NY Giants: Combination of Joe Judge, Patrick Graham proving dangerous

Riley Dixon getting it done ugly …

The first play came at the end of the first quarter. After moving the ball just 11 yards in six plays, the Giants punted to Washington. What looked like a bad punt was muffed by Isiah Wright, and the Giants were able to recover.

But, there was much more here than meets the eye.

Judge, who’s pedigree includes three years as the New England Patriots special teams assistant before another five years as the special teams coordinator, created a formation that led to the fumble.

As he broke down to Bob Papa in this week’s Joe Judge Report, he wanted to create a way to put more pressure on an explosive Washington return team. Since NFL rules state that there could only be two gunners, Judge had Cam Brown line up in the backfield. This allowed Brown to get a running start as Riley Dixon punted the ball away, creating an artificial gunner to put pressure on the returner.

Judge also said the Giants’ game plan was to have Dixon change the kind of punt he would normally kick. The Giants did not want Washington to be able to catch a clean ball, and that’s why Dixon made it look ugly, with it hooking away from the returner at the very end.

With the artificial gunner getting to his spot at the same time as the natural gunners, Brown was the first to make contact with Washington return man Isaiah Wright. Since the kick was ugly and Brown was right there, Brown was able to force a fumble, and natural gunner Madre Harper recovered the ball.

The Giants scored a touchdown four plays later.

The second play was a brilliant design by Graham, who designed the play less than 24 hours before implementing it against the division rival …