Last week, the opinion here was that the Giants were going Back to Reality vs the Colts. Indeed, the “Reality” was even worse.
All I am is the messenger. You can shoot the messenger, but that is not going to stop last Sunday’s message, that this team has major structural issues.
The Good
Bradshaw, Manningham, the almost back Phillips and Nicks (td #4) are good players who can shine. Dodge had an all pro night. He did an excellent job, which was mostly overlooked because of the rout. He had a 65 yard punt and one that dropped dead on the 2. I hope he can do it more consistently as the season continues. Eli had a few moments. They have to use the wide outs a lot. That would help the running game and keep the Tampa Two in the closet. If Boss can come back and stay healthy that would be a big plus. Maybe Andrews can help the OL.
The Bad
I do not expect things to change. Jacobs is now a liability on and off the field. Boley made 15 tackles but most were after a pass play he couldn’t cover. Where was Bulluck? 4-1-6 is a statement! Quite a knock on the backers, huh?
This game was/is another fatal flaw in the makeup of Coughlin. As the game plan points out, the coach has no imagination. He is stuck in a philosophy that doesn’t work. Fewell seems to be energized but he too is stuck in neutral. The game has morphed dramatically over the years and you will note that the guys who are unique operate outside the box. They draw up new game plans for each opponent and these newer minds are the ones who make a difference. Gilbride, Coughlin and Fewell are playing yesterday’s game.
The Colts are built around Peyton and because they play the Tampa 2 they s*ck on defense. They have to score 35 points in most games to win. They give up a lot of points and even though they won their division last year they had to come from way behind a number of times.
The Texans showed you how to stop Peyton. You put a lot of pressure on him and knock him around, as the Colts are one-dimensional. Freeney and Mathis are very mobile DE’s. Freeney will beat you himself when he has the luxury of going one on one with a plodding LT. The Giants needed to double him and they never did. Diehl is not at fault. He is slow and cannot handle a speed rusher on his own. I question Gibride (what else is new) for not giving Diehl help. Where were the Giants RBs (Jacobs, Hedgecock, Bradshaw) to slow these guys down? Freeney has done this for years and the smart teams double him and render him harmless. Freeney was the Colt defense. He sacked Eli and was continually pressuring Eli.
Bradshaw is a very good back and with a competent line who knows how good he can be? When you have a talent like that you GET his hands on the ball. They could swing pass to him, slant him, pitch to him and they do almost none of the above. One way to take away the aggressiveness of a Freeney or Mathis is to screen it to Bradshaw enough so that those speedrushers stop pinning their ears back. Once again, where is Gilbride to slow them down with this plan/adjustment?
The Colts took advantage of our weakness on the OL and LB.
Our offense has NOT established a running game, especially with Jacobs having fallen so far.
Our opponents know exactly what we are going to do. Carolina is so bad that it didn’t matter. We beat them because we negated their strength. They couldn’t run it, so they became one dimensional.
The 4-1-6 dime defense that Fewell played on 1st and 2nd down is a joke and should be used very sparingly as a surprise. When it is a surprise you get a good shot at an interception. It only should be used on a must pass situation and only a few times a game. The Giants used it as their primary defense, effectively committing suicide.
It’s the same old unpreparedness and lack of adjusting that makes it easy for a good team with coaches that look at film to exploit the weakness of the opponent.
Think Arizona last year. They came into our house, stacked the middle and incredibly we didn’t have a counter. Just a couple of tweaks and we were helpless. We should have and would have won that game and San Diego to name two with a competent Coach/s making the adjustments.
The fact that Gilbride/Coughlin left a beaten up Eli in the game to the end and played a limping Bradshaw with the game over is a firing offense.
Not a pretty picture. I said the team would get devoured this year and they would finish up 7-9 or 8-8. They got devoured last weekend and will scrape up enough wins vs a weak NFL to look presentable, but when they play the better teams with coaches that have game plans and make adjustments, the weaknesses get exposed and we have little chance to be competitive. I never promised you a rose garden. The guys on the other sites were bunge jumping but Glenn was calm on Monday because he was expecting this and predicted 5-11, worse than me. I promise to report any signs of change that should make us more optimistic. Until further notice, until the Giants coaches start game planning better and making adjustments, we’ll simply be a mediocre football team.
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