Patriots game - odds and ends

Similarities to the Super Bowl

Aside from the fact that the Giants were playing the Patriots, there were several other interesting (dare I say striking) similarities between the game against the Patriots this past week and the one in the desert after the 2007 season. Consider:

• Eli had to lead two scoring drives in 4th quarter, each giving the Giants the lead from behind.
• Eli passed for two TDs and accumulated 150 yards through the air in the 4th quarter of both games (you have to add in the two PI penalties Sunday to get to 150, but morally, they should be Eli's passing yards)
• Both games had a 30 yard (or so) pass in the middle of the field to an improbable target wearing number 85 to set up the winning score
• Both winning TD passes were scored in the left corner of the end zone.
• In both games, the resident genius coach of the Patriots, Bellichick, acquitted himself poorly and with absolutely no class. In the Super Bowl he sneaked off the field before the game was officially over. This past Sunday, in the post game news conference, he was whining about the two PI calls that went against the Patriots, instead of showing some class and giving some credit to the opposing victorious team. 
• Giants defense smacked around old Tom Brady pretty good in both games.
• Oh, wait - one more thing - Giants won both games.

Refs calls

Speaking of PI penalties, the Patriots got away with two egregious offensive PI penalties that were not called on their receivers. One was on Ochocinco, where he blatantly shoved the DB (Webster, I think) with both hands, and pushed him so hard that the DB fell down. That missed call didn't hurt much, because Ochocinco was the intended target and he never catches any balls these days anyway. But the other offensive PI was on the TD with 1:36 left caught by Gronkowski. It probably wasn't called because it was a little more subtle than the other one by Ochocinco and LB Boley didn't actually fall down on the play. The other reason it wasn't called is because the game was played in Gillette Stadium, Bellichick works the refs hard and gets the favor of lots of home town calls. Did you see the holding call they made on MacKenzie in the first half? It was not a hold, there was no call, no flag thrown by the ref but then Bellichick went crazy, animatedly starts yelling at the refs to call a hold, the fans in the stadium saw him gesturing and starting yelling for a call too. Then and only then, several seconds after the play was over, one of the refs was intimidated into throwing a flag. Ridiculous. Back to the PI non-call on Gronkowski - Boley was right on him and by pushing off, Gronkowski gained an enormous advantage and got open to catch the ball.

Etc.

Michael Coe made some nice plays in the DB-field, particularly on 3rd down against Ochocinco near the goal line, forcing a Patriots FG. Giants have very good position coaches, especially in the DB-field - Merritt and Giunta.

DJ Ware played well and made some nice moves. I am not saying he is as good as Bradshaw, but the Giants can survive with him back there. I still want to see Da'rel Scott get into the game. I understand why the Giants coaches may be hesitant - a big part of the RB's responsibility nowadays is not just knowing where to run, but includes blitz pickup on passing plays. The Giants RBs, Jacobs and Bradshaw are both superior blockers and great at picking up the blitz. Did you see some of the chip blocks Jacobs threw before running out of the backfield on pass routes? On one play he absolutely flattened the Patriots DE Carter, with barely any effort, just a bump from his shoulder and then breezily ran down field. So, the coaches have to make sure Scott has his blitz pickup assignments down, because we don't want to get out QB killed. Other than that, I'd like to see him get some plays.

More Patriots review III

Did you notice that the Patriots came out with the clear intention to run the ball down the Giants throat. Their first several formations and plays that they ran off of those formations had 9 men tight at the line of scrimmage in addition to the QB and RB in the backfield. Giants shifted their defense and also had 8 or 9 guys at the line of scrimmage. The run defense was pretty good for the Giants on Sunday and it will have to be better against the 49ers this week, because Gore is an excellent runner and the 49ers move their offense on the ground.

JPP took a lot of snaps at DT on Sunday and did reasonably well. The idea was probably to get more pass rushers on the field in the base 4-3 defense, and moving JPP to DT allowed Osi to stay on the field at DE. I thought Osi did not have a very good game on Sunday. He used his wide speed pass rush nearly every time against Light and there were too many times where Light simply gave him a little nudge to push his path wide away from the pocket. Brady likes to step up in the pocket, so this is a very easy and comfortable technique for Light and the Patriots to blunt Osi's rush. The few times where Osi tried to fake outside and go inside, he was easily turned back. If they wanted to keep JPP on the field at DT, Kiwanuka might have been a better choice to play DE. However, Kiwanuka had such a strong game at LB, that they wanted to keep him there.

Speaking of Kiwanuka and Osi - Giants will have an interesting decision to make on these players. Both have two years left on their current deal, with contracts that expire after the 2012 season. Kiwanuka has showed that he has recovered from his neck problem and is playing the best football of his career. He is a more all-around player than Osi and is several years younger, meaning he has more runway left in his career. If it comes down to a salary cap crunch and they can only keep one of them, I would throw the money at Kiwanuka and extend his contract at the end of this year. To avoid another Osi hissy fit and to get some value from him instead of just letting him walk, I would trade him at the end of 2011 to a team that needs a pass rusher and would be interested in extending his contract. Giants saw that they could not get a number 1 pick for him last year, when he had 2 years left on his deal. This year, the team that trades for him is getting only 1 year of play, so they certainly would not get a number 1, even though he has showed that his knee is sound.

Against the Patriots, the Giants were in their nickel package nearly the entire game trying to defend the pass oriented Patriots offense. Grant was on the field a lot and they shifted how they used him. Instead of him playing deep with coverage responsibilities that emphasize speed (he seems to have slowed down since last year) they played him down low in the box and he had TE coverage assignment, something he is still fast enough to handle. He got his INT covering a TE and also knocked away a 3rd down pass to the end zone, right before Brady threw the TD to Hernandez that put them temporarily in the lead.

Despite being in the nickel, Giants did a fairly good job against the run, as I said earlier. Part of this was that they kept Kiwanuka on the field more in the nickel packages instead of the much lighter Jacquian Williams. Kiwanuka had a great game. Williams and Greg Jones still got some playing time and made some nice plays. Williams was the one that recovered Brady's fumble that Boley stripped. Boley also had a great game and has been very solid all year. I would not be surprised to see Kiwanuka on the field at LB often against the 49ers to counteract their running game. Biggest passing weapon 49ers have is their TE Vernon Davis. We'll see how Fewell defends him.

Patriots game review - II - the Hidden plays

In most football game there are several big plays that you can easily identify as game changers or game deciders. Sunday's game against the Patriots was no different - aside from the scoring plays themselves, you can point to the seam route to Ballard on 3rd and 10 in the final drive, the INT off of Eli in the end zone, the fumble by Ross on special teams, and a few others. But there are often a few quiet, unnoticed plays that set up the big plays, or perhaps better said, create the stage and circumstance to make the big plays important. For lack of a better term, I'll call them the hidden plays in the game and I'll highlight a few from Sunday's game against the Patriots.

1. Delay of game by Patriots. Patriots had 2nd and 10 on their own 16 early in the 3rd quarter with Giants ahead 3-0. Patriots got called for a delay of game which made it 2nd and 15. On 2nd down, Patriots ran a draw play for 5 yards bringing up a 3rd and 10. There's no guarantee what would have happened on 2nd and 10 without that penalty, but the 5 yard penalty kept the 3rd down a 3rd and long play. That meant that Brady had to hold the ball longer and let his WRs get down field, instead of hitting a short 3rd and 5, where he could have thrown something quick to Welker. Brady held the ball and Boley came on a blitz around his blind side, forced the fumble which led to Giants first TD.

2a. Tackle by Patriots DB Adams at goal line on Ramses Barden. It is always good to stop the offense from scoring, so this play seems kind of silly to include, but here goes. Giants had a 1st and 10 on the Patriots 17 a few plays after the Grant INT of Brady. Eli threw a perfect out pattern to Barden, who made a good move to the sideline, turned up field, stretched and nearly got the ball into the end zone. Adams, the DB who was beaten on the play, hung in and made a TD saving tackle at the 2. With 1st and goal at the 2, the offense's chances to score are very high, so it didn't seem like much at the time. But every time the offense has to run another play, there's a chance they'll make a mistake. Eli threw the INT a few plays later.

2b. Clayton did not keep his feet in bounds at back of end zone. On that same drive, in fact, on the very next play, Eli threw a perfect pass to Clayton, on a really good play call by Gilbride. Clayton caught it but failed to keep his feet in bounds and the TD was taken away, meaning Giants had to run some more plays to score. Interestingly, Clayton is a good blocker and Giants usually run out of formations when Clayton comes on the field as WR, so it really deceived the Patriots and Clayton was wide open. Not keeping his feet in bounds meant that Giants had to run another play which also helped set up the INT.

2c. Delay of game penalty at the goal line on next play. This is obvious: 2nd and 7 affects the play calls and is much harder to make than 2nd and 2. When Patriots blitzed, Eli had to hold the ball longer to let Manningham get open and that contributed to setting the stage for the INT, a play that didn't need to happen if any of these three hidden plays had gone the Giants way.

3. Eli incomplete pass at the goal line. You might not have realized this at the time, and might not even remember the play, but it was a critical play in the game. Giants just got the PI on Victor Cruz which placed the ball at the 1 with 30 seconds left in the game. The first down call was a play fake to Jacobs and a pass, probably intended for Manningham who was running in the back of the end zone. Patriots called an all out blitz, with nobody on the Giants picking up the LB who made penetration right up the middle. Eli turned around after completing the play fake and saw the LB bearing down on him. A sack there really messes up the Giants chances. They would then have had to call their last timeout immediately and would have therefore had to take 2 shots at the end zone from the 10 - not a sure thing. Instead of allowing the sack, Eli sprinted to his left, got away from the LB and threw across his body to Ballard who nearly caught what was a catchable ball. Incomplete pass - yes. But - no sack, no INT, still had a timeout left. After a run to Jacobs, Giants still had a timeout to use and were on the 1/2 yard line. With no timeouts left a pass was the best call, but because they were so close, the running play was at least theoretically possible. Therefore, the Patriots LB bit on the play fake on 3rd down which gave Ballard a chance to get open. Even Coughlin said that Eli's evading the blitzer and throwing an incomplete pass on 1st down was the biggest play of the game.

A look back at the Patriots game

Wow. Let me correct myself on that last comment: WOW!!!

This was one of the best regular season victories in recent memory. We'll see how this season plays out, but right now it sure seems to stamp the Giants as a team that could make things interesting this year. We all know that the Giants early part of their schedule was very soft and they are now beginning the varsity part of the schedule. As a result, few people were giving the Giants props for their 5-2 record against the weaker opponents. The most reasonable evaluation is to wait and see how they do against the elite teams in this four week period, where the Giants get the Patriots, 49ers, Eagles and Saints. Patriots were number 3 or 4 on all the  NFL power rankings, so this was a statement win. While I certainly agree that this was a huge win, and it's always fun to beat the condescending, holier-than-thou Patriots, we probably have to consider how good the Patriots really are, before we judge how good this win makes the Giants look. More on that in another post later this week, but for now, on to the game itself.

Jake Ballard had a spectacular game and has been having a great season. He has made several big plays, none bigger than the seam route on the winning TD drive yesterday. Anybody still ticked off that the Giants lost Kevin Boss in free agency? I liked Boss, and he might be a little quicker than Ballard, but he's not that much quicker and Ballard certainly has better hands, rarely dropping anything. Ballard is a very heady player, always in the right place, always making the right reads and adjustments and he is really big making himslef a good target in the red zone.

Even though everyone is throwing roses at Eli for his play in yesterday's win, in my opinion, Eli had a much, much better game yesterday than anyone gave him credit for. Without Nicks as a deep threat, the Patriots played much more man-to-man than they usually do and the Giants WRs were not getting a lot of separation. The completions nearly all had to be placed in a very narrow window. On several of the completions, the WR had to change his route because he didn't beat the defender on the primary route, but he kept running to eventually give Eli a little opening to throw the ball. Eli's decision making has been good, his accuracy has been good and his ball placement has been superb. It's not just that he's hitting the WRs, and leading them so that he's hitting them in stride. He's also placing the ball perfectly - high to Ballard on the seam route; low and away from the defender on one of the Cruz connection. Even on the incomplete pass to Cruz on the 3rd and goal, he placed it perfectly where only Cruz could catch it. He showed his perfect touch on one of the sideline throws to Cruz, where he had to lift the ball a few inches over the LB's hands and drop it down to Cruz in front of the DB.

On Eli's INT, I thought he underthrew the ball slightly, but it was not a bad decision or a terrible throw. Manningham had his man beat and the guy guarding Pascoe, who was running an underneath route was giving him a big cushion and was several yards behind him. As a result, he was closer to Manningham, running in the back of the end zone than Eli expected him to be. This short defender was able to come off his man and make the pick. Even so, it required a great catch, over his head, on his fingertips. In terms of risk/reward, it was a good decision to throw the ball. It required a perfect play by the DB to get it and if he didn't it would hvae been a TD. It's not like he threw into triple coverage.

After the INT, Coughlin was showing his emotions and annoyance on the sidelines and it was really misplaced. I wanted to go out there and smack him. If we got mad at Burress and Shockey for showing up their QB when they were on the Giants, why should we tolerate that behavior from the head coach. The reason the Giants won the game yesterday is that Eli's steady hand and composure spreads to the team and inspires them to be calm and confident at these moments. Coughlin's ridiculous gesturing undermines that.

I loved what Cruz said after the game. He was direct and to the point. He said, when we got in the huddle with 1:30 left in the game, Eli looked everybody in the eye and said: everyone stay calm, we're going to score now and win this game. He didn't say it yelling; he wasn't breathing fire; he wasn't pointing fingers. He wasn't the NFL QB out of central casting. He was who he always is - easy Eli. I am happy he's on our team.

Eli's TD pass to Manningham was a thing of beauty. Perfect throw, perfect touch, perfect timing. If it's thrown a second later, Manningham doesn't have time to get his feet down. A second earlier and Manningham doesn't clear the DB.

Giants OL did reasonably well, providing decent protection in the passing game and opening up enough holes for Jacobs and the running game to get over 100 yards.

Giants got Jacquian Williams back in the game, after spending a week on the bench and he played well. But on defense, Kiwanuka and Boley were the stars, making tackles all over the place, pressuring the QB and making plays in the passing game. They collaborated on the first INT of Brady, Boley getting his hand on it and Kiwanuka catching the tipped ball.

We've seen Eli lead 4th quarter comebacks in 4 other games this year, so that was not a surprise. But this was the best game the Giants defense has played this year and I think that is the most encouraging thing to take away from yesterday's game. They stopped the run very well and I think that Tuck returning to full strength has a lot to do with that. Kiwanuka played a lot of LB yesterday and was very good. In truth, he wasn't tested that much in space, but he did well nonetheless. I don't if you noticed, but they had JPP lining up quite a bit inside at the DT position. The Giants take fairly wide splite with their DEs, so it is less congested in the middle of the line, giving athletic DTs a chance to move around a bit and use their speed.

The secondary coverage was interesting, even though it's hard to tell exactly what they did in coverage while watching the game on TV. There were times when they had Ross on Welker and times when they had S Rolle on him. Webster, who is bigger occasionally was matched up on the TEs. Kiwanuka, who has been playing better and better this year, was on the field a lot, switching between LB and DE, occasionally blitzing from a standing position. Deon Grant even played a good game yesterday, making the INT, making a few tackles for a loss and defending some passes effectively. He did drop one other pass that he could have intercepted.