Wasn’t it great not hearing DeAndre Baker’s name during the New York Giants vs. Redskins game? It went from Baker blowing coverage on every play in the Bills game, to radio silence in the Redskins game. As a Giants fan, you have to ask what happened?
Minor Tweaks
Pat Shurmur stated that there have been minor tweaks on the defense and that is the reason why they have only given up six points in the past six quarters. As a cornerback, usually, if the announcers are saying your name it’s not a good thing. After the first half of the Buccaneers game, we started not to hear the name “Deandre Baker.†Is it that the quarterbacks were not looking towards him or was he finally doing his job?
After watching the film, it is clear what that “minor tweak†is for Baker, it’s press coverage. During the Bills game, Baker was playing ten to twelve yards back on some plays and was allowing whoever he was covering to take the easy five to eight-yard gain. There were also numerous plays where he did not sit in his zone and let a wide receiver get opened.
During the Redskins game, Deandre Baker covered mainly Paul Richardson, Robert Davis, and Kelvin Harmon. Yes, these players are not close to Julio Jones or Keenan Allen, but that was not his job this week. His job was to cover these players and he did an excellent job doing it. When he plays press coverage he just looks like a totally different player. Bettcher game plan has to have Baker pressing the wide receiver because that’s when he plays best. In addition to press coverage, there was actually a couple of times throughout the Redskins game where you would see him point out to the outside linebacker or the safety where they should be covering. It is amazing how much progress he has made in six quarters.
But with all of the said, the New York Giants are facing the Vikings this week. Kirk Cousins has never been a great quarterback, but he has two great weapons, Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen. Baker has an extremely hard matchup against Thielen this week and he has to press against Thielen if he wants to be successful.