Approach to the Game – New York Giants at Tennessee Oilers, November 9, 1997: The New York Giants are about to play their most important stretch of football games since the Fall of 1993. Playoff caliber teams must play their best football in the months of November and December. The Giants lead the NFC East at 6-3, but it is an uneasy 6-3 due to question marks that remain on offense. Will Danny Kanell continue to improve at quarterback? Can the Giants find a consistent threat at halfback? Do the receivers have the ability to make plays against good cornerbacks? Where is the tight end? The Tennessee Oilers, despite their record, are a very talented team. They are well coached on defense and have an excellent offensive line and some outstanding young talent at the skill positions on offense. It will be interesting to see if the Giants can maintain their positive momentum after the bye week. Regardless, it is important to cut down the number of penalties and fix some of the problems on special teams.
Giants on Defense: The Oilers can score points. The heart of their offensive team is a big, powerful back in Eddie George running behind a veteran and talented offensive line. To make matters worse, QB Steve McNair can hurt teams with throwing or running ability. In fact, he has more yards on the ground than any Giant running back. The basic strategy must to be shut down George first and foremost. The Giants’ defensive line and linebackers must play stout this week. This will be a big week for DT Robert Harris, DT Keith Hamilton, and MLB Corey Widmer. These three must jam things up in the middle of the line. Outside, Corey Miller must do a better job in containment. The Oilers may also try to take advantage of OLB Jessie Armstead’s and DE Chad Bratzke’s lack of size on the weakside. Run support from the defensive backs will be important too. Guys like FS Tito Wooten and CB Jason Sehorn had better remember to wrap up or George will embarrass them.
In the passing game, the Giants’ pass rush will be hurt by the fact that the defensive line will have to maintain disciplined rush lanes because of McNair’s scrambling ability. Nevertheless, the down four had better play this game with more urgency and aggressiveness than they did against the Bengals or this game could get ugly. On passing downs, it may pay off to keep a spy on McNair. Perhaps somebody like nickel backer Scott Galyon would be a good choice. So would Jessie Armstead, but the Giants might not want to take away their best underneath coverage guy, particularly with TE Frank Wycheck being a productive security blanket for McNair. If the Giants can do a good job on George and Wycheck, and keep McNair from scrambling for too much yardage, the Giants should be in good shape.
Because the Giants will be playing the run, it is critically important for the secondary to play well. A lot of pressure will probably be placed on the shoulders of the cornerbacks to shut down the Oiler wide receivers one-on-one. Because McNair is still learning the game, the Giants will most likely disguise their coverages and try to confuse him. One thing we’d like to see more of is forced turnovers — this would help the Giants’ offense play with a shorter field.
Giants on Special Teams: We normally do our write-up on specials last, but this often ignored aspect of the team almost cost the Giants dearly last week. New York simply must get their kick coverage team in order. We get the impression that the coverage team lets up with Daluiso kicking the ball. Opposing teams are showing so much disrespect for the coverage team that they are now running the ball deep out of the end zone and STILL picking up good yardage. This has got to stop. To make matters worse, the Giants face one of the top returners in NFL history this week: Mel Gray. Coverage men need to maintain their lanes, fight off blocks quickly, and make sure, crisp tackles. P Brad Maynard had his best game as a Giant last week and hopefully his impressive punting will continue. Because he gets so much hangtime on his punts, punt coverage has not been a big problem thus far. Erric Pegram did a much better job of returning kicks last week, but he’s not really going to burn most teams because of his lack of speed and quickness.
Giants on Offense: The Oilers, like the Giants, will attempt to stop the running game first and foremost. If Head Coach Jim Fassel really wants to cross the Oilers up, he should pass on first and second down in order to open up the running game. Jeff Fisher is a proponent of the type of aggressive defense that Buddy Ryan used to run. The best way to beat this defense is to pass to the running backs (especially screens), pass quickly to the receivers on slants, run draws, and run quick hitters inside. Fassel said he will run his halfbacks by committee, but we think this game is best for someone like Tiki Barber because of his quick feet and elusiveness on screens and draws. Nevertheless, if Fassel plays his running backs as he has publicly stated he would, look for Tyrone Wheatley in the two-back set, Barber in the 3-WR set, and Way in the 2-TE set. Wheatley has had two disappointing outings in a row. We know he is hurting, but he needs to run more instinctively and not be brought down so easily. For his part, Barber must hold onto the ball.
Up front, the offensive line continues to improve but they will face a tougher test than they did last week. The Oilers aren’t very big up front, but they are quick and aggressive. If the line can control these two aspects of their game, our power running may wear them down some. Every lineman and the running backs must be aware of potential blitzers as Fisher likes to bring it. The line also needs to cut down on foolish penalties that have killed too many drives this year.
Huge questions still remain with the Giants’ passing game. Will Danny Kanell continue to improve or will he regress as defensive coordinators get a better feel for him? Kanell is a poised leader, but winning has helped to deflect some serious holes in his game. His accuracy has not been impressive and the strength of his arm is still in doubt. Kevin Alexander had a big week last week, but can he continue to be productive or was last week a fluke? Chris Calloway is painfully slow, but he does make plays. To take some pressure off these guys, it would be nice for the tight end to make some plays DOWN the field. Amani Toomer has been seeing more playing time and we hope this continues. But to do so, he must improve his route running and pre/post-snap reads of the coverage. He is the kind of guy you want running slant patterns, however.