Author: Craig Rigden - @Twigglets88/@BigBlueUKIRL

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Week 6: Rookie Standouts

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With this week marking the beginning of the bye weeks ruining many a fantasy football lineup, the NFL landscape remained unchanged as the low and close-scoring games continued. In week 6, these were the rookies that stood out.

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Bailey Zappe, Quarterback – New England Patriots

Bailey Zappe might well be starting to cause Bill Belichick a headache. In his two starts thus far for the Patriots, the 23-year-old rookie has looked impressive, which could put Mac Jones under pressure to ensure he performs when he returns from injury.

Zappe had a great day on Sunday, demonstrating his ability to go through his reads promptly and show good poise in the pocket, but most importantly, he didn’t turn the ball over. Although the young quarterback didn’t have a perfect day, he did become the first rookie in the Super Bowl era to win and record a QB rating of over 100 in each of his first two starts after finishing with 24 completions from 34 attempts for 309 yards and two touchdowns and an impressive 118.4 passer rating. It’ll be interesting to see who suits up next Monday against the Bears.

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Kayvon Thibodeaux, Edge – New York Giants

After missing out on the Giants’ first two games of the season, Thibodeaux has started to increase the pressure on opposing quarterbacks as his snap count has increased, and after multiple close calls last week against reigning MVP Aaron Rogers, this was the game where he was finally rewarded, and ironically, it’s the quarterback he revealed on Reddit in the preseason he most wanted to sack.

With the Giants having just taken the lead, the expectation was that Lamar Jackson would get one more drive to prevent the Ravens from blowing another 4th quarter lead, but Kayvon had other ideas. After blowing past tackle Patrick Mekari, he batted the ball out of Jackson’s hand to record his first sack and forced fumble. It meant a lot to the former duck, as shown by his emotional post-game video.

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Tariq Woolen, Cornerback – Seattle Seahawks

After making it into the honourable mentions list last week, it only felt right that Woolen made it onto this week’s, and it wouldn’t surprise me if the defensive rookie of the year conversations started. Fifth-rounder selections are normally a work in progress for a few seasons, and he was even labelled as a project pick, but Woolen is bucking that trend with dominant performances.

In this week’s outing against the Arizona Cardinals, he had five tackles, one stop, allowed four receptions on seven targets, snagged his fourth interception in his fourth straight game, and is now tied for the NFL lead with the Buffalo Bills’ Jordan Poyer. He also recovered a fumble after fellow rookie (and honourable mention) Coby Bryant stripped a scrambling Kyler Murray of the football in the redzone. Are we starting to see the emergence of a legion of boom 2.0? Time will tell.

Honourable Mentions

Sauce Gardner and Breece Hall (both New York Jets), Coby Bryant (Seattle Seahawks), Daniel Bellinger (New York Giants), and Arnold Ebiketie (Atlanta Falcons)

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Five Things: Week 6 – Baltimore Ravens at New York Giants

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The Giants’ confidence was sky high after coming off the massive high that was the shock win against the Green Bay Packers in London. Unfortunately, they once again started slowly and, although they walked away with the win here to take their record to 5-1 it wasn’t without drama. Let’s take a look at five things that stood out this week:

Convincing? No. Deserved? Yes.

Offensively, in the first half, the Giants looked largely off the pace as Balitmore constantly kept us from sustaining a drive. Aside from the touchdown drive, which was sparked by Gary Brightwell’s 47-yard kick-off return, the Giants had 14 plays across four drives, including two 3 and outs and one drive at the end of the half that ended with a fumble and recovery, albeit on a meaningless hail-mary attempt.

Continuing the recent trend, we were much better in the 2nd half of the game on both fronts, with the offence converting in the redzone when needed, but again it was the Wink Martindale-led defence that stepped up to the plate late in the 4th quarter. Time was running out after trailing for most of the second half. The breakthrough was made after the Giants secured their first interception of the season and a forced fumble plus recovery on the following Ravens drive, which ultimately stopped their potent attack from scoring again.

The Achilles Heel

As great as it was to get the win, we can’t ignore that for the majority of the game, the Ravens’ rushing attack and their tight ends were having a field day against our linebackers as they gave up chunk play after chunk play.

The Lamar to Mark Andrew connection was in full flow throughout the game, topped off as Andrews hauled in a touchdown early in the 4th quarter. He finished with 106 yards on 7 passes, for a ridiculous 15.1 yards per reception.

On the ground, both Lamar and Kenyan Drake had our number. The journeyman running back, Drake, sliced through our defensive front time and time again, finishing with 119 yards on 10 carries and a touchdown. Jackson had 77 yards himself on 7 carries, meaning they combined for almost 200 yards at a rate of 11.5 yards a carry.

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Rookies Show Up

It’s been a slow start for some of our rookies thanks to niggling injuries. First rounder Kayvon Thibodeaux only made his debut in week three, and second rounder Wan’Dale Robinson was returning to the line-up after suffering an MCL injury in week one.

Robinson was the first of the rookies to make an impact as he caught a dart from Daniel Jones to tie the game up at 7-7.

Next up was Bellinger, who ended the game as the Giants’ leading receiver with 38 yards on five receptions. He also added a touchdown in the middle of the fourth quarter, which took his touchdown streak up to two games in a row.

Lastly, Thibodeaux was a menace all game and consistently got within grasping distance of Lamar Jackson but couldn’t get that elusive first career sack. Just when it looked like it wasn’t going to be his day, he got himself a nice double towards the end of the game as he recorded not only a sack but his first forced fumble too. The icing on the cake for him will have been that it was essentially a game-sealing play.

Barkley and Jones Tough It Out

Both Barkley and Jones came into today’s game nursing slight ailments, with Barkley still feeling the effects of the shoulder injury he sustained in last week’s London game and Jones dealing with both a niggling ankle injury and a scabby turf injury on his hand. On the surface, it looked like Jones’s injury barely bothered him, though it was clear he didn’t have that burst of speed he’d shown in the weeks prior, as he failed to take advantage of some of the holes the Ravens’ defence afforded him.

Barkley, on the other hand, was clearly feeling the effects of his shoulder injury as he had a quiet day compared to the lofty standards he has set for himself so far this season. His longest rush of the game was only 8 yards, as although he carried the ball 22 times, he finished with 83 yards and a touchdown against what had previously this season been a porous Ravens run defence.

Love’ly Jubbly

As mentioned before, the Giants didn’t have a single interception coming into today’s game, and when Fabian Moreau dropped what looked like an easy interception after Mark Andrews’ drop/deflection of a Lamar Jackson pass, it looked like it would never come. Enter Julian Love.

The fourth-year safety from Notre Dame, who leads the Giants in tackles this season alongside cornerback Adoree Jackson, had already made an important play in the 1st quarter, denying what looked like a sure-fire touchdown to Demarcus Robinson by launching himself in front of the receiver. The most important play, though, came late in the fourth quarter, with the Giants still down by three points. Lamar Jackson fumbled a snap and after recovering it, he threw an ill-advised pass up into the air, which Love gratefully accepted and returned 27 yards to the Balitmore 13-yard line. Four plays later, the Giants took the lead, and after Saquon Barkley’s smart football play to slide down before the endzone, the Ravens never saw the ball again.

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Week 5: Rookie Standouts

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As we now move into the second quarter of the season, we’re starting to see some rookies start to cement their place in the standings for Defensive and Offensive Rookie of the Year. In week 5, these were the rookies that stood out.

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Dameon Pierce, Running Back – Houston Texans

My first returning player to these rankings, and he’s done it back to back! After last week’s amazing effort against the Los Angeles Chargers, Pierce took a deserved spot on this list despite being on the losing side. This time, however, he drove the Texans to their first win of the season after a low-scoring close affair against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Not only did Pierce punch in the go-ahead touchdown that gave the Texans their first win of the season, but he also had 3 receptions for 16 yards and 26 carries for 99 yards. These are not amazing numbers if you just look at the basic stats, but when you take into account that 97 of those yards were after contact, it’s just ridiculous. In fact, just watch this angry run below.

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Sauce Gardner, Cornerback – New York Jets

Sauce has been unlucky to not appear in these rankings yet, but there was no way I could ignore him as he helped the Jets defence dominate the Miami Dolphins from their very first play from scrimmage.

Teddy Bridgewater, who was playing in the place of the injured Tua Tagovailoa, lined up to take his first snap of the game and an unblocked Sauce unloaded on him, driving him to the dirt and forcing an intentional grounding penalty and subsequent safety as Bridgewater threw the ball in the endzone.

Sauce finished the game with 5 tackles, 1 pass defended, and his first career interception. He also finished with an allowed passer rating of 34.2, which is worse than if the Dolphins QB had just spiked it every play.

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Breece Hall, Running Back – New York Jets

So not only do I have my first returning player, but I also have two players from the same team for the first time this year. If Sauce helped the Jets dominate the Dolphins defensively, then Hall was the standout on offence as he displayed why he could be the next dual-threat running back weapon.

In what can be considered his breakout game, Hall had a monstrous day, picking up an incredible 100 yards on a measly 2 receptions, as well as having 18 carries for 97 yards and a touchdown, his first in the NFL. The twenty-one-year-old Hall, who was drafted in the second round by the Jets, is now leading all rookies in scrimmage yards and is on the verge of breaking into the top ten among all NFL players.

Honorable Mentions

For the first time this season, I wanted to give a couple of honorable mentions to a trio of cornerbacks who just missed out on a spot. Those are Tariq Woolen (Seattle Seahawks), Jack Jones (New England Patriots), and Derek Stingley (Houston Texans).

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Five Things: Week 5 – New York Giants at Green Bay Packers

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The Giants returned to our shores this week and shocked everyone with a 27-22 come-from-behind victory over the Green Bay Packers. Let’s take a look at five things that stood out from London:

London Calling

The Giants must really love coming to London. Not only is the team now 3-0 in the city, but they’re also the only team to win three games in three different London stadiums (Wembley in 2007, Twickenham in 2016 and Tottenham this past weekend).

Despite being 3-1, the Giants opened as 7.5-point underdogs against Aaron Rogers and his Green Bay Packers team, and looking at the rosters, it was totally understandable. The Giants were without multiple starters, including starting defensive player Leonard Williams, and after the first half of the game went the way of the cheeseheads (and their huge following), the Giants rallied at half time. After shutting out Green Bay in the second half despite more injury woes, Big Blue scored two unanswered touchdowns via running backs Gary Brightwell and Saquon Barkley before Oshane Ximines sacked Rogers on the final play of the game.

Box of Tricks

The Wildcat formation was obviously something that the Giants had in their back pocket after successfully running it a few times last week. Due to injuries to both quarterbacks, that was a necessity last week; this week, it was more of an option to unsettle the Packers, and it worked.

Barkley lined up on his own 22-yard line, took the snap and darted through for 40 yards. Suddenly, the tails were up, and Big Blue had started to string something together. A few plays later, they found themselves on the cusp of the endzone. In what looked like a failed Philly special, Daniel Jones tossed it to Barkley, who then did the same to tight end Daniel Bellinger. Bellinger looked like he was going to throw the ball but decided to just barrel into the endzone for the Giants’ first touchdown of the game.

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2nd Half Shutout

Wink Martindale seems to use the first half as a learning session before executing his masterplan in the second half, and this time it was Rogers who was in the crosshairs. After Adoree Jackson was ruled out at the half with a knee injury, he was down to Fabian Moreau, Nick McCloud, and Justin Layne, three players who weren’t even on the Giants roster until after the preseason, but all three excelled in their next man up roles.

After completing 18 of 24 for 146 yards and two touchdowns in the first half, he was held to a paltry 7 of 15 for 76 yards and no touchdowns. The amazing thing at the end of all of this is that the only points scored by the Packers in the second half were done so by the Giants, as punter Jamie Gillian got to play a little bit of chase in the endzone before stepping out for a safety.

Slayton Shows Up

The Giants’ receivers had been the most underwhelming unit this season, and after the majority of the so-called big names had been ruled out by injuries, the Giants turned to fourth-year outcast Darius Slayton.

Slayton has found himself on the outside looking in since Brian Daboll and Joe Schoen took over and was touted as being an almost certain cut or trade candidate before the season.

Though he saw a return to the line-up last week, again he didn’t start as practice squad elevation Marcus Johnson started the game, but by the end, Slayton showed why it should be him next week. He led the team in both targets and receptions and comfortably had double the receiving yards of any other Giant receiver. With Kenny Golladay, Kadarius Toney and Wan’Dale Robinson unlikely to take the field together for at least a few more weeks, the Giants won’t think twice next time about relying on Slayton.

Coach(es) of the Year Incoming?

In their first year leading the team, general manager Joe Schoen, head coach Brian Daboll, offensive coordinator Mike Kafka, and defensive coordinator Wink Martingdale have had quite an eventful start to the season as the team has exceeded expectations to earn their 4-1 start.

Daboll and Schoen have overhauled the culture at the Giants, building a team that not only does the dirty, gritty work but genuinely looks like they are playing for each other. The old cliché is “next man up,” but this is a mantra they are playing by and, to a man, it is working.

The coordinators, as mentioned before, both got the absolute best out of the personnel at their disposal, whether it was Kafka getting creative with his play calling to bamboozle the Green Bay defense or Wink, despite missing key pieces, stifling Rogers’ air attack and holding the Packers’ dangerous rushing tandem of Aaron Jones and A.J. Dillon to a combined 97 yards.

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Week 4: Rookie Standouts

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With the injury bug taking hold across multiple teams, there is a plethora of rookies making significant contributions to their teams. Let’s take a look at three that shone this week, including a couple that did so on their first ever starts

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Jamaree Salyer, Tackle – Los Angeles Chargers

The pressure on Salyer must have been immense as he was thrust into his first NFL game to protect Justin Herbert’s blindside due to All-Pro Rashawn Slaters’ injury. Salyer had predominantly been transitioning to guard in the offseason, but despite only having a week to reacquaint himself with his position at Georgia, he dominated on his side.

During the game, the sixth-round pick had a pass block grade of 90.4 and allowed 0 sacks, 0 pressures, and 0 hurries across 41 pass blocking snaps. The Chargers will likely have to rely on Salyer for the foreseeable future as the current timeline for Slaters’ return isn’t until late 2022 at the earliest.

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Dameon Pierce, Running Back – Houston Texans

Despite ending up on the losing side of the game against the aforementioned Salyer’s Chargers, Pierce himself also had a career day after sparking the fast fading Texans into life halfway through the second quarter.

With the Chargers up 21-0, the Texans looked down and out, but Pierce had other ideas. He took the handoff from Davis Mills and breezed past the Chargers’ defensive front for a 75-yard touchdown, and hauled them back into the game. The 113 rushing yards from the game took his total for the season to 313, enough to crack the top 10 above players like Derrick Henry and Dalvin Cook.

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Jack Jones, Cornerback – New England Patriots

Jack Jones had been eyeing up a pick all season on underneath passes, and finally his aggressive nature paid off. With the team down 3-7 just before the half, Jones jumped in front of Aaron Rogers’ pass intended for Allen Lazard and took it the 40 yards for the pick-six. Amazingly, this is only the second pick-6 Rogers has ever thrown at Lambeau Field.

Jones, who was starting due to a hamstring injury suffered by Jalen Mills, also caused a forced fumble and recovery earlier in the game as he punched the ball out of fellow rookie Romeo Dobbs’ hands.

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Five Things: Week 4 – Chicago Bears at New York Giants

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The Giants went old school this week in their designated Legacy Game and decided that the gameplan should be a throwback too with a hard-hitting ground and pound style offence that ensured their trip to London next week sees them arrive with a winning record. Let’s take a look at how it unfolded:

Stay Outta Our Endzone

3-1 is not something many Giants fans are used to after years of slow starts and disappointing seasons. In fact, this is the best start by a Giants team in 11 years. The strangest thing to note here is that there is only one team with a better record than the Giants currently, and that is one of their hated divisional rivals, the Philadelphia Eagles, who are the only remaining team with a perfect 4-0 record.

After the disappointment of the loss to the Dallas Cowboys, the bounce back win against the Chicago Bears was well deserved but wasn’t what you would call convincing. The Giants limped away from this injury-ridden game and were able to hold on to the win despite Chicago’s under-pressure quarterback, Justin Fields, being allowed to record multiple season-high stats in passing attempts, completions, and yards.

Sensational Saquon

Thank God for Saquon Barkley. In this young season, there have been few positive points to make about our playmakers. However, Saquon Barkley has been everything he promised and more. Not a day went by in the preseason without someone questioning if Barkley would ever be able to return to his rookie season form. Barkley’s reply so far? Deafening.

His most impressive play was on a third-down screen pass that should have been blown up for negative yardage, but Barkley shed the would-be tackler and turned it up field for an outstanding first down. It was so good I’ve had to put it in below.

Barkley finished the game with 146 rushing yards on 31 carries, taking his season total so far to an NFL leading 463 yards on 84 carries (also a league high), just ahead of the Cleveland Browns’ Nick Chubb. He also leads the league in all-purpose yards, just ahead of Chubb and the Miami Dolphins’ Tyreek Hill.

Wide Receiver Woes

Well, if the aforementioned Barkley is the star of the show, then the wide receivers are the outcasts, and while some of the blame may be placed on the weather conditions, lack of attempts, or the injuries to the quarterbacks, this is not the first time this season.

Kenny Golladay once again failed to prove his worth with another zero-reception showing before he went off injured. Golladay was targeted once with a high throw, but he didn’t even attempt to go up for it, which either shows his lack of effort or his lack of enthusiasm. Another receiver that should have had a point to prove but failed to grasp his opportunity was Darius Slayton, who finished with one reception for 11 yards and, though he drew a pass interference call, he dropped the makeable catch on the same play that would have likely gone for a touchdown.

Sack City

Coming into Sunday’s game, the Giants had a grand total of three sacks and zero interceptions across three games. This improved massively by the end of the game as the Giants’ defensive front suffocated Bears quarterback Justin Fields, finishing with six sacks and nine quarterback hits which helped restrict Fields to 11 completions on 22 attempts.

Individually, there were outstanding performances across the defense. Dexter Lawrence continued his dominant start to the season with an outstanding showing as he registered two sacks and three QB hits; Jihad Ward and Julian Love continued to both make plays with a sack each; and finally, Azeez Ojulari and Kayvon Thibodeaux combined for a strip sack and recovery to halt a promising drive from the Bears in the first quarter.

Injuries Again

In what seems to be a recurring theme, the Giants looked like the walking wounded once again as Evan Neal, Julian Love, Mark Glowinski, Kenny Golladay, Aaron Robinson, Henry Mondeaux, Kayvon Thibodeaux, Azeez Ojulari, Tyrod Taylor, and Daniel Jones were all looked at by the medical personnel.

At the moment, it is too early to know how much time some of the players will miss, but the biggest impact from Sunday’s win was without doubt the injuries to the two quarterbacks.

Jones sprained his ankle during a sack as the Bears’ Jaquan Brisker landed on him awkwardly which meant backup Taylor came into the game. Taylor however was quickly removed from the game as he took a shot to the head and was ruled out with a concussion. This meant Jones returned to the fray, but due to his injury, he was unable to do anything but hand the ball off for rushes. Luckily this was enough to help secure the win.

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Week 3: Rookie Standouts

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Another week in the books, and there were plenty of candidates for this article as the NFL’s strange season continues with surprising victories, comebacks, and streaks being broken. Let’s take a look at three rookies who stood out amongst the pack: 

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Chris Olave, Wide Receiver – New Orleans Saints

Saints fans would probably struggle to find any positives in their team’s performance against the Carolina Panthers, but if you had to pick something, it would have been their rookie Wide Receiver’s performance.

Olave hauled in nine receptions off thirteen targets, a number that shows how quickly he’s established a rapport with Jamies Winton. He has now taken his total for the season to 17 receptions for 268 yards, which is enough to lead all rookie wide receivers. Though it is unlikely that he continues at this pace for the entire season, the Saints will be delighted that he has transferred his skills to the professional game so quickly.

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Jalen Pitre, Safety – Houston Texans

Fourth-rounder Jalen Pitre missed interception in the Texans’ season opener against the Indianapolis Colts may have lit a fire inside the former Baylor standout that cannot be extinguished, and without his play in the loss against the Chicago Bears this past week, the scoreline could have been a lot uglier.

Pitre had a breakout game with key plays throughout this game. His first interception came in the first quarter as he was heading towards the ground. His second stopped a key drive for the Bears in the fourth quarter, and finally he added a sack to his stat line on the Bears’ next drive. Though his effort was ultimately unrewarded, the positive signs are there for the future.

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Devin Lloyd, Linebacker – Jacksonville Jaguars

The Jacksonville Jaguars have not shied away from putting their young team at the forefront of their plans, and one player that is thriving in Florida is Linebacker Devin Lloyd. Having displayed the sideline to sideline abilities that were highly touted in the lead up to the draft, Lloyd has taken to NFL life like a duck to water.

If you add his stats against the Los Angeles Chargers of 5 solo tackles, 3 passes defended, and an interception to Lloyd’s stat sheet, it is ludicrous. 24 tackles, a league-high six passes defended, two interceptions and a targeted passer rating of 28.2. Sheesh

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Five Things: Week 3 – Dallas Cowboys at New York Giants

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After a surprising 2-0 start to the season, the New York Giants were brought back down to earth with an uninspiring defeat to NFC East rivals the Dallas Cowboys. Here are five talking points from the game: 

First Half Inadequacies 

For the third straight week, the Giants’ failed to get into the endzone in the first half. After last week’s inability to score a touchdown after two fumbles gave them great field position, this week saw one field goal blocked by the stout Dallas defence before Graham Gano converted from 42-yards in the 2nd quarter. 

The slow start has been addressed by the coaching staff in recent weeks, but they still can’t seem to get any kind of flow or momentum on their side until the second half. So far in this new season, the Giants have been outscored 25-9 in the first half, forcing the coaching staff to have to rally the troops at half time. 

Admittedly, in all three games, the Giants’ offence has been better after the half thanks to adjustments made by the coaching staff, but this week it wasn’t enough as the Cowboys sealed the win, 23-16. 

Daniel Jones Under Pressure 

In what is quite possibly the most important season in Daniel Jones’s relatively short career so far, he will have hoped that this season he would be able to operate under a more robust offensive line than he has had in recent years. Unfortunately, this hasn’t been the case so far and the Cowboys’ defence smelt blood and unsurprisingly targeted rookie Tackle Evan Neal, who gave up three sacks to Demarcus Lawrence. 

Incredibly, Jones was under pressure constantly on his 24 dropbacks last night. He was sacked five times, hit 12 times, and was never afforded a second to try and stay calm. That dropback rate ended up being 40.5% of the total offensive plays, which is the highest number a Quarterback has faced this season, the 2nd most in the last two seasons and the most of Jones’s career so far. 

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The End for Sterling Shepard? 

With 1:11 left in the game, Daniel Jones was intercepted after a David Sills slip that ended up sealing the game for the Cowboys, but instantly the Giants’ attention shifted to Stirling Shepard, who had suffered a non-contact injury and had stayed on the ground. The cart was called, and for the second straight season, he left a game on the cart. 

Shepard, who fought back from the Achilles tear he suffered last December, has battled with injuries his whole career, and it is likely that this will be the fourth straight season that Shepard misses at least four games after the Giants confirmed that they feared this was a serious knee injury. 

With Shepard leading the team in snaps, receptions, and yards, the Giants will almost certainly need to look for replacements for their underwhelming wide receiver group, which has been plagued by inconsistency and injuries since the start of the season. 

Unsteady D-Line 

There were mixed emotions regarding the defence in the lead up to the game. The excitement for the return of Azeez Ojulari and the debut of Kayvon Thibodeaux was quickly quelled when the news broke that standout Defensive Lineman Leonard Williams would miss his first ever game with a knee injury. 

Williams had appeared in 114 games since his debut in 2015 and was sorely missed as the Giants gave up 178 rushing yards at a rate of 6.4 yards per carry. Unfortunately, it looks unlikely that Williams will return until after the Giants’ trip to London, but you can’t rule it out as he battled through a triceps injury last year and has proven his ability to tough it out if needed. 

Ojulari and Thibodeaux both had quiet games as they combined for two tackles and a pass batted down, but ultimately, the Giants failed to register a single sack of Cowboys backup Quarterback Cooper Rush. 

Rushing Game Joy 

Finishing on a plus, there is one saving grace for the Giants, and it seems to be their ability to run the ball. They are averaging 169.3 yards per game and 5.6 yards per carry, both of which are in the top 5 in the league.

The rushing stats are predominantly due to the re-emergence of Saquon Barkley, who had another solid game, finishing with 81 yards on 14 carries, including a 36-yard touchdown in the 3rd quarter. Barkley currently has 53 carries for 317 yards, which is the 2nd most in the NFL (he is 24 yards behind leader Nick Chubb). 

Interestingly, the Giants’ 2nd leading rusher is Quarterback Daniel Jones, who has 25 carries for 125 yards (4 times the player in 3rd Matt Breida). Jones’s ability to scramble for yards seems to be a predominant offensive focus, and he gained an impressive 79 yards on nine carries in last night’s game. 

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Week 2: Rookie Standouts

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Week 2 is now in the books and what a week it was. With last second heroics, head scratching coaching decisions and comebacks galore, it’s time once again to look at three rookies that made big contributions to their teams’ results this week. Let’s get into it. 

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Aidan Hutchinson, Edge – Detroit Lions  

Hutchinson was held to a solitary tackle in his NFL debut against the Philadelphia Eagles but commented afterwards that he had learnt a lot. He’s obviously a quick learner because he exploded against the Washington Commanders. In the first half, he became the first Lion rookie ever to record three sacks in a game and the fourth youngest ever to do so. 

The 2nd overall pick has now shown the rest of the NFL that he’s the real deal, and though he may not get three every week, the sacks will likely continue to come as he gains more experience. 

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Jaylen Watson, Cornerback – Kansas City Chiefs 

It’s not often a seventh-round pick gets a spotlight as a rookie, but when you now own the record for the longest go-ahead fourth-quarter touchdown by a rookie, I think it is well deserved. 

Jaylen Watson was thrust into Thursday night’s game after an injury to first-rounder Trent McDuffie and knew he was likely going to have a busy evening as the Los Angeles Chargers would more than likely target his side of the field. That much was true, but Watson would only allow 5 completions from 12 targets before his game-sealing pick 6, and as the dust settled on the Chiefs’ 27-24 win, Watson deservedly won AFC Defensive Player of the Week. 

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Garrett Wilson, Wide Receiver – New York Jets  

As the Browns scored to extend their lead to 30-17 with 1:55 left in the game, Garrett Wilson felt responsible as he had dropped a pass from Joe Flacco that would have been enough for a first down and extended the drive. Had the game petered out after the Browns touchdown, it would have been a bittersweet day for Wilson with his touchdown and 75 yards, but there was more drama to come. 

The last two minutes of this game turned into insanity, and after the onside kick was recovered, Wilson had a chance to make amends. He gladly took the opportunity, catching a 15-yard pass to score his second touchdown of the game and complete the unlikely comeback. 

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Five Things: Week 2 – Carolina Panthers at New York Giants

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For the first time since 2016, the Giants have started the season 2-0! It was by no means pretty, but a win is a win. Here are five things that stood out.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

When you win a game most of the time, you can assume it was because your team was a well-oiled machine and that all of the offense, defense, and special teams contributed. Well, for the Giants, that is not the case at all.

Watching the offence overall was not enjoyable outside of the touchdown drive. In the first half, the Giants had a total of 60 yards offensively, of which they had 0 rushing yards, and it could have been worse as a poor Daniel Jones pass went straight to Panthers Linebacker Frankie Luvu, who thankfully was unable to secure the catch. Luckily, in the second half, they flashed a few promising signs, including an 8-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that was the perfect response to Carolina’s own touchdown drive.

The defence did play well but were aided by Baker Mayfield’s erratic and often off-target throws. Outside of the touchdown drive and the three field goals, the Giants held the Panthers to an average of 12.6 yards per drive and an abysmal 2 conversions off 12 attempts on third down, but more about that later.

Field Goals? It’s Gano Problem

When your offence struggles, you need to take advantage of any and every opportunity you can get for points, and luckily for us, we have Graham Gano. Across the previous two years that he has been with the Giants, he has a 92.3% field goal conversion rate on 65 attempts and a 95.1% extra point conversion rate on 41 attempts.

The ex-Carolina Panther walked out five times to try and score points against his previous team, and not once was there any doubt that he would make every kick count. After the Panthers coughed up two fumbles to begin the game, Gano would make it 6-0 to the Giants after making kicks from the 33 and 36-yard lines. He would then make his lone extra point attempt in the third quarter before rounding out his perfect day with two field goals in the fourth quarter, one from 51 yards and what would be the game winner from 56 yards.

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Third Down Defense

As mentioned in the first point, the Giants’ defence held the Panthers to a lowly 2 conversions off 12 attempts, and the biggest reason why is Wink Martindale’s aggression, which was mostly executed perfectly by the personnel on the field, and bear in mind that this is a unit without standout Edge rushers Kayvon Thibodeaux and Azeez Ojulari.

The Giants swarmed Baker Mayfield time and time again, giving him little time to think and forcing him to panic. Of the ten attempts that the Panthers failed on, they had one penalty, one fumble, one sack, two short of the first down marker, and five incompletions. These were mostly caused by the constant blitzing from Wink, which at one point saw four safeties on the field, three of them on the line of scrimmage.

X-Factor Ximines

Oshane Ximines started his Giants career relatively well, recording 4.5 sacks, but he quickly fell out of favour with both the Pat Shurmur and Joe Judge regimes and was touted as a probable cut candidate throughout the offseason. However, Brian Daboll allowed him a fresh start and took advice from Wink Martindale and Drew Wilkins, who were both impressed with his work.

Ximines impressed them both so much that, due to the injuries to Thibodeaux and Ojulari, he was listed as a starter on the depth chart for the season opener, and he hasn’t looked out of place. He started the season against the Tennessee Titans by continuing his preseason success, and he’s followed it up with a stellar showing against the Panthers that has earned him a game ball.

He finished the game with a stat line of two tackles, one tackle for a loss, 1 pass defended, 1 Quarterback hit, and 1 sack, but in real time he seemed to be everywhere.

Big Play Rookies

When Dane Belton fractured his clavicle making an interception during preseason practise, there was an audible sigh from the Giants fanbase. The rookie safety had impressed both coaches and fans alike, but now he could be on the sidelines for up to eight weeks. Belton took to the field for his first ever NFL play seven weeks and a day later and walked off with the ball after recovering the fumbled kickoff that was caused by Carter Coughlin.

Belton wasn’t the only rookie that had a big contribution in the game, though. After not registering a catch in his first ever NFL game a week ago, Daniel Bellinger finally got his first one during the game against the Panthers. With the Giants needing to answer the Panthers’ third quarter touchdown, Bellinger secured the pass from Daniel Jones, sprinted towards the endzone and dove in to tie the game once again.