This was a wild one, not for the faint of heart. The Giants prevailed in a game we will affectionately call The Penalty Bowl. If the Giants did not win this game, there would have been expletives running amok all over this page. We’ll talk about the penalties later. First, Virgil Carter.
In order to see the NYGiants.v2016 clearly, we have to go back to some tweets from yesterday.
.@JordanRaanan irony is that w a QB lacking confidence, OL weak protection, small WRs.. original WCO is the perfect adjustment.
— Andy Furman (@UltimateNYG) October 15, 2016
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsThe original West Coast Offense (“WCO”) was designed by Offensive Coordinator Bill Walsh when he coached under Paul Brown with the Cincinnati Bengals from 1968-1975. After Cook’s career ended in 1969, Carter took over in 1970. Carter had no arm, but he could throw the ball accurately in shorter distances. Necessity was the mother of invention. Walsh made lemonade out of Carter’s lemons by designing an offensive scheme that would pass the ball less down the field and instead throw the ball with a myriad of short passes. It worked for Carter enough to cover up the deficiencies. It was not until Walsh became Head Coach of the 49ers at the end of the decade that the West Coast Offense would blossom. Anyone who knows anything about football knows that the connection of Joe Montana to Jerry Rice was one of the best QB-WR pairings in history. What many people forget is that Montana too did not have the greatest pro prospects as Round 3 draft pick. The WCO worked for Montana by giving him the task of making precise small passes to Roger Craig out of the backfield and Jerry Rice on slants. The “genius” of Walsh was practicing these small passes so much that the precision yielded great opportunities for Yards After Catch (YAC). It was the YAC that was the killer for defenders, because if you got the ball to Jerry Rice in stride above the line of scrimmage, he was a gazelle that could rip you apart.
Why did I make you suffer through that history lesson? Because the OBJ TD game winner was a 6 yard slant that he catches at the 40 yard line and proceeds to run another 60 yards after the catch. This was a Montana to Rice staple. So when opposing Defenses are constantly scheming OBJ with double and triple coverage, the slant works because he is still in single coverage underneath with separation at the line of scrimmage. If the ball is placed in his hands IN STRIDE (something that Walsh was religious in obtaining as his goal), look out. Remember, this was a playcall on 4th & 1. If the LBer or one of the 2 secondary players are able to make the tackle, the play STILL moves the sticks. And if it is 1st down and you gain 6 yards, you are keeping Eli in rhythm and you are keeping OBJ involved. This is the original West Coast offense of Bill Walsh. It is a steady diet of these short pass routes, not necessarily slants but others too like fan routes, arrow routes, sluggo stop routes, omaha routes, stick routes, and the quick hitch. And then of course there are the flares and screens for RBs etc.. but for these purposes we are focusing mostly on the WRs. That is where this team’s edge is, and that is why the gameplan needs to adjust to what the defense gives.
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Going back to the Saturday tweet, the weak OL of the Giants is not a liability with the short passing game. And the short WRs of the Giants (5’10” – 6’0″) are also great for the scheme.
The Giants, despite not getting a 1st down until 1/3rd of the game was over, still manage to come up only 1 point shy of the most points given up by the Ravens all season. Hello McAdoo. Hello. Do you understand how to move this offense? Stop the running the ball out of run sets. Give up running on short yardage out of double TE package. Your TEs can’t block for sh*t anyway. Your OL does not have road graders. If you want to run, do it with the draw. It’s the only consistent hope. Better yet, when it is 4th and 1, throw the slant to one of your WRs like Odell and maybe he can go A LOT FURTHER. A steady onslaught of small passes will eventually force the Safeties to move up and then the vertical passing game will open up. On the other OBJ TD, Eli Manning actually looked for a short/intermediate route on the other side of the field, which drew the Free Safety over to the left side. By the time OBJ catches the ball on the right side, it is too late for the Free Safety to get over and effectively OBJ has beaten single coverage.
McAdoo’s offense comes out flat. No sense or urgency… until they are behind near the end of the 1st half. The offense gets rhythm when it is in pass mode. As soon as the run set gets rolled in, the handoff goes for 2 yards and stagnation sets in. Every time. The Giants could not run the ball to save their life. 17 carries for 38 yards. Just stop. It is a waste of time the way they scheme.
Someone please tell me the last time the Giants OL could get a yard in short yardage. Somebody. 2007? 2008? Maybe Snee in 2007 pulling and then I am not so sure. He has been the only reliable road grader, but beyond that, we have zero confidence that the Giants run set can get anything when the chips are down.
Okay, the elephant in the room, the Penalty Bowl. I try not to talk about the zebras too often because the nonsense detracts from teams doing their jobs and playing to obtain quality wins by wide 10+ point margins to negate the effect of these blind f***s. Ravens 15 penalties for 111 yards. Giants 7 penalties for 119 yards. Insanity. The DRC pass interference penalty was a phantom. We never saw it on film. If it happened, it happened WELL BEFORE the end of the route, in which case it is a 5 yard holding call. Lewis’ defender was not given a pass interference penalty at the goal line, despite clearly being pushed.
The insane no/flags in this game today was the battle. The war is that McAdoo is clueless that the Ravens penalties were the biggest help to him climbing back in and collecting tempo. The Ravens penalties to themselves ended offensive drives and gave the Giants back the ball so many times. Add that horrible pitchout call (Rule #5: Pitchouts do not work in the red zone) on 4th and Goal by Harbaugh on the 1st play of the 4th Quarter, and you lose this game. The 15 Ravens penalties and the moron pitchout were gifts by a bad team that has now lost 3 straight games. The Giants will not get gifts when they play good teams. They dug themselves a tempo hole vs the Vikings and suffocated. They dug themselves a tempo hole vs the Ravens and the Ravens allowed them back in it. This Giants team needs to start playing with urgency on EVERY SERIES, not just when they are behind near the end of the half. At this point McAdoo thinks if he pisses away a series here or there early, c’est la vie, it’s early, we will keep at it. That is not the passing/urgency that is generating the success that this team CAN create. There needs to be a zeal for the short pass to Shepard, OBJ and Cruz on nearly every play. Quick flares to Rainey and Perkins while LBers are backpedaling on their heels. 5 yard plays after 5 yard plays. And then just when you blink, you get 60 yards after the catch to blow the game open. With plenty of margin for zebra error.
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