Odell Beckham Jr. is the key to the New York Giants' offense. Without the superstar receiver, Big Blue would be sitting at home instead of facing the Packers in Green Bay Sunday afternoon.
No one player can guard OBJ. The best a defense can do is get in his face early and hope to throw Beckham off his game.
Speaking on NFL GameDay Morning on Sunday, Carolina Panthers linebacker Thomas Davis said the key for the Giants is Beckham controlling his emotions.
"I think that we all can agree that Odell is a great player. Right? We all agree on that," Davis said. "When you think about Odell and what he's able to do on the football field is truly special. But it's very important for him this weekend to make sure that he controls his emotions. Whenever he goes out and he plays and he controls his emotions, he's huge for that team. But when he goes out and he allows his emotions to get the best of him, he's a cancer for that football team and you can see it, it's evident."
Beckham was at his most combustible last season when he faced the Panthers and then-Carolina corner Josh Norman.
"When we played him, you could see him and Josh going back and forth, you could see that the whole team was getting caught up in that and they wasn't focused in the first half, that's why we were able to jump out to a big lead," Davis said of the Panthers' 38-35 win over the Giants in 2015. "They kinda settled down later in the second half in the football game and they were able to come back. It was just really evident that they were not a focused bunch when he was doing all of that."
Beckham earned five receptions for 56 yards and a touchdown in Week 5 versus the Packers.
The well-worn Beckham emotion storyline has almost become cliché. Many have tried to get in Beckham's face and hope for a meltdown. The Packers don't have a trash-talking corner of the Norman ilk, but they'll surely try to spur Beckham early Sunday afternoon. Don't bet your house on emotions unraveling Beckham in his first playoff appearance.
