Observations from yesterday

Because no one has asked for it, here's some observations from the game yesterday. I'm trying to be balanced, not too positive or negative. And I think there's positives and negatives to take away.

1 - Teddy Bridgewater played really well. Like really, really well. If we were playing the Bucs and Tom Brady did what Bridgewater did, we'd be saying that nothing you can do when Brady is playing that well. Bridgewater played like a top 5 QB on Sunday. According to PFF, we pressured him on over 50% of his drop backs. That's really high (Jones was pressured on ~25% of his drop backs) and Bridgewater was really good under pressure. I don't think we need to throw our defense under the bus yet.

2 - It looks like Dexter Lawrence and Zo Carter are ready to make a step forward this year. Both provided a lot of pressure yesterday. Yes, they got close but couldn't get sacks, but I think we'll see some of those pressures convert to sacks against Washington. They each had 4 pressures yesterday.

3 - Daniel Jones is not the answer at QB. Does he look better now than he looked against the Bucs in 2019? All the same positives are still positives, but all the same negatives are still negatives. Maybe, he is slightly better at moving in the pocket, but, generally that's a negative aspect of his game. He's bad under pressure. He doesn't improvise well. Yes, he'd look better under a different scheme and with better protection (although his pass protection was much better yesterday), but he's never going to be a star. "Good enough" isn't good enough at the QB position.

4 - What has changed about this offense? It looked identical to last year. Yes, Garrett's offense is trash. That seems obvious. But, what is Joe Judge doing to fix it? There wasn't enough play action, not enough motion, very little misdirection. Even the mantra for the offseason was more explosive plays and then they barely tried any big plays. The scripted plays to start the game looked slightly better, so I'm guessing Garrett has way too much influence. No matter what the behind the scenes dynamics, the way the offense looked was unacceptable. Unfortunately, even though he sounds good, I'm not sure Judge understands how to coach an elite offense. I'm a fan of Judge and I'm really hoping he proves me wrong and this is all Garrett's fault.

5 - Doubling down on the offensive ineptitude, the run game was really bad and the play calling was certainly part of it. Running Barkley into the center of the line against a stacked box is not a great formula for success. The Broncos ran the ball outside the tackles on over 60% of their running plays. The Giants ran the ball outside the tackles on just 25% of their running plays.

6 - On a positive note, pass protection seems improved, especially on the left side of the line. Yes, Chubb was out, but Malik Reed is the type of edge rusher that should give Thomas trouble and Thomas handled him easily. Lemieux looked impressive, as well. I don't think Hernandez looked horrible besides a few plays. Solder wasn't good. Overall though, Jones was about as well protected as he's been as a Giant.