Banks discussed his observations from Sunday’s underwhelming performance by the Giants on WFAN with Beningo and Roberts yesterday.
Overall , Banks exclaimed, “good in the areas they needed to be.” These areas were the“offense holding onto the ball with no turnovers” and the kickoff coverage unit. Per Banks the “Lions came into the game with 1 of the top kick of return units in the league and they held them until the latter stages of the game.” In addition, they “got good runs from both backs and continued to wear them down.” He thought, “Gilbride did a good job in putting Shawn Andrews in the game which made them load the box” resulting in “1 on 1 coverage on the outside.” Thus “opening up the passing game.” Moreover, the offensive “numbers weren’t great but they were balanced with the run/pass” ratio. Later in the program Banks discussed how the good performance of Bradshaw and Jacobs can be credited to “the play of the offensive line.” Even withstanding the fact that the “Lions give up an average of 4.8 yards per carry and 9+ yards per carry up the middle” through week six. However, Carl lauded the defensive line of the Lions as “1 on 1 blocks” is a challenge and their defensive linemen “aren’t easy players to block”. In particular he praises Suh and Vanden Bosch.
An area of concern was the performance of the Defense on 3rd down. “You have to give them bad marks on is third down efficiency on defense” as “they could not get off the football field.” The defense did not display “the ability to stop momentum” as the Lions accumulated a 3rd down efficiency of 45% (9/20).
The Lions were certainly generous to the Giants in racking up numerous penalties and in key situations (i.e. the Avril unnecessary roughness penalty on 3rd and goal which eventually led to 7 points versus 3 points). A Lion’s personnel chatted with Banks about how “he likes to see these kids playing hard every down but they got to get to the point where they aren’t doing stupid things” and “beating (them)selves.”
Beningo and Roberts praised the performance of Osi thus far this year much like Glenn did Sunday. Banks reasons that there is “pressure on at least 3 offensive linemen on every pass play” to defend Tuck, Cofield, JPP, and Osi.
Banks jumped to the upcoming Dallas game and he referred to his point above regarding the performance of the defense on 3rd down. Banks states, “the thing that really would help the Giants right now especially going into a game against a team like Dallas, who have some really good receivers,” is improving upon their performance against the Lions who achieved a 45% efficiency ratio on 3rd down. Against any team, much less Dallas, you just “can’t play that way” Banks feels that Dallas’ coach’s “messages is just not getting through” to his team. The fact that they accumulated 11 penalties and another excessive celebration penalty that cost them dearly last week as well as vs Vikings exemplifies this point. Bottom line per Banks “I am sure the Giants are hoping that they continue with this trend”
Other tidbits include, Rolle took a “bad angle and he broke on the ball” as if it was going to have more hang time not as it “was thrown on a rope.” But overall Banks feels“he’s got great ball skills.” Another big concern for Banks is Dodge and “his lack of consistency game to game.” At some point “plays like his fumble will cost you a football game.”
Motown here: Banks makes a very astute observation regarding the performance of the defense on 3rd down. The Lions are ranked 6th in the League in passing but they do not posses the personnel of the Cowboys with the likes of Romo, Austin, Williams, Witten and Felix Jones. The game review should reveal the coverage issues and schemes implemented.
On offense the offensive line did a good job pass protecting and especially running on the right side of the line. Why did they have issues running over Diehl and Seubert? Was it the personnel match ups? Or perhaps the fact as we pointed out earlier in the season how Seubert struggles in 1 on 1 blocking match ups?
Play calling was, again, not optimal when as Glenn pointed out Sunday they called a 25 yard crossing route on 3rd and 2. Those quick out passes to Nicks. How effective were those this week compared to last week? Are you playing the percentages?
To sum up, despite a 4-2 record, the Giants are still a work in progress.
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