Considering the Cincinnati Bengals lost star quarterback Joe Burrow last week to a torn ACL, the New York Giants are feeling confident they can walk away with a victory in week 12. However, that same optimism lead to an embarrassing defeat earlier this year against the San Francisco 49ers and backup quarterback Nick Mullens.
The Giants have the talent and momentum to establish themselves as a good team in the NFL, a place they’ve been working toward since their week eight contest against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Playing so well against them gave them an elevated sense of confidence, and they won their past two games because of it.
With their first victory over the Philadelphia Eagles since 2016, the Giants are heading into this away game as four-point favorites, the first time they’ve been favored in this way the entire season.
Three things to watch for the New York Giants against Cincinnati:
1.) Can the pass rush dominate a suspect Bengald offensive line?
The Giants rank seventh in sacks, mainly due to defensive coordinator Patrick Graham‘s creative scheme. Utilizing cornerbacks and linebackers to blitz and create confusion for opposing offenses, but their primary pass rushers haven’t gotten the job done.
The interior defensive line has been stellar, with Leonard Williams racking up five sacks and dexter Lawrence another three. However, the OLB position has been lackluster after losing Oshane Ximines and Lorenzo Carter earlier this year.
The Bengals have a suspect offensive line, with Bobby Hart set to start against the Giants opposite Jonah Williams. The interior of their line is below average, allowing a dominant defensive front for Big Blue to take advantage of, hopefully.
2.) Xavier McKinney reps
Unless you’ve lived under a rock the past couple of days, you know the New York Giants have designated Xavier McKinney for return.
After suffering a fractured foot in training camp, McKinney has been on injured reserve ever since. The expectation is that they will activate him for the contest after a successful week of practice in pads, but I don’t anticipate him playing much in his first action in the NFL.
If he earns 10% of snaps, I would be surprised, so expect to see him on the field in specific packages when the Giants are in the lead.
3.) Daniel Jones
This should be a dominant performance for Daniel Jones, who’s coming off two wins and his best game of the season against Philadelphia. He finished with an 84.2 overall grade and a 79.4 grade in the running game (PFF). While he was sacked three times, he didn’t make any tumultuous decisions with the ball in his hands.
Jones has been getting the ball out of his hands faster than at any point this season the past two weeks, and it has resulted in far better production. Expect that trend to continue against a solid Bengals defense that has one of the best safeties in football. In addition, I expect him to be active in the running game again, as coordinator Jason Garrett has begun to exercise that strength, utilizing the zone-read option.
With Daniel having protected the football and not turned it over for two straight weeks, his problems in that category may have been alleviated. However, we still need more proof and larger sample size to make that assumption.