The long and short of Jason Garrett’s NY Giants offense

Jason Garrett’s offense has two speeds. And through the first 10 weeks one is emerging as the better, for both the NY Giants’ offense and defense.

NY Giants offensive coordinator Jason Garrett has looked to even out the Giants’ game plan in recent weeks.

Garrett does so with uptempo, no huddle drives mixed in with time consuming, clock eating drives. It has resulted in more rushing yards per game this year, despite the loss of Saquon Barkley. And while their passing yards per game is down, their overall pass completion percentage is up.

But that has not necessarily translated into points, where the Giants are currently third-to-last in overall points and points per game.

Heading into their bye week, the Giants were tied with the LA Rams for the most offensive plays. But they only average 19.5 points per game, which stands below 2019’s 21.3 points per game. And with just six weeks left in the season, the Giants 195 points overall trail 2019’s 341 points overall.

Numbers only tell one part of the story, but the league is bending toward an analytical approach. And so far the numbers say that one style of Jason Garret’s offense is better for both sides of the ball for the Giants. Longer, sustained drives that chew up the clock have been far more beneficial for the Giants than shorter, uptempo drives that take less time.

The idea isn’t new; teams hope to possess more time to give their opponents less time with the ball while giving their own defense a rest. But some teams plan their offense according to their infatuation with scoring quick touchdowns.

By looking at the average time per drive in each of the Giants’ 10 games, and determining which drives are longer than that average and which are shorter than that average and the results for each, we can see this idea in real time. Omissions include defensive touchdowns as well as kneeling or running out the clock before the half or the game. Missed Field Goals were counted toward scores as attempts.

With that, let’s look at what the numbers tell us of each type of drive.