At the beginning of the regular season, most circled the New York Giants’ contest against the Kansas City Chiefs as an automatic loss. However, Kansas City is coming off a disappointing defeat to the Tennessee Titans in which they scored just three points.
With the Chiefs struggling and showing vulnerability, this could be an opportunity for the Giants to take advantage, coming off a solid victory against the Carolina Panthers. However, it is going to take a stellar performance in all phases to take down a strong Chiefs team on offense specifically, so let’s take a look at a few factors that could give them an advantage.
Three keys for the New York Giants to overcome the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 8:
1.) Control the clock
One of the easiest ways to limit the Chiefs on offense is to keep them off the field, which is precisely what Tennessee managed to accomplish last weekend. The time of possession heavily favored the Titans, as they managed 36:21 compared to 23:39. Running the football is incredibly important, but converting on third down is equally a catalyst.
Tennessee converted 24 first-down compared to 22 for Kansas City, but they also curated three turnovers.
Winning the time of possession is a big necessity for the Giants, but forcing a few turnovers wouldn’t hurt either.
2.) Play 2-deep safeties
No quarterback is seeing more two-high safety looks in the league than Patrick Mahomes, as teams look to limit his abilities throwing downfield to Tyreek Hill and Co.
Expect to see plenty of Logan Ryan, Julian Love, and Xavier McKinney playing the deeper portions of the field trying to mitigate big plays. With a speedster like Hill, it is easy to split the safeties on deep post routes, so the Giants will need to be wary of that.
Mahomes is one of the most accurate deep ball passers in the league, scoring three touchdowns this year on throws between the numbers 20+ yards downfield. However, he has struggled to throw to the outside left, so forcing him to throw across his body and take more risky attempts would help the Giants.
Nonetheless, it is going to take a defensive master class by coordinator Patrick Graham to stifle this offense, but coming off their best performance of the season against Carolina, they are ready for the challenge.
3.) Capitalize on BAD Chiefs defense
The Chiefs’ defense is arguably the worst in the NFL, ranking of the bottom six in points allowed per game with 29 on average. The Giants’ offense took advantage of a strong Carolina defense last weekend, posting 25 points and establishing the run sufficiently. However, the expectation is that Saquon Barkley and Kenny Golladay will be inactive for this game, but there is optimism Kadarius Toney will be available.
Toney plastered the Dallas Cowboys for over 180 all-purpose yards a few weeks ago, and if he’s healthy enough to play the entire game, the Chiefs should feel the brunt of his qualities. Their cornerbacks are spotty at best, and the pass rush has been nonexistent, so if Daniel Jones can stay in the pocket and make efficient throws, the Giants should have a productive day through the air.