They didn’t. They played pretty man the whole game and went zone late. Tampa was bringing the blitz and didn’t even begin to shift he’ll over the top, while getting zero pressure for almost three quarters. People really don’t appreciate how good this OL and RG is. In that game we threw if like 56 times and got sacked maybe 1, despite brining an extra rusher. Zeke was a monster in picking up the blitz. Dak and Amari were basically playing pitch and catch on the sideline routes and even CC was pointing out this fact.
That being said, the difference nowadays is Moore’s consistent running downhill, particular against the zones. Zeke and Pollard basically run for over 5 YPC behind Zach Martin. The Giants drafted Barkley to basically force teams to stop defending them in cover 2, but he couldn’t do it and hasn’t as far as his career in NY. Zeke haters, even in his “bad seasons” don’t realize that the RG and OL was still giving us all these man looks. It’s just that we decided for some reason to not do it. If you go back to 2019, our best game against a solid defense was the Rams, where both Zeke and Pollard netted over 200 yards and AD couldn’t sniff our backfield. We had lost 3 games in a row with our passing game a laughing stock, despite the hit start. This game was clear testimony of what this offense gets when it’s driven by that type of playcalling. Then we played the Eagles, who sucked, ran it only 13 times, threw it 44 times and put up 9 points.
If your running game is that good, you are forcing even zones to play closer to the line, including your LBs and bring a man in the box. This RG then puts the offense in manageable situations and the OC can call run or pass on plays that can dictate both.
That’s the main difference your seeing now than past. This team has too many weapons that surround the QB. You can pretty much watch Dak In man coverage and just look at his eyes. You can where he is going pretty much everytime and most often it’s Amari if he’s on the outside with no safety help. He’s very predictable in that regard.
