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Giants offense presents Rams with similarly unique wrinkle as 49ers
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- Giants offense presents Rams with similarly unique wrinkle as 49ers
The Los Angeles Rams struggled against the San Francisco 49ers ' rushing attack once again in Week 1 , allowing 174 yards rushing on just 30 carries – an average of nearly 6 yards per carry. Christian McCaffrey (68 yards) and Kaelon Black (65 yards) did most of the damage, following the lead of fullback Kyle Juszczyk .
The New York Giants don't utilize the same offensive scheme as Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers, but they do have one very similar wrinkle: fullback usage.
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Giants fullback Patrick Ricard followed Harbaugh from the Ravens to New York and while he isn't the receiving threat that Juszczyk is, he's a 300-pound bowling ball in the backfield. It's not something defenses are used to seeing because of how infrequently offenses use fullbacks nowadays.
Even with fullback usage up in Week 1 compared to last year, they were only on the field for 12.4% of the snaps across the NFL last week; that number was 7.5% in Week 1 of last season, per Ryan Paganetti .
Both the Giants and 49ers put their fullbacks in motion often in the first week of the season, which allowed them to be more effective as lead blockers, wiping out linebackers and edge defenders to clear the way for their running backs.
According to SumerSports, Ricard was in motion at the snap 36.1% of the time last week and Juszczyk was in motion at the snap 51.5% of the time against the Rams.
In the case of Ricard, it was an effective way to utilize the lead blocker for Cam Skattebo , who rushed for 81 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries. You can see some of those plays in the video blow, illustrating the impact Ricard has on the game despite not touching the ball.
Essentially, he's a sixth offensive lineman on the field, but a much more athletic one who can get downhill on inside rushes or to the edge on outside runs.
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In Week 1, the 49ers had two backs on the field 53.9% of the time, including a league-high 48.1% of the snaps coming in 21 personnel. The Giants had two backs on offense 56.2% of the time, leading the NFL in 20 and 22 personnel usage.
The only other team that had more two-back sets than the 49ers and Giants was the Raiders at 58.5%.
Maybe it's a good thing that the Rams are going back-to-back weeks facing teams that heavily utilize fullbacks. They can adjust accordingly based on what the film showed in their loss to the 49ers, planning for the Giants to use a similar attack on offense.
The 49ers are by no means an old-school offense, but under Matt Nagy and Greg Roman, the Giants want to play bully ball with their two-back sets. They want to wear the defense down by handing the ball off and maintaining possession, with Ricard playing a big part in that.
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The Giants only had seven possessions against the Cowboys on Sunday night but they scored touchdowns on four of them and held the ball for nearly 37 minutes. The Rams have to get off the field on third down. Otherwise, they're going to face a similar fate as the Cowboys did where they only had two drives in the second half.
This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: Giants offense presents Rams with similarly unique wrinkle as 49ers
