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The New York Giants finished with a 9-7-1 record last season, their first winning season since 2016 and things appear to be looking up as they enter Year 2 of the Joe Schoen/Brian Daboll era.
Much of that has to do with the structure and discipline the new coaching staff has brought to East Rutherford. Joe Gibbs of Sharp Football Analysis breaks down how penalties affected Big Blue in 2022.
The ‘Good’ was how the offense didn’t shoot itself in the foot, ranking 31st in holding penalties and 22nd in false starts. In years past, the Giants were a mess penalty-wise which destroyed drive after drive leading to loss after loss. You can credit Daboll and offensive line coach Bobby Johnson for shaking up this unit, which should continue to improve.
The ‘Bad’, unfortunately, was on defense where coordinator Wink Martindale’s philosophy of having guys ‘fly around’ in his blitz-heavy scheme led to some discipline issues.
The defense ranked second overall in per-game passing play penalties, averaging 10.1 yards per infraction. The Giants’ 2022 averages in this category were very similar to the Ravens’ in 2020 and 2021. The common denominator here is Wink Martindale, who was the defensive coordinator for those teams. These penalties may simply be a part of his defensive approach. Whatever the reason, it is a lot of penalties to concede. The Giants were above average being penalized for defensive holding and illegal contact penalties.
Roughing the passer is another category in the passing penalty metric. The Giants led the NFL in this category and had the largest discrepancy of any team last season with a minus-seven net loss in just this one category. We’re highlighting it out of the four categories because it really comes down to playing smart football.
Overall, SFA gives the Giants a B+ grade but warns that for the Giants to take the next step as contenders, quarterback Daniel Jones must ‘improve dramatically’.