According to New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., opposing defenses know what’s coming when the Giants line up their offense.
The wide receiver told reporters that Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback Vernon Hargreaves told him that they knew what he was doing.
Obviously, if the other team knows what you’re doing on offense when you line up in a certain set, that isn’t good. It’s on coach Ben McAdoo to mix things up to make sure that other teams can’t predict what the Giants are doing.
However, according to Dan Schneier at CBS Sports, some, including McAdoo, feel that media reaction to what Beckham said is overblown.
“Your interpretation of what Odell said and mine are entirely different,” McAdoo said. “Teams do a good job scouting the opponent. That’s a part of gamesmanship. We have things to counteract it, and it paid off for us in the game. Every defensive back thinks they know what you’re running until they don’t.”
Additionally, both wide receiver Sterling Shepard and rookie tight end Evan Engram feel similarly to McAdoo. Shepard had this to say.
“That’s what the defense gets paid to do,” Shepard said. “Every week I feel like defenses know what offenses are doing. They get paid to sit in there and watch film all day. They’re going to know what you’re going to do, you’ve just gotta be sound in it and add your own little twists sometimes.”
Engram later added this:
“We played a good game offensively. We moved the ball, we were able to score points. I think they had trouble dealing with things we had,” he said. “There’s a lot of tendencies and tells that good defenders can pick up on watching film, so maybe that’s what he meant. I don’t think it was that easy for them. They had their struggles with us.”
Offensive Coordinator Mike Sullivan also chimed in with this response, according to another piece by Schneier, and he was none too happy.
“I know we were able to get almost 400 yards of offense in the game, no turnovers, and a couple of TD passes, one that put us ahead late in the game,” Sullivan said to reporters Thursday. “Also that the player who he was talking to was actually the same player that Odell beat on a 42-yard double move.
Sullivan’s response to this is great and raises a good point. Hargreaves could have said that in the heat of the moment to try and get Beckham off his game, as the Giants had a pretty good week offensively.
This is something to keep an eye on, but a good defensive coordinator will always be able to pick up on at least a few tendencies that the offense has.