Rewatching the Giants Game
 

The miracle of Tivo has allowed me to rewatch tonight's game, complete with slo-mo and frame by frame viewing.

So far I've watched the first few series by both teams and here are my thoughts:

Defense:
1. Eric Hicks is clueless. Not only does he not have the speed or strength, he doesn't have the brains. His reaction at the snap seems to have no bearing on the ball or the play that develops. He just starts running to a spot on the field regardless of whether it factors in the play. LDE play immediately improved when Wilkerson came in.

2. Our scheme is fucked. Amani Toomer and Plaxico Burress had numerous occasions when they were lined up against LBs. It was an easy read for the QB and a wide open reception for the WR. Kendrell Bell is especially bad in coverage. Teams will be able to exploit this scheme the same way all year unless changes are made. Our safeties are taken out of the equation because they play so deep.

3. Our DTs played OK. Not great, but not bad either. The apparent lack of pass rush had more to do with Manning have quick options to get rid of the ball (LB on WR).

Offense:
1. Turley was out of his league. Over the course of a full game, he would get abused by someone (Yumenyora?) with that much speed and strength. He's going to need to put on weight or he will be abused by powerful ends all year.

2. Chris Bober sucks. He was getting beat or missing his assignment on a regular basis. I expect a glaring improvement with the return of Waters.

3. Sampson is not Welbourne. Whether it's his feet or just a strength issue, he gets knocked off balance a lot. He'll be the weak point on our line most likely.

4. LJ's pass blocking is very solid. He picked up pretty much everything, the only miss being a result of Bober missing his man leaving LJ to face two guys.

5. The play-calling kind of sucked. For whatever reason, this offense doesn't seem to have pass packages that exploit the blitz. If we ran the same patterns New York ran, Green could have got rid of the ball a lot quicker, taking the pressure of his line in the face of the blitz. Gonzo needs to start shortening his routes, or a WR is going to have to cross more often.

When I watch more, I'll post more thoughts, but this includes pretty much all of the play from the starters.

Hicks has been a good soldier, but he's completely without value at this point. He probably shouldn't even make this team, much less be in the DE rotation. What speed and strength he may have had has been washed away with time, and his recognition (as stated above) doesn't make up for it. He's a non-factor, who never has to be chipped or accounted for by a back or TE.

Thanks jsp! When Toomer or Burress was lined up against a LB was it a 3 WR set or just 2? If it was 3 we should have been in a nickel I would have thought.

I agree. I'm on record here as saying he's not as bad as he's been made out to be. I thought he'd still be a solid part of the rotation.

But after last week and really concentrating on his play this week, i realize the guy doesn't have any positives. His experience apparently hasn't taught him the things that might diguise his lack of athleticism.

After seeing Wilkerson play so much better, unless Hali is a total bust, I see no reason to pay Hicks the 2+ million he's due this year.

That is exactly what I saw with Turley also, Umeyiora abused him. Now Osi is one of the best DE's in the game right now and very few teams have ends like the Giants do so that's good for us but....Anytime we face a team that has an elite pass rusher I'm expecting a long day.

Also the safeties are so deep because they both lack speed, it's the only way they can get into their deep zones. If we had the speed there we needed they could play closer and still get back.

It's because all his strength is in the upper body. Sampson is massive in the torso area, but his base is W E A K. I noticed this last year when he was forced into action. OT's need to have a wide enough base in order to not get thrown when they swing wide in pass blocking. If your DE is lined up on a top heavy OT, they'll get knocked around like rag dolls every time.

Willie Roaf looked like a guy with too much weight in the base, but actually, he's equally strong in both areas. It's nearly impossible to get that dude off-balance on the rush. You might beat him off the edge, but you won't spin him like a Sampson Top.

I couldn't agree with this more. I hope that we can take a look at the film and realize what we need to change. Manning had an easy time out there. However, I'm not going to worry too much because I trust that Herm will adress this and that our defense will look different during the regular season. During the last two seasons, we have added Pat Surtain, Derrick Johnson, Ty Law, Tamba Hali, two new DTs, Kendrell Bell (who will hopefully be better this year) and two new safeties. Moreover, Kawika is better than ever and Jared Allen should continue to improve. I have to think that all of these things will count for something. If we could make all of these changes to our defense and still be as bad as we were, then we would be something for the record books. Hopefully, we are capable of change.

Their 3 WR set was up against our base 4-3 a lot. The only catch by either of those guys that was against the nickel was Toomer's TD, and Sapp got chipped on that play. Burress was lined up in the slot against Bell at one point, making for an easy 9 yard gain.

My only hope is that it was by design. That it really was about being vanilla and maybe getting our LBs some coverage experience. otherwise, we're going to get dinked and dunked to a 32 ranking in pass D.

Did Turley swing at that dude in the first qt? Not really a punch, but a good swing? Showed him one on one at one point and it totally looked like Turley took a swing/bash to the head.....

Just curious.....

It won't matter how slow our safeties are if we keep this up. The only time they'll factor in is in cleanup duty.

Thanks and great info. Damn I wish I had TIVO.

I think it was more of a rip type move to use the guy's momentum to throw him off line.

I agree with everything you posted, jsp.

Players who looked good:

Derrick Johnson
Wilkerson
Jeff Webb
Safeties
Scanlon

Players who sucked:

Chris Bober (It needs to be said again)
All the right tackles
Dalton

Boomer (I noticed several times when he just got overpowered on a block to the point of just getting pushed out of the play. Many times he didn't wrap up when he tackled, and it was lucky that we had other guys to help him with it. He needs more strength, and he's not going to get that from writing cheesy journal entries to fans)

Wesley and Knight do not fit this defense at all, they're far to slow to play the defense. They'll probably be non factors everytime we're in the cover 2 look. It'll be great when we're in the cover 2 and a RB get's through the front 7 because they'll be 20 yards before the safeties get to them.