How Good, Actually, Was The Giants Offense Last Year?

we had the opportunity to end a lot of games last year with a score or just sitting on it, and failed (falcons, cowboys, saints, patriots, jets, eagles).

We have an elite WR.
We have a top 10 QB.
We have a top 5 center.
We have a top 10-15 LG.

And then a whole lot of question marks.

Eli and Beckham were amazing. After that it was pretty anemic...no real running game to speak of, TE play was inconsistent at best.

So clearly, biggest areas for improvement this year are at RB and TE IMO. Add in Shepard and hopefully some version of Cruz at WR and the offense should be in line to be improved.

first half of the year or so. This was due to a number of reasons, from most of the offensive line playing new positions, to the stupid 4 back rotation that was used. Later in the year, the Giants were running the ball better as they moved away from the 4 back mess and the line gained experience.

There's plenty of room for improvement and I expect to see that this year.

I know points scored says otherwise, but we were too Eli-to-Odell dependent last season and struggled in a lot of areas.

We have the potential to be Top 5 this year if our OL holds up and our WRs live up to their potential.

But imho it fails the eye test. They consistently had problems getting started. They struggled in the first and third quarters. They had issues picking up 3rd and short as they had no real running attack. Other than OBJ they have no offensive threats.

That said the additions of Shepard and Perkins should be interesting, but I don't expect top end production out of a rookie. We s

and nowhere near as bad as fans claim to remember.

it was good, with room for improvement.

...the offense suffered from some of the same problems in reverse. Namely inability to finish games in the 4th quarter, 3rd down efficiency, short yardage efficiency and red zone conversion rate.

Taking situational football into account I lean toward a ranking in the middle of the pack rather than a straight statistical compilation that would warrant a top ten grade for the unit.

There is clear room for significant improvement playing winning football.

Good thought provoking post backed up with facts. Thanks.

production -- with McAdoo it certainly has made Eli a better QB -- but it's really clear that there were some deficiencies when you look at the 3rd down and red/green zone statistics. Those are very troubling. What's also troubling is the inconsistency and depth of the Offensive line. Personally -- I would be much happier if we could see an upgrade at Right Tackle, and it would be a huge step if we had a clear #02 and #03 receiver and a consistent producer at TE.

We gave up an average of 27 ppg.

Our offense wasn't the problem last year.

That said, we should score more this year than we did last year, in part because our OL should be a bit more improved (largely because the left side will be more experienced), we might actually have a tight end or two to contribute, and our WRs should be more explosive and not quite as dumb ass as they were during the Reuben Randle era.

The big question is: can we stop opponents in the last two minutes of each half? That's when we truly sucked balls.

In comment 12980747 Bold Ruler said:

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Eli and Beckham were amazing. After that it was pretty anemic...no real running game to speak of, TE play was inconsistent at best. So clearly, biggest areas for improvement this year are at RB and TE IMO. Add in Shepard and hopefully some version of Cruz at WR and the offense should be in line to be improved.

Bold, Giants TE production was the best it had ever been. Yes it was almost by committee, and the blocking was subpar if we hold Bavaro as the gold standard for TE play. But 900 yds (iirc) from the TEs is pretty good production

I think that production was a problem because it wasn't consistent - and it couldn;t produce the most when it mattered -- so just sticking to production numbers clearly doesn't give you the whole story. How can you rest on your production if you rank soo poorly in 3rd down and red zone conversions?

the Giants TEs did anything consistent (?) - maybe Bennett for a year and the Shockey era before he exploded. So basically 10 years and they won two Super Bowls in that time frame. The Giants are all about WRs right now. Perhaps McAdoo changes that. Tye seems to be able to get up into the seam and he was raw last year. Another year in and he improves.

But yes when that big third down play came up, rarely did a TE do anything (or the RBs). The Red Zone offense has basically sucked since Tiki left. It was ok with Bradshaw and Jacobs (maybe it was when the oline was good.)

They scored the 7th most offensive TD's. They had the 11th most plays and 6th best YPP. They kicked too may FG's

They were 7th in yds per drive and 8th in pts per drive

Since everyone bashes the right side, here is some interesting numbers.

Percentage of rushes on 3rd or 4th down with 2 or fewer yards to go that achieved a first down or TD. Also includes rushes on 1st-and-goal and 2nd-and-goal from the opponent's 2-yard line or closer.

Running Left 33% (31st in NFL)

Running right 63% (16th in NFL)

The offense is top 10 in yds per possession, pts pp, etc. The 2 most damning numbers against them - this is not just a running issue

Pts/Redzone Appearance - 31st, TD's/RZ - 29th. If that just goes to 20th best, it increases from .453 to .553

There were only 6 teams who had more red zone possessions than the Giants

Bad performances

@Wash
@philly
@minnesota
@dallas
home dallas

So So Performances

Jets
Atlanta
@TB

Even Carolina, they didnt start playing until they were down 35-7.

but our biggest problem was moving the chains to keep drives going and by extension giving our horrific D much needed rest..Too many FGs, imv

In comment 12980740 dep026 said:

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we had the opportunity to end a lot of games last year with a score or just sitting on it, and failed (falcons, cowboys, saints, patriots, jets, eagles). We have an elite WR. We have a top 10 QB. We have a top 5 center. We have a top 10-15 LG. And then a whole lot of question marks.

agree fully

The idea that the Giants had some kind of high powered offense. Too few touchdowns in the green zone, too many failures in the 4 minute offense to close out games.

that was supposed to carry the team. They had difficulty in carrying the team.

often anemic.
often couldn't sustain a drive when needed toward the end.

they were part of the problem last year, no matter what the stats say. OK, but not good enough. And that's one of the reasons why TC is gone, while Spags is still here.

Run the ball and it cost us games.

and if they are content on keeping cohesion then I think there's room to improve with the players we have. We certainly aren't the awful OLine that many claim it to be.

We had a #2 WR that performed shockingly bad when it mattered most and a merry go round at RB until the final 3rd of the season or so. The RB's we did have had no explosion whatsoever. That's a recipe for exactly what we got, many 3rd and shorts not getting converted and lack of reliable options in the passing game. This didn't help our OLine stats at all.

This team was one 1st down/sack away from winning a few more games.

I would expect that to improve based on the additions on both sides of the ball.

In comment 12980949 drkenneth said:

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This team was one 1st down/sack away from winning a few more games. I would expect that to improve based on the additions on both sides of the ball.

Absolutely true and had been my mantra all season long..I think with an O that could move the chains during crunch time, we would have possibly won 11-12 games despite an awful D..Of course Ds around the league were rather shitty as well, imo

is if Odell is taken out or gets hurt. As in the case against the Vikings when he was suspended our offense was non-existent. With that said, I am excited for Shepard and our O-line to be healthy this year but we need more guys to step up and cut the shit with the dropped passes, running wrong routes and not getting open.

In comment 12980970 Rambo said:

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is if Odell is taken out or gets hurt. As in the case against the Vikings when he was suspended our offense was non-existent. With that said, I am excited for Shepard and our O-line to be healthy this year but we need more guys to step up and cut the shit with the dropped passes, running wrong routes and not getting open.

I think the majority of the NFL is in the same boat. Look at when Dez went out. The Packers never recovered from Nelson's loss and they had a legit threat at #2 with Cobb and all season to figure it out and couldn't.

They kicked 19 FG's from within 39 yards.

Min & Cle were the only teams that kicked more than that.

12 from 30-39
6 from 20-20
1 from 10-19

That is a lot of points left on the field from close range

They were unable to run the ball to score in the red zone, or to hang on to the ball later in the fourth quarter to run out the clock and put wins away.

So they had to keep settling for FGs when they should have had TDs, and had to put the very sub-par defense back on the field when they should have run the clock out.

Want to know why they only had six wins last year? The OL is one of the two major reasons, the other being the terrible defense.

And they haven't done one single significant thing to improve the OL this season.

Lack of a 4 minute offense really hurt us. Too big play dependent. When we needed long, sustained drives to close teams out, we weren't able to do it. We'd go 3 and out and give them extra opportunities against our putrid defense and we all know how that usually worked out.

We have to be a more effective team on the ground this year.

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gidiefor : 10:38 am : link : reply
I think that production was a problem because it wasn't consistent - and it couldn;t produce the most when it mattered -- so just sticking to production numbers clearly doesn't give you the whole story. How can you rest on your production if you rank soo poorly in 3rd down and red zone conversions?
Yes the Defense stunk but the few times it played well enough the Offense couldn't close it out .
Without question the Defense has been improved it remains to be seen if we can produce and convert when Beckum is triples teamed and they dare us to run .

which probably gave our offense less time of possession.

In comment 12980824 Big Blue '56 said:

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but our biggest problem was moving the chains to keep drives going and by extension giving our horrific D much needed rest..Too many FGs, imv

+1

The offense was very streaky and couldn't move the ball when it counted. It was way too reliant on OBJ and it showed.

In comment 12981110 Ira said:

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which probably gave our offense less time of possession.

The Giants ranked 27th in Time of Possession last year

However - According to Chip Kelly - Time of Possession is irrelevant - consequently the Eagles ranked last in Time of Possession
Link - ( New Window )

San Diego ranked 3rd in Time of Possession and also picked third

That's it

In comment 12980930 fkap said:

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that was supposed to carry the team. They had difficulty in carrying the team. often anemic. often couldn't sustain a drive when needed toward the end. they were part of the problem last year, no matter what the stats say. OK, but not good enough. And that's one of the reasons why TC is gone, while Spags is still here.

which is why they made the OC head coach?? Ok

and relied way to heavily on the big OBJ play to save the day. Running game gave us very little until end of the year when it didn't matter. Also hated how we couldn't run the ball inside the 10 yard line...ever.

Seemed like they had a couple of huge offensive output games that really padded the stats, mostly to keep up with their porous defense.

Average with opportunity to be dangerous with another weapon on the outside and a quicker halfback.

by adding additional WR's and a functional TE - they can add 20-30% to their yardage. The disaster with the Jets, Dallas and Skins - should never have happened.

In comment 12980800 stretch234 said:

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They scored the 7th most offensive TD's. They had the 11th most plays and 6th best YPP. They kicked too may FG's They were 7th in yds per drive and 8th in pts per drive Since everyone bashes the right side, here is some interesting numbers. Percentage of rushes on 3rd or 4th down with 2 or fewer yards to go that achieved a first down or TD. Also includes rushes on 1st-and-goal and 2nd-and-goal from the opponent's 2-yard line or closer. Running Left 33% (31st in NFL) Running right 63% (16th in NFL) The offense is top 10 in yds per possession, pts pp, etc. The 2 most damning numbers against them - this is not just a running issue Pts/Redzone Appearance - 31st, TD's/RZ - 29th. If that just goes to 20th best, it increases from .453 to .553 There were only 6 teams who had more red zone possessions than the Giants

Very interesting, indeed!