Champion’s victory characterized by under-the-radar defensive plays

The trick that was thwarted by the Giants defense for a touchdown in their comeback victory Sunday at Tennessee was not part of any film package the players studied last week.

Nick Williams acted on instinct when he fought his way through his block and crashed backwards after reading a sweep hand-off to Titans third-string tight end Chig Okonkwo. Austin Calitro and Adoree’ Jackson swarmed to the ball, and Tae Crowder provided the clinching hit to turn a third-and-1 into a fourth-and-5.

Coaches and staff log many hours to prepare, but the focus and execution the Giants showed on that play is an example of what head coach Brian Daboll means when he says “it’s a player’s game.”

“Two of the biggest plays of the game were the third-down stops,” Daboll said, including Okonkwo’s 4-yard loss on two defensive stands in the second half that forced punts and preceded touchdown drives by the Giants. “They were pretty good heads-up plays by our defense. It gave us a chance to get the ball back.”

All the focus on Saquon Barkley’s renaissance, Daboll’s aggressive decision-making and the Titans’ missed field goals overshadowed a strong performance by a defense with more journeyman starters (three) than cumulative Pro Bowl selections (one). The Giants scored the second-highest tackle grade (five missed tackles) among all 32 teams by Pro Football Focus.

Two-time NFL rushing leader Derrick Henry was held to 3.9 yards per carry, which was his 13th-lowest average over his last 40 games. Only one of his 21 carries (for 82 yards) went longer than seven yards, as defensive tackle Leonard Williams and outside linebacker Jihad Ward carried heavy workloads with 82 and 88 percent of the defensive snaps, respectively.

“When you have a goal like that — one of the best backs in the league — you go to sleep at night thinking, ‘What are we going to do to stop him?’ ” safety Julian Love said. “We just ran to the ball and got after him.”

Henry fumbled a direct snap on a third-and-1 early in the third quarter and was tackled by Calitro and Crowder before he could recover. It’s an inside linebacker duo of a six-year veteran who has switched teams 10 times and the final pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.

“Our defense played easy,” Barkley said after the Giants overcame a 13-point deficit. “Especially at the beginning, when we were worth nothing. We were in the red the whole time.”

Crowder also delivered another hit that doesn’t stand out in the box score (recorded as a 3-yard gain), but sent a message of physicality to his teammates and became impossible to miss on social media: He lowered his shoulder and lowered his reins . Henry, as the 247-pound running back has done for so many would-be tacklers during his career.

“I don’t really pay much attention to it,” Crowder said of the video and memes shared thousands of times on Twitter. “I’m just trying to prepare the right way and it ended up being a good game. Everyone around me did a good job of flying to the ball.”

The Giants had 17 of 35 dropbacks, according to Pro Football Reference, but rarely sent more than one extra rusher to avoid being caught shorthanded at the second and third levels if the Titans had a run play called.

It was a testament to the restraint and opponent-specific game planning shown by defensive coordinator Wink Martindale, who loaded up on heavy bodies for Henry but recently suggested that there could be game plans designed entirely with extra defensive backs instead of inside linebackers.

“Part of the plan was to go in there and try to eliminate the big, big runs,” Daboll said. “They did a really good job of stopping the run against a very talented player and a good scheme. He had a couple of them, but we ended up not being able to get him the 60-yarder.”

The defensive challenge will take a new turn Sunday, with the Giants facing an equally explosive but different style of back in Panthers transfer Christian McCaffrey. The biggest potential mismatch for the Giants — an elite quarterback against their vulnerable secondary — doesn’t emerge until Week 5 against Aaron Rodgers and the Packers in London.

“Obviously it’s going to be a lot different,” Crowder said of the Week 2 game plan, “but it’s not really about what they’re going to do. It’s about what we’re going to do.”