New York Giants 20 – Dallas Cowboys 6
Overview: The brighter side of this young but developing team really showed itself, Sunday. The game stats do not reflect the complete control the Giants maintained throughout. Turnovers certainly played a role, yet the Giants caused them, had guys nearby (because of gang tackling and alertness) in position to recover or intercept, and forced the Cowboys to march in small steps down the field creating opportunities for turnovers. The Cowboys never threatened to take the lead. Only one time did the Boys get close to tying, down 6-3 in the 2nd qtr in FG territory, but Widmer caused a fumble which Wooten recovered and sprinted over 50 yards for a TD. The offense controlled field position and enough clock from then on to maintain momentum. Of course the opportunistic defense sealed the win with strong team play, some excellent individual performances and big turnovers. As a team, the Giants came fired up and ready to play, as evidenced by their high spirit and willingness to scrap with the frustrated Cowboys as the game progressed. After establishing the 13-3 lead, the confidence grew and the Giants never lost control from there. Not what we are used to seeing lately, huh?
QB: Brown led an efficiently conservative attack which needed to be that way since Dallas’ secondary was the only unit playing a dominant game for them. Kevin Smith was stellar with blanket coverage all game combined with excellent run tackling. Brown went 10-18 for only 110 yards, but was able to make some key plays underneath. Brown hit Calloway four times up the middle and looked comfortable not having to fend rushing lineman. Brown also connected with Cross 3 times for first down yardage and Kozlowski for a TD pass with a nice play fake. The Giants may have softened the defense somewhat by twice going after Sanders deep early (without any immediate success) and then later going long but getting picked off on the overthrow. Even though nothing was gained on those plays, the DB’s needed to respect the deep route, thus Brown started picking away at the limited openings with the short passing game. Brown showed decent poise yesterday and if he can maintain that under heavier pressure, he can be a high quality starter in this league.
RB’s: Hampton started and Ty spelled him often. A great mix, no one else ran the football. Wheatley was the story at RB Sunday, with a solid 21 carries for 69 yards. What was most impressive was Wheatley improvement in overall tactics and fundamentals. For the first time, he ran low and strong, not allowing himself to get stood up and pushed back. He drove and squirted through holes, not really breaking much but consistently gaining maximum yardage. The announcers mentioned that Ty wanted to line up farther back in the set than Rodney does, to take advantage of his speed and give him the ability to let the blocks develop. It was apparent he was farther back and Ty read the holes well. Like Rodney has done so well in the past, Ty plunged forward getting a little extra each play. The future looks bright as Wheatley’s growth makes us very optimistic about his ability to carry the load in the running game. Way and Downs each caught short passes. Way’s catch and run was an excellent call and his running was reminiscent of Bavaro. Do this more!
Receivers: If it wasn’t for Calloway and working the TE into the mix, there would not have been a passing game. Cowboy DB’s were all over Giant receivers so although Brown had time, the pickens were slim. Calloway might have been the O’s most valuable player, exhibiting toughness and consistency in tight coverage. CC was the only receiver who could get open. Twice he was open as a secondary receiver but Brown didn’t see him. CC was even hurt, but came back displaying the toughness Reeves had mentioned earlier in the week. Calloway has improved every year and is becoming a clutch player. It is becoming extremely obvious that the Giants need a feature wideout so then CC won’t be the main man but be a second or third option. Even when Lewis and Amani return, they will still be missing the dominant wideout Brown needs. With the current group the Giants don’t even have a three WR set. Cross unexpectedly contributed with his three catch and runs, helping sustain drives.
O Line: Alright! Good game overall by the whole unit. Pass protection was excellent and the left side was there all game. Unlike the Card game there was no push from the Cowboy’s line. Hard to single anyone out, it was a team effort that included good play calling, but Lance Smith seemed to completely neutralize whoever came his way. His foot positioning and tactics were masterful, thoroughly confusing whoever he matched up against. Stone and Gragg opened up a few decent holes for the backs, Williams was steady and Bishop bounced back nicely from the tough game he had last week. Cross made a few nice blocks too.
D Line: Stifled Emmitt and the run totally. Bratzke had his best game, though not dominant. It was the middle that clogged things up considerably, allowing the rear run-support to finish the play. Hamilton was an especially wide presence on up the middle runs, not giving any ground. Not much of a pass rush when the Giants went into a three man front. Strahan was doubled every time in this defense, but coverage did not give up much forcing Troy to look carefully before unloading. The game against the run was so good however, that the Boys faced third and more than six, twelve times. Would have liked to see a few more blitzes but the turnovers made up for it.
LB’s: If Armstead hadn’t convinced you he’s a player already, Sunday cinched it. All over the place demonstrating exceptional speed, positioning and reaction time. Combine that with solid tackling (11 total) and good coverage and he gets a game ball. As long as Armstead has his speed, he will be impact weakside linebacker in this league. His run support was stupendous, he seemed to make almost every tackle. Widmer was solid stopping a couple short passes from becoming first downs with strong tackling. One of these turned into the big fumble that Wooten returned. Buckley was adequate when he played, but not a factor.
Secondary: Depth, depth and more depth. Let’s start with the Corners. Sparks was really the only one burned, he’s entitled to two mistakes after having an almost flawless year. The first time Irvin got behind him for a long gain and the second one he made up for with an alert strip tackle which Campbell recovered at the four. Sehorn was more consistent and made seven tackles, most importantly not letting his men get away early in the route. He also had a nice INT. Randolph was awesome, defending passes perfectly – knocking down two well thrown balls at the last instant – displaying great corner instinct, focus and speed. He also did not let his man get open once. Lastly Conrad Hamilton was a force. It’s hard to figure how the Giants squeezed that many corners into the game, but they did and they were all factors. Hamilton made six tackles and filled the run support role like a safety. We like Conrad a lot! He shows good speed and tackling ability. The safeties played very well too. Heading the group was none other than the modest Percy Ellsworth, who is letting the games speak volumes about his capabilities. Even though he didn’t start, Percy chalked up another interception by reading the deep pattern over the middle perfectly, as well as making two key tackles. Wooten played a lot and had a much better performance than last week. He was not outstanding, but minimized his mistakes (still needs to tackle using his arms rather than just throwing his body at the runner) and came up big recovering the fumble/TD. Campbell was steady and kept everything in front of him. Coverage as usual was very good, especially since the pass rush was lacking. Percy and the four corners should start to scare opponents looking to establish a passing game to their wideouts.
Specials: Daluiso’s kickoffs were strong and his confidence soared after the first long field goal. He also put a second one right through the middle. Conrad Hamilton made another good special teams play on a punt, pinning the Cowboys in at the two. His returns have been pretty good as well. Good punts by Horan. Above average performance overall with no glaring mistakes.
Coaching: Reeves and Nolan on top of the gameplan all day. Reeves mixed in the short passing game well and changed things up slightly just when Dallas tried zeroing in. Two perfect examples: 1) The reverse had Dallas completely fooled as they read run right after the Giants had some success there. 2) The play-fake clearout for Kozlowski. This was effective because the Giants were in a running down, had been successful running, showed run before and after the snap, and then released the TE who was faking the run block. This type of stuff kept the Cowboys off-balance. The early fly patterns may have been beneficial as well. The calls to Cross and Way were nicely placed, an excellent example of “taking what the defense gives you”. Reeves and all the assistants get credit for providing a very winnable gameplan. The Giants were also very loose, yet fired up. So was the crowd, who let the Giants know how much they approved the effort and direction at the end of the first half. That alone seemed to charge the players up more and they played a very emotional second half.
Nolan really won me over this week, although I’m still not sure if he’s ready to be the top guy. [A thought: Love to see a Nolan/Fassel co-coach situation similar to Parcels/Erhardt. Would make a great tandem for a year or two. BTW Fassel coached an excellent game again yesterday.] Nolan had the D prepared and was able to work 7 DB’s into contributing roles, playing to the teams strength. We were a little worried about the three man rush, but the coverage was excellent so the semi-prevent worked. The bottom line testament is the defense played as a unit, were into the game the entire way and did not give up a TD.