Jacksonville Jaguars 38 – New York Giants 16
Overview: Once again, this was a game of good news and bad news. The good news was the generally solid play of the offense, and Dave Brown in particular. The bad news was the play of the defense. Particularly depressing was the performance put forth by the first team secondary and the lack of fire or spirit showed by the entire second team defense. The Giants got their heads handed to them by Jacksonville, with the game getting out of hand late in the first half after starting QB Mark Brunell was forced to leave the game with a serious knee injury. It will be interesting to see the approach Head Coach Jim Fassel and his staff take this week in practice. The Giants’ overall confidence level must have taken a big blow on Saturday night.
On a side note, the “Virginia Chapter of the BBI Fan Club” had an informal get-together in the basement of the Crystal City Sports Bar to watch the game. In attendance were contributors such as Tim, Steve, Ray, Camillo, Greg, and others. We also were able to let other Giant fans such as Herb know about the BBI’s existence. Hopefully, we found some converts! Indeed, the Crystal City Sports Bar may become a haven for us Giant fans who don’t have DSS. We were all very much relieved when HB Tyrone Wheatley scored on a sweep in the third quarter, as the co-owner of the establishment had promised to pay for a round of drinks if the Giants scored a TD in the game (we were getting worried as the Giants had not done so in the first half!).
Quarterbacks: Another fine game from Dave Brown and this week, he didn’t demonstrate the “happy feet” that he did last week. He still telegraphs his throws too much, but Dave had a fine performance and continues to impressively improve his overall accuracy. His passes seldom seem to flutter anymore and he seems to be taking more chances as his confidence rises. Of particular note was the fact that he made a number of “clutch” throws on 3rd-and-long. On the Giants’ first possession, Brown rifled a very nice looking out pass to Thomas Lewis for a first down. Later on in the same drive, the Giants demonstrated how Fassel’s new offense will cause problems for defenses because of the number of options it provides for the quarterback. On 3rd down, Jacksonville didn’t account for the fullback and a wide open Eric Lane caught Brown’s pass and picked up the first down. Unfortunately, the drive ended with a fine looking deep pass to WR David Patten for what should have been a touchdown, but Patten knocked the ball up in the air and the safety picked off the ball on the rebound. Many “Giant fans” at the game in the Meadowlands, demonstrating their stupidity, booed Dave Brown as he came off the field. It was a perfect pass and should have been a TD, yet Dave gets booed! Unbelievable and totally classless! Brown was once again booed later on in the game when, on 3rd-and-goal, he threw the ball away instead of taking a sack or forcing the ball. It didn’t matter to them that a few plays earlier on 3rd-and-long, Brown had hit Chris Calloway for a first down and that the pass was a perfect toss fired between two defenders. Really, what hampered the Giants from putting more points on the board were penalties, some silly turnovers, and occasional breakdowns on the offensive line (more on that later). Dave played the entire first half. He completed 12 out of 117 passes for 125 yards with one interception and no touchdowns.
Strangely, Fassel put Mike Cherry into the game to start the second half, not Danny Kanell. Cherry was only in the game briefly and was not very impressive. He has fine tools, but he’s very raw and will probably need a couple of years to mature. However, he could have no better teachers than Fassel and QB Coach Rod Dowhower. Kanell had an up-and-down game. At times, he was very sharp and threw a number of good looking passes. However, he was a little jumpy in the pocket (in a humorous moment, the BBI group started yelling “coward” at the sight of this — in reference to our debate on Brown’s nervousness in the pocket last week) and he threw one really poor ball intended for Kevin Alexander that was picked off. He also botched a center snap from Derek Engler that was recovered by Jacksonville. Danny’s biggest problem was that between the turnovers and the poor effort put forth by the Giants’ second team defense, the Giants never seemed to have the ball much in the second half. Kanell completed 10 of 12 passes for 117 yards with one interception and no touchdowns.
Wide Receivers: The star of the show in my book this week was Ike Hilliard (2 catches for 56 yards). This guy can play and he should be starting. It was obvious that Kanell was looking for Hilliard anytime he was in the game and the results were most impressive. On one play, Hilliard left his feet and made a diving catch of an errant Kanell pass. Kanell also hit Hilliard on play where Ike really flashed his great running skills after the catch. He put a move on one defensive back that left the back grasping for air. As BBI contributor Steve shouted after this play, Ike is “money”! Tim and I were also impressed with the game Thomas Lewis (2 catches for 27 yards) put in this week. Lewis showed good hands and concentration (two things he’s usually not known for) picking up two big first downs on passes from Dave Brown. Like last week, Chris Calloway (3 catches for 40 yards) had another solid game and once again flashed some run-after-the-catch ability. Not to sound overly repetitive, but the thing that I really love about this new offense is the fact that the system gets the ball into the hands of the wide receivers WHILE THEY ARE STILL MOVING FORWARD.
Strangely quiet once again was Amani Toomer. I’m not sure if it is a matter of Toomer not getting open or the quarterbacks not throwing to him, but this is the second game in a row where Toomer has made no impact as a wide receiver. The reason why this is so strange is that Toomer has had a superb training camp. It’s early and the Giants are still not running many of what will be their bread-and-butter plays in the regular season, so that may be a factor too. For instance, at camp, the slant pass to Toomer seems to be a favorite. Yet, the Giants haven’t used it that much yet — probably because they are “hiding” it for the regular season. Kevin Alexander also had a quiet game. Omar Douglas (one catch for 13 yards) made a nice play, but he’ll probably have to do more to beat out Kevin. David Patten was extremely disappointing. He looks more like a “good press story” than a prospect. He bobbled a perfect pass from Brown on a deep fly pattern in the first quarter that was picked off. He also seemed to lose sight of the ball on another deep pass from Brown later in the quarter.
Running Backs: Rodney Hampton (10 carries for 38 yards) played quite a bit and was impressive. In particular, he showed some wiggle and moves that haven’t been seen from him in quite a while. He’s no longer going to break a big one, but with his instincts, toughness, and moves, he still can be an important factor in the offense this year. Tyrone Wheatley (9 carries for 10 yards) had a very ordinary game and really didn’t stick out this week. When Tyrone faces contact at the line of scrimmage, unlike Hampton, he does not get his shoulders down and finish off his runs. He still looks awkward (1) when the hole he expects to be at the line isn’t there, and (2) near the goalline. It might be more prudent for Fassel to use Hampton in short-yardage situations for now. (On a side note, another example of how wide open this new offense will be — the Giants were in the shotgun with a multiple WR set on 3rd-and-1 at one point in the game!!!). Charles Way, if he stays healthy, is going to have a huge year. Unlike his rookie year, where he occasionally dropped a pass, he is now a sure-handed receiver (4 catches for 18 yards) and a punishing runner. But really sets him apart from other fullbacks in the league is his blocking. He is a dominating run blocker. Way did kill one good looking drive however when he fumbled the ball away on a sweep near mid-field late in the second half. Reserve FB Eric Lane (3 catches for 30 yards) was on the field a lot this week and did some nice things in the receiving department.
Tight Ends: Howard Cross is playing well. On one 25 yard catch-and-run, it looked like Mark Bavaro was back with the team! Cross is never going to burn teams deep and he still has problems catching the ball in stride, but he can hurt teams with intermediate curl patterns over the middle. Both Aaron Pierce (one catch for 11 yards) and Brian Saxton (one catch for 12 yards) finally got more involved in the passing game this week.
Offensive Line: For the most part, the first team line had another decent game. There were many plays where Dave Brown had superb pass protection. However, there were some serious breakdowns on a few occasions too. Roman Oben had an up-and-down game. At times, he looked like he was toying with Tony Brackens. However, on the Giants’ first drive Oben completely whiffed on Brackens and nearly got Brown killed on one play. Oben then regained his composure and played well until later in the second quarter where he completely fell apart on one drive. During this series, Oben whiffed on Brackens again, was beaten outside on another play, and then almost had it happen again on the very next play. However, after this series, Oben once again settled down and played a decent game. He’s learning. Left guard is still somewhat of a sore spot. It looked like Greg Bishop outplayed Lance Smith this week. Smith was shaky in pass protection. Like last week, Rob Zatechka played some at right guard with the second unit — he looks more comfortable to me there than at left guard. Scott Gragg and Ron Stone played well, as did Derek Engler once again (though he was getting double-team support from Bishop on a few occasions). Where the Giants are really hurting right now is in their short-yardage run offense. The line is just not moving the defense off the ball. This has been a problem in camp and the Giants had first-and-goal from the three in the first quarter and could not punch the ball in. They had to settle for three points. Hopefully, this is something the Giants will spend a lot of time on this week in practice.
Defensive Line: The first teamers played better this week, but the second team played very poorly. Chad Bratzke actually played a very strong game against Tony Boselli and burned him badly with an excellent looking spin move — Brunell just got the ball off in time. Keith Hamilton picked up another personal foul this week, but also looked good in sacking Brunell near the goalline in the second quarter. Michael Strahan was solid in run defense, but was quiet rushing the passer this week. Robert Harris did not stand out. The second team unit of Cedric Jones, Bernard Holsey, Christian Peter, and Jamal Duff was, simply put, dominated by Jacksonville’s second team offensive line. Jones is just not getting it done and it especially hurts to see this while Brackens is tearing it up for the Jaguars. Holsey has good quickness, but gets pushed around a lot. Like Amani Toomer, Peter has received great reviews in camp this year, but so far has done nothing in real game situations. He has not been impressive in run defense or rushing the passer. Duff, as expected, looked rusty after playing in a game for the first time since 1995.
Linebackers: Jessie Armstead had a solid game in pass defense and Corey Widmer and Corey Miller were far stronger in run support than they were last week. Widmer, in particular, stood out defending a couple of inside runs. The Giants did blitz more this week, but they still had problems getting to the quarterback quickly enough. The Giants may not be doing a good job in disguising their blitzes as both the Ravens and Jaguars seemed to know when they were coming. Like their counterparts on the defensive line, the second string linebackers were far from impressive. Scott Galyon made another play behind the line of scrimmage this week, but that was about it. Most disappointing was the lack of fire displayed by the reserves. They really never seemed to be “into” the game and Jaguars had no problems moving the ball on them. On one Jaguar TD run, the entire Giants’ defense over-pursued on a run to the right and when the runner cutback, there was nobody there to stop him. On another TD run, nobody touched the runner in short yardage.
Secondary: Second preseason game — second poor outing from Phillippi Sparks and Jason Sehorn. New Defensive Coordinator John Fox’s defense is going to put a ton of pressure on the cornerbacks this year, and thus far Sparks and Sehorn have not responded. Under Mike Nolan, both of these two were often protected deep by the safeties and they could afford to take more chances. This year, they’ll be more on their own. Sparks was burned badly by Jimmy Smith on a 60-yard TD pass from the back-up quarterback. Sparks was also burned last week for a TD — he needs to get his act together and step it up. Sehorn was decent in coverage, but once again, demonstrated his poor tackling skills and technique. Thomas Randolph and Conrad Hamilton played better again this week. Hamilton was burned deep on one incomplete pass, but showed tight, aggressive coverage for the most part. Hamilton is also a sure tackler and did a good job on a CB blitz (where he was unfairly charged with a roughing the quarterback penalty). Right now, he’s outplaying Sparks.
At safety, FS Tito Wooten was beaten badly deep on another TD pass where he had man-to-man coverage responsibility. Defenses will go after Wooten all day if he plays that poorly on a consistent basis in man-to-man. Indeed, the defensive backs do not seem to be responding positively to Fox’s new defensive schemes. It’s early, but there are some real concerns starting to brew here. For the second week in a row, Percy Ellsworth tackled well (except on one long Jacksonville run where he wasn’t aggressive). However, on one sideline play where he had good covergae, he didn’t turn around quickly enough to knock the ball away and the pass was completed. Maurice Douglass and Rodney Young had a quiet game, but Sam Garnes picked off a pass in the endzone on a fine, athletic play. Unfortunately, instead of staying in the end zone, Garnes decided to run the ball out and was stripped from behind and Jacksonville recovered. Ahh, the impetuousness of youth!
Special Teams: Both Brad Daluiso and Brad Maynard played very well. Daluiso is consistently making long field goals thus far this preseason. Maynard really nailed a couple of punts this week. His hamstring may be getting better. Kick returns and kick return coverage continue to be a real problem. David Patten is just not getting it done as a receiver or returner. To be fair, he is also getting no support from his blockers. The Giants had this problem under Reeves, and it is continuing under Fassel. Special Teams Coach Larry MacDuff needs to get his troops better prepared. Once again, kick coverage was a disaster. However, as the game wore on the Giants were doing a better job. Indeed, FS Brandon Sanders did a great job forcing fumble on one return. Amani Toomer dances around a little too much on his punt returns. He needs to make a decision more quickly and go for it. Punt coverage was generally solid. On a side note, I question how wise it is to play Jason Sehorn on the coverage units (especially in the preseason). He’s far to valuable to risk injury and he is a poor tackler.