Insights from Week 3 with the Cowboys on the horizon

Dan Solomon: The NFL is a funny business. In Week 1, the Giants expected blitzes from the Vikings defense, but they didn't get them. Two weeks later, the Browns expected nothing from the Giants defense, but they got it — and a lot of it.

“I mean, they changed the game plan,” said Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson, who was sacked eight times on Sunday and took 17 quarterback hits from nine different Giants. “I think you have to give their DC Shane (Bowen) a lot of credit for doing something different than we did… obviously we expected pressure, but as much as they built it up, you just have to prepare for the worst. And they did a good job of trying to create some imbalance and confusion up front to throw us off sync in the passing game.”

The big question throughout the offseason was what Bowen's strategy would be after his successful run with Tennessee, where his unit had the best red zone defense just last year. The answer was that Bowen puts a lot of emphasis on his front four, but always puts a caveat. He would do what he thought was best for the week, a philosophy he shares with Bill Belichick-coached Brian Daboll.

“We've gone through the whole spectrum,” Bowen said in April when everyone at the facility, including the players, met him. “We brought four. We brought five. We brought six. We did some work on zone pressure and overload. So we've got it all.”

Watson and the Browns can attest to that. Now it's just a question of what the Giants cook up on a short week as they prepare to face the Cowboys, who scored a total of 89 points in a series sweep last season.

“So (Bowen's) tendencies … are similar to Mike Vrabel's,” Watson explained, referring to the former Titans head coach who now works as a coach and personnel consultant for Cleveland. “It was a lot of coverage, a lot of quarters, a lot of coverage two. At least coverage three. Not a team that was under a lot of pressure. But, you know, in this game, they wanted to do that. They applied a lot more pressure on down-and-distances than they normally do, which they don't normally do, especially on first down. On second-and-long, it's usually man coverage, but, you know, they played a lot of man coverage, but also applied pressure with it. A lot of one-whole, Lauer and stuff like that. So, like I said, they planned it well.”