Rich Hofmann: Stopping the run key for both Eagles and Giants
THE NEW YORK GIANTS' offense has scored 226 points this season and the Eagles' offense has scored 220. The Giants have run 511 plays and the Eagles have run 510. The Giants gain 371 yards per game and the Eagles gain 368 yards per game. The teams are even in turnover ratio at plus-6.
Rarely has such similarity looked so different.
The Giants are playing this season with a three-headed monster backfield (Brandon Jacobs, Ahmad Bradshaw and Derrick Ward). As always, the Eagles are led by two mad scientists instead (Andy Reid and Marty Mornhinweg). The Giants are balanced in every quarter, every game, every time. The Eagles come out throwing to get a lead and end up running to protect it, and nobody is ever going to change that. Oh, and it works - the Eagles have outscored the Giants in the first half this season and have led at halftime in seven of their eight games.
All of that said, the strategies in stopping these teams are the same. It is about the running backs. Stopping the Eagles' Brian Westbrook is no guarantee for the Giants just as stopping the three-headed monster is no guarantee for the Eagles. But that is where it has to begin.
Yes, wide receiver Plaxico Burress can beat them in the end. But if the Eagles get run over by Jacobs and the rest, it will not matter. If they get run over, they cannot win.
"You have an offensive line that's been there together now at least 4 years, and you have three of the better running backs in the NFL, probably three guys that could play for anybody and start for a lot of teams,'' said Jim Johnson, the Eagles' defensive coordinator. "They know exactly what they want to do with that offensive line as far as picking up stunts, run stunts and stuff like that. [They have] a very solid offensive line, and they have good running backs and they are committed to it.''
You go up to various Eagles and talk about the Giants' running backs, and you get somewhat different takes. Ask linebacker Omar Gaither and he says that the three of them really aren't that different, except that Jacobs is huge (6-4 and 264 pounds). Gaither says that what you do is worry about recognizing the formation and just take it from there, regardless of who is carrying the ball. "It's just that the one guy has a lot of size,'' Gaither says.
Talk to strong safety Quintin Mikell and it sounds a little bit the same and a little bit different. Mikell says, "[Jacobs] is a big guy, strong, powerful. But it's football and you do what you've got to do.''
Still . . .
"[The three backs] all have their own, unique style,'' Mikell said, ticking them off, Jacobs a concern because of his size, Ward as "more of a slasher,'' Bradshaw as "a quick little scatterbug kind of runner . . . it's tough to get a gauge on them.''
Still, it has to be their main focus - even though Eli Manning-to-Burress can be nightmarish. The Eagles lost twice to the Giants last year, but it wasn't because of their run defense - 54 carries combined in the two games, 194 yards allowed, not a big deal.
But it has to continue to be their focus. The challenge will be finding a way to double-cover Burress and still commit the bodies they need to commit to the run. The challenge, too, will be the sheer size of Jacobs.
"They are all good running backs,'' Johnson said. "I don't know if you face a guy that big in Jacobs, normally. Here's a guy that can just roll over you, so he's a special back just because of his size. You don't face a running back that big in the NFL.''
And he'll come at them from the start. The Giants have run the ball 46 percent of the time in the first half this season, a big number in the NFL of 2008. By contrast, the Eagles have run it 34 percent of the time in the first half, a small number.
It remains a great conversation. The Eagles are never going to run it a ton, but they might run it a little more if they had success early. Consider: In only one game have the Eagles averaged more than 4 yards per carry in the first half (against Atlanta), while the Giants have averaged more than 4 yards per carry six times in the first half and more than 5 yards three times.
They're good at it and they stick with it. The Eagles aren't and they don't. Two such different approaches - yet stopping the running back remains the key for both. *
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