3 reasons the NY Giants season collapsed since last game vs. Dallas Cowboys
Poor offensive line play:
Throughout the season, the NY Giants’ offensive line has played horribly.
While part of this can be blamed on injury, with both Nick Gates and Shane Lemieux suffering season-ending injuries early on, the fill-in offensive lineman the NY Giants have deployed this season has been borderline unplayable.
According to PFF, not a single offensive lineman on the NY Giants has a grade above a 62 besides Andrew Thomas, who has been a stud this season.
Coming off of a rough rookie season, Andrew Thomas has truly turned things around, becoming a franchise cornerstone for the NY Giants. Only surrendering 1 sack on the season, Thomas has been given a grade of 74.9 by PFF, highest on the NY Giants by far.
The NY Giants signed Matt Skura to their practice squad this season on a one-year deal. However, after a season-ending injury to Shane Lemieux, and poor play from fill-in offensive lineman Ben Bredeson, Skura was thrown in at left guard.
At first, Skura did not play that bad, however, it has become more apparent as the season has progressed that he is simply not that good, garnering a 51.6 overall grade from PFF.
The NY Giants traded for former first-round pick Billy Price in August of this year, but this trade has not worked out.
Price may be one of the worst open field blockers in the league today, and when you combine that with his poor pass blocking ability, you can begin to see why many NY Giants fans dislike him.
Price’s inability to block in the run game has been one of the biggest reasons as to why the NY Giants have struggled to run the ball all year, he also lacks awareness which makes it easy for defenders to slip by him.
Will Hernandez started the year off looking very solid. However, like most of the offensive lineman on the team, this quickly faded. Hernandez has been borderline unplayable at moments, looking lost against certain defensive stunts. It seems as if he lacks the IQ to properly diagnose defenses.
On the season, Hernandez has surrendered six sacks, which is the third-highest in the NFL. As a guard, this is horrible. With Hernandez’s contract expiring after this season it is unlikely that the NY Giants will bring him back for next year.
Nate Solder has been one of, if not the worst offensive lineman in the NFL this season, lacking many of the qualities it takes to be a starting offensive lineman in this league.
Solder has been run through, ran around, and just straight bullied all season. Surrendering 5 sacks on the season. There have been many clips of Solder getting bullied by opposing defensive linemen all season. While it is unlikely that Solder will return next season, he alone has been a huge reason for the NY Giants’ lack of success.