Giants News

[kurtsimonw]

I think we need at least 10-6, even then I think you'd be lucky to get in with that record. That means 5-2 at worst down the stretch.

vs Atlanta

@ Denver

vs Dallas

vs Philly

@ Washington

vs Carolina

@ Minnesota

Win 5 of those? 3 if we're lucky. No way we're beating Atlanta, Denver, Philly and maybe Minnesota if they need the win themselves.

[kurtsimonw]

Pierce out. Great, this awesome season just gets awesomer. I think everyone else is healthy though, so Ross looks set to make his season debut.

[kkr]

Atlanta are missing a fair few people and their D stinks almost as bad as ours the past few weeks so if we lose this one we really do suck!

[kkr]

When bad things happen to "good" teams »

By Ralph Vacchiano

Osi Umenyiora had a straight face when he said it and I’m absolutely convinced that he believes it. In fact, I’m pretty sure that in the Giants’ locker room, he’s not alone.

“We’re not a bad team,” Umenyiora said, moments after the Giants lost to the Denver Broncos 26-6. “We’re a good football team. We just played bad today. We’ll get it right. We’ll get it right.”

I’m starting to think that the Giants believe that if they keep saying things like that they’ll eventually come true. The more they talk about rallying down the stretch, returning to Giants football, executing, etc., the more they sound like things you say when you have no idea what’s actually going on.

And trust me when I tell you, they have no idea how this season has taken such a dramatically wrong turn. The answers the players give are hollow and short on specifics. The coaches seem to disagree on exactly how to proceed. Everything they said they needed to do during the bye week turned out to be an empty promise.

They look like a team that believes that if they concentrate hard enough they can turn back the clock to the first 11 months of 2008 when they were the most dominant team in the league.

But these aren’t those Giants anymore. This is a mediocre team that has the potential to be more, but far too often shows how capable it is of less. They’ve lost five of their last six games, so this is no longer a bump, a slump, a fluke or a misstep.

At this point the only reasonable, rational conclusion is this: The Giants are what they are and what you all saw on Thanksgiving night. Maybe they’ll be more than that before the season is over. But right now it’s just not very good.

So here’s another painful look back at yet another disaster. Maybe this time the Giants will actually learn from their past:

THREE STARS

1.Broncos RB Knowshon Moreno — His 19 carries for 88 yards weren’t eye-popping, but he just ran right through the Giants’ defense. Running mostly to the right side - an obvious attempt to target Umenyiora and DL Chris Canty - he got little resistance, and when he did he just bounced off it and kept going. He had no business scoring on his one-yard touchdown run because CB Terrell Thomas was right there to stop him. But he bounced off, made one cut, and was in the clear. And if you didn’t see the move he put on DT Rocky Bernard and DE Mathias Kiwanuka, go find a clip of that. My first thought was “How in the world did they not make that tackle?” But when I saw the move I thought that maybe they never had a chance.

2.Broncos S Brian Dawkins — Gee, here’s a surprise: Dawkins hurting the Giants. You think maybe he was instrumental in game-planning this week after what the Eagles did to the Giants down the stretch last season? He had eight tackles, one quarterback hit, two passes defensed, one forced fumble and a fumble recovery. To put it another way, he absolutely changed the way the Giants had to play. And oh, by the way, out in Denver he’s being given credit for rallying the Broncos with a players-only meeting during the week. If only the Giants had a leader who would do something like that …

3.Broncos WR Brandon Marshall — He was the best player on the field and got this star for two absolutely spectacular catches - a one-handed 28-yarder while he was backpedalling, and a one-handed, 33-yard catch that he tipped to himself with his fingertips. You can’t blame Giants CB Corey Webster for either one of those. Coverage doesn’t matter when a receiver makes a play like that.

THREE GOATS

1.Giants offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride — If the Giants were down 21-0 five minutes into the game I might have understood this game plan. But they were never more than a touchdown away from being right in the game until the fourth quarter. Yet Gilbride - possibly with the help of a few Eli Manning audibles - called 44 pass plays and 15 runs. That is a stunning lack of balance for a team that wants to be 50-50 and wants to emphasize the run. And even when he calls runs, they’re not the right ones. Remember RBs coach Jerald Ingram saying during the bye week that the problem with RB Brandon Jacobs was that he was being asked to run stretch plays and sweeps that he was ill-suited to run? And remember how he said the Giants were going to commit to running him more “downhill” or straight-ahead? A few days later, Gilbride seemed surprised by that candid remark and he’s coaching like he doesn’t agree. They’re running Jacobs on far too many stretch plays to the outside that predictably result in loss of yardage or, at best just a couple of yards. He gets no momentum, which he’d get from running straight ahead. For a bad example, 5 ½ minutes into the second half and the Giants are driving. They’ve got a 1st-and-10 at the Broncos 24. What do they do? They run a stretch left where Jacobs can’t find a hole, loses his forwards momentum and loses three yards. The drive stalls and a touchdown turns into a field goal. So really it should be no surprised that he got only 27 yards on his 11 carries. Maybe he would’ve done better if the Giants hadn’t abandoned the run like they were down by 57 points. Then again, with those plays, probably not.

2. Giants defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan — The bye week clearly meant nothing to Sheridan and this unit because their problems are still exactly the same. They can’t get to the quarterback and the communication problems in the secondary are just mind-boggling. Check out the last touchdown to Brandon Stokely and watch how CB Terrell Thomas, CB Bruce Johnson and S C.C. Brown are all gesturing to each other trying to put themselves in the right position. Then watch how nobody covers Stokely. And then watch how S Aaron Rouse is playing five yards deep in the end zone, as if he’s trying to stop anyone from getting to the goal posts. How are there still communication problems in Week 13? How are mistakes like this still being made? I think a better question is soon going to be whether Sheridan is going to get a chance to answer those questions. Tom Coughlin is incredibly loyal to his staff. He had to practically be begged to fire - sorry, to “reassign” - offensive coordinator John Hufnagel near the end of 2006 in an obvious act of self-preservation. I still don’t think Coughlin would fire Sheridan during the season, but if things don’t get better it’s going to be hard to argue he deserves another year.

3. The Giants’ wide receivers — I’m tempted to give this last goat to Manning, who had completed 15 of his 28 passes for 124 before the Broncos went into a prevent defense in the final five minutes of the game. Considering he threw for a career-high 384 yards a few days earlier, that’s horrible and inexcusable. I picked the receivers instead because when I watched the game from high above I just kept thinking “Nobody is open.” Now, admittedly it’s hard to always tell on TV and I can’t see everything on every play. But in the final five minutes against that prevent, the trio of Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks and Mario Manningham caught eight passes for 94 yards. In the first 55 minutes of the game, they caught 8 passes for 91 yards. In the first half, they had two catches — two — for 14 yards. They weren’t helping their quarterback at all.

UNSUNG HEROES

Broncos QB Kyle Orton — He had one bad pass, which was a gift of an interception to Thomas. But for the most part he managed the game well (18 for 28, 245 yards) and let his play-makers make the plays. Sounds like a pretty good strategy, don’t you think?

Broncos K Matt Prater — The four field goals were impressive enough, but he also had five touchbacks which was a huge help to the Denver defense. By the way, for those of you who’d like to use Prater’s performance as a way to rip Lawrence Tynes, his three kickoffs landed at the goal line twice and five yards deep in the end zone once. It’s not his fault that last one was returned 41 yards.

LOOSE BALLS

• RB Danny Ware — I’m sorry, I mean “D.J” Ware - probably deserves a “goat” for his second-quarter fumble that led to the Broncos’ first touchdown. Go ahead and give it to him if you want. When you finally get the spotlight on you on the big stage, you can’t drop the ball. I wonder if that had anything to do with the Giants abandoning the run.

• Anyone want to take bets on how much longer Jacobs stays quiet? He looked really ticked after the game - moreso than usual. He had just 11 carries for 27 yards and when he was asked what was wrong with the running game, he seemed very close to throwing Gilbride under a bus. “We didn’t have that many attempts,” Jacobs said. “That’s not the issue and that’s not why we lost the game. We’ve got to go out and execute what’s called. I don’t think they did anything special to us in the running game. We’ve got to go out and do what we’ve got to do and what coach calls.” My Spidey sense is tingling because usually when someone trots out the “We’ve got to run the plays that are called” line, it usually means they’re not happy with the plays that are called.

• Now that I’ve said the receivers were goats, I should point out a spectacular catch made by Mario Manningham in the third quarter when he somehow managed to drag his back foot in-bounds along the sideline. After watching it live and seeing a replay I thought Broncos coach Josh McDaniels was absolutely right to challenge it. But after seeing a super slow-motion shot, both McDaniels and I were absolutely wrong.

• LB Danny Clark’s 10-yard sack on the first Broncos play of the game might have been the slowest developing sack I’ve ever seen. There was no one between him and Orton and Orton saw him. Then he waited and still couldn’t get out of the way. Strange play.

• You think McDaniels saw something on film? Seven of the Broncos’ first nine runs were to the left, at either Osi Umenyiora or Chris Canty. Those runs, by the way, went for 40 yards.

• Speaking of Umenyiora, he might want to consider changing his approach to rushing the quarterback. I lost count, but on far too many of the Broncos’ pass plays he came in way too wide at Orton - so wide, in fact, that he basically was rushing behind him. And he wasn’t always being force wide by the left tackle. Often he took that angle himself, which eventually took him right out of the play. Come to think of it, he was so out of the play so often, maybe that’s why McDaniels called so many runs to that side.

• Interesting defensive alignment early in the game when CB Corey Webster was out with a bruised knee. In the nickel defense, Aaron Ross was in at cornerback in the slot and C.C. Brown was in at linebacker with Michael Boley. The Giants did that in the past with Michael Johnson, but Brown? Wasn’t he having enough trouble at safety? He wasn’t terrible, though, and when Webster came back, Ross moved back to safety, and Chase Blackburn came in at linebacker again. I’m not sure why Blackburn wasn’t the linebacker in those spots the entire time.

• The game was basically over, but the Broncos’ last touchdown was, to me, a microcosm of what’s wrong with the Giants defense. Before the play, CBs Bruce Johnson and Terrell Thomas are motioning to Brown, who comes up to the slot where he seems to be covering both TE Tony Scheffler and WR Jabar Gaffney. Meanwhile, on the other side, Aaron Ross and Aaron Rouse are waving at each other until Ross finally backs way off the line. Then when the ball is snapped, Johnson and Thomas double-team Gaffney, leaving Brown to choose between Scheffler and Stokely. He seemingly guesses wrong by covering Scheffler (if you want to call it “covering” since he basically dragged Scheffler down) leaving Stokely to run free across the middle. And he runs very free because Rouse is hanging out by the goal posts with no chance to stop Stokely before he crosses the goal line. I’d love to be in the film room reviewing that play because I’m not sure anybody on the field had any idea what they were supposed to do on that play.

• I have to tell you, I don’t particularly care that Umenyiora was screaming at Jacobs and the offense and then Blackburn on the sidelines. Yeah, sure, maybe he should make a play before mouthing off (0 tackles when they ran at him all game long? Really? Ugh). But at least someone showed some fight and emotion. I don’t like trying to read the mood on the sidelines from the press box, but if there was a spark of life down there I sure didn’t see it.

• I may not like it, but I really do understand why defensive linemen have to occasionally drop into coverage. But does it really have to be Chris Canty? He’s barely played this season because of hamstring and calf injuries, he’s still learning the defense, and he’s trying to convert from a 3-4 end to a 4-3 end and tackle. Why throw more on his plate?

• For those who asked, yes I thought the personal foul on Webster for hitting Marshall on the incomplete flea flicker at the end of the first quarter was a good call. And yes, I think he should be fined. If the NFL is serious about reducing concussions and protecting players, then helmet-to-helmet hits - no matter what the circumstances - can not be allowed.

BY THE NUMBERS

• It’s really disgraceful that the Giants had only 38 first-half yards. That’s nine passing and 29 rushing. I mean, how is that possible on 23 first-half plays? By the way, the Giants’ previous low for the season was the 141 they had in the first half against the New Orleans Saints.

• The Giants hadn’t been held to six points since 2004 against the Philadelphia Eagles in Manning’s second start. Actually, that’s not completely true. That’s a regular-season stat. They were, of course, shutout by the Carolina Panthers in the playoffs at the end of the 2005 season.

• Thanks for the memories, Kevin Boss. After his breakout, two-touchdown game against Atlanta, he was back to being ignored. Just two catches for 22 yards. And yes, he caught both passes thrown in his direction.

• And a happy stat to end with: If the Giants beat the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday they’ll only be one game behind in the NFC East race, plus they’ll have the tie-breaker advantage. So all is not lost. It only feels like it is.

Ralph spot on with everything imo

[kurtsimonw]

[kkr]

Posted about 6 hours ago 8 Comments0 Recommendations E-mail

Giants place defensive captain Pierce on injured reserve

Associated Press

The slumping New York Giants placed linebacker Antonio Pierce on injured reserve Monday with a bulging disk in his neck, ending the season for one of their defensive leaders.

Pierce has missed two games since being ruled out indefinitely after an MRI exam Nov. 20 revealed the bulging disk. The Giants (6-5) decided to put Pierce on IR after he received a second opinion from Dr. Robert Watkins, an orthopedic surgeon based in Los Angeles.

"The doctors have told me that given my current condition, the risk of playing is too great, regardless of how I feel physically," Pierce said. "That is the most disappointing part of this, because I feel great and have no pain. But I will keep my head up and be there the rest of the way to do my part to keep the boys going."

The 31-year-old Pierce, in his ninth NFL season and fifth with the Giants, has 55 tackles, one sack and one forced fumble in nine games this season.

New York, which has lost five of six since opening the season 5-0, hosts rival Dallas on Sunday is also dealing with an injury to quarterback Eli Manning, who has a stress reaction in his right foot.

Pierce played 15 games last season after appearing in all 16 games in each of the previous two seasons. He has led the Giants in tackles for the past three seasons and missed only four regular-season games since leaving the Washington Redskins to join the Giants.

"He’s certainly going to be missed," coach Tom Coughlin said. "You have a guy who’s been a three-year captain. He's an outstanding leader. He rallies the troops as well as anybody we’ve had. He’s a very strong personality, obviously. He’s a very, very smart player. He could make a lot of significant adjustments. He made all the checks from the defensive standpoint."

Pierce spent much of the past year in the spotlight after helping former teammate Plaxico Burress when the wide receiver accidentally shot himself in the thigh in a New York nightclub.

Pierce drove Burress to the hospital and then took the gun that Burress used back to his home in New Jersey, later arranging to get it back to the wounded receiver's home. Pierce testified before a grand jury, which declined to indict him for his role in the incident.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

link

[kurtsimonw]

What a horrible season it's been. All we need now it to go on a 3 game, division, losing streak to top it off.

[kkr]

3 game winning streak against the division would put us in a very strong position looking for post season play. Beat Dallas and I think we can pick up some momentum and hopefully finish strong. Lose to Dallas and that would be all but the final nail in the coffin.

[kkr]

Overload Blitz fail:

Corner Blitz fail:

Aces Low

Remember the Giants defense? Remember the Four Aces, Michael Strahan running amok, Osi Umenyiora flattening quarterbacks, Justin Tuck destroying the Patriots line, Steve Spagnuolo shuffling personnel and designing blitzes to thwart any protection scheme?

Strahan is retired. Spagnuolo is the Rams' head coach. And the Giants pass rush, despite the presence of Tuck, Umenyiora, and other talented players, has fallen on hard times. I watched the Giants-Broncos game looking for reasons why the Giants pass rush has slipped. The Giants recorded just one sack in the game, on the Broncos' first play from scrimmage. After that, Kyle Orton spent most of the evening passing from a clean pocket.

The problem? Poorly-executed, poorly-designed blitzes.

Figure 1: Giants Overload Blitz Fails

Figure 1 shows a first-and-10 play midway through the first quarter. The Giants, as they often do, have rotated backup linemen Chris Canty (99) and Mathias Kiwanuka (94) into the game in place of Tuck and Umenyiora. Canty and Kiwanuka are solid players, so the Giants lose little with this personnel package. Coordinator Bill Sheridan calls an unusual defense: an overload blitz with man coverage behind it.

Linebackers Michael Boley (52) and Chase Blackburn (57) are the blitzers. Regular readers know that I usually explain blitzes by pointing out which defenders sacrifice themselves to create lanes for their teammates. On this play, it's hard to tell who is sacrificing for whom. Kiwanuka slices inside to attack the guard, Boley works outside, aiming straight for the running back, and Blackburn rushes between them, right into the right tackle. There's an execution error somewhere; my guess is that Kiwanuka was assigned to attack the gap between the guard and tackle but stepped too far inside. Whatever the mistake, the three defenders are in an awful hurry to get blocked.

Opposite the formation, Canty is forced to cover Tony Scheffler (88). This is interesting for two reasons: 1) It's a terrible idea. 2) Sheridan said he would seldom asked linemen to drop into coverage. Here's a quote from last April:

“We're definitely going to have the pass rushers rushing as much as we can, When you get into zone (blitzes), you have down guys dropping. And you're never going to get away from that, but as much as we can, we're going to try to orchestrate so that our pass rushers are rushing because that's our strength.”

Keep in mind that Canty isn't dropping into a shallow zone. He's man-up on a very fast tight end. As best I can tell, the Giants are playing man coverage with a high safety and double coverage on Brandon Marshall (15). In such a scheme, the back is uncovered; the high safety may actually be responsible for him, or he may be unaccounted for. (Some schemes do leave the back uncovered; neither Boley nor Blackburn shows any indication that they are responsible for him). Canty is no match for Scheffler, Orton has time to throw, and the Broncos get 15 easy yards.

Figure 2: Giants Corner Blitz Fails

Figure 2 shows a blitz from the second quarter. It's second-and-9, and Umenyiora (72) and Tuck (91) are back in the game against the Broncos' three-receiver package. On this play, the Giants will rush six, with Blackburn and cornerback Terrell Thomas (24) blitzing from the offensive left.

The overall design of the blitz itself is sound; the linemen slant to their left (offensive right), drawing the protection away from the blitzers. Once again, the design suggests that two defenders will sacrifice themselves to create a blocking lane. It doesn't happen. The back reads the corner blitz and picks up Thomas. The left tackle slides over to block Blackburn, who is late hitting his gap. Orton again has a clean pocket.

The Giants again play man defense behind the blitz. Here, safety Michael Johnson is responsible for slot receiver Jabar Gaffney. Johnson is in no position to cover any short route; to disguise the blitz, he's aligned as a deep safety. Gaffney runs a shallow cross, and he's wide open for a nine-yard gain, which becomes a 24-yard gain once a facemask penalty is tacked on.

The use of man coverage behind these blitzes is questionable -- it was a simple matter in both cases for Orton to find and exploit the coverage mismatch -- but execution is a bigger problem. Giants defenders aren't creating lanes or sticking to their blitz assignments. Linemen aren't occupying blocks, and blitzers aren't taking proper angles. These are experienced players -- most of the names I mentioned should be familiar, and old friends like Barry Cofield and Fred Robbins were also on the field -- but they aren't executing with the discipline they showed under Spagnuolo.

The Giants are also ragged off the snap; at times, one or two defenders will still be in their stance a split second after the ball is snapped. Orton may have been varying his cadence, but the Giants also looked slow off the blocks against the Eagles. A split-second delay gives the blockers the upper hand and it can throw off the timing of a blitz: If the defensive end hesitates before slanting inside, the guard can scoop him up so the tackle can take the most dangerous outside blitzer.

Sheridan deserves some blame for the state of the Giants defense, but in fairness, he is trying to compensate for a very bad, very injured secondary. The man coverage schemes behind blitzes may reflect his distrust of his defensive backs in zone coverage. The Giants do have 23 sacks, although 11 came against the Raiders and Chiefs and just seven have come in the last four games. The team's fundamentals have slipped in all facets of the game, and the poor pass rush is just one element of the collapse.

It's hard to correct fundamental mistakes and technique lapses in December. Tuck, Umenyiora, and the others are good players, and they can bounce back once they refocus on technique and details. They may not get the opportunity until July, and they may be doing it under a new coach. As of now, the Giants don’t have enough pass rush to threaten good quarterbacks.

link

[kkr]

This hasn't been a big story line up here but it's been a hot one in Dallas the past couple of months - especially this week leading up to the Cowboys-Giants matchup. And we've finally got confirmation on it.

The story is an Eli Manning autograph on the wall of the locker room in the Cowboys' new stadium. It was supposedly the real Manning's signature after the Giants' Week 2 victory that opened the place. It looked an awful lot like his real autograph, but it seemed very un-Manning-like to deface another's property.

Unless that person or organization asked for it. And apparently, they did.

"It’s a pretty common thing. I was asked to sign it," Manning said Thursday in confirming the authenticity of the signature. "It wasn’t like I just went there and signed it. I didn’t have a pen on me or anything."

(At this point, a few lockers away, DE Justin Tuck yelled, "Good job, Eli!")

Of course, below the score and the date, it reads, "First win in the new stadium," in what appears to be different handwriting than the signature. But that's certified Manning scribble as well.

"It was all me," Manning said.

Manning realizes the Cowboys' fans and a few players aren't happy about it - even though, again, their locker-room worker asked Manning to sign the wall as the start of a wall of fame of sorts similar to the ones Manning has signed in Philly and Denver (among other places).

"We won't forget that," Cowboys linebacker Bradie James said, according to The Associated Press. "It just makes for a more intense game."

Said Manning, "Yeah, I’ve heard a few things about it. But they’ll eventually get over it."

link

[kkr]

[kurtsimonw]

So happy it's real.

[kurtsimonw]

Liked some of the looks from Sheridan today, especially the play on which Rouse got his sack, their offensive line just looked so confused. Still not happy with the shitty defense towards the end of the game. "Prevent" my ass.

[B-dub]

The Cowboys really controlled the game to be fair (27 first downs to the Giants' 15, held the ball for 38:50), but two big plays (Jacobs and Hixon), a couple of missed field goals and a timely fumble recovery were the difference. But I'll take it. We have the tie-breaker over Dallas now having swept the season series.

[kkr]

Jacobs hates Dallas

Listen to his comments at the press conference, they are comedy gold! I love the guy and now have his authentic jersey on the way!

[kurtsimonw]

Remaining schedules

Giants - vs Philly, @ Washington, Vs Carolina, @ Minnesota.

Philly - @ Giants, vs San Fran, vs Denver, @ Dallas.

Dallas - vs San Diego, @ New Orleans, @ Washington, vs Philly.

Minnesota losing last night could be quite important. They're now 2 games behind New Orleans and 2 games cleanr of the NFCs 3rd best team, so if things stay this way, their last game will mean nothing at all to them. It also helps that Philly and Dallas play on the same day, so only 1 of them can win. The worry is that if Dallas win next week and we lose, they go 2 games ahead, as do Philly, but Philly are essentially 2.5 games ahead as they have the tie-breaker.

Our schedule looks the easiest of the 3 if Minnesota have nothing to play for, Dallas is very tough. Must win next week.

[kkr]

If we lose to Phili then we need them to win out and hope that if we manage 2 more wins the cowboys only win 1 more or if the cowboys win 2 aside from philli then we need 3.

We could make it at 9-7 but a win over Philli would be huge and hopefully set us up for a strong finish.

SD plays at Dallas before Giants Philli Sunday and hopefully SD can knock them off leaving the winner of our game as the leaderin the division. If Dallas lose and we win all teams are 8-5.

[kurtsimonw]

If Dallas lose and we win all teams are 8-5.

Any idea who would top the division at that point? I'm not sure on the tiebreakers past head-to-head.

I'm assuming it'll go on games vs each other or divisional record?

Giants: vs - 3-1, divisional - 4-1.

Dallas: vs - 1-2, divisional - 2-2.

Eagles: vs - 1-2, divisional - 3-2.

So if San Diego beat Dallas and we win our game, I'm pretty sure we should be top of the division.

[kkr]

We would be as we would be 4-1 in the division whilst phili would be 3-2. If we beat philli and the skins the following week also then we would hold the tiebreaker over philli with a final division record of 5-1 and their best case scenario being 4-2.

If we can beat phili it really does put us in a strong position to finish well.

That said if we lose to phili they have the tiebreaker over us but if we win and then lose to Washington and phili then beat dallas then it would come down to either conference record or common opponents/strength if schedule I think to split us.

[kurtsimonw]

Earlier in the week, Flozell called Tuck a nobody..

Tuck on Flozell's $50k fine: "No thoughts on it. I’m a nobody so I don’t really have the authority to talk about the god of the universe."

Brilliant.