The Giants play their largest recreation in years on Sunday, and Odell Beckham Jr. just isn’t driving in on a white stallion to avoid wasting them, if he even indicators right here in any respect.
Despite every week of OBJ headlines and a high-profile go to with possession and Giant brass, Sunday’s 1 p.m. kickoff with the Washington Commanders at MetLife Stadium might be as much as this crew’s leaders on the sphere.
That means the captains. That means Daniel Jones, Saquon Barkley, Dexter Lawrence, Andrew Thomas, Leonard Williams, Julian Love. All of them.
“The reality is if you have a ‘C’ on your chest, you gotta play the best,” Love, the protection’s play-caller and main tackler, advised the Daily News on the “Talkin’ Ball with Pat Leonard” podcast. “If your captains and your leaders aren’t playing well, then you don’t have a shot.”
Not that the captains haven’t approached the whole season this identical method. Sunday’s stakes are simply extra pressing.
Washington (7-5) has gained six of its final seven. The Giants (7-4) have misplaced three of their final 4. And Ron Rivera’s Commanders are two-point street favorites on this NFC East.
The Giants, Commanders and Seahawks probably are taking part in for the ultimate two playoff spots within the NFC through the common season’s last six weeks. There is an effective probability that 9 wins would get the Giants in, however they’ve the toughest remaining schedule within the league: the Commanders twice, the Eagles twice, the Vikings on the street and the Colts at dwelling.
Barkley additionally has stalled out after being one of many NFL’s high offensive gamers within the season’s first half. If he’s not going, this could’t occur. And he is aware of it.
“It starts with me,” Barkley mentioned of the Giants’ stagnant operating recreation. “[I have to] continue to trust the system, make sure I’m in good relationships with the linemen, and stick with the run. That’s the way we won games this year.”
Barkley identified that simply because defenses are keying on him doesn’t imply the Giants shouldn’t have the ability to run it. They have been imposing their will early within the 12 months. Why not now?
“There have been teams prior to the last two weeks that came in and that was their focal point, and we were able to still get the run game going and lean on it,” he mentioned. “We’ve just got to get back to that, and everyone needs to make plays when the plays need to be made. And it starts with me.”
The onus is on Jones, too, even with high wideout Darius Slayton sick and fewer than 100% main a decimated receiving corps. Jones wants to make use of his legs on this recreation.
He rushed the ball a season-low 3 times within the Thanksgiving Day loss to the Dallas Cowboys. And whereas Jones and the coaches mentioned defenses are taking the QB run away and Jones is making the correct reads, Brian Daboll and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka need to discover a strategy to get Jones free.
“I expect us to respond well,” Jones mentioned. “I expect us to play a really good game, play a clean game. I think our mindset is right, our approach is right. I think we’re all fired up, we’re all excited for the opportunity.”
Big image, clearly, Jones and Barkley are nonetheless taking part in for his or her futures, for his or her subsequent contracts, to show they’re worthy of being paid as franchise gamers. That means main, profitable and staying wholesome.
Although Barkley has spoken earlier than about wanting to construct a legacy as an all-time nice, nevertheless, he rejected the suggestion that this recreation is that form of defining stage.
“No,” he mentioned. “It’s another game, to be completely honest. It’s a tough opponent who’s playing really well, who’s playing great football, is 6-1 in the last seven games, talented on all sides of the ball, all three phases. It’s going to be tough … Whatever I’m able to do, if it’s carry the ball however many times or if I got to be more of a decoy or better in pass pro — whatever I do, that’s one thing I’m going to do to just help my team win the football game.”
The Giants don’t want Barkley to be a task participant, although. They want him to dominate. The identical goes for edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux, despite the fact that he’s a rookie and never a captain.
Loads is predicted of first-round picks. Thibodeaux has proven flashes this season and had his most energetic recreation on Thanksgiving at Dallas. But he hasn’t damaged out but.
“I feel like I’ve made a lot of big gains because I was kind of thrown into a position of leadership, as far as play call[s and] situations and being on the field and having to take on a big role on the field,” Thibodeaux mentioned this week of his rookie season. “It was kind of a slow start for me… But now I feel like I’ve been able to put a lot of it together, and now I’ve been able with that last game to really put it together and play fast. I do, honestly, feel like that was my fastest game.”
Outside linebackers coach Drew Wilkins mentioned Thibodeaux already has proven a knack for rising to the large second and understanding when he’s wanted most, too.
“When you look at the Jacksonville game, some of his most explosive rushes were in the fourth quarter,” Wilkins mentioned. “Obviously closing out the Baltimore recreation with the sack within the fourth quarter, after which as you proceed to hurry Dallas, he actually locks in — and it was the identical in opposition to Green Bay — in understanding the worth of each a kind of rushes.
“When you get into those two-minute situations, every rush and every play can really change the game,” Wilkins added. “And one great rush where you get the ball out or force a bad throw can decide the game. Kayvon understands the magnitude of that.”
The strain can also be on Daboll, the first-year head coach, to ship a victory in opposition to a Washington employees that Daboll, Kafka and Wink Martindale ought to have the ability to outscheme.
Interestingly, Daboll, who has billed himself as Mr. Consistent approaching each recreation the identical method, ratcheted up the stakes in his rhetoric this week to his crew.
“When you play meaningful games in December, I think that’s why we all do this,” Daboll mentioned. “It’s not a lot of fun when you’re not playing meaningful games. So let’s come to work with a great attitude, a positive mindset. Keep getting better. And you focus on the week’s opponent: That’s how you have to do it. But they’re important games now.”
The Giants’ harsh actuality, although, is whereas they’re getting some gamers again, accidents have crushed them this season and can proceed to thrust backups into distinguished roles on Sunday.
Martindale, who has been teaching school soccer since 1986 and NFL soccer since 2004, mentioned in mid-November that “I’ve never seen a roster move around the way this roster moved around with injuries and things like that.”
That’s all of the extra purpose why Love mentioned, when the captains met on Friday, they spoke about main by instance in all the pieces they do on the sphere Sunday.
“As we get down into crunch time, with a lot of guys banged up, a lot of guys coming back and the roster in flux with people up and down, it’s crucial — and I talked about it today with our captains— that we not only show who we are on the field, motivate, play well, but we gotta bring energy and juice,” Love mentioned. “We received numerous guys who it could be their first time on the market that wish to us not only for how we’re taking part in however how our demeanor is when the dangerous performs occur, when the nice performs occur.
Love mentioned there may be “no getting down.”
“It’s only positive, it’s only motivation, it’s only being a competitor,” the fourth-year security mentioned. “As this stretch goes down to the wire these next six weeks, we gotta be resilient. There’s gonna be highs and lows. These teams are gonna make plays. But we’re gonna fight our ass off because we have been all year.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com