If you missed the game, consider yourself lucky. It was painful to watch. Please remember that this is the 2011 NFL preseason, and rust is simply too generous a word to describe what is being shaken off all players. Basically, Carolina looked bad and the Giants looked worse. But it does not matter, as every NFL team has the rust. Every fan of the NFL needs to be a little more patient. The quality of play will take a while to get better. Tackling was horrible, owing to lack of contact in practice.
Players who looked good for the Giants:
Jason Pierre-Paul
Devin Thomas
Domenik Hixon
Andre Brown
Adrian Tracy
Dodge/Weatherford
Players who looked rusty (or worse):
Eli Manning
Lawrence Tynes
Every tackler
Special teams
The Giants offense was pathetic, almost painful at times to watch. They were 3-16 on 3rd downs. Eli Manning was inaccurate. JPP ended 3 of the first 4 drives with 2 sacks and a pressure which caused a Michael Boley pick 6. Yes, that is correct, Giants fans… subtract that INT for a TD and you are left with only 3 points from the offense.
The Giants defense was inconsistent but they did manage to stop the Panthers on all but one 3rd down conversion (Panthers 1-13). But you could still see some problems, where the LBers could not handle the screen, or where the Cover2 left gaps in coverage. Tyler Sash was exposed vs the TE Olsen, but he looked better in run (causing a fumble) and tackling.
You simply cannot read too much into this game. Tynes has a thigh contusion, but we are unaware of any other injuries at this time. Assuming there are no major injuries, it was not all bad. If you had to watch that awfulness, then that was bad.
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