2024 NFL season, Week 14: What We Learned from Sunday’s games

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Eric Edholm takeaways:

1. Saints hung on late, thanks to Bresee’s blocked kick. The Saints kept their dim playoff hopes alight with a blocked field goal in the waning seconds, as Bryan Bresee jumped over the Giants’ line to get just enough of his hand on Graham Gano‘s 35-yard field goal try. The Saints led, 14-3, into the fourth quarter, but the Giants scratched back with an 82-yard TD drive, a two-point conversion and a subsequent stop on defense. The Giants actually had ample chances to try to win the game outright, but the Saints defended Drew Lock’s final two passes well and made the big play on special teams. It made up for an otherwise dismal day in that phase of the game, which doesn’t reflect as well on Darren Rizzi. Blake Grupe had one miss and one FG try blocked, and the Saints appeared to allow a punt-return TD in the first half, but it was negated by a holding call. Still, when they needed it most, the special teams – and namely the indefatigable Bresee – came up big.
2. Shorthanded Giants hung tough but offense took too long to get going. Drew Lock rallied the Giants late, scrambling for 59 yards, also throwing for 146 yards in the fourth quarter alone, but their late comeback attempt came up just short, running their losing streak to eight and falling to the bottom of the NFL standings (tied with the Raiders) with two wins. That’s now eight straight losses at MetLife, including all seven this season. Lock struggled early, completing only 6 of 19 passes for 52 yards and a tough intentional grounding flag in the first half. He used his legs well and put the Giants in a position to tie the game late, but Lock also had 28 incompletions. Some of those were dropped passes – at least four on the day – and the pass protection wasn’t great, with Joshua Ezeudu and Evan Neal under fire most of the game. It was a very uneven offensive performance, with the run game slowed down and the Giants committing 12 penalties total, half of them on offense. Two late pre-snap penalties, a delay of game and a false start, derailed two different drives. Lock’s fourth-down pick with less than two minutes to go also killed a great late chance. The Giants came up empty on 11 of their 13 possessions Sunday.
3. Saints offense hit the skids, but lack of aggression was also a problem. New Orleans’ offense had found some momentum since Rizzi took over, but Sunday was a step backward. The Giants have boasted a respectable defense this season, but they were missing several key contributors. Yet the Saints couldn’t get much going on the ground, even with Dexter Lawrence leaving a massive hole up front. They tried getting Kendre Miller involved with 10 carries, and he scored the game-winning TD, but Miller’s long run was nine yards. Alvin Kamara was mostly bottled up, but it was a little surprising that Rizzi didn’t go for it on fourth-and-2 from their own 46-yard line early in the fourth quarter. The Saints had forced five straight punts at that point, so there was logic to the decision, but it also felt like the Saints needed to keep their foot on the gas after taking the 14-3 lead on the prior possession. Instead, they punted and watched the Giants go down and score. Derek Carr’s one true deep pass attempt was picked, but it was the Giants’ first INT in 11 games. The Saints could have tested the Giants downfield more often. This game was closer than it needed to be.

Next Gen Stats Insight for Saints-Giants (via NFL Pro): Chase Young generated 10 pressures on 36 pass rushes (27.8% pressure rate), tying a career high in pressures while generating the most pressures in a game by a Saints pass rusher over the last two seasons. Six of Young’s pressures came in under 2.5 seconds, the most quick pressures by a Saints defensive lineman since 2018. Young generated nine of his pressures on 32 matchups (28.1%) against Giants left tackle Joshua Ezeudu. Overall, Ezeudu allowed 12 pressures on 55 pass block snaps (21.8%), tied for the fourth-most pressures allowed in a game by any player this season.

NFL Research: The Saints blocked their second field goal in their past four games on Sunday (also doing it in Week 10 vs. Atlanta). That ties them for the most in the NFL in 2024, along with the Steelers and Giants.