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Excitement and hope are in the air as the New York Giants travel to the City of Angels to take on the Los Angeles Rams in a week 2 clash on Monday Night Football. Big Blue provided their fanbase with a shot of adrenaline to kick off the John Harbaugh era with a convincing 28-20 victory over the Dallas Cowboys last Sunday night in front of a nationwide television audience. However, the Rams are coming into this week rested and highly motivated; suffering a crushing 27-7 defeat at the hands of the San Francisco 49ers last Friday in Australia.
On paper, the Giants should have no issues running the football. L.A. surrendered 174 rushing yards on 30 attempts to San Francisco last week, and the combination of running backs Cam Skattebo and Devin Singletary, along with quarterback Jaxson Dart, scampered for 151 yards on 35 attempts last Sunday in East Rutherford. Singletary has made a clear case for the RB2 spot while Tyrone Tracy fell down the ladder after a mere two rushing attempts which included a fumble recovered by Dallas to continue his early season woes. It’s still uncertain whether he or the newly acquired Najee Harris will suit up for the SoFi Stadium showdown.
The Rams secondary might provide a slightly tougher test for Dart and the passing offense however. L.A. only allowed six yards per attempt from 49ers QB Brock Purdy last week and even picked him off once. Most of Dart’s passes were of the shorter variety last week, the longest being a 19 yard completion to tight end Isaiah Likely. The g-men should have no problem running a dink-and-dunk style offense considering their domination of possession time against Dallas last week, with three of their touchdown drives lasting six-plus minutes (two of them were 8-plus minutes).
The Rams also failed to accrue a sack and only put up one tackle for a loss last week, and although the Giants’ o-line allowed two sacks to the Cowboys, the unit played stellar for the majority of the night. Defensive end Aaron Donald will make his long awaited return from retirement on Monday night, but he won’t be receiving any assistance from new teammate Myles Garrett for at least another month as he re-aggravated a nagging knee injury in week 1 that required arthroscopic surgery.
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Defensively, New York’s lauded (on paper) pass rush slightly underperformed on Sunday night, failing to sack Dallas QB Dak Prescott. However, they did accumulate three QB hits on the Cowboys vet and had him scrambling outside of the pocket on multiple occasions, one of which led to an interception by safety Jevon Holland. The less mobile L.A. QB Matt Stafford might be ripe for the picking as he was hit eight times last week.
If Stafford has time to go through his progressions, the Giants secondary may have to roll with a ‘bend but don’t break’ mentality following injuries to starting cornerback Greg Newsome III and teammate Paulson Adebo. Rookie CB Colton Hood and Deonte Banks, who’s also dealing with an injury, may have to step in and prepare to go toe-to-toe with wideouts Puka Nacua and Davante Adams, a tall task in short order.
The General Consensus
This is looking way more like a toss up than we would’ve thought a week ago today. The Giants looked methodical, punishing, and determined on both sides of the football in MetLife Stadium on Sunday Night, but they’re opponent is undoubtedly tougher this time around. Although the seemingly improved Giants defense should be able to handle a Rams run offense (and offense overall) that massively underperformed in Australia, Matt Stafford can never be underestimated despite a poor prior performance.
We’ll be showing a bit of recency bias this week considering the excitement surrounding the dawn of a new era in New York and incorporate the performances of both teams from last week into the final prediction.
Prediction: Giants 34 Rams 31
-Jack Barber
Works Cited
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