Giants brace for Saints offensive attack
Recently, games between the New York Giants and the New Orleans Saints have been high-scoring affairs.
With the exception of their last meeting — a 16-13 Giants victory at MetLife Stadium in 2016 — every game between these two dating back to the 2006 season has seen the winner score at least 30 points. The winner has scored as many as 52 points, which happened in back-to-back meetings in 2012 (a Giants win) and 2015 (a Saints win).
The Giants have their work cut out for them because Saints quarterback Drew Brees is regarded as one of the most accurate passers in the NFL.
In 2016 and 2017, he finished with at least a 70 percent completion rate. Through three games in 2018, his accuracy rate is an astonishing 80.6 percent.
“He’s going to be a Hall of Fame quarterback one day. He’s going to have a gold jacket one day,” said Giants linebacker Alec Ogletree.
Brees’ accuracy leaves little room for defensive errors, according to safety Landon Collins.
“We see he gets the ball out quick, and his guys get open,” Collins said. “They know how to catch the ball. I think he kind of gets on their backs about it, and that’s what a great quarterback does.”
So how does a defense try to prevent Brees from getting the ball to his play makers?
“Everybody says pretty much the same thing: You got to get in his face, try to limit his vision,” Ogletree said.
Even if the Giants manage to do that, Brees has another weapon in running back Alvin Kamara, who has 141 rushing yards on 37 carries and two touchdowns, and 289 receiving yards on 30 receptions with a touchdown catch in three games this season.
“They use him all over the field,” Ogletree said. “He can line up at wide receiver, he can catch the ball out of the backfield. They look to get him the ball. He’s going to get his touches, so he’s special when he has the ball. He’s able to turn a small gain to a big gain and just like I said, it takes everybody to get to the ball and make a tackle.”
Then there is receiver Michael Thomas, who has 398 yards on 38 receptions and three touchdowns, with all three coming in the red zone. Giants defensive backs will have to make sure they jam him at the line of scrimmage.
“Every team has their guys that they like to fix their game plan through and those two guys (Kamara and Thomas) are definitely the top guys on the (Saints) offense, so it definitely presents a challenge for any team,” Ogletree said.
But if there is a silver lining for the Giants defense it is that Brees is typically not as accurate when playing outside the pristine conditions of the dome.
“They’re a different team when they’re away,” Collins said. “They’re home field advantage is taken away. They love being in their dome. It’s hard to win in that dome. When they’re outside of it, you give the other team a little advantage.”
Little being the key words. In his career, Brees has a 64.72 percent completion rate when he plays outdoors versus a 69.4 percent inside domed buildings.
Giants cornerback Janoris Jenkins said he sees the difference as well but said that bottom line is the Giants must be perfect in executing their assignments against Brees.
“Once again, he’s a great quarterback,” Jenkins said. “We’ve got to be on our toes and we’ve just got to be prepared.”
SERIES HISTORY: 30th regular-season meeting. Giants lead series, 16-13. The Saints have won four out of the last six meetings between the two clubs dating back to 2005. The winning team over this time period has scored at least 27 points in all but one of the games, that being the last time these two clubs met (in 2016 at MetLife Stadium), when the Giants won 16-13.