Without getting too in depth here, this defense has no faith in its coordinator. We are in week 12 of the season and players have no idea where to lineup. I realize Boley is out, on top of the other losses, Osi is dinged, Tuck is halfway to IR, Rolle is playing CB and we have rookies littering the middle of the field with missed assignments but this defense is 100% lost 3/4 of the way through the season. I hate to be the coordinator hater, but Perry Fewell has absolutely lost this team on defense and its evident in their body language and confusion play in and play out. WHen you don't have faith in your game plan, you play tentatively, almost afraid that what your coach saw may not be what you saw. His plan is most likely too complicated and overwrought with complications when professionals paid to do a job cannot figure out where to lineup on workday #7 of a week.
This is mostly a gut thing I see in the guys, and I know quantifying mood or emotion is foolhardy but I've played under people who seemed overmatched and you don't buy into their philosophy when you what you see on tape is NOT what you are told on the field. His overthinking and timid approach to pressure (please please please read a book on A and B gap pressures and stop trying to blitz off the edge all day when you have 3 pro bowl caliber DEs) is killing this defense. When you see guys not lining up properly and looking confused it is 100% on the man in charge of the defense. As a player you trust what you see and you execute as asked but when you see something that the opponent does that you KNOW will beat you, it just deflates you and you play with that listless look the Giants have had for weeks now. Leaders like Justin Tuck and Corey Webster are looking lost, completely lost and that speaks to their lack of confidence in what they are being asked to do.
I won't sit here and claim to know the scheme we should run or what our talent dictates, but I know full well that trying to pressure a 6-0 QB with a rocket release and speed to burn at WR/RB on the edges is just sheer stupidity. You put your 6-7 and 6-5 DTs in his face and you fire in the A gaps all night long and keep him off balance. You don't blitz Kenny Phillips in the 7 or 8 hole, you don't delay blitz a LB on a loop or a stunt with a DE going wide, you force the issue and you force the offense to contend with you. Fewell is a timid DC who plays on the edges trying like hell to contain everything and not give up the big play but he does not have the LBs or Safeties to pull that off. What he has is a front four and speed at LB that can make a QBs life hell between the center and guard and he chooses to run wide and pressure from the edge which almost never gets home. Don't start your best DE at DT as a gimmick, let him come in later in a drive, fresh like Tuck did in his early years and wear down the interior OL. You don't bang a DE into 330lb guards all day and assume it will work.
Fewell is quite simply overmatched and over thinking his defense to the point that players are not only confused but seemingly without faith in their play calls and without faith in each other. Players are smarter than we want to give credit for, they have a clue what will work and it is clear that this group no longer trusts Fewell to select a sound game plan and it is woefully evident in their play. Go find 10 DCs in teh NFL and lend them Tuck, Osi, JPP, Canty, Joseph, Bernard, Webster, Ross, Rolle, Kiwi, Phillips and see how happy you'd make them. You wouldn't rush 3 and drop 8, you wouldn't start DEs at DT, you'd find a base that works and you punish the offense from guard to guard until they were forced to max protect or their QB flubbed the game away. Perry Fewell is coaching scared and over thinking and despite our injuries he has plenty of talent and no fucking idea what to do with it.
That Coughlin/Reese brought him back shows they are clueless.
Coughlin/Fewell should have been let go after the epic collapse and failed season, but instead, Mara claimed 10-6 is a good season (so what if you miss the playoffs?) and would not be goaded into a coaching change.
Ownership is not committed to winning, this is clear. I wish they would sell the team.
good defensive call...vick doing what he does best
I can't fault the calls, the player needs to execute (and the plays were right there there to be made).
Second, if PF had sat back, and the Eagles still came back, we'd be saying the opposite. Not sure if playing it safe was the option either, since our safties let Brent Celeck go 70 yards after we had just scored. On the very next play!!!
The onside kick, and other things like the stars being aligned right, had a lot to do with that debacle.
Vanilla gets you killed. These aren't the 1980's New York Football Giants defense.
by DL players and LBers,and our Db's are tackling the
RB's close to line...
That play was the one that convinced me he has not a clue
Rolle takes a lot of heat here but as a safety he was one of our most effective defenders last year and this year he's been invisible because he's played CB and LB in these ridiculous formations Fewell is coming up with. This huge talent gap does not exist either. I never expected a win last night, in fact I told my wife I expected a 50 point outburst after reading Fewell's scared comments all week.
BTW the injuries we face are nothing unique to us. All teams go through it. The really good DC's find work-arounds that keep their D's competitive.
players are drilled every week to put hands up, stay in your gaps, don't hold, don't jump offsides, no stupid penalties, no taunting, hold on to the ball, etc...
but every week (hell, every year) we see offsides penalties, fights, holding, fumbles
it's not all coaching. players just don't execute week in and week out
fans blame the lack of energy on coaching. that's dumb in my opinion as well.
the motivation for a player is....if i play hard, i get paid well, i win games, i'm not frustrated all week, my life outside of football is better because i'm happy, i have a chance to win a ring and have ultimate bragging rights among my peers. you walk around your city and random people tell you how great you are 24/7. that's big for a male ego. i mean...if a player can't get up 14 weeks out of 16, then shame on them. it's the ultimate "get out what you put in" sport.
SHO'NUFF : 5:30 am
Coughlin has to sign off on Pussy Fuel's game plan. He hired the guy. TC should be the one under fire.
you guys want to act like Fewell has somehow lost his mind. Let's assume he's a logical professional.
Why would he rush three? Maybe to confuse the opposition, maybe to double team receivers, maybe to help out a cover man who is struggling.
Why would he invent a position for Rolle? Maybe to spy Sproles, maybe to get more speed in Prince on the field? Maybe to try and take away the quick pass.
Why would he use JPP at DT? Maybe to get the very inside rush Joey mentioned. Maybe to get as many pass rushers on the field at the same time.
It's tough to play with attitude when the opposition is running right by you and you know mo matter what you do, you can't keep up. There is mo scheme or gameplan that is going to make your guys faster.
Reminds me of the story of the 2 envelopes. Ever hear of it? It's an old one. Coach gets canned. He leaves 2 envelopes in his office for the next guy. In this scenario I would have Coughlin leaving them for Reese. First sign of trouble open Envelope 1. Says simply: "Blame me." Second sign of trouble, open 2. This one says "Prepare 2 new envelopes."
The primary failure in this program lies with Reese. He has sucked for 3 years. He could have, for example, gone after Sproules instead of Bradshaw and the weirdness of his running style. Sproules would have been a significant upgrade for this team.
As for how Coughlin and his staff can develop talent: Cruz and Ballard? Cmon who is doing a better job with nonentities like these guys? Reese will get to make his move at the end of this year. But he better choose wisely because the next time around, they might be coming for him.
That display last night was an utter embarassment, yet again. Not unlike what we suffered against GB last year (and most likely will suffer AGAIN next week).
We have enough horses that a better gameplan could have at least limited the damage. I fully believe that. I don't find NO to have "Better horses" than we do on defense. But they stopped us when they needed to. Mostly because their DC made our QB uncomfortable. Yes they gave up plays and yards, but they didn't play so scared to make it so ridiculously easy.
I'm not saying whether yesterday was the coaches fault, the players fault, the Saints being really good, or all three of those things (which is likely the answer), but does anyone really believe the personnel in 2007 on defense was better than today? That team also had a lot of injuries. It started James Butler and Gibril Wilson at safety (Rolle and Phillips are better than them by quite a bit)...Kiwi was out for the season...our LB unit started Pierce, Mitchell, and Torbor.
Does this look anything even remotely like Spags's defense at all ?? No it doesnt..
Fewell is severely overmatched. He should not be a DC... Secondary coach.. fine.. DC. no.. never..
They would have all the spring to get the basics of the scheme Fewell was planning before hit the practice in the training camp.
With the lockout they had to learn it on the fly and to complicate things the team suffered a ton of injuries.
I still have hope on Fewell (and Coughlin).
Retro, good post. I would disagree somewhat on Reese. I thimk he is trying to upgrade defensive team speed, but it's slow going when you can''t keep those guys on the field.
When Reese took over, one of the actions they took was to get rid of players who were talented but constantly hurt. May be time for that again.
In my opinion, the Giants are absolutely afraid of being aggressive on defense and it is simply making things worse and worse instead of covering up weaknesses.
Spy on Sproles???? That's your rationale for your best run supporting safety to be dropping into the flats where NO ONE was? Why not use your tools to your advantage and put your best SS at his best spot instead of weakening two areas? These guys want to line up and go get it, and last night they didn't ant it was clear as day they were confused. That's on the coordinator 100% of the time. You have a week to drill your team and if what you're concocting slows them down every week with new fancy assignments you're missing the point of playing football.
If you can tackle, run, cover, hit, you can play defense and we have guys still who can do that. I put plenty on the players, but when the defense can't even line up, that is on your coordinator, no matter how you and your "coaching doesn't matter" ilk want to spin it and sit on high in judgement of us little folks who just might know what the hell we're talking about. When this same bunch is playing fast and going forward it's a totally different group and don't think for once second that confidence doesn't come from feeling prepared for your opponent and we had none of it last night. When your coach tells you what to expect and it doesn't happen you instantly doubt your coaching and it has a terrible ripple effect on all around you. I've seen it, I've done it, I've been there and sure it wasn't the NFL but people are people and football players are football players and it doesn't take a PhD to see that our troops were lacking confidence in their play calls and preparation. Once that confidence is gone and you are guessing form play to play, you can have 11 All Pros and they will be beaten like a drum if they don't have confidence in their scheme and what they see.
Spare your talking down for someone who can't run circles around 99% of the people here football wise. I know precisely what I saw last night and I am 100% sure that Fewell game planned scared, coached scared and his players knew it. He is over complicating everything and it's paralyzing a team that stopped a 20+ game Patriot home win streak just 3 weeks ago. Those guys aren't gone, the players don't suddenly stink but you can bet your ass the game plan did.
The only way I can describe how stupid it is to deploy Antrell Rolle differently each week is with the spork. It doesn't work as a spoon or a fork and in fact sucks at both because someone thinks its a cure all when in fact it's just a complete waste. Let your fork be a fork, let your spoon be a spoon and don't try to get too fancy with how to deploy your utensils. Silly sounding I know, but Spork Rolle needs to do what he is good at and that is playing SS, supporting the run and being a ball hawk, not a hybrid OLB in some half baked big nickel that gets your team gashed every time its out there. You can stick a spork in Perry Fewell, unless he decides to let his safeties be safeties, start JPP at END, and let his young LBs go play, cover, blitz and worry about the rest later.
Yes. The Giants, forever, have made personnel decisions for the good of the league and the good of the game (as well as, as best as they can, for the good of the Giants). The INTENT of the Rooney rule is that all those minority interviews are supposed to lead to minority hires.
All teams are under increasing pressure to hire minority coaches. The Giants saw this as a win-win-win (Giants, league, and game). They were wrong about #1, but I'm sure they feel good (still) about #2 and #3.
This is also why "character" plays such a big role in their drafting. They don't DO "thug" in an increasingly thuggish league.
Over-scheming to stop Manning last year
Over-scheming to stop San Fran running game
Over-scheming to stop Darren Sproles
I get you want to take away what your opponent does best, but when you are playing short handed like we are, why not concentrate on what we do well and letting players make plays rather than gettin so friggen cute with the personnel and coverages
I think a lot of that had to do with Boley being out.. Fewell has often said that he's the signal caller and that he's important in being able to get guys into position so I think not having him on the field these past 2 weeks was painfully obvious as opposed to the Pats game and the 49ers game prior to him getting injured. There has been a noticeable difference since he's been out.
Whatever's going on, though.. something needs to change and it needs to change quick. It was pretty clear that not a lot of guys knew what they were supposed to be doing.. and even worse, was that eventually it looked like a lot of them flat out quit.
Fewell's insistence on using Grant all the time is mystifyingly stupid. I can't comprehend his logic.
fewell's got 5 games to unfuck himself from these worse-than-sheridan gameplans.
And if we blow the first dallas game I say fire him then.
Something needs to get figured out this week or it'll be a bloodbath against GB.
The Big Nickel exposes us against the run as a tradeoff for purported strength against the pass. Well, in that package, we're certainly struggling against the run and, wouldn't you know it, we're also struggling against the pass out of that formation as well.
And LTS, it's maddening isn't it? The Deon Grant overuse. Prince Amukamara is healthy and on the active gameday roster. Might be worth a shot at a regular nickel package, eh? Or at the very fucking least against the Packers, if you're petrified of them spreading the field, roll out a Big Dime instead of a Big Nickel.
--this post not stolen from Joey--
Another example of Perry trying to fit the player in his system instead of playing the skill sets of the players in the system......
Rolle as a hybrid OLB?? Tuck as a DT?? Jones/Herzlich playing zone as MLBs???? with your best safety playing OLB???? Kiwi at OLB and not blitzing him??? Cweb and Ross better man to man cover corners and your put them in a cover 2 or cover 3 with 10 yd cushions and no jamming to disrupt timing when you know that the Saints routes are all based on timing???? what part do you guys and I get as die hard fans that a professional NFL DC doesn't???? SMH!!
Coaching matters. It is everything and at fault 100% for every loss, certainly not. But the same people who insisted Tim Lewis was not at fault for anything are now back in full force as the team implodes again.
but NO, we like to read and react on both sides of the ball...it's no wonder we look like shit as a team.