Inside Slant

The Sports Xchange

November 29, 2018 at 2:10 am.

Giants O-line starting to come together

The New York Giants of late have done a much better job with getting their offense untracked early in the game, scoring 23 points in the first quarter since returning from their bye week after scoring 26 points in their first eight games of the season.

Good thing too, because when they host the Chicago Bears on Sunday. they’re going to face a team that has outscored its opponents 169-65 in the first half.

“Yeah, when you look at them, they’re good against the run, and they do a good job getting sacks and getting turnovers,” quarterback Eli Manning said.

“I think they have a sound defense. It’s nothing exotic or confusing. It’s just good players and good scheme, and they play fast. You just have to stay on pace and stay in rhythm and avoid those negative plays and don’t let them create those big plays.”

At the heart of the Bears defense is outside linebacker Khalil Mack, whom the Bears acquired in a trade with the Raiders earlier this year. Mack leads the Bears with 8.0 sacks and is second on the team in quarterback hits (behind fellow linebacker Akiem Hicks) with nine.

Mack, who sometimes switches sides, is expected to primarily go against Giants left tackle Nate Solder.

“He’s got all the talent and qualities that you would ever ask for in a defensive end, but he plays with a really good team too,” Solder said of Mack. “They’re good across the board on their D-Line, they’re good across the board on their linebackers and DBs so it’s not just him, it’s the combination of everything that makes it that much more difficult.”

Chad Wheeler, who last year faced Mack when the defender was with the Raiders, said he has been looking at tape from that meeting to refresh his memory on what Mack likes to try to do.

“He’s just relentless. A great player,” Wheeler said in summarizing his review. “He has an internal drive that sometimes I match, so you’ve got to bring it. I want to see what he saw and breakdowns in my pass protection and run blocking, see if I’ve fixed those or not. That’s going to help me out.”

The Giants’ offensive line, which allowed 31 sacks in their first eight games, have done a better job of late against the league’s pass rushers. Since returning from their Week 9 bye, the Giants have allowed seven sacks, but some of those have been of the coverage variety while one came about as a result of Eli Manning stumbling on the turf.

“The preparation starts at the beginning of this week,” Solder said when asked how well the line has to handle not just Mack, but the entire Bears pass rush that has 34 sacks (tied for sixth most in the NFL) for the year.

“We push back what happened last week, we go towards doing the best we can for the Bears. What gives us confidence is that we work hard, we understand our opponents as best we can, and we play at a high level.”

And if Mack should indeed line up across from Wheeler, Solder said he’s confident in the second-year tackle’s ability to get the job done.

“Chad does a great job,” Solder said. “He works really hard, he studies, he does the things he needs to do and then you have to perform.”

SERIES HISTORY: 51st regular-season meeting. Bears lead series, 28-20-2. Since 2004, the two teams have split their regular-season series, 3-3, with the Giants winning the last two games played at MetLife Stadium by scores of 17-3 in 2010 and 22-16 in 2016. The Bears are 5-3 against the Giants in the postseason.