Giants
(4-3) vs Saints (3-4) The Saints were on
the road last Sunday in Indianapolis and came away with a 27-21 victory over the
Colts. They had been up 27-0 and the Colts kept plugging away at their comeback,
but it was too late. The Giants played mistake free football at home last Sunday
and that was just what they needed to beat the Cowboys 27-20. Two of their three
touchdowns came from their defense and special teams. Giants
- Cowboys Wrap-Up New
Orleans Saints Sean Payton has done a great
job with the Saints. With Payton running the show, they have been in the playoffs
five out of his eight coaching years. He missed the 2012 season where they finished
7-9 because of a year long suspension imposed by the Commissioner Roger Goodell
for his part in the bounty scandal that was uncovered by the NFL. It was tough
on the team as that was the season the Super Bowl was to be played at the Superdome.
That year the passing game with Drew Brees remained as the best in the NFL.
The rushing dropped from sixth to twenty fifth. Points allowed by the defense
dropped their ranking from 13th to 31st. The Saints had given up an NFL single-season
record 7,042 yards. One of the first coaching moves Payton made upon his return
was to fire defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo and he hired Rob Ryan, fresh
off his stint with the Cowboys. The secondary coach was released as well and replaced
by Wesley McGriff. They were back in the playoffs in 2013, but slipped to
another 7-9 record in 2014. Right now the Saints are on a comeback from a 1-4
start, winning their last two games. They will play all the teams in the NFC East
and have a win over the Cowboys and a loss to the Eagles. The Giants are up next,
and in two weeks they will face Washington. The Cowboys win was at home. The loss
to the Eagles was on the road and the rest to these games
will be in the Superdome. The noisy stadium gives them a real advantage. They
were 40-11 at home starting in 2008 until they added five home losses to that
count at the end of last season. They had one loss at home this season before
winning the next two, which included an upset win over the Falcons. They could
be back on track in that area and will try to make that happen on Sunday against
the Giants. Saints
Offense The biggest weapon the Saints have
is quarterback Drew Brees. Brees joined the Saints in 2006 and has thrown passes
for over 4,000 yards every single year. He's passed 5,000 in four of them, including
2011 where he was named the NFL Offensive Player of the Year with a league record
5,476 yards and 46 touchdowns while completing 71.2 percent of his passes and
he's not slowing down. He barley missed the 5,000 mark last year by 48 yards and
is on that same pace right now. Brandin Cooks is the leading receiver on the team
and draws the most coverage. He was targeted 13 times last week and caught six
passes for 81 yards. Their ground game isn't much better than the Giants,
though it seemed to get a boost from left tackle Terron Armstead, returning from
a knee injury that caused him to miss two games. Overall they have slipped from
last year even though they had re-signed starter Mark Ingram. Up until last week
the Saints were the only team in the NFL without a 20 yard run. Ingram got one
in the second quarter and added longer runs to finish with a season high 143 yards.
However, the running backs mustered only 1 rushing yard on six carries in the
fourth quarter, and that kind of production led to six straight punts following
their last score. Brees had to make some risky throws to keep the chains moving
so the clock would run down on the Colts to close the game out.
Saints Defense They
came on strong last week, shutting down Andrew Luck for the first part of the
game and overall forced three turnovers if you include the one on special teams.
They hit Luck 10 times, sacking him four times and picked him off twice. Delvin
Breaux will usually cover the top receiver on the opposing team. He's had a good
year, but easily could have become the goat if the Colts had managed their comeback.
Breaux tripped and fell twice, allowing deep touchdown passes to the receiver
he was covering. This week Breaux will draw Odell Beckham Jr. and that will be
interesting to watch. Cornerbacks Keenan Lewis and Damian Swann were out because
of injuries. Lewis is listed as questionable and Swann should make it back. The
team has 16 sacks on the year and defensive end Cameron Jordan has five in the
past two games. They're not doing well against the run and it wasn't until last
week that they held a team to less than 100 rushing yards. With that, they still
allowed 5.7 yards per carry over 13 attempts and they are allowing 4.9 yards per
rush over the season. Giants
offense The Giants offense looks to be
in retreat mode. Odell Beckham Jr. has been held under wraps the last six quarters
and on Sunday he had a season low four receptions for 35 yards. Manning threw
Beckham's way six times, the least in any game, and in the previous one targeted
him just once in the entire second half. Maybe it's time to open things up. Beckham
was able to practice for the full week and may be moving past his lingering hamstring
issue. Manning tried to connect with Rueben Randle five times and he caught two,
including a nice one handed catch on the run for 44 yards. Larry Donnell has been
consistent and Dwayne Harris needs to see more passes come his way. Orleans
Darkwa, the fourth string running back on the team, surprised the crowd and maybe
the Giants coaching staff with his production. He had the most carries on the
team for the best average, and one of his runs was a touchdown. He would have
had the most total yardage, but Shane Vereen broke one play for 39 yards and that
put him on top. If Darkwa is for real he needs to be used in some efficient way
with the other backs to take pressure off Manning, who has been making due with
an offense that is struggling now in both areas. The Saints don't have the best
run defense so there is opportunity here.
Giants
defense They will be looking over what
the Colts were doing in the second half of the game last week against the Saints.
The Colts shut down the ground game and held the Saints scoreless except for a
third quarter opening drive where they scored a touchdown. Steve Spagnuolo's guys
let the Cowboys run all over them for 233 yards and have produced just nine sacks
on the season. That puts them next to last in that area, worse numbers than when
Spagnuolo was sent packing from the Saints after his 2012 season. Jason Pierre-Paul
was back practicing with the team, but has a lot of ground to cover before he'll
be seeing any game action. Damontre Moore, the leading sack leader, wasn't allowed
on the field last Sunday because of an overly enthusiastic sacking of Sam Bradford
in the previous game that resulted in a costly penalty. The defense will see plenty
of pass rush opportunities as Drew Brees has been consistently throwing 40 passes
a game. Cornerbacks Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and Jayron Hosley and safeties
Brandon Meriweather and Landon Collins have totaled six interceptions in the last
two games. Overall Right
now the Saints seem to have gotten back on track while the Giants are struggling
along week to week playing with a restrained careful offense and a hopeful defense.
The question is will that work in the Superdome? They may have to unleash Eli
Manning in order to win this one and win or lose, that's what I would like to
see. If the Giants want to leave New Orleans with a 5-3 record this Sunday, they
will have to open up the passing game. NFC
East Games Sunday at 1:00pm Giants (4-3)
at Saints (3-4). Sunday at 4:25pm Seahawks (3-4) at Cowboys (2-4). Eagles
and Redskins are on a Bye week. No NFC East team is favored to win in these
games.
Check out.
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TeamGiants on Twitter. Notes
- Giants.The Giants started 0-2, and
have won four of the last five games to lead in the NFC East. The
Giants lead the NFL with a plus-ten turnover differential. The
Giants are third in the NFL in kickoff return average. Dwayne
Harris was named the NFC special teams player of the week. Notes
- Saints. Drew Brees has thrown a
touchdown pass in 96 of his last 97 games, including one in each of the last 42. Drew
Brees has completed an average 67.5 percent of his passes in his 10 year career
with the Saints. Saints win last week over
the Colts gave them back-to-back victories for the first time since last October.
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