Conservative gameplans require near-perfect execution and leave little room for error. Under Judge, we have been operating conservative gameplans, hoping to win in the margins and "execute" better than the other team with well-coached fundamentals, etc. We will not win with creativity: our offense is jarringly vanilla (the most creative thing we do are end-arounds in painfully obvious situations). Our defense is jarringly conservative (mostly zone, bend but don't break style -- I will say I prefer this defensive philosophy but bear with me). Our special teams gameplans are aggressive in the sense that in plus territory we try to draw the other team offsides before punting, which in reality is conservative.
Here's why this won't work in the modern NFL: offenses are too good. If we are conservative on offense while almost every other team in the NFL is playing with a lot more movement, a lot more passing, and at least SOME shots past the sticks, and we are trying to establish the run and win with quick-game, we will always be fighting an uphill battle. Our only chance to win will be if we muddy up the game, shorten the game, and execute very well. This isn't sustainable, especially with our ridiculously mistake-prone QB.
Once we start piling up losses, the media will be quick to say it's Judge's attitude and demeanor that's rubbing people the wrong way. That won't be why we're losing. Judge is a good coach, but his overal game winning philosophies are dated at best, and predicated on HOF talent at worst. Consider his history: he was at Alabama where the talent disparity was such that _execution_ would win you games; he was then at NE where the defenses were famously great, and the quarterback was the greatest of all time. Under these learnings, Judge was deluded to think that you win with execution and abiding by the classic winning philosophies of football. He's trying to win like it's 2003, where the tropes of establish the run, bend but don't break, win the special teams battle, and win TOP by sustaining long drives ran supreme.
This is a new NFL. The Chiefs win despite making tons of mistakes. The Bucs win despite making tons of mistakes. The Bills win by passing 80% of the time. We simply cannot win with our offensive philosophy. We will only win 1-score games where something positive happens either on defense or special teams. We will not be able to put teams away. We will never be able to dominate. People are quick to blame Garrett, and rightfully so, but Judge hired Garrett when there were so many other options available. This is Joe Judge's philosophy. The guy punts from the +40. The guy has practically coached Jones to play scared. Jones is not good--he is turnover and mistake prone and locks on his first read. But he is set up to fail if we are not trying to actually _score_ with him. We are trying to sustain and manage with him. It's conservative, it's playing scared, and it's definitely had a negative impact on Jones. He is worse than he was in his first game with us. He looks best when he's moving around and getting the ball down the field. We have convinced ourselves that it is 100% on the OLine because he doesn't have time to throw down field. Watch again. The OLine doesn't lose every rep. But the receivers are always 8 yards downfield. There is zero creativity to the play calls. We try to force feed our running back with basic NFL plays. We play into our opponent defense's hands. That is not al on Jones, or Garrett, or the OLine. That is the team's philosophy. That is on Joe Judge.
Joe Judge was popular to our ownership and GM because he was a perfect encapsulation of the old guard of the NFL. He validated what they believed builds winning football teams. He was their self-fulfilling prophecy. He will fail because he's empowered to run a philosophy that doesn't work in 2021. If he does not get with the times and recognize the failings of this team is not solely on the players inability to always execute or the coaches ability to "coach up" on execution, he will fail a lot more quickly than any of us want to believe. Adjust or die.
He won't be fired, though. So I conclude by saying: be prepared to be a bad team for a good deal longer -- unless we pull out a few 13-10 wins this year and make people forget that this style of winning, the way we won 6 games last year, is much harder to do than most other styles.
If I’m Judge, I’m firing Garrett on Friday morning if the offense is poor again. I don’t think Garrett was a Judge hire. 10 days would be time to make the switch to Kitchens.
Agreed.
It's not the entire problem, but it's certainly part of the problem.
When our 1st round pick entered the game (announcer said it on TV), I almost could predict what was coming. Denver certainly knew.
Play action on 1st down, roll our, Jones can throw fine on the run, a jet sweep what a concept.
entertain us for god sakes
This is what happens when you pump everything into the secondary and skill guys on offense.
Hope for no big injuries, it would be a built-in get out of jail free card for the whole operation.
The Giants have a bit of a mess at right tackle and left guard, but the line played surprisingly pretty well.
I’m about to choke typing this — but what else can Gettleman give him?
The Giants are legit four deep at WR, have two passable TEs, and good depth at RB.
Eric - The offensive line and Garrett's play calling can both be bad. I think there is a knowledgeable section of the fan base who were critical of Garrett's offensive philosophy when we first hired him and our first game this year did nothing to change their minds.
Look at the play calling after Logan Ryan's fumble recovery. We didn't even try to throw for a first down.
I do think criticism of Garrett has caught on to more of the casual fan, but the criticism is still valid.
Personally, I think Garrett and Jones are not a great combination. I think a different coordinator would get more out of Jones and I think Garrett needs a better QB to reach the ceiling of his offense.
It isn't just Garrett though, my biggest complaint is that the scheme and overall mentality, was the easiest thing to correct. Player progression and vastly increasing the talent level in one offseason was a pipe dream. There needed to be a holistic approach when talking about the 31st ranked offense last year that only scored 24+ twice in a year where offenses were putting up slot machine numbers. It's only one game against one of the best DCs in the league, but that was not encouraging at all. That was the exact offense we ran last year.
Peyton had some great quotes last night during the game but the best was something to the effect of "the goal isn't to get to 3rd and short, the goal is to not get to 3rd down".
the drive inside our own 5 yard flipped the game because they wasted 3 plays not even trying to get a 1st down. Nobody is saying they should call a 50 yard bomb from your end zone (though I would have on 3rd down because even an INT is like a punt and maybe you catch them off guard or get a flag). But how about a quick slant or a seam route? Do something to put a defender in a position where they might get flagged for PI or holding at least.
The lack of recognition at how important just 1 first down could have been in that situation for both field position and burning another 2 minutes off the clock before halftime was embarrassing and while they couldn't have foreseen how the next 2 drives would go for Denver, they made their breaks by being aggressive and we didn't make ours.
We have a bingo!
We saw it last year - the Giants offense frequently moved the ball, but much of the movement would consist of long, slow, clock-killing drives that all too often resulted in field goals, if any points at all. They were terrible inside the 20, and remain terrible in the red zone. This is pretty much the opposite of what they used to run under Gilbride. The Giants in those years didn't always move the ball consistently but they'd score on a lot of big plays.
If you're going to run that methodical style, then you have to be very efficient in the red zone to take advantage of those drives. The Giants don't have what it takes to do that.
The drive inside our own 5 yard flipped the game because they wasted 3 plays not even trying to get a 1st down. Nobody is saying they should call a 50 yard bomb from your end zone (though I would have on 3rd down because even an INT is like a punt and maybe you catch them off guard or get a flag). But how about a quick slant or a seam route?
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It was there; Golladay is wide open. Easy first down and possibly more but Jones stared at Rudolph from the snap and never looked for another receiver, even though Rudolph's momentum was in wrong direction and had 2 defenders near by and 9 years to go when he caught the ball.
3rd and 9 at giants 5 - ( New Window )
Make Daniel Jones beat you.
Until Jones proves he can beat this simple gameplan, the 90s Dallas OL couldn't fix us. When you look at the all 22 the D has ZERO fear of being beat over the top. The slants, outs and curls are covered.
Throw it deep to Golloday or this season is over before it began..
The Giants threw the 5th lowest percentage of passes over 20 yards, the only teams lower were Pitt, SF, CHI, and PHL. The Giants only had 1 attempt over 20 yards and it was during a free play.
Interestingly, Pitt, SF and Philly all won. ;)