New York Giants 13 – Dallas Cowboys 10
Overview: The Giants clawed and scratched their way to a critically important victory over arch-rival Dallas. It was a must game for New York if they wanted to keep any hope alive for a possible playoff berth down the road. As usual, the offense was miserable. The defense and Tiki Barber won the game.
Defensive Line: A huge amount of the credit for the win goes to the guys up front. New York’s run defense against a top offensive line was superb. Emmitt Smith was held to 26 yards on 22 carries and he never could get untracked, no matter in what direction he ran. The defensive line also picked up two sacks and innumerable hurries on QB Troy Aikman. The Giants clearly controlled the line of scrimmage. Once again, DE Cedric Jones was very solid at the point of attack. Though he finished the game with only two tackles, Jones was able to hold his ground against LT Flozell Adams time and time again. He flashed some in the pass rush department, occasionally getting near Aikman, but was normally pushed harmlessly past the pocket. DE Michael Strahan was equally tough against the run and accrued seven tackles and one sack. He had a private little war going on with RT Erik Williams, but Strahan generally came out on top. Inside LG Larry Allen kept DT Keith Hamilton (no tackles) invisible. DT Robert Harris played his best game of the season with two tackles and a critical sack on Dallas’ opening drive after a poor New York punt. Surprisingly, the back-ups saw quite a bit of playing time as well as I spotted not only Christian Peter (1 tackle) in the game, but DE Bernard Holsey (1 tackle), and DT George Williams (1 tackle). Holsey was in there on more than a few plays for Strahan at left end and Jones at right end.
Linebackers: This was the best all-around game for all three starters. WLB Jessie Armstead was not as flashy this week as in his previous two efforts, but he still came away with a 10-tackle effort. Jessie was generally strong against the run and in coverage, but he did miss a key tackle on 3rd down on Dallas’ lone touchdown drive of the night. MLB Corey Widmer played a strong game after a rough start (a personal foul penalty on the Giants’ first punt). Corey not only came up with a monster sack on the goalline for what was almost a safety, but he made a big play by nailing an end around to Raghib Ismail in the backfield. Indeed, it was not the kind of play one expects from Widmer as he decisively and explosively shot the gap to disrupt the play. Corey also did a good job of clogging running lanes and forcing Smith into the hands of his teammates. I thought SLB Ryan Phillips (9 tackles) played his best game as a Giant. Ryan was very strong at the point of attack and made a great play by playing the outside man on an option play to stuff some Dallas trickery. He nailed Emmitt Smith a couple of times in the back field and I did not see him get exposed in coverage either, which was a huge plus. Perhaps the Giants have finally found their starting strongside guy after all. Still, I’d like to see more out of him when he rushes the passer – after all, that was supposedly his strength coming out of college.
Defensive Backs: I felt the starting safeties played a strong game, but the corners could have played much better. S Shaun Williams (2 tackles) just doesn’t have the quickness to stick with slot receivers. Aikman hurt the Giants a few times by going after Williams and CB Andre Weathers in 3rd down situations. CB Jason Sehorn not only got beat on an out during Dallas’ sole touchdown drive, but he made matters much worse by missing the tackle. He also got beat by a journeyman wideout on another play for a first down (and missed the tackle) earlier in the game in the third quarter. Jason did a decent job of helping to force the run (7 tackles). CB Phillippi Sparks (2 tackles) was lucky that Aikman missed a couple of passes against him. He was badly beaten by his man in the slot for what should have been a touchdown, but Aikman missed his man. Troy also was off on another pass where Sparks was beaten. Really, I expect more from the New York corners, especially given the state of the Cowboy receiving corps. Surprisingly, CB Andre Weathers (3 tackles) saw quite a bit of action as the Giants often chose to keep seven or eight in coverage in third down situations. This tactic sometimes worked as Aikman was forced to dump the ball off short of the first down. But at other times, Aikman had too much time and exploited Williams or Weathers. In particular, there were two big plays that, for whatever reason, Weathers was covering Raghib Ismail. Weathers did make a nice diving breakup of a third-down pass in the fourth quarter. The safeties did play well. SS Sam Garnes was very active in run support (5 tackles) and made some key tackles to keep Smith from breaking a play. He also made a drive-ending interception off a deflected pass. On the negative side, he missed an important tackle on Chris Warren that allowed the back to pick up a first down on a third down pass. FS Percy Ellsworth (8 tackles) continues his renaissance with some strong work in run defense.
Quarterback: Really, the only good thing you can say about Kent Graham’s performance is that he didn’t turn the ball over and hurt his defense. But that’s not saying much. In my opinion, Kent played very, very tentatively. Time and again, Graham was afforded decent pass protection, but held onto the ball too long and accepted costly sacks – losses that could have proved costly in a game that turned out to be a battle of field position. To be fair, TV coverage usually does not allow one to see what is occurring with the receivers down field. Perhaps, Kent did not have anyone open to throw the ball to. If this is true, it still does not excuse Graham from not throwing the ball away. I also find it a little difficult to believe that Giants’ receivers were so thoroughly blanketed for most of the contest…but that is mainly speculation on my part. What is clear is that the Giants passing “attack” was pathetic on Monday. Graham was 15-of-21 for 183 yards, but if you take away the 30 yards in losses from his five sacks and the 56 yards on the short pass to Tiki, he was left with only 97 yards gained through the air. If Graham really wants to hold onto the starting job, he can’t play scared. If he does, he’s going to lose the job eventually. This is his chance to make something happen and he’ll regret it if he holds back much longer.
Graham’s prettiest pass of the night was his touch pass to Tiki on the game-winning, field goal drive. He also made some nice throws in difficult situations on New York’s first field goal drive and seemed to handle the no-huddle offense reasonably well. But too often Kent looked afraid to pull the trigger on passes. He tried to scramble too much for first down yardage and did so in a very indecisive manner. On the Giants 17-play, 80 drive that set up the first field goal, Graham decided to scramble for the first down on 3rd-and-3 and I felt he could have made it easily if he dove for the first down, but was too tentative and was stopped short. There was too much of that from him on Monday.
Offensive Line: The offensive line is so critical to the overall success or failure of an offense. Against the Cowboys, the line didn’t play well, but it was not terrible either. Indeed, I think that three of the five sacks credited to Dallas were the fault of Kent Graham’s and not the line. The Cowboys blitzed the Giants a great deal, yet the line, tight ends, and backs did a reasonably good job of picking it up. Penalties continue to be a problem. LG Luke Petitgout was guilty of two back-to-back penalties (a false start and a holding penalty). RT Scott Gragg and LT Roman Oben were flagged for false starts. These penalties (and others by other offensive members – more on that below) made it difficult for New York to establish any kind of rhythm. LT Roman Oben was beaten on cross over move for a sack. The Giants also did not run very well to the left again. And there was yet another outside run to Way where predictably the very fast linebackers of the Cowboys got there to disrupt the play. I continued to be amazed by Jim Fassel’s insistence on running left, despite the fact that the run blockers on the right side (Stone, Gragg, and Cross) are far superior. When New York ran right against Dallas, they tended to pick up positive yardage though still not enough. It seems to me that the lineman are getting contact, but simply not sustaining their blocks. The Dallas quickness was a problem for the blockers all night. OC Brian Williams missed a block on a screen that might have ended in a long touchdown for Tiki Barber. But Williams did a good job of making line adjustments and helping to pick up the blitz. I thought that RT Scott Gragg and RG Ron Stone played a decent game as well. Whittle came in for the injured Luke Petitgout and had a rough start as Alonzo Spellman blew by him and he held. Spellman then later powered by Whittle for a sack.
Tight Ends: Not much production here. Pete Mitchell caught 2 passes for 14 yards. One was an important 3rd-down conversion and I’m amazed the Giants don’t get the ball more into his hands in these type of situations. Pete did drop a ball on the final drive and that could have proved costly. Cross blocked well for the run, as usual. Why don’t the Giants run more behind him? Isn’t that why he is on the roster?
Wide Receivers: A rather non-productive night for the receiving corps. Was this due to the quarterbacking or their own inability to get open? It was probably a combination of both. Amani Toomer (5 catches for 44 yards) looked like he might play a bigger role as he picked up a first down on New York’s first offensive play. But for the most part, his receptions did little damage. He also was flagged for illegal motion. Ike Hilliard came up with two big catches (for a total of 41 yards). One was a 16-yard reception on 3rd-and-12 on New York’s first field goal drive. The second was a 25-yard reception on the Giants’ first possession in the second half when it looked like the offense might put another drive together. But that was it from him. Joe Jurevicius’ sole catch was a big one – an 11-yard out against Deion Sanders on the Giants’ final drive.
Running Backs: The offensive player of the game was HB Tiki Barber. His 56-yard, tackle-breaking catch-and-run in the final seconds of the game set up PK Brad Daluiso’s game winner. Tiki finished the game with five catches for 73 yards. He almost broke another very long run on a screen if the play had been blocked correctly. A lot of fans may criticize Tiki, but he has one thing that this team desperately needs and that is speed. He can break a big play and has flashed that ability in each of his three years in New York. Now he just needs to do so on a more consistent basis. I am very happy for Tiki. Barber also looked pretty sharp running the ball (10 carries for 35 yards). On the down side, Barber was flagged for holding (though he did a good job on most blitz pickups) and he did put the ball on the ground in one situation (the ball bounced right back to him). Gary Brown (10 carries for 23 yards) and FB Charles Way (3 carries for 7 yards) did not. Both looked sluggish. Way also did not sustain his block on a 2nd-and-short play on a key drive in the fourth quarter (Graham was sacked on the very next play and the Giants were forced to punt). Brown was flagged for illegal motion. Strangely, Fassel likes to send him out in motion as a receiver quite a bit and I saw them do this at least three times Monday. Wouldn’t LeShon Johnson or Barber be better in that role?
Special Teams: An up-an-down night here. Special Teams Coach Larry MacDuff deserves a lot of credit for getting his squad to play at a much higher level this year. But his decision to have Brad Daluiso kickoff the ball to Deion Sanders was inexcusable. I know that Dallas was expecting the squib kick, but you just don’t do that. The Giants are very, very fortunate that another play as catastrophic as “The Fumble” did not take place on Monday. Stupid, stupid play. Stupid plays cost games – and the jobs of head coaches.
Another negative is that Tiki Barber still seems to have problems judging and adjusting to punts when the ball in the air. For the second time this year, he let a punt that he should have fielded hit the ground and role for significant yardage. Joe Jurevicius was flagged for running into the kicker on a ticky-tack call. P Brad Maynard got off a couple of very poor directional kicks, including a 17-yarder that set Dallas up in New York’s territory on their very first possession. TE Dan Campbell was flagged for an illegal block. Kick returns by David Patten were poorly blocked.
Now the good news. Tiki Barber broke the game open with a combination of vision, moves, power, balance, and speed on his electrifying 85-yard punt return. The Giants did a good job of giving Tiki a wall on the left side, starting with Dan Campbell and Greg Comella. Barber finished the night with 5 returns for 123 yards. Kick-off coverage was good and the Giants did do a good job of keeping the ball out of Deion Sanders’ hands on punt returns. The only time he touched the ball on a punt, the Giants were right down there to clobber him. David Patten made a great play on the goalline to keep a punt from bouncing into the endzone and the ball was downed at the two yard line. PK Brad Daluiso hit both his short field goals.
Giants/Dallas
by David Oliver
Monday Night football(MNF) means a lot of things to a lot of people. Celebrities show up at the game, the west coast rushes home from work, the east coast prepares to go to bed without knowing the final score, and to Dan Dierdorf it probably means he’s rid of Boomer and Al and the joke is on us. For me, MNF means two days of annual leave, getting back to Mom’s at 2 a.m., and driving home in the daylight, which is actually pretty good stuff. Philly is not as depressing in the daylight, reminding me more of an Orozco mural than a Bosch painting, the traffic is lighter on Tuesday morning, but Delaware stills smells really awful. I don’t know if it’s Wilmington waking up in the morning , opening it’s eyes and seeing Philly next to it, kind of like that hung over view of the beauty who took you in through too much brew last night, and realizing neither of you has brushed your teeth in 24 hours, or is it the stench of all those $2 dollar tolls forked over under duress to the `tax free shopping Paradise’, which if we are lucky may someday disappear in a hurricane as the Susquehanna and the Delaware overflow their banks and erase this mistake. I haven’t mentioned the actual game yet because for us Giants fans there’s usually not much, and last night was pretty characteristic except WE WON. LT was getting his Hall ring and some of you predicted disaster. Kent Graham was named the starter and his anti-fan club was yelling, repent, the millennium is near. JF announced his team would be working on a no huddle, no offense as a change of pace and that gave Dallas a full week to prepare for a low-scoring contest; but then they fell into that trap last week down the Pike, and in a game in which two offenses can’t score, Philly may have discovered something.
I figure most of you have seen the game, read Eric’s analysis, which is far more factual than any I could do and have formed at least two opinions on every player and every play. So this will be short. WE WON. As JF told the media, WE WON, and that’s what matters and we can all take the rest of the week to do our homework. As Jimmy Carter said we have a malaise here and we need a spark. Don’t be offended; we do it, management does it, every fan and every team in football does it; we here at BBI just do it better. The game was a relatively lackluster event. The photographers were grumbling throughout that there was no money to be made here as you can only sell so many photos of Emmitt Smith off-tackle or Kent Graham getting sacked. It was a cold 58 degrees because of the 16 mph wind and it was uncomfortable without gloves. The referee team was led by Dick Hantack, one of the NFL’s finest- they blew a few, had to be induced to call a few, called a lot and killed the Giants. There were way to many Dallas fans as probably 20,000 of the 78,000 were in Stars, not behind bars. The game was a quick 3 hour affair and we had illustrious company most of the night as Phil Simms, his young son and Danny Aeillo spent the game along the sidelines. I don’t mean to be social butterfly but I’d like to give you some idea of the atmospherics when Jerry Jones and ABC show up at a game.
The game: not many first downs, not much scoring, lousy third down efficiency for us again, not any real aerial displays, but there was Tiki, running down the Giants sideline and later running down the `boys sideline. Both tough shots, one too close, one too far. Dallas had a slight edge in possession and passing; the Giants had a huge edge in punt returns and our #21 played better than their #21- that was the difference. Defensively, the Giants held them to 24 yards rushing in 25 attempts, and rang Emmitt’s bell a couple of times. Passing; Dallas did have 266 yards on 20 out of 33. The Giants had 183 yards on 15 of 21, with Tiki and Toomer each getting 5 balls. Tiki had the 56 yard catch and run to set up the winning field goal; Toomer’s long was 16, Ike had a 25 yarder, Mitchell and JJ had a 10 and 11, but Pete uncharacteristically dropped one; just another in the daisy chain of miscues which affects our O. Defensively, the Giants were masterful; there were 47 tackles and 15 assists for a combined total of 62 tackles on 61 Dallas offensive plays, hmmmm!! Jessie had 9 tackles, 1 assist; Phillips 5 and 4; Percy 6 and 2; Jason 6 and 1; Michael 5 and 2 and Sam G 4 and 1. Sam left the locker room for the night pondering the stat sheet; he must have some incentives in his contract. Andre Weathers chipped in 3 playing in the nickel. Michael, Harris and Widmer had sacks. The first and last quarters were relatively even, possession wise; the Giants had the ball for 11 minutes in the second; the `boys for 10 minutes in the third. The Giants had a monster 18 play drive, which took about 10 minutes. Only one other possession topped 3 minutes and that was 3:01. Dallas had 14,10 and 8 play possessions. There was considerable action in the scrum on both sides of the ball. Harris controlled the middle for the Giants and the success of the D is linked to his health and attitude. Hold the center and the rest will come to you. The rookie had problems including drawing penalties on two consecutive plays. Jason was tested tonight, and passed. Phillips is coming along nicely, and Michael had a good game although he complained he was getting pounded all night by Williams. Some differences; they have Aikman; their linebackers are fast and active, ours are powerful. They use multiple formations on defense, we rely on powerful linebackers and a forceful front four; they have Deion.
JF indicated he `was pleased with the team effort.’ He told us “this team, I’m very proud of them, they never lost it (faith) no matter what was going on, no matter what was happening in the game, nothing…we set out to win that football game…this team has responded pretty well to situation like that…” He said that Dallas had a pretty good offense and to hold them to 24 yards rushing, was an outstanding effort.” There was a lot of discussion on that last play, particularly with Parcells taking some heat for Sunday’s loss. JF said he was inclined to squib kick but Larry told him Dallas was planning the lateral, etc. So they decided to pooch it, blew that one and came within a hair of turning victory into defeat. JF was at Stanford for the folly with Cal, which did execute one of those lateral plays right through the band coming onto the field.
Tiki was the star and just as he did in the Arizona game last year, he may be the catalyst for success. Following the game I was listening to Jay Glazer and Bob Papa discuss Tiki and Jay related the story of his call to Ronde Barber last week. He said Ronde told him that he, Ronde, had convinced Tiki to talk to JF and express his frustration with not playing. Tiki almost did it, but called Ronde back and told him he would wait his turn. Well, Tiki’s time has come; now let’s hope he develops some consistency.
I asked JF if winning this one had taken some of the pressure off. He told me, “Every win takes pressure off…I have a good feeling, the way these guys,…I can only tell you, you’re not down there (media) (I, of course, am sitting right in front of him with kneepads on) on the sidelines, that whole team, these guys were ready to go. They were unified; there was a positive attitude, a can do attitude and the sidelines were that way, `we’re going to get it, we’re going to get it, keep going”, and even after Dallas scored the players were talking about it and how could they get it” I then asked if we were going to see the same attitude on Sunday. He said “I believe so, I believe so. And you know what, part of it is…. I know it starts with me. He said that was part of what he would discuss with them Tuesday.
I talked to an excited Beshir Levingston who had gotten in on his first action. He told me MNF and Dallas had no significance for him, it was a game and that what he wanted. He said he was a little stiff from inaction, but comfortable. He feels `the Man upstairs has blessed me…I feel like I can break in anytime. He said he appreciated all the support from BBI. I also talked to Harris and asked if he was up to 100%. He said he was and that it felt good tonight. He said “I had to show up tonight…try not to think about what happened to me in the Jets game, with the ankle and stuff…I just had to come out…show my talent and what I am capable of doing, and get back to playing football. When I asked him if the D would be ready Sunday, he answered “Hey, every game, Baby”.
Finally I joined a conversation with Kent Graham who was telling us he “wasn’t going to force it (that he felt a little stiff from the inactivity). He said that Dallas had “done some things defensively, a lot of different things, blitzes, a lot of different looks, and they are going to get you a couple of times.” I told him that Rebe was a tigress in defending him the past two weeks and he laughed and said, yes, my sister would do that.” He told me the cobwebs were gone and that he felt good, but he thought there were a few head shots during the game. He was talking to the ref, but didn’t get a call. He said “Maybe they think I’m too big; I don’t know what the deal is.”
All you Joe D critics know by now that he’s gone (ACL). I just hope we find a good replacement- Joe was invaluable in November and December in the Meadowlands because he knows the winds. I hope we’re not starting the Ali Haji Sheik, Shubert, kid from Maryland, merry-go-round.
Photos will be up Wednesday, Iron Mike is Sunday. Talk to you all next week.
TEAM STATISTICS
DAL NYG
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FIRST DOWNS 14 13
Rushing 2 5
Passing 10 7
Penalty 2 1
3RD-DOWN EFFICIENCY 8-18 5-14
4TH-DOWN EFFICIENCY 0-0 0-0
TOTAL NET YARDS 274 228
Total plays 61 56
Average gain 4.5 4.1
NET YARDS RUSHING 24 75
Rushes 25 30
Average per rush 1.0 2.5
NET YARDS PASSING 250 153
Completed-attempted 20-33 15-21
Yards per pass 6.9 5.9
Sacked-yards lost 3-16 5-30
Had intercepted 1 0
PUNTS-AVERAGE 5-48.4 8-35.6
RETURN YARDAGE 58 161
Punts-returns 1-10 5-123
Kickoffs-returns 3-48 2-35
Interceptions-returns 0-0 1-3
PENALTIES-YARDS 10-59 9-75
FUMBLES-LOST 1-0 2-0
TIME OF POSSESSION 31:19 28:41
PLAYER STATISTICS
Missed field goals: Dallas (Richie Cunningham 48, 41).
Dallas rushing: Emmitt Smith 22-26, Chris Warren 1-5, Troy Aikman 1-0, Raghib Ismail 1-minus 7.
NY Giants rushing: Tiki Barber 10-35, Gary Brown 10-23, Kent Graham 7-10, Charles Way 3-7.
Dallas passing: Troy Aikman 20-33 for 266 yards, 1 INT, 0 TD.
NY Giants passing: Kent Graham 15-21 for 183 yards, 0 INT, 0 TD.
Dallas receiving: Ernie Mills 6-76, Raghib Ismail 4-74, Chris Warren 3-40, Wane Mcgarity 3-36, Jason Tucker 2-25, David Lafleur 2-15.
NY Giants receiving: Tiki Barber 5-73, Amani Toomer 5-44, Ike Hilliard 2-41, Pete Mitchell 2-14, Joe Jurevicius 1-11.
Dallas tackles-assists-sacks (unofficial): Randall Godfrey 9-1-0, Chad Hennings 6-0-1, Izell Reese 5-1-0, Greg Ellis 5-0-1, Dexter Coakley 4-1-0, Dat Nguyen 3-2-0, George Teague 1-4-0, Kevin Smith 3-1-0, Brandon Noble 2-2-0, Deion Sanders 3-0-0, Nathan Davis 1-1-0, Ebenezer Ekuban 1-1-0, Kevin Mathis 1-1-0, Alonzo Spellman 1-1-1, Darren Hambrick 1-1-1, Charlie Williams 1-0-0, Kavika Pittman 1-0-1, Darren Woodson 1-0-0.
NY Giants tackles-assists-sacks (unofficial): Jessie Armstead 9-1-0, Ryan Phillips 5-4-0, Percy Ellsworth 6-2-0, Jason Sehorn 6-1-0, Michael Strahan 5-2-1, Sam Garnes 4-1-0, Andre Weathers 3-0-0, Cedric Jones 2-0-0, Robert Harris 2-0-1, Shaun Williams 2-0-0, Corey Widmer 2-0-1, Phillippi Sparks 1-1-0, George Williams 0-1-0, Christian Peter 0-1-0, Bernard Holsey 0-1-0.
Interceptions: NY Giants (Sam Garnes 1 for 3 yards).
Fumbles lost: None.
Opponent’s fumbles recovered: None.
A: 78,204; T: 3:01.