Los Angeles Chargers vs. New York Giants Preview & Prediction | PFF

Los Angeles Chargers vs. New York Giants Preview & Prediction | PFF

The Los Angeles Chargers looking good three weeks into the season. They’re traveling to New York to face Jackson Dart in his first start in the NFL taking over at quarterback. Brian Dable saying this week it was my decision. Saying that with his full chest because I wonder how much of the decisions that he has had in the past. Uh they’re taking on Jackson Dart. Uh, obviously the Giants sitting here at 0 and3 they need a spark here. So, can he be that? What is your preview here, Dol? All right, so I’m going to start with the other side and the guy that we know is just raging hot right now and that’s Justin Herbert. And I’ve mentioned before how, you know, Jim Harbaugh and Greg Roman since they’ve come in. Look, Justin Herbert’s got a top three to five arm in football, maybe the strongest arm in football. Throw it downfield. Let’s go. And that’s what they did last year and that’s what they’re continuing to do this year. 89.9 passing grade on 10 plus yard throws, six touchdowns on 10 plus yard throws, 120.3 passer rating, and honestly, you know, for as much as we’ve been underwhelmed by the Giants offense and the quarterback situation, I think maybe the most disappointing unit on this team has been the secondary. I thought the addition of Javon Holland and Paulson Adibbo would really stabilize this secondary. They haven’t been great covering downfield. Just a 28.1 coverage grade on 10 plus yard throws. You saw them against Dallas giving up deep shots. They couldn’t finish the job against Kansas City on certain plays when Mahomes was holding the ball for a long time. I I think that’s the first thing you have to do when you’re playing against Justin Herbert. They’ve got Quinton Johnston flying downfield. Lad Macy’s all over the place. Got some of those other young threats that are winning downfield. You have to keep things in front of you. If you’re the Giants secondary, you’ve got to you got to find a way to keep yourself in the game. I think especially Javon Holland and Tyler Newan at safety, this is a big game for them because they’re the ones who are going to get attacked, especially I think down the seams of this defense. Um, the Giants, they have to they have to play better on defense. I think their defensive line’s obviously an elite unit that we like and they’ve got a dangerous pass rush, but I thought their back seven was going to be a lot better in coverage coming into this year and through through three weeks they haven’t been. I think this entire matchup is going to come down to who can defend the deep ball a little bit better, right? And and you would naturally, I think, lean towards the Chargers being able to do that because they have been better at it. You mentioned the coverage grade that the Giants have had on 10 on 10 plus yard throws. Uh not good. A 28.1. On the Chargers side of things, they have only allowed three of 14 targets of 20 plus yard throws. So even deeper down the field this season, 21.4%. That’s sixth best in the NFL. And then their 46.5 coverage grades on those throws is 11th best in the NFL. Now some people might be like, “Well, hold on. 46.5? Like that’s not very good.” You got to think about sort of what goes into that because if a deep pass gets completed against you, normally it’s going to be a big-time throw. It’s going to be a massive swing play. The EPA per pass is going to allowed is is going to go way up. Um sometimes it’ll, you know, it’ll lead to touchdowns as well. So naturally, completing letting any passes be completed of 20 or more yards is really going to tank a coverage score unless you’re getting a lot of turnovers and and a lot of interceptions, which is kind of like what Philadelphia did last year. They just had so many forcing completions and interceptions on those deep throws that they were able to have an elite coverage grade as a team when teams were passing of that distance. But I think that I should pick the Chargers here. Basically everything tells me that the Chargers are the better team. They’re the more consistent team. They’re the better bet. Taking the Giants. I’m taking Jackson Dart to get him the win his first start. Uh he is somebody who I am leaning a little bit into sort of what we heard last week after Sunday Night Football. the boss man and Mike Tico. You know, they they were talking about how much energy there is, how much positive energy and positive talk there is for Jackson Dart. How they’re excited to get him out there. Obviously, they’ve designed some of those package plays for him to get out there in the game over the last couple of weeks. Even though we haven’t loved that those existed, they are clearly they just want to get him out on the field. Now, they are getting him out there. If he confidence is the number one thing for a quarterback, right, Dalton? And if Jackson Dart is genuinely playing as confidently as we saw him play at times at Old Miss with an offense that is now going to be very excited for him to get in there with Juan Del Robinson and Darius Slate and certainly Malik Neighbors everything. Cam Scataboo is running the ball well. He’s he’s catching the ball well out of the back field. This could be a sneaky game where you actually get the best version of the Giants. You talked about how much their coverage unit has struggled so far this season, but you mentioned some of the names and some guys that can play better and secondary play is very volatile anyway. It’s very up and down just naturally. So you I can convince myself which I kind of am right now in thinking that their best game could potentially be this upcoming weekend. Now it’s going up against a really good quarterback in Justin Herbert, but can you even just limit him enough to get a win in this game here? So, with the Giants hosting it, with there not being any NFL tape on Jackson Dart and what he’s sort of capable of, what kind of offense they’re going to run with him out there, I’ll go Giants 24, Chargers 21. To the chagrin of producer Eli back there, I’m just going to have to say your pick feels like you’re throwing a dart at the wall. Um, okay, I’m done. Um, I I’m I’m going to I’m going to take the favorite here. I I think I think it’s a tough task. I think this Chargers um I think this Chargers team is just playing such good football right now. Their ability to prevent those explosive passes. Justin Herbert looks fantastic. And you know, I think you mentioned the Giants do have some excitement with the two rookies in the back field with Dart and with Tyrone Tracy out now for a few weeks with a dislocated shoulder. Cam Scataboo is going to be the workhorse in the back field. I think he showed he can be that last week. But I’ve got the Chargers 27 to6. I just think this is a very tough task for Jackson Dart in his first start. I understand there’s going to be a lot of excitement this week at Metife Stadium, but Brian Dable has also got to call a better game and he’s got to understand that he needs Dart to take what’s given to him against this defense. You’re not just going to walk in and hit home runs on this defense, especially those safeties, Derwin James, Aloe Gilman, Tony Jefferson playing great football back there. And I I just love Justin Herbert, man. He’s playing MVP caliber football, honestly. And I think even if this game is close, I think Herbert finds a way to bail him out. I just think the Chargers are the better team here. I I I do agree with you that the Chargers are the better team, but again, we have agreed too much here on this show and uh you know, I’ll take a throw at the dart board. There you go. See, it’s not just you. It’s not just you. Although I hope that Eli opened up your IFB and is booing at you to me like I think that he probably

PFF’s Dalton Wasserman and Trevor Sikkema preview the matchup between The Los Angeles Chargers and The New York Giants.

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