Miami Cant Afford Get Right Mentality Against Giants
Photo Credit: Jamie Germano via USA TODAY Sports
A week after facing the best team by DVOA in the league, the Buffalo Bills, the Dolphins will see the 32nd ranked team on Sunday in the New York Giants. Additionally the Giants’ offense is 32nd in EPA/play, 32nd in dropback EPA, 28th in success rate, and 18th in rush EPA.
Music to Miami’s ears right?
Not if you ask head coach Mike Mcdaniel.
“There is no such thing as scheduling out wins or checking off boxes, and anybody that has done that exercise needs to do an after-action report, because everything you think you know, you don’t,” McDaniel said. “A get-right game doesn’t make any sense to me, and I don’t think anybody in our locker room is looking at it like that.”
While this all might sound like your standard, run-of-the-mill, boring sports cliche, a deeper look reveals Mcdaniels words ring very true. Don’t let the record fool you, the 1-3 New York Giants are a dangerous football team.
Surely Brian Daboll and his staff saw what the Bills put on tape last Sunday and will look to replicate it from a defensive standpoint. Buffalo brought strong pressure up the middle forcing the Dolphins off schedule and it worked to perfection. Tua Tagovailoa was pressured on 35% of his snaps, by far his highest rate of the season, While throwing to his first read a season low 57.1% of the time, after doing so 80.2% of the time in in weeks one through three.
The Giants are solid rushing the passer, ranking sixth in pass rush win rate. Despite lower production from their edge defenders, New York excels getting up the middle with defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence boasting a 90.4 PFF pass-rush grade and Leonard Williams‘ an 88.0. It’s hard to find a better duo around the league.
With center Connor Williams, who left the Bills game with an injury, status still uncertain, the middle could represent the sort of problem that could take an on paper mismatch and flip it.
While the defense, which got embarrassed last week, should have an opportunity to excel against a lesser unit this week. But an improving Saquon Barkley could be a problem. When Bakley is out the Giants look like a weaponless unit with a badly overpaid quarterback.
Daniel Jones, despite the threat of his running ability, is 27th out of 34 qualifying quarterbacks in EPA+CPOE composite and has a below average passing grade with 51.9.
The Giants pass-block win rate is 22nd in the league and Right tackle Evan Neal, in particular, has been heavily criticized for his performance — he has a 40.6 pass-blocking grade, according to PFF. Without Barkley the Dolphins struggling pass rush should be salivating.
With Barkley everything Changes. The threat of the all world running back combined with Dabolls threat of the Jet Sweep is what made this team so dangerous last season.
In their playoff win against the Vikings, a team similar to the Dolphins in their talented offense and bad defense composition, the Giants controlled every minute of the game by forcing Minnesota to deal with the Barkley/jet combo. It didn’t matter how good anyone on offense was in Minnesota that day, they never truly got a chance.
Yowza, Eric Kendricks. pic.twitter.com/M6nrDdFi7Y
— Rob Searles (@RobBob17) July 15, 2023
Jaelan Phillips‘ availability will be crucial. After missing the last two games, the expectation is to have him back on Sunday. Phillips leads the Dolphins with a 13.6% pressure rate and his presence will either be the necessary manpower if Barkley plays or potential game wrecker if he doest. On their way to losing to the Seattle Seahawks 24-3 on Monday night, the Giants allowed 11 sacks. If Phillips returns and they don’t have to respect the Giants run game, he could have a very big day.
But as Mike McDaniels knows, None of these previous numbers mean anything. the Dolphins need to come out and respect their opponent, not just because they want to escape a potential trap but because they’re building a mentality moving forward
“When you’ve left some stuff to be desired…the thing you want to do is be focused on yourself and how it applies to the opponent every single week,” McDaniel said. “Even if you approach something as a get-right game, you set yourself up to lose, for one. But let’s say you’re fortunate enough to win, you’ve now lost your competitive momentum in your process of progressing throughout the season.”
Up Next