Atlanta Falcons 36 – New York Giants 24
Game Overview: I’m glad I didn’t watch this game live because I would have been pulling my hair out of my head watching the disastrous string of plays in the first half – three fumbles, one interception, one blocked punt, and a missed 23-yard field goal. It must have left long-time Giants fans just shaking their head and cursing to the gods that be, “Why do I put myself through this sh*t?” Ahh, the joy of being a Giant fan.
I’m actually not as concerned about the performance of the first team units on offense and defense as I am about the performance of the second teamers. To be frank, the second team offensive line and most of the second team defensive front seven was just down right awful. I’m not kidding – just dreadful. The performance of the second team offensive line was a joke and the rookie draft picks at linebacker embarrassed themselves.
More bad. Safety Clarence LeBlanc (broken leg) was lost for the season. Tight ends Jeremy Shockey and Dan Campbell sprained their ankles. MLB Mike Barrow sprained his knee. Also, unbelievably, Owen Pochman missed a cheap-shot field goal and we still don’t know if Rodney Williams will ever develop any consistency.
The good news? There was dramatic improvement in special teams kick coverage, a very impressive opening offensive drive (the only time when all the starters were in the game together), continued signs that the first team offensive line will be alright if everyone stays healthy, and stingy first team defense (especially in the secondary).
Two more preseason games to go, then the real thing starts on September 5th.
Quarterbacks: Kerry Collins (10/15 for 136 yards, 2 touchdowns, 1 interception, 2 fumbles) has really impressed me this preseason with his decision-making and accuracy. He had that one risky throw against Houston that was almost picked off, but he has been virtually perfect since then. Things started off very impressively in Atlanta when both Tiki Barber and Jeremy Shockey were in the line-up. Collins led the Giants on a 9-play, 77-yard touchdown drive highlighted by passes to Amani Toomer (7 yards), Ike Hilliard (8 yards), Tiki Barber (5 yards), and Jeremy Shockey (26 yards and a short touchdown throw). What I liked about this series is that the Giants had Collins firing quickly after a short drop back. The defense never had a chance to mount a pass rush. And Collins did a good job of reading the blitzes (and there were a lot of them). Then Collins threw a beautiful touch pass to Shockey that set up the easy touchdown. The Giants and Collins made it look too easy.
On the first play of the second drive, Collins tried to force the ball to Shockey and was intercepted. Collins said he misread the coverage. I don’t like it, but interceptions happen. You move on. The third drive started off poorly when Collins was flagged with a 17-yard intentional grounding penalty on 2nd-and-9 (this was more the fault of the protection than Collins – see more on that below).
Then came the two fumbles. This was the big problem Collins had last year – as we all know. The first fumble is somewhat excusable. Quick pressure from his right (while Collins was looking left) knocked the ball out of his hands as he was beginning his wind-up – this was one of the few times that the starting offensive line broke down in pass protection. This came after an excellent throw for 15 yards to Toomer on 3rd-and-11. The second fumble came at a bad time too – Ron Dayne was getting it into gear. This fumble was more Collins’ fault. Not because he didn’t hold on – he was rocked from behind. But because he started scrambling out of the pocket without holding the ball with both hands. The pass protection on this play was not great either, but it is better to take the sack than turn the ball over.
Things got good for Collins again after those three turnovers. After a heavy does of impressive Ron Dayne runs, Collins hit Toomer for 6-yards on 3rd-and-2 and then he burned the Atlanta secondary with a superb deep post pass for a 48-yard touchdown. It was as good a deep throw as I’ve ever seen a quarterback make – right between the corner and safety – very impressive. On the next (and final) drive for Collins, he did a nice job of hitting Toomer on 3rd-and-4 for a first down. The Giants then called a roll out down on the goalline (a dumb call in my book) and Collins had to throw the ball away. On 3rd-and-goal, he threw an accurate pass to Marcellus Rivers, but Rivers was mugged in the endzone (there was no call). Pochman missed the chip-shot field goal.
Poor Jesse Palmer never had a chance. The pass protection from the offensive line and backs was so dreadful that Palmer was literally running for his life back there. Despite this, he kept his head and poise and didn’t seem flustered. He stood tall in the pocket and tried to make things happen, but most of the time, he didn’t even have time to set up. Palmer set up the Giants’ sole offensive score in the second half (a field goal) with a nice 33-yarder to Ron Dixon on a skinny post route. However, on 3rd down, I didn’t like his decision to throw short to a well-covered Delvin Joyce (though perhaps the other two receivers were well-covered). On the next drive, Palmer spotted a blown defensive assignment and found FB Charles Stackhouse wide open in the flat for a 23-yard gain. In the 4th quarter, Palmer threw a beautiful 45-yard strike on 3rd-and-19 to Derek Dorris (but and illegal formation penalty on Andy Stensrud negated the play). Palmer really throws a nice deep ball. However, on the next play, on 3rd-and-24, Palmer through an ill-advised deep pass to Jonathan Carter that was almost intercepted. The good news is that I think Palmer has made progress this preseason and there is something there to work with.
Offensive Line: I thought the starting unit of LT Luke Petitgout, LG Rich Seubert, OC Chris Bober, RG Jason Whittle, and RT Mike Rosenthal did a decent job against an aggressive 3-4 defense. Atlanta seemed to blitz a lot more than the Patriots and for the most part, the Giants picked it up. There was some really impressive run blocking between the tackles (which also includes the tackles) and Collins had a lot of time on many throws. I’ll highlight some of the difficulties, but that shouldn’t convey that the line was disappointing. It wasn’t.
Chris Bober probably had the most problems, but keep in mind that he is not used to having a nose tackle right over his head. He missed a block on the Giants’ third drive and Ron Dayne was hit right at the line of scrimmage. On the very next play, the Giants ran an unsuccessful screen pass. Marcellus Rivers picked up the wrong blitzer and Rich Seubert didn’t hold up his man long enough and Collins was pressured too quickly. This was the play where Collins was flagged for a huge 17-yard intentional grounding penalty. (Incidentally – for those who are still bugged by the fact that the Keith Hamilton was called for that ticky-tack “holding” call in the Super Bowl that negated Armstead’s touchdown – go back and watch the tape and see how the DT on this play wraps himself around Dayne’s feet to prevent him from going out to catch the ball on the screen – an atrocious non-call by the officials. Yet Dayne gets flagged for touching the back’s arm. Unbelievable!).
Mike Rosenthal seemed to have trouble with the sticky astroturf – either that or he is a klutz. On the first drive, Mike literally fell on his ass in pass protection, despite no one touching him. On a sweep to the right, he tripped over his own feet and got in Ron Dayne’s way – throwing the timing off the play and leading to a 4-yard loss. Later, Rosenthal looked slow on a pull to the right. In fact, Jason Whittle was running right up his back. Rosenthal looks good on the straight-ahead stuff, but so far I haven’t been impressed with him in space.
On the aforementioned breakdowns on Collins’ two fumbles: The pass protection on the first didn’t make much sense to me. The DE and DT did not stunt, but for some reason Jason Whittle and Mike Rosenthal did…what I mean by that is that Seubert ran behind Rosenthal to pick up the outside rusher while Rosenthal stayed with the inside guy. The end result is that both men got beat. The design of pass protection made no sense in that, to me, it made the job of both offensive linemen harder – even if it was designed to confuse the defense. On the second fumble, Collins could have stepped up into the pocket if Chris Bober didn’t get beat in pass protection.
Where the offensive line really started to dominate was in the second quarter. The entire offensive line repeatedly pushed the entire Atlanta defense off the line of scrimmage again and again. On two drives, Dayne ran for 7, 9, 4, 8, 3, and 5 yards. This was true power football and Atlanta couldn’t stop it. Each player – all five – got a great surge. This helped to set up the 48-yard touchdown pass – on a play where Collins had all day to throw. (On a side note, I like the way Seubert plays. He works to sustain blocks down the field and gets mad at himself when he doesn’t).
Now to the dreadful…and I do mean dreadful: the second team offensive line. The depth on the line has been sabotaged due to injuries to Dusty Zeigler and Jeff Hatch. If those two were healthy, I’d be comfortable with a starting line of Petitgout, Seubert, Zeigler, Whittle, and Bober – with Rosenthal, Tam Hopkins, and Jeff Hatch in reserve. But now the Giants only have one decent reserve – Hopkins at guard. The other guys SUCK. I hate to be mean, but they have no right being on an NFL roster.
The interesting thing to note is that Omar Smith is off the second team. The second team starters were LT Ryan Deterding, LG Pat Crummey, OC Sean O’Connor, RG Tam Hopkins, and RT Andy Stensrud. The best of the bunch was Hopkins. However, there were two plays where I felt Hopkins should have broken off a double-team block to scrape the middle linebacker. In both these plays, the middle linebacker nailed the runner right in the hole unblocked. My notes don’t show any major snafus on the part of Crummey except for one play where he didn’t see and pick up a blitz – maybe there is something there the Giants can work with by placing him on the Practice Squad.
Deterding may be one of the worst offensive linemen I’ve ever seen. He gets beat on almost every pass play. If I was Palmer, I’d put a contract out on him. There was a sack given up, countless pass pressures, and a false start – all by Deterding. O’Connor made one nice head’s up play when he peeled off to block Deterding’s man (who had beaten him again) and saved Palmer another lick. But he was very shaky in pass protection himself and didn’t get much movement in his run blocks. There was one terrible play by him where he whiffed on the middle linebacker and this caused Warren to get nailed behind the line of scrimmage. Earlier he failed to hit a linebacker on another play that went nowhere. The final exclamation point was his premature snap to Palmer that resulted in a turnover on 3rd-and-12. Stensrud blows too. Shaky pass protection and a illegal formation penalty that negated a 45-yard play. The nadir of this group (along with the backs) came on a 2nd-and-10 play in the 4th quarter. Palmer was crushed underneath an avalanche of Falcons (his helmet even being knocked off). Screwing up in pass protection on the play were FIVE Giants – FIVE: Stensrud, O’Connor, Deterding, FB Darian Barnes, and HB Delvin Joyce. It was a jail break in the truest sense and VERY ugly.
The Giants are in A LOT OF TROUBLE here if someone gets hurt.
Halfbacks/Fullbacks: Tiki Barber (2 carries for 24 yards, 1 catch for 5 yards) looked sharp. He had a beautiful cutback run on the game’s opening offensive play that picked up 17 yards. I think this was a designed cutback because the receivers were all lined up to the side of the cutback and worked to block down on the defensive backs at the snap of the ball. Tiki’s best runs always come on the cutback and this is one of the few plays where you can really hurt today’s modern defenses in the running game. Tiki also made a real nice cut on his next play that picked up 7 yards.
Run-for-run, this might have been one of Ron Dayne’s (15 carries for 45 yards) best games. Dayne ran the ball very aggressively between the tackles and made some very nice adjustments of his own in traffic. His stats would have looked far better if it weren’t for a couple of negative plays where the blocking broke down outside of the tackles. On his first carry, Dayne broke off four yards on a pitch to the right – an excellent effort run in traffic that picked up the first down. A few Dayne runs then were hampered by poor run blocking by Dan Campbell (once) and Darian Barnes (twice) at the point-of-attack. He also wasn’t helped by big Mike Rosenthal getting out of his way on the sweep to the right (4-yard loss) and a missed block by Chris Bober (1 yard gain). But when the line and lead fullback started doing their jobs, Dayne started to punish the Falcons with the runs mentioned above. What was great about these runs was that Dayne was running very hard and aggressively while at the same time making some nifty moves in traffic through tight spaces. That shows good vision. There was even a nice spin move if you can believe it. The only real disappointing run of the game for me was a first-and-goal run from the 7 yard line at the end of the first half. Dayne decided to bounce the play outside instead of taking the play inside like it was supposed to. I think Dayne would have scored on the play as there was a great surge there. On a final note, Dayne made a superb block in blitz protection against a linebacker that he stonewalled.
As for the fullbacks, as impressed as I was with Darian Barnes against Houston, I was as disappointed with him in this game. Twice I saw him get stuffed badly at the line of scrimmage and get knocked backwards. In the second half, he failed to take out his man on a sweep to the right and failed to pick up a blitz. It was like watching a different back. Stackhouse has definitely got a size advantage over Barnes. And while he played better than Barnes in this game, he still was too inconsistent. There were runs where he hit his man and took him out of the play; and there were those where he didn’t. I wish we would see a little more pop and explosion in Stackhouse’s blocks.
Delvin Joyce and Antonio Warren never had a chance on their limited opportunities due to exceptionally poor run blocking. Joyce didn’t help his cause with two fumbles (one on a kick return, the other after a short pass reception). Joyce is also VERY weak on blitz pick-ups – his size really works against him here and he did a poor job of protecting Palmer at least twice that I saw.
Tight Ends/H-Backs: Jeremy Shockey and Dan Campbell left early with ankle injuries so there wasn’t much to see of them. Sean Bennett (hamstring) did not play.
Shockey did make an early impact and he was a major factor in the first scoring drive. You can already see that opposing defenses are focusing their efforts on him. For example, on a 2nd-and-3 pass to Ike Hilliard, Hilliard was locked up against single coverage on the left side while all the other Atlanta coverage men were focused on the receivers and Shockey to the right. It was an easy pitch-and-catch for the Giants. This is a great example of how the Giants can gameplan to take advantage of Shockey even when the ball isn’t going to him. Later in the drive, the starting safety Keith Lyle couldn’t stay with Shockey on a fly pattern down the right sideline and the 26-yard reception set the Giants’ up for the easy TD pass to Shockey on the very next play.
Dan Campbell got slammed back (just like Barnes) on the one play where I focused on him as the lead blocker from the fullback spot. I’m not sure Campbell is real comfortable in this role yet. Still, he has an important function on off-tackle and outside runs. That said, Campbell also blew an outside block on a linebacker on a Dayne run up the middle, allowing the backer to tackle Dayne for a short gain. It was not a good game for Campbell.
Marcellus Rivers is getting better as a blocker. Like I have said previously, he’ll never be a root-them-out kind of guy, but at least he is getting in the way now. Rivers screwed up on a blitz pick-up where he combined with Luke Petitgout to take on one blitzer, while allowing another blitzer even farther outside to rush Collins unchallenged (the intentional grounding play). Rivers got mugged in the endzone at the end of the first half – his shirt was even almost pulled off – but the officials didn’t call it.
Wide Receivers: Amani Toomer (4 catches for 43 yards) looks as sharp as ever. He gave the Atlanta corners fits with his combination of size and athleticism – and made two catches even while falling down. The interesting thing to note is that Collins threw to Toomer in 3rd down situations in this game – not Ike Hilliard. Hilliard (3 catches for 61 yards and a touchdown) is definitely bigger and stronger this year and is still a favorite of Collins to pick up key yardage. He got deep for a 48-yard touchdown by splitting the coverage on a post route.
What stinks is that Jesse Palmer had virtually no time to throw and thus we didn’t get a good look at Jonathan Carter, Ron Dixon, and Derek Dorris. Each made a some play however in their limited chances with Dixon coming down with a nice 33-yard reception that he had to sky for and Dorris getting deep and making a nice over-the-shoulder reception for 45 yards on a play that was negated due to a penalty. Carter came up with a key 16-yard reception on 3rd-and-16.
Defensive Line: I thought DT Cornelius Griffin played an excellent game. Finally, he was getting some quick and immediate pressure on the quarterback, even when double-teamed. Though this did not result in any sacks, Michael Vick was aware that he was there. It is also interesting to note that I saw the Giants use Griffin again as a spy on the mobile quarterback (just like against Donovan McNabb in the playoff game). DE Michael Strahan had another superb game. He was very active against the run, both right at him and away from him. He did miss Warrick Dunn at one play right at him, but then came right back to nail him for a 2-yard loss. Strahan also flashed a couple of times on the pass rush. Keith Hamilton had a bad game in terms of jumping offsides/neutral zone infractions. He did so three times (even though one of these I think should have been called on Griffen). Still, it is tough to play the Giants’ defense when both Hamilton and Griffen are in there together (and healthy).
DE Kenny Holmes was unimpressive again and is starting to see Frank Ferrara eat into his playing time. Holmes got good penetration on one Dunn run to the left, but couldn’t make the play. His discipline on the backside of the play was poor as well as the Falcons burned the Giants with a couple of bootlegs in his direction. To his credit, he did make an excellent play against the run late in the second quarter, combing with Strahan to nail T.J. Duckett for a 2-yard loss. Frank Ferrara doesn’t have ideal tools. I did see him get crushed on one double-team. However, he has proven to be more active than Holmes and did so against Atlanta starters on Saturday. On his first play of the game, he smashed into Vick on a stunt to the inside (a blitz by Brandon Short also disrupted Vick on this play). On the next drive, Ferrara remained disciplined and forced an incompletion by tipping the ball on a bootleg pass to the left – this is something that Holmes didn’t do. On the very next play, Ferrara disrupted a Dunn run (but missed the tackle), allowing Brandon Short to clean up.
The second team defensive line was not impressive except for a few flashes that shouldn’t erase what was otherwise a dreary performance. The Falcon second teamers ran the ball up and down the field all night on the Giants (the linebackers share a huge role of responsibility here too – more on that in a bit). Lance Legree left early with a knee injury so he’ll escape my wraith in this game. DT Ross Kolodziej just doesn’t do it for me. There was one play where he got a good pass rush and he deflected a pass on another play, but most of the time the guy was invisible. He regularly gets manhandled on double-teams. For example, he got crushed on Maurice Smith’s 32 yard run right up the gut in the third quarter (all three rookie linebackers played this play atrociously too).
Almost as disappointing was DE Cedric Scott – who played both on the right and left side in this game. Yes there were flashes. For example, on Atlanta’s second drive in the second half, he made a great play by squeezing through a double-team block to hold T.J. Duckett to a 1-yard gain (Kolodziej also was there too). Scott also got good pressure on a stunt. But there were too many plays where Scott was effectively blocked at the point-of-attack (by second teamers) such as Duckett’s 21-yard run on the same drive and later Travis Jervey’s 3-yard touchdown run (Quincy Monk got handled here too). Scott was also flagged for being offsides and an intentional face mask. Scott has been very disappointing this preseason.
DT Matt Mitrione played well at times, but also had his problems gumming up the running game. The was as Smith run that went for 18-yards where Mitrione effectively charged himself right out of the play by running in the opposite direction. But a few plays later, he held his ground and a running play was stuffed. Two plays later, on a pass rush, he clubbed the guard out of the way and sacked the quarterback. Mitrione and Scott both deserve most of the credit for the fumble that picked up by Mallard and returned for a touchdown. Both got great penetration on the play. But later on 3rd-and-1, Mitrione, Scott, and Quincy Monk got handled at the point-of-attack and Falcons made an easy first down on a strongside run.
DT/DE Dwight Johnson was also disappointing. He got blown out of the way too often and badly missed Jervey in the backfield on a play that picked up 24 yards on a draw. DE Nick Myers played quite a bit late, but didn’t make an impression.
Linebackers: I didn’t think this was a very good game overall for the starting linebackers. The biggest problem was that Dunn is terribly elusive and making the linebackers miss even when they had him dead to rights. Dhani Jones in particular missed quite a few tackles. I think Jones got caught too far inside on one of those bootlegs too. Jones got suckered on the play-action fake on the goalline for the touchdown – but to be fair, it was great fake. Mike Barrow left early with a knee injury – but he whiffed badly on Dunn on one play too. Brandon Short was probably the most active of the starters. He looked good on the blitz again and was pretty aggressive against the run, doing a nice job of stringing out one outside run. Short also did a fine job defending a screen pass that looked set up for big yardage. Like the others, he missed a tackle on Dunn however.
Kevin Lewis came into the game when Barrow went out. I wasn’t real impressed with Kevin Lewis’ reading skills on an inside running play – he took himself out of the play by running to the wrong spot.
The three rookie draft picks – Nick Greisen, Wesley Mallard, Quincy Monk – were just DREADFUL. I mean really, really, really bad. They were so bad that it was embarrassing and made me wonder aloud if we shouldn’t all take a step back and re-evaluate these three young men. Running play after running play I saw all three of these guys get effectively manhandled at the point-of-attack. Mallard was regularly crushed. Monk couldn’t play off blocks. Nick Greisen often ran himself out of the play right into the waiting arms of a blocker. There were so many terrible plays by these three that it would take too long (and be too depressing) to list. Just believe me when I tell you that my notes from the game read, “#51, #54, #93 killed on the play” over and over again. More bad news? Both Greisen and Monk were burned badly in coverage. Monk for 16 yards by the fullback and Greisen for what should have been a 17-yard touchdown pass by the tight end (but was dropped – Clarence LeBlanc was also late getting over to help on this play). Monk got beat by the TE on another play, but the pass was errant. Suffice it to say, none of these guys is remotely ready to challenge a starter – I don’t care what Fassel says. What really pissed me off about the second team defense was the lack of fire and passion…they took their beating like gentlemen. Sad.
Defensive Backs: I continue to be very much impressed with Will Allen and Will Peterson. If Jason Sehorn comes back healthy and strong, the Giants may have the best trio of corners in the league this year. It was interesting to note that Johnnie Lynn had Peterson blitz a ton from his right corner spot – just like John Fox used to employ Sehorn in 1997. Except for one major gaffe, Peterson had superb coverage throughout the first half. He successfully defended a 3rd-and-13 pass on Atlanta’s first drive and a 3rd-and-5 pass at the beginning of the second quarter. He then held the receiver short of a first down on 3rd-and-5 late in the second quarter, but an offsides penalty gave the Falcons the first. No matter…three plays later Peterson intercepted a Vick pass and returned it 30 yards. The only major gaffe was that Peterson blitzed on one occasion where there was no one to back up his man. Luckily, Vick never saw the wide open receiver streaking towards the endzone. This play was reminiscent of the Jason Sehorn screw-up against the Vikings last year. Peterson also lost contain on a couple of those misdirection plays to his side – he has to guard against that.
Will Allen had another good game, except for one major mistake of his own. He did a great job of keeping the much bigger Brian Finneran out of the endzone on a 3rd-and-goal pass from the six. Allen did a good job of defending the flat on a pass to the fullback right after the blocked punt. Where he screwed up is although he did a nice job of closing on the ball on a quick pass to Willie Jackson, he missed the tackle when attempting to go for the ball. Jackson broke away and scored from 27 yards out.
Ralph Brown did a nice job of sticking to Willie Jackson on 3rd-and-10 mid-way through the second period and preventing a first down (Shaun Williams got a big hit on Jackson on this play too to help out). Brown then had another one of those “great coverage, but completed pass” plays that keep happening to him in the preseason when he got beat by Travis McGriff for 21 yards in the third quarter. In the 4th quarter, he had solid coverage on a deep ball that fell incomplete I was disappointed by Brown’s poor run defense and tackling in the second half.
The other corners were not tested much with Atlanta being able to run the ball up and down the field. David Mitchell made a real nice play in coverage and almost came up with the interception, but I didn’t like the way he played run defense on Duckett’s 21-yard run.
Shaun Williams had an up-and-down game. There were a couple of plays where he did a real nice job in run defense. However, like Holmes, Jones, and Peterson, he also lost contain on a couple of plays. And there was one strongside run where he got completely blocked out of the play (this is the play that Strahan missed the tackle on Dunn). DeWayne Patmon had a sack in the third quarter and made a nice play against the run late in the game.
Special Teams: The good news was that kick-off coverage was pretty damn good. Let’s start with the kick-offs themselves. Pochman doesn’t usually hit the endzone, but he is getting decent height on his kicks and this is giving the coverage team a better chance to close on the returner before he has the ball. Pochman’s kicks landed at the 2, 6, 2, and 5 yard line (Matt Bryant kicked off to the 7 yard line on his one chance – a terrible looking line drive). The Atlanta returners were held to returns of 21, 20, 16, 17, and 23 yards. That is pretty darn good. Making tackles on these returns were Nate Coggins, Quincy Monk (who seems to do well on specials week-in and week-out), Darnell Dinkins (2 tackles – helping himself again), and Pat Crummey.
Punts. The bad news was that Rodney Williams’ sole effort was blocked in the endzone, setting up an easy Atlanta touchdown. The protection was largely at fault, though Williams needs to react quicker when the pressure is bearing down on him like that. Wes Mallard and Kevin Lewis were said to have miscommunicated on who was to block the guy who got to Williams. The Giants only punted two other times in the game (not a reflection of offensive prowess, but turnovers) and Gabe Lindstrom was the one who handled these chores. The first punt went for 47 yards, but it lacked hang time (sub 4.0). The second punt was excellent, going for 65 yards. Both Ron Dixon and Ryan Clark did a good job of getting down the field quickly as gunners on both of these punts.
Kick returns were very mediocre. Antonio Warren (returns of 21, 13, 25, 12, and 23 yards) wasn’t sudden or aggressive enough on kick returns (though he did a decent job on his 25-yarder; Darian Barnes got a great block on this return to spring Warren). Delvin Joyce (returns of 21 and 18 yards ) really hurt his chances by fumbling away the ball on his second return. Hopefully, Tim Carter can make an impact here. I wonder why Jonathan Carter isn’t being given more chances.
Punt returns have been ordinary, though keep in mind that Daryl Jones is the favorite to win this job. Warren and Joyce each returned the ball once for 8 yards. I thought Warren did a bad job of calling for a fair catch when the Giants (for once) did a great job of handling the outside gunners. Warren had room to run. But Warren does look more natural returning punts than kicks, as does Joyce, who showed some nifty moves.
Owen Pochman missed a 23-yard chip-shot at the end of the first half. This would have cut the Atlanta lead to 9 points. Inexcusable. He did make a 33-yarder.