What Makes the Giants Run

By REED ALBERGOTTI

No matter how complex the National Football League becomes, most teams still have one bread-and-butter play, something they practice obsessively, run every week without fail and essentially dare their opponents to stop. The New York Giants, who take on the Philadelphia Eagles in the playoffs Sunday, have one of the most dangerous trademark plays in years: a running scheme loosely known as "the counter."

Getty Images

New York Giants running back Brandon Jacobs flies past the Philadelphia Eagles during their Nov. 9 game in Philadelphia. The Giants won 36-31.

In seven games this season, the Giants' longest run came on a counter play, and in several close games, it was a counter that sealed the win. In overtime of the team's key Dec. 21 game with the Carolina Panthers, which gave them the top seed in the playoffs, the Giants ran a counter to Derrick Ward on a critical third down and gained 14 yards. When the Giants and Eagles first met this season in November, the Giants' longest run was a 20-yard counter to running back Brandon Jacobs that set up a touchdown.

Of the 502 running plays the Giants have called this season, NFL experts say about 12%, or roughly four per game, have been some form of counter. Giants center Shaun O'Hara says it has become so familiar around the league that he often hears defenders yelling "counter" before the ball is snapped, and most of the time they're right. Still, he says, the Giants run the play so well it doesn't matter. "Defensive players always think they're geniuses," Mr. O'Hara says. "Then we get eight yards."

The Giants' counter is really a family of plays the team runs that all take advantage of its most formidable asset: an unusually quick and agile offensive line that's considered the best in the NFL. When the ball is snapped, one guard typically takes a quick step in one direction to fake out the defense, then pivots backward in the "counter" direction and darts behind the other linemen. He then runs around the end of the line and turns up the field to block a linebacker or safety in the other team's backfield. Once this ballet has transpired, one of the team's trio of bruising ballcarriers follows the guard around the end of the line and, if all goes well, into daylight.

Counter to Jacobs

This is one common version of the 'counter' play the Giants use against opponents.

The technique that makes the counter work is the ability of the Giants' guards to "pull" out of position with catlike speed, something only a handful of people who weigh 300 pounds can do. The Giants tend to run counter plays to the left side to take advantage of right guard Chris Snee's speed and agility. Mr. Snee's time of 1.74 seconds in the 10-yard-dash at the 2004 NFL combine in Indianapolis made him one of the quickest linemen in his class.

The play's effectiveness has been bolstered by the ferocious running of the teams' big ballcarriers: running backs Brandon Jacobs, Derrick Ward and Ahmad Bradshaw, as well as fullback Madison Hedgecock, who is often a crucial blocker. This play, and all its variations, has helped make the Giants the NFL's premier rushing team. This season, Messrs. Jacobs and Ward both rushed for more than 1,000 yards -- only the fourth pair of running backs in NFL history to do so.

Most good NFL teams have a trademark play. Defensive coordinators say they're one of the leading indicators of a healthy offense. The New England Patriots run a pass called a "bubble screen," that resembles a popular Arena Football League play where the linemen dart out to one side of the field and create a bubble, or sometimes a pair of bubbles, behind which the receiver is protected. Baltimore is known for putting an extra offensive lineman out on the field and sacrificing receivers for extra blockers in its hard-hitting running game. The Tennessee Titans have a bread-and-butter play where the fullback plows into the middle of the defensive line.

What makes the Giants' counter so deadly for defenses is something Arizona Cardinals defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast calls "the wrinkles." In the modern NFL, where teams employ 20 to 30 assistant coaches who watch tapes of NFL games and catalog every play, the Giants know they can't disguise the counter. Their genius is the ability to make small adjustments.

Before running the counter, the Giants usually try to lull the defense with several straight-forward running plays until the defenders, like Pavlovian dogs, start to anticipate which direction the play will go as soon as the ball is snapped. "That's when we run the counter and catch them off guard," says Mr. Snee.

When they do run it, they sometimes use a formation with two tight ends or with a single running back. They'll run it from the shotgun and even with three wide receivers. In roughly half the cases, they will have two guards pulling instead of just one. "We are always trying to find new ways and new formations to run that play," says Mr. O'Hara.

During a Nov. 30 game against the Washington Redskins, the Giants had a slim lead in the third quarter when they called a counter play. Redskins linebacker London Fletcher, who'd studied the offense on film all week, knew what was coming as soon as the Giants lined up. Mr. Fletcher says he ran up to Redskins defensive tackle Anthony Montgomery, tapped him on the butt and yelled "Counter alert! Counter alert!"

As the play unfolded, Mr. Fletcher noticed something wasn't right. He was expecting to see Mr. Snee pull left. Instead, the 317-pound guard came straight at him and was soon violently knocking him back 15 yards. In this variation of the play, the Giants had the center, Mr. O'Hara, pull to the left instead of Mr. Snee. Mr. Jacobs gained 23 yards on the play, his biggest run of the day in a game the Giants won 23-7. "They got us a couple times on that," Mr. Fletcher says.

On occasions where the Giants have struggled this season, their pet play seemed to be at the heart of the problem. A big counter play, or any big running play in general, was conspicuously absent in the second game between the Giants and Eagles last month, when the Giants managed only 88 yards, well short of their league-best average of 157, and lost to the Eagles at home. "We didn't block well," says Giants right tackle Kareem McKenzie.

The Giants had a good running game last season -- an asset that helped them win the Super Bowl. But the counter didn't become a devastating weapon until this season. One change was the increasing number of carries given to the third running back, Mr. Bradshaw, who helps the team wear down defenses. Also, the offensive line is more experienced and settled, with left tackle David Diehl playing the same position for the second year in a row -- in previous years he's had to learn new positions.

"We're not supermen," says Mr. Hedgecock. "We do what we do well because of every part of the offense coming together."

When it comes to the playoffs, or even another possible trip to the Super Bowl, Giants players say they're not liable to change their approach. "We're not going to do that much incredibly different," says Mr. Diehl, the left tackle. "A zebra doesn't change its stripes."

Write to Reed Albergotti at reed.albergotti@wsj.com