The Bengals and Giants defenses are at opposite ends of the critical metric entering the Week 6 matchup

The respective defenses of the Cincinnati Bengals and New York Giants are at opposite ends of a critical statistic.

Football analyst Warren Sharp has a statistic he calls the “Havoc Rate.” He defines this measurement as the number of plays that result in sacks, forced fumbles, interceptions, tackles for loss, or pass breakups.

We'll see the best team in this category take on the worst on Sunday night. Unfortunately, given the criteria and performance of Cincinnati's defense this season, you already know where this is going. According to Sharp, the New York Giants have the highest chaos rate in the NFL. The Bengals rank last in this metric.

We looked at the raw numbers to find out why the Giants are the best and the Bengals are the worst.

Sacks

The Giants lead the league with 22 sacks. Defensive Tackle: Dexter Lawrence leads her team with six sacks. The worst thing for the offense is a pass rush from the middle of the offensive line. Lawrence is just one of several players Cincinnati is struggling with. However, he is the one the Bengals have to worry about the most.

Edge rusher Brian Burns and blitzing safety Jason Pinnock are other players the Bengals' offense will need to locate and prevent from getting to quarterback Joe Burrow. The Bengals are on the other end of the sack spectrum. They only have six sacks this season. They are ranked 31st in this category. Trey Hendrickson leads Cincinnati with three points.

Sack percentage

The Giants have more sacks than anyone else. They also record sacks most often. New York leads the NFL in sack percentage. When the opposing quarterback drops back to pass, the Giants record a sack 12.3% of the time. There are only three teams above 10%. The closest are the New York Jets at 11.4%, followed by the Broncos at 10.8%.

At the bottom of this ranking are the Bengals, who rank 31st with a sack percentage of 3.7. Cincinnati has an impressive offensive line. So don't expect this percentage to make much progress this weekend. However, it would be nice if it were like that.

Tackles for loss

Tackles for loss is another area that explains the big gap between Cincinnati and New York in Havoc Rate. The Giants rank fourth in the league with 30 tackles for loss. Lawrence leads the category with four titles. Pinnock and Burns have three each. On the other side are the Bengals, who are 32nd with 11 tackles for loss. Hendrickson leads the Bengals with three.

Hendrickson can't do everything alone. Lou Anarumo's unit needs to get more production from Sam Hubbard, BJ Hill, Joseph Ossai and others. This allows the secondary to focus on the threats of Darius Slayton and Wan'Dale Robinson. Luckily, they don't have to worry about Malik Nabers.

Forced fumble

We are now entering areas where the gap between the two teams is not that great according to Sharpe's criteria. New York's defense has a slight advantage over Cincinnati when it comes to forced fumbles. The Giants have forced four fumbles this season. They recovered all four. The Bengals have three forced fumbles to their credit. But they only recovered two. Germaine Pratt has two forced fumbles and both recoveries.

Pass separations

The Giants have recorded 20 passes defended so far. Cornerback Deonte Banks and pass rusher Brian Burns lead their team with five players. Cincinnati has 16 pass breakups this season. Cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt topped the Bengals with five. The Bengals secondary will have plenty of opportunity to increase their pass breakup totals this Sunday.

Interception

Finally, we come to a category in which Cincinnati's defense is better than New York's, although not by much.

The Bengals have three interceptions this season. They are in 13th place in the league. Taylor-Britt, Akeem Davis-Gaither and Vonn Bell each have one. The Giants have just one interception this season. That came in Week 1 from rookie linebacker Darius Muasau. They rank 29th in this statistic.