Rejoice, Giants fans! It’s finally over. No more holding your breath every time a Giants player gets up slowly; no more rooting for touchdowns that don’t matter. The preseason is over, capped off with a 20-17 Big Blue victory over the New England Patriots.
The starters both played two series, with some starters and key backups seeing extended action. Garbage time players didn’t really start trickling in until the end of the 3rd quarter. Here’s your final recap of preseason performances:
The Starters
The offense opened the game with a crisp touchdown drive that washed the bad taste from last week out of the mouth. Eli Manning looked crisp, hitting Hakeem Nicks and Kevin Boss multiple times, including Boss for a 13-yard TD. The offensive line featured all the regular starters in their spots, except for Adam Koets at OC, and finally created some running room for starting running back Ahmad Bradshaw, who found ways to pick up yards even when they didn’t.
The second drive for the starters started off well, with a 15-yard reverse play to Nicks, and then a 19-yarder to Nicks on the next play. Surprisingly, the Giants went back to the trickery the next play with a flea-flicker that, well, it didn’t end pretty and the Giants never climbed out of the hole that resulted from the play. The Giants seemed determined to keep Brandon Jacobs out of harms way.
The defense’s opening drive was just plain ugly. The Patriots ate up the middle of the field and marched to the endzone, in a scene that could have easily come from last week or, sadly, last year. Let’s not harp. As I wrote earlier in the week, it takes new defensive schemes a little time to gel.
The second drive for the defense was pretty darn good though, with the exception of Terrell Thomas who got beat by Wes Welker and missed an easy tackle for a loss on Kevin Faulk. Otherwise, the defense tightened up on the run, got a good play in coverage from Michael Boley, and ultimately the drive ended with Antrel Rolle picking off a prayer of a pass from Tom Brady to Randy Moss.
The Second Teams
Second unit offense featured DJ Ware as the running back, and he looked really good in apparently cementing himself as the 3rd guy in that rotation. It seemed to go straight from Ware to Gartrell Johnson…Why no Andre Brown tonight? Keep an eye on that one.
The offensive line became: William Beatty, Shawn Andrews, Koets, Guy Whimper, Jacob Bender. Koets has played well this preseason, and the first team reps plus extended action probably means he’s earned the right to go if Shaun O’Hara can’t. Andrews played deep into the game, and it will be interesting to see what our analysts think about his play tomorrow. Rhett Bomar had an up and down outing behind a shaky backup offensive line. The young quarterback did make his fair share of nice throws, but was it the kind of outing that convinces a team they don’t need a veteran?
Unbelievably, it looks as if Victor Cruz! could be the fourth receiver.
The second unit defense did pretty well, holding the Patriots to only a FG the rest of the first half. Mathias Kiwanuka seemed to run with the 2’s (Ouch!), but he fought through a called holding play to make a sack. In fact, the second team defense (that still had a handful of starters out there) got a lot of pressure on the QB. Rocky Bernard got some plays with both the starters and the backups, and it looks like his productive preseason has secured him to #3 in the DT rotation.
{Late addition honorable mention for Bryan Kehl, who showed great athleticism chasing down a receiver that used Bruce Johnson and John Busing as turnstiles, and also made a great fourth down play at the goal line. The bad news for Chase Blackburn is that the Giants might have found their new Chase Blackburn.}
Jonathon Goff played most of the game and played very well, making some tough stops including one at the goal line. More importantly, Kenny Phillips got a lot of time in the game. Not quite sure when he snuck on, but he played deep into the game, making some hard hits along the way. Very, very good to see for New York Giants fans.
Special Teams
Matt Dodge’s first punt was Feagle-esque. Very nicely done by Dodge for the second week in a row. There might be some more hiccups along the way, but the intense worries about Dodge being a liability should be put to bed.
Perhaps Dodge’s strong leg is contagious, as Lawrence Tynes continued this preseason’s shocking trend of deep kicks. Tynes actually had a touchback, and another kick that reached the goal line. Unfortunately, the coverage wasn’t as good as the kick, and the Patriots brought it back for 55 yards. Ugly. Better the rest of the night.
Mario Manningham had a good punt return and seems a favorite to lock that job up. Tim Brown also had a nice little one, but his opening kickoff return (not to mention dropping a beautiful pass from Bomar [make that two]) was the kind of bad decision that gets you ticketed for the practice squad. Put your money on a running back not named Bradshaw or Jacobs returning kickoffs. Cruz! maybe.
Thanks for being with us, and look for an in-depth analysis tomorrow. And all throughout the season.
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