Giants @ Texans: One Door Closes...

The Giants have some issues. It’s nice that they came back from a basically lost game and almost secured the win down 34-10 midway through the 4^th quarter. J.J McCarthy came in and threw for 243 yards and 1 TD in just 7 mins. Impressive, but it was against prevent defense. The issue with the Giants lies within their line again. They cannot effectively run the ball, as their RBs finished with 14 carries for 34 yards. The Saints have the 30^th best run defense in the entire league. And the Giants made them look like the Steel Curtain. New York also can’t get any pass rush outside of blitzing. Sure, it’s nice to see Abdul Carter making plays because he does that frequently, but everyone else on the pass rush is out there doing cardio. There will be questions about the Giants starting QB this week, as the debates have begun. But the Giants need to effectively run an offense from the start of the game, not in the 4^th quarter. And their defense needs to tighten up in the trenches. Until that happens, they could put me out there at QB.

         Don’t look now, but the Texans are officially back in the AFC South playoff race with a win against their division rivals this past weekend. Houston snapped off a 34-31 victory over the Jags in London. And while it did not come without its issues, the Texans were able to set up a game winning FG on a 7 play, 36-yard drive at the end of the game. The 15^th ranked defense stifled the 11^th ranked offense, forcing an INT and multiple punts that helped lead them to victory. C.J. Stroud looked like the C.J. Stroud of old, finishing with 312 yards, 3 TDs and 1 INT. Jaylin Noel had another nice game, which is back-to-back for him. He finished with 107 yards on 4 catches for 1 TD. Houston is going to look to dismantle this identity-less Giants team and snap off their 3^rd win in a row.