New York Giants 31 – New Orleans Saints 3
Overview: Finally, the offense showed some life in the Giants’ impressive 31-3 victory over the New Orleans Saints. The win incredibly puts New York only a half game out of first place in the NFC East. However, there continues to some disturbing warning signs and problems on offense that still need to be rectified if the Giants are going to make a playoff push. The main trouble spots are the offensive line and an inability to run the football. The quarterbacking is far too inconsistent still.
Defensive Line: The defensive line put forward another strong effort, though the Saints had far more success running the football than the Cowboys. It seemed like most of HB Ricky Williams’ damage came against the right side of the defense. DE Cedric Jones (8 tackles and 1 sack) generally played well. There were a few plays where he helped to disrupt left-side runs by holding the point of attack or getting penetration. However, there were a couple of plays where he had trouble disengaging from the block. Still, it was a positive performance. Jones also picked up another sack. Cedric needs to develop a more consistent cross-over move as too many of his rushes are pushed harmlessly wide of the pocket. Jones was also exposed in coverage on a big pass to the fullback in a zone-blitz situation. Starting defensive tackles Robert Harris (3 tackles) and Keith Hamilton (3 tackles, r sack) were solid, but unspectacular. The Saints could not generate any consistent yardage up the middle and these two were largely responsible. DE Michael Strahan (2 tackles, r sack) didn’t put up big numbers, but was disruptive. New Orleans rarely ran to his side and Michael was often seen buzzing around the quarterback. The reserves saw quite a bit of action again. DT George Williams (1 tackle) was fairly active and nearly picked up a sack. DE Bernard Holsey (2 tackles) and DT Christian Peter (no tackles) saw some quality minutes.
Linebackers: A decent game by the linebacking corps, but not quite as strong against the run as in the last game. WLB Jessie Armstead (4 tackles) was fairly quiet until his interception in the third quarter on which he almost scored. MLB Corey Widmer (3 tackles) was around the ball quite a bit and has now strung together a few strong efforts. Strangely, SLB Marcus Buckley (2 tackles) seemed to be in the game a lot more than Ryan Phillips. Buckley flashed a bit on one pass rush and almost got to the passer. Ryan Phillips (2 tackles) made a real nice play in coverage, staying with the back and coming up with an interception. Scott Galyon (4 tackles) finally saw some significant playing time this year and was productive when out there. He has a nose for the football.
Defensive Backs: The Saints’ passing game was not impressive and the Giants’ defensive backs were really never tested. Most of the Saints’ passing yardage came in garbage time. SS Sam Garnes (11 tackles) laid the wood on a number of times and came up with a couple of crunching hits. He is lucky that a halfback-option pass was poorly thrown because he had bitten on the fake and should have been beaten for a touchdown. FS Percy Ellsworth (2 tackles) was fairly quiet until his injury. He came back into the game and picked off a poor pass, but clearly couldn’t run and left the game again. S Shaun Williams (1 tackle) looked real strong on a blitz and nearly got a sack. Shaun also looked much better in coverage this week and nearly came up with a pick while covering a receiver. He got his chance to play at safety when Percy got hurt, but promptly pulled a hammy when going for another interception attempt. CB Jason Sehorn (7 tackles) wasn’t really tested except for a slant pass that was poorly thrown and pass into the end zone near the end of the game that he knocked away on a nice play. CB Phillippi Sparks (3 tackles) was nowhere near the receiver on the Saints’ first play – a flea flicker. After that, he played a strong game and very nearly came up with an interception on a 4th down play. CB Jeremy Lincoln (2 tackles) was forced to play safety in the second half due to the injuries to Percy and Shaun. While he wasn’t burned and should be commended for being able to make that difficult transition, the Saints were able to pass down the middle quite a bit in the 4th quarter. Cornerbacks Andre Weathers (3 tackles) and Bashir Levingston (1 tackle) played quite a bit and didn’t hurt their team.
Quarterback: QB Kent Graham (19-of-29 for 239 yards, 2 touchdowns passing, 1 touchdown rushing, and 1 interception) played decently this week, but there were still some troubling tendencies. First was that Kent seems to have regressed from last year and this preseason in feeling the rush. Too often, especially early in this game, Kent held onto the ball too long or was oblivious of defenders flying around him. For example, Graham took a sack and fumbled the ball away on the first drive on a play where he had relatively decent pass protection, but he didn’t feel the outside rush from his right and step up into the pocket. Kent took another sack later in the game in a situation where he should have thrown the ball away. Secondly, I still get the feeling (purely subjective) that Kent is a tad afraid of making a mistake and that this is sometimes negatively affecting his decision-making. Third, it seems as if Graham gets an inordinate number of his throws tipped at the line. The only play that I was really mad at him was his pick where I felt he danced around the pocket too long and would have been better advised to throw the ball out of bounds.
Now for the good news. Graham was very strong in third down situations where the Giants converted 10-of-17 attempts. Graham and the Giants finally got the ball to TE Pete Mitchell in many of these key situations. These conversions were critical in not only putting together drives that put points on the board, but it kept the defense rested on the sidelines. Kent’s prettiest pass of the day was his 27-yard touchdown throw to Amani Toomer on a go-route – the ball couldn’t have been thrown any better. His 6-yard touchdown run opened up the scoring in the first quarter. Graham also threw a very good block on Ike Hilliard’s reverse that helped to spring the play. All in all, it was a positive performance. If Kent can continue to improve and gain confidence, the Giants will be in decent shape.
Offensive Line: The most disturbing thing about the game I felt was the Giants’ continued inability to open holes on the line of scrimmage for the running backs. It didn’t matter if the Giants ran left, right (as I have suggested), or up the middle. Time and again, there was just no room to run. Indeed on some outside runs to the right, there didn’t seem to be anyone blocking the linebackers. There were other plays where everyone seemed to be blocked except for the one guy who disrupted the play. Very frustrating! There were also far too many penalties. LG Jason Whittle had a rough start with a holding penalty and a sack, but seemed to settle down as the game progressed. LT Roman Oben still is a tad shaky in pass protection and I hope he gets his game back soon. The Giants were also very fortunate that Oben was not flagged for a false start on Graham’s touchdown pass to Toomer. RG Ron Stone was flagged for holding. RT Scott Gragg seemed to start off a bit shaky in pass protection as there was too much pressure coming from the right on the first drive, but he seemed to settle down and play decently. Aside from the first drive, pass protection was not too much of a problem, but the inability run the ball, especially with a big lead, was very troublesome.
Running Backs: The best thing that you can say about the running game on Sunday was that the Giants got a lot of practice at trying to run the football. LeShon Johnson carried the ball 18 times for 36 yards (a terrible 2.0 yards-per-carry average) and Joe Montgomery carried the ball for 14 times for 28 yards (an equally terrible 2.0 yards-per-carry average). That’s not going to get it done in the NFL. I don’t blame LeShon and Joe too much – though there were times when both seemed to run without demonstrating a lot of vision. The run blocking was terrible for most of the day and there was little room to maneuver, especially on sweeps to either side. Montgomery did make a high-reel tackling-breaking effort on his 12-yard touchdown run, where he demonstrated incredible balance. He also brought some much needed intensity to the huddle. LeShon looked sharp on his two receptions for 16 yards. HB Tiki Barber was not used much. FB Charles Way was too inconsistent blocking. On one running play, I spotted him destroying his man, but on another, he allowed the defender to fight through his block and disrupt the play.
Tight Ends: I felt that Pete Mitchell was the offensive player of the game. It just wasn’t the fact that he caught five passes for 59 yards, but four of those five passes picked up first downs in key situations. Indeed, at least two or three times, Mitchell caught the ball short of the marker, but fought his way for first down yardage in a very impressive fashion – very “Bavaro-like”. TE Howard Cross must share some of the blame for the poor run blocking. He caught one pass for two yards (an old Dan Reeves favorite).
Wide Receivers: Really, most of the wide receiver production came from three big plays: a 23-yard catch-and-run by Toomer on the first scoring drive, a 27-yard touchdown reception by Toomer on a perfectly thrown pass from Graham, and a fluke 53-yard “Hail Mary” to Joe Jurevicius. Ike Hilliard (3 catches for 17 yards) helped to keep drives alive with underneath catches, but he didn’t make a big play catching the ball. He did demonstrate fine running ability on his 24-yard double reverse. Toomer still seems to have problems separating from defenders. Jurevicius made a superb sideline catch on a low throw and showed great concentration on the “Hail Mary”. WR David Patten remains invisible.
Special Teams: Special teams played decently, but not great. The good news is that PK Cary Blanchard hit his 41-yard field goal attemp; the bad news is that his kick-offs are not very good. Because of this, kick coverage teams had some problems preventing decent returns. Indeed, if the Saints had a better returner back there, one got the sense that he could have done some serious damage. P Brad Maynard remains too inconsistent. Bashir Levingston got his first chance to return a kick and showed some real explosion. Tiki Barber solidly fielded the ball and often made the first man miss, but could not really get untracked.