Giants: Defense

DEFENSIVE NOTES

I have noticed the following subtle changes in the Giants defensive strategy under Bill Sheridan as opposed to the way DC Steve Spagnuolo used to call a game in the last two years. Spagnuolo would have a lot of unusual blitz packages, including a reliance on a fairly heavy dose of zone blitzes. Personally, I never liked the zone blitz, but I have to admit that if there is a team that has personnel to make it effective, it is the Giants. A zone blitz is when the defense lines extra guys up at the line of scrimmage, usually overloading one side and brings a few guys, usually DBs on a blitz and drops back a DE or two in coverage. The idea is to confuse the blocking patterns of the OL, make them miss an assignment, or blow by the OL before they can adjust and slid to the open space to pick up the unexpected blitzer, because they are not blocking the DL-man in front of them and they are not sure which of the extra guys will blitz. It can be really effective and with the Giants very fast, athletic DEs, they have a good chance to make it work. Kiwanuka, Tuck and Osi are all able to cover a TE or RB for a few yards before the pressure gets to the QB. The problem with the scheme is twofold, IMO. First, if you don't get to the QB, you're in big trouble. You might say that you're always in trouble when you bring extra people to blitz and don't get to the QB, because then you have single coverage all over the field and less help for a WR who beats his man. But it's particularly true with a zone blitz, because you have DEs dropping back in pass coverage and they are unable to track a fast receiver for more than a few yards. With a normal blitz, even if you are singled up in your coverage and at a disadvantage, at least you have DBs in the coverage and have a fighting chance. Second, you are not optimizing your personnel. You have pass rushers in coverage and pass defenders rushing. When zone blitzes first came into vogue and caught offenses by surprise, they were very effective. By now, OLs have learned how to deal with them, practice against a variety of these blitzes and it is not as much of a problem for OL's to deal with. Pass rushers should rush and pass defenders should defend. I see Sheridan using the zone blitzes less and relying on the more traditional blitz packages - bringing a LB or CB - when he goes to a pressure package. My friend Ray described it as follows: the defense uses less gimmicks now and relies more on the base personnel beating their man in traditional 1-on-1 battles to have the defense succeed. I think he's right. When you have outstanding personnel in the DL like the Giants do, why not rely on them beating their man. If you can generate pressure from 4 or 5 without blitzing 2 or 3, you are better protected on the back end.

Having said all of that, it is also possible that Sheridan treated the last 3 games like preseason. Giants were playing such inept, anemic offenses that Sheridan didn't need to open the playbook and could play much more conservative and vanilla, not exposing the entire defensive playbook to the rest of the league on game film. Perhaps when Giants play the tougher part of the schedule and the stronger offenses, Sheridan will get a little more creative and run some slightly more exotic schemes. I don't think so, but it's possible.

Another subtle change that I see is that it appears to me that the Giants DEs are taking slightly wider splits, lining up a bit wider than they did in the past, especially on passing downs. This makes sense for them, for several reasons. The Giants DEs are very fast, rather than big and powerful; setting up wider gives them an advantage over the potentially slower DEs and lets them use their speed. Giants use fewer straight bull rushes than they used to which also fits this scheme and pattern. Furthermore, lining the DEs up wider, gives more space in the middle of the DL and makes it less congested. This gives the opportunity to Tuck to play in more space when the Giants slide him in at DT on passing downs. One more point: IMHO,Kiwanuka seems to have surpassed Osi as the 2nd best DE on the team. On his stat sheet, I think he only has 2 sacks, but he seems to be pressuring the QB more and making plays in the running game as well. The Giants DL uses a lot of stunts and loops when rushing the passer which also plays to their strength of athleticism and speed.

Looking ahead to the Saints game, this may be the first game where the Giants really miss S Kenny Phillips. Your team needs really good S play against a great passing offense, especially one that has a dynamic, pass catching TE like Shockey. C.C. Brown has played a little better replacing Phillips than he did earlier, but he is still more of a run support safety than he is a speedy pass defender. The guy that the Giants signed from the Packers, Rouse, has the same reputation as someone who is better against the run and weak against the pass, which is why the Packers cut him, BTW. Phillips was so good, coming into his own as one of the top safeties in the game. Brees and the Saints offense will surely put lots of pressure on the Giants DB-field and will test the safeties in particular to see if they can stand up to the passing attack. Missing Boley against the Saints also weakens the defense; he was playing very well and has really good speed, playing well in space and an effective pass defender.

It will be really interesting to see how the Giants defense attacks this game. If they stick to their current defensive schemes, they will rely primarily on a pass rush from their DL sprinkled with conventional blitzes from LBs and DBs. Alternatively, they could take a page out of the Rex Ryan playbook and attack with all sorts of blitzes from every direction. The Jets defense was very effective at bothering and slowing down the Saints offense and the Giants could dial up a risky, aggressive game plan.

RANDOM CLOSING NOTES

Is there a safety on some NFL roster that fills the Giants need for speed at the position and can be had in a trade for Sinorice Moss?

Note to HC Coughlin and the ST coach Quinn: please get Hixon back there returning punts and sit down Moss.

Giants: Raiders review

Not much to analyze about the game itself, once again because of the level of competition, but there are some observations we can make about the league. These last three games have been like preseason games. Giants starters were on the bench in the second half and the greatest tension was whether the Giants would hold onto their shutout against Tampa Bay. Every year we have lived by the mantra of parity in the NFL and "on any given Sunday...". That doesn't seem to apply this year. The league seems to be much more stratified this year than in past years, almost like an unofficial caste system. There are a few very good teams, a bunch of average teams and several really awful teams; in fact there seem to be more awful teams in the league than there have been in the past. Tampa Bay, Kansas City, Oakland and St. Louis are just dreadful teams. Cleveland, Buffalo and Detroit are maybe a hair better than the worst group, but not by much. I can't figure out where to place the Titans who won 13 games last year, and are 0-5 this year without that much change in their roster, except for the notable departure of Haynseworth. Forgetting the Titans for a moment, it is really hard to evaluate the middle teams in the league, or even the superior teams in the league, at this early point in the season, because the record is so dependent on which teams they may have played. For example, the cumulative record of the teams the Giants have played is 6-19. However, the Giants have clubbed their opponents and it's pretty easy to say that they are good team, though it is hard to judge just how good they really are. However, where it's really hard to judge is the teams that are 2-3 or 3-2. Consider the Cowboys, who are 3-2, for example. At first glance, you might say that the Cowboys at 3-2 are a decent team with a decent record. However, the Cowboys lost their only two games against good teams and their 3 victories have come against the Chiefs (0-5), the Bucs (0-5) and the Panthers (1-3). The 2-3 Redskins only wins came in very close games against the awful Rams and Bucs and their losses are against Carolina, Detroit and the Giants. You are what your record says you are; I get that. But 2-3 against the lame opponents that they have played is revealing. Looking at it another way, the Redskins 4 opponents besides the Giants have not won a single game this year against another team. The record of the Redskins opponents is 2-17 and those two wins came against the Redskins themselves. So the Redskins opponents (except for Giants) are winless against the rest of the league. They must really stink. The Redskins even lost to the Lions and the Panthers, the only wins that those two teams have.

After each of these last 3 wins that the Giants have had against the "have-nots" in the league, the experts proclaimed that the new "worst team in the NFL" is the team that the Giants had just drubbed. These teams then went on to play almost-competitive games against their other opponents, so maybe the Giants are just really good and made them look awful.

This analysis makes my head hurt and it's really pointless. We will find out who the cream in the league is after a few more weeks when the teams with better records start playing each other.

I always try to be balanced and fair in my analysis and never automatically overestimate the worth or standing of players on the Giants. I will say this: there is no QB in the league that is playing at a higher level than Eli right now, with the possible exception of the other QB with the same last name. Eli was brilliant on Sunday. While the Raiders may be a bad team, their defense is actually quite good. They have a very strong DL with a pro-bowl player in Seymour. They have the consensus best CB in football and they have very athletic LBs. Their defense was around the middle of the league coming in to the game, which means that they are better than they really seem to be, because they get no help from their pitiful offense. So while winning the game was not a great accomplishment, scoring 44 points and getting nearly 500 yards of offense was good.

Here's how dominant the Giants defense was against the awful Raiders offense. Aside from the obvious stats that you know about - Raiders 124 yards in offense, 2.8 average yards per carry and 3 turnovers - the Giants had 6 sacks. That's a big number for one game, but you have to normalize it to the number of pass attempts. Raiders threw only 13 passes, which means that the Giants' 6 sacks came on only 19 called passing plays by the Raiders. Nearly 1/3 of the Raiders passing plays ended in sacks. Amazing.

Eli looked very loose and comfortable and was as sharp as he's been all year. The encouraging thing for me is that his heel loosened up and got better as the game went along. How do I know that, you may ask? I'll tell you. Eli's first 3 passes were a little high and wobbly because when he was planting, he was not putting all of his weight on that back foot and he was protecting it a little bit. Consequently his throws were too much arm and not enough body. Once he got secure with his foot and the pain subsided, he was able to put all his weight on the back foot, use the momentum of his weight coming forward for the speed on the ball, so that he could use his shoulder and arm to guide the ball and provide its accuracy. I know exactly how this feels, having had a case of plantar fasciitis myself. The 45 yard throw to Steve Smith was perfect as was the 30 yard TD to Manningham.

Darcy Johnson looked good catching a ball or two, but mostly blocking effectively for some of Bradshaw's runs. Bradshaw looked excellent and even though he seems to be making the big plays rather than Jacobs, the Giants have an excellent rotation at RB and they should not change it. Wait until Danny Ware gets back in the mix - the passing game will get even better.

Giants coaches are very positive on their young WR's and remain extremely high on Ramses Barden who has barely gotten on the field.

I think we have seen enough of Sinorice Moss on punt returns to know that he is not great. When are the Giants going to start putting Hixon back there?

Terrell Thomas is improving every week and has excellent cover skills.

This upcoming game against the Saints is going to be interesting. More about that later in the week.

A word or two about the Jets-Dolphins game Monday night: Sanchez looked really good, but Henne for the Dolphins looked like the superior QB. Better arm strength and more accuracy. Braylon Edwards looked outstanding for the Jets and while I am happy with the Giants WR situation, Edwards would have looked good in Giants blue. Rex Ryan probably learned his clock management skills from Herm Edwards. Perhaps he thinks that if you don't use your time outs in the 2nd half of one game, you can use 6 in the 1st half of the next game.

Giants: Eli sits out practice

Eli sat out practice Wednesday and Thursday nursing his sore plantar fascia and got treatment on it from the training staff instead. Raiders seem to have as many injuries as the Giants do. They are averaging 10 points per game on the season and are missing their starting RT, their starting RG Robert Gallery and their biggest offensive weapon - RB Darren McFadden. In the good news department, Hixon is practicing on a limited basis and has a good chance of playing this Sunday. Canty has also started to do a little more work with the trainers and his return is at least on the horizon. I am guessing he will be out 2 more weeks and will be able to return after that. Ross is still not doing any work. Hamstring injuries are somewhat unusual for CB's, because they use their hamstrings all the time while backpedaling. But I guess that means that when they injure them, it's really a bad injury.

The reason I brought up Robert Gallery by name is that he has a place in Giants history. Gallery was the can't-miss, sure fire future HOF-er, Anthony Munoz / Orando Pace successor as the next great LT, coming out of college the same year Eli did, in 2004. Kerry Collins was the Giants QB and the Giants had a miserable year in 2003, in great measure because of their awful OL. Everyone loved Kerry Collns as the tough QB who had taken the Giants to the Superbowl after the 2000 season. Rather than taking one of the QBs available in the draft, everyone wanted Ernie Accorsi to trade up to be in position to take Gallery. Give Kerry Collins some protection in the way of an improved OL, get him some better weapons at WR and along with Tiki Barber and Jeremy Shockey, the Giants would be back in contention in two shakes of a lamb's tail. Al Davis was not going to trade down to give away Gallery and the Raiders drafted Gallery with the second pick in that draft. Accorsi evaluated Eli as a championship caliber QB and pulled the trigger on the Rivers for Manning trade. Gallery has been a near-bust. He started out as RT with the long term plan of moving him to LT when he matured and developed. However, he did not develop, played poorly as RT and rather than being moved out to LT, he was moved to the interior of the OL as RG. He has not played particularly well there either and is holding on to his job mostly because of the big contract he signed. Rather than being the next Anthony Munoz or Oralndo pace, it looks like he's closer to the next Tony Mandrich

I am surprised at exactly how open the Giants have been with Eli's injury. They have advertised his limitations in moving around, in planting and throwing. They should simply say - foot injury. Why give teams the notion that he is having trouble moving and invite them to prepare a blitz-laden defensive game plan that will test his mobility. Let them figure it out for themselves.

Eli has been playing at a very high level this year. His reads and decision making have been very sharp. His passes have been very accurate, his ball placement has been excellent and his deep balls have also be on the money. I still don't get why all the experts automatically place both Roethlisberger and Rivers ahead of Eli as a QB. It used to be Romo that was also ahead of Eli but he's starting to come down a notch or two.

Boss hurt his ankle and knee last week. While he does not have the boot on to immobilize the foot, he is also not practicing and will probably be out this Sunday. If he is out, the word is that rookie T Beatty will play TE in the 2-TE formations. If so, Darcy Johnson will get some balls thrown to him this week and maybe Travis Beckum will become a little more involved in the passing game.

I really would not mind if the Giants started David Carr this week. Giants should have enough to beat the Raiders even with Carr in there. Covering the point spread of 15 1/2 is another matter, but I don't think the coaching staff is worrying about that.

Giants: Chiefs game and random observations

I mentioned once before that the blocking by the TE's has really improved and Sunday against the Chiefs was no exception. Boss has steadily improved and was good last year, but Darcy Johnson made some excellent seal blocks on running plays, hooking the LB so Jacobs could get to the outside. He also got out in front of Nicks on his TD run and made a good block on the LB. As he continues to improve, the running game will also become more productive.

These injuries are really going to hurt the Giants. Alford and Phillips are, so far, the only season-long injuries, but when you are missing so much starting talent, it's got to diminish the defense. We thought that the Giants could get by and manage the injuries because they were coming during the soft part of the schedule and the injured players would return to the lineup later. However, in one week we will be starting the meaty part of the schedule and Boley, Canty and Ross are still out. Think about that. Canty, Ross, Boley and Phillips represent 4 starters on defense, and Alford represents a 5th from the regular rotation. Most teams would fall apart with so many starters from their defense missing, even against weaker teams in the league. Look what happened to the Steelers defense with just Polamalu missing and to the Colts defense last year when Sanders went out. Giants will feel the pinch eventually, no doubt against the better teams in the league.

I can't wait until Danny Ware comes back. I like Bradshaw, but I think Ware is a smoother, more polished runner, maybe even a smidge faster than Bradshaw and can make some plays in the passing game.

Trade Sinorice Moss to Cleveland. (Can't take credit for this - it was my brother's idea.) Now that the Browns have traded Braylon Edwards to the Jets, they may feel the need to add a deep threat to their corps of WR's. I still think Moss can be a good deep threat and he might be an asset to the Giants, but realistically, he is not getting enough playing time or having enough balls thrown to him to make it worth it for the Giants to keep him. Giants now have 4 very productive WR's in Manningham, Smith, Hixon and Nicks. They have used Hagan as a 5th WR situationally at times instead of Moss and they still have Barden sitting on the bench. They have enough depth there, that they should consider trading him. The Giants could get draft picks from the Browns or could try to get Brodney Pool, the Browns' starting S, which would would give the Giants a little depth at the position to back-fill for loss of Phillips.

Giants are 16 point favorites over the Raiders. The Raiders must really stink - there are questions about whether the starting QB will play for the Giants and how effective he will be in light of the plantar fasciitis and they are still favored by more than 2 TDs.

JaMarcus Russell is playing poorly; he has a powerful but inaccurate arm. His completion percentage is around 40%. The whispers also are that he's very heavy, completely out of shape and is not the most studious of QB's.

Romo held up 3 fingers, signalling 3rd down to his team after his incomplete 4th down play that ended the game against the Broncos on Sunday. He claims that he knew it was really 4th down and he was trying to trick the officials into thinking that they had one more play. Gamesmanship. Yeah, right.

Interesting that the J-E-T-S Jets, Jets, Jets got Braylon Edwards from the Browns in a trade. With all the focus on Giant WRs in the off-season, Braylon Edwards was on the Giants shopping list of possible players to upgrade the WR unit. Giants declined because Reese thought that the Browns were asking too much. Jets gave up a starting WR in Stuckey, their best ST player and two draft choices - a 3rd and 6th. Comparable value from the Giants might have been Hixon, Kehl, and two draft picks for a player that you are renting for one year. In the Jets case, they are renting him for 12 games, so it really is a lot to give up. Of course if it transforms their offense by giving Sanchez a legitimate deep threat, moves defenses off the line of scrimmage and opens up the running game, it might be worth it. By making this trade, Jets are advertising that they are reaching for the brass ring this year. Giving up so many players for 12 games worth of a player is not a long term move; it is a win-now proposition. In the end, perhaps this will turn out to be a good move for the Jets, and I think it was the right thing for the Giants to turn down. While Edwards has size and speed, he has had only one good year in the pros. He also has this fighting incident hanging over him, a league investigation and possible suspension. After the Plaxico experience, I don't think the Giants want a player with some baggage. We'll see.

Giants also announced that Kehl had surgery on a broken finger and will probably be out a week or two. Kehl has been spectacular on ST for the Giants. Last Sunday he forced a fumble on the opening KO and recovered it. On the opening KO of the 2nd half, he smelled out the onside kick and recovered it. I doubt the NFL keeps records of these things, but what is the probability that a LB will recover both KO's of each half in the same game.

Goff is also playing well on ST and made a huge hit on one of the Chiefs KO returns.

Hypothetical I was discussing with my brother this morning: The score is tied in the middle of the 3rd qtr. It's 4th and 5 on the opposing team's 38 yard line. It's a 55 yard kick, so you're out of FG range. Do you punt or do you go for it? Feagles is a good punter and could probably pin them down on the 10. Your defense is good, so if you stop them with a 3-and-out you get the ball back, probably losing about 15-20 yards of field position. On the other hand, your offense is very good, efficient at making 3rd-and-makeable distances so maybe you put the ball in Eli's hands and risk giving up the ball to the opponents with good field position, if the offense doesn't pick up the 1st down. Moreover, if you were to punt, and Feagles kick is slightly off so he boots it into the end zone, you gain only 19 yards of field position. What's your call?

Giants: Boley injury

Giants announced today that Micahel Boley's knee was scoped to clear out a partial meniscus tear. He is expected to be out 4 weeks. I have noted in my blog how well Boley had been playing and while the Giants should be able to survive this week against Oakland, his absence will surely be missed against New Orleans and their high powered passing offense. (Giants are 16 point favorites against Oakland and the health of their QB is in question.) In particular, one of the reasons that the Giants signed Boley was to improve the LB pass defense and challenge the good pass catching TE's in the league. In particular, Giants play Whitten twice per year and Boley will be instrumental in that contest. The TEs Giants play in the 4 weeks Boley will be out are: {{who-cares}} of the Raiders; Shockey of the Saints; {{non-descript-TE-with-3-catches}} on the Cardinals; and Brent Celek on the Eagles. Those are 2 very good TEs and two invisible ones. If Boley were to come back in the 5th week after his injury, he would defend the very dynamic TE Antonio Gates on the Chargers. While it would be nice to have Boley back for that game against Gates and the Chargers, it is also the last game before the Giants week 10 bye. Depending on how things look at that time, it might be nice to sit Boley one extra week, because then he would get 6 straight weeks of rest and rehab and he should be able to finish the season strong.

I am hopeful that the Giants will give Wilkinson some playing time at Boley's slot while he's out. I have said before on this blog what a good athlete I think Wilkinson is and how good he is defending the TE. But coming out of training camp, Blackburn was the starter, so I guess the Giants coaches favor him. Kehl has played well on ST so they may want to give him a shot also. Against the pass catching TE's Blackburn is less effective, because he is not as fast and doesn't play as well in space. He tweaked his ankle, so that may slow him down a bit more. Wilkninson and Kehl should get some playing time.

My friend Ray pointed out that the Giants injured players on defense: Alford, Phillips, Ross and now Boley are very talented players and their absence would diminish any defense. At some point, no matter how much depth you have, you get hurt when starters go down. If you throw in Canty to that group, you have 5 excellent players that could probably form the core of a very good defense somewhere in the NFL.

I know there is the 'on any given Sunday' mantra, you want to give your team the best chance to win every game, and therefore these injuries are really damaging. But really - even with these injuries, if they are not season ending and Ross, Boley and Canty can come back in the second half of the season, the Giants will get an infusion of talent for the hoped-for playoff run. Even with these injuries and even though every coach likes to think only one week ahead, Giants still have a good chance to make the playoffs and hope they can get healthy then.

Giants: Chiefs game review

We can't really take too much away from this Chiefs game in terms of the quality of the Giants play, mostly because of the level of the opponent. I thought this was the sloppiest game that the Giants have played of the first 4. They just didn't look very sharp to me offensively. Certainly, they did not play poorly and they had the fortune of playing a team that has the talent level of a Division I College football team, but they just did not look as crisp as they could be. Maybe it was the dropped passes by Manningham, a few ever-so-slightly-off-target throws by Eli or a little bit of plodding and unevenness in the running game that makes me feel that way. But the truth is I am nitpicking here, and I don't want to sound like I am a whining fan who complains when his team doesn't win every game 41-0. The good news offensively is that the Giants running game and Jacobs looked a little bit stronger than the week before. Eli overall threw very accurate passes and made excellent decisions. Steve Smith looks like he can not be defended, leading the NFL in catches, yards and TD receptions. It's really great when your best WR is the second or third fastest guy on the team and not the main deep threat. The defense will not want want to roll a S over the top of Smith and directly double-cover him, because Manningham, Moss and the other deep threats will kill the defense. Nicks looked great on his TD catch, showing moves, speed, instinct and high football IQ knowing when to juke, when to sprint and when to stop and juke again. Maybe Reese knew what he was doing by not trading up in the first round to get another WR and sticking with Nicks instead. I have to attribute this idea to my brother who absolutely thinks this was the right strategy and sees a huge upside with Nicks. If Nicks really steps up, the Giants will have 5 or 6 productive WR's to share the load and this has several corollary benefits: (1) just like the Giants found out with the DL rotation, every WR stays fresh, can run hard on every play and will have plenty left in the tank in the 4th qtr (2) if one of the WR's has an injury or does something really stupid, like... I don't know... shoot himself in the thigh, it won't cripple the Giants offense because there will be good depth and someone else to step in and be productive (3) if the WR load is shared among several WR's, Giants coaches will not feel compelled to protect Hixon and may put him back returning kickoffs and punts... he is the Giants best return man (4) finally, defenses will have more trouble preparing for the Giants offense because of the variety of styles, personnel packages and route combinations that the different WR's run.

The other piece of good news from the Chiefs game is how well the defense played. We can't give them the highest grades because of the level of competition, but even if the opposing offense was a weak NFL offense, the Giants defense was absolutely smothering, giving up very few yards, points and plays. Michael Boley is playing better every game and he was great against KC. He has such great speed, is a good hitter and seems to have a great instinct for the game, is always around the ball. He had a sack on Sunday and had few other tackles for losses. For the last few years, the Giants defense was good with average LB play. Pierce played well, but the corner LBs, were average, especially against the pass. Now, the Giants seem to have a real play maker at the LB position and it makes their defense that much more dangerous. It is really unfortunate that they lost Phillips at S because he was coming on as a star at the S position. Having stars who can make great plays at the skill positions on defense, when they are backing up a stud DL, makes the Giants defense really strong.

Michael Boley came out of the KC game with a knee injury. He may be out 2 weeks, which is really unfortunate, because the Giants may need him against the big time passing offense of the Saints in two weeks. I would not let him near the practice field this week or the game this Sunday against Oakland and hope that he can recover in time for Shockey in New Orleans in two weeks.

Eli's heel injury is not terrible, but it's not great either. When I first saw him trip and avoid putting weight on his heel during the pass play, I immediately feared that it was an achilles tendon rupture. When he was able to stand up and walk with a slight limp, I knew it was not that, and my second guess was that it was plantar fasciitis, which is what it turned out to be. The reason this was my guess is because I had the same injury a few years ago, and Eli acted the same way that I did when the injury first appeared. In my case, it was caused by a bone spur in my heel that caused irritation and inflammation in the heel, right where the tendon inserts into the achilles heel. The good news is that a mixture of anti-inflammatory drugs, stretching exercises for the achilles tendon and the arch, and orthotics for the shoes - a heel pad which raises the heel and relaxes the achilles tendon by not requiring you to stretch it to its maximum extension - are all very effective treatments. It does take a while to go away and this could bother Eli for the rest of the season. It may not be disabling, but it could affect his throwing and accuracy, since so much of passing mechanics come from your feet and your base. As my friend Ray pointed out to me, it could also affect his mobility somewhat and teams will probably blitz more to test him this way.

How good are the Giants? On the one hand, they are 4-0, have dominated the weak teams and won the one close game they were in against the Cowboys. On the other hand, although the Giants are 4-0, the cumulative record of the teams they have beaten is 4-12. The Cowboys win was thought to be a great victory by the Giants against a sure playoff team and a Superbowl contender, on the road no less. In retrospect, now that the Cowboys are 2-2, the bloom is off that rose and the Cowboys may be a fairly pedestrian team this year. Similarly, the Redskins who lost to the Lions and barely beat the Bucs, who the Giants crushed, don't exactly look like an upper echelon, elite team right now. We all know the old saying - you can only play the teams on your schedule, but if you want to be honest and analyze the level of competition, it may not have been so good. Giants will get a real stiff test starting in week 6 against the Saints and we will learn much more about the quality and character of this team.

Giants: some random stats and observations

Giants record in games that have mattered since the start of the 2007 season looks like this:

2007 regular season: 10-6
2007 post season: 4-0
2008 regular season: 12-4
2008 post season: 0-1
2009 regular season to date: 3-0

total: 29-11.

That's a hair under .750 winning percentage. Not bad.

Cowboys without TO are morphing into a run-first team, which probably suits their personnel well. The OL is huge but not that fast and are probably better run blockers than they are pass blockers at this point in their careers. Flozell Adams got fined for another trip this weekend on Julius Peppers and Felix Jones got fined for a leg whip while trying to block. I guess that is the blocking technique that they teach in Dallas. Fines of 15,000 or so don't mean much to a guy who is making millions. Flozell Adams should be suspended for a game or 2.

Felix Jones is a scary player with enormous speed. I think the Cowboy WR's are ordinary. The Roy Williams trade, where Cowboys gave up draft choices in the 1st, 3rd and 6th round may go down as a gross overpayment for the return they got. It's still not as ridiculous as what the Patriots gave for Randy Moss - a 4th round pick.

As much as we all love Ahmad Bradshaw, he really does not have breakaway speed. He can take a hit very well, especially for someone who is only 200 lbs. He has great balance, great vision and can cut back very well, but when he gets in the open field he is not a true burner. I like Bradshaw, but I would like to see the Giants have a pure speed RB back there.

If Manningham emerges as a star and either starts or at least takes a significant number of snaps, it will take some playing time away from other WR's. If Hakeem Nicks continues to improve and pushes his way into the offense, it would mean a slightly diminished role for Domenik Hixon. This might be good for the Giants, because the lighter burden might encourage the coaches to put Hixon back as the KR and/or PR. He is a deadly KR and it would improve the Giants field position. The new no-wedge rules on kickoff returns reduces the threat on kickoffs and there have been fewer TD returns of kickoffs this year, but field position is still important.

I'll say it again: Eli is the most underrated QB in the league and Romo is the most overrated.

Eric Mangenius may get run out of Cleveland by Thanksgiving. He has no clue how to manage people. He is a dumb version of Tom Coughlin before the Coughlin-personality-makeover. In addition ti his poor people management skills, his personnel decision making is awful. Consider this: He trades down with the Jets and gives his former team the franchise QB they need instead of drafting Sanchez himself. Presumably, he did not draft Sanchez because the Browns drafted their own franchise QB a few years ago in Notre Dame's Brady Quinn. Furthermore their QB situation was deep because of Derek Anderson's presence on the roster. Anderson had 1 good year in his career two years ago, when the Browns surprised everyone in the league with a 10-6 record and almost snuck into the playoffs. So what does Mangenius do? He drives everyone crazy with his QB competition in the off season and totally mismanages the situation. He waits until 3 days before the season opener to inform everyone who the starter will be, Brady Quinn. So everyone assumes this is the start of the Brady Quinn era in Cleveland. Except, after 2 bad losses, at half time of the third game, when his entire team is being completely overwhelmed, he replaces Quinn as QB. Anderson throws 3 INT's in the 2nd half of the game. The QB switch gives the entire world the impression that the only reason the team lost is because of the poor play of the QB. The team is great. The coach is brilliant. Only reason we are losing is the QB. He managed to destroy the confidence of both QBs and undermine the ability of either one to run the team. What a dope.