The New York Giants are coming off of a blowout loss in week one. They traveled to Dallas to take on the Cowboys and failed miserably. New York was blown out 35-17.
The Giants’ defense put out an extremely poor performance, allowing the Cowboys’ offense to gain a total of 494 yards of offense. They also allowed Dak Prescott to have a career day with a perfect passer rating of 158.3. The Giants will have to make major changes defensively, and offensively too, in their week two game plan.
Beating The Bills
Fortunately, the Giants will have a winnable matchup in their week two home opener. The Giants will be hosting the Buffalo Bills in week two. This will be Buffalo’s second game in MetLife Stadium in two weeks after beating the Jets last week. So the Giants’ home field advantage might not be in full force.
Regardless, the Bills are a team that the Giants are capable of beating- with the right gameplan. Buffalo is not a high-powered, offensive juggernaut. They scored the same amount of points as the Giants last week, and the Giants’ gameplan left a lot of points on the field.
In week two, the Giants need to shift their offense to a run-first gameplan. Saquon Barkley needs to receive more than 11 carries in week two if the Giants want to have a chance to win. But if he does, the Giants’ chances of winning truly do skyrocket.
The New York Jets played a game down to the wire against the Bills last week. Buffalo came back and won after scoring 17 unanswered points, but the Jets had control over most of the game. The Jets’ offense found success by running the offense through their running back.
Le’Veon Bell received 17 carries for 60 yards and also 6 catches for 32 yards and 1 touchdown. Bell’s excellent performance was the reason for the Jets’ early success. Once Bell saw a dip in touches, the Jets’ success began to dry up.
The Giants need to have a similar offensive attack to the Jets. They need to run the offense through Saquon Barkley, but they need to run it through to the game’s end.
On the flip side, the Bills’ offense was not spectacular against the Jets’ defense. Second-year quarterback Josh Allen turned the ball over four times. This is good news for the Giants’ struggling defense. If New York can keep their defense off the field by killing the clock with the offensive run game, then maybe a Josh Allen turnover can seal the win for the Giants.
Beating The Bucs
The Giants will be back on the road in week three traveling to Tampa Bay to play the Buccaneers. The Bucs are another team that failed to meet expectations in week one. Their new head coach Bruce Arians was supposed to be the man to fix Jameis Winston. Unfortunately for Tampa, Winston looked like his same-old self in week one against the 49ers.
Jameis’s poor performance is fortunate for the Giants though. New York’s awful defense might actually stand a chance against this turnover-prone quarterback. Winston threw three interceptions against the 49ers in week one, including a pick-six, and fumbled twice (but luckily his team recovered both of them).
That means the Giants will be matching up with two turnover-prone quarterbacks in the next two weeks. The defense will have no excuses if they let either Winston or Allen have a career day like Prescott in week one.
All three of these teams, the Giants, the Bills, and the Buccaneers scored 17 points in week one. The Giants’ next two games are winnable, even matchups. If the Giants can run their offense through Saquon Barkley and squeeze out two wins in a row, they will quickly change their season’s narrative and outlook.