New York Giants 20 – Dallas Cowboys 7
Overview: The Giants appear to be peaking at the right time as they prepare to enter the playoffs. Their 20-7 victory over the Dallas Cowboys was simply too easy. The Giants roared out to a 20-0 halftime lead and then Head Coach Jim Fassel, as expected, inserted almost all of his back-ups into the lineup. Give the starters a lot of credit. They knew they would be out of the game by halftime and they wanted to make a statement and put the game away early. The players, especially on defense, were fired up and were taking no prisoners. It’s time to get ready for the Minnesota Vikings.
Quarterbacks: Danny Kanell (8-16, 129 yards, 1 touchdown, no interceptions) had another so-so day. The bright spot was that he continues to do a very good job in reading defenses and making the right decisions, especially given his experience level. Against Dallas, he played with a lot of confidence as he regularly took his shots deep and came up with some big plays. On the Giants first scoring drive, Kanell hit David Patten for 33 yards on 3rd-and-11 to pick up the first down. On their second scoring drive, Danny found Chris Calloway wide open deep for 41 yards. He then came back to Calloway on his beautifully thrown 21-yard touchdown pass. The negatives? Even if Patten was not held by the Dallas defender, Kanell’s deep pass on the hitch-and-go pattern was clearly overthrown. He also should have led Amani Toomer farther to the inside on Toomer’s post pattern as that play might have gone for a touchdown as well. One of his out passes, which was completed, hung up too long. The Giants looked terrible on their two attempted screen passes and Kanell must share some of the blame for not selling them well enough to the defense. But as long as Kanell continues to improve, make the right decisions, get rid of the ball quickly, and avoid making mistakes, the Giants may go far with him at the helm in the post season.
Dave Brown (2-9, 14 yards, no touchdowns, no interceptions) was terrible. He should have entered this game loose, but looked tight and nervous. He still has that “deer caught in headlights” look — the same look Neil Lomax, Ken O’Brien, and Jay Schroeder had near the end of their respective careers. Once again, Brown’s main problem was his presence in the pocket. As the slightest sign of ANY pressure, he took off and started scrambling around — even when it was not necessary. He fumbled away his first snap, took too long to find a receiver, didn’t throw the ball away, and made poor decisions. Even his completion to Toomer was a dangerous pass as he threw back across his body and late over the middle of the field. His performance probably killed any chance the Giants had in getting a draft pick for him this upcoming offseason.
Offensive Line: The regulars played superbly, especially in pass protection. No one got near Kanell in the first half as he had all day to survey the field in many instances. The run blocking wasn’t as sharp, but it was effective enough. As expected, when the Giants inserted the reserves, the continuity and chemistry of the line was disrupted and Giants’ running backs often didn’t have room to run until the 4th quarter. The back-ups gave up three sacks, but all of these were due to Brown holding onto the ball too long. The reserve line had Oben and Gragg at the tackles, Zatechka and Reynolds at guard, and Stoltenberg at center.
Running Backs: HB Tiki Barber’s numbers (17 carries for 82 yards) don’t look bad, but much of his yardage came in the 4th quarter. He did have a couple of moments in the first half, including a nice looking 13 yard run, but he still doesn’t appear to be in sync with the line. This is why we think Fassel had him playing a lot in the last quarter. HB Rodney Hampton (12 carries for 38 yards) didn’t make any big plays, but like the Hampton of recent years, he keeps plugging and picking up positive yardage in small chunks. We still have more confidence in him in short yardage situations than any other back on the roster. FB Charles Way made some great blocks, but didn’t have a big day with the ball in his hands (7 carries for 15 yards). We thought running Way outside against Dallas’ quick linebackers wasn’t very smart. He also fumbled the ball out of bounds on one play. FB Eric Lane (5 carries for 13 yards) often had no room to run.
Wide Receivers: This group had a good day. Chris Calloway (3 catches for 74 yards and a touchdown) continues to be the go-to man for Kanell. Chris did a nice job of running with the ball after the catch on his 41-yard pass play. He also did an outstanding job with his run blocking. David Patten (2 catches for 47 yards) seems to be coming on. He had a 33 yard reception and was wide open for a touchdown on an errant deep pass from Kanell. Amani Toomer (2 catches for 14 yards) made an excellent catch with a man all over him. He also looked good on his post pattern which resulted in a big pass interference penalty that set up the Giants’ last touchdown. Kevin Alexander dropped two passes — one easy and one difficult.
Tight Ends: Aaron Pierce had 1 catch for 1 yard. Howard Cross had no catches, though Kanell did throw to him. Their run blocking was once again excellent.
Defensive Line: DT Keith Hamilton was unstoppable in the first half. He regularly defeated the double-teaming efforts of the Cowboys and was constantly in QB Troy Aikman’s face and giving HB Emmitt Smith no where to run up the middle. With Hamilton’s help, DT Robert Harris set the tone for the day with his power sack right up the middle on the game’s first play from scrimmage. DE Michael Strahan was mugged all day by Erik Williams and was finally the beneficiary of a couple of holding penalties. DE Bernard Holsey picked up another sack and stood up against the run well. The back-ups had a rough start but settled down. The Cowboys were able run against the weakside (DE Antonio Edwards and DT Ray Agnew) with some success, but DT Christian Peter and DE Robert Holsey shut most things down on the strongside. Peter doesn’t have a lot of moves, but he did push the pocket back on a couple of occasions. Both Edwards and Agnew picked up sacks — Agnew’s coming on a play where he was triple-teamed and still crushed the quarterback.
Linebackers: Because the defensive tackles were really doing a number on the Dallas line, the starting linebackers had a relatively easy day. MLB Corey Widmer looked good on the inside run. Reserve Scott Galyon made 8 tackles, but as mentioned above, Dallas was able to run somewhat in his direction on weakside runs. MLB Doug Colman did a decent job inside. Corey Miller played much of the game but didn’t look too sharp on the pass rush.
Defensive Backs: For the last few weeks, CB Jason Sehorn has played better than we have ever seen him play. Like last week when he took Michael Westbrook out of the game, he completely shut down Michael Irvin this week. He picked off yet another pass on a sideline route. CB Thomas Randolph also had a strong game. He broke up a couple of passes and only got burned once on a crossing pattern where the Giants brought a couple of linebackers on the blitz. CB Conrad Hamilton also played well in coverage although he was flagged for interference on a play. Both starting safeties, SS Sam Garnes and FS Tito Wooten, had relatively quiet days and that is usually good news. SS Rodney Young made seven tackles and was generally around the ball. FS Percy Ellsworth made a great read, but dropped yet another possible interception. The one big weakness was the tackling of the reserves as Randolph, Ellsworth, and Hamilton looked downright silly on a few plays. The Giants can’t afford poor tackling in the playoffs.
Special Teams: P Brad Maynard is just not punting up to his capabilities. We think he won’t be able to straighten things out until the offseason when he has a chance to work on his mechanics. He had another poor day with respect to distance and direction. The coverage teams miss Brandon Sanders as it often seemed the coverage team took too long to get down the field. The Giants did a nice job on kick-off coverage, but were mediocre on punt coverage. PK Brad Maynard missed an easy 32-yarder, but his kick-offs were excellent. Amani Toomer did a decent job on one punt return.