Giants vs. Saints: Will Big Blue remain UNBEATEN at MetLife? | Blue Rush

Can the Giants run the rock on their way to the fourth win of the season? And can the defense make the Saints' offense shuck up? Breaking all of it on this week six Blue Rush preview show. What's going on, everybody? This is Blue Rush, your New York Post sports preview show. Saints come marching into MetLife for some week six action. Brandon London here alongside longtime Giants beat writer for the Post, Paul Schwartz. uh paul gotta uh i mean a lot riding on this one you know i mentioned saints come marching into town they are wounded one in four when we looked at the schedule earlier in the year they looked like you know when they got that first win it looked like all right the giants may have their work cut out for them uh in week six but this is a must win and should win but for some reason the giants are a favorite at home let's break down these storylines my man yeah yeah did you just say shuck the uh the shuck up what did you say yeah see if shuck up shuck up yeah i just i just thought of that i just thought okay yeah yeah no i get it i get it yes i get it i guess you know that was the big thing coming out of the draft right we didn't know how to say his name right no wouldn't do you know his name is not pronounced the way it's spelled yeah um he turned it out to be a pretty good quarterback so far um yeah i i you know the the these spreads and things i don't get too hot and bothered with them but you know i sometimes you say okay i can figure out what's going on here with this they want you to put the money on here they want you to believe this they want you to believe that but giants three one and one against the saints the saints have lost three straight games three straight home games you know the home games remember when going to that dome was like a mission impossible they lost three straight home games and now they're coming onto the road and they're one point favorites against the Giants who just tied the Commanders which wasn't great but it wasn't a loss so yeah i mean Denard Wilson the defensive coordinator was talking about how big this game is and things like that and he casually just threw in there we love playing at MetLife Stadium and being underdogs you know and and i know what he meant by that everyone knew what he meant by that it's like really we're playing at home and we're three one to one and we're underdogs to the one and four Saints so um there's not believers out there in the betting public certainly there's not believers in this Giants team and um you know let them have non-believers and keep on winning these games or tying them in this case but obviously this is a game they need to win well this could transition into our first storyline do you think that the non-belief is more on Jameis or is it on the defense Giants defense oh I think it's a lot of Jameis still you know old habits are hard to break right this is 12th year in the league um you know And if you just turn on isolated, if you just turned on the first half of the game in Washington, you'd say, oh, my God, Jameis is a disaster. If you turned on the game in L.A. when he had to come in to replace Jackson Dart, you'd say Jameis is a disaster. Playing in a Nor'easter against the Titans, there were long stretches where it looked like Jameis was a disaster. And he certainly was better against the Cardinals. But there are isolated moments where he doesn't look good. Now, the second half of the game in Washington, he looked like, you know, a Hall of Fame quarterback. So I think it's a lot of that. And it's also who they've played. Let's face it. They have not played. Look, we thought the Cowboys win was a great win. The Cowboys are under 500. Right. The Titans are certainly under 500. The Rams are, well, the Rams are under 500. But we think they're a good team and they got, you know, blown out by the Rams. The Cardinals are way under 500. The Commanders are way under 500. So I think people look at them and say, we don't believe in Jameis, and they haven't beaten a team that's any good. But the Saints aren't supposed to be really any good either at 1-4. So, like I said, this spread is, put it this way, I don't think John Harbaugh harps on a lot of this stuff, but I have a feeling the fact that they're underdogs at home is a point that has been brought home to this team. well I mean I that definitely brings me into my first point about how I feel as though the Giants should attack the Saints so we could stay on the offense take the football out of Jameis Winston's hand and I'm not saying that because you know Jameis has played awful we've talked about the Jameis experience he looks good he's coming off of a really strong second half of that Commanders game as we talked about but remember we've been doing this blue rush for what a couple of years now right and former former giants old giants under old regimes we would talk about the giants being a get right game for other teams you're passing off and struggling oh well you play against giants who don't have a good passing defense it's a get right game for that squad want to run the football, oh play against the Giants run defense who was, who's been pretty bad it could be a get right game for them I think this is the first time of doing Blue Rush with you where I'm looking at a game as a get right game for the New York Football Giants and that's because the Saints run defense can't stop me and you, if I was Patrick Ricard and you were Cam Akers running behind me, this is a 30th rank run defense in the NFL they're giving up a buck 48.8 so I can round up to, I like the Dewey Decimal System, I'll round up to a buck 49 I've talked about the microscope that is now on this Giants run game because we haven't seen explosive plays and explosive runs for these guys they're putting the football on the ground and at the beginning of the year we talked about who was going to be the RB1 who was going to snatch that RB1 title no one snatched it. It's just been Cam Scadaboo by default. This is the game for this Giants rushing offense, whether it's Cam Scadaboo, Tyrone Tracy Jr., who I feel as though is going to get some extra carries this game, or Najee Harris. Paul, I need to see at least two explosive runs, runs over 20 yards. I need to see at least two of those from one of these backs in order for me to look at this Giants running back room and rushing game look at it and be like okay there's something there for me to say it with my chest out and for me to say it with confidence they this run game has to dominate this Saints rush defense well look I mean I don't disagree with your premise about the get right game but to me you know I've seen this many times with the Giants over the past few years and you can only get right if you do it right you know what I mean If the Giants don't run block and the guys don't hit the right holes or hold on to the ball, it doesn't matter what run defense they're playing. You know what I'm saying? They need to do it right. And then if they do it right, they will get yards against this defense But only if they do it right We thought this was going to be a run first, power running, 300-pound fullback, you know, power running game. And it just has not materialized. The offensive line has shown that it does not do that well. Now, they felt that they saw some things in the second half of the Commanders game where they went to tempo and they spread it out. There was more shotgun. Don't forget, this was not supposed to be this spread shotgun attack under John Harbaugh and Matt Nagy. And they, you know, out of necessity, because they're down by two scores, they had to do that. And they were able to run the ball better. You know, John Runyan Jr. told me the box is a little lighter. So we were able to get some runs. Don't forget, before Cam Scadaboo's fumble, he had a run of 19 and a run of 9 and a run of 5, and he was feeling himself, which is why he got a little sloppy and fumbled the ball. You know, that was the first success they had. Okay, now here's some stats, Brandon. The Giants are 16th in rushing offense, 109 yards a game, right? You say, okay, that's not terrible, right? They're 16th, they're mid-level. That is not really accurate because their 147 rushes is tied for the 7th most. if you run the ball more you are going to get more rushing yards and so that 16th to me is misleading you know they're one of the worst rushing teams in the league because they run it more than most teams and they they're only middling there their 3.7 yard per carry average is tied for 25th bad one rushing touchdown okay one camp scatter but one rushing touchdown is tied with the Steelers for last, okay? One run of 20 or more yards is tied for 29th. And, you know, it's just not good enough. So the Saints are bad, but it'll be interesting to see, you know, does Cam Scadaboo start the game and does he get the first carry after that fumble? Maybe they want to send a message and they let Najee Harris get the first carry. We'll see. I agree with you about Tyrone Tracy. here's one thing the last three games have been in rain uh the titans game was a nor'easter uh the next game was the cardinals was not you know was rain not heavy rain and washington was the remnants of a hurricane it was really bad rain it is going to be a picture perfect 50 something degree no rain so this is a perfect game for everybody um i agree with you they got to run the ball that brings us to the past game Malik Neighbors i don't i you know if everyone always texting me like well what's malik going to do this week what's malik going to do this week like i'm happy hour at Applebee's with Matt Nagy asking him the game plan and how he wants to get the ball to to malik neighbors i don't know i i know i'm hoping that malik neighbors targets is under 10 this week and not because i don't want them to get the rock and people to do well in their fantasies because like we're saying you got to be able to run the football control the clock run the football against this team and get your explosive plays uh through the run do you feel is is this is this a Jameis game to win or is this a Jameis game to not lose especially when he's showing that he can get the ball to his weapons on the perimeter and in the slot in Isaiah they are likely you know a quarterback i know we say though let's take the quarterback out of the game a little bit right you know you could you know you can do that sometimes but very rarely the quarterbacks are going to have to make plays at some point he just is going to have to the Saints are not going to line up and just let the Giants run the ball down their throats you know i don't expect that i don't even know if the Giants are capable of doing that so um you know Jameis has to play his game now i agree 20 targets to Nabers is too many it's too many now they were in complete pass mode you you know the Giants do not want to throw it over 50 times um i would suggest that they probably expect they won't run it that much. But if the Saints get a lead, if it's a problem, then you have to do what is necessary. The good thing is that Malik Nabers looks, he said he's got like 20% to 30% more in him. But he is five games into the season looking better than I think most of us thought he would have coming off the ACL. So that's very encouraging. And that he could withstand all those snaps and all those targets. you know don't forget 20 he caught 11 passes which is tremendous but you know catching half your targets is not the kind of efficiency you want you know Isaiah Likely was targeted what 11 times and had 10 catches that's the efficiency you want but the Giants look like they have two guys in neighbors and likely who are matchup problems Isaiah Likely says something interesting and i think if Isaiah Likely if you were his teammate back then you would have bought him a you know a bottle or a can or a steak. Isaiah Likely said on Thursday, I told Malik when I first got here, my job is to make sure you can never be double teamed. That is my job. I mean, every receiver would have to sit down and just, you know, stand up and give him a big hug. You know, it's like my job is to make sure you are never double teamed. And Isaiah Likely is on his way to doing that because he is a bonafide weapon on his own. Now we get those guys doubled. Now Fields, You know, John El Mooney had a rough game. You know, I want to see some of those guys. And you know what? Theo Johnson, you know, he can catch the ball. Let's get, I want to see some of that, you know, secondary target stuff going. Hopefully, you know, this should be a game for some of that. It will be great to see a complete game. Now getting offensively, you're running the football and you're also able to spread the football out to different receivers, tight ends, and different targets, different guys getting different targets. if we can see that and you're you're looking at again a get right game air quotes it should be a get right game for not only the run game but just for the offense as a whole to give Jameis something to have some sort of blueprint for Jameis to be okay we can run the football he can spread the ball out to different wide receivers and tight ends and pass catchers and this should be the offense going forward but that only happens if defense steps up like this kick giants defense coach uh um oh the the d coordinator's name what's the coordinator's name Paul Walmart Denard Denard Denard Wilson I'm thinking I'm thinking Devon Canard the former linebacker for the for the giants but um this you can't take a step back this game not against this offense they're not running the ball like we we used to see the saints Etienne is their lead rusher he's not very effective um Camara is not what he used to be Chris Olave has over 500 plus uh receiving yards and i think that'll be the guy to watch but if i'm Tay Banks i'm feeling myself i see i see some light at the end of the tunnel on a on a new deal a new possible deal i want to draw that Chris Chris Olave card and i want to match up with him throughout the course of the game but If this Giants defense has to come to play, Paul, any worries there? Do you think the Saints offense and Kellen Moore can hurt this Giants defense on Sunday? Well, the Saints have scored six points in the first quarter this year, okay? They are an incredibly slow starting offense. So, you know, the Giants need to make sure, you know, they come out, you know, like the Commanders where the Commanders were up 7-0 before he even sat down, right? Now, Tyler Shuck does not present the running threat that Jayden Daniels did. And you could tell John Harbaugh was ticked off. And so was Denard, you know, Wilson about the about the leakage that allowed Jaden Daniels to have two long touchdown runs, giving credit to him as a great runner, which he is. But there were there were the there their their pass rush integrity, their rush lanes were all out of kilter. They know they did a bad job on that where he maybe should have got a first down. and he shouldn't have taken her all the way to the house. So that's stuff that needs to get cleaned up, even though Tyler Shuck is not that kind of quarterback. We'll see about Abdul Carter, right? He hasn't practiced as of Friday with a calf injury. He would be a monumental loss with the way he's playing. So I would be concerned about the pass rush in that situation with Brian Burns already out. You know, I mean, Kayvon Thibodeau and Trace Ford are not the guys you would think of are going to apply heavy pressure. DJ Reader's playing terrific. You know, he's been a terrific addition. He's a terrific running stopper. Arvell Reese is a hammer. So, and, you know, the Tyler Newbin probably won't play. You know, I think he almost definitely won't play, but it looks like Jason Pinnock will be back coming off that concussion. So there's enough there, you know, with Newsom and Banks. And, you know, we've seen that they have completely changed their defense to be an aggressive blitz defense. You know, Drew Phillips had two sacks. They were not doing that. That was not Denard Wilson's calling card at the start of the year. And part of the reason is because they lost Brian Burns and they weren't getting pressure. And part of the reason is that Deontay Banks, who missed a game with a calf, you know, and Banks and Newsom are showing Denard Wilson they can hold up. So, you know, it's easy to say blitz, blitz. You know, how many people say, you know what, I want my defensive coordinator to sit back and play zone and just let's, you know, not let them get explosives. Everyone wants the guy to go after it. We know that. And every defensive, you know, no defender says, I like to lay back. I like to lay back. They all want to go forward. But you can't do that at the expense of getting burned down a field with explosive play. So the Giants are doing a good job with that. Their pass rush is not great when they don't put pressure on. I don't think it's great when they do put pressure on, but it's better. So maybe this is a game where they do a little less pressure, a little more coverage. But, you know, either way Look, it was interesting when the Cowboys Lost to the Bucs, right, at home And I thought they sent all the right messages The Cowboys said, no disrespect to the Bucs But this is a game You have to win the games you're supposed to win When you're playing at home against a team with a bad record And the Giants are not at that level quite yet, certainly But this is a game we feel they're supposed to win at home Against a team that's 1-4 um it would be nice if they have a commanding win um it would be okay if they just win you know I appreciate the 0-7 defensive line or the 0-7 trenches a lot more now that we've seen this Giants big three and Abdul Carter, Kayvon Thibodeau and Brian Burns they've been good but they haven't been great remember we we not so much we in terms of me and you but everyone wanted to start comparing this big three and this trenches to that 07 and even that 2011 unit with that Giants defensive line that was Steve Spagnuolo was able to just rush for drop seven and and have the pass rush make the secondary a lot better play a lot better complimentary football we just haven't seen that there and there's no knock to these guys I know Brian Burns is injured right now but whether it's been Shane Bowen or uh or the new DC they're they're they're it's you're having to blitz you're having to to send extra guys be creative in creating pressure again no knock on these guys but there's just there's nothing there's nothing wrong with it but and however you need to get it done that's how you need to get it done because we walked into this came into this season wondering like okay is the Giants secondary going to be able to hold up big question mark who's going to be the starter Taye Banks even going to be on this team for the most part the secondary is kind of out playing the pass rush and that's no again no knock or anything but the secondary has kind of lived over exceeded expectations a little bit more than the pass rush has kind of under exceeded expectations but this has to be a Kayvon Thibodeaux game regardless of Abdul Carter plays or not I'm going back and forth with the people and you know oh we can we can say what Kayvon does that's that's great that that helps this defense that doesn't show up in the box score or in the stats but when you're arguing with people whether it just be a fan or a talking head you can't use those as talking points everyone just wants to talk sacks so I'm hoping this is that game that Kayvon breakout game because i think he needs it the confidence whatever just for yourself just like i'm doing the stats kind of verify the work that you did in the offseason you know so i'm hoping this becomes a Kayvon game as well because they're going to need to get pressure on Chuck, that's the last thing we want to see is he get hot uh at MetLife, Paul, what storylines this week going into Sunday you writing about and you think that fans everyone watching right here should be keeping an eye on as we get closer to Sunday at 1 p.m. well one thing was in the New York Post this week um i wrote a story for my colleague Mark Canavaro talked to Cam Scadding the other day, Cam Scad, he was Cam said he was embarrassed now you know as an athlete i'm disappointed i'm frustrated i'm upset i'm angry um usually they don't say embarrassed you know they usually don't say embarrassed and when a media member says was this embarrassing are you embarrassed usually the athlete pushes back on that you know i gave effort but it wasn't good enough i'm not going to be embarrassed Cam Scad Cam said not only am i embarrassed said hey when i go home i'm embarrassed for my girlfriend she has to you know hear this and deal with this so it'll be very interesting to see how Cam responds to that and you know if he holds on to the ball first of all and becomes that player that um you know that we hope is is um you know just just as a more reliable player you know you can't put the ball on the ground number two i talked to Theo Johnson after the game last week and it was interesting we were talking about the great catch he made behind his back you know he had to reach back for it high degree of difficulty catch and he said to me yeah but that should be a catch and run for me i wasn't on the same page with Jamus thought that was interesting and then about Cam Sca a fumble he took it upon himself theo said you know what that's on me i didn't get my block correct against Duron Payne And that caused a direct hit on Cam. Cam's got to hold on to the ball. That's my saying and not Theo. And I brought that to John Harbaugh and said, you know, Theo, you know, went out of his way to blame himself when no one was blaming him. And Harbaugh was very impressed with that He said, wow, for him to tell a member of the media that we talk about that in our meeting rooms, for him to tell a member of the media that who's going to put that out there tells me something about Theo and tells me something about the accountability of this team that harbaugh thinks is really really good um and the last thing brandon is that look the saints are desperate their owner Gail Benson who does not come out and speak much spoke at some you know New Orleans quarterback club lunch or something and put the team on notice that i will not accept this level of performance as our standard and i am committed to making the decisions necessary to improve this team everyone in this organization must understand the urgency okay when you're an owner and you lose three straight games at home to your paying customers that's rough so i think the saints will i think the giants will get the best the best the saints have to offer we'll see how good that is but this this is this is you know Defcon four or five for the saints their owner has just said not acceptable okay um and oh by the way your favorites on the road against the giants so um you know i don't think the saints are going to take this lying down this is a pink slip game for a lot of people on the saints you can come back to your locker and there will be a pink slip right there that says don't come talk to coach because it might be one on Kellen Moore's locker it's come talk to the owner get your iphone i tablet and go talk to the owner because you know the playbooks are on the tablets now go talk to the owner so yeah the giants are going to get everything and more from this saints team that's coming up to metlife stadium desperate i think desperate is the is the word that i could use there uh we're going to wrap this thing up going into week six this was your week six blue rush preview show for the new york post sports see you guys at metlife stadium at 1 p.m for paul schwartz i'm brendan london thanks for watching another episode of blue rush