New York Giants fans are no stranger to the last opponent of the preseason. The team faces the Patriots once again, to wrap up the preseason and officially send us to the part of the schedule that counts. Both teams enter the game 2-1, but the Patriots are coming off of a loss and the Giants enter with back to back wins.
What Patriots storylines will affect the game?
New England might be a dynasty that’s entering the season following a Super Bowl appearance, but that doesn’t mean everything is going great for them. That’s something that even quarterback Tom Brady recently admitted to WEEI Boston.
“And from the start of camp, the depth, and certain things haven’t worked out the way we would have hoped and certain players would have hoped, but that’s football. I’ve been around long enough to see that every year is different and you don’t know how things are going to work out,” Brady said, before mentioning that most wouldn’t feel sorry for the Patriots at this time.
After cutting three receivers that on paper should have made the first team, trading Brandin Cooks doesn’t look like a great move anymore for the Patriots. That showed in their low point total in the 14-25 loss to Carolina, their only touchdown coming from a Mike Gillislee run.
It’s a good matchup for a Giants secondary that’s still finding itself. After all, some of the players that should see a lot of the playing time at the wide receiver position are Chris Hogan, Philip Dorsett, and Cordarrelle Patterson. While these players are serviceable, the Patriots don’t have deep quality behind Julian Edelman.
Their defense did a decent enough job against the run, holding explosive back Christian McCaffrey to 48 yards on 12 carries and Cameron Artis-Payne to 15 yards on 6 rushes. For the latter player, that comes to an average of 2.5 yards per carry. But the Patriots haven’t gotten great production out of their own running game.
New England’s top running back, Mike Gillislee, had 10 carries but a 3.5 yards per carry average. Jeremy Hill had the second most rushes, with nine, but only managed an average of 2.8. To his credit, though, Gillislee had the only touchdown of the game for New England.
Overall, the Patriots aren’t a team that should be underestimated. They’ve been counted out a lot during the Belichick era, but they usually find ways to overcome their problems. Still, the lack of receiver depth can’t be ignored, and that’s an area where the Giants should have an advantage going into tomorrow’s game.
Winning isn’t the most important thing in the preseason, but it’s also never a bad thing when a New York team pulls out a win over a Boston team. And with the Patriots not heading into the regular season with as much confidence behind them as there’s been in most recent years, the Giants might have a good chance at doing just that.