What's Really Wrong with New York Giants Defense?

Scheme? Personnel? A combination of both? We take a look at the issues.

Nov 28, 2024; Arlington, Texas, USA; Dallas Cowboys running back Rico Dowdle (23) runs the ball as New York Giants running back Eric Gray (20) defends during the second half at AT& T Stadium. / Chris Jones-Imagn Images

The 2024 New York Giants are officially 2-10 and eliminated from the playoffs following a 27-20 loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving.

The Giants looked better than they had on Sunday when they were blown out in truly embarrassing fashion by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But that doesn’t mean they looked good against the Cowboys, because they didn’t.

If we’re being honest, the game probably wasn’t as close as the final score. Quarterback Drew Lock engineered a wild touchdown drive late in the fourth quarter to bring the Giants between one score. 

But even that depended on Lock, Theo Johnson, and Tyrone Tracy's fantastic individual efforts against a Dallas defense that was clearly gassed.

The game itself was probably over when Rico Dowdle scored a 4-yard rushing touchdown to put the Cowboys up 27-10 with 4:23 left in the third quarter. 

But even though the team was ultimately able to battle back and make things interesting at the end of the fourth quarter, their offense simply labors too much to score quickly.

At this point, the offense is what it is. They’re making do with backup quarterbacks and a makeshift offensive line. 

If the Giants want to come away with wins, they need the 2016 and 2022 recipe: The defense needs to hold opponents to field goals (at worst) and keep games close until a playmaker can make magic happen – like Odell Beckhaqm Jr. and Saquon Barkley used to do.

However, the Giants’ defense has simply wilted this year despite a new scheme that was supposed to address the problems from 2022 and 2023, as well as some significant investments.

So what’s gone wrong?

Scheme Fit

The Giants’ decision to hire Shane Bowen was a curious one at the moment. While his defenses in Tennessee were renowned for their ability to stop the run and tighten in the red zone, his philosophy has been diametrically opposed to that of Wink Martindale’s. 

The Giants’ defensive personnel had largely been selected for their fit in Martindale’s aggressive man-coverage-based blitz-happy defense. Those schemes require a very different skill set from the quarters (Cover 4)- -based zone scheme favored by Bowen at Tennessee.

To his credit, Bowen has tried to adapt to his personnel. The Giants have spent the third highest rate of middle-of-the-field open (Cover 1 or Cover 3) coverages in the NFL. They’re also splitting their time relatively evenly between man (Cover 1) and zone (Cover 3) coverages.

Bowen has run Cover 3 on 38.4 percent of the Giants’ defensive snaps, their highest of any coverage alignment and the twelfth-highest rate in the NFL. 

The Giants’ next most common alignment is Cover 1, which Bowen calls on 29.3 percent of the snaps, the sixth-highest rate in the NFL, per FieldVision.

But here is where we can see the friction between player and scheme. The Giants actually have the seventh-highest EPA/play in the NFL (0.189) when playing Cover 1. That really shouldn’t be surprising when we consider that this is what most of the Giants’ defensive backs were acquired to do.

That flips completely, however, when the Giants call Cover 3.

On those plays, the Giants average -0.071 EPA/play, which is 28th in the NFL. That’s a significant problem, considering how often they run Cover 3. 

To put their rate of Cover 3 in perspective, the Giants have more defensive snaps in Cover 3 than in Cover 0, Cover 2, Quarters, and Cover 6 combined.

Bowen’s use of Cover 3 is understandable from a couple of perspectives. First and foremost, he’s a zone guy, and Cover 3 is a way to adapt the Giants’ personnel to his defensive philosophy. 

He wants players to keep their eyes in the backfield so they can come away with turnovers and swarm to the ball. 

Second, playing Cover 3 allows the defense to rotate a safety down to where he can help with run defense or cover shallow, quick-hitting routes. Both run defense and covering quick passes are of major concern for the Giants, so giving them another defender in that area makes a lot of sense.

But while zone defense doesn’t have the same athletic requirements as man coverage, it puts high demand on communication, discipline, and understanding route concepts in the moment. 

Those skills take time to develop and some defenders never master them. Over all, it's readily apparent that the Giants are a poor fit for zone schemes in general, as they have the league’s fourth-worst EPA/play when playing zone.

Ultimately, the Giants are just bad at it, which makes it too easy for opposing offenses to move the ball and string together drives.

No pressure

This is related to the Giants struggles in playing zone coverage.

The Giants have been among the league leaders in sacks through the first half of the season. This has been one of the team's true bright spots and has affected how teams play them. That said, their pressure rate has been surprisingly low, given their high number of sacks.

The Giants’ pressure rate of 22.7 percent ranks just 17th in the NFL, while their hurry rate of 5.5 percent is just barely good for 27th.

 That was perhaps predictive of how the Giants’ pass rush has cooled off in recent weeks. The Giants have had just one sack in the last four games—that one coming against Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers in Munich.

By his own words, Bowen’s defense is predicated on getting pressure with an “elite” four-man rush. And to that end, the Giants traded for Brian Burns and signed him to a massive contract. Combined with Dexter Lawrence, Kayvon Thibodeaux, and Azeez Ojulari, the Giants should have a fierce pass rush.

The problem has been two-fold.

First, the Giants’ pass rushers have struggled to consistently win quickly. They were able to get sacks when they got pressure in the first part of the season, however, that pressure came in fits and starts. 

Ojulari is the team’s best speed rusher, but his issues with run defense kept him on the bench until Thibodeaux’s stint on the IR. And without a consistent speed threat, quarterbacks were able to get the ball out before the other rushers could fight through their blocks to get there.

That brings us back to the problems with zone coverage. The Giants have a disturbing tendency to give up receptions in zone coverage, so when the quarterback got the ball out quickly or stepped up to evade the rush, his target had a good chance to make the catch. 

Opposing quarterbacks have completed at least 66 percent of their passes in all but two games this year. The two quarterbacks who completed fewer than 60 percent of their passes against the Giants’ defense? DeShaun Watson and Bryce Young.

The Giants’ curious (and inconsistent) pass rush has also spawned this statistic: Per NFL NextGenStats, the Giants have faced the fewest deep (20 or more air-yards) passes of any defense in the NFL. Opposing offenses clearly respect the threat that the Giants’ defensive line represents. However, the Giants also have the league’s highest completion percentage on those passes at 77.3 percent. That’s more than 20 points higher than any other defense in the NFL.

Those explosive plays, which often come when a Giants’ DB is in a poor position in zone coverage, have been back breakers.

The fact that offenses don’t test the Giants deep that often is a good thing, but the fact that they’ve been able to find plenty of time when they do attack deep is a problem with the pass rush. Likewise, the fact that receiving windows are comfortable is another indictment of the coverage schemes.

Poor Run Defense with Poor Tackling

This one could probably be first on the list, and is probably the most obvious complaint with the Giants’ defense.

The Giants’ Thanksgiving loss to the Cowboys indicates their problems defending the run. Rico Dowdle finished the game with a career-high rushing total of 112 yards. 

For a while, it looked as though the Giants would hold Dowdle in check – with some assistance from the Cowboys, who clearly went pass-happy in the first half. 

There were cracks in the Giants’ run defense early on, but they generally did an adequate job of building a fence at the line of scrimmage, stringing out zone runs, and swarming to the ball.

However, those quick passes proved more than adequate to supplement the running game. And once Dallas got a two possession lead, they returned to the run – which is when things started to feel more familiar for the defense.

The Giants’ run defense has been shoddy all season long, with players out of position or missing tackles and we saw both of those against Dallas. 

The Giants’ discomfort in zone coverage could contribute to their issues with run fit integrity. They seem to bite hard on misdirection and motion, which pulls them out of position, rather than remaining disciplined and passing off players who move through their zones.

That’s often compounded by players over-running plays as they press to try to make plays. While the Giants’ effort against the Buccaneers was certainly wanting, the defense has largely played hard all year. The players clearly care and want to win. But that can lead to making mistakes – or making mistakes worse – when trying to compensate for poor play.

All of that leads to poor tackle attempts. The Giants missed at least 10 tackles against Dallas and are among the league leaders in that department. Their 83 missed tackles (counting the provisional number of 10 this game) would tie them for fifth-most in the NFL. 

That many missed and broken tackles lead to an incredible amount of leaky yardage, as highlighted by the fact that of Dowdle’s 112 rushing yards, 106 of them came after contact, per NextGenStats.

The Giants problems – they’re well past mere “issues” – in run defense are likely compounded by the fact that Dexter Lawrence suffered a dislocated elbow against the Cowboys. It could be catastrophic if he’s forced to miss significant time.

Lack of Offensive Support

As stated at the top of the piece, the Giants’ offense is what it is at this point.

Drew Lock flashed some upside considering he had about 24 hours' notice that he was starting. It’s possible that he could be in the conversation as a bridge quarterback after the season is done. 

However, the Giants’ offense was built around Daniel Jones’ limitations and Lock is a limited quarterback in his own right. Those limitations make the Giants relatively easy to defend, and moving the ball 70 yards feels like one of the labors of Hercules.

However, the fact remains that offensive football plays a role in the performance of their own defense.

As we saw this week, the Dallas pass rush didn’t really get going until the Giants' game started to get out of hand. While the game was close, the Giants were still able to stick to their game plan. They could balance the run and pass and were never really forced to play a certain way.

But once Dallas went up by two scores, things started to change. Early downs became more definite “passing” downs, which allowed the Cowboys’ rushers to attack more freely. 

That also limited how the Giants were able to call the game and took a lot of their own rushing offense out of consideration. Ultimately, the Giants only handed the ball off 16 times, and Dallas held both Devin Singletary and Tyrone Tracyt o less than 4 yards per carry.

The Giants’ defense hasn’t gotten any kind of support from the offense, and that’s made every facet of their lives more difficult.

The fact that the Giants’ offense hasn’t been able to dictate the flow of the game has allowed their opponents to stick to their game plans. They don’t force the opposing offenses to pass when they’d prefer not to just to keep up. 

They hadn’t given the Giants’ own defense a lead to defend since some time in October, which obviously impacts the pass rush. Part of the reason why the Giants’ pass rush has struggled to consistently apply pressure is that they rarely get to pin their ears back and just rush. 

Opposing offenses are rarely pressured to pass, so the Giants’ defenders must honor their run fits – and also makes play-action more effective. That can also lead to them being on the field longer, or giving up those explosive plays.

The Giants also don’t do a great job of sustaining their own drives. That can lead to too much time on the field for the defense, as well as opponents starting with a favorable field position. 

Having good field position tends to lead to better outcomes when running the ball, and also means that opponents are more likely to score themselves.

So what’s next?

At this point, the Giants’ biggest goal might be getting through the season. Things could look even bleaker if Dexter Lawrence misses significant time with his injury – or it’s determined to be season-ending.

We try to offer suggestions as to how the Giants could improve. And the Thanksgiving game does afford them a second “mini-bye” week before the closing stretch of the season. 

It’s possible that implementing more Cover 1 or 2-man shells could help the defense as a whole. Tight man coverage could help keep the ball in quarterbacks’ hands and it simply fits the cornerbacks’ skill sets better. That, in turn, could help out the defensive front and pass rush for the game.

However, the question has emerged as to whether Bowen himself will survive the season, and at this point, there’s no way to tell. John Mara would probably prefer not to fire anyone this year and instead give the staff the chance to enact their vision for the team. 

One reason the Giants are futile is that they change philosophies every couple of seasons. It’s impossible to settle into any kind of identity when your scheme and personnel needs change yearly.

 And there’s also no chance that the Giants can make meaningful changes to their offense this year, either. Andrew Thomas isn’t coming back, and the team likely won’t be able to find a long-term answer at quarterback until (at least) 2025. 

Until the offense is addressed, the team will ask the defense to go out and try to hold teams to less than 20 points per game, which is a very tall task in the modern NFL.

Bowen certainly bears responsibility for his defense's performance and repeated collapse. It isn’t all his fault, and things like offensive performance or injury are out of his hands. However, poor scheme fit and poor execution within the scheme are certainly his responsibility.

We’ll have to see what comes of that and whether he’s coaching the defense next year.

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