If the New York Giants are going to win their first game at home against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday, they’ll need for their stars and other players to step up.
EAST RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY—The New York Giants will look to win their second game in a row, and their first home game of the season as they take on the (3-6) Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Giants are trying to win back-to-back games for the first time since Weeks 14 & 15 of the 2016 season.
Whenever the Giants play, their star players, Eli Manning, Odell Beckham Jr, Saquon Barkley, and Landon Collins, are always huge in determining the outcome. But in a game between two evenly matched teams, the outcome could come down to a few players that will be X-Factors.
Here are the X-Factors for the Giants against the Buccaneers:
1. Corey Coleman
The Giants activated Corey Coleman to their active roster and the former first-round draft pick of the Cleveland Browns began to pay dividends last week against the 49ers.
With the Giants down 20-10 in the third quarter, Coleman ran back a kickoff 51 yards. Four plays later, the Giants scored a touchdown to cut the deficit to three. Coleman also had one reception for 11 yards.
With another week of practicing and getting more acclimated with the offense, Coleman should see an increase in snaps on Sunday. The Buccaneers will be without cornerback M.J. Stewart due to a foot injury which will make their 26th ranked pass defense even more vulnerable.
The rest Buccaneers defense will key in on Beckham, Sterling Shepard, and Evan Engram. So this will create opportunities for Coleman to make a big impact in the passing game in addition to his kick return duties.
2. Nate Solder & Chad Wheeler
Jason Pierre-Paul makes his return to MetLife Stadium after spending the first eight seasons with Big Blue. He’s having a career resurgence in his first season with the Buccaneers as he leads the team in sacks with eight.
He comes into this game highly motivated to show the Giants that they were wrong for trading him. So it’s imperative that the Giants two starting tackles Nate Solder and Chad Wheeler not allow JPP to be a disruptive force on Sunday.
If they can keep JPP off Manning, the Giants will win.
3. B.W. Webb
Tampa Bay lives and dies by the pass as they have they have the number one ranked passing offense in the league. So the Giants secondary will have a busy afternoon.
Despite Janoris Jenkins struggling this season, he’s still their best cornerback which means Ryan Fitzpatrick with test Webb often on Sunday. The Bucs have a talented and explosive receiving corps that includes Mike Evans, DeSean Jackson, and Adam Humphries.
Webb must be able to hold his own against the Buccaneers receivers if the Giants are going to slow down Fitzpatrick and the offense.
4. Lorenzo Carter
Although the Giants didn’t use the draft pick they got from the Bucs to draft Carter, he’s essentially the current and long-term replacement for JPP as an edge rusher.
The Giants pass rush has been nonexistent all year as they only have 10 sacks on the season which is 31st in the NFL. But there are reasons to be optimistic that the pass rush will come alive on Sunday as the Buccaneers have allowed 26 sacks this season.
Carter has been getting better and last week he had a season-high seven tackles. Much of the talk this week has been about the big game JPP might have, but Carter stands a good chance of having a bigger game than he had last week making tackles and finding his way to Fitzpatrick.
