The NFL announced Wednesday that the NY Giants will be traveling across the Atlantic to London to take on the Green Bay Packers on Oct. 9 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Fans can’t wait for this one.
The Giants are undefeated outside the United States and London has traditionally treated New York well. In the inaugural London contest back in 2007, the Giants defeated the Miami Dolphins 13-10 and in 2016 they defeated the Los Angeles Rams 17-10 thanks to a Landon Collins pick-six.
In addition to being 2-0 all time in London, the Giants also have never missed the playoffs in a season in which they played in England. As we all know, history tends to repeat itself. Will that happen this season? In this piece, we take a look at three reasons why we believe the Giants can silence Aaron Rodgers and the Packers come early October.
3. Experience advantage for London games
While Aaron Rodgers has accomplished just about everything a quarterback can get done on the field, the one thing he has never done is played a football game on international soil. In fact, the Packers are the only NFL team to never play in an international contest.
The Giants can use this to their advantage. While Rodgers has the upper hand in every matchup, New York knows what a trip to London is like, including how to deal with all the extra variables like fan events and extra media obligations.
A flight from Green Bay to London is just under 10 hours. The Giants flight to London is just over six hours, very similar to the flights they take to play games on the west coast. While the Giants will be accustomed to this jet lag, Rodgers and company may struggle to adjust. This will be something to pay attention to.
2. Question marks at receiver for the Packers
While cornerback may be the perceived weakness of the Giants due to the impending release of James Bradberry, the Packers offensive weakness is the wide receiver position. After trading Davante Adams to the Raiders in March, the Packers are left with three veterans: Randall Cobb, Sammy Watkins and Allen Lazard, plus two rookies in Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs as their receiving core.
That group is nothing to scare opposing defenses. Early in the season, Rodgers will still be trying to develop a rapport with the new receiving core, which will likely lead to some frustration for him. In the NFC Divisional Round, the San Fransisco 49ers took Adams out of the game, and the Packers were forced to run the ball as their passing game became obsolete.
The Giants run defense is the strength of the D, and the Packers will be forced to play right into New York’s hand. The fact that the game is early on of the season, and the Packers could end up trying to run the ball more, could help the Giants stun the Packers.
1. The new look Giants
In the modern day NFL, if a team struggles to consistently score around 25 points per game, the team has little chance to be successful. Last season, the Giants averaged an ugly 15.2 points per meeting, the main reason they only won four games.
The days of Jason Garrett and Joe Judge’s ultra conservative offense are over. In its place, Brian Daboll from Buffalo and Mike Kafka from Kansas City will blend ideas from the two best offenses in football.
The change in philosophy from ultra conservative to highly aggressive could be a game-changer for this Giants offense. Zack Rosenblatt, the Giants beat reporter for NJ Advanced Media, found an alarming statistic illustrating just how unaggressive the Giants were a season ago.
"“Jones only threw deep ball passes (20-plus yards in the air) on 6.6% or his pass attempts in 2021, worst in the league among 42 quarterbacks to throw at least 10 deep balls.”"
Daboll’s offense however, saw Josh Allen throw deep balls just under 13 percent of the time each of the last two seasons, double the amount Jones did.
The Packers have a stout secondary led by Darnell Savage Jr. and Jaire Alexander, but as the old adage goes, ‘you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take’ so you better believe Daboll will attack, and the more shots you take, the higher the chance that at least one of them hits. Daboll and Co. will be ready to get this done vs. Green Bay too.