Giants Offense Out-Schemed the Seahawks With Run Game

The Giants entered Week 5 with arguably the worst running game in the NFL. They ranked 30th in rushing yards per game, dead last in yards per attempt, 31st in % of runs gaining 4 yards, and 28th in runs of 10 yards or more. That needed to change if the Giants were going to be able to salvage their season.

In Seattle, it did.

The G-Men racked up 175 yards on 34 carries, with rookie running back Tyrone Tracy picking up 129 on 18 attempts (7.2 yards per rush).

Tracy saw the field well and the big boys up front blocked extremely well. But it was Brian Daboll’s approach that seemed to make all the difference.

The biggest wrinkle he added was the personnel grouping from which they chose to run throughout the afternoon. The Giants utilized 3 and 4-wide-receiver sets on 76.7% of their runs against the Seahawks. That number was at just 37.8% through the first 4 games of the season.

The approach ensured that Seattle would be in lighter personnel (Nickel - 5 DBs), which is obviously more advantageous to run against. New York picked up 149 yards on 23 carries (6.5 per rush) out of these lighter personnel packages.

But it wasn’t just THAT they ran it out of these packages. It was the types of runs the Giants used as well. New York leaned a little more heavily on gap-scheme runs (~70% of the time) than they had through the previous 4 games (~60%). These are the types of runs that provide good blocking angles for the offensive line and allow for a more physical style of run blocking.

So they got lighter defensive personnel on the field, and then they attacked with more physical runs. Sometimes, football is a simple game.

One gap-scheme run the Giants called repeatedly was Duo, which involves down blocks to the play-side and generally gets multiple double teams.

You can see it illustrated below:

First, focus on the two double teams, which would get some movement against Leonard Williams (#99) and a lot of movement against Johnathan Hankins (#97):