Will the Real New York Giants Offense Please Stand Up?

Russell Wilson, I would like to apologize. Due to my sadness over another loss to the Cowboys, I may have treated you too harshly in my recap of the first two weeks of the season.

You don’t just luck into a 450-yard passing performance, and a deeper look at the stats showed he had the second-best expected points added per play (EPA) in the league this week (0.395), just behind the Patriots’ Drake Maye. The Giants as a whole had the sixth-best EPA per play in the league in week two, but that’s heavily anchored by the passing game, which was third. The running game was much less promising, with a negative EPA per play and a less than 30% success rate, meaning it was typically not a positive play when Russ handed the ball off.

Unfortunately, the Giants also played a game in week 1, and the numbers paint an even uglier picture than watching the game did (if you can imagine that!). Let’s rattle them off real quick:

• -0.138 EPA per play overall (26th in NFL)

• -0.123 EPA per play by dropback and a 35.3% success rate passing (25th)

• -0.185 EPA per play rushing and a 41.2% success rate (24th)

* All numbers courtesy of rbsdm.com

Unfortunately, I think the Giants' offensive performance has a lot more to say about the abysmal Cowboys passing defense without a certain someone (couldn’t imagine who), and a lot less about the trajectory of the season overall. 

The Giants could barely move the ball against the Commanders in week 1, who are 11th in overall defensive EPA, while the Cowboys are 30th. And with a schedule that includes the Chargers (5th in defensive EPA), Eagles twice (13th), Broncos (3rd), 49ers (4th), and Packers (6th) just in the next ten weeks, it’s looking like fans should prepare for the offense to struggle. Again, it’s a small sample size, so the optimist in me says let’s see, and we will, this Sunday back at MetLife for the first time against the Chiefs.