An inside look at Sunday’s Giants-Titans Week 3 matchup at MetLife Stadium:

Titans DT Jeffery Simmons vs. Giants interior offensive line

Follow the money.

Simmons is the third highest-paid player at his position in the league — his annual average of $35.28 million is behind just Jalen Carter and Quinnen Williams.

Simmons had a career-high 11 sacks in 2025, and his quick first step will challenge C John Michael Schmitz and rookie RG Sisi Mauigoa, as Simmons usually lines up on the left side of the line.

Simmons is capable of disrupting any rushing attack, and the Giants must keep him from getting line of scrimmage shots at their running backs.

The great Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald was a bit rusty last week coming off two years of inactivity.

Simmons, a noted trash talker, is in top form, having played 81 percent of the snaps the past two games and registering 10 tackles, one sack and three quarterback hits.

Four downs

Taking it personal: Brian Daboll did not give up anything — were you expecting anything else? — when asked in Nashville about facing the Giants. The career offensive assistant and coordinator got his first shot as a head coach with the Giants in 2022 and came away with a playoff victory and an NFL Coach of the Year award. What followed were too many lowlights, and the Giants fired him 10 games into the 2025 season. Now he runs the Titans’ offense.

“I have a ton of respect for the people in that organization,” Daboll said of the Giants. “Very grateful for the opportunity the Mara family and the Tisch family gave me, from top down to bottom, really good people in that building.”

Will his familiarity with the Giants help in any way? “You wish it did,” Daboll said.

Not good enough: The Giants on defense in the season-opening victory did not exactly stone-cold stop the Cowboys. It was more a case of the offense playing keep-away.

A week later, the Giants defense did not do much of anything to deter the Rams from accumulating chunks of yards and four touchdowns. Is this unit any good?

“There is no excuse for the way we played,” defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson said. “We didn’t play fundamentally sound football. So, we are back to the drawing board this week.”

Wilson ran the Titans defense the past two years.

Cam do: The most efficient way for the Giants to ease the load on Jameis Winston is to run the ball and stack up time of possession.

They were great at it in Week 1 and rotten at it in Week 2. Cam Skattebo averaged 4.5 yards per game against the Cowboys and 3.0 against the Rams.

Titans defensive coordinator Gus Bradley called Skattebo “tough” and noted he can “run through darkness, can run on the inside, can run on the perimeter. Just a very strong runner.”

Skattebo can help lead the Giants out of the darkness by running for daylight.

Cam do, Part 2: The Giants owned the No. 3 pick in the 2025 draft and would have taken Miami quarterback Cam Ward, but they knew he would be off the board.

Indeed, Ward went No. 1 to the Titans. He went through a rocky rookie season playing for head coach Brian Callahan — now the Giants’ quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator — but is showing signs of progress.

In his past 10 games, he has 11 touchdown passes and just one interception. The Giants are thrilled with the now-injured Dart, but they had a higher grade on Ward.

Paul’s pick

Did it get late early for the Giants? Losing their promising young quarterback in Week 2 was a devastating blow to their psyches.

Now we will see how much of a blow it turns out to be on the field.

It is not too much to ask for Jameis Winston to play a clean enough game and for the defense to awaken against a suspect opponent.

There’s also an edge in coaching, you would think. The rain will make things interesting.

Giants 20, Titans 16