New York Giants 3 Keys to Game vs. 49ers
The New York Giants have a tall task against the San Francisco 49ers, but they can help themselves if they can accomplish these three things.
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00:00 The New York Giants face, well, a Giant past Thursday night as they look to go 2-1 in the
00:06 2023 regular season at the expense of the San Francisco 49ers.
00:11 The Giants are universally regarded as the underdogs with odds makers anticipating that
00:15 the 49ers will roll over Big Blue by at least two scores.
00:20 But that's why you show up and that's why you play the game.
00:23 And while the Giants certainly have their fair share of falls, the 49ers are as low
00:28 to a roster as they are, they aren't perfect.
00:32 So where can the New York Giants look to gain a competitive edge against the 49ers?
00:38 Here are our three keys to the game.
00:41 Key number one, let it fly.
00:45 One of many reasons why the Giants finally ended their scoreless streak of six straight
00:50 quarters last week, look no further than the adjustments they made to the past game.
00:56 The Giants simply put, opened things up against the Arizona Cardinals.
01:01 Now for comparison purposes, against the Dallas Cowboys, quarterback Daniel Jones averaged
01:06 3.7 yards per pass attempt.
01:08 Against Arizona, he averaged 8.7 yards.
01:12 The 49ers past defense is currently averaging 247.5 yards given up per game, 23rd in the
01:20 league.
01:21 And they're also ranked 23rd in sacks per pass attempt percentage with a 5.95 mark.
01:28 So if the Giants offensive line can hold up with its pass protection, and keep in mind
01:33 the line will probably be the same line that we saw against Arizona, then the Giants can
01:38 maybe take some deep shots down the field to keep things loose and help the running
01:43 game.
01:44 Key number two, pressure Brock Purdy.
01:48 No surprise here, but Purdy, like any other quarterback on any other level, doesn't function
01:53 as well under pressure as he does when he has a fairly clean pocket in which to operate.
01:59 Through two games, Purdy has been pressured on 37.1% of his dropbacks, completing 52.6%
02:06 of his pass attempts.
02:08 More importantly though, when he is under pressure, his average time to throw per pro
02:13 football focus has jumped from 2.3 seconds to 3.03 seconds.
02:19 And that should be plenty of time for the Giants pass rush to make something happen,
02:24 being an errant throw or a turnover.
02:27 Now the Giants front seven has yet to register a sack this season, and has just 21 pressures
02:32 over two games.
02:33 And that has to change and in a hurry.
02:36 Key number three, stuff Christian McCaffrey.
02:40 The NFL rushing yardage leader with 268 yards, McCaffrey can inflict a lot of damage on a
02:46 defense, particularly a run defense that unfortunately has picked up where it left off last year
02:53 in terms of its struggles.
02:55 The Giants stopping of Christian McCaffrey is tricky because he's both patient and elusive,
03:01 but it's not impossible.
03:03 Amongst the keys to slowing him down is to not over pursue, set the edge, and force the
03:08 runner inside for the defensive interior to do its thing.
03:12 This takes away space that Christian McCaffrey is capable of exploiting with ease.
03:17 And more importantly, it eliminates the possibility of the home run ball of which by the way,
03:22 McCaffrey already has six big runs of 10 or more yards this season.
03:27 At the end of the day, beating the 49ers team is a tall order under any circumstances, let
03:32 alone for a team coming off its last game just four days ago.
03:37 The Giants will need to be mentally sharp and fundamentally sound in executing their
03:41 assignments if they're to give themselves a chance for the upset.
03:45 [BLANK_AUDIO]