Game Preview: Giants face Commanders in Week 2

Daniel Jones has also enjoyed success vs. Washington. The Giants’ sixth-year quarterback is 5-1-1 vs. the Commanders, with 10 touchdown passes, three interceptions, and a 98.0 passer rating. In Northwest Stadium, Jones is 3-1 and has thrown seven touchdown passes and no interceptions and has a 103.7 rating.

All of this would be cause for optimism except that, well, history means nothing in football.

“Playing well means something,” Giants coach Brian Daboll said. “That’s all that matters, playing well that week.”

The Commanders team the Giants will face tomorrow is far different than the one they defeated twice last year. Dan Quinn has replaced Ron Rivera as the head coach after spending the previous three seasons as the defensive coordinator in Dallas. The Giants lost all six games and averaged 13.2 points vs. the Cowboys during Quinn’s tenure.

Washington has three news coordinators in Kliff Kingsbury (offense), Joe Whitt, Jr. (who Quinn brought from Dallas, on defense), and Larry Izzo (special teams).

Numerous college and pro quarterbacks have excelled when they worked with Kingsbury, including Kyler Murray, Johnny Manziel, Case Keenum, Baker Mayfield, and Patrick Mahomes. Kingsbury’s current star pupil is Jayden Daniels, the No. 2 overall selection in the 2024 NFL Draft, from LSU. Daniels threw for 184 yards and ran for 88 more and two touchdowns in Washington’s loss at Tampa Bay last week.

“I would say Washington, they’re in our division, so it’s always a great game,” said outside linebacker Kayvon Thibodeaux, who has 5.5 of his 15.5 career sacks vs. the Commanders. “We see them twice a year, so I’m excited. Jayden Daniels is a great quarterback. He’s from Cali(fornia). Grew up knowing him, grew up with him, so I understand he’s a great player and I’m excited to go against him.”

Linebacker Bobby Okereke said Kingsbury’s offense is difficult to defend.

“They’re going to run tempo,” Okereke said. “There’s going to be some RPO (run/pass option) element out of it. Zone read is going to be part of it. Quarterback comes alive, screens offense, trickery or gimmicks per se, but they’re going to challenge you a lot.”

When Daniels isn’t running the ball, the Commanders split their carries between Brian Robinson, Jr. and Austin Ekeler. Wide receiver Terry McLaurin has 61 catches and three touchdowns in nine games vs. the Giants. Now in his 12^th season, tight end Zach Ertz has 76 receptions and seven scores against his longtime foes.

“You just got to be very disciplined on your zone read alignments and responsibilities on your quarterback run game alignments and responsibilities, on your screens, screen and go responsibilities,” said Okereke. “They got crafty guys; Zach Ertz is a very crafty vet in this league. He’s got a full route tree as a tight end. So, it’s a very challenging offense.”

Defensively, Washington has two excellent interior linemen in Jonathan Allen and Daron Payne, and middle linebacker Bobby Wagner is a likely future Hall of Famer who led the team with 10 tackles last week. Washington will be without cornerback Emmanuel Forbes, Jr, who is sidelined with a thumb injury.

Like the rest of the defense, they are adjusting to Quinn’s scheme.

“It’s a different system,” Jones said. “(They) do some different things. I guess there are some similarities in the personnel and the carryover there. Different system for sure.”

Jones is looking to rebound after throwing two interceptions and not leading the team into the end zone against the Vikings.

“I’m focused on doing my job and playing well,” he said. “I’m confident I can do that.”

The Commanders’ most significant development on special teams is the addition this week of kicker Austin Seibert, who was signed after Cade York missed two field goal attempts last week. Seibert is Washington’s fifth kicker since the start of the 2024 league year in March. He has made 45 of 56 career field goal attempts, but most of his tries and successes were in 2019, when he hit 25 of 29 for Cleveland.

*More history: The Giants have 52 victories in road openers, the second highest total in NFL history behind Green Bay’s 58. They also have the third highest winning percentage in such games:

Dallas Cowboys 40-25-0, .615

Green Bay Packers 58-44-2, .569

New York Giants 52-42-5, .553

*Jones is 1-2 against rookie quarterbacks and 3-5 against first-year head coaches.

*Something must give: The Commanders allowed 37 points in Week 1, the second highest total after Carolina (47 in a loss at New Orleans). The Giants’ six points were the fewest by any team. Washington has an NFL-high seven games in which it allowed 35+ points since the start of the 2023 season. The Commanders allowed a league high 30.8 points-per-game last season. The Giants scored fewer than seven 7 points five times last season, tied with New England for the most in the NFL.

*The Giants on Saturday added placekicker Graham Gano (groin) to the injury report with no game status, meaning he will kick tomorrow.