Cam Skattebo — Week 2: Twelve Carries, Thirty-Six Yards

Nothing to nothing, eight 33 left in the first quarter, third and two at the Los Angeles 45. Cam Skattebo took it up the middle for five yards and the first down. +1.1 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and 6.5 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it. That was the largest win-probability gain on any Giants run of the night, and it came on the second of New York's possessions, before any of this got away from them.

The line: 12 carries, 36 yards, one first down, three of the 12 successful, −2.2 expected points on the carries, and a longest of eight. The carries went four, three, two, five, one, three, nothing, one, five, two, two, eight. Seven before halftime for 18 yards, five after for 18. One carry inside the 21 inside the 10, and they were the same one: first and five at the Los Angeles six with two 38 left in the half, up the middle for no gain, on a possession that had started at the Los Angeles 11 after a Rams fumble and ended in a 24-yard field goal with 29 seconds left. A three-yard run around left end in the first quarter came back on a holding penalty on Jon Runyan.

Through the air he was perfect on small volume: four targets, four catches, 19 yards, one first down, −1.8 expected points on the targets. The catches went two, 19, −2 and nothing. The 19 was the good one, first and 10 at the New York 29 with five 27 left in the half, worth +1.0. The last of them, second and five with seven oh five left in the game, he caught for no gain and fumbled, and the ball went out of bounds at the Los Angeles 30.

The split: Skattebo took 12 of the Giants' 21 designed runs, Najee Harris four, Devin Singletary three, and Jameis Winston two. 16 of those 21 runs came before halftime and five after it, against 18 16 pass plays. New York finished with 52 rushing yards, the second-fewest of the 32 teams in Week Two, ahead only of Cleveland's 46, and −6.0 expected points on the ground.

Back in June the preview put Skattebo on the watchlist: a top-10 back on a per-game basis as a rookie, eight games, a fractured and dislocated ankle with ligament repair to come back from, and a note that the 24 catches in those eight games were the part that builds a floor. Week One was 18 carries for 81 and a touchdown with no targets at all. Monday the touches split the other way — 12 carries for 36, and the receiving work the preview named showed up for the first time, four targets and four catches. Two games settle neither half of that. New York is home to the Titans on Sunday the 20-seventh.

_Data via nflverse._