Loading ...Man oh man was the New York Giants offense locked in on Sunday against the Cleveland Browns, as the G-Men recovered from a 14-0 deficit in the first quarter to cruise to a 41-27 in East Rutherford.
New York came out flat on both sides of the football as the Browns capitalized on an Ahmad Bradshaw with a Trent Richardson touchdown from 15 yards out and followed that up with a 62 yard connection between Brandon Weeden and Josh Gordon.
Ahmad Bradshaw rushed for 200 yards on 30 carries, and Victor Cruz found the end zone three times as the Giants improved to 3-2 on the season.
Key to Victory: Dominance with the running game
This is a team led by one of the best quarterbacks in the National Football League. When Eli Manning gets 244 yards on 32 carries from his running backs, the Giants are going to be extremely difficult to beat regardless of who the opponent is. Ahmad Bradshaw took out his frustration on the Browns defense after an early fumble, dropping 200 yards on the Cleveland defense and really setting the tone for the New York offense for the first time in quite some time. The Giants third down efficiency took a step forward with the success on the ground making third down more manageable and opening up the playbook, as they converted six of eleven times.
GAME POSITIVES
- One of the better all around games we've seen from this Giants offensive line in a long time. More aggression and more of an attacking approach after the team got off to a sluggish start. This unit has to build on this game.
- Stevie Brown was Johnny on the spot in his opportunity with Kenny Phillips out with injury. Big, momentum changing interception followed by a fumble recovery after a great Will Hill play to force a fumble on a kickoff. Outstanding job capitalizing on mistakes.
- You think Rueben Randle took the criticism from his teammates seriously? The rookie came out and led New York in receptions, clearly motivated to redeem himself after seemingly disappointing some of the guys in the locker room. Way to start. If the Giants can get this type of play from him going forward, the Giants are going to be stacked with weapons at Eli Manning's disposal when Hakeem Nicks returns to the lineup, particularly with the way Hixon has played as well.
- Only three penalties from the Giants on the game for 25 yards while the Browns shot themselves in the foot with 10. Tom Coughlin wants to see that every game.
- Victor Cruz's knack for finding the end zone isn't a coincidence. He is extremely quick off the line of scrimmage, very elusive and agile, and it's just difficult for defensive backs to keep receivers like that away from big plays for four quarters.
- Eli Manning continues to play at an incredibly high level. His interception came on what was essentially a dropped ball, and once again, he remained in control with the Giants behind 14 on the scoreboard, completely focused and sharp and was able to move his team down the field with consistency. It's just fun to watch isn't it?
- Think David Wilson is finally out of the doghouse after his electric returns last week and big play touchdown this week? You're starting to see some of the immense physical talent with the rookie and hopefully he can build on the confidence he's gotten going the past two games.
GAME NEGATIVES
- It's getting disturbing just how invisible this New York Giants pass rush has been. Pierre-Paul, Tuck, Umenyiora, and Kiwanuka are all out there. All relatively healthy. But the job just isn't getting done. This is one of the core strengths of this football team – and it has suddenly disappeared? New York just is not going to be able to beat the top teams in this league with their pass rush playing this way and those four guys know that. It's on them to turn this thing around. Five weeks into the season now and very little to show for it.
- Bad angles to the football and missed tackles are hurting the Giants against the ground game and short passes to the backs and tight ends. The defense just looks a little lifeless right now for New York.
- New York has got to cut back the turnovers. They got away with it in this game, but against better teams with better offenses they can't afford to give up points and field position the way they have as of late.
- Yes the pass rush hasn't produced and they need to make more of an impact up front for this defense to succeed, but it wasn't much better in the secondary on Sunday. These Giants defensive backs have got to do a better job tracking the ball in the air – it's been a problem all season to this point. They can't continue to give up big play touchdowns through the air and just wait for Eli Manning to match.
PLAYER OF THE GAME - RB Ahmad Bradshaw
You can't give it to anyone else after that tough, inspired performance we saw from #44. He plays with a ton of heart and he was about as productive as you can ask of a running back on Sunday. 200 on 30 carries on bruising runs that just demoralized this Browns defense.
Game Balls
QB Eli Manning, DB Stevie Brown, WR VIctor Cruz, WR Rueben Randle
OVERALL PERFORMANCE GRADE
Very ugly start for the Giants, but they turned it around and did a lot of good things offensively. Particularly on the ground, which made Eli Manning that much more difficult to contend with for the Browns. On the other side of the ball, there is a lot to be concerned with. The Giants have got to get more aggressive and energetic on defense to start. Play physical and have fun. Get excited about making a play. Get your teammates going. Start there and things can quickly start to get rolling defensively when the energy and confidence gets going.
Grade: B-
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Repost:
Krow says:
October 9, 2012 at 11:01 AM
Like I said in the last thread … the Whiners are under a lot more pressure than we are. Get a little heat on their pedestrian QB … keep the game annoyingly close … and we could steal this one right out from under them
Could happen !
I don’t get the general sentiment that we need to steal anything. To me this game is a lot like the Philly game. While SF has played better this year the abilities of the 2 teams is very similar. We got a quality effort from Philly and still could have easily won. I expect a similar type game vs SF. We are not some underdog team, regardless of our injuries.
Rotate coverage towards Davis … get some heat on Smith … keep them off Eli.
Like I said in the last (two) thread(s) … the Whiners are under a lot more pressure than we are. Get a little heat on their pedestrian QB … keep the game annoyingly close … and we could steal this one right out from under them.
One only needs to look at the Packers to see how easily a team can unravel. They’ve gone from worldbeaters to chumps because their OL can no longer protect Rodgers.
That one cascading problem has dropped them like a house of cards.
In our case the lack of QB pressure is killing our defense. Conversely this means that if we can figure out the problem then the defense will quite possibly fix itself.
Watching other teams’ defenses, they seem to play pretty intensely and fly to ball.
For some reason, our guys seem to play tentatively. I don’t see them go for a kill. It’s like the ball is snapped, our front four is stood up, and the rest of the defense just watches. Our guys seem slow and easily pushed around. I don’t know what it is, but someone needs to light a fire under them. I want to see them fly to the ball. I really miss that.
I think if Hosley is able to play that we might see more blitzing than we have thus far, especially on 3rd downs. Hosley played very well before getting injured and Prince played extremely well since returning. Webster showed he could match up well versus Crabtree last year. I think these factors plus the shaky SF pass blocking OL could encourage more blitzing. Now PF won’t become A Ryan or anything like that but I think with Hosley this is the best CB coverage situation he has had.
It will be interesting to see how we cover Davis. I think a player that might draw him some on 3rd downs is Prince. He has the size and speed to match up with Davis. It’s just a matter if we have our full compliment of CBs to cover. I wonder if we show some dime looks because Davis is essentially a WR.
Prince has the size? He’s not taller than any of the CBs or Safeties we have haha. I’m not sure if prince is physically strong enough to defend Davis. I think they’ll put webster on him. And probably prince on Moss.
Size (height and weight) and speed. The safeties and LBs have size but not as much speed. Same with Webster. Hosley and Coe (weight not height) are smaller CBs as compared to Prince. He has the best combination as a CB. Williams, Boley and Rolle will all likely cover him a lot on early downs. Against elite TEs some teams use a CBs to cover them and I Prince has the best skills amongst our CBs to do so.
I don’t mind having Prince cover Davis. Davis is probably their best receiver. Webster should be able to handle Moss alone. Then there is Crabtree and Manningham.
Going completely off topic…
Watching the Jets game last night, I found myself feeling very sorry for Mark Sanchez.
He has badly regressed since his first two years in the league when it appeared that he was on track to be a very good – if not elite – NFL QB.
The sad part of it is that there is little that Sanchez himself could have done to improve the trajectory of his career. Most of the blame for his failure to progress lies squarely with the Jets organization that invested significant resources into acquiring Sanchez but almost nothing into developing him.
When Sanchez came to NY, the Jets had an elite offensive line – which the organization proceeded to ignore until it deteriorated to the steaming dogpile it is today. Instead of spending high draft picks on young talented WRs who could develop in synch with their young QB, the Jets contented themselves with bringing in veteran nutjobs like Edwards, Plax, and Holmes – who proceeded to undermine the kid’s confidence with catty public comments. And then, this past offseason, the whole Tebow fiasco likely put the final nail in the coffin and doomed Sanchez to a future as a career backup elsewhere.
None of the preceding probably would have been allowed to happen had the Jets not already hired a defensive minded head coach who treated the offensive side of the ball as little more than an afterthought. When Sanchez proved himself to be a capable game manager who was good enough to make it to back to back AFCC games in his first two seasons, there was no real attempt to develop him further. Rex seemed content to let him remain a “bus driver”; languish at that stage of development rather than pushing him to shoulder more and more of the offensive workload.
This, of course, is diametrically opposed to the approach the Giants have taken with Eli. The other team in NY spared no expense to surround its young QB with the resources he needed to make the most of his talent and achieve success at the highest level. One can not help but wonder whether Eli would ever have turned out to be ELIte had he been drafted by a Jets organization that neglected his development as much as they have Sanchez’.
Now, the point of all this is not to start a big Pity Party for Sanchez. Rather, it’s yet one more reminder that great NFL QBs are as much a reflection of their organizations as they are of the individual player themselves. The history of the NFL is littered with the carcasses of QBs who started off with great guns only to see their careers fizzle out into nothingness.
Which is why I always laugh whenever the punditry anoints a Cam, a Bob, a Bradford – or any other young QB who shows great promise in his rookie year. The assumption always seems to be that the rookie performance is just the baseline and the kid will only continue to get better. The reality is that he’s more likely to regress absent the right combination of circumstances. Which is why we Giants fans are extraordinarily fortunate. Not only did we get the right QB… but we got him at the right time in the organization’s history, at a point when we had the right GM and the right head coach already in place.
I agree. But I don’t think Sanchez regressed. I think the players around him got worse. I think it was also unfair that they kept on changing his WRs. Edwards played well for the Jets and should have been re-signed. Even if not last year then this year. If look at the game last night even Eli has trouble moving the ball with that cast. The giant version of what the Jets played with at the skill positions is to me if we played without Nicks, Cruz, Hixon, Bennett, Bradshaw and Wilson. And we still might be better. The Jets team was depended on players like revis, holmes, keller and rookies like hill and coples producing big rookie years.
The key with Eli is same head coach and system. Most of the top QBs have been playing in the same system for years even if the OC has changed. I think that’s why you see a Flacco with a kind of Eli like progression. Same with Ryan. Cam I think will be fine if they allow him to continue with the same headcoach and system.
You make a good point with Sanchez in that he wasn’t put in the best position to succeed. Another guy who I think has been in the same boat, although more talented is Tony Romo. You wonder what his career might look like if Sean Payton was able to trade for him when he took over the Saints. Or if he had Parcells as his coach for another few years, and had a real G.M. instead of a man who is quickly becoming Al Davis.
Tom Brady has spoken on numerous occasions how lucky he was to be drafted by Bill Bellicheck and the Patriots. Maybe Cam Newton doesn’t have the tools to become great, but he’ll certainly never realize his potential while playing for one of the worst run organizations in sports. And certainly you have to wonder how Eli’s career would have turned out playing years under Norv Turner.
I guess the point is, that so much of a players success depends on the organization and situation he’s drafted into. And knowing this, it’s a wonder more top prospects don’t do what Elway, and Eli did.
Norm, I agree about Sanchez. But the pundits anointing anyone anything after one year is beyond silly. But it doesn’t deter them. How’s Cam looking after he was the next greatest thing last year? John Grudin already declared last night that JJ Watt was headed to the HOF. Can he play more than 20 games before we induct him?
Last year JPP was the toast of the town. This year he’s “not having fun.”
I know all the talking heads are in the business of talking, but it becomes a bit tedious when they simply talk to hear themselves talking.
3 words to remember, talkers…..small sample size.
Gruden really has become over the top sugar-sweet in his abundant praise of pretty much everyone. They could really use a cynic in the booth to offset him.
The one-on-one suckfests are the worst. Otherwise he’s not terrible. Not good, but not terrible.
I don’t mind Gruden based upon his knowledge of the game and his analysis. I actually have a great deal of respect for him on that. But at the end of the day, not everyone can be special, otherwise nobody is.
It’s like ‘Inside the Actors Studio’ for football players.
But fans are just as much to blame. Look at people on here after Barden had one good game @ Carolina. One good game in a 3 plus year career and all the sudden he’s a weapon.
……..See what I did there.
One quick thing on the Browns game. I’m a Stevie Brown supporter and he made some big plays for us, but he also was responsible for the long touchdown where Blackburn was seemingly in man coverage.
“The Giants failed to register a sack against an offensive line that had allowed nine sacks coming in. They also gave up a 62-yard touchdown from Brandon Weeden to Josh Gordon in which LB Chase Blackburn got caught in coverage when S Stevie Brown mixed up his assignment. Brown, starting in place of an injured Kenny Phillips, responded with a game-turning interception. Blackburn also had an interception in the end zone. CBs Prince Amukamara and Corey Webster held up well, too, as the starting secondary played all 58 defensive snaps.”
http://www.northjersey.com/sports/173234481_Giants_report_card.html
This is what’s hopeful. The Giants defense is like a car with a flat tire. Get that fixed and it’s off and running. Straighten out the DL and the rest may very well fall into place.
Yes, Nosh. I did. lol!