If you would have told me before the season started that in Week 6 the NY Giants would lose 27-0 to the Eagles, I would not have been surprised. But after the last 3 weeks, when the Giants started getting some traction (OL 3 sacks allowed in 3 games), expectations were raised. While we understood that the Texans (Fitzpatrick), Redskins (Cousins), and Falcons (who are always a poor team on the road) were not great teams, the Giants dispatched all 3 soundly. And more importantly, the Offense found rhythm in the ‘West Coast’ small ball scheme. And then Sunday night in Philadelphia…
I am still waiting for Ben McAdoo, whom we lauded to the hilt this past week, to playcall this evening according to the West Coast Offense. This goes back to the criticisms of Gilbride when he saw a great deal of pressure, loaded boxes and his OL was unable to pass protect/run block. At that point you have to go to small ball: slants, flares, dumpoffs, screens, quick outs, 3 step drops, draws. They have a name for those types of high percentage precision pass routes in stride for YAC. It is called.. THE WEST COAST OFFENSE! Why McAdoo was not getting Eli and the OL into rhythm with this is something I cannot explain. One person tweeted back that it is hard to blame playcalling when it is 2nd and 20. Alas, the reason why they are IN 2nd and 20 is because the playcalling on 1st down is still run (which gets stopped by 8 men in the box), or an OL holding penalty because Eli is in a 5 or 7 step drop and the OL cannot protect for 3-5 seconds. This is exactly how rhythm is NOT established. McAdoo’s playcalling did not give the Giants a fighting chance. And by the way, if these repeated recipes need any validation, we got it from none other than Tom Coughlin himself- after halftime, he spoke on the sidelines with NBC reporter Michele Tafoya about the need to use more 3 step drops. Duh. “I’m shocked,” exclaimed Captain Renault.
Giants yards-to-go on 3rd down: 1, 19, 25, 10, 20, 10, 21, 5, 14, 6, 10 (they were 2/11 before garbage time)
None of this exonerates the OL, who got physically manhandled. But we knew who they were before the game. We specifically cited the 2.0 second average release time of Eli Manning in 2014 vs the 2.7 second holding time in 2013 as Exhibit A in how McAdoo’s scheme was helping Eli, the OL and the offense overall. It was almost like we went back to 2013. And we know how that movie ended. In the 2013 Panthers game, when Eli was sacked ~7-8 times, we said that Gilbride had not aided his QB or his OL. The same thing happened here tonight, and not so uncoincidentally the tally was 8 sacks. Unless your QB is Ben 245 Lb Frigate Destroyer Roethlisberger sitting back there for 13 seconds, it is up to the Offensive Coordinator to adjust. Period.
Blogger’s note- we have to add a “Rule for Winning in the NFL.” If your QB is getting sacked 8 times in a single game, it means your OC is not helping him in playcalling.”
Speaking of not helping your QB, why do the Giants coaches have Eli in the game with 0:13 left in Q2 going on a 5-7 step drop from deep in his side of the field, instead of taking a knee? Are they trying to get him killed? Trying for a sack strip defensive TD? To me, this was further evidence that the coaches were in a collective fog.
The depression got worse when Cruz went down for what likely will be the rest of the season with a torn patellar tendon. About the only thing good about an “ordinary” torn patellar tendon is that it is not as bad as an ACL, especially for a skill player like Cruz. He can make it back all the way and not lose effectiveness in his cuts etc.., excepting if it is a really bad patellar injury. Time will tell. Let’s be optimistic for now and assume his career is not affected.
There is the other minor (I’m being sarcastic) detail about what the defense looked like. They got toyed with. The DL was manhandled too. Almost no pass rush (except Cullen Jenkins). But it wasn’t like we played against 2nd stringers … Oops, we did! 2 of them!! WTF??! And of course there were the crossing routes (zone?) where Eagles players were wide open without a Giant defender within 10 yards of the streaking wideout. C’mon. Didn’t we fix this zone cr*p after the Lion game? Also, in terms of schemes, another blogger astutely pointed out that Eagles receivers were getting zero jamming at the line of scrimmage. Schlereth of ESPN tweeted “Who invited the week one Giants to Sunday night football?” (Oh yeah, we tweeted that 33 minutes before he did, but who’s counting.) It was week 1 seemingly everywhere.
Oh, did we note that DRC suffered back spasms? Sigh. Or that Jerrel Jernigan, Cruz’s backup in the slot, is on IR and out for the year? Awful. Or that CB Trumaine McBride has a dislocated thumb (out ~2-3 weeks)?
There is the matter of future games providing a “blueprint” to other teams on how to gameplan the Giants. Ironically or not, this same effect was front & center in December of 2008 when Jim Johnson’s eerily similar pressure defense of 8 men in the box forced the Giants to react. Gilbride never provided the answer. We have to believe that McAdoo will make the necessary adjustments. The key one is to shorten the holding times of Eli back to 2.0 secs to support the OL.
The second item of film will be for Justin Pugh to adjust to what took place (3 sacks allowed) and improve. We spoke with Wonder after the game. “Pugh is not a bad Offensive Tackle. He had a bad day. He’ll be ok. We talked about the speed rusher on the day he was drafted, that Pugh will be a good OLman but that he is vulnerable to the speed rusher.” It did not help matters that Pugh had the second worst runblocking grade on PFF (next to Larry Donnell). He’s in his second year, will bounce back and get better.
Players play. Coaches coach. The entire team, coaches and players, they all were not ready to play this game. At least Coughlin did the honorable and truthful thing- he took responsibility for this loss. “It starts right here at the top. Very, very poor performance. I take full responsibility for it.” The truth is that the Giants are a lot better than this 27-0 beatdown and the Eagles are not this good either. And that is a sign that the Giants coaches had their hand in this mess. They did not put the Giants players in a position to be competitive. Obviously the Giants players were not ready either. Antrel Rolle: “We took the day off.”
Where does this leave the season? It is a reminder that the Giants can ill afford to be reading their press clippings. Up in the next 4 weeks are DAL IND SEA SF. All 4 teams have a winning record(15-7). Let’s start playing some West Coast Offense again. Small ball. Small steps. One game at a time.
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