Shane Bowen was under pressure to change, and the defensive coordinator of the New York Giants answered the call during the team’s 34-17 win over the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 6. That’s according to edge-rusher Brian Burns, who is now third in the NFL in sacks after logging two against Jalen Hurts.
Burns revealed how Bowen switched things up for the visit of the defending Super Bowl champions to MetLife Stadium for Thursday Night Football. The outside linebacker who led a dominant defense that sacked Eagles quarterback Hurts three times and snatched a critical interception, revealed, “Shane called a great game. He mixed it up. A lot of simulated (pressures). He changed the picture for Jalen. Made him hold the ball and gave us opportunities to get after the ball,” per the New York Post’s Ryan Dunleavy.
Those things represent not insignificant changes from Bowen. He’s a play-caller usually associated more with passive zones and a steady, but predictable four-man rush.
Using both of those basic concepts looked like the ideal way to unleash the Giants’ fleet of dynamic pass-rushers, featuring Burns and 2025 NFL draft No. 3 pick Abdul Carter. Yet, things hadn’t gone to plan during the first five games of this season, so Bowen riffed with the formula in exciting ways against Hurts.
It helped to have Burns enjoying the best performance of what’s turning into a banner campaign.
Giants Changed Things Up at Right Time
Bowen’s defenses had been decidedly vanilla, but the man with the headset deserves credit for undergoing a dramatic stylistics shift against the Eagles. The shift played out via more moving parts up front, where Burns had a roving, destructive brief.
His extended work as an off-ball linebacker who blitzed the middle caused the Eagles and Hurts all sorts of problems on third down. Each of Burns’ two sacks came on football’s money down, including this one highlighted by Nick Falato of SB Nation’s Big Blue View.
Even when Burns was lined up in his natural spot on the edge of the defensive line, he rarely stayed still for long. Instead, Bowen appeared to have granted his flexible and mobile QB hunters more freedom to stunt and twist.
The tactics paid huge dividends when Burns stepped inside Carter to get to Hurts, a twist highlighted by NFL Network’s Brian Baldinger.
Putting Burns and Carter together on the same side is just one way Bowen gets to change the picture up front. Creating more confusion for offensive lines and the signal-callers adjusting their blocking schemes is key, but sometimes the most direct approach works best.
Like when Bowen made an “aggressive call” to “send seven” and force Hurts’ interception snatched by cornerback Cor’Dale Flott, per Dan Duggan of The Athletic. Full-house blitzes have been a distant memory for the Giants since Bowen replaced Don ‘Wink’ Martindale as play-caller, but the scheme still has value if used selectively.
Bowen needed to go bold to change the narrative about his risk-averse schemes. Senior figures have struggled to build rapport with both the system and its designer, while players with a Super Bowl-winning pedigree have wanted to see more disguise and physicality on the back end.
Those calls were answered because Bowen can give the people what they want when Burns is dominating one-on-one matchups at an exceptional rate.
Brian Burns is Having a Special Season
Burns is making predictions about a breakout campaign look good because he’s producing some truly special performances. He’s elevated his game rushing the passer, but Burns is also becoming more of a force against the run.
The 27-year-old jumped inside and dropped former Giants running back Saquon Barkley for a loss on 2nd-and-5, to precede a momentum-changing sack, per Falato.
Plays like this one were how the Giants limited Barkley to 58 yards, despite last season’s rushing 2,000-yard rusher taking his first two carries for 31 yards. This play also represents the kind of hustle that earns praise from head coach Brian Daboll.
The latter regards Burns highly as a “true definition of what it means to be a leader. He does all of the right things, and he’s talented,” per SNY.tv’s Giants Videos.
Burns is leading by example, and Daboll knows the value of that example to a rebuilding team craving some momentum. More progress and wins will follow if Burns and other playmakers on defense are allowed to be as creatively disruptive as they were against Hurts, Barkley and Co.
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