While the Panthers head into every weekend with the expectation of a win, a game against a 1-3 New York Giants team that’s actually very similar to the Panthers – a team without one of it’s biggest weapons on offense, three new coordinators and a running back that gives defenses all kinds of headaches with his ability to both rush the ball and catch the ball out of the backfield – has somehow become a foregone conclusion. But the Panthers are not overlooking the Giants, even as they come in as the #1 rushing offense in the league against a Giants defense allowing the fourth-most rushing yards per game in the league; CJ Anderson said he was in a similar position last season and the 0-5 Giants came into Denver and beat a 3-1 Broncos team on Sunday Night Football.
While most will point to Saquon Barkley and Odell Beckham, Jr as the reasons for a hypothetical Giants win, it would actually be a Giants defense that is beginning to find it’s footing under new coordinator James Bettcher – don’t forget they held New Orleans to four field goals for much of the game last week before a flurry of late game points salted the game away for the Saints – there’s a reason Cam Newton called the G-Men the “best defense we’ve faced all year.”
“People do tend to overlook the defense when you have those type of quality stars on the offense,” said Ron Rivera. “If you look, they’ve got a solid foundation up front on their defensive front, their linebackers are all physical guys that will attack downhill and I think that with [Landon] Collins and with [Eli] Apple in their secondary, they’ve got some quality football players on that side and I think it’s just a matter of time before people begin to take notice.”
The path to a Giants victory likely winds along a path that is a low-scoring affair fraught with Panthers turnovers – the Panthers currently have the third-best turnover margin in the NFL after the first quarter of the season, and they’ll aim to improve that against a team that has lost four fumbles thus far in 2018.
Our five-part preview countdown is as follows:
Five Players To Watch
Saquon Barkley, RB
Photo Credit: USA Today Sports
You’ve heard – the Giants running back is pretty good. And pretty hard to tackle – he and Christian McCaffrey are tied for the most avoided tackles in the NFL among running backs and Barkley has broken the century mark in terms of yardage in every game of his young career. While fundamentals and gap discipline will be extremely important – as they are every week – they’ll be incredibly vital against a guy like Barkley who makes his money on the cutback; rallying to Barkley and keeping him from breaking big plays will ultimately be one of the keys to getting the Giants off the field – New York is in the top ten in terms of third-down conversions, so keeping them behind the sticks by tackling Barkley for small gains will be key.
Christian McCaffrey, RB
Christian McCaffrey followed up his 14 reception performance against Atlanta with a 28 carry masterpiece against the Bengals that saw him gain the fourth-most rushing yards in a single game in franchise history – it’s the versatility, or perhaps that threat of duality, that makes the Panthers offense so difficult to prepare for. Being so careful to protect against McCaffrey the receiver allowed for McCaffrey the rusher to be extremely successful.
“I think it all ties together and it complements each other,” said offensive coordinator Norv Turner as he has guided the Panthers to be the #1 rushing offense in the league, as they average 166 yards per game on the ground through three weeks. “When you get ready to play defense against a team, you have to decide what your approach is going to be and the [Bengals] played us fairly conservatively and fairly deep – so it was a prime opportunity to run the football.”
McCaffrey is second in the NFL with 90.3 rushing yards per game and is second with 142.7 yards from scrimmage – if he’s able to improve on those numbers, something is going right for the Panthers – look for the Panthers to go with pitches/quick hitters off the left end; the Panthers have averaged over 10 yards per carry, best in the league heading that direction, while the Giants have allowed 7.53 yards per play around the left side.
Eric Reid, S
So many questions: Will Reid start? How much will he play? Where will he play? Can he contribute as a run defender? Will only ten days with the Panthers be enough to fit into their secondary? Has he learned the playbook? How will he communicate with veteran Mike Adams or a young corner like Donte Jackson? And that’s not even including the eyes that will be on the divisive safety before the game even begins – rest assured, whatever happens on Sunday, Reid will certainly be a storyline.
Curtis Samuel, WR
The Panthers are expected to get one of their fastest players back on the field – the second-year player missed the first three games of the season after a small heart procedure ahead of Week 1 – and if Samuel can pick up where he left off in the preseason where he led the team in both receptions and receiving yards, he’ll add another dimension to a passing game that has taken a backseat to the Panthers running the ball thus far in 2018.
The team has only averaged 203.7 yards through the air and Cam Newton has the lowest average depth of target (8 yards) of his career thus far – a lot of that has to do with the 15 targets to Christian McCaffrey in Week 2, but that will almost certainly be helped by having the speed of Curtis Samuel on the field, if for nothing other than as a decoy.
Landon Collins, S
Photo Credit: Kim Clement/USA Today Sports
Landon Collins has been a bright spot for the Giants defense thus far this season, racking up 14 tackles and a pass defense last week against the Saints – he’ll likely be able to shut down Ian Thomas over the middle, but look for him to make a big impact in the rush game as well; Collins has the most tackles among safeties in the NFL since 2015 and he’ll likely remain near the top of that list after this season. Collins is a strong tackler, so don’t expect a lot of YAC for the Panthers wide receivers, especially if #21 is in the area.
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