New York Giants: Can Perry Fewell fix this defense?

The conventional view of the Giants' season is that the defense feasted on cupcake opponents such as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Oakland Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs in the first few weeks of the season. Then the eventual Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints finally exposed the Giants' defense as a unit that could not cover -- particularly between the hashmarks -- and was surprisingly indifferent to its run responsibilities.

In this case, the conventional wisdom is correct: According to Football Outsiders' advanced defense-adjusted value over average stats, the Giants' defense was 26.5 percent better than an average defense in Weeks 1-5, then 14.5 percent worse than average for the rest of the season. Against quality passing attacks such as Philadelphia, New Orleans and Minnesota (not to mention the Matt Moore-led Panthers), the Giants were helpless. First-year defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan tried to continue the aggressive playcalling of his predecessor, Steve Spagnuolo, dialing up big blitzes with six or more rushers on 14 percent of pass plays, but there wasn't much creativity in the blitz design.

After firing Sheridan at season's end, the team moved quickly to find a replacement, targeting deposed Buffalo Bills interim coach Perry Fewell. Fewell chose to accept the Giants' job over a job with the Chicago Bears, despite his close personal relationship with Lovie Smith; at first glance, it seems like a strange decision. Fewell is a Cover 2 disciple, and for his defense to work properly, he requires undersized linebackers who can flow to the ball and drop into coverage. Aside from Michael Boley, who is coming off a very disappointing season, no one on the roster remotely fits this job description. The Giants do have some young players such as Clint Sintim, Jonathan Goff, Bryan Kehl and Chase Blackburn, but they were drafted with a more traditional 4-3 in mind and may not fit what Fewell wants to do.

On the other hand, there are signs that Fewell might do well. He relies heavily on a four-man rush, and the Giants have the personnel to provide it -- even in a down season, their 6.7 percent adjusted sack rate was no worse than middle of the pack. Fewell is also considered one of the premier secondary coaches in the league. Buffalo was fourth-best in the league at covering No. 1 receivers, and the Bills were able to keep their performance up even as their secondary was ravaged by injuries.

That's good news for a team that was torched by DeSean Jackson, Steve Smith, Sidney Rice and just about every other No. 1 receiver who showed up on the schedule. Fewell has a talented pair of starting cornerbacks to work with in Corey Webster and Aaron Ross, but he needs Ross to start playing up to his potential. He'll also need to do more than tweak the scheme to improve the safety play -- the Giants need some new players, particularly if Kenny Phillips takes a long time to work his way back from microfracture surgery.

NYG Hampton 27 wrote:Doesn't seem like anything new. The Giants D fell apart; the pass defense was subpar, the pass rush was mediocre. Fewell has done well with pass defense, so the Giants brought him in.

The one thing the article brings up, which I think will be the biggest concern for the defense next year is the LBers ability in pass coverage. There needs to be big changes there. Man I miss Armstead.