Philadelphia Eagles 24 – New York Giants 0
Editor’s Note: Since I was only able to catch the first three quarters of the game, my game review will only cover that aspect of the game. Pete will provide a brief overview of the final quarter.
Overview: As well as this team played last week, it played just about as badly as it could play this week. It is a miracle that the score wasn’t far worse. The Giant players were outplayed, the Giant coaches were out-coached, and Philly played with more emotion and intensity. The Giants need a major attitude adjustment, and Dan Reeves, rightly or wrongly, will become the fall guy in a few weeks. That’s not the question. The question is, as it has remained for the last three years, is Dave Brown the quarterback that can lead the Giants to the next level? Patience is one thing, but so is cutting your losses and running.
Giants on Offense: The Giants are an atrocious offensive football team and everyone must accept part of the blame. The Giants are as bad a passing team as we have ever seen, plus they have trouble running the ball. Dave Brown has played decently since the second half of the Redskins’ game, but the mistakes he made against the Eagles on Sunday were mistakes a rookie would make and are inexcusable. With Lewis and Toomer out, the Giants have no outside weapons to scare the opposing defense. To make matters worse, there are no complimentary weapons inside to threaten defenses either underneath. The guards and center are playing capably, but the tackles continue to struggle. And to top it all off the offensive strategic design and tactical play calling is outdated and ineffective. Look at the Eagles on offense…crossing patterns to clear out zones, passes to the running backs in the flats and circling out of the backfield, quick slants, 3-step drop passing patterns, screens, etc. What can the Giants come up with? A vanilla pass play package that allows the defense to easily double-cover the receivers. All you had to do was listen to former head coach and current TV announcer Jerry Glanville on Sunday. He repeatedly would show how the Eagles used offensive game design to create mismatches and open free areas for the receivers. Conversely, he stated that the passing formations that the Giants were using weren’t creating any problems for the Eagle defenders at all. Well enough is enough and some MAJOR changes are in store this offseason. A professional football team simply must be able to pass the ball. One, let alone two, sub 50 yard passing performances in one season is a joke.
Quarterback: Dave Brown played a horrible football game. His first pass to Charles Way down the right sideline (a call which we liked) was underthrown and thrown into double-coverage. Hasn’t Dave learned anything in the last three years? When is he going to stop making these dumb-ass, rookie mistakes? Once he was sacked the first time, he was tentative in the pocket and resorted to his worst tendencies…birddogging his primary receiver, showing nervous feet in the pocket, not stepping up into the pocket, throwing flutter balls, inaccuracy, and taking off and running before he needs to. It is tough to remain patient and clear-headed about Brown when one thought that performances like he showed on Sunday were things of the past. On one play in the first quarter, the line and backs picked up an Eagles blitz beautifully, Chris Calloway got open outside, but Brown threw a high and off-the-mark pass. On another occasion, Brown was pressured somewhat from his right side, but he could have stepped up into the pocket quicker and thrown a strike down the field. Instead, he brought the ball down and started to run with it. This is an example where Brown makes his line look bad. On the other hand, to be fair, the plays handed Brown were amateurish. Against an aggressive defense, even a high school coach knows that slants, screens, and 3-step drops SHOULD be a huge part of the game plan. The weakest part of the Giants’ offensive line is the pass protection of the tackles on 3rd-and-long, but Dan Reeves doesn’t help his line by staying out of those situations with smart play-calling. Pass on first down sometimes…help out the tackles by using a 3-step drop…help the QB build his confidence by throwing an easy pass to the RB in the flats. Game after game, the Giants’ passing offense remains the intermediate out route to the wide receivers and the naked bootleg to the tight end or fullback. Why would Eagle OLB William Thomas expect any other passing play than the bootleg when the Giants were down near the goalline in the first half? The result…an easy sack and fumble. To Reeves’ credit, the Giants attempted to run more slants this week, but they were often in obvious passing situations. In the second quarter, the Giants threw two slants on back-to-back plays. Brown passed way behind Calloway on the first play (to his left), but came right back and threw a nice pass to Alexander (to his right). Brown has to be able to CONSISTENTLY hit wide-open receivers (like Calloway on the first pass). In the 3rd quarter, passing out of the endzone, Bobby Taylor guessed slant and the Giants were lucky that the ball wasn’t returned for a TD — Brown has got to look before throwing. This sounds like a no-brainer, but Brown sometimes forces the ball when he shouldn’t.
Wide Receivers: When a team loses its top two athletic talents at the wide receiving position, it is tough to compete. Chris Calloway is a solid, dependable player, but that’s all he is. He’s not a difference maker. Same story with Lawrence Dawsey. Thomas Lewis has shown flashes this season as did Toomer in training camp, but neither suited up on Sunday. Brown was again victimized on by a couple of drops. On their first drive in the second half, Brown and the Giants executed two of their better looking passing plays, but Calloway dropped the first one and Alexander had the second one bounce off his hands (the pass was picked off). Alexander shows good quickness and speed, but his hands are inconsistent.
Tight Ends/H-Backs: It looked like Howard Cross missed a “chuck” block on William Thomas on his sack and fumble in the first quarter. Where the heck was Brian Saxton?
Running Backs: Rodney Hampton showed some good, solid running early on in the first quarter. Indeed, on one play, we thought we saw a burst of speed. But the running game never got on track as Dave Brown and the passing offense let the rest of the team down. We also don’t think that rotating the running backs is a very good idea. Play Wheatley and allow him get into the flow of the game…or play Hampton…but continuing to switch backs is not a good idea in our opinion. Plus, where the heck is Charles Way? We liked the pass play to Way down the field in the first half, but Way should be used both as a runner and receiver far more. He’s big, powerful, and faster than most people think. Get him in the secondary and watch the defensive backs run for cover. In other teams’ offenses, the fullback is a big part of the game plan, but not for the Giants. Wheatley was responsible for a costly fumble, but once again showed some toughness, power, and acceleration on his inside runs. We’d like to see him play an entire game as the starting halfback.
Offensive Line: Lance Smith, Adam Schreiber, Ron Stone, and Greg Bishop played decently early on, but Scott Gragg had his problems in pass protection. William Fuller used an aggressive cross-over move to beat Gragg for a sack in the first quarter. The problem with Gragg on this play was that he was playing on his heels too much. In the future, he must aggressively get his arms into his man and allow his immense size and strength engulf his opponent. Gragg still plays far too passively. This should change with more experience and an ensuing rise in confidence. Gragg also had problems with DE/OLB Darion Conner on one play. Brown was again sacked by Gragg’s man (DE Greg Jefferson) in the second quarter, but Brown ran right into the tackler rather than stepping up into the pocket. The run blocking was decent in the first half, and the pass blocking (aside from Gragg) was respectable. In the second half, this all changed as the Giants’ line looked like it lost its will to compete. Gragg in particular had his problems again as Dave Brown narrowly avoided a sack after Gragg “whiffed” on Fuller. One play later, the whole line disappeared as Brown was engulfed by Eagle defensive linemen.
Giants on Defense: Out-muscled, out-hustled, outplayed, and out-coached. The Giants’ defense did not play with emotion or intelligence. For example, Eagle TE Jason Dunn scored an easy TD when there was a mental breakdown in coverage (Buckley). To exacerbate matters, the defensive game plan stunk. The Giants’ CB’s strength is their ability to play tight, man-to-man defense, yet Nolan and Yaralian had their defenders playing off the ball in zone coverage. The Eagles then used crossing routes to clear the zones for Ricky Watters and Jason Dunn. Over and over again, Corey Widmer was mismatched against Dunn or Watters. The Eagles also used Dunn to occupy the safeties and help out their receivers…this is how an NFL offense should operate! The heart of the matter is that the Eagle offense was dictating to the Giant defense, rather than visa versa. The key to disrupting the “West Coast” offense is disrupting the rhythm between the quarterback and receivers. Play tight coverage and blitz the QB. What the Giants did was play loose zone coverage and mostly come at Detmer with a 4-man rush. Detmer had too much time and his receivers got off the line of scrimmage far too easily. Speaking of getting off the line too easily, the Giants learned nothing from the Panthers game — the coaches should have had Buckley jam Dunn at the line. They weren’t physical enough with him.
Defensive Line: The Eagles ran at the left side of the Giants’ defense with great success. Strahan, Harris, Buckley, and Widmer were out-muscled and slow to disengage from blocks. It also looked to us that the Eagles’ offensive players were playing with far more emotion. Up front, the defensive tackles are decent, but they do not provide opposing offenses with any special problems. Hamilton and Harris are respectable, not great, against the run and both do not rush the passer consistently well. From time to time, Keith Hamilton and Robert Harris decide to play hard and they did make their presences felt on occasion against the Eagles. Harris even picked up a sack in the 3rd quarter. Ever since he signed his new contract, Strahan has not played as well as he is capable of. Coincidence? Chad Bratzke pushed his man repeatedly back into the pocket on a number of occasions on the pass rush. He looked like one of the few Giant defenders playing hard. He picked up a good looking sack in the first half with his own cross over move and also nailed Watters in the backfield for a loss on a running play. Bratzke and MLB Doug Colman also saved a TD on 4th-and-goal early in the 3rd quarter
Linebackers: Jessie Armstead is a player and the Giants can “get by” with Corey Widmer, but Buckley isn’t ever going to be more than a journeyman. Buckley looked horrible taking on Eagle FB Kevin Turner’s lead block on a couple of running plays. Armstead does have trouble disengaging from run blocks at times due to his lack of overall size, but when he reads the play quickly and can get a running start, his can be disruptive against the running game. We would have kept him on Watters all day in pass coverage. To their credit, the Eagles did a good job of attacking the Giants’ biggest weakness and that is the coverage-ability of their middle and strongside linebackers. However, facing a “West Coast” offense, the Giants’ coaching staff should have done a better job of anticipating that and prepared accordingly. Last year, the Giants used Tito Wooten quite successfully as a LB in playing this type of offense and we would have liked to seen some of that on Sunday.
Defensive Backs: Not one of their better efforts. Jason Sehorn seemed to have trouble with the wet turf and was step too late on a couple of Detmer passes to Irving Fryar, including one for a TD. The tackling wasn’t sharp and their were mental breakdowns on top of that. The Eagle coaches used offensive game design to create confusion among the young defensive backs. Thomas Randolph had an excellent opportunity to sack Detmer on one of the Giants’ few blitzes, but rushed in out-of-control and “overran” the QB. Ellsworth was burned for a TD on a crossing route, but this play is almost impossible to defend when the defense is playing zone so close to the goalline. Jesse Campbell once again played the run well.
Special Teams: We like the way Conrad Hamilton returns kick-offs. He doesn’t dance around or shy away from contact, but runs right up the field. The blocking on punt returns was horrible once again as Arthur Marshall was nailed on one punt return as soon as he caught the ball. Mike Horan punted poorly, especially out of the end zone.
Pete’s Wrap-Up: Well Eric and anyone else who missed the fourth quarter, you did not miss much. In fact, had you tuned out at halftime you saw everything you needed to. The only interesting aspect about the fourth quarter was the insertion and play of Danny Kanell. It was fun watching and evaluating him. Kanell gets some extra leniency and rightly so because he has played so little in the NFL. My comments are forthcoming but first a quick take on the game.
Although Dave Brown has shown potential and some improved skills this year, there are some glaring problems he has not corrected. His footwork and ability to handle the rush is poor. He shows a lack of peripheral vision like on the play he decided to run rather than step up into the pocket where he would have had oodles of time to throw a first down pass. At the slightest sign of trouble Dave rarely gets to the opening to reset (or throw on the run) to a secondary receiver. Another example of the “vision problem” is his force to the sidelines on third down when Calloway was streaking wide-open up the middle in first down territory. In defense of Brown, Eagle defender William Thomas noted “it’s not like they are a wide open offense”. The receivers currently are extremely unthreatening and depleted. Plus CC and Cross each dropped well thrown passes that would have been first downs.
Even though Dave has improved his accuracy he is still making critical mistakes. Mistakes in judgment, such as the first pass of the game. Way was so well covered that nothing good was possible. I liked the call, but not the decision Dave made to throw it. The Eagles also commented how the Giants/Brown telegraph the area they are going to. This needs to be fixed. Brown needs to get QB coaching and take something more from watching the films, like how to react and position himself (and feet) in the pocket.
The Giants came out poorly and it was never a game. Turnovers turned the game into a wipeout. After the first throw, the Giants ran on 8 consecutive first downs. They only converted on one third down all game. The line was below average. Next year Dawsey should not be resigned and Pierce needs to be a full-time TE with Cross relegated to short yardage blocking duties. Can the Giants even afford to keep Cross if he is only a role-player?
The defense was outplayed and outcoached. Short dumps up the middle and on the strongside were successful all day. Detmer threw strikes to Fryar when he had to. Credit the Eagles here, there were some very nicely executed pass plays at opportune times. Watters killed the front seven. Where was the DL on the run defense, nothing like last week. The lack of a pass rush is killing this team. Absent is a blitzing LB from the strongside or up the middle. This has become a fatal weakness. We could blitz Armstead and be successful, but he is needed in coverage. There is talent gap in the front 7. Much harm was done by the Eagles short passing game, not to mention the running game.
I had to chuckle when thinking about a letter last week that compared the 96 team to the 84 Giants. The 84 group was a playoff team and decent contender. There was impact talent with growing experience. They played a whole different style. It was unlikely that they would ever give-up 100 yard rushing games to a single back. There is no comparison.
Finally there was Danny Kanell. It was a good time to put him in there. Danny has something that makes me think he can be a special QB. Yesterday he looked the opposite of Brown with regard to footwork and poise in the pocket. He is tall, alert and more mobile. His sideline pass across the field to his left was a perfectly thrown pass – and completion had CC stayed inbounds. Great throw. Some of his others were not as sharp, sort of wobbly but the conditions were very wet. Kanell demonstrates a soft touch, but he did not show more than one or two sharply thrown spirals. More time is needed to see if that is a weakness. This is something that can be worked on and improved. I still believe Brown can be a good QB if he improves in certain critical areas, but Kanell may have qualities that place him beyond the average starter. His career will be interesting to watch.