EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- No Brian Burns? Not a problem for the time being for the New York Giants. Defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson has found a workaround without the team's top rusher. He's now bringing the blitz at the levels of former defensive coordinator Wink Martindale.
Wilson has called for more than four rushers on 56.6% of the opposition's dropbacks the past two weeks after Burns was lost for the season with a torn ACL in his right knee in Week 3. That is second only behind the blitz-happy Brian Flores and the Minnesota Vikings. This after the Giants blitzed 23.1% of the time over the first three weeks, 26th most in the NFL during that span.
"Dennard does a great job," coach John Harbaugh said. "He's got pretty much every blitz known to man in the system."
The Giants found something Sunday against the Washington Commanders and quarterback Jayden Daniels that worked, leading to a surprising tie. Wilson kept going to the well. He sent a defensive back as a blitzer on 15 of Daniels' 37 dropbacks (41%), their second-highest DB blitz rate in the past 10 seasons.
New York sacked Daniels three times when sending DB blitzes, two of which came from cornerback Dru Phillips.
"It's definitely a fun thing to do," Phillips said. "But it was cool to get out there and blitz a little bit."
Overall, Daniels was 2-of-7 passing for 23 yards with five sacks under pressure in the contest. The blitzing worked. It also worked the previous week against Arizona's Jacoby Brissett, especially on the goal-line stand in the final seconds when the Giants sent a blitz on three of the final four plays to secure a victory.
Brissett and Daniels combined completed just 45.7% of their passes against the blitz in the two games.
The Giants seem to suggest the sudden uptick in blitzing has something to do with playing without Burns, who had 16.5 sacks last season. His replacement, Kayvon Thibodeaux, isn't that level of a pass rusher. He has a pass rush win rate of 6.6%, which is 137th out of 142 qualifying rushers.
But it also has something to do with the opponent. The Giants played against veterans Dak Prescott and Matthew Stafford the first two weeks of the season. There was much more hesitation blitzing such accomplished passers.
"It's a great week-to-week game-planning mindset. Whether it has to do with Brian Burns being out or not, could be, but it's also who you're playing, [the] quarterback and those kind of things, or what the game situation calls for," Harbaugh said. "I think in this game [vs. Washington] you saw probably more [cover] zero all-out pressure blitzes from two teams in the fourth quarter and the fifth quarter than you'll ever see again, probably. I mean, every play pretty much was zero blitz by both teams, it seemed like. So, that's probably going to drive the numbers up a little bit game situation wise.
"But we feel like we would consider ourselves probably a blitzing team generally, but we also consider ourselves a cover defense, too. We think we play zone-match [coverage] well. We think we play man [coverage] well. We think we can do all those things. We want to keep it moving on people."
This week's opponent could bring a different approach as the Giants take on the New Orleans Saints on Sunday (1 p.m. ET, Fox). Saints QB Tyler Shough has been just a touch above average against the blitz, with a 0.1% completion percentage above expectation (CPOE). He has five touchdown passes and two interceptions against the blitz.
Wilson isn't about to simply commit to all-out blitzing just because Burns is out. Or with his current top edge rusher Abdul Carter dealing with a minor calf injury. The quarterback and opponent matters.
"Yeah, it'll be a mixture of both," he said. "I think that we've always had pressures in our system. You know, like I say, the first two games this season, we played quarterbacks that feast off of pressure, knowing where to go. I think it's always matchup dependent. It's how the guys are playing. It's rhythm of the game. It's feel of the game. It's the ability to adjust during the game. We always have pressures up. So, we'll use them when we have to and be smart and educated about it."
Wilson's track record doesn't show a heavy lean on the blitz. His Titans defense blitzed just 22.8% of dropbacks over the previous two seasons, the 22nd-highest rate. He sent DB blitzes 9.3% of dropbacks, which was 25th over that span.
Perhaps that changes a bit with the Giants short-handed on pass rushers. It might be the best way for them to survive.
"Dennard has a way of cooking things up, but it's definitely not I would say a consistent thing. It's a week-by-week thing off of, I guess what we're seeing and how we feel," Phillips said. "So, you just go out there and if they send me I'm going to try my best to go get there and everything but the percentage is just it goes off the flow of the game."