Phil Simms’ spoke in his first segment about the Dallas-San Diego game, which he will be doing for CBS.
Simms lavished a lot of praise on the Chargers offense, saying that most defenses now are doubling Vincent Jackson, which leaves a single-covered Antonio Gates to victimize you. SD and New Orleans have the most consistent deep ball this season. Simms states that they still need to have the DL, Merriman and the OL get healthier in order to be considered serious contenders for the Super Bowl.
Re the Cowboys, they have A LOT of good players. You can’t believe they lose games. James and Brookings at LB, Ratliff at DL, (Jenkins and Newman at) CB, yet they have lapses. Simms does throw up his hands and agree with the perception that it falls on the coaching (of Phillips) and was blunt in admitting that Phillips will need to win a playoff game in order to save his job. Given that the Cowboys play SD, at NO, at WSH, PHL, making the playoffs is not clear.
Giants defense looked faster and aggressive in a good way vs the Cowboys. Simms singled out Kiwanuka, Canty and Tuck for upticks. He speculated that Tuck looked healthier (10 days off?!), and pointed to the Giants’ need to get him involved inside vs (slower) OLinemen for mismatches vs the passing situations. Simms still reminds us that there are opptys to thrown the ball downfield vs the Giants because they are aggressive (committing more than 4 to rushing the passer). This late in the year most teams are not tinkering too much with what they do. The Eagles are dangerous, they can upset people (because of their ability to explode on offense) and (cannot be ruled out to) go to the Super Bowl .
NE is not the same. MIA is not a big pass rush team but they hit Brady as badly/often as Brady has probably ever been hit in his career. Who is the pass rusher for the Patriots? Who is the dominant DB to cover your opponent’s best WR? On offense, people are doubling the Moss and Welker on the same play, even when they are lined up on the same side of the field. NE is getting hurt by the fact that TE Watson cannot go downfield.
Cincinnati is one of the (physically) toughest teams in the NFL, if not THE toughest in the league. They play a close game with their opponents, which (considering their advantages) is not smart football, because they allow other teams (think Raiders, Denver game!) to hang around into the 4th quarter.
Vikings will shut down some of their players when they rap up their playoff spot (think Favre). Minn gives up the easy 10-12 yard pass play. Their defensive game plan is to bend, not break, to get a big Jared Allen sack to bust your drive.
Ultimatenyg here. All I could think of is Howard Cross when they mentioned NE’s offensive problems. And Cross on his best day was less of a threat that Watson on any given Sunday. Makes me freak out at how Boss is wasted in this offense. And from a Giants perspective, when listening to Simms’ description of the Chargers offense, it becomes evident that the reason why the gmen lost to this team was because it only scored 20 points. If there is anything successful that can come out of this season, either it is (in this order) winning the Super Bowl (highly doubtful) OR removing that piece if sh*t OC of ours.
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