Welcome into a Week sixteen rapid reaction here on the Giants Huddle podcast, brought to you by Citizens, the official bank of the New York Football Giants.

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Slash Giants Madelenburg here with the Super Bowl champion Howard Cross for a Week sixteen rapid reaction.

The visiting Vikings came away with a win over the Giants sixteen thirteen, as the final score across Earlier this week, quarterback Jackson Dart was describing the Brian Flores scheme defensive scheme as chaos.

It looked like that affected the way the offense played and the play calling really reliant on the run to start this game.

But how do you think that this Vikings defense kind of threw the Giants off of their rhythm.

Well, Flores has a great job of describe dis guise and making things look like they're guys coming, they're not coming.

He'd have eleven guys in the line of scrimmage sometimes and then they drop out at the last count of the play clife.

So if you don't have an idea of where they're supposed to be and know what the defenses look like.

After they've dropped back, then it can be a little hard for you.

So he would they would stay up as close as possible to like the last three or four seconds of the play clock, and then they would drop back, and then you're trying to snap the ball and get going.

It's not just confusing to the quarterback, but it's confusing to the offensive line.

You don't know who you know, who's in whose gap, who's going to stay, who's going to go.

It's kind of confusing to the backs and the receivers.

But you know, in my opinion, you just have to like kind of run it at them, and that's what they did.

They ran the ball.

If you can stay and if you can stay in first you stay ahead of the sticks, don't get caught like a third and long, it works out for you.

But the moment you go past third and five, you're gonna have problems.

Yeah, the play calling was really heavily reliant on the run game, as we saw Tyron Tracy the first four plays of the Giants first offensive possession.

Tracy had sixteen rush attempts for seventy one yards leading backspits.

The Giants ran for one hundred and twenty eight yards on the ground.

You mentioned the offensive line, how much that scheme can throw off the offensive line.

It really kind of already was off kilter.

John Runyon not at the game today.

His wife went into labor.

Congratulations to them in their growing family.

At left tackle, Andrew Thomas left the game early on with a hamstring injury.

Didn't return.

He was sitting on the sideline on the bench with the team.

We'll get further testing monday to see how severe that is.

But he left the game with a hamstring injury, and then center John Michael Schmidt went down with the injury later in the game as well.

So when you've got three offensive linemen down against this defensive scheme, that's got to be, you know, not an easy one.

It's definitely harder to play.

You need some continuity and with your guys up front, if you can do that, then you can get a chance to actually make some plays.

Well.

When guys started to pop it out and you started bringing other guys in everything from snap count, they got to be ready for that.

They got to be ready for Okay, who have you been getting on these plays instead of you know, I got this guy, you got that guy.

No matter what they do, that's how we're going to block it.

They'll come in with a new set of eyes.

The new set of eyes don't always see the same thing the guys they left saw.

Jackson Darfinish is seven of thirteen for just thirty three yards, no touchdowns, in any interception.

He didn't complete his first pass until just under two minutes left in the first half.

Now that's not saying that there wasn't a lot of incomplete passes.

There were not a lot of passing attempts, and you know, they were really reliant on the run game.

We saw a lot of thirteen personnel as well.

But what did you make of what we saw from the rookie quarterback.

It's not really his fault.

I mean, if you got things working early on, I thought that they ran the ball, well, they could have started some play action from that because everybody was selling out to get to the ball.

After that, the next series they threw the ball three times in a row to us, so three and out.

So those kind of things you kind of have to stick with what's working for you stick with the run, play off that run, and then go from there.

I think when you put yourself in a situation where you're throwing the ball a lot against a team where at a quarter back, you know, not really sure what he's looking at, the office lines not really sure what they're looking at, you get yourself in the bad You get yourself in a bad moment.

So that's that's kind of what put them in that position.

How to get in here?

If you're lined up here, you gotta go over the middle with at the score great.

How do we make that happen?

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It's got to be tough too, because you're not really in a rhythm in the passing game too, when you're not throwing it that regularly, and so to kind of radically throw in and pass here and there.

It's hard, especially with the wind in the elements.

I mean, you're down on the field.

How breezy was it down there today?

It was really coold, It was really freezing.

The wind was whooping like really hard across the field from from the visitors side to our side.

Surprises these guys were even making kicks, so that that was impressive to me.

The other thing that I thought, you know, when you think about Jackson dart and it was the amount of pressure he was getting, Like he when he drive back, there were guys on him like and on him quick.

So that's another reas is not the want to throw the ball more than thirteen times, and a couple of times in the sacks they were hitting them in the head.

They were actually, you know, head hunting them a little bit.

So he saw a couple of rough in the passer penalties because of it.

Yeah, but that's just part of it.

So you got to protect him from himself a little bit.

Uh.

They didn't let him get out and scramble.

They stayed in their lanes.

They knew how to.

They didn't have to spy me.

They didn't stayed in their lanes.

They didn't over they didn't over pursue them to give them give them a chance to get up to the field and run for first down.

So, yeah, it was a tough moment.

You mentioned with the win that you were surprised they were making their kicks.

One thing that I found interesting is, you know, before the game, Giants do introductions, and usually they've asked between offense and defense, but today they had Special teams introduced coming out of the tunnel, a big thing, especially considering how Special Teams had their struggles in recent weeks.

Perhaps this was meant to kind of gas up the unit, especially a unit with a young rookie left footed kicker coming in making his debut.

Really impressed with what we saw from him, you know, is his first NFL action, making both of his field goal attempts there and especially when you know, changing the side a right footed kicker to a left footed kicker changes a lot of part of the process.

But kudos to the Special teams unit for falling through well.

I think it was funny the way he started off kind of on a bad foot to kick the ball, I missed the entire field, so I was wondering if that was going to be hampering him when when to get ready to kick field goes like, if we missed this in field, it's gonna be hard to kick it.

The very opening kickoff.

Yeah, not ideal way to start.

But you know what redeemed himself, Ben Saul's better call, sauls let's do it.

He did a great job kicking field goals.

He did a great job putting the ball in the landing landing zone all the way back at the one a couple times, and they didn't go on the end zone.

So that's you know, that's pretty that's pretty much right on the money, right.

It's hard to do that to be that to be that precise, so he did a good job.

The Loan touchdown the Giants did get today was a defensive score.

Brian Burned two sacks on the day, one of which a forced fumble.

Tyler Newban scoops the ball, runs it back twenty seven yard, gets it in the end zone.

You know, Burns now has fifteen sacks on the season, a career high in counting Abdul Carter, and also got a sack three straight games with a sack the Giants.

You know, as much as we talked about Roan Flores's defense getting pressure, that the Giants were also able to bring pressure as well.

Well, you know, they had their tackle was out, I believe, I think their center was a backup center somewhere through the game, so there should have been more pressure probably on the guys and they were even getting so but I thought they did a good job staying in our rush lanes.

I thought they did a good job get to the ball of Burns.

I thought Carter did an excellent job not just playing the past, he played well in.

The run game as well.

So you know, it wasn't a lot of big, big, big plays, but the plays that they gave up were breakdowns in the secondary so well.

And I mean, this is a Vikings team that you know hasn't really been great on third down this season, but today seven of twelve on third down, including a lot of third and long conversions.

And I think that is a hard part when if you're a Giants fan and you're sitting there and thinking, okay, third and twelve, third and sixteen, how is it that the Vikings are able to move the chains in those situations where when you're hoping for to see the kicking team called up.

I mean, in my mind, I was trying to figure out how they could stop justin Jefferson.

I mean, their guys are in theory doubling in my guess, but they weren't really sticking to him.

And when it comes down to it, they were like letting their eyes drift towards a quarterback and like, you got to watch you got to watch this receiver.

He's very talented.

He will catch the ball if it's throw him near him, So you have to do whatever you can.

And I thought that maybe, you know, they were trying to bracket him, maybe they should have went, you know, over the top and underneath to try to stop him.

But whatever they were doing, it just wasn't working.

They didn't throw a lot of passes either, but the ones they did.

Throw were very effective.

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Very effective and you know, JJ McCarthy played the majority of the first half, went out with a hand injury, so it remains to be seen.

Max Brawsner playing the second half seven of nine fifty two yards, but justin Jefferson finishes with six catches for eighty five yards, which is a pretty standard day at the office for Jefferson, and it was almost a get right day for him, considering that the three previous games combined he had had thirty seven receiving yards.

So a receiver like that, though you almost expect it's not if, but when he gets back on.

Track, well yes, but like the reason why he had those only thirty seven yards and other games because they were doubling him and bracking him, playing underneath him to make hard for our cars to see him.

So if they've won all those games, if you can't see him because someone is underneath and someone's over the top, you don't throw it to him, and you make all the other somebody else will have to beat us.

Is what they should have, you know, that's kind of the mentality you have to have.

And I don't know if we didn't understand the assignment or what, but that's the kind of the way you're going to play a guy like that.

You're gonna have somebody over the top and somebody underneath to make the quarterback, you know, shy away from throwing.

It to him.

The Giants just have two games left on the season schedule.

The next one next Sunday, four h five, kickoff at the Las Vegas Raiders.

This one, of course, the headline of that game is you know who's going to end up with the number one draft pick, because both of these teams in the conversation for that, I know Giants fans are saying, all right, let's get that top draft pick.

But the players, the coaches, I mean, you know, they're not going out there thinking, oh, let me tank so that somebody else can be drafted to take my job.

These guys are trying to put their best foot forward and best tape on the field.

How would you describe the mindset in a locker room despite the fact that the Giants have dropped down nine straight games, how do they go into this one and say, all right, let's let's approach this one.

I think you know, first office to Raiders, they're gonna be looking at the Raiders and saying that this is our chance to have a get right game.

So they're going to be excited about it.

No, no one wants to lose and try to get the first pick in the draft because their first pick would be to pick.

They're picking for your position, and you don't want to have a kid coming in and play on your spot and you're you know, you're leaving, leaving the team.

So I think that.

You know, fans may want it, but players want to fight to the bitter end, and coaches want to fight to the bitter end, and they're hoping that some way, somehow, what they're doing is they looks a little more positive.

And it's it's hard like these these guys, this is families, you know, the coaching staff.

It's not just one guy that you see on the screen.

It's their whole family, their their wife, their kids will be you know, having to pick up and move and go somewhere else and try to find another job.

It's it's emotional.

And for the guys, you know, you on the team, it's emotional for them because they're letting They feel like you're letting someone down.

How you how you correct it, how you fix it.

You know, you have to have a lot of pride, a lot of fight.

You got to remember that, you know, this is my job and I got I got to do better at my job constantly.

But if it's a little different, I think because the way that they they come up down.

Through the school, you're getting paid before you ever get here.

You got to look at the world a little bit differently, because even though you're getting paid before you get here, you got to you're here again, and you got to really really make money.

And the people that are out there on the field are all trying to get paid and they all they all don't want you to win, so that that's the hardest thing, the hardest thing for young guys to catch on to.

It's all fun and games, it's all great, but in order to win, you got to be committed to it a.

Wholeheartedly, right, And you know, some of these guys have contracts that have them here for extended periods of times.

Some of them maybe not.

But this is you know, the final two games of the season, or the last two games where this team and this coaching staff and this unit as constructed will be together.

There will be changes, there will be new faces next season, there will be some familiar faces that are not here next season.

So I think it's capitalizing and making the most of this group this season and also remembering that you're not just representing the team in the organization but yourself.

You're putting your own film out there.

And you know, there's always somebody in the gym has never seen you play, right, There's always somebody who's getting their first impression of you, and you want it to be a good one week in and week out.

You want to be able to make money in the league and be around the league for a long time.

You have to put you have to be very, very active the entire time of your playing.

You always have to put your best food forward, and if you're not, people will see that and they you won't be around much longer.

The Giants fall into the Vikings sixteen thirteen and Week sixteen at MetLife Stadium.

That's a rap for your Week sixteen Rapid Reaction on the Giants Huddle podcast, brought to you by Citizens, the official bank of the New York Giants.

From game day celebrations to your everyday financial needs, Big Blue fans can get the most out of every moment with Citizens.

Learn more at Citizens bank dot com.

Slash Giants for the Super Bowl Champion, Howard Cross and Madeleine Burke, We'll see you next time.