New York Giants defensive coordinator Shane Bowen was chatting amiably with reporters on Thursday during his weekly press availability. Until the subject of the team’s leaky run defense came up.
Through four weeks, the Giants are tied for last in the league in rushing yards allowed per attempt, with each team giving up 6.1. The 153.0 rushing yards per game allowed by the Giants is 29th. The Giants have given up 1.5 rushing touchdowns per game, 29th overall.
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The pained expression that crossed Bowen’s face when the subject turned to the run defense spoke volumes. All the way back to last season, Bowen often talked about how the run defense was good the vast majority of the time but on the handful of plays when it wasn’t big plays resulted.
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In Week 4 against the Los Angeles Chargers, Omarion Hampton had a 54-yard touchdown run and a 29-yard run. The Giants ended up giving up 11.7 yards per rushing attempt.
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In Week 2, Javonte Williams of the Dallas Cowboys had a 30-yard run.
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In Week 1, the Giants gave up a 42-yard run to Jacory Croskey-Merritt while surrendering 6.9 yards per rushing attempt.
Film sleuths all across the Internet have been trying to dissect why the Giants have had breakdowns in their run defense.
“I think a lot of the ones when they hit big, it’s more than just one guy, obviously,” Bowen said. “You want to be able to get them down when they do break for 54 or whatever it was, right? You want to be able to find ways to get them down.
“So just making sure we’re there where we’re supposed to be, ready to make it. And then if it does hit, that we can find a way to get them on the ground where, again, we can manage the 10-yarders, 12-yarders. But when you give up the big ones, man, those are tough to come back from.”
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Bowen referenced the idea of “changing the math” in the run game.
“Hopefully, we can do a good job being able to get off blocks, changing the math a little bit more up front, where it’s not one for one,” Bowen said. “And these teams mix it up. They run some of these gap schemes, and they pin and pull, and you see a little bit of that. But changing the math on these pullers, changing the math in some of the zone schemes.”
The Saints have Alvin Kamara and Kendre Miller as their primary running backs.
“We’re going to have to be locked and loaded. It’s going to take all 11,” Bowen said. “We’re going to have to be able to get off blocks and swarm and get these guys on the ground.”
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Much has been made online of the idea that Giants’ defensive backs have allegedly taken poor tackling angles on some of the explosive runs. Bowen said it goes deeper than that.
“I wouldn’t say it’s just that. I mean, we’ve got to find ways to get them on the ground, we do when they do break. That’s part of it. Like, they’re the last line of defense,” Bowen said. “But, again, we’ve got to do a better job of not letting them run through the heart of our defense too. So, again, I think it’s been a myriad of things that we’ve got to continue to stress and continue to work on and find ways to eliminate them.”