Meat and potatoes win. Yes Wonder, the Redskins stink. They are learning a new system, their offense is woeful and they have a lot of injuries. Their two minute offense wouldn’t scare a college team. It is not who you play but when you play them. They will get a lot better- every team improves from W1 to W17.
Offense: Manning was not present for all 4 quarters, but he looked good. He used the pump fake and looked off the safety on more than a few occasions, which was vg. Burress was excellent. Steve Smith picked up right where he left off with his terrific 3rd down possession catches which kept moving the sticks. Jacobs was punishing… he always looks good at the beginning of the season when he has fresh legs. Ward looked very good too… and as good as we have ever seen him catching the ball out of the backfield. When Jacobs has fresh legs it is hard to argue for Bradshaw. With the exception of a pass or two out of the backfield that screamed for #44, any of the three of them could get this job done. John Madden was having a lovefest with the offensive line.. I was surprised he did not suit up to join them down there. Great play call by Gilbride on the naked bootleg at the 1 yard line. As we mentioned in preseason, Manning should run ONCE per game just to keep the defense off-balance.
Defense: the DL was fantabulous. Pick a lineman, they all played great. I saw #21 all over the field. He made a great play to stop a first down by making an open field tackle of rookie Devin Thomas just short of the sticks. Webster played very well. Alford got called for a big 15 yarder which was horsebleep. They say it is a rules change but Alford totally missed his face mask anyway. Ross looked bad on the Moss TD, but he may have been in zone, so I won’t judge that one too harshly. (The real culprit on that drive was…
Specials: Not good, folks. No hang time on kickoffs gives them good field position. Carney will work until Tynes can come back. Costly roughing the kicker by McDougle was a turnover insanity.
The Giants had to win this game, they did win, NEXT. The first 4 weeks are exactly like this, schtick dreck competition where the gmen must get their business done. The Giants benefit from this 10 day layover because everyone makes mistakes in W1, the Giants get to iron them out after a win and become a better team. Wilkinson and Kehl got a lot of playing time and looked fine with the exception of each taking a bad penalty… the coaches will take a scalpel to each of these guys if they keep making boneheaded mistakes like those. (Kehl had the illegal block on kickoff, Wilkinson had the unnecessary roughness.)
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