New Orleans Saints 17 – New York Giants 3
Overall: We know the Giant Management usually reserves judgment on personnel issues until the end of the season, but after yesterday, enough data exists to motivate everyone that changes need to be made. First and most obvious is the head coaching situation. Reeves is a goner. The culmination of events leading up to yesterday including the inability for Reeves to get along in what has proved to be a successful organizational structure, combined with the collective performance of this team through 15 of 16 games should seal his fate. The performance against such a poor team this late in the season can not help. The question — Is there anything the Giants can do against New England to change things, receives a resounding NO. If they perform well, it will just illustrate how erratic this team is. This is attributable to good/bad coaching. If they play poorly, that can not help Reeves’ future either. The most damning criticism is that this group has not demonstrated consistent progress and have not put a string of victories together. The last back-to-back win was Arizona, there has not been 3 in a row for I think 2 years.
As mentioned in the past, this is an important off-season for the Giants. Sunday should have lit a fire under GY to begin lining up candidates now, so he can start scheduling interviews the day the season ends. Player personnel also needs to be evaluated with great scrutiny. The timing will coincide with the coaching change, which will inevitably impact talent evaluations. Yesterday’s game epitomized the many weaknesses this team has. The entire offensive scheme is ineffective, predictable, unthreatening and archaic. The current personnel are not even optimized to execute any scheme at all. The O had only 138 total yards and delivered another game without a TD. This is unacceptable, TD’s are the name of the game and a team has to figure out ways to score them. On offense, things need to be improved on a ground floor level. Decisions are everywhere.
QB: It is almost impossible to evaluate this position based on the Saints game. The RB’s were hurt, the blocking and receiving were abysmal. DB played the first half and was the victim of many drops and a thorough beating. This carried over to Kanell, who played the second half. The interception to stop their only drive of the game was underthrown. There was nothing available in the medium range and even if there was, DB had no time. We won’t even address that they did not throw (let alone complete) one pass for more than 20 yards. The passing game as a whole netted 48 yards on 45 attempts. Unreal. Maybe one of the worst performances I’ve seen by the Giants. Suffice it to say that Brown did not look good, but only looked God awful because of the surrounding ineptitude. The same could be said for Kanell. No protection, no running game, the drops continued. The worst part was that everyone was looking forward to at least evaluating how Danny did, but one came away, left with no feeling for a true evaluation. Anyone could have been back there and no one would have known the difference.
Backs: Nothing to evaluate here either. The ground game never got started as both Hampton and Wheatley were injured relatively early. Downs was serviceable but cost the Giants big-time after fumbling a first-down catch on the only sustained (laugh) drive of the half. Way caught one pass for 2 yards and was unable to unleash his blocking skills. No one did anything to talk about, this is no exaggeration.
TE’s: OK, Cross caught 2 passes for a total of 5 yards and Saxton 1 for 3 yards. Absolutely no production from this group. Saxton looked bad. Blocking stunk.
Receivers: Atrocious. The drops are outrageous, the worst I can ever remember. Sherrard never dropped balls like this, neither did B. Johnson, Manuel or even Ernest Gray. On top of it no one could beat their man and nobody can run a deep route. It was clear to the fans in the stands that no receiver was able to break free and get open. A pitiful performance. Even our only reliable possession receiver (C.C.) could not hold on to anything. The patterns are the worst in the league. A new receivers coach is in order! By the way, if anyone needs additional evidence regarding the lack of talent here, consider the respect the wideouts get from the refs. None. We see very few holdings, chucks or pass interference calls. [I think M. Irvin drew two, just yesterday that were somewhat phantom.] A go to guy is clearly missing, so is a fast deep threat. Essentially a #1 receiver.
O-Line: Absent describes the blocking best. A travesty that the Saints (with only 28 sacks total) get 8 sacks. The QB’s were pressured and pounded on almost every passing play. Sure the receivers did not get open, but is anyone willing to defend this units performance yesterday? Even worse, Zatechka returned to the lineup and played miserably. Missed assignments were everywhere, as the line was unable to contain the Saints speed. Individual performances were bad all around, do we really need to name them. Guys definitely on vacation included: Gragg, who had trouble all day with a faster opponent; Stone – missed assignments and slow adjustments to stunts and overloads; Bishop, who let guys inside rush him all day and did not drive players back. There were few if any holes created and no protection afforded. The line has not gelled. A devastating leader is needed for cohesiveness. Forget Pace though, he’ll be gone before the third pick.
D-Line: Strahan and Bratzke were very strong on the ends, but the inside rush and run stuffing was noticeably weak. The Giants will have excellent talent and depth at DE next year. Bratzke played well again and has done so in the last third of the season. Duff will be back and Jones can only improve. The tackle position is more problematic. On Sunday Bates rushed for as much yardage as the entire Giant team gained. They weren’t terrible, however there wasn’t any pressure on Everett either. Zero sacks! The Giants should upgrade this position. A lot has already been said on this website about this and I’m sure it will continue.
LB’s: Overall a solid effort. Armstead did his usual and got 10 tackles. Widmer played well for 3 and a half quarters and even Miller made some decent plays. Rudolph was brought in for what seemed to be the only blitz. He was neutralized easily and the Giants were burned on the play. A blitzing strong side LB who can help Widmer stuff the inside rush is needed.
Secondary: Another good performance, this group had nothing to do with the loss. They did show frustration and miss a few tackles in the fourth quarter, but they were also trying to force turnovers. Coverage was good. Sehorn was beat once but the ball was underthrown and intercepted. Jason did not read one of the long runs by the Saints very well, but overall he’s playing well. Hamilton and Randolph are players. They are showing serious talent and skills. Percy made a few decent plays too. No glaring weaknesses in this unit, although another safety to challenge Campbell would be nice.
Specials: Again nothing special. Adequate at best.
Coaching: I will not even comment about this, as it is unnecessary.