The Giants got the pressure in H2 and then O’Sullivan started making the mistakes. The Giants were sloppy. The 49ers were sloppier. The Giants will not win next week if they play this sloppy. 10 penalties for the Giants? I lost track. (Just checked, it was 11.) That O’Hara penalty from one of your leaders has me going nuts. Selfish from a team leader. Instead of 1st and goal from the 8, it is 1st and 10 from the 23, and then the 4th down FG gets blocked for a TD the other way. The result is different if it is FG from inside the 8 yard line (or dare we get a TD?!). Instead, we keep SF in the game. An example of the Giants being a much better team than the 49ers, but not executing in so many places and making too many boneheaded mistakes to let them stick around. The Giants deserved this victory, but there were many alarming things we saw:
1) First half lack of pressure
2) Defense extremely vulnerable in pass protection when the pressure is not there
3) Lack of pocket integrity (Roethlisberger will KILL us if we do not contain)
4) PENALTIES PENALTIES PENALTIES
5) In normal game flow (ie not 2 min drill, or NYG playing from behind in H2) Gilbride predictably calls a RUN on second down and anything less than 11 yards after a first down pass.
6) Ross vulnerable on deep route double moves.
7) Bradshaw must protect the ball better, especially at the end of runs.
8) Burress must contain his emotions, if he spends half the effort redirecting his concentration away from the refs and toward the game, he’ll be fine and we’ll be fine.
9) Way too many batted balls on Eli’s throws.
9) I won’t even count the Special teams blocked FG nightmare, that should be correctable.
Examples of Giants LUCK:
1) Wide open Bruce missed by O’Sullivan, he might still be running if the ball is put in there.
2) Morgan wide open, drops the ball for a 50 yarder.
3) On Burress TD, Boss should be called for interference penalty but is not.
4) Burress fumble at beginning of game is not called, it was clearly a fumble, looked like he took a zillion steps after the catch, instead called incomplete pass.
5) Blackburn held Gore (Q1) when he released to go into a route, should have been a Giant penalty.
6) Ditto another play in Q2, Giants held RB out of backfield.
7) At halftime SF is killing us in the air and they call three straight running plays (to begin Q3), the last of which..
8) is a fumbled handoff, resulting in the first fumble recovery by Giants of the season, without us even touching them.
9) ANOTHER big Morgan drop on a beautiful throw.
10) The late game O’Sullivan self-destructions, too many to name.
11) SF horrible use of timeouts.
I am sure I missed a few, but the point is if the SF Niners execute, we are in deep trouble in/lose this game. Obviously the two Johnson INTs in the first half have to give credit for good play, but better decisionmaking and we are not getting either of those.
THE GOOD:
1) Manning
2) Offensive Line
3) Toomer and Smith
4) Justin Tuck H2
5) RUN DEFENSE
6) Second half pass rush
7) Dallas S*CKS!
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