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Monday Night Football Preview: New York Giants at Detroit Lions

By Ryan Disdier

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After an excruciatingly long wait, Monday Night Football is back, thus giving us something to actually look forward to on Mondays.

The first installment of Monday Night Football features the New York Giants traveling to Detroit to play the Lions.

Last year both teams finished 7-9, but had completely different seasons. New York started 2013 at a snails pace, as they lost their first six games. The Giants would end up finishing strong as they went on to finish the season 6-3. 2013 marked the first time the Giants finished below 8-8 since 2004.

Detroit, on the other hand was poised for a playoff berth, but started falling apart. Detroit lost their last four games, including a week 16 game against the Giants.

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The Giants won that game thanks largely in part to safety Will Hill intercepting a Matthew Stafford pass and returned it for a game tying touchdown. New York would win in overtime when Josh Brown kicked a game winning field goal. Prior to last year, the Giants had won the last two meetings, in 2007 and 2010.

For the Giants, everybody knows about how bad they were at the beginning of last year. Eli Manning was horrendous and the offensive line and run game was non-existent.

The Giants addressed those glaring holes in the offseason by adding a plethora of players. Offensive linemen Geoff Schwartz, Jon Jerry, Charles Brown and J.D. Walton were all added in free agency. The key part about this offensive line is that even if a player goes down, they have experience and depth. Rashad Jennings was added to boost the run game and so far he’s looked like he’s worth the money.

“Everyone knows he’s a talented guy, you know, but being a big receiver, he has some weaknesses for sure,”

The rookie class for the Giants contains three players that will play a role in the offense. Running back Andre Williams has already started to contribute, and rookie guard Weston Richburg is starting in place of the injured Schwartz. Wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. will play an intricate role once he’s healthy.

The defense also saw a number of new faces come to town in free agency. Robert Ayers, Jameel McClain, Quintin Demps, Zackary Bowman, Walter Thurmond III and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie were all added to the New York defense.

For Detroit, last season was such a disappointment that it ended Jim Schwartz’s tenure with Detroit. Jim Caldwell was hired as the new head coach.

The Lions had less offseason moves, as the big addition they had was wide receiver Golden Tate. The Lions have been in desperate need of a legitimate player opposite of Calvin Johnson, and they finally have one. The addition of rookie tight end Eric Ebron will also help the passing game.

So let’s look ahead to Monday night.

We all know that Calvin Johnson will obviously be a big focal point of the Lions’ game plan. Last year the Giants held Johnson to 43 receiving yards, his second worst total of the season. That’s not to take anything away from Detroit’s passing game, though. Matthew Stafford is a fearless, gun slinging quarterback, and they have so many weapons to utilize.

Obviously Johnson and Tate are a great duo, but the Lions also have a triad of talented tight ends. Brandon Pettigrew, Eric Ebron and Joseph Fauria are all viable options at tight end.

The Giants do, however, match up rather well against Detroit’s receivers. Roders-Cromartie, Prince Amukamra, Zackary Bowman and Walter Thurmond III will all see significant playing time on Monday night.

It was newly acquired cornerback Walter Thurmond III who shared his loquacious opinion about Calvin Johnson.

“Everyone knows he’s a talented guy, you know, but being a big receiver, he has some weaknesses for sure,” Thurmond said to the Star Ledger. The former Seahawk would continue by saying, “Being able to get in and out of his cuts and breaks and stuff. Of course, he’s good with yards after the catch and jump balls, but there is no perfect receiver. Everyone has some weaknesses and it’s about understanding what those weaknesses are, watching film and exposing them.” 

Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie will be tasked with guarding Johnson, and that will be a good match up to watch. Megatron has superior strength, but DRC does posses the speed necessary to keep up with Johnson. Prince Amukamara will be going against Golden Tate in what should be an interesting matchup. Bowman and Thurmond will likely see most of their action against the slot receivers.

While the Giants seem confident in their secondary against the Lions, I won’t be shocked if I see the Giants play a safety over the top of Johnson for a majority of the game. Johnson is very, very, very dangerous, regardless of what Thurmond thinks.

Not to be outdone by Matthew Stafford and the air raid, Detroit also has an incredibly gifted running back by the name of Reggie Bush.

After burning out in New Orleans, Bush has quietly established himself as a legitimate NFL running back, and he’s ultra versatile. Bush can run and catch, and he’s an absolute beast in the open field. While the Giants run defense will be improved with the return of Jon Beason. Beason is an intricate part of the defense, and he’s tougher than a two dollar steak. Despite the return of Beason, Bush is a threat to score whenever he touches the ball and it’s something that must worry the Giants.

Sticking on the subject of linebackers, the Giants’ linebackers are not very good coverage guys. Jacquian Williams is probably the best, but he is only a situational player. The Lions’ trio of tight ends could see good opportunities against the Giants’ linebackers in the middle of the field.

For the Giants’ offense, establishing the run will be imperative. Rashad Jennings and Andre Williams look like a formidable duo, and the Giants should rely on their legs early. New York’s offense should be predicated on establishing the run.

Once they establish the run, the offense can use it to set up play action. If Eli Manning can get into a rhythm early on, he should do fairly well against a weak Lions defensive backfield. With that being said, the Giants are missing two key players as Geoff Schwartz has been placed on short term IR, and rookie Odell Beckham Jr. is still dealing with hamstring injuries.

A couple early completions to Victor Cruz and Rueben Randle could seriously help Manning feel comfortable in what will be the first regular season game under the new offensive scheme. Furthermore, with somewhat of a devoid of talent in the secondary, I think Manning can afford to take a few chances down the field. With that being said, Manning should not try to force any passes he doesn’t have to make. Tom Coughlin saw far too many errant Manning passes get intercepted last year. The Giants’ passing game should be decent, but Manning needs to find Cruz early on and get his number one receiver involved in the game from the start. If Manning fails to get into a rhythm and he starts being the player he was last year, the passing attack won’t achieve a modicum of success.

Offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo told the media that the new offense is, “starting to click,” so hopefully the unit isn’t as problematic as it was in the preseason.

However, with Detroit’s deadly defensive front it might be hard to establish rhythm.

The defensive line for Detroit is monstrous. Ndamukong Suh, Ezekial Ansah and a slimmer Nick Fairley have the capability to dominate offensive lines. Suh, especially is a force on the defensive line and he’s an absolute terror to block. Few defensive tackles can match his raw power and relentlessness. With the Giants starting a rookie guard, the Detroit defensive line could feast. The trio combined for 19.5 sacks a year ago, according to nfl.com.The Giants already have a rookie starting at guard, and it’s possible that newcomer Adam Snyder could start as well. The chemistry isn’t ideal, as the unit only has two returning starters from last year, tackles Justin Pugh and Will Beatty.

If this game comes down to the fourth quarter, both teams have quarterbacks that are more than capable of leading a game winning drive. Manning has 25 fourth quarter comebacks and 30 game winning drives, while Stafford has 10 fourth quarter comebacks and 12 game winning drives, according to pro-football-reference.com. Both signal callers have a killer instinct and they’re extremely cool under pressure.

We’ve seen Manning orchestrate game winning drives in two Super Bowls, and we’ve seen Stafford throw a game winning touchdown with a separated shoulder. These guys are simply fearless, regardless of how many interceptions they throw.

This game should be a great way to kick off Monday Night Football.

Players to Watch:

Eli Manning:

I’m just curious to see how Eli can operate under the new offensive scheme. Preseason is preseason, and I want to see how he does against a starting defense in the regular season. The Giants haven’t won a season opener away from home since 1999, and Eli Manning will have to play well to change that.

Jon Beason:

Monday night’s game will be Beason’s first game action since week 17, as he missed all of the preseason with a broken foot. His presence will surely be felt, but it will be interesting to see if he’s rusty.

Golden Tate:

The former Seattle Seahawk came over to be the sidekick to Calvin Johnson, and week one will be a good test to see if he’s worth the money Detroit gave him.

Calvin Johnson:

Speaking of Johnson, last year Dez Bryant called out Johnson and Johnson responded by hanging up over 300 yards on the Dallas defense. Yikes. Let’s see how he responds to Thurmond’s comments.

Final Prediction:

I think the Giants have a good chance to win, but I don’t think they will. If the preseason was any indication of how the offense will start the season, I don’t think the Giants will be able to match Detroit’s fire power on offense. I think the Lions will win 23-17, as the Giants still need to work out the kinks in their new offense.

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