EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – The Giants' defense has been one of the NFL's best through the first six weeks of the season.

The team has allowed no more than 21 points in any of its last five games, including a 17-7 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals Sunday night. That was the fewest points allowed by the Giants in a defeat since their 13-10 overtime loss to the Jets last season.

The five games allowing 21 or fewer points are tied with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Los Angeles Chargers for the second-most in the NFL, one less than the Chicago Bears.

This is the first season since 2002 the Giants have allowed no more than 21 points in five of their first six games. That was also the last season the Giants played five such games consecutively. The streak then stretched 11 in a row (in the season's first 11 games).

The Giants are allowing 20.2 points a game, tying them with the Green Bay Packers for ninth in the NFL. In 2023, the Giants finished 26^th in the league by giving up 23.9 points-per-game.

A year ago, the Giants allowed 361.7 yards a game, 27^th in the league. They are currently 10^th, and their opponents have averaged 314.0 yards-per-game. The Giants last finished that high over a full season in 2016, when they were 10^th after giving up an average of 339.7 yards.

Perhaps the Giants' biggest improvement has been in harassing opposing quarterbacks. They lead the NFL with 26 sacks, four more than the Denver Broncos and six more than the Jets and the Minnesota Vikings (who have played five games). That is just eight fewer sacks than the 34 they recorded in the entire 2023 season. The 26 sacks is the Giants' highest total through six games since they had 30 in 1985. After six games in 2023, the Giants had just five sacks – then exploded for six against Washington in Week 7.

The Giants are on pace to finish the season with 73 sacks, which would easily break the franchise record of 68, set in 1985.

Dexter Lawrence is leading the sack brigade with 7.0, which is a half-sack less than his career-high set in 2022. He is tied with Will McDonald of the Jets for second in the NFL, a half-sack behind Detroit's Aidan Hutchinson, who underwent surgery after fracturing his leg Sunday in Dallas and is out for the season.

Lawrence's 7.0 sacks are four more than a trio of teammates who have 3.0: Brian Burns, Azeez Ojulari and Jason Pinnock.

Lawrence is also tied for third in the league with 11 quarterback hits. Hutchinson leads the NFL with 17.

*Speaking of sacks: The Giants' offensive line has allowed 14 sacks in six games, or 19 fewer than it had surrendered at this point in 2023. The offense is on pace to allow 39 for the entire season, one year after giving up 85, the second-highest total in NFL history (104 by the 1986 Philadelphia Eagles). The current Eagles, whom the Giants host Sunday, have also given up 14 sacks.

*In his first two career starts in Seattle last week and vs. Cincinnati Sunday night, rookie running back Tyrone Tracy totaled 237 rushing and receiving yards. He is the second Giants rookie – and first running back - with 237+ scrimmage yards in his first two career starts in the Super Bowl era. Wide receiver Mike Friede had 245 in 1980.

*Tracy, a fifth-round draft choice, scored his first career touchdown on a one-yard run against the Bengals. He is the first Giants rookie drafted in the fifth round or later to run for a touchdown since Ahmad Bradshaw – a seventh-round selection – on Dec. 23, 2007, in Buffalo. That does not include rookie free agent quarterback Tommy DeVito, who rushed for a touchdown last year vs. the Jets.

*Tracy rushed for 50 rushing yards, gained 57 yards on six catches and scored a touchdown Sunday night. He is the first Giants rookie to put together a 50-50-1 stat line (or better) since Saquon Barkley on Oct. 11, 2018 (130 rushing yards, 99 receiving yards and one score vs. Philadelphia).

*With Malik Nabers inactive while in the NFL concussion protocol the last two weeks, Wan'Dale Robinson has assumed the team lead with 37 receptions (two more than Nabers). That is the highest total by a Giants player through six games since 2018 when Odell Beckham, Jr. had 45 and Barkley 40.

*The Giants are the only NFL team with two players with 35+ catches. The Giants last had two such players in their first six games when Beckham and Barkley did it six years ago.

*Robinson leads the NFL with 16 third-down catches, three more than Tampa Bay's Chris Godwin. Nabers is third with 12.

*Robinson passed 1,000 career yards on Sunday (1,032 yards on 120 catches).

*Darius Slayton caught six passes for 57 yards vs. Cincinnati. That moved him past Del Shofner (239), Alex Webster (240) and Earnest Gray (243) and into a tie with Plaxico Burress for 18^th place on the franchise's career list with 244. Aaron Thomas is 17^th with 247.

Slayton's 3,625 career receiving yards place him 21^st in Giants history, just 56 yards behind Burress.

*After the Giants lost Sunday night, coach Brian Daboll said, "It's hard to win games when you score seven points." That is both painfully evident and an understatement. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, since the start of the 2020 season, NFL teams are 2-140 when scoring 7 or fewer points. That's a minuscule .014 winning percentage. The only two teams to win did so on consecutive weeks in 2023 when the Chargers beat the Patriots, 6-0, and the Vikings defeated the Raiders, 3-0.

*This season, the Giants are 2-0 when they score at least 20 points and 0-4 when they don't. In Daboll's three seasons as coach, they are 14-5-1 when scoring 20+ points and 3-17 when they have fewer than 20 points. The metrics work the other way: the Giants are 6-19-1 when allowing 20 or more points and 11-3 when they give up fewer than 20.

*Scoring a lot of points certainly improves a team's chance to win but guarantees nothing. On Sunday, the New Orleans Saints became the first team in history to score 27 points in the first half, then lose by 24. In a 51-27 loss to Tampa Bay, the Saints scored 27 second-quarter points – and were shut out in the other three quarters.

*It's no secret the Giants want to play better in MetLife Stadium. They are 2-1 on the road and 0-3 at home this season. The Giants have scored more points in every road game than they have in any home game this season. Their lowest point total in a road game was 18 at Washington on Sept. 18, while their highest total at home was 15 vs. Dallas on Sept. 26.

*The 47-yard rushing touchdown by Cincinnati's Joe Burrow Sunday night tied for the longest run by a quarterback against the Giants since the 1970 merger. Carolina's Cam Newton ran for a 47-yard gain in MetLife Stadium on Dec. 20, 2015. Newton did not score on his long run.

*Burrow was the first quarterback to rush for a touchdown against the Giants since Philadelphia's Jalen Hurts scored on a one-yard run on Christmas Day, 2023.

*The Eagles, whom the Giants host Sunday, have not scored a first quarter point this season, the first team to do so through the first six games since the 2022 Arizona Cardinals. The Eagles last did it in the first two years of their existence in 1933-34.

*Daniel Jones led the Giants Sunday night with 56 rushing yards (on 11 carries). It was the 16^th regular-season game in which Jones was the Giants' leading rusher. He also had the team's longest run for the 19^th time, a 13-yarder.

*The Giants have not intercepted a pass in five consecutive games, their longest streak since they went six in a row from Jan. 9-Oct. 9, 2022.

*Esoteric note of the week. On Sunday night, the Bengals were the first team in a Giants game this season to a) call heads at the coin toss, and b) take the ball at the start of the game. Teams winning the coin toss in Giants games this season are 3-3 – which is, well, a flip of the coin.