New England Patriots Preview: 5 Questions With New York Giants Expert

The beat writers of FanNation’s Patriots Country and Giants Country recently provided insight on their respective teams for their Week 12 matchup at MetLife Stadium.

FOXBORO — The New England Patriots (2-8) are headed for a quick trip south on I-95 to take on the New York Giants (3-8) in their Week 12 matchup at MetLife Stadium. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. ET.

While playoff contention is almost assuredly out of their reach, New England enters this game in desperate need of a win. With their Week 10 loss to the Indianapolis Colts, New England dropped to 2-8 for the first time since Belichick’s first season as coach in 2000. The Patriots are now 0-6 in non-division games and remain the NFL's only team without a win outside of their division.

In anticipation of this showdown between the division rivals, Patricia Traina, publisher of FanNation’s Giants Country, and host of the Locked On Giants podcast, sat down with Patriots Country to provide some interesting insight from behind enemy lines.

1. The New York Giants have suffered setbacks after a promising 2022 season, the first under head coach Brian Daboll. While it’s tough to narrow down the reasons, what has been the most prominent factor in the team’s regression?

I think you must start with injuries which exposed a lack of depth at key positions. The players the Giants could ill-afford to lose for any length of time—left tackle Andrew Thomas, running back Saquon Barkley, center John Michael Schmitz, right tackle Evan Neal, quarterback Daniel Jones, and tight end Darren Waller put a major crimp into what the offense was looking to become this year. More importantly, though, the injuries exposed a lack of depth on the offensive line, which any will point to as being the biggest catalyst for the team’s struggles. For instance, the giants never really solidified a swing tackle choice, so when Thomas went down, suddenly they were forced to play people out of position. With Jones (and Tyrod Taylor) on IR, they were forced to go with undrafted rookie Tommy DeVito.

2. Quarterback Tommy DeVito is coming off an impressive showing against the Washington Commanders in Week 11. Knowing Bill Belichick’s reputation for disrupting young quarterbacks, how confident is the team in his chances to lead the team against the Patriots?

Well, they say they’re confident, but what choice do they really have? Matt Barkley is the backup and he’s a veteran, but at this point, you must figure he’s not in the long-term plans whereas DeVito probably is as a potential QB2. So, they’re rolling with the New Jersey native and have fully backed him.

New England Patriots QB Mac Jones drops back to attempt a preseason pass against the New York Giants / Cred: Associated Press Images

3. Despite the Giants woes in defending the run, their defense is always a threat due to the solid play of Dexter Lawrence against both the run and the pass. How big of a factor do you expect him to be on Sunday?

If he plays—Lawerence is on the injury report this week with a hamstring strain that kept him out of Wednesday’s practice—I expect him to be a huge factor. Lawrence has been playing at an All-Pro level all year, and that’s both against the run and the pass. The key though is how much, if any, that hamstring issue hinders him if he plays. (I expect he will, by the way.)

4. Though the Patriots have struggled in all areas this season, they have been quite adept at stifling their opponents’ running game. How can the Giants neutralize that with Saquan Barkley leading the charge?

By mixing things up, which is what they did last week against the Commanders, he ran 15 times and was targeted five times. I’d also avoid running Barkley in between the tackles on most of those runs as asking him to push a pile between the tackles is not really his strength. The key though is they need the offensive line to block. I didn’t think the line did a good job at all run blocking last week, so I’m hoping this week will be better.

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5. The Giants are known for their pressuring style of defense. Typically, this has been a problem for Mac Jones. How active will the Giants pass defense be on Sunday?

I suspect it will be very active, but not necessarily in the form of a blitz. Last week the Giants blitzed Sam Howell, another young quarterback, 25.6 percent of the time, per Pro Football Focus. The Giants have been trying to walk a fine line between being ultra-aggressive and protecting what’s still a very young defensive secondary that has hit some struggles of late. Last week they found the perfect mix, so I’m curious to see what mixture defensive coordinator Wink Martindale throws out there this week, especially with some of the struggles the Patriots offensive line has had.

Patriots Country also provided Pats insight on Sunday’s game for Giants Counrty. The second part of this joint interview may be found HERE. 

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