Malik Nabers was a major story from the Giants’ first win of the season on Sunday, but Boomer says the game ball goes to defensive coordinator Shane Bowens, who saw his unit shut down Deshaun Watson and the Browns offense for much of the afternoon.
“They were more aggressive than we had seen in the last two weeks,” Boomer said. “He supposedly has this bend-don’t-break, stop-the-run defense. That was an attack defense on Sunday.
“That’s the way you play defense. You get after the opposing quarterback...I want to give a game ball to Shane Bowens. The defense played that well.”
Dexter Lawrence, Brian Burns and company had Watson running for his life all afternoon, sacking Watson four times in the first half alone, and blitzed Watson 57 percent of the time in the game, a big bump from nearly 25 percent in the first two games of the season.
Cleveland allowed eight sacks total to the aggressive Giants defense, which is now second to only the Vikings for total sacks so far this season.
“Two hundred and seventeen total yards, man. They were just all over them,” Boomer said.
“That’s defense. That’s what wins. If the defense can continue to put forth performances like that, then that allows Daniel Jones and Malik Nabers to do their thing.”