Loading ...It's the first Monday of the regular season and the New York Giants are alone at 0-1 and in the basement of the NFC East. All is lost! The season is over! Pack it in! No … not really. It's only one game, folks.
In three of the four years New York has won the Super Bowl, they have started 0-1. In two of those years, the opening week loss came at the hands of a divisional opponent. All in all, the Giants are in familiar territory and are no worse off than they were a year ago at this time. As the saying goes, one game does not a season make.
Still, head coach Tom Coughlin & Co. have a lot of adjustments that need be made before they take on the surprising 1-0 Tampa Bay Buccaneers this coming Sunday at MetLife Stadium. But before all that, allow us to take a look at the week that was for Big Blue in this edition of Monday Morning Hangover.
Giant newcomer Rivers ‘helps’ defense
Keith Rivers knew he should be freeing himself of Jason Witten, should be discarding the Cowboys tight end as Witten was blocking for his running back, DeMarco Murray, on a draw play.
But Rivers couldn’t do it.
“I probably should have just been able to get rid of Witten faster, I just saw [Murray] and reached out and grabbed him,’’ the new Giants linebacker said.
He grabbed him, all right. While his right arm was tangled up with Witten, Rivers reached out with his left and pile-drove Murray to the turf with the suddenness of one of those you-mean-it’s-all-fake wrestling takedowns. What made this play most significant to Rivers was which arm he used for which maneuver.
Bennett adds big personality to Big Blue
He's so outgoing and engaging, teasing reporters, talking about how he's "courting" Eli Manning like a teenage boy woos a girlfriend, and constantly smiling, it's hard to believe that he thinks he's only now coming out of his shell.
"My wife calls me all the time saying ‘You look so happy out there,' Martellus Bennett says. "This is just who I am. Sometimes you try to change who you are to fit in and do things a certain way instead of just being yourself.
"That's one thing out here, everybody is just letting me be myself."
Tom has Super idea for Big Blue after loss
On Thursday, one day after the Giants became the first defending champs since 1999 to lose their season opener, the coach delivered a stern message to his team: Forget looking back on last season. It’s time to focus on what’s to come.
“This is what I told our team: It's how we respond right now that's the critical factor,” Coughlin said, one day after saying his team had gotten a hearty serving of humble pie in its 24-17 loss to the Cowboys.
“Get back to work,” the coach said. “Grind a little bit. Forget about all the smoke being blown. It’s a new year. There’s new issues. Get it straightened around.”
Giants' Hakeem Nicks hopes to be himself in another game or two
By Nicks' count, he played 53 offensive plays in the season-opening loss to the Cowboys. The Giants played a total of 54 plays on offense, and Nicks said he only came out on the goal line.
Nicks caught four passes for 38 yards on six targets. He said he was in some pain during the game but that did not affect the play-calling, nor was his conditioning an issue. He was usually on the back-side of formations, he added, as he usually is.
"I felt it at times on certain routes but it wasn’t (anything) that prevented me from playing in the game or coming out of the game," Nicks said. "It was maintainable. It wasn’t excruciating pain or it wasn’t extremely bad. I maintained it, fought through it and finished the game."
Giants See Silver Lining in Opening Week Run Game Woes
With the players understanding what they need to correct, there was no sense of panic as their confidence is high that a week from Sunday when they return to the field of play, things will be much different.
“(The running game) is just something that takes time to develop,” Hynoski said. “ We could see on the film that we were so close. Again, I think we made good strides in the second half, and I think we’ll see a turnaround next week.”
“We’re not discouraged,” Baas added. “We have to give credit to he Cowboys, but we know how good we can be. We didn’t perform that way, which is disappointing, but you have to move on. It’s a long season, and you have to constantly get getter, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Photo Credit: Mike Gannon
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Short URL: http://sport-ne.ws/k1c
Hi guys,
I’m not sure if anyone else has posted this link but I wanted to wait to make sure it worked during the regular season as I have no idea how long it is gonna last:
https://gamepass.nfl.com/nflgp/secure/packages?ttv=0&ttp=3&ccfeatures=true
I think it only applies to people outside of the States, but I have been watching gamepass all pre-season and now during week one for free here in New Zealand with this complimentary pass.
I think it was Nosh that was asking about the coaches film, and you can watch it with this gamepass thing, so maybe someone who can access it who has more football knowledge than me can check it out. I had a quick look at a few of the more major plays and there were a couple of things that stood out particularly to do with our coverage. Blackburn looks pretty lost in coverage. It may just have been because we weren’t containing Romo very well, but Chase looked very confused about whether to stay in coverage or go after the QB and then ended up caught in no mans land. The other thing was our safety play. Romo seemed to do a very good job looking them both off at certain times throughout the game. Kenny Phillips did look quite fast at times but he just seemed to be that little bit too far out of position to make the plays. I’m sure this will improve as the season progresses. Rolles big gaffe was obviously on Austin’s TD. It was really hard to see what he was looking at on that play. He missed his spot by about 5 or 6 yards and it almost looked like he realised he was too far out of position and was simply sprinting as fast as he could across the field in the hope of making a play without ever looking if he was headed in the right direction.
Welcome. That’s really helpful.
I wish I had the time to do that but while I find snippets of time to post I don’t think I can find the time to really look at game tapes.
Someone else, though, probably will. Nice addition by you as an opening post!!
Painful having to listen to Cowboys, Eagles, Redskins, Jets and New England fans this morning; all of whom are in my office
The Giants better win, and win convincingly, this week.
BTW, I agree with Krow about holding in-game and post-game outbursts against people. For a good number of us, this is the only stadium-like experience we get, to share with Giants fans both our joys, our anger and our hopes. Are you at your most articulate, most understanding, most strategic during the game? Perhaps the view from the Coach’s Club affords you that luxury. For the rest of us, we’ll just keep speaking our mind and getting pummeled for it afterwards.
i love the ebb and flow of emotions during a game as reflected in the real time posts
how many times do we all sit there during a game saying things like “there goes the ball game” or “just one more FG and we put this away” or “je$u$ christ, Gilbride, you mo+her fracking moron”
we all live and die with each play; increasingly so as time elapses on the clock
by the same token there are those who remain steadfast in their optimism until the clock dictates otherwise
even last week, I think we all thought that if we had held on that 3d down slant, Eli had a chance to engineer a tying drive and send the game to OT
in any event, I for one find the doom and gloom, followed by wild exuberance, only to be sent spiraling downward or upward depending on events to be terrific
one of these days we will get so many real time posters that we’ll hit 100 pages on the in-game thread
I absolutely NEVER criticize anything said in game threads. In fact, I don’t ever read them because I’m at half the games so can’t and have long ignored those for away games except to weigh in at halftime and after the game. I’m fully aware that emotions take over during a game and am subject to the same feelings while watching.
It is the stuff that gets said after the game, that day, and days after, that I think is sometimes ridiculous. You, and anyone else, can deny it, but there are plenty of folks who leaned toward “Whoa is me, this team is terrible and what are they gonna do?” sentiments even 3-4 days after a bad loss. Hey, anyone’s entitled to an opinion, but the time is long past when people at this site should have learned that overreacting to a single loss, no matter how ugly, makes little sense, especially when it’s a game early in the season.
At least I don’t criticize individuals (except in the past when trolls walked this earth). Some of you will have to look in the mirror to see those who do.
That’s Woe is me….ughhh
I don’t agree that criticizing people for holding negative views 2 or 3 after a bad loss is any more legitimate than criticizing those voicing those same views during a game
over the last 5 seasons the giants won a super bowl, had a fine regular season but then faded and got booted in the divisional round, had a horrific season, had a bitter season with a late collapse and then another super bowl
what that shows us is that the team is good as often as it is bad; or as bad as often as it is good
so wherever you start perspective wise, you are likely to be right (or wrong) 50% of the time
so leveling criticism at one for their perspective and reaction to a game’s outcome is unjustifiable
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