New York Giants 13 – Baltimore Ravens 0
Game Overview: The best news about this game was not the outcome but the fact that the Giants came out of it relatively healthy. It was also good to see that new Giant P Matt Allen appears to be an upgrade over Rodney Williams – at least in the consistency department.
Not playing in the game were QB Kerry Collins (shoulder), HB Tiki Barber (hamstring), TE Jeremy Shockey (ankle), OC Dusty Zeigler (knee), HB Ron Dayne (neck), HB Damon Washington (knee), SS Shaun Williams (knee), MLB Mike Barrow (knee), SLB Brandon Short (hip flexor), DT Lance Legree (knee), WR Tim Carter (back), and WR Daryl Jones (knee). OC/OT Chris Bober did not play because his wife was expecting the couple’s first child.
After the game, the following players were released: HB Antonio Warren, FB Darian Barnes, WR Derek Dorris, TE/H-Back Taman Bryant, LT Ryan Deterding, RT Andy Stensrud, OG Sean O’Connor, OG Pat Crummey, DE Cedric Scott, DE Nick Myers, DT Ross Kolodziej, SS Nate Coggins, CB David Mitchell, and PK Matt Bryant.
Quarterbacks: With Collins out, Jesse Palmer (15/22 for 172 yards, 0 touchdowns, and 0 interceptions) got the opportunity to play with the first team for a little more than a quarter before playing most of the second quarter with the reserves. Once again, he played fairly well. On the Giants’ first drive, he hit Sean Bennett over the middle for 23 yards on 3rd-and-5, but the drive bogged down after penalty on Luke Petitgout and a dropped pass by TE Marcellus Rivers. Palmer’s 3rd-and-14 pass to Ike Hilliard fell incomplete. On the next drive, Palmer hit FB Charles Stackhouse out of the backfield for 10 yards on 3rd-and-2. Three plays later on 3rd-and-6, Palmer saw that the weakside end had lost contain and he scrambled for the first down. Then came a 14 yard pass to Bennett and superb deep throw that Ike Hilliard should have caught inside the five (but dropped). Palmer’s 3rd-and-6 pass was tipped and it fell incomplete.
The third drive was Palmer’s last with the first unit. After two Delvin Joyce runs, Palmer hit Ike Hilliard on a quick rollout out pass to the right for the first down. His next throw was his best – a deep sideline strike to Hilliard that was thrown on a rope against cover two coverage (right behind the corner and in front of the safety). The play resulted in a 44-yard gain. But this drive bogged down after a personal foul penalty on Rivers and a sack on 3rd-and-13.
On the fourth drive, Palmer had to scramble for two yards on his first chance (the dregs of the second team OL were now in the game). On the second pass play, a pass to Taman Bryant was ruled incomplete (it should have been ruled a fumble). Palmer hit Delvin Joyce over the middle for 12 yards on 3rd-and-8. After two Sean Bennett runs, on 3rd-and-12, LT Ryan Deterding once again got Palmer sacked. The next drive was hampered by the players around him. Palmer hit Dixon for 9 yards on 2nd-and-10, but Rivers was flagged with another personal foul penalty and Tam Hopkins with a false start. On 3rd-and-21, Palmer was sacked as there was a jail break on the left side of the line (Deterding was in the middle of this again). The sixth drive was Palmer’s last of the game and led to the only points scored by either team in the first half (a field goal). Palmer first passed to Dixon for 10 yards and then missed a well-covered Dixon on a deep fly pattern. Palmer found Derek Dorris over the middle for 12 yards on 3rd-and-7. Two plays later, Jesse moved out of the pocket (but didn’t panic) to avoid the rush and calmly hit Dorris for 16 more yards. What I didn’t like was his decision on the next play to spike the ball (thereby losing a down) with the ball on the Baltimore 15 with 41 seconds left before half and all three timeouts. Then they called a timeout all the same. Shitty clock management that only gave the Giants’ two plays instead of three. They had to settle for a field goal after a short run and pass.
Jason Garrett (7/11 for 163 yards, 1 touchdown, 0 interceptions) took over in the second half and played well. On the Giants’ first drive of the second half, passes to Barnes (5 yards) and Jonathan Carter (18 yards) set up the second field goal. A 3rd-and-8 slant pass to Derek Dorris was tipped at the line of scrimmage ending the drive prematurely. Garrett didn’t attempt a throw during the second drive. His third drive was his best, with two superbly thrown deep balls to Jonathan Carter on a fade (19 yards) and Ron Dixon on a fly (30 yards). The second pass was against cover two, and just like Palmer’s earlier deep pass, it was squeezed between the corner and the safety. But that promising drive ended prematurely due to a 4-yard loss on a running play, a false start penalty, and two incomplete passes. The next drive was the only TD drive of the night. Garrett hit Jonathan Carter on a deep out for 16 yards and then found Carter again for a 75 yard catch-and-run for a touchdown that put the game away.
Wide Receivers: Ike Hilliard (3 catches for 44 yards) was Palmer’s go-to guy at wide receiver. Ike showed good concentration on his 44-yard catch despite the safety barreling in on him. However, he also dropped a deep strike by Palmer too that would have given the Giants the ball inside the five. Instead, the team had to punt two plays later. Amani Toomer had no catches.
Ron Dixon (4 catches for 52 yards) had a decent game and seems to have won the third receiving job. He showed nice concentration on the fly pattern from Garrett that picked up 30 yards. But again, it was the blocking of Dixon on running plays that impressed me the most. You can tell that Dixon is really trying hard this year by the way he works to really sustain his run blocks. He has been extremely physical for a wide receiver.
Derek Dorris (3 catches for 32 yards) made an impact on the field goal drive right before halftime. The guy seems to make quite a few plays, but was waived. He’s one of those guys you hope the Giants stash on the Practice Squad. While not particularly fast, he is fluid and appears to have very good hands.
The guy who really stood out was Jonathan Carter (4 catches for 128 yards, 1 touchdown). Things looked a tad shaky early with a false start and by fumbling the ball out-of-bounds after one catch. But his first three catches picked up important first downs and on each of these, he demonstrated much improved route running. On his 19-yard fade reception, Carter caught the ball despite a lot of contact from the defender. On his next reception, he did a good job of driving off the defender, then making his cut to the sideline for a 16-yard reception. Then came his brilliant one-handed catch of a pass thrown behind him…and it was off to the races. The most amazing thing is that one Raven even had the angle on him, but Carter is so fast that it didn’t matter.
Tight Ends/H-Backs: Dan Campbell (1 catch for 2 yards) looked good once again blocking for the run in the down position at the end of the line. There was one running play in the first quarter where he just destroyed his man. Marcellus Rivers did not have a good game. He was flagged with two costly personal foul penalties in the first half that stalled drives and also dropped a pass. The good news is that Rivers is really working at his blocking and there has been continued improvement in that department. Taman Bryant is lucky his short reception was ruled incomplete rather than a fumble.
Halfbacks/Fullbacks: With Barber and Dayne both out, Sean Bennett (12 carries for 17 yards, 3 catches for 40 yards) got the start. He was more impressive as a receiver than runner. On the second play of the game, he made a nice cutback to the right and might have broken a big run if he wasn’t so easily ankle-tackled. But on the next play, on 3rd-and-5, he caught a short Palmer pass and broke two tackles en route to a 23 yard gain. It was an impressive display of power and niftiness. Palmer looked pretty smooth grabbing a 14-yarder of the backfield on the next drive. The most troublesome sign with Bennett remains his God-awful blitz pick-ups. For someone so big and athletic, he’s more of a turnstile out there. One of these days, he’s going to get Collins killed in an important game if he doesn’t improve in this department.
I really like the way Delvin Joyce (3 carries for 14 yards, 1 catch for 12 yards) looked. He’s a small guy, but he is very quick and shifty. You can see why some compare him to a poor man’s David Meggett. On his first carry, he just exploded up into the hole for 6 yards. Joyce made an excellent juke move on a short 3rd-and-8 reception where he ran for the first down. Joyce also made a nice block on Palmer’s 3rd-and-6 scramble for a first down.
Antonio Warren (16 carries for 38 yards) ran the ball only in the second half behind the crap offensive line and performed well. I like the way Warren runs. His has good vision, continues to cutback at the right moment, and has some power to his game (there was one excellent run where he just powered his way for extra yardage despite being surrounded by tacklers). He just seems a very decisive runner to me – something that Ron Dayne is not always. I was glad the Giants kept Joyce, but sad to see Warren let go.
As for the fullback war, we now know that Charles Stackhouse won the job. Both he and Darian Barnes played fairly well as lead blockers in this game. But both still need to play with their pad level lower and thereby get better leverage so they don’t get stood up in the hole. Stackhouse has a size advantage, but I still like the athleticism and hustle of Barnes. Stackhouse caught a 10-yard pass on 3rd-and-2. It was a nice play because Stackhouse did a good job of faking the pass block, while at the same time not taking himself out of the play by avoiding the rush. Barnes got beat badly for a sack by Peter Boulware. It was a poor pass protection scheme by the Giants because they had Barnes lined up in a tight end position on the line of scrimmage and called upon him to block Boulware from this spot one-on-one. Very few, if any, fullbacks in this league could handle that assignment – not from that position. Barnes played mostly in the second half and his lead blocking was mostly strong. However, Barnes has since been cut and claimed by Tampa Bay.
Offensive Line: Chris Bober missed the game because of the delivery of his first child. Thus RG Jason Whittle had to be moved to center and reserve RG Tam Hopkins started. The first team line once again played decently despite these changes, with a few down moments. The run and pass blocking was mostly solid. I saw good blocking across the line and from the lead fullbacks and there were no major pass protection breakdowns other than two linebacker dogs up the middle. LT Luke Petitgout was flagged with a false start on the first drive and got beat badly when attempting to block the defensive end on the backside of a Sean Bennett run – Petitgout’s man tackled Bennett for a 4-yard loss. I saw one more instance of RT Mike Rosenthal getting pushed back into the quarterback too easily, but big Mike played fairly well. His flankmate – Tam Hopkins – was up and down. Ironically, Hopkins seemed to do better with the first team than the second team. The one area he does need to improve in is blitz awareness. There were a couple of times where he seemed oblivious of linebacker dogs coming through his area. In the second quarter, Hopkins had some problems. He looked just awful on a pull to the right where his lack of athleticism really caused the play to breakdown. There were also two running plays that broke down because he couldn’t make the block that he was called upon to do. And there was a false start.
None of the other back-ups made the team – except for OC Omar Smith – and for good reason. They were as bad a collection of misfits as I’ve seen. Ryan Deterding had a role in two first half sacks. Pat Crummey was responsible for a second half sack.
Defensive Line: Once again, not much of a pass rush from the starting front four. However, to be fair, the Ravens had a lot of short dropback passes that made it tough to get close to the quarterback. More importantly, the starters saw very few plays as the Giants controlled the clock in the first half. Like he does with most of his opponents, LT Jonathan Ogden toyed with Frank Ferrara and Kenny Holmes. Ferrara and DT Keith Hamilton got handled at the point-of-attack on Jamal Lewis’ 7-yard run on the first drive (and Nick Greisen and Dhani Jones didn’t read the cutback in time).
Mike Strahan saw a lot of double teams and only got one decent rush. Strahan also made a nice play of limiting a Lewis run to 2-yards by making the play from the backside. Holmes, playing against Odgen, did knock down a 3rd-and-2 slant pass.
The back-ups on the defensive line didn’t get much of a pass rush either. The guys who played mostly in the second half were Nick Myers at strongside end, Ross Kolodziej and Matt Mitrione at tackle, and Dwight Johnson at weakside end. Cedric Scott didn’t play until very late in the game. Kolodziej cleaned up with a couple of sacks on plays where the quarterback was forced to scramble from pass pressure by Myers on one play and Scott on another. Kolodziej also made a nice play against the run late in the game when he played off a block and clobbered the running back.
Linebackers: With Barrow and Short both out, Nick Greisen started in the middle and Kevin Lewis started on the strongside. Dhani Jones continues to show a nose for the football and fine speed that enables him to cover, chase, and blitz. However, he still needs to finish plays better by tackling more consistently. Lewis made a few nice plays in the first half – combining to Will Allen to hold a short pass to a receiver to a minimum gain, combining with Frank Ferrara to hold Jamal Lewis to a 1-yard gain, and combining with Ryan Clark to stuff Lewis on another carry.
The three rookie linebackers all played well. On Baltimore’s first drive, Greisen did a superb job of covering Jamal Lewis in the flat on 3rd-and-4 and helping to force an incompletion. Greisen looked good too on a couple of linebacker dogs up the gut. On a 3rd-and-1 in the 3rd quarter, he met the back in the hold and prevented the first down. On the next drive, he did the same exact thing on a 2nd-and-2 play that only picked up a yard (on the previous play, Greisen, Monk, and Mallard did get blocked along with Dwight Johnson on an 8-yard run).
Quincy Monk made an excellent play at the start of the 3rd quarter when he played off the block of the tight end and stuffed the running back. Monk later did a nice job of jamming the tight end at the line and staying with him in coverage (though he never turned around to play the ball and might have intercepted it if he had). In the 4th quarter, Monk stuffed an inside run for only a 1-yard gain. At the end of the contest, Monk did a nice job of rushing the passer from the down position – one time using a real nifty swim move.
Wes Mallard did a nice job of covering the back coming out of the backfield in the flat on the Ravens’ first drive of the second half. Mallard smashed a receiver coming over the middle on a short pass in the 4th quarter. A few plays later, he shot a gap and combined with Dwight Johnson to stuff a running play.
Defensive Backs: Will Peterson forced Jamal Lewis to fumble with a tough hit. Will Allen did a good job of coming up to tackle the receiver on a quick toss on the first drive.
Ralph Brown got beat on an 11-yard reception in the second quarter against the first team Ravens’ offense. But he kept his opponent quiet thereafter and defended two deep passes well in the 4th quarter. David Mitchell made a superb play by sticking with his man despite a couple of fakes and coming down with an interception on the sideline. However, Mitchell got faked out badly by Lewis after a short reception and was also faked out badly on a flea flicker that should have resulted in a touchdown (the receiver dropped the ball). In the second half, it was more of the same with Mitchell, occasionally showing nice coverage, but more often than not trailing an open man.
DeWayne Patmon started in place of Shaun Williams. Patmon made a punishing hit on a short pass to a back out of the backfield. But on the next drive, he missed a tackle on Jamal Lewis. Late in the game, he clobbered another receiver coming into his area – for a small guy, Patmon can hit. Ryan Clark was pretty aggressive coming up to defend the run, but was also fooled on the flea flicker. He also had problems sticking with a receiver that he was called upon to cover during a cornerback blitz. In the 4th quarter, he got turned around by the tight end in the endzone and was lucky the ball fell incomplete.
Special Teams: The good news is that the hangtime on newcomer Matt Allen’s punts was much more consistent than Rodney Williams’. This allowed the gunners – Ron Dixon and Ryan Clark (both of whom did an excellent job) – to get down the field and force some fair catches or disrupt the rhythm of the return. Allen doesn’t look like he will crush any punts for distance, but it looks like the Giants won’t be giving up as many long returns either. He had one bad punt in the first half when he punted through the endzone instead of trapping the Ravens inside the 20. And his last punt was poor – only 28 yards Allen’s punts went for 39 yards (fair catch), 39 yards (touchback), 41 yards (7 yard return), 42 yards (muffed – no return), 40 yards (fair catch), and 28 yards (fair catch). Darnell Dinkins came ever so close to blocking a punt – he made a great move on his blocker.
Kick return coverage was good. Matt Bryant’s kick offs landed at the 4 (21 yard return), 5 (22 yard return), 13 (18 yard return), 8 (19 yard return). Making tackles were Wes Mallard (2), Darnell Dinkins (2), Quincy Monk, and Kevin Lewis.
Antonio Warren did not look natural at all fielding punts. He was too hesitant on one line drive, let a punt hit the turf that he should have fielded, and muffed another. This really didn’t help his cause in terms of sticking on the active roster. Delvin Joyce looked pretty good on his one return that picked up 15 yards.
PK Owen Pochman had another terrible miss – his 44-yard attempt in the first period was an ugly kick that never had a chance. He sort of redeemed himself by making a 47-yarder on the next drive, but that field goal was taken off of the board by a holding call on Quincy Monk (it was a terrible call by the officials). He did make a 26-yarder right before halftime. Matt Bryant made a 39-yard field goal, but missed a 48-yarder.