Tampa Bay Buccaneers 20 – New York Giants 8
Overview: The Giants’ ship is quickly running out of steam. Poor offense combined with improved competition has lead to a 1-2-1 mark over the last four games. Against the Bucs, the Giants were outplayed on both lines of scrimmage and QB Danny Kanell experienced his worst day at quarterback. Indeed, the Giants’ offense seems to be regressing. Too many mistakes are being made by players who aren’t that good to begin with. The Giants have a playoff-calibre defense, but injuries to the defensive line are starting to take their toll. The special teams are only average. The running game is a strength, but with no passing offense to speak of, opposing defenses are loading up to stop the run.
The Giants came out flat against the Bucs and never seemed to be emotionally into the game. Regardless of how poor the offense performs, the Giants cannot afford to have their defense “give up” during a ball game. Remarkably, the Giants’ fate remains in their hands. However, the road is a tough one: three games against top division rivals with outstanding secondaries. Two of those games are on the road in Dallas and in Philadelphia — two places where the Giants don’t have a lot of success. But playoff teams win big games in difficult situations. If the Giants don’t win two of the last three games, then they don’t deserve to make the playoffs.
Quarterback: Yes Danny Kanell has poor targets to throw to, but against Tampa Bay, Kanell (14-31-117 yards and 2 interceptions) must share much of the blame for the Giants’ passing woes. To be blunt, he was awful. Danny was inaccurate, “birddogged” his receivers, and forced plays that weren’t there. The remarkable poise he displayed only a couple of games ago is now lacking. Though he didn’t connect, Kanell still shows nice touch and general accuracy on his deep balls. He just missed a number of big plays including a touchdown pass to Amani Toomer. He also threw a couple of nice inside passes — one to David Patten and another to Chris Calloway. But there were also times when the receivers were open, but Kanell just flat out missed them. Like most young quarterbacks who begin to press, Kanell is starting to stare down his intended receiver too much, especially Chris Calloway. Against the Bucs, it seemed as if he had already made up his mind where he was going to throw the ball before he surveyed the field. What Danny needs to do is regain some of the rhythm he had earlier in the year. Drop back, make your read, if the play isn’t there, dump the ball to the back. Don’t dance around too much and don’t force the ball. Head Coach Jim Fassel could also help out Kanell by giving him more low risk, high completion percentage plays (i.e., passes to the backs on first down) in order to build his confidence. If the Giants don’t get their passing offense mended quickly, they will not win again in 1997.
Wide Receivers: The joke isn’t funny anymore. These guys absolutely stink. Chris Calloway (3 catches for 56 yards) is a decent player, but he can’t do it by himself. Broken record time: David Patten (1 catch for 10 yard), Kevin Alexander (2 catches for 6 yards), and Amani Toomer (no catches) are not getting the job done. They have trouble reading coverage, run poor routes, and cannot separate from defenders. You would think that one of these guys would take the bull by the horns and take advantage of the wonderful opportunity they have been provided. Toomer complained early on in the season that he wasn’t getting enough chances to show what he can do. Well, he’s getting those chances now and is not delivering. The fact that Alexander and Patten are playing so much indicates that he is still having problems with the mental aspect of the game. Jim Fassel needs to get into these guys faces and challenge them to make a play. The “help wanted” sign is out here bigtime.
Tight Ends: Without being able to tape the game, it is difficult to determine what the problem is here. Honestly, as we’ve said a number of times, we are not sure if the tight ends are not getting any chances or if they just plain stink too. Perhaps, the tight ends are being called upon to remain in pass protection more. Perhaps Kanell is not looking their way. Whatever the reason, the only hope the Giants have to get their passing game going down the stretch is to get their tight ends involved and in a big way. The Giants should force the issue and try to get the ball into Cross and/or Pierce’s hands at least eight times next week.
Running Backs: Fassel should can the running back rotation for a while. It is obvious that HB Tiki Barber (3 carries for 4 yards) has simply missed too much time due to injury and is just not in sync with the line. We would continue to use him as the primary third down back and long-yardage back. His hamstring injury seems to be affecting his quickness and speed as well. What we would do is ride the Tyrone Wheatley (9 carries for 64 yards) and Charles Way (7 carries for 28 yards, 4 catches for 29 yards) bus until it drops. Stop taking Tyrone out of the game after a big run. Tyrone is the type of back who gets better with more carries. Let him get into a rhythm. He has been playing very well for the last few weeks and has come darn close to scoring on long touchdown runs in each of the last few games. Wheatley is also running with more authority and power on his off-tackle runs. We don’t blame him for being stuffed on 4th-and-1, but we wouldn’t use him in short yardage — he still runs too high and offers too much of a good target. FB Charles Way had a quiet game for him. He didn’t seem to run with the same power and mobility of his previous games. After a fast start, Erric Pegram has slowed and has not impressed as of late.
Offensive Line: This unit did not play well, but they didn’t play as poorly as some have said. The Giants had trouble with DT Warren Sapp all day, but who doesn’t? The interior trio was outplayed far too much, but the problems were also a case of numbers — there were often too many people to block at the line of scrimmage. LT Roman Oben played decently, but was flagged for a costly false start penalty. Greg Bishop had another rough game and was embarrassed on a number of inside charges. The inside players did not get the job done on the 4th-and-1 play — the running back never had a chance. RT Scott Gragg has quietly been improving as the season has progressed, but also had his rough moments in pass protection against the Bucs.
Defensive Line: This group did not come ready to play on Sunday. They were flat and listless. DT’s Keith Hamilton and Robert Harris were dominated and the Bucs regularly ran for good yardage up the middle. The Bucs double-teamed Hamilton, blocked out on DE Brian Holsey and ran to the left with good success as well. DE Michael Strahan should have won his match-up with the Bucs’ right tackle, but was handled for most of the game. No sacks, poor run defense — the Giants have no chance when this group doesn’t play motivated.
Linebackers: Jessie Armstead came to play. He made a number of superb plays, including sniffing out a screen pass and nailing the receiver for a big loss. However, Jessie was also mauled a number of times on running plays. MLB Corey Widmer made a couple of nice plays. He did a nice job stuffing some inside runs, but more often than not, he was pushed around too easily on the Bucs’ inside runs. Corey Miller didn’t stand out. Scott Galyon made a first-down saving tackle on another Tampa Bay screen. MLB Doug Colman looked good on the goalline.
Defensive Backs: CB Phillippi Sparks played a marvelous game. Not only did he pick off two passes, almost returning one for a touchdown. But he was put in the unenviable position of often covering his man deep all alone across the field on a number of occasions. Twice Sparks covered his man like a blanket on post patterns and knocked the ball away. We can’t stress enough how difficult a play this is to defend for a CB with no deep help. The costly pass interference call on Phillippi that basically cost the Giants the game was a phantom call — probably to make up for the one the refs blew on FS Tito Wooten’s phantom interception in the first half. CB Jason Sehorn played a very good game — except for one play. His push off on Reidel Anthony was a stupid play because Jason probably would have intercepted the ball anyway. Sehorn also still needs to wrap up, but he did look good coming on run blitzes once again. SS Sam Garnes made a number of big hits. FS Percy Ellsworth and CB Conrad Hamilton were quiet.
Special Teams: Poor. Punt and kick coverage was terrible. The guys did a good job getting down on the kicks, but they then forgot to tackle. Only Brandon Sanders, who was playing hurt, stood out. P Brad Maynard played well. PK Brad Daluiso made two kicks, but missed another kick over 40 yards (more on that in a moment). Having Erric Pegram return kicks is a joke — he hesitates too much, and has no speed or explosion. Opposing punters and coverage continue to do a good job of keeping Amani Toomer under wraps.
Coaching: We normally don’t talk too much about coaching, but we have to question some of the decisions made on Sunday. First of all, we have no problem with trying to pull the Bucs offside on 4th-and-short, but you MUST call time out if it looks like it won’t work. The five yard penalty probably cost the Giants the first three points of the game. Secondly, on HB Warrick Dunn’s long catch-and-run on 3rd-and-long, someone may have blew the play, but why in God’s name do you have Michael Strahan, your best pass rusher, dropping back into zone-blitz coverage in that situation? Dumb! Lastly, this running back by committee strategy is not working. Fassel should admit to that and keep going with whoever has the hot hand. Right now, Tiki Barber is not hot.