Eli Manning wasn't responsible for yesterday's loss - neither was Plaxico Burress. The offense played well, the defense played well, and in general the only glaring deficiency was the special teams kick-and-punt coverage. Yet New York dropped it's fourth straight game, fell two behind Dallas in the NFC East, and will now be fighting tooth-and-nail to secure a wild card spot heading into the home stretch.
So what went wrong? Well, as I alluded to above, nothing went wrong per se.. the Giants just played a streaking Dallas team that is much more dangerous with the versatile Tony Romo behind center. Kiwanuka's fumble was painful, but he made a nice play picking off the throw in the first place, so you can't really come down on him too hard (although I recognize this is the second straight week I'm giving him a pass.) The long completion to Witten was a huge blow, but the coverage wasn't awful - Romo simply made a great play and threw a strike to his tight end. Grammatica's subsequent kick was a no-doubter.. would have been good from 50+.
The Giants' overall performance was admirable, particularly the reappearance of Fourth Quarter Eli right when his team needed him the most, and so there's nothing else to sulk about other than the fact that New York hasn't won a football game in more than a month. They need to be in must-win mode from here on out to have a legitimate chance at a postseason berth. They most certainly have the talent to pull it off, but as Tom Coughlin is fond of pointing out, the execution leaves much to be desired.
So what went wrong? Well, as I alluded to above, nothing went wrong per se.. the Giants just played a streaking Dallas team that is much more dangerous with the versatile Tony Romo behind center. Kiwanuka's fumble was painful, but he made a nice play picking off the throw in the first place, so you can't really come down on him too hard (although I recognize this is the second straight week I'm giving him a pass.) The long completion to Witten was a huge blow, but the coverage wasn't awful - Romo simply made a great play and threw a strike to his tight end. Grammatica's subsequent kick was a no-doubter.. would have been good from 50+.
The Giants' overall performance was admirable, particularly the reappearance of Fourth Quarter Eli right when his team needed him the most, and so there's nothing else to sulk about other than the fact that New York hasn't won a football game in more than a month. They need to be in must-win mode from here on out to have a legitimate chance at a postseason berth. They most certainly have the talent to pull it off, but as Tom Coughlin is fond of pointing out, the execution leaves much to be desired.
posted by z at 2:24 PM
4 Comments:
I have to disagree with the game analysis.
The defense gave up 10 points in the final 4 minutes. They hit another player out of pounds for a personal foul. They fumbled an interception that was recovered by the Cowboys that led to the survival of a drive that led to a touchdown. And an interception that went right through wilsons hands that extended a drive that led to the field goal in the fourth quarter.
Tom Coughlin very, very questionable play calling in the red zone.
Eli is back - is it going to be enough against Carolina though?
Personal fouls are business-as-usual for the Giants and sadly, have been for the past three seasons (only Oakland has accumulated more, I believe.) Allowing 10 points in the final 4 minutes was more the product of a very talented Cowboys offense than it was a poor New York defense. And if Gibril had picked off that pass, it would have been a great play.. he just jumped the route a half second too soon. Nothing egregious defensively, at least in my opinion.
Maybe we can hire the head coach from Rutgers to teach these guys the concept of chopping wood.
Haha oh man.. the Wood Chop may be even worse than the Jump Shot.
Post a Comment
<< Home