New England Patriots 14 – New York Giants 0
Game Overview: I need to preface my remarks with the fact that since I was not able to pick the game up on DirecTV, I was forced to view the contest from a local sports bar. Thus, I do not have the benefit of the game tape and thus most of my review this week will be general impressions and observations. Unfortunately, this will most likely be true of the upcoming preseason games against the Jets and Ravens. However, BBI analyst Chris Jacobs will break down the game film and should have a more in-depth report provided below this one.
This was an ugly game. The good news is that the Giants appear to have come out of the game with no serious injuries, though LT Lomas Brown was forced to leave with a sore Achilles’ tendon and important back-up DT Ryan Hale suffered a high ankle sprain.
The worst thing that came out of last night’s game was that the place kickers were never given a chance to demonstrate their ability. The Giants’ “offense” was so poor that the team only ran two plays inside the Patriots’ 44-yard line. Thus, with three preseason games left, we still do not have a good read on Jaret Holmes or John Markham. Holmes did boot one wind-aided kick into the endzone on a kick-off, but that was the only action either saw.
How bad was the game? Offensively, the Giants only ran 49 plays for 92 yards. The Patriots, on the other hand, picked up 338 yards on 76 plays. The Giants picked up six first downs; the Patriots picked up 19.
What it comes down to is this – the Patriots were emotionally and physically ready to play the game; the Giants were not.
Quarterbacks: Terrible. Kerry Collins (3-of-8 for 18 yards and an interception) was very inaccurate other than one nicely thrown slant pass to Amani Toomer. A couple of his throws were so wild that it was embarrassing. The fact that he didn’t force the ball on a few plays by throwing it away was offset by his terrible interception where he didn’t see LB Bryan Cox in the middle of the field and threw it right to him.
The statistics for Jason Garrett (2-of-6 for 10 yards) speak for themselves. However, to be fair, WR Ron Dixon dropped two catchable balls from Garrett, including a deep pass that would have set up the Giants inside the Pats’ 5-yard line.
Jesse Palmer (4-of-14 for 23 yards) looked more like Mike Cherry back there than the Jesse Palmer we saw in the scrimmage. Again, to be fair, his pass protection was not good and Palmer was often running for his life. But Jesse was not very accurate and was lucky a couple of his passes were not picked off. He had a number of passes batted down as well.
Wide Receivers: I am not worried about Amani Toomer (2 catches for 12 yards). Once the bell rings, he will be fine.
It is very hard to get a read on Joe Jurevicius (no catches) because Kerry Collins was so bad. However, Joe continues to play somewhat of a disappearing act when the Giants need him to step it up. This is his fourth year and other than a couple of games, he has made virtually no impact on this team.
Ron Dixon (1 catch for 1 yard) dropped two passes, including the aforementioned deep ball from Garrett. The Giants need him to make the ordinary play as well as the spectacular one. They are counting on him.
No other receiver got involved in the offense. There looked to be miscommunication between Jonathan Carter and Jesse Palmer on one route. Quinton Spotwood dropped a pass. Thabiti Davis, Pat Woodcock, and Anthony Tucker were not heard from.
Tight Ends/H-Backs: Unfortunately, without the game tape, I can really remark on the blocking, though there were a few nice outside runs by Damon Washington with guys like Adam Young (2 catches for 9 yards) leading the way. Dan Campbell was flagged for holding, but I thought it was a ticky-tack call. Marcellus Rivers made a nice five yard catch by pulling the ball in with one hand.
Halfbacks/Fullbacks: Ron Dayne only carried the ball four times (for 11 yards). He looked pretty good on one inside charge where he dragged some tacklers with him. But the hesitation in his step coming off the goal line in the first quarter was reminiscent of last year. “I still need to hit the hole harder and make quicker decisions,” said Dayne after the game. Still, he looks like he is in great shape and that is a huge plus.
Quite a few BBI‘ers have been touting Damon Washington (9 carries for 41 yards, 1 catch for 9 yards) and he did not disappoint. He showed good speed on his outside runs and good toughness on his inside charges – despite being a bit beat up. He doesn’t have a lot of power however and is brought down pretty easily. I’d like to see him break one – you just get the feeling that he will.
Omar Bacon (3 carries for 3 yards) looked ordinary at best. (Note to Sean Payton: Don’t run outside runs out of your own endzone – they tend to result in safeties).
FB Greg Comella had one catch for six yards. He is in great shape and I expect big things from him catching the ball this year, but it is a shame that he doesn’t play with more natural power as a blocker. He does have the kind of “going to war” attitude that every team needs.
Offensive Line: I will defer to Chris Jacobs below for the offensive line review since he has the game film. Jason Whittle started at center for the injured Dusty Zeigler and Chris Bober subbed for Lomas Brown when Lomas left the game. I thought the second team offensive line did a good job in the run blocking department.
Defensive Line: The highlight of the night for the Giants was the pass pressure the starting front four was able to mount despite the absence of DT Keith Hamilton. Indeed, if the Giants had not let Drew Bledsoe escape a couple of times, the carnage would have been worse. DE Kenny Holmes flashed great outside quickness and gave the Pats’ left tackle fits. DE Michael Strahan looks to be in All-Pro form as he was in on a couple of sacks. Even Ryan Hale showed some decent pass rush ability (hopefully his ankle sprain isn’t too serious). The quietest guy ironically was Cornelius Griffin. Run defense was decent, though tackling by both the line and linebackers needs improving (that’s what the preseason is for).
The only thing I didn’t like with the starters is after they “made their noise” early in the game by getting some serious heat, the line seemed to coast until they were pulled.
The reserves didn’t look bad either. Cedric Scott flashed on the pass rush and against the run. He did get pinned inside on one big Pats’ run outside however. Ross Kolodziej and Lance Legree looked pretty stout inside and got some push.
Linebackers: Jessie Armstead and Mike Barrow looked to be coasting a bit – wait to the bell rings. Brandon Short looked good. There was one early pass where he looked a bit awkward covering the flat (my biggest worry), but he looks like a much more active and aggressive player than Ryan Phillips. He got in on one sack and was very stout on runs in is direction.
Dhani Jones was around the ball a lot and looks like a player. Jack Golden was not as active, but he looks to be improving as well. The biggest problem were all the missed tackles, but that should come.
Defensive Backs: This was an area of disappointment to me. The positives were that SS Sam Garnes and FS Shaun Williams made some nice plays near the line of scrimmage. The bad news was that there seemed to be too much separation between the corners and wide receivers. Dave Thomas had a horrible game. He was burned badly bu David Patten for what should have been a touchdown, but the ball was overthrown. He then gave up a 22-yarder over the middle to Troy Brown. The Pats didn’t appear to challenge Jason Sehorn.
I thought Emmanuel McDaniel had a bad game as he was barely in the picture on a couple of easy completions when he got a chance to start at right cornerback. Will Allen didn’t look bad at left corner, but he didn’t impress too much either. His best plays were a well-covered fly pattern and his blitz where he shot into the backfield like a cannon. However, with a guy with as much speed and quickness as he possesses, he should have been closer to his man in coverage on the shorter stuff. CB Ralph Brown was so-so. CB Quincy Coleman made a big hit (one of the few on the night by the Giants), but later gave up decent yardage after missing an open field tackle.
To be honest, without the tape, I cannot provide an accurate read on the back-up safeties though Omar Stoutmire was around the ball a lot.
Special Teams: The biggest negative from this game is that the Giants are no closer to discovering what kind of placekickers they have than they did before the game. There was only one kick-off (a wind-aided kick by Holmes that made it into the endzone) and no field goal attempts.
Punter Rodney Williams had an up-and-down night. A couple of his early punts into the wind were very high but short (35 and 32 yards). I also saw him do better in NFL Europe on his pooch punting. Williams also had a low line-driver that was pretty ugly. There was one big punt with the wind and a monster 71-yarder INTO the wind that was “Landetta-esque”. You can see why the Giants like him if he can just cut down on the inconsistency in his game. The Pats did get too much pressure on the punters.
Punt and kick returns were uninspiring. Pat Woodcock didn’t look good back there and muffed a punt that bounced out-of-bounds. Punt coverage was alright, but there were far too many missed tackles. The kick coverage unit did not have a chance as the only kick was downed in the endzone.
Offensive Line Review
by Chris Jacobs
After watching the game live it took me a day and a half before throwing the tape in due to the lackluster performance I witnessed on Friday night, so I just tried to look for positives. Not only from the O-line but also from other areas. The only major negative thing that I noticed, or rather the reason why I thought the first team offense looked so bad is because they all pretty much have their jobs locked up. There is really no competition for a starting job so who is going to give a crap about the first preseason game. and that’s exactly how they played. One other point, Fassel may want to think about game-planning a tiny bit for the upcoming preseason games to give these guys some confidence. Palmer is never going to have a chance to complete a pass in any of these games, when the opposing team is sending 6 guys in the fourth quarter and you have all young guys in there that don’t know what to expect. The Patriots were stunting and blitzing all over the place and the second/third string line and running backs we’re confused.
First Stringers on Offense: About the only thing I can say, after only about the10 plays that these guys were in there, was that I thought OC Jason Whittle did a really good job. He got good drive on running plays, and on one pass play he peeled off his man to help out LG Glenn Parker who had to peel off his man to help LT Lomas Brown. I thought it was a heads up move, he seemed aware of what was going on and didn’t make any mistakes as far as I could tell. It’s early, but right now I wouldn’t be uncomfortable seeing him in there if Dusty Zeigler went down. As for the only negative, RG Ron Stone missed LB Bryan Cox on a running play that looked like it could have gone for a big gainer, this thing was blocked perfect and Stone completely whiffed. He was visibly disappointed afterward. Stone was also stood up on the play that Dayne couldn’t get it out of our own endzone. On the whole the entire starting offense looked a little sluggish, it was obvious there was no urgency.
Defense: I just want to mention a couple of things about the defense, first and second team guys. First off, everyone needs to work on tackling, I must have yelled “wrap, damn you” about 20 times. Again, lackluster play from a team who seems to now pride itself on “0-4 preseason/Superbowl”.
There were some bright spots however:
- Brandon Short: First play from scrimmage, he makes a beautiful read, splits the guard tackle gap and pops JR Redmond a yard behind the line of scrimmage. Now, he didn’t tackle him and it ended up being a 5 yard gain, but I’m sure the coaching staff will point that out to him. Why is that a positive? I can’t remember Ryan Phillips ever hitting anyone behind the line of scrimmage (LOS), unless it was a blitz. He did some other good things too. It wasn’t his fault he was left to cover a wideout on one or two plays. (Again, no game plan)
- Kenny Holmes: I wasn’t going to make a big deal out of this but, I mean, the guy is a TERROR. Playing the run and on the pass rush. Again, an upgrade from last year. Teams are going to be going nuts game-planning to protect the QB against this front four.
- Ryan Hale: If you watched the game, you heard Governor Phil McConkey praising him left and right. It was well deserved, he really did a very good job from what I could tell. What impressed me the most was recognizing when the Pats were setting up a screen and going after it. Was also very good against the run. A good backup.
- Dhani Jones: Did this guy really blow out his knee. He was all over the place, runs like a deer, hits like a truck. I like him.
- Lance Legree: I really don’t know much about this guy, I don’t know if he’s going to make the team or not. I thought he played really good. They we’re double teaming him and he was still getting in the backfield. I’m only commenting on guys who made and impression on me and I thought he played really well. Good motor, good nose for the ball, and strong.
- Cedric Scott: Another guy that I thought played well. Has a quick outside move to get around the tackle. Seems like he needs to put on a couple of pounds and work on strength, but no doubt promising.
- Will Allen: Not spectacular, but did look like he was shot out of a gun on a corner blitz. And did get himself behind the receiver on a go pattern. He definitely has wheels.
Second String Offense: As I mentioned earlier, it seemed the Pats were really doing a lot of things up front to try and confuse them. I can’t say I agree with blitzing in the fourth quarter of a preseason game when you’re up by 10 or so points, but what are you going to do. I will say this, you could tell these guys are all fighting it out for a couple of roster spots because everyone played really hard. Before I make a few bullet points on some guys over all the run blocking by the backups was excellent, along with Damon Washington. What was most impressive about Washington was his ability to feel the open areas. Not run where the hole is suppose to be, but where there is some daylight. Something that Skinny Boy (I can’t call him Fat Ass anymore) seems to struggle with. They changed personnel a few times so I did the best I could.
LT Chris Bober: Decent job, can’t say anything bad about him. Stayed with his blocks on the runs, moved his feet well in pass protection. He may be the first backup tackle to come in if someone goes down. I’m going to try and really focus on him next week if he ends up starting. (I have a feeling they are going to rest Lomas).
OG Mike Rosenthal: Just seems to be getting better, like everyone else he did a real nice job run blocking, he seems too big for the guard spot but he’s quick enough. Did a nice job recognizing a corner blitz and rushing back to pick it up right at the snap. If Jason Garrett would have stepped up he would have picked it up, but instead Garret ran out of the pocket. It seems like I’m reaching but it was hard to find positives when they were sending six guys all night.
Scott Keirnan: Not much to say here, no mistakes, nothing spectacular. Solid play, got some good drive off the line on the runs and did a good job in pass protection.
Ray Redzniak: I think he was in there a lot in the third quarter, which put him on the opposite side from where the camera was and it made it tough for me to see what was going on. But from what I could tell he did a decent job, no big mistakes.
Chris Ziemann: this is the guy I was most excited to watch. I really liked what I saw from him last preseason. There is a possibility that he’s not back 100% from his knee injury, that’s not to say he played poorly, he did very well, but didn’t seem like the same guy from a year ago. Did a real good job on one sweep where he clocked Bryan Cox and Damon Washington picked up and extra 3 yards. (That’s the other thing I forgot to mention, in the second quarter the second line was playing against the Pats first stringers.) Anyway, it was really hard to tell how anyone did because the plays were all so vanilla.
One last point, I know I left some names out here, if anyone has any questions they can e-mail me. If anyone is worried about the offense after this performance, don’t be. It was very, very basic. Most of the game they were base blocking, and just running dives and sweeps. Last season it was a new offense so they had to do more in the preseason to get the starters use to it. I’m not worried yet. I don’t expect to see much different this Thursday, but I’m hoping there is a little fire in these guys for the Jets the week after.