The New York Giants are moving onto the divisional round of the playoffs after pulling off a 31-24 upset win against the Minnesota Vikings on the road. They will take on their NFC East division rival Philadelphia Eagles, the NFC's No. 1 seed, next week.
New York's victory was a testament to the coaching job Brian Daboll, Mike Kafka, and Wink Martindale have done with this team throughout the entire season. The coaching staff put its players in position to succeed, and the players responded by playing one of their best all-around games of the season.
In particular, it was one of the very best games of quarterback Daniel Jones' career. Jones completed 24 of 35 passes for 301 yards and two touchdowns, while adding 78 yards on 17 carries. In so doing, he became the first quarterback in NFL playoff history to throw for at least 300 yards and two touchdowns and also run for at least 70 yards. The 379 total yards were the second-most in a game in Giants playoff history, and the 78 rushing yards were a Giants playoff record for a quarterback.
Jones repeatedly hooked up with the likes of Isaiah Hodgins (8 catches, 105 yards, TD) and Darius Slayton (4-88) for big plays, and calmly worked his checkdowns to Saquon Barkley (5-56 receiving, 9-53 rushing) and Richie James (4-31) as well. He took three sacks on his 44 dropbacks, but was extremely effective as a scrambler to make up for it. He also had a rushing touchdown taken off the board in the second quarter by an illegal-motion penalty, so his game could have been even better.
On the other side of the ball, Martindale played against type. The Giants blitzed more often than any team in the NFL this season, sending at least one extra rusher after the quarterback on 44% of opponent dropbacks, according to TruMedia. That's a rate far higher than the 26% league average. In this game, Martindale sent a blitz on only nine of Kirk Cousins' 40 dropbacks, a 22.5% rate. He kept extra defenders in coverage to limit the number of downfield plays the Vikings had available to them, and indeed only four of Cousins' 39 pass attempts traveled at least 20 yards in the air. Justin Jefferson ended the game with just 47 receiving yards on nine targets, after he averaged 10.8 targets and 106.4 receiving yards per game during the regular season.
Because New York sat back in coverage for most of the game, it struggled to get much pressure on Cousins, who was not sacked at all. And yet, on a crucial fourth-quarter drive, the Vikings elected to call back-to-back screens to Dalvin Cook (6 catches, 10 yards) and T.J. Hockenson (10-129), which combined to lose 1 yard. That set up a third-and-long on which Cousins threw incomplete to Cook, and the Giants were able to run a bunch of time off the clock on their ensuing possession.
Minnesota did get one more chance with the ball late in the game, but even after benefiting from an extremely questionable roughing-the-passer call against Giants defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence, the Vikings stalled out near midfield. Defensive back Cordale Flott forced an incompletion on a tough pass to K.J. Osborn over the middle on third-and-8, and then Cousins checked down well short of the sticks to Hockenson on fourth down as Xavier McKinney brought him to the turf to end Minnesota's chance of victory.
Why the Giants won
Daniel Jones played one of the best games of his career, Wink Martindale threw a curveball with his defensive game plan, and the Giants executed in late-down situations. Jones has now started 54 career regular-season and playoff games, and this game ranked as his fourth-best by TruMedia's version of expected points added (EPA) per dropback. He repeatedly took off downfield, achieving a first down with four of his six scrambles. New York's offense was also electric on third and fourth downs, converting 7 of 13 in the formation situation and both of its opportunities in the latter. Meanwhile, the most blitz-happy defensive coordinator in all of football was content to sit back and play coverage for much of the game, the better to minimize the chance of a big play to Vikings superstar Justin Jefferson. It worked: Jefferson finished with just 7 receptions for 47 yards.
Why the Vikings lost
They absolutely could not deal with the threat Jones presented as a runner. During the regular season, the Vikings allowed opposing quarterbacks to scramble on 18% of pressured dropbacks, the fourth-highest rate in the NFL. They allowed Jones to scramble six times for 59 yards on his 11 pressured dropbacks. Jones gained 78 yards on his 17 carries overall, converting on both of his fourth-down sneaks. The Vikings also committed crucial errors at inopportune moments, such as the one described in the section below ...
Turning point
These two teams went back and forth for pretty much the entire game, so it's difficult to discern when things turned one way or the other. But an inflection point certainly came early in the fourth quarter, when the Giants held a 24-21 lead and the Vikings faced third-and-9 at the New York 24-yard line.
Cousins found Hockenson over the middle well short of the line to gain, but he kept his feet moving and received some assistance from an offensive lineman, and he ended up coming within mere inches of achieving a first down. In fact, at first, the officials spotted the ball a half-yard farther up the field than where it should have been, and awarded the Vikings a new set of downs. But in an expedited review, that ruling was overturned and it set up fourth down with less than 1 yard to go.
Minnesota came out in a jumbo formation, which meant none of Jefferson, K.J. Osborn, or Adam Thielen were on the field. The Vikings also had Dalvin Cook on the sideline, with Alexander Mattison in as the running back. They tried to get to the line quickly and run a QB sneak before the Giants defensive line was ready for it, but left tackle Christian Darrisaw started too quickly and was whistled for a false start. Minnesota settled for a game-tying field goal instead of having an opportunity to take the lead with a touchdown. The Giants drove down the field for the eventual game-winning score on their next possession.
Highlight play
Jones was the one doing most of the heavy lifting throughout the afternoon, but it was Barkley who got the Giants on the board with the first score of the game. Saquon had a big run called back on his first touch of the day, so he made his second touch count by going 28 yards to the house, totally untouched, on this beautifully designed and wonderfully blocked pitch play.
What's next
The Vikings are going home. They will have the No. 24 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. If this game (and season) is any indication, they desperately need to target some help on defense, and could especially use some new bodies in the secondary.
The Giants, meanwhile, advance to the divisional round, where they'll play a road game against the No. 1 seed in the NFC: the Philadelphia Eagles. New York lost both games against its division rival this season, getting outscored 70-38 across the two contests. With the Seahawks' loss to the 49ers on Saturday, the Giants are guaranteed to be on the road for every subsequent playoff game they play.
