Wednesday Reading Part 1: Schwartz, Serby and their "sources"

Better perspective than our beat writers most of the time.

makes the best case for resigning JPP. He was dominant in 2011, and has lack of sack production now can at least partially be attributed to not having another dominant DE on the other side of the line. He is also one of the best run stuffing DEs in the league. But even she notes that the Giants can’t resign him if he wants to be paid like a top five 4-3 DE. In that case, they’d have to let him go.

Giants

Stapleton The Record: Worst may be yet to come for the Giants
http://www.northjersey.com/sports/football/worst-may-be-yet-to-come-1.1136466

CB

Powell NJ.com: Injured Giants cornerback Walter Thurmond III open to re-signing with the team in the offseason
http://www.nj.com/giants/index.ssf/2014/11/injured_giants_cornerback_walter_thurmond_iii_open_to_re-signing_with_the_team_in_the_offseason.html

NFL

Deitsch MMQB: Will NFL Broadcasts Ever Embrace Advanced Stats?
Sabermetrics changed the way pro baseball is analyzed. A similar movement is under way in football, but you wouldn't know it by watching games on television
http://mmqb.si.com/2014/11/19/nfl-tv-broadcasts-advanced-stats/

Gerbasi The Cauldron: For Some NFL Hopefuls, The Dream Is Still Alive
The Fall Experimental Football League represents the last, best chance for fringe players to make it to the pros.
https://medium.com/the-cauldron/for-some-nfl-hopefuls-the-dream-is-still-alive-12947d6195b6

CHICAGO
Klemko MMQB: UNBEARABLE
Jay Cutler’s three touchdown passes lifted Chicago to victory over Minnesota, but they did little to make fans forget about what a miserable season it’s been. The Bears are now tied with the Vikings for last place in the NFC North, and the paying customers are screaming for a new face of the franchise
http://mmqb.si.com/2014/11/19/jay-cutler-marc-trestman-chicago-bears-nfl/

SAN FRANCISCO
Monson PFF: Analysis Notebook: Week 11
"Playing linebacker in the NFL is a tough gig, especially inside. You need to be adept at a multitude of different skills and Borland so far looks to be on top of them."
https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2014/11/19/analysis-notebook-week-11-3/

Draft

Miller B/R: 2015 NFL Mock Draft: Matt Miller's Latest Projections
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2269369-2015-nfl-mock-draft-matt-millers-latest-projections

Staples MMQB: The Big Board Is Back
As NFL teams begin slipping out of playoff contention, we look ahead to the rebuilding process. Here are the top 50 prospects for the 2015 draft
http://mmqb.si.com/2014/11/19/2015-nfl-draft-big-board-marcus-mariota/

History

Today in Pro Football History

11-19-1950: Walker Scores All 24 Points for Lions in Win Against Packers
http://fs64sports.blogspot.com/2014/11/1950-walker-scores-all-24-points-for.html

Jason has incredible physical gifts but doesn't give 100%. I'd rather have someone with attitude and who comes to fight every game.

If the Giants can replicate their work on defense and special teams from their 16-10 loss to the 49ers and knock some sense into their baffled offense, they’ll have a shot at pulling the upset, which would trigger a “Same Old Cowboys’’ refrain from those who continue to wait for a Texas-sized implosion from a Jason Garrett outfit that has finished 8-8 three years running.


Wow......the offense should be better this week, because the Dallas defense is a figment of the offense's imagination.....but our defense does not have enough fingers for all the holes in the dike.....

He's not a dominant DE but wants to be paid like one so there is no real strong reason to resign him.

I agree with Bold. I'd rather dump coin on Suh, resign Ayers, play Moore, and draft a DE.

I remember thinking that when they drafted him.

Go out and get paid, young fella. You'll miss it here and wish you had handled yourself better, just like everyone else does.

Mike said all offseason "this was Tom's offense"...Now that things have gone in the shitter, his tune has changed to "They undermined Tom hiring McAdoo."

I think they should absolutely re-sign JPP. I also agree that you can't break the bank on him but the amount of $$$ will certainly upset many on BBI as, while he isn't among the elite DE's, he's still worth a lot IMO. I hate the talking and all but this Defense would be much, much worse without him.

i used 2 b in the camp that no way JPP re-signs here -bigger offer somewhere else. now not sure. he has been ordinary for so long now, i cant see anybody giving him big $$$. so much unproductive film. lack of development. and then there is the injuries and weight gain to consider. there will also be other 43DEs on the market (greg hardy, cliff avril, adrian clayborn) who he will b competing with

it's been 3 years since 2011. that cant carry him anymore on the open market imo

would also b wary of getting rid of all our actual football players in the name of blaming them for failing to lead these hacks anywhere

rolle + JPP's contracts expire - 2 of the few legit players we have. both may get better offers elsewhere. then we're even worse

History

Although today is the anniversary of the fumble there were several great Giant victories on this date including these three games:

11-19-1933 Giants 3 Chicago Bears 0

The leaders of the East and West met for the second time in the 1933 season. Earlier that season, in Chicago the Bears had defeated the Giants 10-7. Now the Giants were placing their unbeaten home record on the line.

The Bears featured the great Red Grange in the backfield and were one of the heaviest teams in the league averaging 208 pounds per man. Giants' coach Steve Owen planned to begin the game with two of his stars, Harry Newman and Ken Strong in the sideline. Stuart Clancy and Jack McBride will take their place, as they have been consistent ground gainers versus Chicago in the past. When a scoring opportunity beckons, Newman and Strong would enter the game.

The Giants who participated including some notes about some of the lesser known players:

LE Badgro
LT Grant, Morgan
LG Satenstein, Gibson

Ollie Satenstein was listed as 6-0 213 pounds, he was a star at NYU. Like several other NYU players including Ken Strong, he joined the Staten Island Stapletons of the NFL. When the Stapes folded after the 1932 season, he became a Giant. He would play in nine games in 1933 before retiring after the season. His presence on the defensive line helped thwart the Bears inside the Giants ten.

OC Hein
RG Reese

Henry Reese was a rookie Giants' lineman out of Temple. An All-American in college, he could play guard or center. He would play two seasons for New York before being traded to the Eagles. In 1936 he would kick the game winning field goal to give the Eagles their only win of the season in season opening upset over the Giants. Reese would lead the Eagles that season in scoring with nine points as no Eagle would score more than one touchdown. He would play for Philadelphia until 1940.

RT W. Owen, Irvin
RE Flaherty, Campbell

Glenn Campbell from Emporia State would join the Giants in 1929. A future member of the NAIA Hall of Fame, he was a teammate in college of the Giants' Dale Burnette. A lean, talented end with speed.

In 1934 a ruptured appendix left him in the hospital in critical condition and reduced him to being a spectator once he recovered. In 1935 he was traded to the Eagles for Bob Gonya a tackle.

QB Clancy, Newman

Stu Clancy played college football at Holy Cross. He would play for the Newark Tornadoes and Staten Island Stapletons, before joining the Giants after the Stapes folded in 1932. He would play for the Giants until 1935. He would then join the upstart AFL in 1936.

LH Burnett
RH McBride, Strong
FB Molenda

Bo Molenda the sixty minute man who entered the Bears game with back to back sixty minute performances. A teammate of the former great Giants QB Benny Friedman at Michigan, he would go onto to play on four NFL Champion teams. In college he would almost singlehandedly stop the great Red Grange and Illinois, intercepting two passes in their 1925 meeting and making tackles all over the field and for good measure he scored Michigan's only touchdown of the game becoming a human pile driver at the goal line.

He was a outstanding athlete, good enough to give professional basketball and baseball a try as well.

He would sign initially with the New York Yankees of the NFL joining Grange, then would be purchased by Green Bay and take part in three consecutive championships there, including one over Friedman and the Giants. In that game he would score a touchdown and add two extra points. In 1932 the Giants purchased him from the Packers. He would remain a active player with the Giants through 1935, winning his fourth championship with the 1934 Giants. His crack blocking presence at full back was such that it would take the Giants several years to find a suitable replacement.

Following the end of his NFL career he would join Steve Owen's brother Bill as Giants assistant coaches. When Steve Owen left the Giants team to attend his mother's funeral, Molenda would be the "coach" in the Giants 1939 Championship meeting with Green Bay.

As to the game:

In the first period the Bears line dominated, led by the huge 267 pound George Musso of Millikin College's two tackles of the Giants' Harry Newman for losses when Newman attempted to pass. Early in the second quarter the Bears began a drive of their own with Bronko Nagurski picking up large chunks of yards inside and the Bears' Carl Brumbaugh tossing laterals to Johnny Sisk. After the Bears had driven 50 yards, the Giants Harry Newman picked off his counterpart Brumbaugh and ran it back 20 yards, although a clip on the Giants negated much of the return.

This led to the drive that produced the only points of the game. Newman following his interception, faded back to pass in spite of the threat Musso posed, and immediately felt the surge of the Bear line, dropping back 25 yards to avoid the rushers. He then headed to the sideline with a mass of orange defenders after him, not only making up the 25 yards he was driven back, but adding 25 more yards to the Bears 15. A pass completion put the Giants on the Bear 8 with a minute left, however a 5 yard penalty following a Giant timeout left the Giants with a decision. Newman decided to kick the field goal on second down, rather than risk another play. He called upon Ken Strong to deliver the placement which he converted from 21 yards out and the Giants had a 3-0 halftime lead.

Now it would be up to the Giants defense to weather the Bears second half assaults. Laterals, forwards, and spinners sent the Bears down the field to the Giants 7. However the Bears tried one lateral too many, this in the midst of Giant tacklers and the ensuing Giant recovery ended this Bears threat. However the Bears would force the Giants to punt, and Keith Molesworth of the Bears would take Strong's punt and dodge his way downfield for 31 yards to the Giants' 18.

After getting a first down at the 8, Sisk, Molesworth, and Pug Manders moved the ball to the Giants one. However on fourth down Manders was stopped for no gain. However the Giants were offside. The Bears tried again and Molesworth was thrown for a three yard loss. Noted was the great work by Giant defenders Len Grant and Satenstein once the Bears got inside the ten.

The Giants would make the three points stand up and would go on to be Eastern Conference champions.

11-19-1939 Giants 23 Pittsburgh Pirates 7

The Giants remained tied for first place and kept the Pirates winless in their last sixteen games. The Giants intercepted more balls than the Pirates caught, six interceptions while Pittsburgh completed four out of twenty six passes. It started with the Giants Johnny Dell Isola blocking a Pirate punt, Jim Lee Howell recovered for the Giants on the Pittsburgh thirteen. Four plays later Hank Soar scored from the two and with Ken Strong's PAT, it was 7-0. The Giants Len "Bear Tracks" Barnum added two second period FG's to make it 13-0 at halftime. The Giants did miss on some opportunities as well. At the beginning of the second quarter the Giants drove to the Pirate one, however a pass from Tuffy Leemans to Chuck Gelatka looked to be a touchdown, but Gelatka crashed into the upright of the goal post at the goal line and not being able to fall forward the Giants lost the ball on downs.

In the third quarter they were stopped on downs at the one foot line. Then after they held and a Pirate punt traveled only seven yards, Ed Danowski of the Giants was intercepted at the Pittsburgh eleven. However on the interception return Joe Maras of Pittsburgh was stripped of the ball by Nello Falaschi of the Giants at the Pirate 20. Ken Strong then added a field goal to increase the lead to 16-0.

Pittsburgh would get their only score on a nineteen yard rush off the Giants left side with Boyd Brumbaugh scoring untouched, early in the fourth quarter. The Giants then inserted Eddie "Muscles" Miller all 165 pounds of him at QB. Miller found fellow first year player Al Owen for a 39 yard gain. Then Miller shook off four tacklers for a twenty one yard score and a 23-7 lead.

The Giants were able to play several key players sparingly. Ward Cuff was held out for a second consecutive week with a charley horse, while Tuffy Leemans played barely a quarter.

11-19-1944 Giants 24 Green Bay 0

For eleven years Arnie Herber had helped Curly Lambeau create NFL history in Green Bay as the quarterback in Herber to Hutson, meaning future Hall of Fame end Don Hutson. After being inactive for two seasons, Herber waived by Green Bay appeared at the Giants' training camp at Bear Mountain, NY...now 34 years old and eight to ten pounds overweight. With Emery Nix going into the Navy, if Herber was unable to do the job, the Giants would have been forced to rely on rookies at QB.

But Herber would get himself into acceptable playing shape, the Giants despite the official retirement of Tuffy Leemans, and losses to military service would combine the old (Herber, Cuff, Hein, and Strong) and young (Paschal, Livingston) to build a competitive roster. Before rallying the Giants to a 21-21 tie against Philadelphia, on the train to Philadelphia Herber talked about the Giants next game, against his old team...The Green Bay Packers. When Don Hutson arrived, Herber the veteran didn't think much of the too slightly built heralded rookie Hutson. Hutson's reporting late do to the College All Star game gave the duo little time to work. But then in the season's opener against the Bears, as Herber looked he saw Hutson heading downfield seemingly more interested in watching Johnny Blood his teammate trying to get open, then when Beattie Feathers who was covering Hutson glanced Blood's way, Hutson exploded turning his ambling pace into jet speed leaving Feathers in his wake, Herber found him for a 70 yard touchdown pass, the only score in the Packers 7-0 victory.

The two would begin to practice extensively together, Herber would learn how to put the football in a spot for Hutson to make plays, learning to disregard the numerous feints his receiver would make and deliver it instead to a designated spot without regard to what Hutson was doing to his defender. Now the two would meet not as Herber to Hutson but as opponents on opposite sides of the field.

To cover Hutson, still dangerous as ever, the Giants assigned a rookie Howie Livingston who would also have to do his share of the ball carrying. The normal practice was to put two men on Hutson but the job belonged to the rookie from Fullerton College in California. Levingston held Hutson to four catches for thirty one yards, intercepted two passes, returning one for a touchdown. The return for a touchdown occurred when he took a pass away from Hutson's raised arms and raced thirty-four yards down the sidelines to give the Giants a 7-0 lead.

That interception sparked the Giants. Herber in the second quarter worked with speedy Giant end Frank Liebel for a 24 yard completion and then a 12 yard touchdown pass on a crossing route. The 83 yard drive featured the running of veteran Ward Cuff (23 yard run) and young Bill Paschal (16 yard run) as well. Ken Strong who made all the Giants PAT's later added a field goal following a Len Younce interception in the third quarter to make it 17-0.

Late in third, Livingston, this time covering the Packers Tris Speaker, made his second interception, returning the ball 41 yards to the Packer even. On the first play of the fourth, Paschall scored from the one and the Giants led 24-0. In a game that many believed was the Packers to win...the Giants instead where dominant.

That 3-0 win over Chicago in 1933 was the Bears last loss until the 1934 NFL Championship Game.

Musso was a true terror. In an era populated with tough 60-minute men, he was one of the very few guys opponents would admit to fearing.

Nagurski was an oddity. Most two-way players mirrored their alignment offensively and defensively. for instance, and end on offense was an end on defense, a tailback on offense was a safety on defense. Nagurski was a fullback on offense, but he played tackle on defense - he was a true physical freak.

The only other positional oddity I am aware of from the single platoon era was Don Hutson. He was an end on offense but a safety on defense. Earl Lambeau wanted to minimize the contact Huston would endure having to defend the run if he were on the line of scrimmage.

Story's about drafting like the Cowboys. The last 2 drafts they did not get the player they really wanted and had to settle on the 2 linemen. Even in the 2013 draft when they moved down all of their targets were gone . That was the year their draft board was leaked .
Link - ( New Window )

when we can't run block worth a damn? are we gonna be that stubborn again and force the issue?

Giants have to follow the cowboys way?

Ralph valcio the turd

Enough said