Dexter Lawrence won’t accept this.
The Giants‘ best player is determined to elevate the defense Sunday at Cleveland to get the Giants’ first win. He refuses to keep losing.
“Personally, I’m pissed because I hate losing with a passion,” Lawrence said as his locker Wednesday. “I take that hard, losing. I really don’t like it. For me, it’s just something that I’m not going to keep accepting. I want to see this team grow and be as good as we put on throughout the week in practice. It’s just that one day. That Sunday or that Thursday or whatever day. We’ve got to show up.”
It’s going to take more than Lawrence on Sunday, however, even if he’s dominant.
Lawrence recorded a career-high 35% quarterback pressure percentage on the Vikings’ Sam Darnold in Week 1, for example, according to NFL NextGenStats. But the Giants still lost the opener to Minnesota, 28-6. The Vikings gained 6.1 yards per play, with Darnold throwing only five incompletions.
Then the Washington Commanders ran all over the Giants defense for 215 rushing yards in last week’s 21-18 loss in Maryland, finishing all seven of their offensive drives with a field goal.
That left Giants defensive coordinator Shane Bowen with an obvious starting point for improvement against the Browns.
“The first thing that comes to mind,” Bowen said Thursday, tongue-in-cheek, “is we gotta force them to punt.”
Where it really starts is with the run defense. It has been atrocious.
The top running backs for their first two opponents, the Vikings’ Aaron Jones and the Commanders’ Brian Robinson Jr., have carried the ball a combined 31 times for 227 yards. That’s an average of 7.3 yards per carry.
That’s ridiculous.
Bowen said it starts with him, and teams will run the ball on the Giants until they stop it.
“Every position, every guy, including myself, we need to be better,” Bowen said. “[We have to] continue to improve, learn from the things that happened to us already. They’re not going anywhere. It’s a copycat league. Teams see something that hurts you, they’re gonna come back to it. So [it’s about] making sure we’re locking in on those things.”
Middle linebacker Bobby Okereke interestingly acknowledged “growing pains” on Monday in his acclimation to Bowen’s system coming off two seasons under Wink Martindale. Okereke also said he spent too much time in the Washington game trying to do other people’s jobs on the field, which made him less effective at his own.
“Defensively we’ve got to do a better job tackling,” Okereke said. “We need to shore up our run fits and just have more discipline doing our job. Talking about me specifically, [it was] kind of three quarters doing your job, a quarter trying to do someone else’s job trying to make a play. And that trickles down. I think everybody just needs to focus on doing their job … I think my focus just wasn’t 100 percent on doing my job.”
The pass rush hasn’t been close to good enough, either. Through two games, Lawrence, Brian Burns and Kayvon Thibodeaux have combined for one total sack. Both the Vikings and Commanders have attacked the Giants through the air, too.
But getting dominated in the run game is more demoralizing. When an offense can run the ball effectively at will, it sends a message to the defense that it can do anything it wants.
The first step is to eliminate the explosive runs, like Robinson’s 40-yarder that happened due to a host of mistakes: Thibodeaux got washed off the edge by a tight end block, corner Cor’Dale Flott didn’t hold his position and make the tackle, inside linebacker Micah McFadden lost the play with his eyes and safety Tyler Nubin got “nosy” — in Bowen’s words — and didn’t stay patient as a safety valve.
“There’s some good snaps in there,” Bowen said. “We’ve got to eliminate the explosive runs.”
Still, the run defense is just the beginning.
The Commanders converted 7-of-14 third downs in the game, and they gained a ton of yards on two more to set up fourth-down conversions. So it was more like 9-of-14. Then consider how poorly they fared on third and longs:
Washington gained nine yards on 3rd and 10, 13 yards on 3rd and 14, 14 yards on 3rd and 13, 16 yards on 3rd and 13, and 20 yards on 3rd and 8.
Bowen took responsibility for needing to make better calls in situations as the coordinator, especially the plays where Washington QB Jayden Daniels escaped to convert or position Washington favorably with his feet.
“Absolutely,” Bowen said. “If I could have had those two back where he scrambled and [I could have] spied him [instead], I probably would have. That’s one area [where] you can second-guess all you want. We had spy in, we did it, we transitioned to doing some of that with [Isaiah Simmons, and then [we were] just not spying him on those situations when he converts to make those. You kick yourself on that.”
Penalties also cost the defense when they did make a play on third down, like when corner Dru Phillips’ holding penalty on Zach Ertz negated a Burns sack in the fourth quarter.
There are personnel problems, too, like a lack of interior defensive line help for Lawrence and a second corner spot that continues to get picked on, with Flott exposed on a 34-yard completion to Noah Brown on Washington’s game-winning drive.
“Right now they’re finding it,” Bowen said of opposing offenses identifying the Giants’ weak spot from play to play. “We’re at a point right now where they’re finding it every time. Sometimes they don’t find it and you get away with stuff. They’re finding it right now. So we gotta lock in, make sure we’re doing our job every snap. I’ve got to do a good job of putting them in positions where they can execute their job.”
Bowen said he does not foresee significant personnel changes from Week 2 to this Sunday’s game in Cleveland.
“For the most part, I think we’re pretty status quo there as far as rotation and where we’re at right now,” he said.
The whole operation just needs to improve drastically. Lawrence said he thinks it will.
“It’s going to get better,” he said. “Right now, it’s just rough. These two games, you can’t compare this season to last season. It’s a whole new team. A lot of new players. A couple new staff. It’s just a little growing pain through these first two weeks.
“I think the way the players control… how we control our minds and our body languages and our attitudes each and every day,” Lawrence added, “it can only be promising from there.”
SIMMONS ABSENT, GARRETT STILL A ‘DNP’
Giants corner Nick McCloud (knee) and Simmons (not injury related/personal) did not practice Thursday. Thibodeaux (shoulder) and inside linebacker Darius Muasau (knee) remained limited.
McCloud is expected to miss a second straight game. Daboll said he expects Simmons to be available Sunday, and the coach is not concerned about Thibodeaux’s availability for the game.
Browns defensive end Myles Garrett (foot), meanwhile, did not practice for a second straight day. And defensive end Za’Darius Smith (back) remained limited.
Other highlights on Cleveland’s injury report: tackle Jack Conklin (knee) was a full participant. Tight end David Njoku (ankle) did not participate. And tackle Jedrick Willis Jr. (knee) and corner Denzel Ward (shoulder) were limited.
