Giants Show Defensive Improvement in Win

NEW ORLEANS – When you look at the Giants’ defense compared to last season and even earlier this year, it’s fair to say there’s been a notable improvement. Just last week, they intercepted two of Justin Herbert’s passes during a tight 21-18 win over the Chargers.

If it weren’t for those turnovers, the Giants would probably be sitting at 0-4 rather than heading into Sunday’s game in New Orleans with a 1-3 record.

Those two interceptions came from nose tackle Dexter Lawrence and second cornerback Dru Phillips, both pivotal in putting points on the board for the Giants, resulting in 10 essential points from the Chargers’ three-yard line.

“Yeah, I think it really made a difference compared to the initial weeks we had,” stated cornerback Paulson Adebo.

Adebo, who spent his first four NFL seasons with the Saints, racked up 10 interceptions over 52 games, with seven occurring in the 2023 and 2024 seasons. This game against the Giants is unique for him since it marks his first matchup against the team that drafted him in the third round of the 2021 draft.

Reflecting back, last year was a tough introduction for Adebo, who entered as a rookie quarterback with a rough start, losing all six of his initial games. It’s not like the Saints are in a great position this season either. Honestly, they’ve struggled, but at least their quarterback isn’t throwing interceptions at an alarming rate this year—five touchdown passes compared to just one interception, which isn’t too bad.

“He looks a bit more at ease in his second year,” Adebo observed.

This season, the Giants have managed three interceptions so far, which ties them with eight other teams at eighth place in the league. It’s kind of surprising because last year, the Giants finished with only five. For context, they had a stretch of 11 games without grabbing an interception, which is, well, not great.

On the side, Jaxson Dart marked a milestone with one touchdown in his debut NFL start and then followed it up with another in his second start—making him one of six quarterbacks since 1950 to achieve both a passing touchdown and a rushing touchdown in these first two games.

I mean, that’s quite an eclectic group: Eric Hipple (1981), Jake Delhomme (1999), Tim Tebow (2010), Cam Newton (2011), Sam Howell (2022-23).

Switching gears, Brian Burns stood out for the Giants, leading the team with five sacks, tying him with Rams’ Byron Young for the league lead. These first four games of the season have seen more sacks than the Giants have achieved since Osi Umenyiora in 2007. In fact, the record for the most sacks over the first four games is held by Lawrence Taylor, who racked up eight in 1984.