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The New York Giants are preparing for their trip to Kansas City where they will face the two-time defending AFC Champion Chiefs on Monday night at Arrowhead Stadium.
The Chiefs are off to a 3-4 start this season and there are rumbles around the NFL that the league has “caught up” to the Chiefs’ offense and quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
Teams have been employing a Cover 2 scheme to combat the Chiefs’ once unstoppable passing game which got behind defenses for many an easy score the past few years.
The Cover 2 — or the versions of it being used — has limited their ability to score at will and with big plays. Giants defensive coordinator Patrick Graham isn’t quite buying into the theory.
“I think what you’re seeing — and this is just me watching the tape, I’m telling you I was pulling my hair out,” Graham told reporters on Thursday. “These guys are running all over the field. They’re moving the ball offensively.”
The Giants use Cover 2 at a high clip but Graham takes no solace in that.
“I don’t have the rankings in front of my face right now, but they’re moving the ball,” Graham said. “I’m sure there’s some stuff that Coach Reid and Coach Bieniemy want to get a little better on, but they’re moving the ball and they can score at any moment. You make a mistake, they can score. The numbers between Cover-Two, -Three, – Four, I don’t know those numbers, but I would assume teams are playing Cover-Two because you play Cover-Two and you’ve got two deep people right there. You’re trying to top their speed. They’ve got outside speed, they’ve got inside vertical speed, they’ve got backs that can run and take it off and then you’ve got the quarterback that might tie into some of the zone coverage to keep eyes on.
“I’m sure they’ve seen Cover-Two before. I’m sure (Steve Spagnuolo) is running some version of Cover-Two in practice. The struggling part — I get whatever the record is and stuff like that, but offensively just watching them on tape, it’s still as scary as it was as at any other time.”
The Chiefs are actually averaging five more yards per game of total offense this year than they did in 2020. The Chiefs are averaging 26.9 points per game this year, slightly down from their 28.5 average last year.