Rewatching the Giants Game

[jspchief]

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.

[jspchief]

Originally Posted by MOhillbilly

its easy to make a play when you have ten yards to take an angle.

Yea, unfortunately our safeties were basically clean-up unit for the Giants' short attack. It's not that they played good or bad, just that they were rendered useless.

[bkkcoh]

Originally Posted by Lzen

Despite all the criticism of Wesley, I noticed he was in on several plays last night. He was one of the few bright spots last night, IMO.

Just my .02.

But what ticked me off about Wesley is, he doesn't wrap up on a tackle. He just seems to hit them to tackle them. That is gonna burn us big time.

[Hendrix68]

I am already very concerned about this team.

They seem to be absolutely clueless and lethargic all at once.

I will posit that maybe team discipline has crumbled in the transition from Vermeil to Herm.

If we play anything like this in the regular season we're looking 5-11 or worse square in the face.

This is probably some of the worst preseason football I've ever witnessed in 35 years of watching it.

[InChiefsHeaven]

The only bright spot with the starters on D was that there were no yards after the catch. But, this was because it was dink and dunk. At least they were sticking them at the point of attack, but the point of attack was waaaay to deep. I predict with this scheme that opposing offenses will not have a ton of big plays against us, but they will nickel and dime their way into the endzone.

We need a damn pass rush. Tackling against the run was pretty solid, but the short passes for 7-12 yards are going to be our Achilles heel...The D will be on the field for too long. Even when we had them at 3rd and long, they could easily throw for a first down. Eli was having a picnic back there.

[Hammock Parties]

You can't predict anything about this scheme, because they weren't even playing it last night. The corners in a cover two are supposed to jam wide receivers inside at the line of scrimmage. They weren't doing much of that if any at all.

[jspchief]

Originally Posted by GoChiefs

You can't predict anything about this scheme, because they weren't even playing it last night. The corners in a cover two are supposed to jam wide receivers inside at the line of scrimmage. They weren't doing much of that if any at all.

I'm holding otu hope that you're right. But even if that's the case, why the hell aren't we playing it that way? What's so secretive about the cover 2 that we can't let our players get accustomed to doing it right in the pre-season?

What are we saving it for? After the first game of the regular season, it's not like everyone won't have film anyway.

the more I think about the "keep it vanilla" strategy, the more I think it makes no sense with our starters.

[Mr. Laz]

Originally Posted by jspchief

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. 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.

that's the cover 2 scheme ... it depends heavily on the linebackers in coverage and the safeties being very quick.

imo knight/wesley don't have the range to play in the cover 2. We need to just cut bait and play the rookies. Let our veterans at cornerback help the rookie learn.



sampson is young ...... he needs to work on his leg strength imo

[StcChief]

Originally Posted by BIG K

Did the safety play improve when the rookies stepped in? Been hearing alot about the rookies, but have yet to see them play.....

IMO....The current backup Safeties. 'the two P's ' played well.

Pollard,Page both had nice hits, coverage, a blitz If I recall....

Though it was against 2nd team.

Wesley and Knight didn't seem like they were with it at or...they may be
near done for NFL.

[Hydrae]

Ok, I went home after watching the game on a 5" B&W here at work and rewatched the first quarter a play at a time. Keep in mind, I never played football and am nowhere near as knowledgable as a lot of others on this board.

On offense, Bober was terrible! I also think we were specifically working on pass blocking. I mean LJ got the ball what, 3 times?

Trent looked like his usual early season/early game self. I have noticed this the last couple of years, Trent seems to start each game slowly. The same seems to be true for the season as a whole as well. The deep ball to Parker was way underthrown and he missed his receivers on a couple of other throws.

I thought Turley looked ok. Not great but ok. In all honesty though, I am not sure I would like to see him back at 300 pounds, his body obviously can not handle that weight. A little more than he has now would be helpful for sure but I don't want to see him screw himself up for the rest of his life to keep us happy.

On defense, I am losing faith in someone I have tried very hard to believe in, Gunther. Our blitzes are still being telegraphed seconds before the snap, allowing the opposing team time to make adjustments. We need to try delaying some of those blitzes, maybe we would have a shot at touching the QB.

Also, the CBs were constantly 8-10 yards off the line of scrimmage. Heck, even Aikmam commented on it, it was that glaring. This is a lot of what was allowing the dink and dunk attack to work so well.

Once again this week, I really actually felt better after watching each play individually as opposed to just watching the game as it unfolded. I went home last night pretty depressed. Our backups across the board are pretty scary but our starters will do us well when the bullets are real, IMHO.

[Coach]

Hmm... I can't imagine why our D-line can't get a consistent pass rush.

On that note, is Buckner still available?

[morphius]

I would like to know the percentage of times that Sapp actually gets the QB on his blitz versus the number of times he completely whiffs or just bounces off the QB.

I expect him to blitz every time I see him in there, and I always expet the guy he left to be covered by a slower LB and probably be open for the first down. I'm sure it looks really in cool in practice when he can't actually touch the QB, but it is so inefective during the game that it is really starting to grate on me.

[tommykat]

I'd like to know awe nothing....

[morphius]

Originally Posted by tommykat

I'd like to know awe nothing....

Yes, it will hurt...

[chiefsfan1963]

Originally Posted by jspchief

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.

I caught a little of the game in Vegas. What I saw coupled w/ your observations does not give me a good feeling. My only hope is it's pre-season and you can't really see what type of product we'll bring come Sept.

I'm already missing DV and AS.