an inability to get all their pieces on the field at the same time.
Defensive coordinator Shane Bowen had his playbook wide open for this game, clearly trying to make full use of all of his versatile pieces to disrupt one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL.
Right from the start of the game, the Giants used both actual pressure and simulated pressure to impact the Chargers’ blocking schemes as well as muddy Herbert’s reads.
The Giants start off by showing a six-man defensive front in a DIME set (one linebacker, six defensive backs) with linebacker Bobby Okereke and safety Dane Belton sugaring the A-gaps. The linebacker and safety show a double A-gap pressure while Brian Burns, Dexter Lawrence, Kayvon Thibodeaux, and Abdul Carter are the Giants’ down linemen.
Okereke and Belton retreat into shallow zone coverages in the middle of the field at the snap. Even though the two bailed, they still impacted the rush, as their presence forced the center to account for the potential blitz before sliding over to help the right guard with Dexter Lawrence. The center’s (delayed) move to the offensive right gave Thibodeaux a 1-on-1 with the left guard, which he wins thanks to his speed and a very good rip move. While Thibodeaux isn’t quite able to get to Herbert, his pressure forces a quick and somewhat errant throw.
The pass is behind Ladd McConkey, which he can’t haul in.
A bit later we see the Giants show a similar look this time from a heavier personnel grouping. This time, the Giants line up with five down linemen: Kayvon Thibodeaux (LDE, 7-technique), Dexter Lawrence (4i technique), Abdul Carter (2i technique) Darius Alexander (4 technique), and Brian Burns (RDE, 7-technique). Linebacker Bobby Okereke is next to Carter in the A-gap on the defensive right.
Burns and Okereke drop into coverage zones in the underneath area of the field, as the secondary rotates from showing an ambiguous shell to a 3-deep shell as Nubin sprints from the middle of the field to pick up Johnston.
The combination of the zone drop and coverage rotation creates some uncertainty in Herbert, as he clearly double-pumps the ball. He isn’t sure of the read, and while he’s able to get the pass off the indecision almost buys enough time for Thibodeaux to get the sack.
Final thoughts
This.
This was the performance that we’ve been expecting for the last month. Sure, the Chargers’ offensive line has been hit hard by injuries, but while injuries might have magnified the effect they don’t overshadow the process. The Chargers’ injuries didn’t make Muasau and Burns more disciplined. Injuries didn’t convince Bowen to unleash more twists, stunts, and blitzes.
Really, we’ve seen evidence over the last couple weeks that this kind of performance was coming. As I wrote prior to Sunday’s game, the Giants’ 0-3 start wasn’t frustrating in and of itself — the frustrating part was that they played winning football for most of those games. The defense held Washington to 14 points through three quarters, Dallas to 17 points, and Kansas City to 16 points through three quarters. The Giants’ defense got after Patrick Mahomes, and it’s only through his elusiveness that he wasn’t a schmear on the turf.
This week everything came together for the Giants’ pass rush.
Burns, Thibodeaux, and Carter played up to expectations while being versatile as well as disruptive. Lawrence started to play like himself again (perhaps aided by the brace on his left arm), and Alexander is playing faster and being more disruptive.
The Giants’ defense still has plenty of work to do. The back seven players need to be more disciplined in their run fits and tackling, and the secondary needs to continue to come together. If the front can continue to play like this, they’ll be a solid foundation for the rest of the defense.
