New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll says Dallas Cowboys edge rusher Micah Parsons is a "problem" but his team will have a "good plan for him"; Watch the Cowboys @ Giants live on Sky Sports NFL from 1.15am in the early hours of Tuesday morning
Tuesday 27 September 2022 06:36, UK
New York Giants offensive tackle Evan Neal is braced for the toughest test of his young NFL career so far as he comes up against Dallas Cowboys edge rusher Micah Parsons on Monday night.
Parsons entered Week Three leading the NFL with four sacks and 13 pressures while pressuring the quarterback at a league-fastest 2.01 seconds on average.
It marks the result of an enhanced commitment to utilising Parsons as an orthodox edge rusher, where the Penn State product inadvertently emerged as one of the league's most disruptive playmakers in light of injuries around him in 2021 having been drafted primarily as an off-ball linebacker.
He has played 95 snaps off the edge through the Cowboys' opening two games compared to 24 as an off-ball linebacker, and is likely to pit himself against rookie Neal at MetLife Stadium in the Week Three finale. Not that the Giants man is too fazed.
"He's a football player just like me. He puts his pants on one leg at a time just like me, straps up his shoulder pads one strap at a time just like me, and he's a really good player," Neal told reporters during the week. "Excited to go against him for sure.
"That's why you always dream of playing in the NFL, to go against the best players. Micah's a great player. He's really fast, the guy runs a 4.3.
"He's an elusive pass rusher. He's really crafty. He's a very athletic guy and he's slippery so a lot of times it's hard for, they play him everywhere.
"They line him up literally everywhere, he's a Swiss army knife for their defense, so that's really what kind of makes it tough to prepare for him."
Neal recorded a 73.9 pass block grade in the Week Two win over the Carolina Panthers to lift his season grade to 67.3, the highest among rookie tackles across the league. Across from him left tackle Andrew Thomas arrived into Week Three as PFF's highest-graded offensive lineman in the NFL with an 89.1 grade through two games.
Nonetheless, the Giants offensive line as a unit has allowed a league-high pressure rate of 49 per cent.
"He's a problem," head coach Brian Daboll said of Parsons. "He's a dynamic football player. He can play multiple spots, he does.
"You see him at linebacker, you see him at defensive end. He has rare pass-rush ability, and we're gonna have a good plan for him. He's fun to watch when you're not getting ready to play him. We have to obviously know where he's at."
Parsons logged 13 sacks, 37 quarterback hits, three forced fumbles and 83 tackles on his way to winning Defensive Rookie of the Year last season, and resumed destruction earlier this month with two sacks apiece on Tom Brady and Joe Burrow.
"When [opponents] play the Dallas Cowboys, he's probably the first one they're talking about in their offensive room," said Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy.
"We have to continue to create targeting challenges for the offense [to] make the offensive staff of the opponent work harder, the challenge of where he is. Because at the end of the day, he's so disruptive."
The Giants are 2-0 for the first time in six years after beginning the season with narrow-margin wins over the Tennessee Titans and Carolina Panthers, with Wink Martindale's blitz-friendly, field-muddying defense playing a defining role and a dynamic Saquon Barkley of old leading Daboll and Mike Kafka's offense with 236 rushing yards and a touchdown at 6.1 yards per carry.
Monday night's game is expected to see a season debut for rookie first-round edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux following his recovery from a preseason injury, while the added return of second-year pass rusher Azeez Ojulari should help compensate for the potential absence of Leonard Williams.
Question marks continue to loom with regards to the Giants' aerial attack, the scarcely-used Kadarius Toney having been nursing a hamstring injury and the mysteriously-absent Kenny Golladay seemingly disgruntled with his role. Rookie wideout Wan'Dale Robinson will also be missing for the second game in a row due to a knee injury.
The Cowboys will meanwhile be led by backup quarterback Cooper Rush as he continues to fill in for the injured Dak Prescott after completing 19 of 31 passes for 235 yards and a touchdown in last week's win over the Cincinnati Bengals.
Watch the Cowboys @ Giants live on Sky Sports NFL from 1.15am in the early hours of Tuesday morning
