If the Giants have any chance of keeping alive their scant hopes of catching the Cowboys in the NFC East, the gang’s all got to be there for them Sunday night at MetLife Stadium.
That means every player on defense — from defensive linemen to linebackers to defensive backs to even stadium security, if they’re available. Gang tackling Cowboys super rookie running back Ezekiel Elliott is essential for the Giants’ survival.
Stopping Elliott has to be at the top of the Giants’ “to-do’’ list if they’re going to prevent the stench of their non-competitive loss last Sunday in Pittsburgh from wafting into this week and becoming a troubling two-game losing streak.
Elliott leads the NFL in rushing with 1,285 yards. He averages 4.9 yards per carry and has 12 touchdowns. He’s also a threat as a receiver out of the backfield, having caught 28 passes. Elliott is explosive. He’s powerful. He’s fast. He’s decisive to the open holes on the line and he has great vision.
Elliott represents the most dangerous Cowboys player to the Giants Sunday night. And he’ll be stopped only if the Giants’ defense gang tackles him every time he has the ball.
“Camera club,’’ defensive tackle Jay Bromley said. “That’s what we called it in college [at Syracuse]. Everybody gets into the camera shot on every tackle. The more hats to the ball, the more population you have to the ball, the better the outcome of fumbles and recovering fumbles. There are just a lot more positive things that can happen when you have more hats to the ball.’’
The Giants know exactly what’s coming their way when the Dallas offense is on the field.
“There’s no smoke and mirrors,’’ Bromley said. “It’s point-blank: ‘We’re going to run the ball and you’ve got figure out how to stop it.’ He’s a special back. We just have to find a way to corral him like we did last game.’’
That “last game” to which Bromley referred was the Giants’ Week 1 20-19 win over the Cowboys in which Elliott, playing in his first NFL game, rushed for 51 yards on 20 carries.
That was the only game the 11-1 Cowboys have lost and it was Elliott’s lowest rushing total of the season — even though he did score a touchdown. Since Week 1, Elliott has not rushed for fewer than 83 yards and he has five 100-plus-yard games and another four games in which he rushed for at least 90.
He had one stretch in which — in consecutive games — he stamped 140 yards on the Bears, 138 on the 49ers, 134 on the Bengals and 157 on the Packers.
You get the picture: No one has been stopping Elliott.
“We contained him pretty much the first game, but I didn’t think that was going to be the case for him all year,’’ linebacker Jonathan Casillas said. “We’ve got to be able to stop him and stop him early. We’ve got to play our best game this week.’’
This is the kind of game and personnel matchup defensive tackle Damon “Snacks’’ Harrison lives for.
“When you have a back like that, a team is going to want to run the ball, and I was born to be a run-stopper,’’ Harrison said. “He’s running all over everybody. From the very first time we played against him, we all said that that guy is going to be a great player in this league and that seems to be true up until this point.’’
Coach Ben McAdoo called Elliott “a complete player,’’ adding, “It’s hard to get a good clean shot on him. He’s a load. He’s a big young man and runs with a lot of energy.’’
One Giants player who knows Elliott well is defensive tackle Johnathan Hankins, who played with him for a year at Ohio State.
“Man, I knew the cat was going to be good when he came into the league, and to see him continue to play as well as he has isn’t really shocking,’’ Hankins said. “For him to be doing what he’s doing, I’m excited for him, but I’m not excited for him doing it against us.
“It’s going to take all 11 of us being on the same page, making sure we’re in our gaps and have the trust in the guy next to you that they’re going to get the job done. And we are going to get the job done.’’
It will take the entire gang.