CLEVELAND — So far, the Giants have had too much come in too little ways.
The confession was first made by inside linebacker Bobby Okereke and was then echoed by his defensive colleagues.
That's something that must change immediately if the Giants want to answer this season's SOS distress call when they face the Browns on Sunday at Huntington Bank Field.
Simply put, the Giants defense needs to stop trying to do too much, stop being such a busybody and focus on their job.
A closer look at the bizarre 21-18 loss on the road to the Commanders revealed a plethora of missed tackles from a team that never even took a step off the field.
Statistics show that the Giants pitched a shutout, allowing only six red zone penetrations and zero touchdowns, but visually the Commanders were 7-of-7 in scoring field goals on their seven possessions (excluding a knee down at the end of the first half), and in the process, they monopolized the time of possession to prevent Daniel Jones from trying to target Malik Neighbors 20-25 times, giving them a clear 15-minute advantage by blocking the 18 passes Neighbors ultimately threw.
Okereke, a true team leader in word and deed, was hard on himself the next day, saying, “Discipline does our job.”
“For me specifically, it's three-quarters doing my job and one-quarter trying to do somebody else's job, trying to make plays and it shows in the results,” Okereke said. “I think everybody needs to focus on doing their job.”
When a team is 0-2 and wondering what on earth is going on, it's typical self-criticism for players to try too hard to cover those around them, undermining the overall plan.
The problem is clear, and the solution is right around the corner, as long as the Giants are willing to reach out and embrace it.
“When one guy doesn't do his job, there's a hole and the other guys feel like they have to fill that hole,” said inside linebacker Micah McFadden, Okereke's running mate. “And that ripples down the line. When you have three guys trying to cover one mistake, it puts everybody off balance, everybody's covering the wrong guy or filling the wrong gap or trying to cover somebody. And that's when big plays happen, big runs happen. So if [we] If we can be strict with the details, focus on the 11th and do our job, I think we'll be fine.”
McFadden detailed two plays last week where he cited his transgressions.
On a draw play in the red zone, he couldn't get the run in center right, leaving a gap between him and Okereke that led to a dangerous rushing gain.
On the blitz, he noticed the guard pulling and tried to make a play outside the tackle, which created a downhill path for the running back, resulting in another big gain.
“I need to stop worrying about those little details and just focus more on doing my job and playing fast,” McFadden said.
It may not seem like it, but the Giants are generating a 35.5 percent pressure rate, the 10th-highest in the league, according to Next Gen Stats.
Dexter Lawrence's eight pressures in two games is impressive.
That's not the case with Lawrence leading the team in that area, as Brian Barnes and Kayvon Thibodeau are supposed to be his pressure buddies.
Barnes (seven pressures) and Thibodeau (six) are yet to record a sack this season. Lawrence has one.
The burn (groin) was added later to the injury report.
Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson has always been sacked a lot: 62 times in 2018 with the Texans, 44 in 2019 and 49 in 2020, 45 in 14 games over the past three seasons with the Browns and eight times in two games this season.
Could the Giants continue this trend and put Watson on their back?
In the end, it may just come down to their defenders not trying too hard.
