Quick thoughts on both local teams starting with the Giants.
– Plenty of non game balls to pass around but let’s start with the reality of the situation. The Giants offensive line was a mess on Sunday. The running game was decent but never given a chance to shine since the game plan was to throw it on a Washington pass D that the Giants must have seen SOMETHING to go with that game plan.
– Victor Cruz played an awful game Sunday. His drop on a key third down on their first drive was symbolic on the Giants as a whole that day. Never seemingly getting comfortable. Without Rich Seubert, and Jeff Saturday’s brother Shaun O’Hara (maybe all White offensive linemen with beards look alike), the G-Men seemed to be getting the hang of David Baas as their new center calling out protections and coverages. Either way, Cruz’ lackluster play and key drop made him a non factor the rest of the way and made the key slot position, you know the one where they let Steve Smith walk, pretty much a non factor the entire game. Which may be a reason why they addressed that with the signing of Brandon Stokely, the 12 year receiver who is best known for his Super Bowl catch against the Giants as a member of the Baltimore Ravens when he blew right past Jason Sehorn (in my mind the most overrated cover guy in the history of the Giants).
– The complete evisceration of the Giants secondary during this preseason culminated in Rex Grossman’s performance. It may have helped if Justin Tuck and Osi Umeniyora were in there. The major strength of the Giants has always been their pass rush and with those two and Jason Pierre Paul (if ya don’t mind i’m calling him JPP so keep up kids) up front with a defensive tackle would’ve put a lot more pressure on any offensive line more so than ONLY having Jason Pierre Paul. Even so, the Giants had four sacks. Now combine that with the presence of those two in the line up the Giants should be able to generate a much better rush and afford quarterbacks like Rex Grossman a lot less time.
– Speaking of the defensive front, they were done in with their lack of depth (MLB Jonathan Goff had played excellent against the run, Marvin Austin second round draft pick) and allowed Tim Hightower to play up to expectation in terms of fantasy production. The one cut back was a natural fit heading into the season in Mike Shanahan’s system so success was expected but playing a beat up Giants defense couldn’t have been so bad.
– Injuries are NO excuse and I agree with Chris Canty, on a day that was so sad for New Yorkers, giving them something to cheer for should’ve been enough to warrant some kind of life but all that life seemed to be sucked out of the Giants when Ryan Kerrigan intercepted Eli Manning’s pass. The Giants played with no heart the rest of the way and seemed comfortable in accepting in chalking the loss up to injuries. Well, most of them will be gone for the entire season so unless the G-men plan on throwing 15 more pity parties I suggest they get over it quick and get to business. Either way, the important thing is, they are already down in the division.
– I’m actually positive with this whole starting alot of rookies in key spots for one reason. The Giants will generate a pass rush once Tuck and Umi are back to join Kiwi and JPP. Having Greg Jones, a sixth round pick from Michigan State at MLB will give the Giants some kind of youth in a key spot. Goff was excellent but this is his final year on his contract and he’s going to be a free agent and having Jones get meaningful playing time will only benefit. The strongest group of depth I saw in the preseason was the linebackers and not because of their play but because of the plays the youth were making. The most difficult decisions the Giants made during the offseason was deciding which guy to cut. While keeping Mark Herzlich was a great story, he’s only regaining his speed and strength and will only be at full strength later on in the season. The Giants will need Greg Jones to pick it up over the next few weeks. Being given the assignment of starter mid week isn’t an ideal spot to be, but here’s the kid’s opportunity, as a fan of the Giants I can only hope he runs with it.
– Also, another player who surprised me during the preseason was Tyler Sash and he will get his opportunity. He’s a little green but he has good instincts which is key because that you can’t teach. Keeping that instinct and combining it with football intelligence will go a long way towards making him a better player and the play of Antrell Rolle did NOT make me happy. Rolle maintained that he would be willing to go back to corner to shore up some of the weak areas the Giants had heading into the season with the loss of Terrell Thomas and Bruce Anderson, but he became an All Pro at Safety and as a Giants fan I’d rather have his speed there covering ground now that there’s enough game film evidence that Kenny Phillips and his arthritic knees are slowly robbing him of his coverage skills. Phillips is still playing shy and indecisive and he’s lost his confidence which is a huge blow since before the injury he was on his way to a Pro-Bowl year. Trusting Deon Grant the rest of the way is not my cup of tea.
Another week, another chance for the Giants to get a win. LETS GO BIG BLUE.
As we turn our attention to the other guys.
– The folks at the NFL clearly have heard the wails and cries from head coach Rex Ryan. The Jets are primetime studs now and received that honor with the home game on September 11th. The decision to play the Cowboys was also curious considering that is the Giants bigger rival. The importance of that can’t be understated. The NFL believes in Rex, its time to honor that trust by going all the way this year.
– I wasn’t a fan of the move to let Shaun Ellis go but this Muhammad Wilkerson kid will be good. Loved his stoutness on the front lines and he did a good job plugging gaps and making sure Felix Jones had to go all the way around the line to try and get extra yardage. Jones had opportunities to break some in the first quarter but the Jets played excellent up front making sure those holes filled up quick.
– Now the downside of losing Shaun Ellis is that the Jets already weak pass rush is going to get weaker and Calvin Pace must have a huge year. Now, I know what people are saying, the Jets get their sacks through blitzes, but all the Jets had to do was look across from them at DeMarcus Ware to see what an all out pass rusher can do. Sure, Ware is the best lineman in all of football as evidenced by having the most sacks in the time he’s been in this league, but the Jets have tried to bring up pass rushers and it hasn’t worked. Now, Rex is known for his exotic blitzes and coming from everywhere and its important to note that the Jets coverage is very good but let’s be honest, the rich never say stop giving me money, they say give me more and the Jets should continue to pursue the kind of all out rusher that they would like to develop. If they ever get the chance to trade up in a draft to go for one they are absolutely sure of they should. Just my two cents. I’m not saying mortgage two years drafts like Atlanta did to get Julio Jones, but you know what I mean. Its a concern because this was a very young inexperienced offensive line for the Cowboys which the Jets should’ve ate up but they still gave them some problems. Albeit the Boys offensive line is a bit more athletic now they were still a legit concern heading into this game but it is now the Jets lack of a pass rush which is more of the urgent concern.
– A major concern for the Jets has to be Antonio Cromartie. He got eaten up by Dez Bryant and Miles Austin. Albeit, they are Dez Bryant and Miles Austin and most teams don’t have that caliber of receivers on either side, still the Cowboys made it a point to target Cro from the first series on and when they did, it seemed like the Cowboys were unstoppable. Id’ also be concerned for Kyle Wilson who seemed lost on some plays in the slot. Witten could’ve had a much bigger day had Wilson been guarding him throughout. Huge play by Jimmy Leonhard on that goal line tackle which began the eventual sequence of Romo sucking.
– Many people want to blame Romo for blowing that game and they can. You can point to the dive head first which allowed the Jets to cause the fumble or the terrible 5-yard-short throw to Dez Bryant that Revis easily picked off. But I agreed with Cris Collinsworth, having Dez Bryant on a bum leg was a liability at that point. The Cowboys bailed the Jets out by keeping Dez in there. Now you can make the case that they wanted Revis occupying him so that the Boys could take advantage of other areas but they didn’t. Romo continued to go to him in key situations. On that fumble, his first target was Bryant. It wasn’t a fake throw in his direction to draw the defense, no, he looked his way pumped, then ran in that direction before deciding to try and slide in. Then the rollout and throw which was an absolutely atrocious throw and poor decision to, again, DEZ, has to make you scratch your head. If that was Garret calling the plays and Dez was the number one option then Romo was just carrying out orders but again, the blame goes to Romo for making that poor decision and read. As a Giant fan it gave me great joy to see Romo once again under pressure, wilt.
– The Jets have to be wary of playing these kind of games. Now, mind you, over the last two years they have had success in close games, if the season opener was any indication, the up and down Mark Sanchez, the what kind of Mark Sanchez will show up on each down, has to worry Jet fans. He’s a thrill ride. He can look confident, make excellent decisions and great throws with pin point accuracy and then he can make terrible throws like the pick to Sean Lee. He reminds me alot of another New York QB currently playing. Anyone wanna guess who? Hey Jet fans look on the bright side, he won us a Super Bowl, and I am getting the feeling that Sanchez can also be a Super Bowl winning QB.
– I loved the fact that Rob Ryan stormed onto the field looking for someone to hit before meeting his brother for the hand shake. I wonder what Rex said to Rob. I’m sure it was something kinky.
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