Tennessee Oilers 10 – New York Giants 6
Overview: The rested Giants came prepared and fought tough, but met a hard-nosed gritty team ready to slug it out for all four quarters. The hitting was intense. Several injuries resulted on both sides. Various Giants were battered and bruised, and worse Bratzke was lost for the season with torn ligaments while Miller will be out indefinitely because of a severely sprained ankle. On the other side, at least 4 to 5 Oilers left the field with minor injuries sustained from collisions. Both teams Quarterbacks and lead runners played hard and received their share of punishing hits. The difference turned out to be Tennessee’s ability to put together one sustained drive and punch the ball into the endzone. Conversely, the Giants did not put together enough plays to see a drive to a successful conclusion. Penalties once again proved an obstacle. A couple of false starts, combined with a delay of game and an illegal use of hands helped stall New York drives. The flag that really hurt though, was the one thrown for a facemask. The infraction occurred after a pass interference caused an interception. The offsetting penalties nullified a first down from the one-yard line.
The lack of homefield meant the Giants were not going to get many calls, and they didn’t. The refs seemed to overlook the liberal use of hands by the Oiler O-line on a few occasions. However, that is life on the road in the NFL, against improving or good teams. The Giants must be accountable for not putting any TD’s on the board and taking unnecessary penalties. The offense was not threatening enough and didn’t get the job done even though the effort was there. Much of the credit goes to the Oilers who grinded out points when the opportunity arose in the first half. Their moose-like offensive line was determined and physical. Their defense attacked the entire game and came up big to end drives. That assessment obviously includes the interception in the final series to thwart the last comeback attempt, sealing the game. The Oilers earned this victory. They are now a 500 team with a brighter than 500 future.
Offense: Not enough weapons to keep the Oilers from blitzing often and pounding the men in Blue consistently. The Giants never put together a complete drive. They showed glimpses and gained yards in chunks as the game wore on, but could never bring their efforts to fruition. Some penalties, some drops, some missed blocks and some misfires broke up any momentum the offense managed to generate. The Oiler D made no mental mistakes in their implementation of a very aggressive gameplan and never let the Giants get behind them in the passing game. The Giant’s didn’t light anybody up and the Oiler defense deserves credit for playing situationally perfect. The offense saw a bit of the old 46 defense and was unable to expose it’s true vulnerabilities. Although there were some nice successes on the run, the Giants did not force the DB’s to play the medium to deep passes, thus closing in the field on them.
QB: No longer can anyone say Kanell hasn’t taken a pounding. Danny stood up to the pressure admirably, unfortunately his performance didn’t match his fortitude. Kanell was sacked three times and hurried on numerous passes. His stats of 15 of 28 for 133 yards fairly represents the kind of game he had. Most air yardage was either hard-fought up the middle or gained on short passes and dump-offs. Long strikes were shutdown by an effective rush and good coverage. On one long throw off a flea flicker, just after the George fumble, Bishop was called for a facemask which offset the pass interference call in the endzone. A few plays later in Oiler territory, Kanell missed an open Kevin Alexander and the Giants punted again. On the following series Alexander returned the favor dropping a first down pass and the Giants punted again. Danny later placed what could have been touchdown passes to both Alexander and Toomer, who successively dropped catchable TD’s. Kanell also managed to make some key throws to Calloway for a few first downs, but no more than field goals could be mustered. Unfortunately Kanell threw one too many short or behind the receiver. The last one was not only underthrown but hung enough for the safety to make a read, cross the field and end the game with an interception. Kanell must bear the responsibility of a critical mistake made unnecessarily on first down.
RB: Tyrone Wheatley was back in form, running for 94 yards on 13 carries, including a run for over 30 yards. Again the Giants couldn’t convert the opportunity in 7 points. Ty took some hits and seemed to ask for a breather after his long run. If the Giants had run more plays overall they might have been able to get Ty more carries. The other backs certainly didn’t get his share. Tiki only had two carries, Pegram one and Way finished with four. The Giants need to run more than twenty times to win in most cases. It’s obvious the Oilers frequent 3rd down conversions (7 of 14), created a 12 minute time-of-possession advantage, resulting in too few touches for the Giant offense. Way was relegated to lead blocking duties and was unable to accumulate any meaningful yardage on his few touches. His blocking was solid. The backs did not break anything from the passes over the center or in the flat.
WR: Calloway again was determined, rugged and clutch. He had four nice grabs, all over the middle. His routes were tight and always for the necessary yardage. He took a number of hard blows and held onto to everything except one impossible catch in which he was pummeled. Calloway also dished some out, blocking for Wheatley on a few runs. The rest of the receivers did not perform as well, and as a group they did not cause any problems for the Oiler secondary. Toomer and Alexander each failed to make the clutch catch in the endzone. Patten did not get open in his limited chances. No one really got behind the corners. Amani did make a clutch play on fourth down to continue the comeback drive, but immediately gave it all back when Kanell floated a long sideline pass short and Toomer failed to play defensive back and knockdown the leather. Pierce caught one over the top pass and quickly rumbled for 14 yards. Otherwise the TE’s were quiet.
OL: There were really not many breakdowns due to scheme, as the blitz was handled admirably. Bishop, Oben, Stone and Gragg exhibited several strong run blocks. Oben was very impressive in his footwork and positioning on a few running plays, as he totally neutralized his man. The problems really occurred on some one-on-one plays where guys just got beat by their opponent. Holmes showed some great rushes when he man-handled Bishop twice to get two sacks. Oben was beat diving at the legs of his man resulting in a sack. Bishop and Scott also had a tough time with the straight rush, which caused a few hurries and knockdowns of Kanell. Overall, the play was sometimes good other times bad; end result was inconsistent.
Defense: McNair will be the cause of a lot of concern around the AFC. The defense was not able to contain him to the necessary extent as he continuously rolled out of the pocket to buy time and find a open receiver. Many of these came on third and long, helping the Oilers to a 50% third down conversion rating for the game. The lanes were not closed well-enough either as he ran for over 33 yards in some key situations. Overall the defense played well if you look at the score, but not quite as well if you consider that they only forced two punts, did not give the offense a lot of touches, nor did they help win the field position battle.
DL: The defensive line had their hands full with a talented and physical Oiler line. The Giants shifted some to try and line-up in the gaps, but they were still stuck with some tough mano-a-mano matchups. Robert Harris was particularly effective and created the most penetration. Hamilton however, had his least effective game of the year. In fact, Hopkins, Matthews and Stepnoski really got the better of most of the Giant lineman. Strahan played tough and hard, getting some pressure on McNair, but he easily escaped too often to uncovered areas of the backfield. Agnew helped the Giants rest Harris and Hamilton each for one series. He did OK. Chad was hurt (out for the season) and was replaced by Jones who fared OK. Jones will have his chance now to prove his worth, as he is the starter for the remainder of the year.
LB: Eddie George and the Oilers were determined to run on the Giants and it showed. They worked hard and got their blockers to engage the linebackers frequently. Miller was hurt and replaced by Marcus Buckley (Ryan Phillips was inactive) who is not a strongside player. He did not do poorly, but it is tough to take on the tackle or tight end with his size and style. George rumbled into the Giant secondary too often, sometimes because the tackles were just not made after contact. Armstead looked good in pursuit but did not dominate completely. He also managed to bounce George wide on the touchdown run, but Widmer missed his assignment and didn’t get to the outside. Widmer played well on most plays. He came through with a nice interception, held George so Tito could recover a fumble and helped Armstead stop two 3rd and ones, yet he was taken out of too many plays because he was either too slow off the snap, slow to read the run direction or he did not shed his block. Galyon was fine in his limited time. This group must play the lanes better and be quicker against a power running attack. Especially when the opposition has guys who are able to cut back.
DB: The secondary was average at best. Sparks was burned on a number of occasions (one he got away with) and Sehorn was also burned once or twice early on. To be fair, aside from one play, Sehorn was pretty tight on his man and was victimized by several good catches by Sanders. Sparks should have done better against mediocre receivers. Garnes played up on the run for most of the game and made a few tackles, as did Wooten. Tito was also very alert in picking up the fumble by George. The coverages were good, but McNair bought enough time by scrambling and rolling that the passing game could not be shutdown. The unit improved as the game wore on. Conrad Hamilton was excellent covering the slants and quick routes.
Specials: Pegram scares no one on kick returns and also misplayed one pinning the Giants in on their own seven. Amani didn’t do much on punts. Maynard’s kicks were inconsistent and his coffin corners were angled out of bounds way to early. He may have overcompensated because Gray is a top return man. Brad Daluiso was the one really bright spot of the game. His confidence is back. He kicked field goals of 42 and 40, the second one he had to make twice because of a illegal hands to the face penalty.
Coaching: Fassel can not receive many accolades for the job done in Tennessee. He questioned himself as well, stating that he should have gotten the ball more to Tiki and Way. He said their preparation involved a lot of lead blocking by Way, which might have obscured him from using Way as a weapon more. Jim did not want to take the play away from the players, so his gameplan was more conservative than usual, with the exception of the flea-flicker. The Giants must still cut down on the penalties and the coach must bear some responsibility for this. It was not for a lack of effort though, since he did have refs attend practice during the bye-week to bring attention to the penalties. He did have the Giants fired-up and ready to slug it out, and they did. Unfortunately the Oilers were not laying down and the Giants did not do anything to prevent the Oilers from sitting on it’s lead. Jim ended his radio show calling next week’s game against the Cards a “must win”. He quickly amended his statement to “we are not in the playoffs if we win and we are not out if we lose but this is a critical game for us. Look for some variations in the gameplan next week.