Against Indianapolis, the Giants offensive line sputtered in pass protection—which led to three turnovers—and New York’s offense failed to generate any consistency. The defense was equally bad, surrendering 160 yards rushing to the last season’s worst rushing offense in the league.
The Titans come into this game having suffered a crushing defeat of their own in Week 2, losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers 19–11 at home and turning the ball over seven times.
Needless to say, on Sunday both teams will be doing their utmost to protect the ball and control the line of scrimmage.
In order to be successful against the Titans, the Giants defense must find a way to prevent speedy running back Chris Johnson from having a big game—Johnson was last year’s leading rusher and is lightning fast. He can break a huge run at any given moment and defenses must game plan for him specifically because of his playmaking ability.
But even with the all the troubles New York had with the Colts ground game last week, they cannot come into this game intending to overcompensate for it by loading the box. Because should Chris Johnson get beyond the first wave of defenders, there isn’t one person in the Giants secondary who can catch him on his way to the end zone.
Giants coach Tom Coughlin knows how dangerous Johnson can be, saying on www.giants.com, “He is obviously extremely fast. He has two weeks with a 76-yarder and an 85-yarder.”
What the Giants need to do is contain Johnson with a solid 4–3–4 defense and force Titans quarterback Vince Young to beat them through the air. Granted, Young has had success in the past against the G-Men.
In his rookie season in 2006, Young beat the Giants, throwing for 249 yards and two touchdowns. But thus far this season, Vince Young has been mediocre and is definitely the lesser threat of the two.
Former Titans linebacker and current Giant, Keith Bulluck agrees that the focus will be on stopping Tennessee’s rushing attack. He said, “This is a true test for this defense. We'll find out a lot about ourselves Sunday because they’re definitely coming to run the ball with the best running back in the league.”
Run To Win
When the Giants have the ball, Eli Manning will be facing a stout defense ranked first in the league overall after two weeks.
But if the Giants can establish a solid run game with Ahmad Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs, it will open up the field. And that’s where Manning is extremely effective.
Once the run is established, Manning can do some major damage with the play-action pass, throwing to a talented corps of receivers including Steve Smith, Mario Manningham, and Hakeem Nicks.
Above all though, the Giants must not fall behind as they did against the Colts. Last week, they were forced to abandon the run because they played catch up the entire game and it allowed the Colts defense to blanket the receivers and tee off on Eli Manning. New York cannot afford to put themselves in that same situation on Sunday, especially against a tenacious defense like Tennessee’s.
Game time is at 1 p.m.
