Rob Gronkowski will be a challenge for Giants' defense
Rob Gronkowski #87 of the New England Patriots carries the ball as he scores a touchdown during the first quarter against the Miami Dolphins at Gillette Stadium on October 29, 2015 in Foxboro, Massachusetts. Credit: Getty Images / Jim Rogash
Brandon Meriweather knows exactly how the Giants will cover Rob Gronkowski.
"The same way everybody else did it," the safety told Newsday with a mischievous smile. "With a wish and a prayer. A wish and a prayer."
That might be the Giants' best defense against the league's best tight end. "We're going to go out there and hope that [Tom] Brady throws the ball into the ground, overthrows it," Meriweather said. "That's what we're gonna do."
In actuality, they'll do more than that. The Giants have been working on schemes and matchups all week to contain the Patriots' biggest -- and we do mean biggest -- offensive threat. They'll feed Gronkowski a not-so-steady diet of safeties, linebackers and even cornerbacks in an effort to keep him unbalanced and out of the end zone.
"He can take over the game," rookie Landon Collins said. "Once he gets going, it's kind of hard to stop him. You get on the hot seat, you have to figure out a way to break it down, slow it down as quickly as possible . . . We have to slow that down."
The Giants have not had much success doing that against tight ends this season. They have allowed a league-high 58 receptions by tight ends, the second-most receiving yards (684) and five touchdowns in nine games. Now here comes Gronk.
Gulp!
Collins said he's been watching Gronkowski on TV for years. "All you see is that big ol' spike," he said.
So Collins got a measure of relief when he actually spent time studying videotape. "You see what's actually happening," he said. "On TV you only see when the quarterback throws him the ball and you think he's always wide open. So you see what actually happens and you know what will help you out."
The Giants have been exposed by tight ends such as Ben Watson of the Saints (nine catches, 147 yards, one TD) and Jason Witten of the Cowboys (14 receptions, 133 yards and two TDs in two games). But there are no parallels for what Gronkowski can bring.
"He's a rare athlete, let's face it," coach Tom Coughlin said.
In the Giants' previous games against the Patriots, Gronkowski was not the factor he has been the last year and a half. In Super Bowl XLVI, he was hobbled by an ankle injury and caught only two passes for 26 yards. He was unable to outmuscle Chase Blackburn on a key interception in that game and came up just an inch or so short of catching the Hail Mary pass that ended the contest.
The Giants didn't have to be concerned with Gronkowski's speed in that game four years ago. This time they might use linebackers or safeties to disrupt him at the line of scrimmage and then hand him off to their cornerbacks. The Giants' best coverage cornerback, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, might find himself covering a tight end for one of the few times in his career.
"You have guys like Gronkowski and Jimmy Graham who are more receiver-type tight ends who can be a problem for your linebackers and safeties, so you want to have the best matchups you can," Rodgers-Cromartie said of using a cornerback against a tight end. "It's definitely something that could be done."
Instead of trying to match Gronkowski strength on strength -- "It's kind of hard to stop somebody who is 6-7, 260," Meriweather said -- the Giants will try to stay a step ahead of him. "You have to play around with it," Collins said. "Play off, play on. Go back and forth with him so he doesn't know what you're doing and it disrupts his running and his timing with Tom Brady . . . Just try to beat him to his route. Some of us are faster than him so we can read his routes quicker and try to beat him to the spot."
"With him being a bigger guy who is real strong, you want to use your quickness against him and use your feet," Rodgers-Cromartie said. "Getting up there and challenging, that's good, but it ain't the smartest thing to do. He's a guy who can go get the ball out of the air, can throw you by, so you kind of want to get him with quicks."
Added Meriweather: "We have to be relentless, have to be fast . . . We just have to be like that little gnat who never goes away."
No one has been able to curtail Gronkowski. He's had one game with fewer than 50 receiving yards this season, has four games with at least 100 receiving yards and has caught seven TDs.
"He's a mismatch with a lot of different guys," linebacker Devon Kennard said, "but we're confident in the guys we have on our defense and we want to slow him down."
Slowed down would be good. Can he be stopped?
"Yeah, anybody can be stopped in this league," Collins said. "We just have to figure out a way."
One that doesn't rely exclusively on wishing and praying.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
