New York Giants 9 – Seattle Seahawks 6
Game Overview: It wasn’t pretty, but the Giants learned some very important things about themselves with the 9-6 victory over the Seahawks:
- QB Kerry Collins led the team from behind despite the fact that he was getting knocked around pretty good throughout the contest. In the past, smacking Collins around was a sure way to force him to get out of his game and to start making mistakes. He didn’t do that.
- The defense, for the second week in a row, held onto a late 4th quarter lead.
- PK Matt Bryant nailed his first long-distance, game-winning effort. Until that kick, all his field goals were short kicks.
The bad news:
- The Giants continue to struggle putting touchdowns on the board offensively. It is not just a red zone problem, but an inability to score from anywhere on the field. The Giants only have two offensive touchdowns in three games (33 offensive possessions). That’s pathetic.
- Blitzes and stunts continue to cause problems for the young offensive line – which anyone with any football common sense knew they would. The good news is that this experience will pay dividends down the line.
- Kick and punt coverage is improved, but still not real good. Daryl Jones (and his blockers) weren’t productive at all in the Giants’ own return game. The Seahawks won the field position war on Sunday. Because of this, the Giants had to continually drive a long field.
It was a fast moving game and one of the reasons there wasn’t more scoring was that there weren’t a lot of offensive possessions for either team. The Giants had the ball five times in the first half and only four times in the second half (I’m not counting the last drive where the Giants’ were merely attempting to run out the clock).
Quarterback: What most impressed me about Kerry Collins (23/38 for 282 yards, 0 touchdowns, 0 interceptions) this week was the fact that he kept his poise and remained productive despite getting knocked around. This hasn’t been always the case for him.
The first half was disappointing for the entire offense. The ground game showed some signs of life, but really wasn’t consistent. Pass protection was real ugly at times. The problem in both cases was that the Seahawks were blitzing from all angles – not only with linebackers, but also with defensive backs. There were both run and pass blitzes. One got the sense that the 0-2 Seahawks were a desperate team fighting for their season – and thus hungrier than the Giants. The big problem this week was that the Giants were not making the Seahawks pay for their blitzes. Here’s a quick run-down on the five offensive possessions in the first half:
- First Drive: This was a bad three-and-out. Barber went nowhere. On second down, the Seahawks blitzed both a linebacker and a corner from the weakside. Tiki Barber picked up one of these men, but the other had a free shot at Collins. Kerry was able to break the tackle and scramble to his left, but he missed Ike Hilliard. On 3rd-and-10, the protection was fine, but everyone was covered downfield and Collins’ short pass to Barber was too low.
- Second Drive: TE Jeremy Shockey Shockey dropped what would have been a first down pass. On 3rd-and-7, Collins did a real nice job of recognizing a blitz and dumping the ball off short to Tiki who picked up the first down. But after a run, the drive stalled due to two back-to-back sacks given up by LG Rich Seubert.
- Third Drive: After two first downs due to three positive plays from Ron Dayne and Barber, the drive stalled when Barber was stuffed on two consecutive runs. On 3rd-and-10, an attempted screen pass was almost intercepted when Barber (the intended receiver) tripped over a Seahawk and fell to the turf.
- Fourth Drive: This was another drive that picked up two first downs, but then stalled. On 3rd-and-8, Collins hit Ike Hilliard for 9-yards on a slant. Barber then picked up 10 yards and a first down by taking the ball back through a hole created by a blitzer. After two runs and a penalty, on 3rd-and-8, the Seahawks blitzed, but Shockey ran the wrong route and the pass fell incomplete.
- Fifth and Last Drive of the First Half: This was the best drive of the first half and the Giants should have taken a 7-6 lead here, but failed. An 11-play, 85-yard drive went for naught. Collins started things off with an incredibly accurate 49-yard deep pass to WR Amani Toomer who was covered by both a corner and a safety. This was undoubtably one of the best passes that I’ve ever seen Collins throw. On 2nd-and-11, Collins then hit Hilliard for 14 yards. Then came shorter passes to Dayne for 8, Shockey for 10, and Shockey for 7 yards. However, I was not happy with Collins’ decision on the play preceding Shockey’s 7-yard reception. On 1st-and-goal from the 8, Sean Payton called a pass play. Collins couldn’t find anyone open right away, but he was given good protection. For some reason, Collins then decided to roll right, thereby reducing his options. A bad play in my book as Collins threw the ball away. The next play was a good call by Payton – a quick toss to Shockey that Shockey almost (and probably should have) gotten into the endzone. On 3rd-and-goal, Payton called a dumb rollout with only one option (Shockey) who was covered. Incomplete. On 4th-and-goal, Tiki erroneously bounced the play outside and lost four yards.
Things really picked up for the Giants in the second half. They scored on three of their four possessions (again, not counting the possession where they were running out the clock). The bad news was that each time, the Giants were forced to settle for field goals, rather than touchdowns.
- First Drive: 16-plays, 69-yards that resulted in a 33-yard field goal. Collins made two excellent clutch plays on 3rd down to keep this drive alive. On 3rd-and-15, he found Shockey for 21 yards. My biggest problem with Collins on this drive is that he didn’t recognize the blitz again coming from his right-side and was sacked…Kerry needs to be aware of these potential blitzes, especially when the Giants have an empty backfield (as they did on this play). Collins then missed a wide open Ike on the next play. However, on 3rd-and-13, Kerry passed to Toomer for 19 yards. On 3rd-and-4 from the Seahawk 15-yard line, Collins was pressured when Tiki wasn’t able to pick up a cornerback blitz and the ball fell incomplete.
- Second Drive: This drive started at the Giants’ 4-yard line. New York was able to to pick up two first downs, but then had to punt. Collins hit Toomer for 12 yards to start the drive off. Then on 3rd-and-2, he found Hilliard for 13 yards. I didn’t like the 2nd-and-10 play call by Payton. It wasn’t because it was a quick toss to Dixon (I think the Giants were trying to set up a wide receiver screen), but I didn’t like the fact that the Giants ran it to the short side of the field and thus made it easier to defend against. On 3rd-and-9, the left side of the Giants’ offensive line had problems picking up a stunt and Collins’ pass to Toomer was off the mark.
- Third Drive: 7-plays, 50-yards resulting in a 21-yard field goal. The drive started off well with an 11-yard flat pass to FB Charles Stackhouse. Finally, the Giants passed with both Stackhouse and Dayne in the backfield and this productive play was the result – Stackhouse was wide open. Two plays later, the Giants ran a beautiful 33-yard screen pass that almost resulted in a touchdown if Tiki had not tripped over Chris Bober. A well-executed screen pass is one of my favorite plays and this one worked almost perfectly. After a run for one yard, Collins, under a bit of pressure, dumped the ball off to Barber over the middle for 5 yards. On 3rd-and-4 from the Seattle 6-yard line, the Giants tried to run another quick screen to Barber. However, Jeremy Shockey was confused as all hell and actually picked off one of his own blockers (Bober). The play only picked up 2-yards.
- Fourth Drive: 11-plays, 65-yards that resulted in a 47-yard game-winning field goal. Collins made yet another big play on 3rd down, passing to Toomer for 20 yards on 3rd-and-4. On the very next play, he hit Hilliard for 18 yards. On 3rd-and-6, Collins did it again, finding Shockey over the middle for 10 yards. Three consecutive runs failed to pick up the field down and the Giants brought out the field goal unit.
Offensive Line: It’s hard to put a finger on why the Giants are not running the ball better. The young players up front are not missing a lot of blocks. A lot of the problems on Sunday were that Seattle sold out and blitzed the heck out of the Giants – filling gaps with more defenders than blockers. There were also plays that a better block (sustained longer) by an offensive lineman, or a tight end, or a fullback would have paid big dividends. Tiki Barber was healthier and Ron Dayne ran with more authority – so that helped. The Giants are getting close to getting this thing fixed. I’m not real worried about it.
Where the line regressed a bit was in pass protection…but a lot of the pressure was not the actual fault of the line but the blitz pick-ups and blitz reads by the other offensive players. There were two plays where a blitzer came in untouched from the right-side of the Giants’ formation. Either Mike Rosenthal screwed up or the blocking scheme was lacking. RG Rich Seubert also played his worst game thus far in the pass blocking department, giving up back-to-back sacks. Jason Whittle gave up one pressure. There was some confusion between Seubert and Petitgout on a second-half stunt. Luke Petitgout and Mike Rosenthal both allowed some outside pressure on a 2nd-and-9 pass from the Seahawk 11-yard line in the 4th quarter that forced Collins to dump the ball off quickly. But aside from these plays, the line seemed to do alright in terms of blocking the men in front of them that they were called upon to block.
As for the ground game, here are some pros and cons: On the second drive, a 2nd-and-10 run to Barber off left guard picked up three yards. Stackhouse got a good lead block on this play, but OC Chris Bober missed his block on the middle linebacker. On the Giants’ next possession, Dayne picked up 12 yards on a good-looking power run behind solid blocks from Seubert and Bober. On the very next play, Dayne picked up 6 more yards behind good blocks from Jason Whittle and Dan Campbell. However, Shockey’s effort on this play was lacking. Two plays later, Whittle couldn’t get a clean block on LB Chad Brown and Tiki lost a yard (Chad Brown was a thorn in the Giants’ side all day).
Next possession…Dayne picks up two yards behind a good cut block from Whittle. Barber then picks up 10 behind a good lead block from Campbell and solid blocks from Seubert and Bober. Barber picks up 4 off right tackle behind a good block from Whittle. Last possession of the first half…Seubert missed his block and Dayne was held to 1-yard. Barber lost a yard when Whittle missed his block on Chad Brown. Whittle’s biggest problem were two penalties (a false start and a holding penalty).
Third quarter…A run to Dayne looked like it would pick up more yardage behind solid blocks from Petitgout and Campbell, but Shockey couldn’t sustain his block. The Giants ran a draw and this looked like it would be a big play. It was well-blocked except for Petitgout’s effort on the defensive end who just tripped up Barber. Barber picked up 9 yards around right end behind excellent blocks from Campbell, Whittle, and Rosenthal. Barber then picked up a first down on 3rd-and-1 behind another good block from Rosenthal. Barber picked up 11 around right end again behind excellent blocks from Rosenthal and Campbell (Stackhouse didn’t make his block on the middle linebacker, but Tiki broke the tackle).
Fourth quarter…Whittle took out two defenders by himself on Tiki’s 33-yard screen pass. Bober was all hustle running down field trying to take out the last defender on this play. Dayne picked up 4-yards up the gut, but Campbell’s lead block from the fullback position was lacking. Barber runs right for 5 yards behind a good block from Rosenthal who took out two defenders on the play; however, Campbell missed his block on the play or a bigger gain would have resulted. Dayne picked up 4-yards on the next play, but would have picked up more if Shockey made a better block. The 3rd-and-1 call before Bryant’s 47-yarder never had a chance…there were too many defenders and not enough blockers on the sweep.
All of these players can do the job – that’s why I’m optimistic. Petitgout usually does an outstanding job of controlling the corner as does Campbell. Seubert had some rough moments on the second drive in pass protection, but he’s a player who can run and pass block. Same with Bober who has picked up the center duties very quickly. Jason Whittle is an emotional leader who looks good in space. Mike Rosenthal, when he plays with good leverage, is a solid player. They are all aggressive and getting better. All the blitzing they faced on Sunday will help them down the road. Better blitz recognition will come with more experience.
Tight Ends: Not a great game for the tight ends. Dan Campbell made some very strong blocks (which is the norm), but also had a few that were disappointing. Jeremy Shockey (4 catches for 48 yards) had his worst game as a blocker. He got into position just fine, but he didn’t sustain well enough. He also made some costly errors in the passing game: (1) he dropped what would have been a first down pass, (2) he didn’t read the blitz on a 3rd-and-8 play and ran the wrong route because of it, and (3) he disrupted the timing on a 3rd-and-4 screen pass inside the 10 by picking off one of the key Giant blockers. This might be nit-picking a bit, but he also came a yard short on the 2nd-and-goal quick throw from the 8-yard line…if he gets in there, the Giants are winning at halftime. The good news? Both his second half catches were clutch plays – one a 21-yarder on 3rd-and-15 and the second a 10-yard reception on 3rd-and-6.
Running Backs: Tiki Barber’s stats (21 carries for 50 yards; 7 catches for 59 yards) don’t show it, but he looked a lot more like himself this weekend…showing a burst on a few of his runs, particularly a couple of runs in the second half to the right side (for 9 and 11 yards) and on his 33-yard screen pass. Tiki did an excellent job twice of showing extra effort to pick up first downs on quick dump off passes, including one on 3rd-and-7. He also did a nice job once of cutting his run back into a hole vacated by a blitzing linebacker. However, Tiki really screwed the pooch by bouncing the 4th-and-goal play wide at the end of the second half. The play was designed to go off right tackle and the hole was there. This is an inexcusable, costly mistake that could have lost the game for the Giants. Keep in mind that Tiki did a similar thing against the 49ers on 4th-and-1 that may indeed have cost them that game.
There were times when Tiki did a real nice job on his blitz pick-ups, but there were also a few times when he couldn’t make the block and that forced Collins to unload before he was ready. Twice Tiki couldn’t make the block because the Seahawks blitzed from the opposite side where he was lined up. But Tiki also got beat cleanly as well on some efforts.
Ron Dayne, on the other hand, did a great job on his blitz pick-ups – really sticking the oncoming rusher. Dayne (11 carries for 48 yards; 1 catch for 8 yards) ran far more aggressively and benefitted from better run blocking when he was in the game this week. Should Dayne deserve a ton of praise? No, he’s paid to run the ball like that. But at least it was a big improvement.
Stackhouse picked up 11 yards on a flat pass and did a decent job on blitz pick-ups. Bennett caught a pass for 6 yards.
Wide Receivers: Amani Toomer (4 catches for 100 yards) and Ike Hilliard (4 catches for 54 yards) are making plays, but not touchdowns. And that is disconcerting. Hilliard made important catches on 3rd-and-8 (for 9 yards), 2nd-and-11 (for 14 yards), and 3rd-and-2 (for 13 yards). His last catch, an 18-yarder, helped to set up the game-winning field goal. Toomer caught a 49-yard bomb on 3rd-and-12, a 19-yard pass on 3rd-and-13, a 12-yard pass coming off of the goal line, and 20-yard pass on 3rd-and-4. The last play came on the game-winning drive as well and most of the yardage on the play was picked up after the catch.
Defensive Line: This was probably the strongest game this unit has played as a group this year. The Seahawks were limited to just 40-yards of rushing, 105 net passing yards, and only 7 first downs. It doesn’t get much better than that. Michael Strahan (4 tackles, 1 sack) and DE Kenny Holmes (3 tackles) were solid, as were DT Keith Hamilton and DT Cornelius Griffin (2 tackles apiece).
Griffen and Hamilton had some problems early in the game with the inside running game, but they closed up ranks in a hurry. Griffen made an excellent play by nailing Shaun Alexander in the backfield on the first drive for a 1-yard loss by beating the right tackle. He then combined with Shaun Williams to stop Alexander for a 1-yard loss on 3rd-and-1 on Seattle’s second drive. Griffen also made a nice hustle play later in the first half by tackling the back on a screen pass. Hamilton made a great play in the second quarter when he held his ground against the block with one arm while tackling Alexander with the other for a 1-yard loss. Hamilton combined with Mike Barrow in the 3rd quarter to stuff Alexander for another 1-yard loss.
Holmes was run at successfully for 9-yards on one play (Dhani Jones was blocked on this play too). But he did a great job three plays later by playing disciplined football and disrupting a reverse. Holmes got a great pass rush on Dilfer from the NYG 11 yard line (Griffen was there as well). The play should have resulted in an intentional grounding call. On the very next play, Holmes disrupted an Alexander run around left end that was held to a 2-yard gain by shooting into the backfield. In the 3rd quarter, Holmes quickly shot around a pulling lineman and was athletic enough to still get outside and bring down Alexander for a 7-yard loss – a huge play.
Strahan was fooled by another reverse (as was Jones), but Will Allen saved the day with a sure tackle. But it was Strahan and Allen helped to disrupt a 3rd-and-1 play by putting pressure on Dilfer and forcing an incompletion (both should have had the sack however). Strahan did a nice job of defending a sweep to the right and holding it to a 3-yard gain. Strahan’s big play was sacking Dilfer at the Seattle 3-yard line. It was a great rush as Strahan beat both the tackle and back on the play.
Lance Legree and Frank Ferrara played. Legree got handled on one inside rush, but then really played stout against another. Ferrara made an all-hustle play by tackling Alexander on a screen pass on the other side of the field short of the first down.
Linebackers: A solid game from the linebackers as well. Brandon Short (2 tackles, 1 sack) started things off with a crushing sack of Dilfer on the Seahawks’ first play of the game. Short beat the block of the fullback on the play.
I spotted Mike Barrow (3 tackles) crashing into Dilfer just as he got the ball away on three separate occasions, including the last play that was intercepted. Another one of his blitzes was huge in that it forced Dilfer to underthrow the open tight end in the 4th quarter. Two plays later, Barrow supplied very tight coverage on the fullback and limited him to a 3-yard reception. There were two occasions where I spotted Barrow having trouble getting off blocks at runs right at him. But Barrow was also active around the line of scrimmage holding Alexander in check.
Dhani Jones (5 tackles) was more up-and-down, but he is improving. He got run on early on one play and was fooled on the second WR-reverse. But Dhani’s speed and athleticism is paying off in terms of his ability to cover and chase down plays. For example, after the Giants tied the game 6-6 and needed to get the ball back, Dhani made two excellent plays. First, he supplied tight coverage on FB Mack Strong and held him to a 2-yard gain on 2nd-and-3. Then five plays, later, the Seahawks completely fooled the Giants’ defense by running Alexander to the left on 3rd-and-8. Dhani, who was playing de factor middle linebacker, chased down the play from his spot in the middle of the field 2-yards short of the first down. Seattle was forced to punt.
Defensive Backs: This group did such an outstanding job of covering the Seattle wide-receivers that in fact there isn’t much to talk about. Will Allen and Will Peterson are rapidly evolving into shutdown corners. Allen’s coverage has been so tight that the opposition rarely seems to pass in his direction. When the opposition throws at Peterson, bad things happen for the offense. Sehorn is doing a good job in the nickel. It seems that the safeties don’t have much to do. The good news across the board is that the tackling has been very sharp all season thus far.
Allen made a great open field tackle on a Darrell Jackson reverse early in the game.
Peterson had superb deep coverage on Koren Robinson on a pass in the 3rd quarter. And the biggest defensive play of the game was Peterson’s interception of Dilfer on an out-pass to Robinson with 1:40 left in the game.
Ralph Brown got beat for 14 yards and a first down on 3rd-and-8 in the second quarter (Brown was also flagged for defensive holding on this play).
Sehorn did get beat for a 14-yard reception by Jackson on 3rd-and-13 in the first quarter. Sehorn later made a superb play by tackling Alexander for no gain on a flat pass in the open field.
Shaun Williams combined with Griffen to blow up the 3rd-and-1 play in the first half. Williams later combined with Holmes to stuff a left-side run. In the 3rd quarter, Williams did a great job of breaking up a deep pass to the tight end. However, on the very next play, both he and Omar Stoutmire got beat for 12 yards over the middle on 3rd-and-11. Stoutmire earlier combined with Holmes to cause Jackson to lose 2-yards on a reverse. Right before Peterson’s interception, Stoutmire made a sure tackle on the tight end that kept Jeremy Stevens from running out-of-bounds and stopping the clock. The Seattle tight ends – who are very good – were not a factor all day and the safeties deserve a lot of the credit.
Special Teams: The biggest positive is that PK Matt Bryant is exceeding all expectations. He is a perfect 9-for-9 on the season now and he hit three more on Sunday – from 33 yards out, 21 yards out, and a game-winner from 47 yards out. Obviously, to expect Matt to continue to be perfect is not realistic, but if he can continue to produce on a consistent basis like this, the Giants really lucked out.
Bryant’s kick-offs on Sunday were excellent – landing 4-yards deep in the endzone, 6 yard line, touchback, and 3 yard line – all with excellent height. Kick return coverage was decent, but it wasn’t great. Seahawk returns went for 25, 25, and 26 yards. Nick Greisen was involved on the tackle on all three kick returns…impressive.
Matt Allen’s punts continue to be high and a bit on the short side. His punts went for 42, 46, 34, 34, 35, and 52. Punt return coverage was lacking. The high punts forced two fair catches and allowed no return on one punt. But the Seahawks also returned punts for 17 and 28 yards – not good. Omar Stoutmire and Darnell Dinkins did a good job on the one return for no gain, but both Dinkins and Quincy Monk missed a tackle on the 17-yard return. Darnell Dinkins was also called for holding. Somewhat disturbing is that Seattle got close to Allen on a couple of occasions.
Daryl Jones continues to experience rookie jitters (as well as some disappointing blocking). Once again, he fielded a punt inside the 10-yard line. He also muffed another that he fortunately recovered himself. On his first return, he actually lost six yards. And he only managed to pick up 14 yards on each of his kick returns – though the blocking was not good on either.
The net effect of all of this was that Seattle basically won the field position war and continually forced the Giants to drive a long field.