Three things to work on in joint practices

The New York Giants laid down a good foundation in their first preseason game against the Buffalo Bills.

Not only did they win, which is always something to feel good about, but they did a number of nice things that we haven’t really seen in recent years. But, as head coach Brian Daboll said a few times after the game, there were also things to work on.

The Giants’ win was by no means perfect, and there were a few issues that cropped up throughout the game against the Bills. Right now, improvement is the watchword in practice and the final two preseason games, so let’s look at what the Giants should concentrate on improving this week against the New York Jets.

We’ll concentrate on the starters and the top of the Giants’ depth, as they’re the most important players for the start of the season.

The Giants’ offensive line had a solid outing against the Bills overall. I can’t really criticize a unit that didn’t give up a single sack too harshly, but they certainly have things to work on.

The biggest thing that stood out on tape from the Giants’ starting blockers was maintaining leverage and sustaining blocks, and we’ll start with the first play of the game.

Left tackle James Hudson III does a pretty good job of mirroring Joey Bosa off the edge, hitting his landmark in time to get in front of him. However, he isn’t particularly aggressive or authoritative with his hands and simply “catches” Bosa instead of delivering a punch. Bosa is one of the NFL’s premier technicians off the edge and easily finds Hudson’s chest plate without having to deal with any kind of punch. For his part, Hudson is forced to try to lay his hands outside of Bosa’s framework only to have his left hand swatted away.

Hudson’s positioning is good enough that he can “lose slow” to Bosa, buying just enough time for Wilson to find Tyrone Tracy in the flat — though he’s tackled for no gain. Unfortunately, Wilson had to get the ball out to his check-down just as Wan’Dale Robinson was breaking open on the slant.

A couple plays later, RG Greg Van Roten was the culprit.

Faced with a third and long, Van Roten lunges at Bills’ DT Da’Quan Jones, straightening his legs and bending at the waist to start the play. Jones quickly gets leverage, getting under Van Roten’s pads and drives him into Wilson’s lap. Fortunately for the quarterback, John Michael Schmitz, John Runyan Jr., and Hudson did their jobs well enough to collapse the edge of the Bills’ front and create an avenue for Wilson to step up. He was able to flip the ball to Tracy, who picked up 9 yards to set up fourth down.

It also happened in the run game. The first instance was TE Theo Johnson simply being discarded at the snap by Bosa, though I do want to acknowledge that a tight end working against a good EDGE is a pretty big mismatch. Instead, I want to look at a play that helped stall the Giants’ opening drive.

This was a similar lapse as in the first play by Hudson, though this time it was in the run game.

Once again, Hudson is passive against Bosa, carrying his hands low and wide. He never even attempts a punch, and only lunges when Bosa suddenly attacks the left B-gap. Hudson has to know he’s blocking the back side of this play and it’s his job to prevent pursuit. The play side is actually blocked up fairly well, and Wan’Dale Robinson block at the top of the screen may have opened up a chunk run for Devin Singletary if he could make the initial cut. However, he never gets the chance due to Bosa bringing him down from behind.

Overall, this wasn’t a regular occurrence and there were plenty of plays in which the line gave each of the Giants’ QBs time to work through their progressions. That said, it happened often enough that it should continue to be a point of emphasis.

The fact that the Jets have a formidable defensive front gives the Giants an excellent opportunity to work on being consistent with their blocking.

This one is an issue that will likely have to be addressed in the game itself. Teams aren’t really tackling to the ground in practice, and that complicates matters some. However, the Giants do need to improve their tackling overall, even if there’s only so much work that can be done in team portions of practices.

What the Giants can work on is being in good position to make the tackles.

The good news here is that the Giants were able to swarm to the ball and force a 3-and-out to start the game for the Bills. But the tackling among the Giants’ secondary players could certainly stand to be improved.

Dru Phillips and Dane Belton are the first players to arrive on the scene, with Phillips making the first attempt to bring the ball carrier down. Unfortunately, the nickel defender simply bounces off TE Dalton Kincaid, who’s able to keep his feet and spin forward to pick up an extra two yards or so. Phillips’ attempt wasn’t terrible, though he was a bit high and wasn’t able to wrap up. Belton finds himself caught off guard by Kincaid keeping his feet and goes past the spinning tight end.

Tyler Nubin, who arrives just after (and positioned between) Phillips and Belton, likewise finds himself in poor position and flails to get a hand on Kincaid. Fortunately, the tight end had been slowed enough by Phillips and Belton that Nubin and Paulson Adebo (21) are able to get him on the ground.

The Giants’ depth players had a similar problem in the run game.

The Giants’ defensive front does a good job of getting a push up front, with the entire line in the backfield before the runner can break the line of scrimmage. If anything, Tomon Fox did too good of a job penetrating and allowed an even bigger hole to be opened.

The big issue with the play was the second and third level players being out of position once Darius Muasau was picked up by the Bills’ pulling lineman (number 74, Ryan Van Demark). Muasau would have been in good position to limit this run to a yard or two with a good tackle, but once he was picked up there wasn’t anyone there to fill the gap. Safety Raheem Layne (number 43) was a bit slow diagnosing the play, which led to him being out of position once Muasau was blocked. His poor positioning forced him to lunge at the runner, which led to an easily broken tackle attempt.

Once again, Dane Belton made a poor tackle attempt from a poor position. He’ll need to pay particular attention to being in good position to make plays this week.

Much of the talk about the Giants’ run defense has centered around the defensive line. But the bigger issue is that run defense is a team game. It’s completely possible to stop the run with a 3-man front in a 6-man box. However, defenses need discipline in their run fits and to maintain the structure of the defense. The Giants didn’t do that consistently against the Bills, and it’s something that needs to improve before Week 1 against the Commanders.

This one is simple, and I don’t really need to resort to the film to speak on it.

The Giants finished the game with 10 penalties for 70 yards. Discipline has been an issue with the Giants throughout camp, to the point where Brian Daboll has started pulling players off the field for infractions. To be fair, there are three new quarterbacks in the backfield and each with a different cadence, so there’s bound to be an adjustment period.

That said, the team is to the point where they need to show real progress cleaning up those infractions. False starts, alignment infractions, holding penalties, and the like need to be much less common. The Giants could be better — maybe even significantly better — than they’re expected to be this year. But they simply can’t afford to beat themselves if they’re going to reach their potential.

One of the under-reported areas of success in 2022 was in playing cleanly. The Giants excelled at not beating themselves with penalties, while exploiting any mistake made by their opponents. They need to get back to that type of play, only this time combine clean football with more explosive plays. Practicing “the right way”, as Daboll put it Sunday afternoon is the first step.