Giants coaches made all the right moves in game vs. Vikings

It’s increasingly clear that the Giants have a coaching advantage more often than not when they take the field. This feature revealed itself again in Their tiebreaker victory, 31-24, over the Vikings Inside US Bank Stadium very loud and eventually quite quiet.

There were ample adjustments as the Giants engaged in another close game with the Vikings, a team that beat them 27-24 on Christmas Eve on a 61-yard field goal as time expired. On defense, the Giants took the NFL’s most wide receiver, Justin Jefferson, out of the game, making him one reception in the second half. Return from injury to cornerback Adoree ‘Jackson’ She had a lot to do with thisBut so did defensive coordinator Wink Martindale’s maneuvers to give Jefferson a different look.

The Giants also played a play the Vikings like to run—a screen pass to linebacker Dalvin Cook—and ground plays, with cornerback Darnay Holmes particularly effective at stomping those plays. Cook had six receptions in the game – totaling just 10 yards. Martindale in the second half commanding safety Xavier McKinney To play near the penalty area Help limit the damage done by TJ Hockenson.

There were plenty of stylish looks from head coach Brian Dabul and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka. Did you see that Daniel Jones’ delivery behind the ass passed him on to Matt Breda? There was action in the running game that sent the defense flush to the right as Buraidah moved to his left. The Vikings should have been ready for Saquon Barkley out of the backfield as a pass-catch threat, but Kafka changed the resolve on some of those routes, causing conflict with Vikings players. Barkley ran freely for 56 yards on his five receptions, providing a crucial safety valve for Jones.

More from what resulted from the Giants’ first postseason victory in over a decade:

– Daniel Jones became the first quarterback in NFL history with 300 passing yards, two passing touchdowns, and over 70 receiving yards in a postseason game. Jones finished with 301 passing yards, 78 rushing yards and touchdown passes to Isaiah Hodgins and Daniel Bellinger. Jones’ 300-yard passing game was the Giants’ fifth in the playoffs. Eli Manning and Kerry Collins both had two of them.

– The harsh penalty kick on Dexter Lawrence for throwing Kirk Cousins ​​to the ground after he kicked the ball on a fourth-quarter layup? Maybe it was a soft call. “I was pissed off after that,” said Lawrence. “I had to get rid of him and keep playing on the next play.”

– No one doubted the Giants belonged in the NFC Championship, but they entered the postseason with a record of 0-6 against the NFC field – 0-2 vs. the Eagles, 0-2 vs. the Cowboys, 0-1 vs. the Seahawks and 0-1 vs. the Vikings. The Giants picked the right time to take down the No. 3 seed in the conference.

– Remember when getting to 30 points was far perfect and had absolutely nothing to do with the reality of the Giants? They went 43 consecutive games without scoring 30 points before collecting 38 games over the Colts on New Year’s Day. With the 31 points they slapped on the Vikings, the Giants have now surpassed 30 points in two of their last three games — and those were the ones in which they scored just 16 points with their on-field support at the end of the regular season.

The offense certainly had no problem moving the ball on the Vikings, amassing 445 total yards on Christmas Eve in Minneapolis and putting up 431 yards on its second home run inside US Bank Stadium. There’s a lot of speculation about the job security of Ed Donatell, the Vikings’ defensive coordinator, and the Giants didn’t help that job security with the way they scored and took yards on his unit.

His 431 total yards was the fourth-highest total in Giants postseason history. Their most prolific playoff game came against the Vikings – 518 yards in that epic 41-0 defeat in the 2000 NFC Championship game. The other two playoff games: 446 in San Francisco on January 5, 2003, and 442 against Atlanta on January 8, 2012. 28 touchdowns The second-highest total for the Giants in a playoff game, they’re only bettered by the first 31 touchdowns they had — you guessed it — against the Vikings in a 2000 game.

No sacks and no turnovers on defense is usually a path to failure. It happened twice to the Giants this season, in losses to the Cowboys and Lions. Wink Martindale’s defense did not sack Kirk Cousins ​​and also failed to generate a turnover, but the Giants won.