This weeks non-emotional thoughts about last nights game. As always feel free to add your own or comment on mine:
Tough, tough loss. Now way around it. Losses like this can have multiple types of impacts, they can either galvanize a team going forward or tear them apart. Something to look out for.
- Dexter Lawrence’s offsides, the ghost penalty against CJ Board and the Slayton drop didn’t lose this game for the Giants. What lost this game for the Giants was the inability for the offense to close drives with TDs and defenses inability to generate any pressure at all on a backup QB
- Yes, we scored what would the be 2nd most points we’ve had in the past 18 games and I’m putting the inability to close drives by the offense in here. We kicked 5 FIELD GOALS…..
On the offense:
- Acknowledging that this was the most points we scored since the first Dallas game last season and was also one of the better Daniel Jones performances we’ve seen in a long time. For Jones you can say he put the team on his shoulders and elevated the offense to what it was
- Bottom line there were a ton of points left on the field and we couldn’t get a first down at the end of the game when needed
- Our rushing game is kind of an enigma as the stats are misleading. 163 yards would normally dictate a strong running game. 95 came from the QB, 41 on 1 run by Barkley. Take those out and our stat line is 18 carries for 27 yards…. Our inability to have a traditional running game showed at around the 2 minute mark when a 1st down likely would have resulted in a win and we ran twice for 1 yard. We need to execute better than that
- Barkley clearly isn’t himself right now. The good news is he’s likely to improve as the season goes on
- Also the Oline was shuffled around then had someone else inserted due to injury. A good running attack is centered around cohesion and coordination of your oline. If we can keep a consistent group together this also should improve
- The play calling was better. I wouldn’t say perfect, Garrett didn’t hurt the team like he did in week 1, but I still don’t think he’s using all his weapons properly nor is he doing a lot to create space and scheme open WRs
- Two major things that made the offense operate better: Moving Jones to the gun more and letting him throw deep more often. These are his two strengths and what our passing game should revolve around
- Golladay and Toney need to shut up. I’m sorry and I know these are “calm down” type posts that I’m writing, but that’s legitimately my non-emotional take on it. Golladay had 8 targets and 3 catches, he was seeing action from Jones, he just wasn’t making the plays. As for Toney I have no clue what’s going on there
Defense
- I’m still trying to figure out what’s going on with this group. My gut reaction after 2 games is that possibly the group got a little over confident and forgot what made them good last year. There is no attitude, no physicality etc…
- Players with big contracts have also disappeared over the first 2 games. Bradberry had the int at the end of the game but was getting abused by McLaurin and where is Leonard Williams? There is very much a gut check needed by some of the leaders on this group
- The fact that they performed last year does leave hope that they can turn things around
- Looking at specifics the biggest issue with the defense is exactly what we thought it would be, no pass rush
- 1 sack last night and it was on the 3rd defensive snap. Washington threw the ball 46 times and we sacked their QB 1 time with a rookie RT starting for them
- Comfortable QBs pick defenses apart. They don’t even need to be good QBs, they don’t need a lot of weapons either. If they have time, they complete passes
- Fat Patrick Graham & gt; Skinny Patrick Graham
Final thoughts/Moving Forward:
- I like Judge and believe he’s the right guy for the job but we do have our reminders that he’s a young HC 18 games into his career and there is going to be a development curve just like there is with players
- Watching the team the past 2 weeks I don’t want to use the phrase un-prepared because I don’t think that’s what it is, but I very much feel like they needed another week or two of training camp. I see a lot of “close but just not there” on both sides of the ball
- Which leads to the question: Should starters have played more in the preseason and was there too much “managing reps”? I say this acknowledging some injuries made this difficult
- The good news is we now have 10 days between games rather then 7, the coaching staff needs to do some self-evaluation, team evaluation and really think about how their offense and defense are going to look for the rest of the season because what they want to do may not fit the strengths of their personnel
- 0-2 is typically hard to claw back from but the 17th game (plus a bad division) makes it slightly more feasible
- With exception of the pass rush the problems we saw last night seemed much more fixable than the problems we saw Sunday. People also talk about short rest being hard on players, it also gives the coaching staff less time to self-evaluate
- Remember, things aren’t great at 0-2 but the media is going to make this look like a bigger mess than it is. We aren’t going to the Superbowl this year, I know that, but we can still improve on last year and keep the needle moving forward
Calls went both ways. Some bad calls against. Some bad call for.
One thing that really bothered me is they kept doing misdirection plays over the strength of the defensive line, that makes no sense. Spread them out and use the sidelines and when they did that they had success. Looking for 1-1 matchups.
The other thing that I cannot get over is this defense allows 15 yard seen pass place to be executed routinely, I’ve never seen anything like this and it’s been an issue for 15 years. It doesn’t matter the coordinator, it doesn’t matter the personnel. The giants get beat on those pass plays all day.
After DPI gave the Giants 1st and 10 at the Washington 13, not one pass into the endzone, or near the goal line.
1st Down: 2 yard pass to Shepard
2nd Down: Barkley no gain
3rd Down: Short pass over the middle to Shepard for 6 yards
4th Down: FG
I don't even mind the FG, I think you have to take the lead on the road if you can. But they never even tried to get a TD. Pretty freakin gutless play calling right there.
What this team doesn't need is someone to be all Dez Bryant
around here. For some reason, I was having a Dez flashback when seeing that on the sideline, as Dez going after Romo.
That shit better cease with Golladay, so unprofessional,
and unneeded from a veteran player!
12 percent.
12 percent DOES happen.
We know it can.
It just is not likely.
We are what we are.
Good enough to be competitive when we play our opponents back up QB.
After DPI gave the Giants 1st and 10 at the Washington 13, not one pass into the endzone, or near the goal line.
1st Down: 2 yard pass to Shepard
2nd Down: Barkley no gain
3rd Down: Short pass over the middle to Shepard for 6 yards
4th Down: FG
I don't even mind the FG, I think you have to take the lead on the road if you can. But they never even tried to get a TD. Pretty freakin gutless play calling right there.
As this series of plays started to unfold, I turned to my wife and said we have a 6-6 TE and 6-4 WR…watch them go to the 5-10 WR underneath 🤦🏾♂️
-Williams AND Lawrence were both very quiet. I attribute this to TNF. Tough on the big guys and being on the field a lot against Denver contributed imv.
-I remember a lot of talk in the draft about the Giants liking the two top corners. While I think they like Bradberry I am starting to wonder if they see him as solid and not a upper tier corner. With Jackson working his way back maybe this is partly the reason for this soft zone.
-Agree regarding Judge. As long as he acknowledges mistakes and makes necessary adjustments you grow with him for now. I will say though I would much prefer the discussion was about being too aggressive and I think the players will agree.
Quote:
Golladay embarrassed himself out there. He had a really lousy game and then had the temerity to yell at his QB, who was outperforming him by a fair bit.
.
What this team doesn't need is someone to be all Dez Bryant
around here. For some reason, I was having a Dez flashback when seeing that on the sideline, as Dez going after Romo.
That shit better cease with Golladay, so unprofessional,
and unneeded from a veteran player!
Golladay quit on Detroit..it's only a matter of time before he quits on us.
The OL, considering the position it was put in, played well, and somehow looked more cohesive (albeit more in pass protection).
As for Barkley, I think he is himself. This is the type of player he's always been and you aren't gonna get a traditional run game with him.
Slayton's dropped TD.
Lawrence's offsides.
Multiple false starts, including one after a TO.
Bad coaching, including soft zones and running Barkley into the LOS after Bradberry's INT.
We also generated no pass rush. Heinicke is a scrub. But we gave him tons of time to throw because we rarely blitzed from what I saw. We have no edge rushers that scare anyone. Williams and Lawrence need them to be effective.
Some bright spots:
Shepard continued his excellent play.
Jones also played well. He was cool in the pocket, and at least in the second half seemed to do a better job going through his progressions. He also ran very well.
The OL for the most part held up well after Gates was injured, at least in pass protection.
He seems like a complete and utter loser. Hideous signing.
He got the ball twice with the game on the line and I think on both plays he dove to the ground. On one he did his little hesitation instead of just taking contact and staying upright and driving forward. How about hitting the line and driving your legs and taking a couple more seconds off the clock and grinding out two or three yards? Or maybe even getting a game wining first down? How about getting a soul crushing TD like we see other great backs, like Boston Scott get when they’re playing us? Future gold jacket.
Not healthy enough? Fine. Understandable. Big injury and still not 100%. But make sure the coaches know you can’t move the pile. And where the fuck was Booker? Is he getting a pay check? Didn’t we sign that guy like the first minute of free agency? JFC this team sucks balls.
Barkley was the #2 pick in the draft and he can’t get three yards running into the LOS? JFC. Seriously, what the fuck is Barkley good for? Highlight plays in a loss?
This is just some of my emotional thoughts.
Pretty much, yeah. He doesn't move the ball forward consistently and I fear that he's not going to be physically able to break off long runs as frequently as he did in the past.
That said, the coaching staff needs to think long and hard about the best way to feature him, because this ain't it. The line he ran behind in 2018 stunk too and yet he still put up some big numbers.
No offense Bitey, but I think type of statement has been posted on BBI after week 2 loss for the past 5 years. This team needs to start winning or they need to change direction.