You wouldn't think that we could find that much of interest in a somewhat boring 24-0 crushing of the Buccaneers, but here goes with some random observations:
I said that the Giants game plan on offense was to be conservative and control the clock to protect the thin Giants DL, since they dressed only 6 full time DL-men with Tuck as the designated pass rusher. I think I was only partially right - I looked at the game again and I think they were protecting the safeties more than the DL-men. Giants only dressed 3 safeties but one of them was Rouse, who they signed midweek from the Packers after putting Kenny Phillips on the IR. From what I could see, Rouse did not get on the field, so they played only 2 S and surely were thinking about protecting them more than the DL.
Because there were always 2 S on the field and only 3 CBs dressed, Giants never had 6 DBs on the field and always had 2 LBs out there. With Boley's mobility and pass coverage skills, it hardly mattered. Of course, to be completely honest, Tampa Bay has very weak WRs and a terrible QB in Leftwich, so we can't take too much out of that. Still.... Boley looks like a real good pickup for the Giants.
Couglin always prods injured players to get out of the trainer's room and back on the field. (Frankly I think this is stupid and I would prefer the injury heals completely before the player practices and plays again... this may have led to Canty's calf injury, if he practiced before his hammy completely healed.) Anyway - Coughlin is prodding his CBs Ross and Dockery to get back on the practice field, no doubt because he wants to shore up the DB-field and doesn't ever want to go into a game with only 5 legitimate DB's. Maybe by next week, Rouse will have picked up some more of the playbook and will be available to contribute a little bit.
I have said in the past that the Giants OL was very good, but not as great as everyone has made them out to be, with many experts knighting them as the best in football. My assessment of them was that they were outstanding blockers in the running game and very-good-but-not-great in pass protection. I know it's only 3 games, but in my judgment, the pass blocking seems much improved this year over last year. Cowboys, whose defense is predicated on pass rush, didn't bother Eli much. Redskins back in game 1 only bothered Eli a little bit, once when they were permitted to grab his face mask with impunity. Even Tampa Bay, while we can admit that they are an awful team, still has a good DL and didn't come near Eli.
Speaking of Eli - I know I have been a big supporter of his for a long time - maybe at a point in his career where he wasn't completely deserving of it, but he is playing outstanding football. His passes are crisp, sharp and extremely accurate. His decision making is excellent. His leadership is inspiring to his teammates. His control of the game is superior, though this part of his game was always excellent.
We were all obsessing about how the Giants passing offense would be without Burress and Toomer this year but we can assert that the passing game is clearly superior to what it was last year, even before Burress went out with his gun wound. I am not ready to commission sculpting busts of Smith, Manningham, Hixon et. al. to send to Canton quite yet. I am not even ready to compare them and make them superior to other WR groups on other NFL teams. I am going to assert something else, however: maybe we were overrating Burress and Toomer all these years.
Burress was big, had good hands and certainly was difficult to defend because of his size. But he was not fast, not particularly quick, rather was more of a physical receiver. When he got downfield, he didn't need to be wide open and have a lot of separation to catch the ball because of his size and wingspan. But this meant that there were no easy throws for Eli. Every deep ball had to be placed perfectly on the outside, on the back shoulder, down low, wherever Plax was to take advantage of body positioning. And at least partly because of this, there were no YAC yards at all.
I am not even going to talk about Toomer, because it is quite obvious in retrospect that he was a marginal NFL caliber receiver, dating back to at least the middle of 2008. Toomer was the possession receiver complementing Burress as the speed guy. The problem is that Burress was not a speed guy and Toomer dropped way too many balls to be considered a possession receiver. In 2007, Giants led the league in dropped passes and they were up there in 2008 also, with Toomer one of the main offenders.
Look at some of the catches Steve Smith has come up with already in 2009. He made a sideline catch against Tampa as the first reception of the game that Toomer could never make in his entire career because of the superior body control that Smith has. And Manningham made several big plays with YAC yards that Burress just couldn't make. Eli threw a quick slant to Manningham in the Tampa game that Mario turned into a 15 yard gain. Two step drop, short throw, high completion percentage, 15 yards, 10 after the catch that the WRs could not have gotten last year. Add to that the stable of substitutes that are on the team now: Nicks, Hixon and Moss (though the latter two were on the team last year) ; and I think the WR corps is far superior to what the Giants had in 2008.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Giants: Review of Tampa Bay game
Sometimes, when your team dominates the team lining up against them, you come away from the game and say: "wow, we're really good". This weekend against Tampa Bay, the domination was so complete on both sides of the football, that we honestly have to walk away from the game and say: "wow, they really stink". This just might be one of those rare instances, where you recognize the weakness in the opponent rather than the strength of your favorite team. The domination was at the line of scrimmage, and down the field. On offense and on defense. In the passing game and in the running game. The Buccaneers didn't make a play all day long and the only time they ventured onto the Giants side of the field, it was because of a gift pass interference penalty called against Bruce Johnson. Giants moved the ball on the ground, in the air and did not even attempt a deep pass all day. I think they played conservatively and tried to eat clock on offense in order to protect the thin defensive line and keep them off the field. That plan worked, obviously, because the Giants had 43 minutes of possession. I said that the Giants would not want to come into the game with only 6 DL-men dressed, and they didn't. They dressed Justin Tuck as a backup 7th DL-man but he played only on 3rd and long situations. Frankly, I thought this was an imprudent risk to take with the best player on defense, but the Giants lucked out and he came out of the game unhurt; Tuck played only 8 snaps.
Eli wasn't as sharp as he was against the Cowboys, but he didn't need to be. He played well enough to win; Eli gets it in gear when the game is on the line. It's hard to say that a $100M QB could be underrated, but I contend he is. He doesn't get recognition for how good he's become and how much more of an accurate passer he is now than he was in his first two years in the league.
Back to the game...
I think I've made it clear that I don't love Kevin Gilbride. I don't think he's completely incompetent like those that have dubbed him "Killdrive"; I think he's a capable OC, but is less than brilliant and creative. But I do have to give him credit where it is due at reshaping the Giants passing game this year with the different personnel and different style of WR that are on the team now. Last year, the other thing that really aggravated me about his personnel usage is that he did not work the young substitutes into the game, he went totally with the starters. So when Plaxico went down, nobody was ready. This year even that seems to be different and he seems to be trying to get the young players in the game. As an example, let me break down one play that I liked on Sunday, a 24 yard pass to Boss in the 3rd quarter that set up the Giants FG. It was 1st and 15 from the Bucs 36. Giants got two TEs in the game, which they often do, this time it was Boss and Beckum. Usually, they line up on opposite sides of the line and have 1 WR split out on each side of the field. This time, they line both WRs on the right side of the offense and lined up Boss tight to the left and split the speedy Beckum out wide to the left. The Bucs were playing their base defense, 2-deep zone with 3 LBs in the game. Because the Giants had 2 WRs to the left, one S was locked up giving deep help on that side of the field. On the other side of the field, the Bucs decided to send their other CB to line up wide against the speedy Beckum, which means that Boss was lined up against a LB. Boss and Beckum ran seam routes and the S on that side of the field started to go to the sideline to give help on Beckum, especially because Eli looked the S off and was looking towards Beckum. Finally, Beckum cut off his route and pulled up to make more space for Boss. The S did not have time to get back and give the LB help on Boss and Eli hit him on a beautiful seam route for 24 yards over the LB. Probably if the S had stayed on Boss, he would have been the one to cut off his route and Beckum would have continued deep. It had all the components you're looking for from the OC: variation of the formation with two TEs on the same side of the field; getting the young TE in the game; getting a favorable matchup on the LB; perfect throw from the QB and nice catch by the TE.
I can not figure out why Sinorice Moss can't get on the field more. He must really be messing up in practice - because every time he gets into the game he makes big plays. He made a gorgeous catch on the TD pass from Eli and I think it was the first pass they threw to him this year. At least he's been on the field more this year. But mostly he has run clear out routes which is certainly effective with his great speed. He runs deep taking half the DB-field with him and it opens up the rest of the field.
McKenzie sprained his knee Sunday and Beatty acquitted himself quite well as a substitute. Boothe replaced Seubert who went out with a shoulder injury and did well also.
This game showed much better blocking success from the TEs in the running game. Darcy Johnson was active and Boss is really using his size effectively in run blocking.
Nice moment in the game Sunday: when the Giants defended the 4th and goal from the 5 yard line to preserve the shutout, DC Sheridan was seen smiling, more animated than I remember seeing him and he hugged his assistant coaches.
Everyone keeps dismissing this game because the Bucs are so bad. I agree that the Bucs are pretty bad, but they didn't look this inept in their first two games, so the domination had to at least have something to do with the strength of the Giants.
The other good news from this game is the emergence of three players on the defensive side of the ball. This was the best Fred Robbins has looked all year. He looked quick and strong and we can hope that his recovery from his knee surgery is moving along. Michael Boley looks great. He played well against the Cowboys, but couldn't play a full turn because it was his first game back and is probably not quite in game shape yet. But he looked great Sunday against the Bucs too. We knew he was fast, but I didn't think he was this aggressive and this good a tackler. He is good against the running game and plays very well in space. The third player that looks to have greatly improved is Kiwanuka. He looks like he bulked up a little bit in the off season. He is much more stout against the run and has not lost his quickness as a pass rusher. I am very encouraged by his play - he looks great.
Terrell Thomas continues to impress; he is an outstanding cover CB. Ross is a better tackler and gives better run support, but I am not sure Thomas should be removed from the starting lineup when Ross comes back, which he may this week. Dockery may come back this week also.
A note about the Cowboys: it's early, but my early season take on the Cowboys is that their WRs are rather ordinary, their passing game lacks a real deep threat and the big plays on offense comes from their running game, especially Felix Jones, who is a real blazer. After a few games, the league will figure out that they should defend the Cowboys the way everyone tried to defend the Giants when Burress went out and in the first two games of this year: stack the line of scrimmage against the running game, play their WR man-to-man with only a little help and make Romo beat you in the passing game.
Saints look dangerous. Brees is an excellent QB and they have always had a high octane offense. Now it seems that the Saints have a decent defense and that could make them real threat in the NFC. The game in week 6 against the Saints will be very interesting. After week 5, the Giants schedule gets very difficult with tough games seemingly every week.
Eli wasn't as sharp as he was against the Cowboys, but he didn't need to be. He played well enough to win; Eli gets it in gear when the game is on the line. It's hard to say that a $100M QB could be underrated, but I contend he is. He doesn't get recognition for how good he's become and how much more of an accurate passer he is now than he was in his first two years in the league.
Back to the game...
I think I've made it clear that I don't love Kevin Gilbride. I don't think he's completely incompetent like those that have dubbed him "Killdrive"; I think he's a capable OC, but is less than brilliant and creative. But I do have to give him credit where it is due at reshaping the Giants passing game this year with the different personnel and different style of WR that are on the team now. Last year, the other thing that really aggravated me about his personnel usage is that he did not work the young substitutes into the game, he went totally with the starters. So when Plaxico went down, nobody was ready. This year even that seems to be different and he seems to be trying to get the young players in the game. As an example, let me break down one play that I liked on Sunday, a 24 yard pass to Boss in the 3rd quarter that set up the Giants FG. It was 1st and 15 from the Bucs 36. Giants got two TEs in the game, which they often do, this time it was Boss and Beckum. Usually, they line up on opposite sides of the line and have 1 WR split out on each side of the field. This time, they line both WRs on the right side of the offense and lined up Boss tight to the left and split the speedy Beckum out wide to the left. The Bucs were playing their base defense, 2-deep zone with 3 LBs in the game. Because the Giants had 2 WRs to the left, one S was locked up giving deep help on that side of the field. On the other side of the field, the Bucs decided to send their other CB to line up wide against the speedy Beckum, which means that Boss was lined up against a LB. Boss and Beckum ran seam routes and the S on that side of the field started to go to the sideline to give help on Beckum, especially because Eli looked the S off and was looking towards Beckum. Finally, Beckum cut off his route and pulled up to make more space for Boss. The S did not have time to get back and give the LB help on Boss and Eli hit him on a beautiful seam route for 24 yards over the LB. Probably if the S had stayed on Boss, he would have been the one to cut off his route and Beckum would have continued deep. It had all the components you're looking for from the OC: variation of the formation with two TEs on the same side of the field; getting the young TE in the game; getting a favorable matchup on the LB; perfect throw from the QB and nice catch by the TE.
I can not figure out why Sinorice Moss can't get on the field more. He must really be messing up in practice - because every time he gets into the game he makes big plays. He made a gorgeous catch on the TD pass from Eli and I think it was the first pass they threw to him this year. At least he's been on the field more this year. But mostly he has run clear out routes which is certainly effective with his great speed. He runs deep taking half the DB-field with him and it opens up the rest of the field.
McKenzie sprained his knee Sunday and Beatty acquitted himself quite well as a substitute. Boothe replaced Seubert who went out with a shoulder injury and did well also.
This game showed much better blocking success from the TEs in the running game. Darcy Johnson was active and Boss is really using his size effectively in run blocking.
Nice moment in the game Sunday: when the Giants defended the 4th and goal from the 5 yard line to preserve the shutout, DC Sheridan was seen smiling, more animated than I remember seeing him and he hugged his assistant coaches.
Everyone keeps dismissing this game because the Bucs are so bad. I agree that the Bucs are pretty bad, but they didn't look this inept in their first two games, so the domination had to at least have something to do with the strength of the Giants.
The other good news from this game is the emergence of three players on the defensive side of the ball. This was the best Fred Robbins has looked all year. He looked quick and strong and we can hope that his recovery from his knee surgery is moving along. Michael Boley looks great. He played well against the Cowboys, but couldn't play a full turn because it was his first game back and is probably not quite in game shape yet. But he looked great Sunday against the Bucs too. We knew he was fast, but I didn't think he was this aggressive and this good a tackler. He is good against the running game and plays very well in space. The third player that looks to have greatly improved is Kiwanuka. He looks like he bulked up a little bit in the off season. He is much more stout against the run and has not lost his quickness as a pass rusher. I am very encouraged by his play - he looks great.
Terrell Thomas continues to impress; he is an outstanding cover CB. Ross is a better tackler and gives better run support, but I am not sure Thomas should be removed from the starting lineup when Ross comes back, which he may this week. Dockery may come back this week also.
A note about the Cowboys: it's early, but my early season take on the Cowboys is that their WRs are rather ordinary, their passing game lacks a real deep threat and the big plays on offense comes from their running game, especially Felix Jones, who is a real blazer. After a few games, the league will figure out that they should defend the Cowboys the way everyone tried to defend the Giants when Burress went out and in the first two games of this year: stack the line of scrimmage against the running game, play their WR man-to-man with only a little help and make Romo beat you in the passing game.
Saints look dangerous. Brees is an excellent QB and they have always had a high octane offense. Now it seems that the Saints have a decent defense and that could make them real threat in the NFC. The game in week 6 against the Saints will be very interesting. After week 5, the Giants schedule gets very difficult with tough games seemingly every week.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Giants: Phillips on IR
This is a real bad injury for the Giants. Kenny Phillips was emerging as a star on defense, playing great both in the passing game as well as giving good run support. The last two years the Giants were lucky and did not have a lot of injuries, but perhaps the laws of chance are catching up to them this year with a ton of injuries on the defense. What makes this injury particularly bad is that the Giants did not come into the season with a "typical" distribution of players at each position group. Apparently, they went with a strategy of keeping the best athletes on the roster sacrificing balance and depth at some positions. They are very deep in the OL, the DL and LB, and are thin at S. The Giants came in to the season with only four safeties, one of them Bruce Johnson, who has been playing nickel-back because the injuries to Ross and Dockery shortened the CB rotations. With those 2 CBs out, it means that the Giants had only 3 S on the roster and now are down to 2: C.C. Brown and Michael Johnson. They absolutely have to sign a S and add him to the roster. In fact with depth at LB and WR, maybe the Giants will make a trade for a starting S from some other team instead of picking one off of the scrap heap of released players.
Recent safeties that have been released are: Jamaal Fudge from the Falcons and Aaron Rouse from the Packers. I don't know much about Jamaal Fudge, but Rouse has been in the league for 3 years and has played a little bit. Maybe the Giants talk Rodney Harrison out of retirement (jk).
Recent safeties that have been released are: Jamaal Fudge from the Falcons and Aaron Rouse from the Packers. I don't know much about Jamaal Fudge, but Rouse has been in the league for 3 years and has played a little bit. Maybe the Giants talk Rodney Harrison out of retirement (jk).
Giants: Looking back, looking ahead
Wow... everybody is dumping on Tony Romo for having such a bad game against NYG. Leave poor little Tony alone. For one thing, they are attacking him for having a completion percentage of below 50%; he was 13-29. They're idiots and they have no idea what mathematics and statistics are about !! If you include the 3 passes he completed to Giants players, (2 to Phillips and 1 to Johnson) he actually completed 16 of his 29 passes, which is above 50%.
Even TO got into the act beating up on Tony Romo. He tweeted on his twitter account that "it seems like Dallas has a TR problem, not a TO problem". Way to go TO. What happened to: "Sniff, that's not fair. Sniff, sniff, he's my teammate. Snif, sniff, sniff, he's my quarterback".
Looks like Tuck will not play this weekend, which is certainly the prudent course of action. Nobody wants to turn a sprained shoulder, stretched labrum, 2 week injury into a completely torn labrum and a much worse injury. But with Canty already out, that means the Giants would be dressing only 6 DL-men for the game this Sunday, something they surely do not want to do. It would mean that Rocky Bernard is the only reserve DT and Dave Tollefson is the only reserve DE. That's just too thin, especially going into the heat and humidity of Tampa in September.
There are only two alternatives that I can think of. If Clint Sintim's groin is healed, they may give him some work at DE, since he did play with his hand on the ground in college at Virginia. He is a good pass rusher and is fairly strong against the run. Giants have been using him as LB, so this has some risks, but it could be a temporary stopgap. Kiwanuka can take some snaps at DT in passing situations to give the DTs a rest, but that doesn't relieve the overall shortage of DL-men.
The Giants don't really have another LB that is big enough to step in and play DL, so the only other alternative seems to be to sign another player as DT temporarily, eg. Leger Douzable who was cut just a week ago. The problem with signing a player, of course, is that it means that the Giants would have to cut another player from the roster. I am not sure who would go, but it would be a loss. LB Wilkinson played pretty well in his limited time against the Cowboys and it would be a pity to cut a serviceable NFL player and a real good athlete. Working against Wilkinson might be the fact that Boley looked really good at LB and the Giants may feel that they have the most depth at that position. Maybe they trade Wilkinson.
Another thought is to trade or cut Sinorice Moss if they sign a DT. Let's be honest about Moss. He came into camp as the 3rd WR behind Hixon and Smith. It's pretty clear that Manningham and rookie Nicks have surpassed him on the depth chart and are the 3rd and 4th WRs. Even Derek Hagan was in the game at crunch time last week, during the winning FG drive. So even though I hate to trade the fastest guy on the team, it certainly seems like he's expendable. Short term, getting rid of a WR now may not be such a good idea, because Hixon has a sprained knee and Nicks is still out, so they may be a little short at WR and want to keep Moss active for now. That may make Wilkinson more vulnerable.
The papers are already locking Giants in to be 5-0 after the next 3 winnable games. I hate when they do that. Got to play them one at a time and focus on the next opponent. At least Coughlin keeps saying to the press and to his team, that "we just have to win the next one". Former Giants coach Jim Fassel used to fall into this all the time. He used to look at the next several games coming up on the schedule and say stuff like.... if we want to get into the playoffs, we have to win 4 of the next 6, or whatever he thought was required. He would also say things like "this week's game is a classic trap game for us". All those things diverted attention from his team on looking at the upcoming opponent as dangerous or at the upcoming game as really important. The thought that was planted in the player's heads was that if they lose this week, they can come back and win next week, because they only have to win 4 out of 6. And if this is a trap game, it must mean that the Giants are much better than the opponent, so preparation might be a little softer. Giants are better than their upcoming opponents, but they could easily stub their toe in one of these games, especially against the Raiders, who look improved to me.
Even TO got into the act beating up on Tony Romo. He tweeted on his twitter account that "it seems like Dallas has a TR problem, not a TO problem". Way to go TO. What happened to: "Sniff, that's not fair. Sniff, sniff, he's my teammate. Snif, sniff, sniff, he's my quarterback".
Looks like Tuck will not play this weekend, which is certainly the prudent course of action. Nobody wants to turn a sprained shoulder, stretched labrum, 2 week injury into a completely torn labrum and a much worse injury. But with Canty already out, that means the Giants would be dressing only 6 DL-men for the game this Sunday, something they surely do not want to do. It would mean that Rocky Bernard is the only reserve DT and Dave Tollefson is the only reserve DE. That's just too thin, especially going into the heat and humidity of Tampa in September.
There are only two alternatives that I can think of. If Clint Sintim's groin is healed, they may give him some work at DE, since he did play with his hand on the ground in college at Virginia. He is a good pass rusher and is fairly strong against the run. Giants have been using him as LB, so this has some risks, but it could be a temporary stopgap. Kiwanuka can take some snaps at DT in passing situations to give the DTs a rest, but that doesn't relieve the overall shortage of DL-men.
The Giants don't really have another LB that is big enough to step in and play DL, so the only other alternative seems to be to sign another player as DT temporarily, eg. Leger Douzable who was cut just a week ago. The problem with signing a player, of course, is that it means that the Giants would have to cut another player from the roster. I am not sure who would go, but it would be a loss. LB Wilkinson played pretty well in his limited time against the Cowboys and it would be a pity to cut a serviceable NFL player and a real good athlete. Working against Wilkinson might be the fact that Boley looked really good at LB and the Giants may feel that they have the most depth at that position. Maybe they trade Wilkinson.
Another thought is to trade or cut Sinorice Moss if they sign a DT. Let's be honest about Moss. He came into camp as the 3rd WR behind Hixon and Smith. It's pretty clear that Manningham and rookie Nicks have surpassed him on the depth chart and are the 3rd and 4th WRs. Even Derek Hagan was in the game at crunch time last week, during the winning FG drive. So even though I hate to trade the fastest guy on the team, it certainly seems like he's expendable. Short term, getting rid of a WR now may not be such a good idea, because Hixon has a sprained knee and Nicks is still out, so they may be a little short at WR and want to keep Moss active for now. That may make Wilkinson more vulnerable.
The papers are already locking Giants in to be 5-0 after the next 3 winnable games. I hate when they do that. Got to play them one at a time and focus on the next opponent. At least Coughlin keeps saying to the press and to his team, that "we just have to win the next one". Former Giants coach Jim Fassel used to fall into this all the time. He used to look at the next several games coming up on the schedule and say stuff like.... if we want to get into the playoffs, we have to win 4 of the next 6, or whatever he thought was required. He would also say things like "this week's game is a classic trap game for us". All those things diverted attention from his team on looking at the upcoming opponent as dangerous or at the upcoming game as really important. The thought that was planted in the player's heads was that if they lose this week, they can come back and win next week, because they only have to win 4 out of 6. And if this is a trap game, it must mean that the Giants are much better than the opponent, so preparation might be a little softer. Giants are better than their upcoming opponents, but they could easily stub their toe in one of these games, especially against the Raiders, who look improved to me.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Giants: More Cowboys stuff
A few more notes about the Cowboys game....
The Giants were gashed by the Cowboys running game and gave up 251 yards rushing. It's hard to imagine a team giving up that many rushing yards and still winning the game, but the Giants did it. Of course, Romo sharing the ball so nicely with the visitors wearing the blue uniforms was very hospitable of him and was one of the reasons that the Giants won. To tell you the truth, that other Manning had a similar experience on Monday night football, when his Colts gave up 239 yards rushing and 45 minutes of possession time to the Dolphins and still won the game. Another similarity is that the Colts won on a 4th quarter drive led by their QB.
When I was watching the game live and when I reviewed the game initially, it looked to me like there were several plays where the Giants were just physically dominated by a bigger Cowboy OL. But I heard Carl Banks say that the Giants were very undisciplined in their gap and lane control. They overpursued, each player trying to do too much by themselves and that is what allowed the Cowboys to make their big plays. After I heard that, I went back to the game and watched it again and I think Banks is absolutely right. Osi was the biggest culprit, constantly overcommitting and charging too hard to the ball, leaving wide cutback lanes open. If Sheridan and Waufle are good coaches, they will address this and correct it in the coming weeks. Bucs are not a good team, but have a good running attack, so this week will be a good indicator.
One more thing about the run defense - we know the Giants are good run stoppers; that has been a core of their defense for the last 2 years (at least). The DTs are strong and the DEs are quick enough to avoid the blockers and make plays. The DTs may have slowed down a bit, but the Cowboys ran on the outside, not over the DTs. I am hopeful that the coaches will get this fixed.
There's another way to look at the poor run defense against the Cowboys and forgive me in advance for boring you with some statistics, but in this case they may be instructive. When you think of a defense that gets beaten badly on the ground, you assume that the opponents were constantly ripping off gains of 5-6-7 yards; that the defense was constantly crushed by an overpowering OL; that they rarely stopped any plays for no gain. This past weekend, the Cowboys gained 251 yards on 29 rush attempts for an average of 8.7 yards and you would certainly think that fits the profile of Giants not stopping any running plays. However, that was certainly not the case. The fact is that the Cowboys hit on a few huge plays in the running game which greatly inflated their running yards, but the Giants did a decent job on many other running plays. Here's the data that supports that claim:
The Cowboys had 5 rushing attempts that were greater than 20 yards, one of them the big 56 yard run by Felix Jones. Of these 5 rushing plays, the Cowboys gained a total of 162 of their rushing yards. That is really impressive, but it means that on the other 24 rushing attempts, the Cowboys gained 89 yards for an average of 3.7 yards per carry. Furthermore, the Cowboys had 9 rushing attempts of 3 yards or less including 6 for no gain or a loss. So 17% of the Cowboys rushing attempts yielded 64% of their yards and the other 83% of their rushing attempts were kept at a very manageable number by the Giants defense. I am not trying to revise history and say that the Giants run defense was great Sunday night except for a few lucky plays by the Cowboys. The Giants definitely have some work to do in order to improve the run defense. I am just saying that the statistics reveal that the Giants made some good plays in the rush defense and have the raw materials to be a good defense against the run.
Here's a question for all Giants fans and Cowboys haters. (I know that last identification was redundant... all Giants fans are Cowboys haters.) What would you rather see happen to the Cowboys this year, the year that Jerry Jones opens up his new stadium? The reflex non-thinking man's answer would be to see the Cowboys suffer ignominy this year, finish 7-9 and not come near making the playoffs. I tend to disagree, as that would bring only momentary satisfaction for Giants fans. I am more interested in seeing the Cowboys descend into a slow long decline covering several years of losing football. The best way to accomplish this is to see the Cowboys finish about 10-6, sneak into the playoffs as a wildcard, maybe even win a playoff game and then lose before they get to the NFC conference championship game. The reason this is a better scenario for the Giants is that with a playoff victory under his (extremely large) belt, Wade Phillips would probably get rehired by Jerry Jones. My contention is that nothing is better for the Giants than having old Wade Phillips stay in Dallas for a few years. He may be a decent coordinator, but he is a terrible HC and it says here that the Cowboys never reach the promised land with him as coach. If the Cowboys go 7-9 or 6-10 this year, Jerry Jones hires Mike Shanhan or Mike Holmgren as coach next year and maybe they turn things around. Go Wade. Go 'Boys.
I posted this last year, but it's worthwhile to remind everyone of the Giants-Phillips connection in NFL history. Wade Phillips' father Bum, was the coach of the New Orleans Saints who drafted George Rogers, South Carolina RB as the first pick in the 1981 draft. This let LT fall to the Giants with the second pick in the first round. BTW - Bum's QB at the time was Archie Manning, another curious connection. I am telling you people - we want Wade Phillips to stay as coach of the Cowboys as long as possible.
The Giants were gashed by the Cowboys running game and gave up 251 yards rushing. It's hard to imagine a team giving up that many rushing yards and still winning the game, but the Giants did it. Of course, Romo sharing the ball so nicely with the visitors wearing the blue uniforms was very hospitable of him and was one of the reasons that the Giants won. To tell you the truth, that other Manning had a similar experience on Monday night football, when his Colts gave up 239 yards rushing and 45 minutes of possession time to the Dolphins and still won the game. Another similarity is that the Colts won on a 4th quarter drive led by their QB.
When I was watching the game live and when I reviewed the game initially, it looked to me like there were several plays where the Giants were just physically dominated by a bigger Cowboy OL. But I heard Carl Banks say that the Giants were very undisciplined in their gap and lane control. They overpursued, each player trying to do too much by themselves and that is what allowed the Cowboys to make their big plays. After I heard that, I went back to the game and watched it again and I think Banks is absolutely right. Osi was the biggest culprit, constantly overcommitting and charging too hard to the ball, leaving wide cutback lanes open. If Sheridan and Waufle are good coaches, they will address this and correct it in the coming weeks. Bucs are not a good team, but have a good running attack, so this week will be a good indicator.
One more thing about the run defense - we know the Giants are good run stoppers; that has been a core of their defense for the last 2 years (at least). The DTs are strong and the DEs are quick enough to avoid the blockers and make plays. The DTs may have slowed down a bit, but the Cowboys ran on the outside, not over the DTs. I am hopeful that the coaches will get this fixed.
There's another way to look at the poor run defense against the Cowboys and forgive me in advance for boring you with some statistics, but in this case they may be instructive. When you think of a defense that gets beaten badly on the ground, you assume that the opponents were constantly ripping off gains of 5-6-7 yards; that the defense was constantly crushed by an overpowering OL; that they rarely stopped any plays for no gain. This past weekend, the Cowboys gained 251 yards on 29 rush attempts for an average of 8.7 yards and you would certainly think that fits the profile of Giants not stopping any running plays. However, that was certainly not the case. The fact is that the Cowboys hit on a few huge plays in the running game which greatly inflated their running yards, but the Giants did a decent job on many other running plays. Here's the data that supports that claim:
The Cowboys had 5 rushing attempts that were greater than 20 yards, one of them the big 56 yard run by Felix Jones. Of these 5 rushing plays, the Cowboys gained a total of 162 of their rushing yards. That is really impressive, but it means that on the other 24 rushing attempts, the Cowboys gained 89 yards for an average of 3.7 yards per carry. Furthermore, the Cowboys had 9 rushing attempts of 3 yards or less including 6 for no gain or a loss. So 17% of the Cowboys rushing attempts yielded 64% of their yards and the other 83% of their rushing attempts were kept at a very manageable number by the Giants defense. I am not trying to revise history and say that the Giants run defense was great Sunday night except for a few lucky plays by the Cowboys. The Giants definitely have some work to do in order to improve the run defense. I am just saying that the statistics reveal that the Giants made some good plays in the rush defense and have the raw materials to be a good defense against the run.
Here's a question for all Giants fans and Cowboys haters. (I know that last identification was redundant... all Giants fans are Cowboys haters.) What would you rather see happen to the Cowboys this year, the year that Jerry Jones opens up his new stadium? The reflex non-thinking man's answer would be to see the Cowboys suffer ignominy this year, finish 7-9 and not come near making the playoffs. I tend to disagree, as that would bring only momentary satisfaction for Giants fans. I am more interested in seeing the Cowboys descend into a slow long decline covering several years of losing football. The best way to accomplish this is to see the Cowboys finish about 10-6, sneak into the playoffs as a wildcard, maybe even win a playoff game and then lose before they get to the NFC conference championship game. The reason this is a better scenario for the Giants is that with a playoff victory under his (extremely large) belt, Wade Phillips would probably get rehired by Jerry Jones. My contention is that nothing is better for the Giants than having old Wade Phillips stay in Dallas for a few years. He may be a decent coordinator, but he is a terrible HC and it says here that the Cowboys never reach the promised land with him as coach. If the Cowboys go 7-9 or 6-10 this year, Jerry Jones hires Mike Shanhan or Mike Holmgren as coach next year and maybe they turn things around. Go Wade. Go 'Boys.
I posted this last year, but it's worthwhile to remind everyone of the Giants-Phillips connection in NFL history. Wade Phillips' father Bum, was the coach of the New Orleans Saints who drafted George Rogers, South Carolina RB as the first pick in the 1981 draft. This let LT fall to the Giants with the second pick in the first round. BTW - Bum's QB at the time was Archie Manning, another curious connection. I am telling you people - we want Wade Phillips to stay as coach of the Cowboys as long as possible.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Giants: Cowboys game post mortem
This was a great win and it put the Giants in a great position in the division. Giants are the only team in the NFC East that is 2-0, both games intradivision wins. I am not going to go over the same old stuff you can read in the newspapers, but I am going to try to give it my analysis and slant.
Coming into the season, if you ask any of the experts and analysts who the better QB is, between Romo and Manning, 60% of them would say Romo is better. Of the other 40%, some would be undecided, but they would all agree that Romo has tremendous talent, occasional brilliance but makes mistakes and occasionally has bad games. But - he is brimming with ability and if he can harness it, he can be a star and be a Super Bowl caliber winning QB. They will also tell you that Eli has average talent, and while he has become more consistent than he was earlier in his career, he is not a playmaker or a great QB. Well I got news for them - Eli is so far ahead of Romo it isn't even close. If they were running a race, Eli would have lapped him by now. I am not saying that Romo stinks, he seems to have an NFL caliber arm, can scramble and improvise and is good at making plays outside of the pocket. But the reason that he has this reputation as a playmaker is that he has played his career with the best (or second best) WR of his generation and the best TE in football, behind a mammoth OL that lets him sit back there for days picking out a target. Perhaps more important for his reputation is this aura that he has - the infectious smile, the boyish good looks, knowing exactly what to say to the press to appear humorous, confident, yet humble at the appropriate times. Mostly, there is the great story of where he came from and how he got here - small school, Eastern Illinois, undrafted, found on the scrap heap by legendary coach Parcells, fights his way to be the starting QB for America's team - it's a great story. My advice -make a movie out of this story, but give me Eli as my qb any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
The problem Eli has in getting the recognition he deserves as the 4th best QB in football (behind only Peyton, Brady and Brees) is that everyone likes to take first impressions, put them in a box, tie a neat ribbon around it and never take the trouble to evaluate again. Eli in his first year or two had mechanical flaws throwing the ball. Everyone says he was throwing off his back foot, which led to innacuracy and some occasionally ugly, wobbly passes. That's not what it was, but without going into the details of Eli's early flawed mechanics (I'll do this in another post later this week) suffice it to say that Eli's early difficulties branded him for life in the minds of many as a bad passer who got drafted because of his geneology rather than his talent. From 2007 on, his mechanics are sound and he looks like a different QB. Eli's passes no longer wobble, he throws tight spirals. He is no longer inaccurate, he throws a great deep ball, has great arm strength and great touch on the intermediate throws. But the first impression remains with many.
Sorry for going off topic - this was supposed to be about the Cowboys game Sunday night. My point is that Eli is a far superior QB to Romo and in some ways we saw a matchup between the most underrated QB in the league in Eli and the most overrated in Romo. I heard a quote from Parcells right before he left the Cowboys. He was asked if Romo will continue to mature and grow even after he (Parcells) leaves as coach. Parcells said that Romo would be fine if he remembered that he was a football player and didn't instead try to be a celebrity QB of America's team. I'm not sure Romo has followed this advice.
Speaking of Eli, the calm demeanor he has and the consequent repeated success he has had at leading game winning 4th quarter drives gives the team complete confidence that he will do it every time they are in that situation,. This makes them calm, allows them to perform at their highest level and therefore makes it more likely that they will in fact succeed. One of the OL-men was asked what Eli said in the huddle when they were 2nd and 20 with about 3 minutes left in Dallas. The OL-man said: he looked Seubert in the eyes (who had been penalized for the phantom holding call), then glanced around the huddle to everyone and simply said: "Everybody be calm, we've been here before, you know what to do". The OL-man added that everyone in the huddle was completely confident that he would lead them down the field. That's the QB I want leading my team.
Back to the game....
If we were worried about seeing if any Giants WRs would step up and become playmaking threats, we can probably relax. Manningham looks like a star in the making. I have been touting Manningham for a long time on this blog and Eli himself announced that he was particuarly high on the ex-Wolverine all through the preseason, even when he had some dropped balls. I am still high on Nicks and I think Hixon will contribute, but I am glad Manningham is stepping up.
Mannigham looks like he has the goods; he is not a one dimensional receiver and he has shown it already in two games. He has a great football body with a upper body strength and chiseled arms, obviously very important for WR. He has very good straight away speed, very quick feet to make cuts, has jumping ability and excellent hands to catch the ball in a crowd, great body control to adjust on a ball and great balance and footwork to work the sidelines. We have seen all of these attributes already in just two games. He has caught little WR screens and shimmy-and-shaked his way past defenders several times for big gains; he used straight away speed to get behind the DB for a 50 yard completion against Dallas,; went up and caught a 25 yard fade on a pattern that was supposed to be a go route; he caught the ball over the middle several times on crossing routes; he showed the hands and the body control on that juggling catch for a TD on Sunday night.
My point is that sometimes WR's come in as unknown quantities, make a big splash up front but then don't sustain the success. Often this is because they have great speed but not much else; the defense is not prepared to guard them and they surprise with some big plays. When they have to become complete WRs, they don't have the necessary skills. Two examples that come to mind are Devin Hester and perhaps the Cowboys' Roy Williams. I am not predicting stardom for Mannigham, but he certainly has the complete toolbox of skills that a WR needs in order to perform at a high level. The most encouraging development besides the physical skills is that his seriousness and mental grasp of the game seems to be strong. The knock on him coming out of college was that he had off-field issues, did poorly on the Wuderlick test and was not a great student of the game. He seems to have put these behind him and is tight with Eli on sight adjustments, audibles and accurate route running.
Steve Smith is also stepping up, but he has shown us most of his skills before. He has great feet and is a great route runner. He has shown more quickness this year and while he is not a pure burner, he has enough speed to go deep occasionally.
The Giants runing game has been substandard in the first two games and was particualrly bad against the Cowboys. I think there are several reasons for this and I am not really worried (yet). For one thing, the Cowboys are very difficult to run outside on. They have very quick LBs in a 3-4 scheme and Ratliff is tough at NT. I know that Tampa ran for 180 against them in week 1, but that performance might be a little misleading. Cowboys scored 3 times on long 1-play drives and their defense was forced to get on the field in steamy Tampa with aboslutely no rest in between. Tampa piled up most of their yards in the 2nd half when the game was decided and Dallas defense was gassed. Second, Dallas and Washington were both walking an extra S up to the line of scrimmage and playing their LB's very tight to the line to defend the Giants running game. Dallas also did a lot of run blitzing and got good penetration preventing the Giants from running. The Giants did not totally abandon the run, but Gilbride did what they had to do - passed 60% of the time (same as against the Redksins) instead of getting closer to a 50-50 mixture, which Coughlin likes to do. As a result, the Giants running game was not effective, but this defensive alignment gave the Giants opportunities in the passing game which they certainly took advantage of. Eventually opposing defenses will start respecting the pass and give the Giants a better chance to get the running game going.
What I like about the passing game is how it seems to be have been remade this year with the different WRs. Burress and Toomer were big, not very fast targets. The Giants therefore ran a lot of hooks, a lot of out patters and an occasional deep ball to stretch the offense. With these quicker, more explosive WRs, Giants are throwing more deep balls, more quick slants and crossing routes. I often criticize Gilbride (I am about to in the next paragraph) but give him credit for fitting the attack to the skills of the players. He's coaching the team rather than forcing a scheme onto the players.
One thing that I will blame Gilbride for is the continued red zone difficulties. If you have a good OL, a big RB and can run the ball, have good WRs, have a big target at TE and a heady QB there is no reason you shouldn't be able to be more efficient in the red zone. My contention is that 90% of goal line success, assuming you have the tools, is playcalling. Giants pack the OL tight and try to ram it through, seemingly every time. This week, they tried to run outside with Bradshaw out of thie tight formation, but that didn't work either. They should occasionally try spreading things out instead of packing everyone so tight and using play action pass on 1st or 2nd down with a pass to the TE. This used to be the Giants favorite goal line play in the Simms-to-Bavaro days. Maybe Gilbride should revive it with an Eli-to-Boss reprise. Gilbride has to get a little more creative on the goal line.
On the defensive side of the ball, the Giants DB-field was absolutely brilliant. Terrell Thomas may not give the starting job back when Ross is healthy and can return - he has been that good. Romo may have had a bad day throwing the ball, but he did not have many open WRs anywhere. Bruce Johnson has been a find as the undrafted rookie FA and the 3rd CB. He's not a shut down CB, but he has good quickness, speed and does not seem to be out of position. He looks to be very well coached.
Let me wax eloquent on Giants coaches for a minute - I think we have among the best position coaches in the NFL. Flaherty is widely regarded as the best OL coach in the NFL. But I think DL coach Waufle is excellent and DB coach Giunta is a top coach as well. So many players improve on their individual technique and don't seem to miss too many assignments, something that is particualry important for DBs. Look how much Corey Webster has improved since the Tim Lewis regime has departed. Thomas looks very polished at CB and Dockery has also improved. Of course the DB's need the natural talent, but a big part of their progression is the coaching. The coaches don't only install the schemes and call when the team will blitz. The position coaches teach technique and it is a big plus for the team.
By contrast, Cowboys have two young, fast, well regarded CBs in Mike Jenkins and Orlando Scandrick (along with a star in veteran CB Newman). Unfortunatley, they have no idea how to play. Manningham beat Jenkins several times, beat Newman for his TD and had Scandrick so confused that he was standing still waiting for Manningham to present his route before he responded (and trailed him badly). Scandrick was also the one who fell on his a$$ on the Steve Smith TD. Every CB gets beat, but Scandrick's technique on that play was so flawed that it bears analysis. First, Cowboys had only one S deep and the Giants had a WR (I think it was Moss) running deep down the sideline, so the S had to slide over and give deep help there. Scandrick was on Steve Smith who was in the slot on that play. Because the S was cheating to the sideline, Scandrick had no deep help and was essentially covering Smith 1-on-1. With no deep help, you need to play a little more conservatively and make sure to keep the play in front of you. Furthermore, with the S to the outside, you should probably play an inside technique and force the WR to the outside, forcing him where you have some help. Finally, in addition to keeping the play in front of you, the CB should watch the WR until he is sure he has committed to his route and only try to make a play on the ball after it has been thrown. Scandrick did every one of these things exactly wrong. He let Smith go to the inside; he bit on the first outside fake instead of reading the route; instead of keeping the play in front of him, he gambled on the outside move and was reading Eli's eyes instead of playing the man. He was looking for the big INT instead of playing good football. You saw the results, Eli baited him by looking to the left side of the field. Smith made a little move to the outside and then cut back to the inside on a post and Scandrick was so badly beaten that he actually fell down on the play. Sometimes a CB gets beat and there's nothing you can do about it. Here, the player did everything wrong, so we can ascribe at least some fault to the coaching.
Finally, we can be concerned about the abysmal run defense against the Cowboys. Here too, I am going to give the defense a pass and assume that they will get their act together. This may sound like a rationalization and if it does, I welcome your comments, but I think there are reasons that the run defense was bad. First of all, the run defense was awful in the 2nd half and not as bad in the 1st half. Giants had only 3 DTs dressed with Canty out. Tuck always takes some snaps at DT and when he went out, the DT rotation was really thin. Add the fact that the night was hot and humid, that the Cowboys have a huge OL that is allowed to hold, trip and put hands to the face on every play and you can understand why the run defense wore down and was so bad. I don't think it was a coaching or a scheme thing. I think that they physically beat up the undermanned DL. Having said that, Osi looked really bad against the run - nearly all the Cowboys runs were to the left side of their OL, right at Osi. That could also be contributed to by Tuck's absence, because he is the Giants DE that is most stout against the run. I am willing to see if they can get better before I panic.
The Giants may reinforce their DL, particularly if Canty and Tuck are out for a few games. I would not be surprised to see them sign Douzable, who was cut when Boley was added to the team after week 1. This would mean that they would have to cut another player - maybe Wilkinson.... maybe even Sinorice Moss.
Coming into the season, if you ask any of the experts and analysts who the better QB is, between Romo and Manning, 60% of them would say Romo is better. Of the other 40%, some would be undecided, but they would all agree that Romo has tremendous talent, occasional brilliance but makes mistakes and occasionally has bad games. But - he is brimming with ability and if he can harness it, he can be a star and be a Super Bowl caliber winning QB. They will also tell you that Eli has average talent, and while he has become more consistent than he was earlier in his career, he is not a playmaker or a great QB. Well I got news for them - Eli is so far ahead of Romo it isn't even close. If they were running a race, Eli would have lapped him by now. I am not saying that Romo stinks, he seems to have an NFL caliber arm, can scramble and improvise and is good at making plays outside of the pocket. But the reason that he has this reputation as a playmaker is that he has played his career with the best (or second best) WR of his generation and the best TE in football, behind a mammoth OL that lets him sit back there for days picking out a target. Perhaps more important for his reputation is this aura that he has - the infectious smile, the boyish good looks, knowing exactly what to say to the press to appear humorous, confident, yet humble at the appropriate times. Mostly, there is the great story of where he came from and how he got here - small school, Eastern Illinois, undrafted, found on the scrap heap by legendary coach Parcells, fights his way to be the starting QB for America's team - it's a great story. My advice -make a movie out of this story, but give me Eli as my qb any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
The problem Eli has in getting the recognition he deserves as the 4th best QB in football (behind only Peyton, Brady and Brees) is that everyone likes to take first impressions, put them in a box, tie a neat ribbon around it and never take the trouble to evaluate again. Eli in his first year or two had mechanical flaws throwing the ball. Everyone says he was throwing off his back foot, which led to innacuracy and some occasionally ugly, wobbly passes. That's not what it was, but without going into the details of Eli's early flawed mechanics (I'll do this in another post later this week) suffice it to say that Eli's early difficulties branded him for life in the minds of many as a bad passer who got drafted because of his geneology rather than his talent. From 2007 on, his mechanics are sound and he looks like a different QB. Eli's passes no longer wobble, he throws tight spirals. He is no longer inaccurate, he throws a great deep ball, has great arm strength and great touch on the intermediate throws. But the first impression remains with many.
Sorry for going off topic - this was supposed to be about the Cowboys game Sunday night. My point is that Eli is a far superior QB to Romo and in some ways we saw a matchup between the most underrated QB in the league in Eli and the most overrated in Romo. I heard a quote from Parcells right before he left the Cowboys. He was asked if Romo will continue to mature and grow even after he (Parcells) leaves as coach. Parcells said that Romo would be fine if he remembered that he was a football player and didn't instead try to be a celebrity QB of America's team. I'm not sure Romo has followed this advice.
Speaking of Eli, the calm demeanor he has and the consequent repeated success he has had at leading game winning 4th quarter drives gives the team complete confidence that he will do it every time they are in that situation,. This makes them calm, allows them to perform at their highest level and therefore makes it more likely that they will in fact succeed. One of the OL-men was asked what Eli said in the huddle when they were 2nd and 20 with about 3 minutes left in Dallas. The OL-man said: he looked Seubert in the eyes (who had been penalized for the phantom holding call), then glanced around the huddle to everyone and simply said: "Everybody be calm, we've been here before, you know what to do". The OL-man added that everyone in the huddle was completely confident that he would lead them down the field. That's the QB I want leading my team.
Back to the game....
If we were worried about seeing if any Giants WRs would step up and become playmaking threats, we can probably relax. Manningham looks like a star in the making. I have been touting Manningham for a long time on this blog and Eli himself announced that he was particuarly high on the ex-Wolverine all through the preseason, even when he had some dropped balls. I am still high on Nicks and I think Hixon will contribute, but I am glad Manningham is stepping up.
Mannigham looks like he has the goods; he is not a one dimensional receiver and he has shown it already in two games. He has a great football body with a upper body strength and chiseled arms, obviously very important for WR. He has very good straight away speed, very quick feet to make cuts, has jumping ability and excellent hands to catch the ball in a crowd, great body control to adjust on a ball and great balance and footwork to work the sidelines. We have seen all of these attributes already in just two games. He has caught little WR screens and shimmy-and-shaked his way past defenders several times for big gains; he used straight away speed to get behind the DB for a 50 yard completion against Dallas,; went up and caught a 25 yard fade on a pattern that was supposed to be a go route; he caught the ball over the middle several times on crossing routes; he showed the hands and the body control on that juggling catch for a TD on Sunday night.
My point is that sometimes WR's come in as unknown quantities, make a big splash up front but then don't sustain the success. Often this is because they have great speed but not much else; the defense is not prepared to guard them and they surprise with some big plays. When they have to become complete WRs, they don't have the necessary skills. Two examples that come to mind are Devin Hester and perhaps the Cowboys' Roy Williams. I am not predicting stardom for Mannigham, but he certainly has the complete toolbox of skills that a WR needs in order to perform at a high level. The most encouraging development besides the physical skills is that his seriousness and mental grasp of the game seems to be strong. The knock on him coming out of college was that he had off-field issues, did poorly on the Wuderlick test and was not a great student of the game. He seems to have put these behind him and is tight with Eli on sight adjustments, audibles and accurate route running.
Steve Smith is also stepping up, but he has shown us most of his skills before. He has great feet and is a great route runner. He has shown more quickness this year and while he is not a pure burner, he has enough speed to go deep occasionally.
The Giants runing game has been substandard in the first two games and was particualrly bad against the Cowboys. I think there are several reasons for this and I am not really worried (yet). For one thing, the Cowboys are very difficult to run outside on. They have very quick LBs in a 3-4 scheme and Ratliff is tough at NT. I know that Tampa ran for 180 against them in week 1, but that performance might be a little misleading. Cowboys scored 3 times on long 1-play drives and their defense was forced to get on the field in steamy Tampa with aboslutely no rest in between. Tampa piled up most of their yards in the 2nd half when the game was decided and Dallas defense was gassed. Second, Dallas and Washington were both walking an extra S up to the line of scrimmage and playing their LB's very tight to the line to defend the Giants running game. Dallas also did a lot of run blitzing and got good penetration preventing the Giants from running. The Giants did not totally abandon the run, but Gilbride did what they had to do - passed 60% of the time (same as against the Redksins) instead of getting closer to a 50-50 mixture, which Coughlin likes to do. As a result, the Giants running game was not effective, but this defensive alignment gave the Giants opportunities in the passing game which they certainly took advantage of. Eventually opposing defenses will start respecting the pass and give the Giants a better chance to get the running game going.
What I like about the passing game is how it seems to be have been remade this year with the different WRs. Burress and Toomer were big, not very fast targets. The Giants therefore ran a lot of hooks, a lot of out patters and an occasional deep ball to stretch the offense. With these quicker, more explosive WRs, Giants are throwing more deep balls, more quick slants and crossing routes. I often criticize Gilbride (I am about to in the next paragraph) but give him credit for fitting the attack to the skills of the players. He's coaching the team rather than forcing a scheme onto the players.
One thing that I will blame Gilbride for is the continued red zone difficulties. If you have a good OL, a big RB and can run the ball, have good WRs, have a big target at TE and a heady QB there is no reason you shouldn't be able to be more efficient in the red zone. My contention is that 90% of goal line success, assuming you have the tools, is playcalling. Giants pack the OL tight and try to ram it through, seemingly every time. This week, they tried to run outside with Bradshaw out of thie tight formation, but that didn't work either. They should occasionally try spreading things out instead of packing everyone so tight and using play action pass on 1st or 2nd down with a pass to the TE. This used to be the Giants favorite goal line play in the Simms-to-Bavaro days. Maybe Gilbride should revive it with an Eli-to-Boss reprise. Gilbride has to get a little more creative on the goal line.
On the defensive side of the ball, the Giants DB-field was absolutely brilliant. Terrell Thomas may not give the starting job back when Ross is healthy and can return - he has been that good. Romo may have had a bad day throwing the ball, but he did not have many open WRs anywhere. Bruce Johnson has been a find as the undrafted rookie FA and the 3rd CB. He's not a shut down CB, but he has good quickness, speed and does not seem to be out of position. He looks to be very well coached.
Let me wax eloquent on Giants coaches for a minute - I think we have among the best position coaches in the NFL. Flaherty is widely regarded as the best OL coach in the NFL. But I think DL coach Waufle is excellent and DB coach Giunta is a top coach as well. So many players improve on their individual technique and don't seem to miss too many assignments, something that is particualry important for DBs. Look how much Corey Webster has improved since the Tim Lewis regime has departed. Thomas looks very polished at CB and Dockery has also improved. Of course the DB's need the natural talent, but a big part of their progression is the coaching. The coaches don't only install the schemes and call when the team will blitz. The position coaches teach technique and it is a big plus for the team.
By contrast, Cowboys have two young, fast, well regarded CBs in Mike Jenkins and Orlando Scandrick (along with a star in veteran CB Newman). Unfortunatley, they have no idea how to play. Manningham beat Jenkins several times, beat Newman for his TD and had Scandrick so confused that he was standing still waiting for Manningham to present his route before he responded (and trailed him badly). Scandrick was also the one who fell on his a$$ on the Steve Smith TD. Every CB gets beat, but Scandrick's technique on that play was so flawed that it bears analysis. First, Cowboys had only one S deep and the Giants had a WR (I think it was Moss) running deep down the sideline, so the S had to slide over and give deep help there. Scandrick was on Steve Smith who was in the slot on that play. Because the S was cheating to the sideline, Scandrick had no deep help and was essentially covering Smith 1-on-1. With no deep help, you need to play a little more conservatively and make sure to keep the play in front of you. Furthermore, with the S to the outside, you should probably play an inside technique and force the WR to the outside, forcing him where you have some help. Finally, in addition to keeping the play in front of you, the CB should watch the WR until he is sure he has committed to his route and only try to make a play on the ball after it has been thrown. Scandrick did every one of these things exactly wrong. He let Smith go to the inside; he bit on the first outside fake instead of reading the route; instead of keeping the play in front of him, he gambled on the outside move and was reading Eli's eyes instead of playing the man. He was looking for the big INT instead of playing good football. You saw the results, Eli baited him by looking to the left side of the field. Smith made a little move to the outside and then cut back to the inside on a post and Scandrick was so badly beaten that he actually fell down on the play. Sometimes a CB gets beat and there's nothing you can do about it. Here, the player did everything wrong, so we can ascribe at least some fault to the coaching.
Finally, we can be concerned about the abysmal run defense against the Cowboys. Here too, I am going to give the defense a pass and assume that they will get their act together. This may sound like a rationalization and if it does, I welcome your comments, but I think there are reasons that the run defense was bad. First of all, the run defense was awful in the 2nd half and not as bad in the 1st half. Giants had only 3 DTs dressed with Canty out. Tuck always takes some snaps at DT and when he went out, the DT rotation was really thin. Add the fact that the night was hot and humid, that the Cowboys have a huge OL that is allowed to hold, trip and put hands to the face on every play and you can understand why the run defense wore down and was so bad. I don't think it was a coaching or a scheme thing. I think that they physically beat up the undermanned DL. Having said that, Osi looked really bad against the run - nearly all the Cowboys runs were to the left side of their OL, right at Osi. That could also be contributed to by Tuck's absence, because he is the Giants DE that is most stout against the run. I am willing to see if they can get better before I panic.
The Giants may reinforce their DL, particularly if Canty and Tuck are out for a few games. I would not be surprised to see them sign Douzable, who was cut when Boley was added to the team after week 1. This would mean that they would have to cut another player - maybe Wilkinson.... maybe even Sinorice Moss.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Giants: Cowboys game preview
This will be a tough game.
It's hard to measure the Cowboys after only one game. They won big, beating the Tampa Bay Bucs 34-21. But if we graded the Giants defense on a curve against the Redskins, using my diving competition degree-of-difficulty analogy, we can certainly say the same for the Cowboys. The Tampa Bay Bucs are not very good. CBs when they lose a step can go downhill in a hurry, and that seems to be the case with Tiki's brother Ronde. There are several ways to look at this Cowboys game against the Bucs. From one perspective, the Cowboys were up only 20-14 after a Bucs drive of 84 yards and nearly 5 minutes ended in a TD with 11:45 left in the 4th qtr. Down less than 1 TD in the 4th qtr - that's a close game. However, after that, the Cowboys hit a couple of big plays to score two 4th qtr TDs and break the game open. Are the Cowboys a big play offense able to strike at a moment's notice or are the Bucs a weak defensive team that can give up big plays to any team. Is the Cowboys offense a threat because they can make big plays or not as dangerous because they were not able to sustain and finish any long drives. The Cowboys certainly have some weapons, but perhaps not as strong as last year - I don't think Roy Williams is as dynamic a player as TO was. Certainly Romo is a very good passer and can make big plays, especially when he is out of the pocket. Marion Barber is a good runner and Felix Jones looks dangerous, but I think their OL may be in a bit of a slide which could hamper their offense.
On the defensive side of the ball, I think the Cowboys are not as good as they were a few years ago. For one thing, their massive DT, Canty, now plays with the Giants. DeMarcus Ware is a great pass rusher, but their DB-field is questionable. The Bucs put up 450 yards of offense against them last week. It is true that 72 of the Bucs' yards and the last TD came in garbage time, when the Cowboys had opened up a 20 point lead and were playing soft defense. But in the final analysis, the Bucs with a retread QB in Byron Leftwitch were able to move the ball against them on the ground and through the air. The other reason I think the Cowboys defense may have slipped just a bit from a few years ago is that Parcells is no longer their coach and Wade Phillips is. I think if you can block their DL, you can make some plays against them.
So - is the Cowboys offense dangerous because they can make big plays. Or is their offense ordinary because they did not sustain long drives and had to rely on mistakes by a bad Bucs secondary in order to score their points. It probably is more to the dangerous side - the NFL is all about play makers. A way to look at the league is that there are lots of good solid football players on all teams that are about equal. If your team has a few players that can make big plays, whatever the circumstances, whoever they are playing against, on offense or on defense, they will win a lot of games.
For the Giants, Aaron Ross is still out but Dockery is returning and participated fully in practice this week, beginning on Wednesday. He will be an important addition to the Giants defense this Sunday.
I just heard a report on NFL Network that said that Canty strained his calf last week, different from the hamstring injury that had him out earlier, but still, Canty will not play this week against the Cowboys. The Giants still have a solid rotation of DTs to use, but Canty would have been highly motivated to go back to Dallas and send a message to the team that let him leave. This is a blow for the Giants if it is true.
I really think that this game will be determined in great measure by the play of the OL and DL on both sides of the ball. I know I'm not saying anything too deep with that last statement, because the battle at the line of scrimmage often determines victory. But in this game, the Cowboys weakness on offense is their OL and the Giants strength is their DL. Cowboys have players that can make plays and if Romo is given time, he will certainly put up some points. If Corey Webster can lock up Roy Williams this week like he did Santana Moss last week, it will be a big boost for the Giants defense, but the pass rush is key so Romo does not have too much time. I look for the Giants to do a bit more blitzing this week than they did last week and try to force Romo into some mistakes.
On the offensive side of the ball, the Giants need a big game from their OL. The Cowboys LBs and DBs are not their strength, their DL is. The Giants lost to the Cowboys as one of their defeats when they lost 3 of their last 4 at the end of last year. They lost that game because they simply could not block the Cowboys. Burress was out, the Cowboys stacked the line of scrimmage against the run and when the Giants had to pass, they blitzed Manning and were able to sack him and pressure him all game long. The Cowboys sacked Eli 8 times that night, and Eli was only sacked 23 times the entire season. It is true that the OL was hurt because Kareem McKenzie was out with back spasms form the 2nd quarter on and Rich Seubert missed the 2nd half because he was sick with the flu. Regardless of the circumstances, the Cowboys DL won the game against the Giants OL and the Giants OL has to have a big game to make up for that. The Cowboys will probably try to do the same thing this time and the Giants OL has to stand up to them. The Giants also have to have a more aggressive game plan and be prepared to pass on running downs. A selective dosage of play action passes will be effective this week as well. That Cowboys loss last year was the worst game of the year by the OL and the offense. The Giants OL is very good, has a great deal of pride, is ticked as heck about their performance last year and wants to atone (sic) for their play in that game. The OL has one other thing going for it: Pat Flaherty is probably the best OL coach in football. You can bet that they will come up with the plan and the techniques to play better this time.
The reason this will be a tough game, however is the environment and the emotions that will be running through the stadium for the game, the home opener of the Cowboys in their new mega-stadium. It's impossible to predict how that will affect the players. Giants are tough and I don't think they will fold their tents and go home. But the Cowboys will really be pumped and we'll see how it affects them. The other reason the Cowboys will be tough is that the calendar says September and that is Romo time.
The Giants have one significant edge in this game - the coaching. I simply don't think that Wade Phillips is a good coach and Coughlin is an excellent HC with a proven track record and the hardware to prove it.
It's hard to measure the Cowboys after only one game. They won big, beating the Tampa Bay Bucs 34-21. But if we graded the Giants defense on a curve against the Redskins, using my diving competition degree-of-difficulty analogy, we can certainly say the same for the Cowboys. The Tampa Bay Bucs are not very good. CBs when they lose a step can go downhill in a hurry, and that seems to be the case with Tiki's brother Ronde. There are several ways to look at this Cowboys game against the Bucs. From one perspective, the Cowboys were up only 20-14 after a Bucs drive of 84 yards and nearly 5 minutes ended in a TD with 11:45 left in the 4th qtr. Down less than 1 TD in the 4th qtr - that's a close game. However, after that, the Cowboys hit a couple of big plays to score two 4th qtr TDs and break the game open. Are the Cowboys a big play offense able to strike at a moment's notice or are the Bucs a weak defensive team that can give up big plays to any team. Is the Cowboys offense a threat because they can make big plays or not as dangerous because they were not able to sustain and finish any long drives. The Cowboys certainly have some weapons, but perhaps not as strong as last year - I don't think Roy Williams is as dynamic a player as TO was. Certainly Romo is a very good passer and can make big plays, especially when he is out of the pocket. Marion Barber is a good runner and Felix Jones looks dangerous, but I think their OL may be in a bit of a slide which could hamper their offense.
On the defensive side of the ball, I think the Cowboys are not as good as they were a few years ago. For one thing, their massive DT, Canty, now plays with the Giants. DeMarcus Ware is a great pass rusher, but their DB-field is questionable. The Bucs put up 450 yards of offense against them last week. It is true that 72 of the Bucs' yards and the last TD came in garbage time, when the Cowboys had opened up a 20 point lead and were playing soft defense. But in the final analysis, the Bucs with a retread QB in Byron Leftwitch were able to move the ball against them on the ground and through the air. The other reason I think the Cowboys defense may have slipped just a bit from a few years ago is that Parcells is no longer their coach and Wade Phillips is. I think if you can block their DL, you can make some plays against them.
So - is the Cowboys offense dangerous because they can make big plays. Or is their offense ordinary because they did not sustain long drives and had to rely on mistakes by a bad Bucs secondary in order to score their points. It probably is more to the dangerous side - the NFL is all about play makers. A way to look at the league is that there are lots of good solid football players on all teams that are about equal. If your team has a few players that can make big plays, whatever the circumstances, whoever they are playing against, on offense or on defense, they will win a lot of games.
For the Giants, Aaron Ross is still out but Dockery is returning and participated fully in practice this week, beginning on Wednesday. He will be an important addition to the Giants defense this Sunday.
I just heard a report on NFL Network that said that Canty strained his calf last week, different from the hamstring injury that had him out earlier, but still, Canty will not play this week against the Cowboys. The Giants still have a solid rotation of DTs to use, but Canty would have been highly motivated to go back to Dallas and send a message to the team that let him leave. This is a blow for the Giants if it is true.
I really think that this game will be determined in great measure by the play of the OL and DL on both sides of the ball. I know I'm not saying anything too deep with that last statement, because the battle at the line of scrimmage often determines victory. But in this game, the Cowboys weakness on offense is their OL and the Giants strength is their DL. Cowboys have players that can make plays and if Romo is given time, he will certainly put up some points. If Corey Webster can lock up Roy Williams this week like he did Santana Moss last week, it will be a big boost for the Giants defense, but the pass rush is key so Romo does not have too much time. I look for the Giants to do a bit more blitzing this week than they did last week and try to force Romo into some mistakes.
On the offensive side of the ball, the Giants need a big game from their OL. The Cowboys LBs and DBs are not their strength, their DL is. The Giants lost to the Cowboys as one of their defeats when they lost 3 of their last 4 at the end of last year. They lost that game because they simply could not block the Cowboys. Burress was out, the Cowboys stacked the line of scrimmage against the run and when the Giants had to pass, they blitzed Manning and were able to sack him and pressure him all game long. The Cowboys sacked Eli 8 times that night, and Eli was only sacked 23 times the entire season. It is true that the OL was hurt because Kareem McKenzie was out with back spasms form the 2nd quarter on and Rich Seubert missed the 2nd half because he was sick with the flu. Regardless of the circumstances, the Cowboys DL won the game against the Giants OL and the Giants OL has to have a big game to make up for that. The Cowboys will probably try to do the same thing this time and the Giants OL has to stand up to them. The Giants also have to have a more aggressive game plan and be prepared to pass on running downs. A selective dosage of play action passes will be effective this week as well. That Cowboys loss last year was the worst game of the year by the OL and the offense. The Giants OL is very good, has a great deal of pride, is ticked as heck about their performance last year and wants to atone (sic) for their play in that game. The OL has one other thing going for it: Pat Flaherty is probably the best OL coach in football. You can bet that they will come up with the plan and the techniques to play better this time.
The reason this will be a tough game, however is the environment and the emotions that will be running through the stadium for the game, the home opener of the Cowboys in their new mega-stadium. It's impossible to predict how that will affect the players. Giants are tough and I don't think they will fold their tents and go home. But the Cowboys will really be pumped and we'll see how it affects them. The other reason the Cowboys will be tough is that the calendar says September and that is Romo time.
The Giants have one significant edge in this game - the coaching. I simply don't think that Wade Phillips is a good coach and Coughlin is an excellent HC with a proven track record and the hardware to prove it.
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