Some thoughts to finish up this past weekend..
1) The Sunday night win was sweet, but let’s remember that Dallas was very generous to our team’s cause. Is the NFC East making us better or simply camouflaging our own shortcomings? Here is a recommended read back from 2008 that the NY Times picked up.
2) That was dizzying, how many games went wild down to the end this past weekend. One game was wackier than the next. The Denver comeback was truly remarkable- Marion Barber went insane not once but twice.
3) I think it was George Young (or was it Parcells?) who said that he preferred drafting big guys over fast guys… by the time you get to Q4, the fast guys have slowed down but the big guys are still big. Tebow and the Broncos coaches have taken that meaning to a different place, waiting until Q4 to start running.
4a) Lots of good comments the past few days on some interesting topics, ranging from Bradshaw’s punishment to Gilbride’s inability to run a successful screen. What is interesting to note on the topic of the screen pass is that Gilbride has the right idea, often calling them in the right spot against defensive pressure. The problem is that the execution is poor because they simply do not practice it enough. How do I know this? That answer is easy- because we see poor execution on Sunday! Who taught me this? Bill Walsh. Walsh was relentless during the week, practicing a play over and over again until it worked:
“Passing routes were designed down to the inch and then practiced until receivers learned to be at that exact inch at the exact moment the ball arrived. On paper my diagrams of plays resembled detailed architectural drawings. And they required the same exactness in construction- execution- that a good contractor brings to build a skyscraper. If he’s sloppy in following the architectural schematic, the building falls down during the first stiff wind.”
4b) Another topic we have been talking about in recent days has been penalties, or the lack of talk thereof. One commenter noted that one of the positive things about this NY Giants blog is that we don’t waste a lot of time talking about or obsessing over bad calls by the refs. Why? Another quote from Walsh:
“The final score of a football game is decided, on average, according to the following percentages: 20 percent is due to luck, such as a referee’s bad call, a tricky bounce of the ball, or some other happenstance. I accepted the fact that I couldn’t control that 20 percent of each game. However, the rest of it- 80 percent- could be under my control with comprehensive planning and preparation.”
Bill Walsh wasn’t a genius. He just knew where to place his attention.
5) Yesterday’s post quoted the tweets of Michael Strahan and Antonio Pierce. Do you think the same defensive players with Spags running the schemes would be more effective? I do.
6) Wonder: “How does Haley get fired when his QB is Palko? That was a mistake.” Pete: “The NFL is not fair. This is an opportunity for another team to pick this guy up.”
7) Pete: “The Giants are vastly improved at receiving. The league is really weak. Dallas is not a good football team. I was wrong on JPP. I did not think he would be coachable, and he obviously is. If he continues to play this way, he is going to be a superstar. The Giants played well all things considered. 6 come-from-behind 4th Quarter victories is unprecedented. Who do you give credit to? Not Gilbride, it is Eli. Eli in 2011 is Roger Staubach.”
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