For the New York Giants, nothing about the trip to Detroit is simple -- not the context of their season, not the injuries that have reshaped their depth chart, and certainly not the task of slowing down one of the NFL’s most balanced and explosive offenses.
But if there’s one clear focal point for New York heading into Week 12, it’s the same truth defensive coordinators across the league have learned the hard way: if you don’t stop running backs Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery, you don’t stop the Detroit Lions. And no one on this Giants roster is more important to that mission than Dexter Lawrence.
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One of the most dominant interior defenders in football since he arrived in New York out of Clemson years ago, his rare blend of size, explosiveness, and leverage allows him to both clog lanes against the run and collapse the pocket with brute force.
While his future in New York may feel uncertain, isn't everything right now when it comes to the organization? Head coach Brian Daboll is gone, the franchise is in transition, again, key offensive players are banged up, and the G-Men are fighting through a season marked by turbulence.
But none of that changes Lawrence's importance this weekend. He's still in a Giants uniform, he's still getting paid handsomely, so the expectation is for him to overwhelm a young but talented Lions interior.
For Detroit, its offense is at its best when it stays ahead of schedule. Gibbs provides the lightning, Montgomery the downhill ability inside the tackles, and together they shrink the playbook for opposing defenses by consistently setting up second-and-4, third-and-2, and every offensive coordinator’s dream: run-pass ambiguity.
Gibbs’ explosiveness, especially, is what turns manageable runs into drive-changing chunk plays. And that’s exactly why Lawrence has to bow up in the middle -- because if Big Blue can’t win early downs, the game could tilt heavily toward Detroit before even halftime arrives.
When Sexy Dexy is at his best, he demands double-teams. He eats space. He resets the line of scrimmage. Whether aligned head-up on the center, shaded as a one-tech, or bumped out as a three-tech, he has the power to dent the interior with the quickness to slash across a guard's face and disrupt blocking angles.
Against Detroit’s front that prides itself on physicality, that impact is non-negotiable. If he’s winning inside, Gibbs can’t get upfield quickly, and Montgomery can’t create the steady diet of 4-yard gains that Detroit builds its identity on.
And once the Lions are forced into long down-and-distances, the entire approach shifts. Suddenly, the Giants’ pass rush -- Abdul Carter, Brian Burns, Kayvon Thibodeaux (if he plays) -- becomes unlocked. They can attack, rather than react. They can dictate, rather than chase.
Under center for Detroit, Jared Goff is an efficient quarterback, sure, but he is far less comfortable when defenses know he has to drop back and maneuver through pressures around his feet. Just look at his tape against the Eagles last week, or against Tampa Bay in Week 7, or all the way back to Green Bay in Week 1, when his process is sped up, Goff is a league-average signal-caller.
For New York, everything begins in the trenches with Lawrence. If he controls the interior, the Giants could gain the leverage they need to make the ballgame competitive. If he doesn’t, the Lions' ground game has the ability to take over, and NY just doesn't have the capacity to keep pace.