EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- If you think the New York Giants are protecting quarterback Eli Manning better this year than they did last year, it's not just your imagination.

According to Pro Football Focus, the Giants allowed 86 quarterback pressures and 14 sacks in the first four games of the 2013 season. This year, through four games, they've allowed 30 pressures and just three sacks.

So yeah.

How are they doing it? Well as is often the case in a team game, it's a combination of factors. First of all, Manning is releasing the ball incredibly quickly this year. The new Ben McAdoo offense incorporates shorter dropbacks and simplified progressions than the ones Manning used in his first 10 years, and the result is that Manning is averaging 2.21 seconds before his pass attempts this season, which is the third-lowest number in the league through four weeks. Last year, he averaged 2.65 seconds, which was 25th-fastest in the league.

When the quarterback is unloading the ball that quickly, the offensive line doesn't have to hold up in protection as long as it used to, either. But it still has to deliver some level of protection in order for Manning to trust the system and himself. In the preseason, it could not do that. And in the first half of the Week 1 loss in Detroit, the line allowed seven quarterback pressures, per Pro Football Focus.

But they allowed only one pressure in the second half, and obviously only 22 in three games since, so something has improved. I spoke with left tackle Will Beatty on Monday, and he said the issue was familiarity. Due to injuries and preseason struggles, the current line combination of Beatty/Weston Richburg/J.D. Walton/John Jerry/Justin Pugh didn't practice together until the final week of the preseason and didn't see game action together until that night in Detroit. Beatty said a noisy indoor road game is no place for an offensive line to play together for the first time.

"J.D. is calling out the protections, and you really can't hear him," Beatty recalled.

But since they were established as the starting five, those offensive linemen have made it a point to sit in film rooms and meeting rooms and practice those calls. Familiarity with what the call might be helps Walton's fellow linemen figure out what he's saying even if they can't hear it clearly. The Giants also followed that road opener with two games at home, where it's easier for offensive players to hear each other, and the linemen have begun to develop that important feeling of comfort with each other in the intervening weeks.

"It definitely helps a lot," Beatty said. "That's the biggest thing, just a chance to play together and get used to each other."

It's working for the Giants right now, and they'll look to keep it going Sunday at home against the Atlanta Falcons.