Brian Burns just had a career-best year, and gave a lot of the credit to Bullen. Bullen took over as interim defensive coordinator when interim head coach Mike Kafka fired Shane Bowen. Go look up the statistics from the Giants’ last five games, especially the last four. There was a STARK difference in performance once Bullen was placed in charge. Bullen learned under Vance Joseph with the Arizona Cardinals, and also worked with Matt Burke, who is now DC with the Houston Texans.
The Joseph influence shows. He’s aggressive, and pretty creative. Bullen is one of only three assistant coaches from the Brian Daboll staff that John Harbaugh has kept. I don’t know if it’s now, but Bullen has a future as a defensive coordinator.
For the season, the Giants allowed 25.8 points per game. In the final four games with Bullen in charge, the defense game up 18.0 points per game. For the season, the Giants allowed 359.5 yards per game. In the last three games, two of which the Giants won, they allowed an average of 252.3 yards. For the season, the Giants allowed 145.3 rushing yards per game. Under Bullen, that number was 116.8 per game. For the season, they allowed 5.3 yards per rushing attempt, last in the NFL. In the final three games under Bullen, they allowed 4.0 yards per attempt, tied for 10th.