Welcome to Pain’s Points, offseason edition, a recurring list and thought process that gives all Giants fans, well, Pain. The season might be over but there are more than enough Pain Points to share:

Pain Point #1: The Defense

A lot gets said about how good the defense was and how it was the lone bright spot for this team but was it? Let’s take a quick dive into some of the stats:

  • Opp PPG: 24.5 (23rd)
  • Opp Yards per Game: 354.8 (21st)
  • Opp Yards per Game: 129 (25th)
  • Sacks: 34 (22nd tied)

Penalties: 107 (10th)

Now, this isn’t exactly pretty, and the offense did us no favors. However, you still have a job to do, and it was not done well enough. The team suffered 8 losses when giving up more than 24 points. The team gave up more than 30 points 6 times, that is a third of your season. Add that to a true lack of a pass rush and a ton of penalties combined with a high number of missed tackles and you won’t see a lot of defensive success. While there is word that Patrick Graham would be retained if he did not move on, I am not sure that his “bend, but don’t break” defense is really all that good.

Pain Point #2: Riley Dixon

Riley Dixon looked bad, not just statistically, but he looked bad on tape. When the team needed some assistance to flip the field, it was rarely if ever done by our punter:

  • Punt Avg: 44.4 (23rd)
  • Net Avg: 39.5 (22nd)
  • Touchbacks: 6 (3rd tied)
  • Inside 20: 24 (12th, mid-ranked but 24 out of 74 punts is not good)

 A punter is a specialist and has literally one specific job, and Dixon was well below average. If your punter can’t place the ball where it needs to go, your coverage is left scrambling to try to win in spite of it. It would be a grave mistake to see Dixon on the roster next season.

Pain Point #3: The Return Game

Whether it was kickoffs or punts, it seemed like a struggle to get yards. The Giants return game was in the bottom third of the league, let’s take a look:

  • Punt Returns: 26 (20th)
  • Punt Return Yards: 197 (23rd)
  • Punt Return Avg: 7.6 (23rd)
  • Kickoff Returns: 33 (19th)
  • Kickoff Return Yards: 683 (22nd)
  • Kickoff Return Avg: 20.7 (22nd)

 The return game was a struggle regardless of if it was punts or kickoffs. Multiple individuals were used, and the result was more or less the same, a struggle to move up the field to add pressure to the opponent. While our former head coach was a supposed special team’s ace, the results are lackluster.

Stay tuned for more, Pain Points in life, especially if you are a Giants fan. Remember, this is our Pain and we have every right to be mad about it.