Monday, September 22, 2008

Giants-Bengals post mortem

Kevin Dockery had a rough day, getting beat often, mostly by Chatman, Bengals 3rd WR.

We had a Sam Madison sighting. Maybe because Dockery wasn't playing well or maybe because we rotate the DBs occasionally or maybe because Dockery was slightly hurt, Madison came in and was the nickel back in OT. He made a big play on the Bengals only possession in OT, knocking away a pass on 3rd and 8, giving the ball back to the Giants for what would be their winning OT FG drive.

On reviewing the game, I also confirmed that the Giants did not take many shots down the field. In addition to the pass interference on the try to Steve Smith, there was another pass interference on a route by Plaxico that was going to be a deep ball. But that was it. They did run a lot of slants, but they didn't throw many of them and they were all short routes. Actually, these frequent slant patterns may have been what set up the two deep balls to Plaxico and Toomer in OT that led to the winning FG, because they were double moves off fake slants.

The pass to Burress was an incredible throw. He wasn't wide open, he only had a step or two on the DB. He was two steps from the sideline and the safety was closing in from the center of the field in their 2 deep zone, so there wasn't a big window to fit that into but Eli did it.

The catch by Toomer was a better catch, so it may seem like the throw by Eli wasn't as good, as it required a fingertip catch by the WR. It was actually a much more difficult throw to make. On the Burress catch, Eli had a clean pocket and good time to step into the throw comfortably. On the Toomer catch, exactly the opposite - he was rushed and did not have a good pocket to throw from. It was practically all arm, and the DL was all around him forcing him to get more air under the throw, otherwise it would have been blocked at line of scrimmage. He hit him perfectly nevertheless.


It looked like the timing on our blitzes was off. We blitzed quite a bit, as usual. But Bengals were able to read them and block them up. I have confidence that DC Spagnuolo will make some adjustments because no doubt the rest of the league will try to see what Bengals did. To me it seemed like Bengals didn't do anything exotic. They did keep 2 backs in for blocking quite often. If I were Giants, and the other team kept 7 or 8 players in, I would fake the blitz and keep 7 guys back in coverage. With 7 guys defending 2 or 3 receivers, the defense should have an advantantage.

It's funny - the statistics will say that the Giants had 6 sacks which sounds like a dominating performance. but it is misleading - it was all or nothing. Either we got a sack or Palmer had too much time to throw. There was nothing in between. Consistent pressure might be more important than piling up sacks. Of course, they usually go together, but sometimes not.

Tuck was invisible Sunday, but Robbins had a big day. It looked like the Bengals were doubling Tuck often and at least one time, blew their assignments, did not block Robbins at all and he ran completely untouched for a sack. Giants like to move Tuck inside on pass rush downs where they think he will have a mismatch against a G. But I think that sometimes the inside of the line gets jammed up and Tuck can be blocked. I like him playing in space, where he can use both strength and speed to get to the passer. It's nice to have pressure up the middle, but there's a reason the best pass rushers are on the outside. We can't be predictable with this and we have to move Tuck around so he can't be double-teamed so easily.

No comments: