Approach to the Game – New York Giants at New York Jets, August 20, 1998: This should be a pretty intense preseason game. Not only do both teams play in the same market, but both teams were humiliated last week and will be looking to rebound in a big way. Areas to focus on for Giants’ fans will be the running game, especially the productivity of the halfbacks and the ability of the offensive line to move the defense off the line of scrimmage; the tackling of the first team defense; and the overall play of special teams.
Giants on Offense: The Giants need to get running game turned around — and quickly. It all starts up front. Thankfully, RG Ron Stone returns to the lineup, but the rest of the group has to do a better job of creating running room for the backs. The Jets have a below average defensive line and good linebackers. We’d like to see LG Greg Bishop, OC Lance Scott, and Stone dominate the interior of the defense and for the Giants to run Gary Brown up the middle over and over again behind Charles Way and let him get into a rhythm. Head Coach Jim Fassel has said that Brown will get work with the first team offense — and it is about time. It will also be interesting to see how Tiki Barber responds from Fassel’s challenge of elevating his play. Not only has Tiki dropped more than a few passes this summer, but he is also not running with a lot of decisiveness or instinctiveness. We thought Tyrone Wheatley played decently last week. What does Fassel have in store for him? We would feel a lot better if Jim would pick ONE guy at halfback, stick with him, and allow him to get ready for the Redskins.
QB Danny Kanell has had an up-and-down preseason thus far. Once again, he’s not making a lot of mistakes (i.e., turnovers), but we hoped to see greater accuracy from him by this point. The great level of intensity, the longer amount of playing time for the first unit (they will probably play into the third quarter), and the impending arrival of the opener should all conspire to give us a truer picture of where he is at. It’s also tough to judge him given the fact that Fassel still isn’t game-planning the way he would in the regular season and that the Giants still want to hide their best plays from the Skins. Kent Graham has shown us nothing since returning to the Giants — he looks like a free agent bust to us. How much will Mike Cherry play the rest of the preseason? His time may have passed until the next offseason.
One thing we would like to see the quarterbacks do is get the ball more into the hands of the wide receivers when they do throw the ball. We have seen very little of “the best group of wide receivers the Giants have had in decades.” We also really hope Fassel stops giving playing time to Omar Douglas and Eddie Goines at the expense of Joe Jurevicius and Brian Alford — the latter two are the ones who will make the team, not the former two.
At tight end, we were really hoping that Al Pupunu would make a big impact early on as he has superior receiving skills to Howard Cross — and those skills would be nice in attacking the Skins. However, Pupunu has not practiced in weeks and it is looking less and less likely that he will play much in the opener. Todd Pollack is most likely practice squad bound. Andy Haase and Grant Baynham are still very much on the bubble. When it comes down to it — Howard Cross is the man for the Giants once again. Let’s hope he makes a bigger impact catching the ball this year.
Giants on Defense: Last week, the Giants did not play the run very well, the pass very well, or tackle very well. They should be tested this week by an offense that was under Bill Parcells’ whip most of the week. Up front, it will be interesting to see if DT Robert Harris is back to near 100% after being out for some time with a knee condition. We also want to see DT Keith Hamilton start to elevate his game in anticipation of the regular season. These two guys are the key to the entire defense. They set the tone in run and pass defense. As far as we can tell, it looks as if Bernard Holsey is playing better than Christian Peter at defensive tackle — though Christian has improved. Will the Giants keep another defensive tackle (knowing that Holsey can also play end) or will they keep another end? That answer to that question largely depends on the play of DT Nate Hobgood-Chittick, DT George Williams, and DE Hunter Adams. Outside, Michael Strahan and Chad Bratzke look ready to start the season. It would be nice to see Cedric Jones build upon last week’s success. Parcells likes to run the ball and the pass rush will be critical in making life difficult for Vinnie Testeverde and Glenn Foley.
At linebacker, the area to keep an eye on this week is middle linebacker. Corey Widmer (back) is out. Doug Colman gets the start, but Pete Monty will also play a lot. We may be looking at the future here if the Giants can’t keep Widmer next year. Thus far in the preseason, we have liked what we have seen from Colman and Monty. But don’t underrate Widmer’s absence. He knows the defense very well and makes a ton of the defensive calls. Colman and Monty not only have to play well, but they have to call a smart game. WLB Jessie Armstead did not play well last week; we look for him to rebound. We are still waiting for Marcus Buckley to make a play.
In the secondary, Phillippi Sparks and Jason Sehorn both had poor games last week as did FS Tito Wooten. SS Sam Garnes sees his first action of the preseason. Regardless, we think back-up SS Rodney Young has made the team. The Jets have decent wide receivers and Testeverde can get hot so this may be a good test for the defensive backs. It is pretty apparent that all the safeties on the squad will make the team, but we still have no idea who the fourth cornerback will be (or if he is even on the team yet). This is an important game for Robert Massey, Kory Blackwell, Raphaol Ball, Rashee Johnson, and Jeremy Lincoln — not only for their play in the secondary, but also on special teams.
Giants on Specials: Why is the blocking on special teams so poor? Is it the coaching or the personnel? Do the returners make the blockers look worse than they really are? We just don’t know the answer to these questions. Regardless, this aspect of the team must be turned around quickly. The Giants can ill-afford to start constantly on or near their own 20 yard line on kickoffs. Is this the game where we will see Jason Sehorn return kicks for the first time?
Tiki Barber hasn’t shown us enough to say that he is a better punt returner than Toomer. We don’t like the fact that Toomer always heads for the sidelines, but at least he holds onto the ball. Brad Maynard has won the punting job in our book. Brad Daluiso still makes us nervous.
Last week, the Giants gave up too many big kick and punt returns. This area of the team has to be fixed quickly too. Skins’ returner Brian Mitchell must be drooling.