2022 Week 4 Game Recap: Giants 20, Bears 12 (by Ross Jacobs)
You know, I often complain when watching some of these games between two bottom 8 teams, and for good reason. The product a lot of these teams and management and coaches put on the field is insulting to the fans. Every one of these franchises is worth close to a billion dollars...it baffles my mind how poorly managed they are. What is possible with, not great, not brilliant, but just decent management? Sometimes I go into these game reviews with a negative opinion. I'm predisposed to hating both teams and the play calling and the decisions...etc etc.
And sometimes I am pleasantly surprised right when I'm not expecting it.
I was prepared to dislike Brian Daboll this year and I'm starting to become a fan four games in. It's not because the Giants are 3-1 like most casual fans. I wouldn't care if they were 0-4. The schedule has more to do with that than anything, plus a little luck. No, the reason I like what I'm seeing is because Daboll is playing smart, innovative football, he's feeding his stud player (Barkley) and finding success with it even though everyone knows what is coming, and he's keeping the ball out of the hands of his bad players (Daniel Jones).
Daboll knows Jones sucks and he's working around it brilliantly. I expected the Giants to be a surprisingly run-heavy team this year despite most people's expectation that Daboll was going to “fix” Jones. It's the same thing he did with Josh Allen and the Bills early on. The QB wasn't ready yet, so they ran the ball a lot including having his mobile QB run, and they went from there.
Do you know what team is leading in total rushing through 4 games? The Eagles? The 49ers? The Ravens? The Browns?
Nope, it's the Giants and they aren't doing it through volume alone. The team collectively is averaging 5.8 ypc, 2nd in the league just a hair behind the Lions. And they are doing this with a QB everyone knows can't pass and an offensive line that's thought of as one of the worst in the league.
It's really quite an impressive job so far and I'm intrigued about where this could be headed. Can Daboll actually get decent play out of Jones in the future? He's not suddenly turning into Allen, but just top 20 play would be good. Right now he's just hiding Jones, so we'll have to see. Daboll has bought himself some time.
On the other side of the field...woof. There's nothing I can say about the Bears that hasn't already been said. We all saw this coming. Justin Fields plus a bad offensive line plus the worst receiving group I've ever seen...this is what you get. And it's not getting better with Eberflus running things. Maybe they stumble their way into something resembling an offense in the next couple years and it wins them a few games with a great Eberflus defense (he does do defense really well), but that's the high water mark for Chicago's foreseeable future. Decent run game and a great defense. That just doesn't cut it these days.
Fantasy Player Notes:
– It should be readily apparent by now that Saquon Barkley is the clear favorite to finish as the ppr RB1. CMC might have a chance if the Carolina coaches would get their heads straight, but I don't see another challenger. If Barkley is healthy he's going to run away with it literally.
– This was my fear with getting too excited about Khalil Herbert off waivers. Yes, he's a solid, capable RB. I like him too. But this passing game is such utter garbage that they aren't going to score very often and defenses are stacked against Herbert. Unfortunately we're probably going to get several of these 15-20 carry for 70-80 yards and no score type games until Montgomery comes back. It's something but anyone that thought Herbert was running for 100+ and 2 scores every week based on beating up Houston was simply foolish.
– Darnell Mooney finally had a reasonable fantasy day I guess. 4 catches for 94 yards. That's not awful for ppr. Trouble is he's still not getting a high volume of passes because everything around him sucks and everyone knows Fields is looking for him. He has no trade value so he's best off on your bench unless there's more promising options on waivers.
Outside of Mooney you can't trust anything else in these “passing games.” Daniel Bellinger is the only guy I might be interested in (someday) but even if I was you can't trust these QBs. Fields threw only 22 passes and completed half of them and Jones only threw 13 total. Nothing good can come from that.
– Yes, Daniel Jones had a nice fantasy day saved by his 68 yards rushing and two rushing TDs but are you really going to count on that every week? Granted he has thrown closer to 30 passes in his other games, but the offense is warped right now because they have no healthy WRs and that isn't about to change. David Sills and Richie James aren't carrying Jones to new heights. Only Toney could improve this situation. Also note, he did leave the game for a little bit with an ankle injury but returned late. He's off the injury report this week and should play against the Packers. Jones is a decent QB2 option right now, nothing more. At least he isn't turning the ball over so much anymore.
IDP Notes:
– Finally got my Tae Crowder game! Again, I have no idea what caused the low stats for him the first couple of games but this is the Crowder I saw back in the preseason. He's still learning how to be a complete linebacker but man is he athletic and fast. Let's see if he can follow it up against the Packers.
Eddie Jackson didn't have a single interception in 2020 or 2021 but he's now got 3 in four games and is averaging 7.5 tackles per game on top of it. He's playing fantastic football under Eberflus and should finish near the top of the DB leaderboard this year.
A little more praise for Eberflus's defense, CB Kindle Vildor and rookie safety Jaquan Brisker are playing really good football right now too. This secondary is no joke.
Snap Counts of Interest:
61 = Kmet
59 = St Brown
53 = Mooney
36 = Pettis
48 = Herbert
14 = Ebner
61 = Barkley
47 = Sills
39 = Slayton
27 = Golladay
21 = James
39 = Bellinger
37 = Hudson
