The giants’ conscious defense needs to be much better

Just before offering Shane Bowen the Giants defensive coordinator job, head coach Brian Daboll asked him one last question.

“Could you make our run defense look like this?”

The annual success that Bowen’s plan stopped the Titans from running hasn’t carried over to the Giants, who rank last in the league with 5.4 yards allowed per carry and rank 25th with 138.1 rushing yards per game.

“We have to have a more offensive mentality,” Bowen said. “Playing on the other side of the line of scrimmage, finding ways to eliminate some space, making sure we’re playing with technique and fundamentals and using our hands.

“Sometimes you have to change the face and guys (have to) take on two blockers and steal some bodies that way to be able to fix things. Or you hope that everything will fit perfectly every time.”

steel workers, who will host the Giants on Monday nighttry to make the second most rushes in the game. If the Giants are playing from behind, it’s a recipe for disaster.

“We need to eliminate some of these explosives and continue to improve in combat. But it’s a challenge every week,” Daboll said. “How the game will play also has an impact. We’ve got to do a good job early on building the walls (and) establishing the margins, but it’s also a complementary game where they just can’t continue to have the ball, regardless of what they have up top.

Of course, Bowen wasn’t able to take the Titans’ defensive line staff with him to reduce the number of double and triple teams thrown at All-Pro Dexter Lawrence.

The Giants are paying for not replacing Leonard Williams and A’Shawn Robinson on defense from last season – they are 30th in rushing yards per hold in the middle of the field (5.64).

It’s not much better when the offense runs from the right side of the defense (No. 29, 6 per carry), the right tackle (No. 27, 5.31) or the right corner end (No. 32, 8.56).

“Your endurance depends on how you drive the ball and how you stop the ball,” Bowen said. “There are a lot of good clips there. But (when) you lose three for 133 yards, things skew dramatically.

Last week, the Eagles had four runs of 15 or more yards and seven of 12 or more yards against the Giants.

“They had a really good plan that we didn’t follow,” linebacker Bobby Okereke said. “It’s a chess game and they beat us in those games.”

Using this analogy, Daboll hopes Bowen’s plan will become a Giants tower.