German_Force » The second half of the season is going to be an important

one for the New York Giants. They’re not pushing for a playoff spot White Sterling Shepard Jerseys , but these next eight games will help give a glimpse into what the Giants have heading into the 2019 season. While the defensive side of the ball will have a focus on what players will be there next year, the offense has the players (for the most part) and needs to focus on how to use the talent at hand better than it has been during the 1-7 start. Let’s look at some steps the Giants can take to get the offense on track in the second half.Figure out the offensive lineThere’s no other place an offensive breakdown can start than where the offense most often breaks down. The left side of the offensive line has not and likely will not change. Nate Solder is financially locked in as the left tackle and Will Hernandez is the legitimate bright spot on the line. Outside of those two spots, though, nothing has been good or consistent. Ereck Flowers was benched. Patrick Omameh was benched. Jon Greco might be on his way back to the bench.The Giants claimed guard Jamon Brown off waivers from the Los Angeles Rams last week. Brown is just 25 years old and started all 16 games from the Rams in 2017, but a suspension to start the season and good play from fill-in Austin Blythe made Brown expendable. Last season Brown played the most snaps (1,077), had the second-fewest blown blocks (18, three behind Andrew Whitworth’s 15 on 155 more snaps), and allowed just one sack, per the Football Outsiders Almanac. He might be in line to start for the Giants as early as Monday night against the 49ers. If that’s the case, it will be the the fourth different starting combination the Giants have used this season. It will also have three different starters than the Week 1 lineup. For a unit where continuity and communication are important, that’s not great turnover to have.2018 Giants OL startersWeekLTLGCRGRTWeekLTLGCRGRTBrown is on the last year of his rookie deal, so if he does play well and the Giants want to keep him, they’ll have to re-sign him. If that’s not the case Sterling Shepard Jerseys 2019 , the Giants might still be looking for three new starters on the offensive line come the offseason. That won’t be an easier task than it was this past offseason.Any complaints about the running game also fall into this category.Get in motion, pick up the paceLast season with the Minnesota Vikings, Pat Shurmur used pre-snap motion to create mismatches with the defense. This season, that’s gone away. Per Sports Info Solutions charting, the Giants use pre-snap motion on the ninth-lowest percentage of plays in the league.But they also have the sixth-biggest difference between yards per play with motion and yards per play without it. This should be an easy element to add to the offense since it’s something they have used at times already and it’s something Shurmur used way more often in his last stop.If the Giants aren’t going to use motion to make defenses uncomfortable, then maybe they can start to use pace. As it stands right now, the Giants are one of the slowest teams in the league when it comes to the pace of the offense, per Football Outsiders. On situation neutral plays — basically non-garbage time — the Giants run the 28th quickest offense in the league. At any point in the game when the score is within six points either way, the Giants are the 32nd-fastest offense.When the deficit gets to seven points or more, the Giants turn into the league’s fifth-fastest offense and that is when the unit has been the most dangerous and done its most damage. Since the Giants don’t change personnel as much as expected, getting to the line quicker and using pace to create mismatches for the likes of Odell Beckham and Saquon Barkley would help.The Giants don’t have to turn into the Chip Kelly Eagles (though, Shurmur was that team’s offensive coordinator), but a combination of limited misdirection, whether it be play-action or pre-snap motion White Darian Thompson Jerseys , and a slow pace is the exact opposite of what’s happening with the evolution of modern offenses.Reinvent the wheelSaquon Barkley’s role in the passing game has been underwhelming at best over the first half of the season. He’s still been more productive as a receiver than a runner (minus-3.78 Expected Points Added on the ground and 13.1 EPA on pass targets), but his receiving production could be even better. He’s consistently targeted as a check down option and only recently has he gotten more work past the line of scrimmage.The easiest way to get Barkley involved past the line of scrimmage and limit the time needed to pass block is the wheel route. By EPA, the wheel route is one of the most efficient routes in football and when done correctly out of the backfield it sets the running back up with a matchup that’s nearly impossible for the defense to win.What makes the wheel route so hard to defend is that the defense usually has a linebacker on the running back when it’s man coverage. The route starts like it’s going to be a flat route, which gets the opposing defender moving horizontally, and then the running back turns up the field. There aren’t going to be many linebackers who can go from lateral movement to chasing a back on a vertical route. There are fewer who would be able to keep up with an athlete like Barkley.On this play, the Rams used it inside the 10-yard line and got Todd Gurley on linebacker Anthony Barr. When Gurley got out of the backfield, Barr had to stop and try to read Gurley’s break, but there was none and Gurley was able to run past him up the seam for an easy touchdown.The wheel can work on its own at any part of the field, but it can be opened up even more when there’s a route combination with it from the receiver on the same side. Typically that’s a slant or hitch that creates a natural pick that adds an extra element the defender needs to get through on his path to the running back. The Carolina Panthers used this on Thursday night against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Devin Funchess ran a quick slant and turned to get in the way of the linebacker while Christian McCaffrey ran an uncontested wheel out of the same side and had a clear path to the end zone.Opposing defenses against the Giants will already be focused on the slant potential from Odell Beckham, so adding a layer to that with a Barkley wheel outside of it creates a dangerous combination that shouldn’t be able to be defended. On this note, the Giants should use more combinations with Beckham and Barkley on the same side of the formation, wheel or not.Getting Barkley more efficient targets will help open up the passing game for others (more than a good running game would). The ability to gain yards on quick passes is something the Giants have tried to accomplish, but getting those routes open past the line of scrimmage will be significantly more useful than the high volume of dump offs Barkley has seen in the passing game so far.Ereck Flowers to the bench: Things I think it means for the Giants Today is a joyous one for many New York Giants fans, whether they defeat the Houston Texans or not. Offensive tackle Ereck Flowers Darian Thompson Jerseys 2019 , a favorite target of fans’ anger for more than three seasons now, is no longer part of the team’s starting lineup.Here are five things I think that means for the Giants.Flowers’ scholarship has been revokedFormer GM Jerry Reese spent the last couple of seasons defending Flowers and trying to justify passing on Todd Gurley and several other quality players, rather than admitting his mistake and trying to fix it. As long as Reese was GM, Flowers had protection. Tom Coughlin had to play him. Ben McAdoo had to play him.Well, with Dave Gettleman having replaced Reese new coach Pat Shurmur doesn’t have to play him. The Giants have Flowers under contract this year and tried to get something out of him by moving him to the right side.After two games, after watching countless communication breakdowns on the right side, after Flowers appeared to admit that he hadn’t studied properly for the Week 1 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Shurmur appears to be done with Flowers.Sunday, he will be the only backup tackle on the roster. He will almost certainly only see the field in an emergency. It wouldn’t surprise me, to be honest, if we see a new backup tackle on the roster next week and that Flowers, except for the aforementioned emergency, is done as a player for the Giants. Desperation timeThe Giants are 0-2. Shurmur and Gettleman weren’t part of last season’s 3-13 disaster. They are, in fact White Kevin Zeitler Jerseys , Giants decision-makers because of it. They know, however, that because of last season and because of their decision to go all-in on 37-year-old Eli Manning at quarterback, that there is growing unrest in the fan base and in the media.They know they have no more time to talk about getting better or being on the right path. They know they have to win games, and they know that facing the Houston Texans in their building is not going to be easy. They know that they don’t have a whole lot of options with the current roster, but this was one of the realistic options they had.Will it help? J.J. Watt & Co. will have something to say about that.I would expect to see the Giants throw caution to the wind Sunday afternoon. They started to do that by going for it twice on fourth-and-1 in their own territory last week vs. the Dallas Cowboys, and by using Odell Beckham Jr. on a fourth-quarter punt return. They wasted no time this week trying to upgrade the fullback spot after Shane Smith played poorly vs. Dallas.Don’t be surprised at all to see Shurmur dig deep into the playbook today. A pass by Beckham or Saquon Barkley? Maybe. More shots down the field? Have to try. Fifteen targets for Beckham AND 25 touches for Barkley? The best players have to get the ball. Beckham on punt returns and Barkley or Beckham on kickoff returns? If you aren’t going to use them today it might be pointless to use them in those capacities the rest of the season.Wheeler’s chanceLet’s give Reese and his staff a little credit for Wheeler being a Giant. They took a chance on a player who many thought had the talent to be selected in the middle rounds of the 2017 NFL Draft, but who went undrafted because of off-the-field concerns.Since the spring the Giants have obviously been intent on giving Flowers every chance to make a successful transition to right tackle. Wheeler got no first-team reps in OTAs, mandatory mini-camp or training camp.Now, Wheeler gets his opportunity. Lining up against J.J. Watt is no picnic, but it’s the job. Wheeler doesn’t have to be great. He just has to be adequate. He has to know his assignments. He has to properly pass off stunts and twists.Even if he’s terrible today and the Giants sign a veteran offensive tackle it will take a few weeks for that player to get up to speed on the playbook. So, this is Wheeler’s big chance. Let’s see if he can take advantage of it.What about Patrick Omameh?As soon as the news broke about Flowers being replaced in the lineup, the “now remove Omameh” sentiment started. Like this:Well, Omameh is playing today ... and probably staying in the lineup for the foreseeable future.When you try to fix something that is broken you go piece-by-piece. You don’t throw out the motor because you need new spark plugs or an oil change. Because they are replacing Flowers and having to insert John Greco at center to replace the out-for-the-season Jon Halapio the Giants are already replacing 40 percent of their offensive line in Week 3. Let’s see what that accomplishes.Omameh has a 3-year Kevin Zeitler Jerseys 2019 , $15 million contract with $10.05 million guaranteed this season and next. He isn’t getting benched after two games.Pro Football Focus has Omameh with 1 sack and 3 pressures allowed in two games. The biggest issue on that right side with Flowers and Omameh lined up next to each other has been communication on defensive line stunts and twists. The Giants have talked about players needing to know their assignments, and it’s apparent much of that was pointed at Flowers. Let’s see if that communication and what Brian Baldinger called “basic assignment football” improves this week.I don’t know if this is the case and I won’t make an excuse for the less-than-acceptable play of Omameh so far, but sometimes an offensive lineman’s play can be impacted by the struggles or mistakes of the guy next to him. Let’s see how Omameh fares with new players on each side of him Sunday.Help on the horizon?As I mentioned above, it’s too late for any type of roster move before today’s game. That means Flowers will be the backup offensive tackle today, and should something happen to Wheeler or Nate Solder he will be in the game.Next week? If I was undrafted free agent center Evan Brown, on the 53-man roster but inactive for the first two games and never mentioned by Shurmur as a possible replacement for Halapio, I would start wrapping my mind around being bumped down to the practice squad.Maybe the Giants bring the recently-signed Brian Mihalik off the practice squad as a backup tackle. Maybe they look to players currently looking for jobs — a list that includes Austin Howard, Menelik Watson, Austin Pasztor, Cyrus Kouandjio and others. After today, though, I will be very surprised if there isn’t a new tackle on the 53-man roster for Week 4.