It is understandable that many fans felt that the Minnesota Vikings’ 16-13 win over the New York Giants on Sunday was hollow. To Brian Flores, however, the win had to feel great. Flores had filed a lawsuit against multiple teams, including the Giants, after allegedly learning he would not get the job before he even interviewed — former Patriots’ coach Bill Belichick texted Flores a message congratulating him on getting the job; that text was meant for a different Brian: former Giants’ head coach Brian Daboll.
Since that debacle, Flores has faced the Giants once each in both of the last two seasons. In those two games, his defense has allowed 12 points in 8 quarters. On Sunday, the Vikings’ defense allowed just two FG drives, both of which were extended by roughing the passer penalties on 3rd down sacks that would otherwise have knocked the Giants out of field goal range.
Giants’ rookie QB Jaxson Dart completed just 7 passes for 33 yards. He also took 5 sacks, losing 20 yards, meaning the Giants had a paltry 13 net passing yards in the game. The ineptitude was almost historic. The 13 net passing yards are the second-lowest total in a game this year, only outpacing the New York Jets’ -10 passing yards against the Denver Broncos in week 6. Justin Fields threw for 45 yards in that game, so sack yardage made the difference.
Dart’s seven completions were the second lowest for a team in a game this season, with another Jets game, this time a win, producing just 6 (Week 10 against the Cleveland Browns).
So, seven completions is the fewest a team has had in a loss this season. No team has had fewer than seven completions in a loss since 2023, when the Giants (sigh… WHAT is going on in New York?) lost to the Jets by playing a combination of Tommy Devito and Tyrod Taylor.
If you ignore sack yardage, the comparisons get even more bleak. Since 2020, this is one of five games where the offense has recorded 33 or fewer yards on their passing attempts. Two are extremely memorable: One is the 2020 Broncos’ game, where played receiver Kendall Hinton at quarterback due to COVID protocol shenanigans, and the other is the 2021 Monday Night game, where the New England Patriots threw just three times and won against the Buffalo Bills.
The other three are… the New York Giants (how? HOW?!?). There’s this game, the Taylor/DeVito game mentioned above, and a 2022 game against the Chicago Bears where Mike Glennon started (against Andy Dalton???).
None of those games were with the team’s intended starting QB. While it’s pretty clear the Giants intended to start Dart this year, even if Russell Wilson was technically the day one starter. There are basically no instances where a team had less than 33 yards when excluding sacks in the 2010s.
The only one is the 2010 Bengals, who started a disinterested Carson Palmer and later put in (fantastic YouTube personality) J.T. O’Sullivan. The last game I could find where a team meant to start a QB, and he ended up with fewer than 33 passing yards in a game, was another memorable one: the Patriots’ 59-0 beatdown of the Tennessee Titans in 2009.
Kerry Collins started that game and completed 2 of 12 passes for -7 yards and an INT. The Titans fell to 0-6, and Collins was benched after the game. Vince Young proceeded to go 8-2 as a starter.
I almost don’t need to provide advanced stats to make the point of how poor a passing performance this was. Arif is going to provide them anyway:
Now, let’s get to breaking down the film to find out what Flores and the Vikings’ defense did to bring Dart to such lows.
Film Study
It is important to note that the Giants ran the ball well in this game (when they weren’t collecting holding penalties). They ran 30 times for 128 yards, and got 11 of their 12 first downs on the ground. To an extent, it felt as if the Vikings defense was giving up some room on the ground to ensure a solid pass defense.
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