Giants vs. Commanders: Preview, prediction, what to watch for in Week 15

An inside look at Sunday’s Giants-Commanders NFL Week 15 matchup at MetLife Stadium:

Marquee matchup

Commanders rushing offense vs. Giants run defense 

There is strength in numbers for Washington’s ground game, which is ranked No. 4 in the league, averaging 136.5 yards per game. The leader of the pack is rookie Jacory Croskey-Merritt, with Chris Rodriguez Jr. questionable with a groin injury. 

Jacory Croskey-Merritt runs with the ball during the Commanders’ Dec. 7 game. AP

Of course, the quarterbacks play a big role here. Jayden Daniels is out, but Marcus Mariota has 255 rushing yards and averages 6.5 per attempt. The Giants are notoriously bad in this department: 31st in the NFL, giving up a ghastly 154.2 yards per game. In the season opener, the Commanders ran wild for 220 yards, torching the Giants for 6.9 yards per run. 

Four downs

Late pass

Will Abdul Carter actually start this game? He was held out of the starting lineup in two of the past three games after twice failing to adhere to team rules — missing a walk through and showing up late to a meeting. Interim head coach Mike Kafka laid down the punishment, and the rookie outside linebacker needs to show he can get his act together. 

Abdul Carter is pictured Dec. 7. Bill Kostroun for the NY Post

“Abdul’s doing a great job just learning from those experiences,” Kafka said, revealing that Carter arrived for work at 7:30 a.m. Monday coming off the bye to watch extra tape. “I think he’s just trying to turn that corner and continue to grow and develop as a young player and do a good job.” 

Backup plan

Jameis Winston was the No. 1 pick in the 2015 draft, and his career has not gone as expected. Marcus Mariota was the No. 2 pick that year, and he also did not develop as expected. Winston won the Heisman Trophy at Florida State and Mariota won the Heisman at Oregon. Winston showed in his two starts (both losses) this season that he should be viewed as one of the top backup quarterbacks in the league. Mariota can make a claim to that as well. This season, he is 1-5 filling in for injured Jayden Daniels despite playing reasonably well. 

• CHECK OUT THE LATEST NFL STANDINGS AND GIANTS STATS

One year later

The Commanders in 2024 were a turnaround team, finishing 12-5 in the regular season and winning two playoff games before falling to the Eagles in the NFC Championship. Instead of building off that success, the Commanders crumbled. Tucked inside their eight-game losing streak are four consecutive losses by at least 21 points — the first time that has happened in the NFL in 23 years. Not included in those one-sided setbacks is last week’s 31-0 blowout loss to the Vikings. 

“None of it was acceptable,” head coach Dan Quinn said after that debacle. “Baffling, frustrating, enraged, all of that comes into play.” 

Time on task

Any new head coach needs time — usually a spring and a summer training camp — to install his program and get his team ready to roll. An interim head coach is thrown into the job with only a few days or a week to prepare. That is the hand Kafka was dealt. The bye week was the first break in the schedule to actually take a step back. 

“I was able to get through all three phases and really communicate with the respective coordinators and talk through things I saw, things they saw,” Kafka said. “I mean, they’re a little bit more in the weeds on their respective areas, but I was able to go there, ask questions, and get some good feedback and just open up those lines of communication.”

Paul’s pick

Here’s a question: If the Giants can’t beat the Commanders, who can they beat? Both of these teams are on long losing streaks, and one of those streaks will come to an end. Is it too much to ask that the home team, with Jaxson Dart at the controls of the offense, can come out on top? 

Giants 23, Commanders 20