So what's going wrong on 3rd downs for the defense?

[MichaelWinicki]

Why is the defense giving up a much higher % of 3rd down conversions than they were earlier on this season?

The pass rush isn't any worse, and may be a tad better than earlier in the season.

 

[fifaguy]

Regression in the defensive backfield??

 

[BAZ]

Lack of Durant?

 

[bayeslife]

Very strange, I couldn't tell you. I wish we could clone the performance vs the Seahawks every week.

 

[gmoney112]

Lack of pass rush, nickel LB's aren't great in coverage, mediocre talent at DB.

You can usually skate by having at least one *good* unit and two average ones. We're pretty average across the board though and that's a bad combination.

 

[blindzebra]

The problems happen when Marinelli makes them play zone.

That and teams have figured out that Moore is a first down ready to happen.

 

[FLCowboyFan]

We are holding this defense together with duct tape as it is and when a player gets hurt (especially in the DB's) it makes an already thin talent pool even less effective. Marinelli has done more with less than anyone that I can remember in NFL history

 

[Don Corleone]

Zone defense vs man to man.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Lack of pass rush, nickel LB's aren't great in coverage, mediocre talent at DB.

You can usually skate by having at least one *good* unit and two average ones. We're pretty average across the board though and that's a bad combination.

But those elements were there over the first half of the season... The pass rush was even more putrid over that time period but the defense was doing much better on 3rd down conversions.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

The problems happen when Marinelli makes them play zone.

I think that's a big part of it.

 

[BlueStar22]

Zone defense...

 

[gmoney112]

But those elements were there over the first half of the season... The pass rush was even more putrid over that time period but the defense was doing much better on 3rd down conversions.

Over the course of a season, offenses will evolve gameplans to take advantages of kinks in your scheme and talent.

Simply a matter of evolution, imo. Between Marinelli's changes on defense and personnel differences, it's around the time that a defense that's been overachieving with marginal talent begins to get exposed.

 

[RS12]

Um, I'll guess no pass rush.

 

[percyhoward]

I would not consider this a trend, because we'd been steady at around 42% allowed since the Seattle game, then with Sunday night's game, the Giants' 11 of 16 performance brought it up to 45.1%. We'd held the Giants to 5 of 13 in the first game, so it looks like they made the right adjustments.

More importantly, though, keep an eye on drive success rate. It's a much better stat than 3rd down conversion % because it takes all downs into account when measuring how well an offense moves the chains. (The defense ranked 32nd in the NFL in 2013.) After 8 games, we ranked 8th. Three games later, we've now slipped to 18th.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

I would not consider this a trend, because we'd been steady at around 42% allowed since the Seattle game, then with Sunday night's game, the Giants' 11 of 16 performance brought it up to 45.1%. We'd held the Giants to 5 of 13 in the first game, so it looks like they made the right adjustments.

More importantly, though, keep an eye on drive success rate. It's a much better stat than 3rd down conversion % because it takes all downs into account when measuring how well an offense moves the chains. (The defense ranked 32nd in the NFL in 2013.) After 8 games, we ranked 8th. Three games later, we've now slipped to 18th.

Valid point.

I'm just curious what other's think.

You look at those first three drives of the Giant game... (as opposed to the last ones) and something was definitely bad with the defense.

 

[Hook'em#11]

No gambling.. Press coverage would be nice and a pass rush..

Oh, crap, it ain't the 90's anymore.. LOL

Carry on.

 

[Jack Burton]

Losing Durant hurts and Carter has regressed. Plus, there's a lot of film on our defense now for coaches to look at and find ways exploit. Lastly, our defense wasn't all that good in the first place. They play hard and give a lot of effort, but realistically, they just aren't that talented. I look forward to the draft and off season to see how much can be upgraded.

 

[loublue22]

we were doing a really good job against the run too, and many times stopped them on first down for a loss, setting up like 2nd and 12-15

and they would still give up the first

hopefully that's a sign we can shut down McCoy to some extent, and make Sanchez beat us. Hopefully we can have more success against him than Eli.

 

[TwoCentPlain]

I wouldn't worry too much about any statistic from the last Giants game. The last game was basically the Giants, a division rival, playing their super bowl this year at home. This was the last chance to give them and their fans something to hang their hats on. They were playing for a lot of pride. And that just may have been Coughlin's last game against the Cowboys. I am sure he wanted the W bad. Real bad.

What is really sweet is that the Cowboys went into their house, took their best shot, and ripped their hearts out with a gut-wrenching last-minute comeback win. The Giants and their fans will have to deal with the sting of elimination at the Cowboys hands for the next ten months. Another year getting sweeped.

Sometimes teams just have a really good game plan and execution.

On the flip side, almost every team we played this year, their defense is asking the same question as to why they can't stop the Cowboys 3rd down offense.

 

[Seven]

The problems happen when Marinelli makes them play zone.

That and teams have figured out that Moore is a first down ready to happen.

Moore AND Carter. The zone, as already mentioned, is pure failure with these athletes. The 'Rushmen' ain't holding up their end of Marinells scheme. With that said......it could be whomever the QB decides to attack.