New York Giants
Three to Focus on: Super Bowl XLVI
Swerving from our usual path of providing a quick detail about the upcoming game’s key matchups, during Super Bowl Week we’ve gone into further depth and broken out each of the pivotal battles in their own articles.
With that being the case, this Three to Focus on is going to serve as a clearinghouse for all of the preview content we’ve supplied you with in the past few days–your one-stop shop for PFF’s Super Bowl content.
If you missed anything along the way, here’s your chance to click through and catch up.
Scramble: Super Bowl Fringe
This being Friday of Super Bowl Week, you’ve surely encountered a healthy dose of matchups, breakdowns, and backstories for the two teams and their players by now. The necessary paces of proper previewing dictate certain topics get covered, and the customary angles get addressed, but that’s all a bit too rigid for the Scramble.
Instead of tacking on more about the head-to-head, this-guy-or-that battles (tough to add to what our analysis team has produced this week anyway), our four Scramblers were set loose to explore the fringes of this week’s big game. Free to trek down whatever random path caught their interest, they’ve returned to assemble a piece that’ll take you in four directions and round out your pregame prep.
So, as the meat marinates, the beverages chill, and the guacamole awaits its first chip, have a read and join in on the conversation in the comments section below. Read the rest of this entry »
Super Bowl Focus: Eli vs Brady
As much as we like to pull the Super Bowl matchup apart piece-by-piece and haul each one under the microscope, this is a quarterback-driven league, and the bottom line is that these two men are likely to determine the outcome of the game between them. The man with the better game, or the one who can avoid the key error is going to go a long way towards tipping the balance toward his side.
With that in mind, we’re going to take a look a little deeper into the recent form of both players, trying to move beyond simply their season statistics and see at how each is playing as their teams have made their runs to the Super Bowl. Who enters the game in the better form? Who is more likely to carry his side to the Lombardi Trophy and win himself a trip to Disneyland and an MVP award in the process? Read the rest of this entry »
Analysis Notebook: The Routes of Cruz
One of my favorite things to watch this season has been the route running skills of Victor Cruz. Most wide receivers make the majority of their yards from their athleticism and natural physical ability (think Calvin Johnson here), but Cruz has bucked that trend, especially for such an inexperienced player, by taking defensive backs to task with his routes and fakes.
That’s not to say Cruz is without athletic talents himself–some of his best plays on the season have come from combining both those talents with the route running–but it’s such a rare thing to see a player with such precise, slick, and disguised routes, it needs to be highlighted. Read the rest of this entry »
Super Bowl Focus: Déjà Vu in the Trenches?
Dominance.
It was the theme and most memorable attribute of Super Bowl XLII. Even more so than the game-winning touchdown pass from Eli Manning to Plaxico Burress, and the New York Giants victory over the New England Patriots. The unstoppable juggernaut grounded by a defensive front having its way with the opposing offensive line.
It was the manifestation of an age-old theory that pressure trumps everything when it comes to stopping a passing offense. The Giants brought that pressure and the vaunted Patriot offense simply couldn’t match the form it had shown all season to lead New England to perfection. Read the rest of this entry »
SBXLVI, 32 Observations
As the playoffs have progressed and the number of still-breathing teams has dwindled, we’ve offered more and more observations about each that remained. Our focus has again narrowed, for the final time this season.
In this Super Bowl XLVI edition of the 32 Observations, the Patriots and Giants rightly get all of the attention as we tack on another 16 quick statistical looks at each. Mentioning both stars and role players, it’s a good mix as we continue the countdown to kickoff.
Super Bowl Focus: Clinging to the Edge
Few areas of the New York Giants’ team have come under more pressure this season than the offensive line, which has seen a precipitous decline in its form, having been one of their strengths the last few years.
Quarterback Eli Manning has faced pressure on 38.9% of his dropbacks over the course of the regular and postseason, second most of any quarterback in the entire league. The entire offensive line has been poor in pass protection; no Giant offensive lineman grades higher than -3.9 (William Beatty) for their play in that area this year. The two players most culpable for this pressure are the two covering the tackle spots this Sunday in Indianapolis, David Diehl and Kareem McKenzie.
Holding the Edge: Patriots Offense vs. Giants Defense
Following Sam Monson’s piece from yesterday, PFF Analyst Ben Stockwell takes another look at how the Super Bowl teams match up in critical aspects of the game.
His task: compare the Patriots’ offensive strengths and weaknesses to those of the Giants’ defense. His table below breaks down how they’ve looked so far this season and which team should have the edge in each area when Sunday comes. One of these games-within-the-game will decide the outcome. Which will it be?
Re-Visited: Giants @ Patriots, Week 9
Editor’s note: Here’s a look back at how things went down in the regular season meeting between the two Super Bowl participants. Re-posting our Re-Focused article for that game for an interesting look back to a critical time in the season for both teams.
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The Super Bowl XLII rematch started slowly, but both teams saved their points for the second half, leading to an ending that was eerily similar to the 2008 encounter. Eli Manning led the New York Giants to a go-ahead and game-winning touchdown in the fourth quarter, trumping Tom Brady’s last minute heroics. Brady, like Manning, saved his best for last as the New England Patriots scored a touchdown to take the lead with 1:36 to go in the game. Ultimately though, Manning turned around and drove the Giants down the field with the help of a 20-yard pass interference penalty as well as tight end Jake Ballard’s best David Tyree impersonation. Read the rest of this entry »
Holding the Edge: Giants Offense vs. Patriots Defense
We begin our week of Super Bowl previews with a side-by-side, unit-by-unit look at who has the edge in key facets of play. In this table, PFF Analyst Sam Monson explores how Manning and New York’s O should fare against New England’s D, whichever direction they go and however they try to get there. Make sure you check back in tomorrow, as PFF’s Ben Stockwell will flip the table and look at how things should shake out when the Patriots’ offense is on the field.
And, if you’re up for kicking off the week by subjecting your Super Bowl-crazed brain to numbers-overload, check out the passing game preview PFF Fantasy’s Mike Clay posted. He’s dug deep into the PFF database to assemble the figures and present you with a stat-packed piece that’ll take you the rest of the week to digest!
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