Packers face Giants defense that’s dominating turnover battle recently
By Paul Bretl
Any sort of miscue by the Green Bay Packers offense on Monday night could turn into a turnover for what has been a very opportunistic New York Giants defense in their last three games.
During that span, the Giants have forced a whopping 11 takeaways, including six along against Washington. Of those 11 takeaways, eight were interceptions, and three were forced fumbles and recoveries.
"“They do a really good job of punching at the football,” said Matt LaFleur. “Getting the ball out. You can tell that’s something that is emphasized there. You can see it from multiple players on their defense. They get to the quarterback pretty well, and when they do, they do a good job getting the ball out. They’ve made a lot of plays in the back end as well.”"
Being plus-nine in turnover differential in the last three games has obviously vaulted the Giants towards the top of that statistical category. They are currently plus-five on the season, which is the sixth-best mark in the NFL. New York ranks ninth in total interceptions as well.
A key contributor to the Giants’ having those turnover opportunities is their ability to get after the quarterback through manufactured pressures created by blitzing. New York enters Week 14 with the second-highest blitz rate in football under defensive coordinator Wink Martindale.
Getting a quarterback off his spot while disrupting the timing and rhythm of the play can lead to mistakes, which this defense has been able to capitalize on.
"”I think it’s a pretty good scheme,” added LaFleur. “When you couple that with good players and a good rush, it tends to make it problematic for an offense. They do a really nice job of that and mixing coverages and just giving you different pressure looks. It is definitely a challenge.”"
As part of the Packers’ recent surge over the last five games, Love and the offense have been much better at taking care of the football. Since Week 9, Love has the ninth-lowest turnover-worthy play rate, according to PFF, out of 39 eligible quarterbacks. He’s thrown just two interceptions to 11 touchdowns.
The Giants’ willingness to blitz won’t be anything new to Love and the Green Bay offense. They’ve faced blitzes throughout the course of the season as opponents try to really stress this young offense, and in recent weeks, they’ve gone up against Kansas City, who blitzes at the sixth-highest rate in football, and the Los Angeles Chargers, who blitzed Love on 61 percent of his dropbacks. In both instances, the offense held up well.
The Packers can try to mitigate the impact of the Giants’ blitz packages by utilizing motion and misdirection often, which they did against Kansas City, along with leaning on the run game, something that they should have the opportunity to do. New York’s defense is allowing 4.8 yards per rush this season. Continuing to throw a lot of different looks at the Giants and spreading the ball around as Love has will be added stressors as well.
Although the Giants have been very good at generating takeaways as of late, with time in the pocket for Love, the opportunity to find success through the air should still be there. Overall, New York is allowing 24.3 points per game, which ranks 26th, and the 6.7 yards per pass attempt they’re giving up is in the bottom third this season.
As always, taking care of the football and generating takeaways defensively is a recipe for success. Along with not giving the ball away over the last month, the Packers’ defense has been much better at creating turnovers as well, including four in the last two games. When Green Bay wins the turnover battle, they are 4-1 on the year.