The Giants' 'feast-or-famine' run defense was exposed against the Commanders. Can they fix it?

Beneath the surface of the Giants’ run defense showing improvement before Sunday’s tie were small ripples of concern. They still gave up too many chunk plays, or big runs, to feel like things turned a corner.

Those ripples turned into a wave of trouble against the Commanders. It wasn’t just giving up a season-high 202 rushing yards, the Giants’ most since Week 12 last season. It was how the Commanders got those yards thanks to several big plays.

The Commanders had four rushes of 22 yards or more, including three going for touchdowns. The Giants had nobody lined up as a spy for Jayden Daniels and he went off for 103 rushing yards, the second most in his career.

Suddenly, there’s reasons to think the run defense isn’t as good as hoped. These issues are beyond just one game and it’s got John Harbaugh’s attention.

“I think we've had too many chunk plays overall. We played kind of feast-or-famine run defense,” Harbaugh said Monday. “We've had a lot of really good plays in that game where we stuffed the run, which we're very capable of doing. And then there's a couple of line of scrimmage runs that get out on us that we're not happy about that can be played so much better.”


Part of that Sunday was the Giants using a four-man rush that left more room for Daniels. Part of it was bad tackling angles in the secondary, mainly with safety Tyler Nubin.

It’s an issue Nubin’s faced before and Harbaugh isn’t taking it lightly. Sunday was the second straight game Nubin was pulled out of before being reinserted. After a neck injury in the second half, Nubin’s status for Sunday is day-to-day as is right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor (calf) and cornerback Colton Hood (concussion).
It won’t be a shock if Ar’Darius Washington is promoted to start Sunday. But the problems defending the run extend beyond one person.

The Giants entered Sunday 25th in yards per carry allowed (4.69). Now they’re 30th at 5.19. According to NFL-Plus, the Giants have allowed 17 runs of at least 10 yards, tied for fourth most with the Lions and Cardinals.

The Commanders had six such runs but the problem was there a while. It showed up against the Cardinals when Tyler Allegier ran for a 22-yard touchdown last week. The Rams diced them for 5.8 yards per carry in Week 2.

The Giants also dropped from 15th to being tied for 25th in rushing defense. If one thinks “here we go, again” after last season’s historically bad unit, you have every reason to.

“Those were plays that should not have gotten out,” Harbaugh said about Daniels’ long gains. “We did not play those right with our rush lanes. We know that, everybody knows it. And it hadn't been a problem the last couple weeks, really.”

However, if one wants a glass-half full diagnosis, Daniels is a unique talent with his legs. Look beyond the big plays allowed and there’s a defense that’s made good in-game adjustments against the run.

The Cardinals had just 42 rushing yards after Allegier’s touchdown. Both the Cowboys and Titans finished with under 100 rushing yards, something the Giants did just three times last season.

So who exactly are the Giants as a run defense? A unit in progress? Too leaky allowing long runs? Maybe both? How about just not good enough to trust over a full game.

It doesn’t help that the Giants beat three teams — Cowboys, Cardinals and Titans — ranked 30th, 23rd and 27th in rushing. The Rams are ranked 11th. Make that another demerit. The Giants can stop poor rushing offenses but not good to great ones.

Still, they need to take lessons from what’s worked and figure that out going forward.

“It’s really just holding each other accountable and just doing our job,” defensive tackle Shelby Harris told Newsday. “The thing about run defense is its 11 people and all 11 have to do they job. It’s all about every 1/11th doing their job and being where they’re supposed to be.”

Sunday exposed a growing weakness and the next two weeks offer a chance at redemption. The Saints are 29th in rushing offense. The Texans are 31st.

That’s two shots to get right before the bye week. It’s up to the Giants to decide if this was a one-week regression not stopping long runs or a bigger issue that’ll getting worse regardless if they find ways to win, or tie.

“It could be a season problem if we don't fix it, if we don't rush lanes the correct way,” Harbaugh said. “Every quarterback's capable of running like that. But I don't think it's going to be a season issue because I think we're going to correct it, get it right next week.”

By Evan Barnes

evan.barnes@newsday.comevan_b

Evan Barnes covers the Giants for Newsday. He previously covered the Brooklyn Nets, Memphis football and the Memphis Grizzlies and also covered prep sports in Los Angeles.