Harbaugh: Giants will have their hands full covering Cardinals’ Jeremiyah Love

The New York Giants’ run defense has been up-and-down, and their Week 4 matchup with the Arizona Cardinals will give them another big test.

Cardinals running back Jeremiyah Love has some momentum, coming off his best week rushing the football in Week 3 against the San Francisco 49ers.

Love carried the ball 21 times for 91 yards while also catching five passes for 19 yards and a touchdown in his first week being in the workhorse role in the Cardinals’ backfield.

Giants head coach John Harbaugh acknowledged that he was a big fan of Love during the draft process. The Giants held the fifth and 10th overall picks, while Love was picked third overall.

“He was great, hard to tackle, fast, tough, has great hands, could line up at receiver and good in pass protection,” Harbaugh told reporters when asked what about Love intrigued him the most.

In Weeks 1 and 3, the Giants’ run defense played well. It held the Dallas Cowboys to 69 team rushing yards in Week 1, and their workhorse Javonte Williams carried the ball 12 times for an inefficient 41 yards.

In Week 3 they held the Tennessee Titans to 81 total rushing yards, with their featured back Tony Pollard having 74 of those. They didn’t allow a rushing touchdown in Week 3.

Against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 2, however, their run defense got carved up by the two-man attack of Kyren Williams and Blake Corum.

They combined for 164 yards rushing and averaged nearly seven yards per carry between them. With Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur coming from the Rams, their approach could be similar.

“They’re running kind of what you saw with the Rams offense, not surprisingly,” Harbaugh said. “We’ve got to do better than we did out in L.A.”

The Cardinals can use two featured backs just like the Rams with Tyler Allgeier in the fold. Harbaugh said he knows how much of a challenge is at hand.

“We’re really going to have to bring our tackling abilities,” Harbaugh said. “They have another back, 22 (Allgeier), who’s really hard to tackle, too.”

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