Thought Piece on Giants Secondary vs. Titans

Lot of guys talking about the Titans running game or Mariotas legs, which are certainly threats. I jumped into what the Giants secondary weaknesses look like, and then looked at some tape to see what they are doing to help themselves, and how that might be the best thing against Mariota. Link attached, excerpt below for those wondering on the stats. Cheers and any questions obviously let me know


Excerpt:

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Giants Coverage Weaknesses Quantified

Overall (so not just vs. play-action), the Giants are ranked 3rd-worst in DVOA in defending passes to the short-middle of the field (according to FOA). Unlike what many fans think, this area is being attacked by WRs and RBs, not TEs. The Giants yield a 68% success rate for balls thrown to WRs in the shallow middle, ranked 26th in the league (according to Sharp Statistics). With and without play-action, the middle of the field coverage is an area that teams have exploited. With the rise of spread elements in NFL offenses attacking between the numbers, coupled with the explosion of quick game passing, this middle of the field has a bullseye on it for many offensive coordinators.

This weakness in Giants’ coverage manifests itself in another area: explosive plays. The Giants are ranked 30th (Sharp Statistics) in rate of explosive pass plays given up (11%) with the absolute number being 51 and eclipsed only by Kansas City’s porous secondary. However, this is not necessarily due to deep throws. At Football Outsiders (yes, sorry about the back and forth) the Giants are 7th in DVOA defending deep passes (5.1%), and even more interestingly 4th in DVOA (-40.5%) defending the deep middle of the field. So again, the shallow to intermediate middle of the field is seemingly the gateway to attacking the Giants’ back seven. Make no mistake, Giants’ staff’s self-scouting easily reveals these numbers, and evidence suggests they have actively made strides to mitigate this weakness. More on this soon."
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