Oakland Raiders: Four Things That Must Happen Against The Giants
By Kevin Saito
Contain Smith
It’s been a tumultuous week for the New York Giants. We witnessed, perhaps, one of the most ham-handed, horribly bungled send-offs for a two-time Super Bowl winning quarterback that we’ve ever seen.
The ignominious benching of Eli Manning means that the Raiders will be facing a quarterback who is pretty sub-par overall, but one who’s had some success against them in the past – Geno Smith.
Next: Raiders Shouldn't Feel Comfortable Facing Smith
In terms of throwing the football, Smith is pretty erratic, as his career arc has shown. He has a career 12-18 record as a starter, a 58 percent completion rate, and has thrown 36 interceptions agianst just 28 touchdowns.
And yet, despite that mediocrity, he’s somehow, managed to bedevil the Raiders, posting a 2-1 mark against them – his one loss coming in relief of an injured Ryan Fitzpatrick.
Against Oakland, Smith is somehow completing 70 percent of his passes (66/95) for 705 yards with four touchdowns against just three interceptions. And of course, that 2-0 record as a starter. And let’s not forget that Smith was a member of some pretty bad Jets teams in compiling those stats.
Smith, though, has also done some damage to Oakland’s defense with his legs.
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In his three games against Oakland, Smith has rushed for 122 yards on just 17 rushes – that’s an average of just over seven yards a carry, if you’re scoring at home. He’s also tacked on a rushing touchdown against the Silver and Black.
This Giants squad, as beaten and banged up as they are, have arguably less talent than some of Smith’s former Jets’ squads. Maybe. But that’s not to say New York is completely devoid of talent altogether. And sometimes, when teams are faced with adversity, they can manage to come together, rise up, and play inspired football.
Just ask the Kansas City Chiefs about that, since they lost to this same Giants squad 12-9 just a couple of weeks ago.
Oakland is going to need to do a good job against Smith and this Giants offense on the defensive side of the ball. They need to be aware of his ability to run, throw, and especially of his past successes against this team.
Smith is going to be pulling out all the stops to prove that he belongs under center and to justify HC Ben McAdoo’s decision to start him. It’s on this Raiders defense to keep him contained and looking more like the quarterback with the career 58 percent completion percentage and 36 interceptions, rather than the one who’s done a good job of cutting them up in the past.