Someone please tell me why we want to get rid of Carney and bring back Lawrence Tynes as kicker. I know about the 47 yd FG in the cold in Green Bay. But Carney has been absolutely perfect for us: made every PAT, every FG and his kickoffs have been at least as good as Tynes.
I don't want this to sound like revisionist history, because I was sorry that we had to get rid of Shockey, but Shockey would not have held onto the TD pass that Boss caught after that enormous hit he took. Shockey was strange - he would occasionally make great athletic catches, but sometimes looked like he had Patrick-Ewing-hands.
Giants signed Derrick Ward as insurance policy... not for injury... but in case Jacobs demands too much money and they can't sign him in this, his walk year. This was a good strategy. I like Jacobs but I would be completely comfortable having Ward carrying the ball for us next year. He is a more polished runner than Jacobs and is a hair quicker.
Eli is one of the top qbs in football. I know it was only against the Bengals, but he was outstanding yesterday. WR's were not running free all day and he still put up excellent numbers and won the game with two clutch drives, one in 4th qtr and one in OT.
A few comments about offensive game planning and play calling: Giants threw nothing down the field yesterday. Going on memory, without having reviewed the game film, the only deep pass attempt in regulation time I can remember was a go route to Steve Smith which would have been a TD except for PI by the Bengals DB who was beaten badly on the play. Every single other pass play had the Giants WRs running parallel to the line of scrimmage or backwaqrds towards it. They were virtually all crossing routes and hook patterns. None had the Giants WRs running away from the line of scrimmage. Until OT - then they sent Hixon long, he was open and Eli overthrew him by a yard; then Eli threw 2 deep completions to Burress and Toomer for about 30 yards each and we win the game. Maybe we should have tried some of those earlier. It would loosen up the defense and open some of the underneath stuff. A short passing game does not compliment a power running game. You have to get the ball downfield a little bit.
When the other team had the ball, I was equally puzzled. Giants defense had few answers for Palmer in the second half. He was throwing the ball well and we couldn't stop him. He moved them down for 4th qtr TD and moved them downfield for FG to tie the game, which would have been a TD if not for some bad clock management by Bengals. They ran out of time and had to kick a FG to tie. At the time I felt that if we didn't score on our first possession of OT we would lose. So what happens - Bengals get the ball in OT after our first possession and instead of putting the game in Palmer's hands, they run it twice into the line and on 3rd and long, we finally get a pass breakup and get a 3-and-out. Dumb, dumb, dumb. By contrast, Eli threw the ball every play in OT and we did not run the ball. I think Coughlin was afraid of giving the ball back to Palmer and had a sense of urgency to win the game right there.
7 comments:
Nice win going into the bye week. They will have ample opportunity to work on some of the defensive schemes that clearly were not working. Housh was open in the middle of the field for the entire second half. Eli always shines in the end of games, it’s his M.O. What is great to see is his maturation in the turnover category. Let's hope that keeps up.
And I almost forgot. I hate Tynes.
It was a little concerning that the Giants had so much trouble getting to Palmer on a consistent basis. Although they had 6 sacks they weren't consistent enough with their QB pressure. With Osi injured and Strahan reserved to jumping out of giant trophies, the d-line can focus all resources on keeping Tuck away from the QB. Kiwanuka is a good athlete but not really a proven pass rusher - he had 1 season as an effective substitute d-lineman and 1 season as an (injured) LB. Our tackles are great but we can't expect consistent pressure out of them. Yesterday it didnt hurt us but this may be a problem down the road when we play teams that dont suck.
A win is a win so I cannot complain about us being 3-0. I was a little concerned with the lack of pressure on Palmer and the fact that Housh was wide open on every 3rd down in the second half though. I agree that we need to pass the ball downfield more. Eli has proven that he can make those passes and hit the receiver in stride and we need to utilize that more. Lets hope we keep up our winning ways for the 6-0 start we should have going into the tough second half of the season.
I know I discussed this with Dave, but I was so impressed to see them try and score at the end of the first half. It was shocking that they didn't kneel.
Tuck is our best defensive player and we have to concentrate on moving him around so the offense has more trouble game planning for him.
One mroe comment - did you hear that Shoceky is out? He has a sports hernia and needs surgery. (What's a non-sports hernia called? Dorks hernia?) He will be out 3-6 weeks continuing his record of never playing a full season.
Boss is reall looking better. Especially now.
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