The New York Giants' Pending Pace
Concerns surrounding the New York Giants were quickly affirmed in their Week 1 loss to the Dallas Cowboys.
Lineman Ereck Flowers was among the worst pass-blockers last week (according to Pro Football Focus), while Eli Manning followed up his 0.05 Passing NEP per drop back from 2016 with an even worse -0.02 mark (the average in 2016 was 0.23). It didn't help that Odell Beckham wasn't available, but that's no excuse to meander onto the field and average a mere 5.79 yards per attempt.
Outside of Brandon Marshall, though, one addendum was noticeably missing from the Giants' offense.
A weekly breakdown of every team’s no-huddle snaps from 2016, including home/road averages. (Data via @SharpFootball and SharpFootballStats) pic.twitter.com/4RwJR2WPA3
— John Daigle (@notJDaigle) May 8, 2017
New York averaged 37.19 no-huddle plays per game in 2016, the highest rate of any team, including an average of 8.7 more no-huddle plays at home. Without Beckham, the Giants ran a total of four no-huddle plays against Dallas — none of which occurred until the team was forced to go no-huddle in their final drive.
Meanwhile, the Detroit Lions have averaged 43.33 no-huddle plays over their last three regular season games, including a 49.2 percent no-huddle rate in Week 1 against the Arizona Cardinals.
If Beckham does return -- even if he's not 100 percent yet -- this Monday Night Football matchup could quietly finish with the most plays run between any two teams this week.