Loading ...The New York Giants took it to their cross-town rivals the Jets last night in their first game at the new Meadowlands stadium last night 31-16. Giants101′s Hazem Kiswani posted a in depth game analysis last night which can be found below, but I wanted to offer a few other thoughts on the GMen following their first on field action of 2010.
- First let me set the scene for you. I had my first fantasy football draft last night so I was at a bar (The Hill in Murray Hill) watching the action. Lots of Giants and Jets fans showed up for Monday night football. To tell you the truth I do not like or hate the Jets, they are just another team from New York to me, like the Buffalo Bills. I find Jets coach Rex Ryan very entertaining and I dislike all of the attention a team that snuck into the playoffs last season by beating two teams resting their starters, but I hate divisional rivals like the Redskins, Cowboys and Eagles much more than the Jets. However, when Giants quarterback Eli Manning ran into Brandon Jacobs and then was hit by a combination of Calvin Pace and Jim Leonhard causing his forehead to bust open like Ric Flair, the Jets fans started taunting me. They questioned Manning’s toughness and insulted him for leaving the game. Eli Manning has never missed an NFL start and has played through multiple injuries over his career. The only reason he left the game was because it was a meaningless preseason game, and the Giants decided to hold the face of their franchise out for precautionary reasons. After these comments, I wanted the win badly, to shut Jets fans up. I look forward to HBO’s Hard Knocks this week an watching Victor Cruz rip the Jets apart in a Giants win. Your 15 minutes of fame are not up yet, Cruz, welcome to the G101 Hall of Fame.
- Speaking of Victor Cruz, what a spectacular game for the undrafted rookie free agent from UMass. The Patterson, New Jersey native absolutely destroyed the Jets in the second half, catching 6 passes for 145 yards and 3 touchdowns. Giants head coach Tom Coughlin has raved about Cruz all training camp long, and I thought he was a likely practice squad candidate going into Monday night, but now fans and the media will have their eyes on Cruz for the rest of the preseason. It is clear that Cruz has to prove last night was not a fluke and he needs to establish himself on special teams and continue to work hard, but he now has a shot to make the active roster. Could he supplant Sinorice Moss on the Giants roster? Stay tuned.
- Eli Manning is luckily okay after receiving that gash on his forehead, which took 12 stitches to close. He feels fine today and is not experiencing any concussion symptoms, and the team does not expect him to miss any practice time.
- How nice is it to have capable safeties on the Giants roster? After watching the horrendous play of C.C. Brown and Aaron Rouse last season, upgrading the secondary was the Giants top off-season priority, and it looked to be a success last night. Antrel Rolle showed how dangerous he is with the ball in his hands, intercepting a Mark Sanchez pass and returning it 59 yards to the 1-yard line. Deon Grant, playing with the first unit in the absence of Kenny Phillips, looked great too and was in on many plays on the Jets first few drives. The upgraded safety position for Big Blue impressed me last night, and proved that last years nightmare is in the past.
- The other player who turned my head last night was middle linebacker Jonathan Goff. He looked like a totally different player than he did in 2009, and he is clearly much more confident and comfortable in the defense. If he continues to look this good, new acquisition Keith Bulluck will have a harder time supplanting Goff in the starting lineup than we once thought.
- The Giants offensive line play was troubling last night. The team was without Pro Bowl guard Chris Snee (leg) and Rich Seubert (hand) which likely caused some of their issues, but they were unable to get a push against the Jets defense. This is something to keep an eye on going forward.
- It seems like Ahmad Bradshaw is going to be the Giants top running back this season, and he showed his explosiveness on a dump off pass from Eli Manning that he took 51-yards. Brandon Jacobs looked sluggish again, but will likely be the Giants short yardage back. The Giants offensive line was not getting much of a push or opening holes for Jacobs, but he did not look good last night. I was also impressed by Andre Brown, it seems his Achilles tendon has healed well, and he could be valuable on passing downs.
- I was really looking for strong side linebacker Clint Sintim to make an impact last night, but he looked lost. Sintim got caught inside and swallowed up by blockers, he needs to do a better job of getting off of blocks.
- I was also disappointed in Ramses Barden, who had a bad drop of a Manning pass on the first series and failed to make much of an impact in the game, with just two receptions for 12 yards.
- Also impressive were rookie defensive lineman Linval Joseph, who made four tackles and looked as good as advertised and defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul who made three tackles and sacked Sanchez.
- I am extremely worried about special teams. Punter Matt Dodge had a punt blocked and averaged just 37.2 yards per attempt. It is pretty clear D.J. Ware is not the next Dante Hall as return man. I still do not like risking the injury prone Aaron Ross on punt returns and think this is a spot where Victor Cruz could make an impact.
- Gerris Wilkinson looked solid last night, leading the Giants in tackles, and making a nice play in the backfield for a loss. Expect him to be a top special teams performer again this season if he can stay healthy, which of course is a big if.
- You have to feel bad for reserve linebacker Chase Blackburn, who has been with the organization for six seasons. He injured his knee last night, and it is being called a sprain, but it looked pretty bad. Blackburn has an MRI today, and hopefully he will be alright.
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I feel bad for any player who gets hurt. However, that doesn’t stop me from hoping he’s cut in favour of a more athletic player. Special teams be damned (not like he helped a lock-down unit anyway).
I don’t know why anyone is hating on Eli’s decision to attempt that jump ball to Barden. It’s the preseason, the time when you try some things out in an attempt to gauge the way newer players react in certain situations. We’ve all been clamoring for the dawn of the “Manning to Barden on the fade…TOUCHDOWN” era to begin. And this was the opportunity; Eli saw coverage he liked and wanted to give it a shot. The fact that the play ended up disastrously has nothing to do with an aversion to “Giants football.” It was a conflagration of events that comprise the worst case scenario–your running back disrupts your quarterback’s motion, jostling both his helmet and the ball loose; an excellent DE gets a free release on the outside and obliterates the quarterback, knocking hit helmet clean off; another defender comes around the opposite edge and arrives in time for the quarterback to smash face-first into his facemask.
There’s nothing to “boggle” the mind there, fellas. It was a read and react situation that went horribly, unpredictably wrong. We should be thankful that it wasn’t worse.
nice writeup.
Still troubles me how we can’t get the defense off the field on 3rd down. Pass coverage wasn’t so great.
Dillard and Goff looked solid in the middle.
as I’ve stated before, Matt Dodge has a leg and is a project in the works. I just dont know if the giant have time or a roster spot to afford a “project” at punter.
Our starting D-Line still not able to penetrate the backfield worries me a little bit.
JPP and Linval are going to be great for the giants.
Dude, the defense was real vanilla last night. None of the exotic lineups along the d-line; no real blitzing to speak of. Don’t sweat it, bro.
no doubt. As I’m not pointing that out. But there seemed to be NO initial push on the D-Line. That’s all.
Also, i’d like to point out that Rocky Bernard played pretty well.
The DT lineup of Canty and Cofield (or “The Other C.C.”) is not the slightest bit disconcerting to opposing offenses. We need Linval in there.
Bernard made one good play against scrubs. Not exciting.
agreed. Linval and Coffield or Linval and Canty is a beastly combo at DT.
Linval was able to push back the center and Guard almost EVERY snap last night. That kid is wicked strong.
Rocky was in on a few plays and actually made a good initial push on the line. He played better last night, then he did all season last year.
In fact, what bothers me about that play was Point B. in the aforementioned-clusterf***–that Calvin Pace got through our linemen so easily, and quickly. Many on here have been saying it, but it bears repeating–Diehl is going to be the LT until Beatty gains the trust of Eli and the coaching staff. He’s culpable for that play last night as well.
Some other bum was out there too, the guy who later drew the 15 yard penalty late in the game. He may have been reporting eligible as a TE.
Didn’t get to see much out of Andre Brown last night, but he did look quick and made a few nice cuts. I was actually impressed with how quickly he bounced back up after slipping on his first KR attempt.
In past years – The Giant QB would take the ball ,turn to his left while the RB would go to his right and the QB would be left holding his whistle . The comment would be its the first preseason game , they need to do some more work
Eli had enough confidence to think Barden is one on one lets try that fade route instead of me handing off for no gain . Although it didnt work out , I like the thought process and the fact that Eli had that confidence in his teammates to even think of it in the first preaseason game tells me that they are much further along . For all of you who thought that the Oline stunk , give the Jets SOME credit , they do have a pretty good defense and except for that one play which was a mistake not good defense , the Oline kept the defense out
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/08/17/asante-samuel-injures-hamstring-on-last-day-of-training-camp/
Ill repeat what I said last night in a different way:
If you want Joseph to make it through the postseason, as a rookie DT, he can’t start early.
Eli would’ve sat out a bit had that been a regular season game. O-Line looked not so good.
Victor Cruz!!! made the team and Senorita is going to get cut.
The other bum in at on the Eli play: Herb Taylor.
He and Beatty block the same guy–Bart Scott–while Calvin Pace gets a free release to the QB.
yeah, i just re-watched that.
idiots.