Flowers last game?

Can't keep his head out of blocks and punch is inconsistent/nonexistent. He allows rushers to get to his body ("catching") and will lunge forward into his man, throwing his weight off and losing leverage.

He's big, strong and fast, and is an asset in the run game, but does not control his body well in any phase.

It's the same garbage we saw from him last year and chalked it up to injuries and inexperience. With a complete offseason behind him, and being under the tutelage of a well-regarded OL coach, frankly I expected to see more by this point. In my opinion, the jury is still out on him. He has the physical gifts to be among the best in the game but absolutely must get better at his craft... there is virtually no finesse in his game, and it's going to get him into serious trouble against polished pass rushers (as it already does).

There were times when Flowers really looks the part when he's running tithe second level, he gets there quickly. I think getting his pad level lower is where hes still struggling and getti g a consistent punch in pass protection, but it wasn't a bad game for him from what I saw.

What I did find interesting, was that the offense seemed to run the ball right a lot, which did not pay off obviously.

as much burn as possible versus a very good DL.

Flowers wasn't a problem.

There was one 3rd-and-12 pass rush where Richardson got the best of him.

On passing plays Eli had time most of the plays. If he didn't it was because of either the TE being abused, or a blitz that the RB/TE didn't pick up.

.

But he struggled a bit. Sheldon Richardson got the best of him a couple of times.

if Flowers isn't Tyron Smith by the end of preseason, let's cut his ass.

In comment 13092363 Eric from BBI said:

Quote:

Flowers wasn't a problem. There was one 3rd-and-12 pass rush where Richardson got the best of him.

Eric

Would you bring back Geoff Schwartz

stop it. the guy sucks. he sucked here, he sucked before, he always hurt. Congratulate him for turning 7 decent games with the Chiefs into a nice contract for himself with the Giants and move on.

In comment 13092393 Victor in CT said:

Quote:

stop it. the guy sucks. he sucked here, he sucked before, he always hurt. Congratulate him for turning 7 decent games with the Chiefs into a nice contract for himself with the Giants and move on.

I laughed.

If you were evaluating solely on his ability, yes.

But I get the sense the Giants were ready to move on from him for other reasons. To me, he seemed more interested in his off-the-field stuff than football.

He needs to be playing better at this point.

Hart made Flowers look worse, but there are still technique flaws ("correctable", to borrow McAdoo's term) that impact his ability to sustain pass blocks, especially off the edge. Leverage rushers present a problem for him, which is why I hope reps against OV are helpful.

In comment 13092411 Eric from BBI said:

Quote:

If you were evaluating solely on his ability, yes. But I get the sense the Giants were ready to move on from him for other reasons. To me, he seemed more interested in his off-the-field stuff than football.

Please chime in on the other thread if you can.

that's usually a good thing.

Watch him drop his head and lose his center. I expected to see more progress by this point. There's still time, but it's getting thin. He doesn't need to be great, but he does need to be good enough that Eli is comfortable taking one more beat on his throws.

1. He's still young and inexperienced.
2. Put a tight end or running back that can help him.
3. If they are speed rushing all the time there are plays to take advantage of their
defense.

though it is an issue. Flowers has a tendency to put his head and body on a defender (instead of punching and keeping the defender off his chest). This ends up shifting his center of gravity over his knees/feet and leaving him susceptible to moves that throw off his balance and allow the defender to shed. You frequently see this with high school players who were never taught proper pass sets and treated pass blocking as a derivative of run block in terms of engagement with the defender. Flowers could physically overpower players with this style of play in college as he is freakishly strong and large, but NFL players can analyze these technique flaws and will plan pass rushes around it.

IMO Flowers' difficulty in overcoming what is a fairly elementary technique flaw in more than a full season as an NFL starter is troubling.

what's going on with Will Johnson. is this stinger a season ender? or will it limit his effectiveness?

McAdoo's offense will usually have 5 OL + 1 extra blocker. That blocker will line up all over the place - in-line, split, wing, FB, motion - and Johnson is the guy who can execute blocks from anywhere.

still holding out hope he is the "starting" TE/H-Back/FB when the season kicks off

Flowers now has to cover for both assignment. Also those play calls were horrible. How many 4 WR sets did the Giants run when the Jets were going jailhouse blitz. Some strange things went down in that game.

to what the Jets were doing. They'd show a particular look, not do much to disguise it, and it did not appear to the viewer at home (me) that Eli was doing a whole lot in response, like checking out of plays or adjusting protection, etc. It was a very straightforward, line-up-and-play type of game.

So, in some cases, the Giants negative plays were directly into fronts or blitzes that created matchup problems or left defenders free. I have to believe Eli would recognize that and and get us into a different play in a live, regular season situation, with the benefit of a week of studying an opponent. Particularly, we had our TEs facing a pretty tall order in a lot of cases (one-on-one with Wilkerson, for instance) that would not be advisable in a regular season situation, if we had any reasonable expectation of success. Not many NFL TEs are going to do well in that situation, so I am not too upset as I sit here today.

I like to think that a combination of getting some key guys healthy (Pugh, Johnson), the benefit of gameplanning and some continuity on the OL will go a long way toward helping this offense reach expectations this year.