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NFL New York Giants

Offensive Line Is Key To New York Giants Win Over Jacksonville Jaguars

By @Bigwoolf5

New York Giants, Jacksonville Jaguars

Kirby Lee-USA Today Sports

The New York Giants are on a six-game losing streak, all six of those losses coming against teams that have playoff hopes. This week, the Giants get a break on paper when they take on the 1-10 Jacksonville Jaguars, but if they are going to leave Jacksonville with a win, the Giants’ offensive line needs to have a good game.

The Jaguars rank near the bottom in almost every category, whether it be offensive or defensive, but the area where they are strongest is where the Giants have been the weakest. The Jaguars can get after the quarterback, as evidenced by their 33 sacks so far this season, good for third in the league. Chris Clemons leads the team with seven sacks, and he is one of three Jaguars with at least five sacks this season.

The Giants’ offensive line has not been very good this season. After the same five linemen started the first 10 games, Head coach Tom Coughlin decided to make a change last week against the Dallas Cowboys. Geoff Schwartz came back from injury and made his first start of the year at right tackle, but this week may have to move inside and play guard. Justin Pugh missed last week’s game with a quad injury, but was not having a great sophomore season before the injury.

There isn’t any one player on the line who has performed particularly well this year. Will Beatty, the team’s left tackle, was looking for a bounce-back season, but looks more likely to be cut after the season since his performance hasn’t been up to par. Weston Richburg, the team’s second-round pick in the 2014 draft, had started every game before this past Sunday because of Schwartz’s injury, and was predictably inconsistent. Richburg did eventually make his way into the game against the Cowboys after his replacement Adam Snyder was injured.

Having so much movement along the offensive line this late in the season is never a good sign for a team, and the fact that Coughlin doesn’t know who’s going to play where along the line week to week speaks volumes to where this unit is at as a whole.

The Jaguars may not be a very good team, but right now neither are the Giants. The one thing the Jaguars do well is get after the quarterback, and that is by far the Giants’ biggest weakness. Add that to the fact that the Jaguars are the home team, and this game may not be as easy as Giants fans would initially have thought.

If the Giants are going to win this game, they are going to need their offensive linemen to step up and keep the pocket clean for Eli Manning, who has recently not had much time to throw.

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