PFF grades and snap counts from the Giants’ 24-20 loss to the Bears

We don’t need Pro Football Focus to tell us why the New York Giants lost 24-20 Sundayday to the Chicago Bears. And with Brian Daboll being fired Monday afternoon, this story won’t be high on your list of priorities. Let’s see anyway what they thought of the performance of individual players (PFF doesn’t grade coaches).

Offense

PFF grades

Here are the overall offense grades. The only point to be made is that when your quarterback, offensive tackles, and leading wide receiver and tight end all play well, offense is not the problem:

Let’s look in detail at how Jaxson Dart did in PFF’s eyes:

You probably think that Dart had a great game, and overall PFF did give him a very good 71.2. Passing, though, was a little lower. The reason is simple once you remember what PFF prioritizes. Dart had 2 big-time throws, but 3 turnover-worthy plays. That’s the story in a nutshell. He wasn’t actually intercepted, but PFF ignores that because they focus only on Dart’s responsibility, not the defense’s, in grading him. Dart did everything else you’d ask of an NFL quarterback yesterday, passing well under pressure, going through read progressions, and layering his throws to find receivers at intermediate depths against a zone defense:

It’s not just that Dart threw to intermediate (nine times) and deep (three times) parts of the field, it’s that he completed most of them (green circles). This is a rookie who is playing like a veteran. Were it not for the TWPs his grade would have been a lot higher.

Now the offensive line. First, pass blocking:

The pass protection was very good, with only 10 pressures and one sack given up against a good Bears defensive line, one of them attributed to Tyrone Tracy rather than the offensive line. Probably the worst thing was not picking up the two corner blitzes. Andrew Thomas had another stellar game, Jermaine Eluemunor, back from injury, played very well (albeit with one sack given up), and Austin Schlottman again played well at center in place of injured John Michael Schmitz. Jon Runyan was OK (one pressure) and Greg Van Roten a bit below average, but not terrible (two hurries).

The run blocking was a different story:

This is the Giants’ offensive line dilemma: It’s now a good pass blocking line, but other than the outstanding Andrew Thomas, it’s barely average to slightly below average blocking for the run. There was no better evidence of that than the Giants’ ill-fated attempt to ice the game with a field goal rather than a TD in the fourth quarter. If you don’t have confidence in your OL to get half a yard, that’s telling. You’re not going to have five studs on the OL (unless you’re the Eagles), but expect whoever the GM is in 2026 to try to replace both starting guards, and to look for someone who is good both in the pass and run games.

Next, the receivers:

As anticipated from the overall offensive scores (as well as the eye test if you watched the game), Darius Slayton had a great game, and Theo Johnson, while not making any spectacular catches, played very well also, both of them getting open consistently and catching the ball. Devin Singletary got a very good receiving grade because of the one screen pass that he turned into an explosive play down the sideline. The other receivers were average or slightly below, Wan’Dale Robinson because of two drops.

Finally, the running backs:

Without Cam Skattebo, and with this Giants’ offensive line, the Giants’ running backs are at best average. Only Dart scored very well in the running game, and that of course is a double-edged sword.

Snap counts

The starting line played every snap, while obviously Jaxson Dart was replaced by Russell Wilson after his concussion for the final 21 snaps.

Wan’Dale Robinson played all but one snap; the state of the Giants’ receiving corps is nicely summarized by the fact that after Darius Slayton, who played 62% of snaps, Gunner Olszewski and Ray-Ray McCloud played the equivalent of almost two-thirds of the game. Jalin Hyatt did not play on offense.

Theo Johnson, like Robinson, played almost every snap, with Daniel Bellinger seeing the field 73% of the time as the Giants continued to lean on 12 personnel groupings in the absence of WR depth. Chris Manhertz is now only seeing the field for a few snaps each game, which makes you wonder why they didn’t just keep Greg Dulcich to have another viable receiving option.

The running back duties broke down two-thirds for Tyrone Tracy to one-third for Devin Singletary, even though Singletary was the more effective runner yesterday.

Defense

PFF grades

First, the defense as a whole:

Not a single defensive player graded even very good. That tells you everything, but let’s do the autopsy. First, the pass rush:

I thought Caleb Williams had an excellent game yesterday, but the Giants didn’t get him on the ground once despite pressuring him 16 times. Kayvon Thibodeaux beat his man more often (14.8%) than anyone else, and he got 6 pressures, but that was all, and apparently he did little on his other pass rush snaps because he got a below average grade. Linebacker Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles actually had a nice game, with a hit and hurry. Brian Burns had two hits and a hurry, but little else. Dexter Lawrence and Abdul Carter each sacked Williams, but lost both of those to penalties called elsewhere.

Now the pass (un)coverage:

Looking at players who played more than two snaps in coverage, not a single one reached PFF’s threshold of even average play (60). That about sums it up, but a couple of details: Deonte Banks actually had a forced incompletion but otherwise gave up 4 catches in 4 targets for 49 yards. Jevon Holland had a pass breakup and didn’t actually give up any completions in 4 targets, but only graded 41.7. That tells me he was lucky that Williams made 4 bad throws to the receivers he was covering, i.e., they were open. Cor’dale Flott only gave up 2 completions in 4 targets for 11 yards, but dropped a potential interception. Korie Black (2 of 2 for 54 yards) is simply overmatched against NFL receivers at this point in his career.

Finally, the run defense:

We’ve probably seen worse, but when your only player grading very good is your free safety, things aren’t going well. There were only 5 missed tackles yesterday, which is good, and two of them were by a backup linebacker. Still, everyone was at best average or below average. Darius Alexander is becoming a decent pass rusher; he almost sacked Caleb Williams yesterday at a crucial point late in the game. He has not yet shown he can defend the run at the NFL level, though.

Snap counts

Bobby Okereke played every snap, as is usually the case, while Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles was on the field more than 3/4 of the time; that is the sad state of the Giants’ linebacking corps. Zaire Barnes was on the field for 4 snaps.

In the secondary, Cor’Dale Flott and Jevon Holland played every snap, with Tyler Nubin out there almost all the time. With Holland back, Dane Belton only played 22% of snaps. Deonte Banks was somewhere on the field (usually not near any receiver) for 75% of defensive snaps, while Dru Phillips played 59% of the time and Korie Black the 25% of the time that Banks didn’t.

Brian Burns played 84% of snaps on the edge, followed by Abdul Carter at 66% and Kayvon Thibodeaux at 62%.

In the interior, Dexter Lawrence played 74% of snaps and Roy Robertson-Harris 63%, followed by Darius Alexander at 41%, Rakeem Nunez-Roches (who left with an injury) at 28% and D.J. Davidson at 26%.

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