New York Giants: Three Keys to Watch Against the Jacksonville Jaguars
The New York Giants will start the 2018 NFL season on Sunday. On Sunday, they will welcome the Jacksonville Jaguars. The last time they faced each other was on August 22, 2015, and the Giants would go on to win 22-12. While both teams had opposite 2017 seasons, they are both hoping that 2018 will be positive. For the Giants, Pat Shurmur will make his regular season head coaching debut on Sunday. In addition, running back Saquon Barkley will be making his debut as well. While you have two talented teams fighting it out on Sunday, there will be several things to watch out for.
Here are three things to look at.
1. How will the Giants stop the Jaguars running game
As we know, 2017 wasn’t good for the New York Giants. They were 26th in the league in stopping the run. On the other hand, the Jacksonville Jaguars were 1st in rushing. Leonard Fournette will probably get the ball a lot on Sunday. It will be up to guys like Alec Ogletree and others to stop him. If you can stop him enough, then it might cause the Jaguars to lean more on passing. If that happens, it will surely help the Giants.
2. The Giants front seven will need to step it up
One of the biggest things that General Manager Dave Gettleman did during the off-season was upgrade the front seven. He was able to bring in someone like Nate Solder to replace Erick Flowers. They ended up moving Erick Flowers to the other side. Hopefully this will give him a spark. The Giants front seven was bad last year and it led to Eli Manning getting sacked a lot. If you want to succeed in a tough NFC, then you can’t allow teams to get to your QB so quickly.
3. The impact of Saqoun Barkley
The Giants haven’t had a threat at running back for some time. They drafted Barkley during last year’s NFL Draft. It will be interesting to see how much of an impact he truly has. If the offensive line can build the wall that allows Barkley to move, then the Jaguars defense is in for a long day.
The New York Giants are hoping that they can get rid of the 2017 cloud and make 2018 great. In order to do that, you need to come out strong on Sunday playing the Jacksonville Jaguars.
How do you feel about the New York Giants week one matchup? Leave a comment below.
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