Miami Dolphins 23 – New York Giants 10
Game Overview: This was a very easy game to analyze. Why did the Giants lose? Why did the Giants only score 10 points?
- The Giants turned the ball over four times; three times in the first half. New York had eight offensive possessions in the first half of the game, and the turnovers ended three of those drives. Two of the eight drives resulted in points (a touchdown and a field goal). Three resulted in punts. That all said, the score was only 13-10 at halftime…very winnable. At this point, except for breakdowns on two plays, the Giants’ defense was playing extremely well.
- After three Miami drives and two New York drives in the second half, the Dolphins added another 10 points to the scoreboard while the Giants couldn’t put another point up. Worse, after these five possessions by both teams, there was less than 7 minutes left in the game. The slow down in the tempo of the game suited Miami’s game plan perfectly – which was to control the clock and shorten the game. The Giants’ offense deserves blame for not putting points on the board, but the Giants were also hurt by the injury to Matt Bryant which cost them three points. The defense deserves blame for not getting Miami off the field quickly. In two drives, the Dolphins managed to covert on SIX 3rd down attempts.
I give the Dolphins’ defense a lot of credit. They played much better than I expected to them to play against the pass. The Giants ground game in the first half was solid. Tiki Barber rushed for 59 yards and a touchdown on 15 first half carries. Surprising to me is that much of this yardage came right up the middle against the Dolphins’ two big defensive tackles. Pass protection was mostly solid though Kerry Collins was forced to unload the ball quickly in some instances. TE Jeremy Shockey had a big game receiving (but not blocking). And I don’t think Kerry’s first two interceptions were his fault at all. Penalties were not a problem on offense. The biggest problem was that the Miami defensive backs out-played the Giants’ wide receivers.
Defensively, the Giants really did a number on Ricky Williams, limiting him to 39 yards on 22 carries (1.8 yards per rush). The reverse hurt in the first half, but it was not decisive. What killed the Giants was that they could not get the Dolphins off the field on those two time-consuming scoring possessions in the second half. Half a game doesn’t cut it.
The officiating was also a factor. Whether or not you agree with the flag on Jeremy Shockey for taunting (I don’t), the fact is that a Miami defender punched Brian Mitchell right in front of another official, who then threw a second flag. But for some reason, the officials didn’t call this. Secondly, on Miami’s first clock-consuming drive of the second half, facing 3rd-and-7, the Dolphins ran a screen pass to Ricky Williams that picked up the first down. However, on this play, two Miami offensive linemen were clearly illegally down field before the pass was thrown. Thirdly, the two defensive holding calls on Keith Hamilton were bogus. In both instances, Hamilton was being double-teamed and being shoved back.
Quarterback: Kerry Collins was 31-of-43 for 276 yards, 0 touchdowns, 3 interceptions. However, I don’t think the two first half interceptions were his fault. On the first, the ball was thrown before WR Amani Toomer made his break – the Dolphin CB simply made an amazing play by sticking to Toomer like glue on the play and tipping the ball for a teammate to make a diving interception. On the second interception, Collins threw a bullet to Toomer, who tipped the ball up into the air. The third interception was bit a of gamble by Collins. Trailing 23-10 with about 2 and a half minutes left in the game, Collins tried to whiz the ball by the corner who he hoped wouldn’t turn around in time to see the ball. The corner did and easily intercepted the pass. That said, the intended receiver (Tim Carter) made things worse for Collins on this play by not coming back to help his quarterback out when Collins was forced to scramble out of the pocket.
The most glaring stat to me besides the three interceptions was that Collins’ longest pass completion was 22 yards – and that came very late in the game. Nothing better indicates the futility of the Giants’ downfield passing attack than that fact. Part of that has to do with the fact that the Giants were employing quick, 3-step passing plays. That’s because Fassel is still looking to protect Collins from his young and inexperienced offensive line. But I feel strongly that the reason Collins didn’t have a great day because Amani Toomer and Ike Hilliard couldn’t get open.
Aside from the last interception, Collins threw a bad pass on a 2nd quarter 3rd-and-4 play where Amani Toomer did get open over the middle of the field. I also didn’t like his decision on the 3rd-and-3 play early in the 4th quarter to come off the slant pass to Toomer and try to hit Joyce out of the backfield. I thought there was a window there to get the ball to Toomer; Joyce was covered by two Miami defenders.
I liked Collins’ 21-yard sideline pass to Toomer despite tight coverage on the field goal drive. I was also impressed by his patience on his 3rd-and-4 rollout pass to Toomer for a first down in the 3rd quarter.
Wide Receivers: Amani Toomer (3 catches for 38 yards) was a non-factor. Ike Hilliard’s numbers (8 catches for 73 yards) are inflated due to some late game reception when the Dolphins were in “prevent” mode. Tim Carter only had 1 catch for 8 yards. Want to know why the Giants didn’t put more points up on the board? Look no farther than this performance by this group. On the first interception, Toomer could not create any separation from the cornerback on his break inside. On the second interception, the ball was thrown right to Toomer who batted it up in the air. You could see Collins looking for Toomer repeatedly, but he couldn’t get open. Same story with Ike Hilliard. Worse, Hilliard fumbled the ball away after one reception and dropped another pass late in the game that would have picked up a sizable chunk of yardage.
Running Backs: The Giants did a relatively good job in the ground game in the first half as Barber picked up 59 yards on 15 carries (and a touchdown) in the game’s first two quarters. Surprisingly, a lot of his yardage came against the middle of the stout Miami defense. Barber would have had even better numbers on a few plays that were well-blocked except for one breakdown (more on that below). Barber found things much tougher on the Giants’ first possession in the second half as he only managed 12 yards on 5 carries before Delvin Joyce came into the game. By the time Barber got back in the game, it was 23-10 and the Giants were strictly in a passing mode. With the receivers covered so thoroughly, I would have liked to have seen more pass plays to Barber out of the backfield (4 catches for 28 yards).
Delvin Joyce got his first extended action at running back (3 carries for 6 yards, 1 catch for 5 yards). Unlike a lot of people, I have no problem with Joyce playing ahead of Dorsey Levens. I think Levens has his role on this team, but Joyce is very similar in style to Tiki Barber and fits the offensive system quite well.
Jim Finn caught three passes for 14 yards and did a good job when called upon to lead block. However, Finn was flagged with a false start.
Tight Ends: This was Jeremy Shockey’s best game of the year receiving (11 catches for 110 yards), but I thought it was one of his worst as a Giant as a blocker (and I’m a guy who has been touting Shockey’s blocking skills since last season). There were a few plays where Barber could have made more yardage had Shockey not missed his block. In addition, on the one play where Giants’ fans condemned Visanthe Shiancoe for whiffing on Pro Bowl DE Jason Taylor, Shockey for some reason decided to let Taylor run right by him. So instead of helping Visanthe out to the inside, Shockey just stood there blocking no one. Other than that play, I thought Shiancoe performed reasonably well as a blocker, including sometimes as a lead blocker from the fullback spot.
In the receiving game, Shockey was one of the few offensive bright spots. He finally looked like his old self, catching passes over the middle, quickly turning up field, and breaking/running over defenders. He had a number of longer plays, but I really liked his diving 5-yard catch on 3rd-and-2 on the Giants’ long drive in the 3rd quarter.
Marcellus Rivers caught a 6-yard pass, but a penalty on Miami erased the reception.
Offensive Line: This unit is still being partially protected by the Giants’ quick, 3-step passing attack and Kerry Collins’ quick release. That said, the Giants are running more and more empty backfield sets, which demonstrates the coaching staff’s growing confidence in this unit. I was particularly impressed with the work of LG Rich Seubert, OC Wayne Lucier, and RG David Diehl in creating movement inside for Tiki Barber against two big defensive tackles. Lucier is a real find. He looks so natural out there both blocking at the point-of-attack and at the second level that you would never know he is a rookie. His pass protection has been solid too (though he did miss a blitzer the incomplete pass play two plays before Feagles’ field goal attempt).
Diehl got beat by Jason Taylor on a 3rd-and-4 Barber run in the 1st quarter, but I blame the scheme…it’s tough for the strongside guard to pull and block a guy like Jason Taylor on such a quick draw play. Tiki picked up some good yardage in this game between the two rookies, Lucier and Diehl. Seubert did a nice job on his pulling effort on the goal line on Tiki’s touchdown run.
LT Luke Petitgout didn’t have one of his better pass blocking games. To be fair, it’s important to keep in mind the quality of his opponent (Jason Taylor) and the fact that he was often blocking him one-on-one. While not giving up a sack to Taylor, the defensive end was still able to put heat on Collins and force quicker-than-wanted throws. Petitgout also got stood up by Taylor on a 2nd-and-13 draw play that lost 2 yards.
RT Chris Bober also played fairly well in pass protection, especially when you consider that this is his third game at right tackle and his opponent (DE Adewale Ogunleye) is a quality pass rusher. But he also had some rough moments. Bober did get confused on a stunt where Collins was sacked (a Miami penalty erased the play). There was also one cutback run by Barber that should have picked up good yardage, but Bober missed his block on the frontside of the play. On the 3rd down play in the red zone right before Feagles’ field goal attempt, Bober gave up a pressure that caused the ball to be tipped when leaving Collins’ right hand. In the 4th quarter, Bober missed his block on a Joyce carry up the middle. He also got beat inside on the pass rush on the play where Collins threw his third interception. All of this sounds very negative, but I actually came away from the game feeling that Bober is continuing to get more and more comfortable with his new position.
Defensive Line: The defensive line played fairly well. The guy who stood out to me was DT Cornelius Griffin (7 tackles, 1 fumble recovery). Griffin was very disruptive against the power running attack of Ricky Williams and the Dolphins. He got good penetration on quite a few plays where Williams went nowhere. DT Keith Hamilton (4 tackles) also played what I thought was his best game since suffering his Achilles injury. I thought the two defensive holding penalties on Hamilton were bad calls (heck, he was getting double-teamed on both of these plays). He was stout up front against Williams and actually got a couple of good pass rushes on Fielder. My biggest complaint? The complete lack of hustle by Hammer on FB Rob Konrad’s 25-yard screen pass. At the same time, special kudos to Griffin for demonstrating a lot of heart and hustle on the same play as he made the tackle.
The ends played mostly well. DE Michael Strahan (9 tackles, 1 sack, 1 forced fumble) was active and back to his old stout self on the strongside. Strahan also played a disciplined game and guarded against cutback runs and rollouts in his direction by Fielder. The Giants got some heat in this game with their four down linemen, and a few of those plays were due to Strahan’s pass rush. I also liked the way Strahan hustled down the field to tackle Williams after an 11-yard screen pass (the one the penalty for being illegally down field should have been called on). Strahan’s worst play? According to press reports, he was the guy who was supposed to cover TE Randy McMichael on the 24-yard pass play on 3rd-and-9 that really killed the Giants. After that play, which put the Dolphins in field goal range with less than 7 minutes left to play (already up 16-10), a lot of life went out of the team. Strahan didn’t stay in the flat, but followed a receiver running over the middle. All of his, of course, begs the question…should Strahan be called upon to cover a tight end the caliber of McMichael in the first place?
DE Kenny Holmes (6 tackles, 1 sack) was surprisingly stout at the point-of-attack until late in the game. Miami was not able to make many yards in his direction and he picked up a sack on a stunt. In the 4th quarter, Holmes’ run defense softened somewhat. DE Keith Washington (2 tackles) played quite a bit at both ends. He nailed Williams from the backside and on the following play was right with Strahan on the latter’s sack. However, Washington got fooled completely on the 68-yard end around…it was his job to contain that play from the backside.
DT William Joseph (1 tackle) hasn’t made much noise since the opener against the Rams. He over-pursued (along with Dhani Jones) on Konrad’s 11-yard gain up the gut on the TD drive that put the game away.
Linebackers: The linebackers also did a good job against Ricky Williams. However, their aggressiveness sometimes cost them. There were two big pass plays given up where I think Dhani Jones (4 tackles) missed his assignment. The first came on McMichael’s 33-yard reception in the 1st quarter. The second came on Konrad’s 25-yard screen pass. Again, I’m not sure if it was Dhani’s responsibility in both situations, but it looked like it to me. Other than that, Dhani was pretty sharp in both run and pass defense. He knocked the ball out of the hands of intended receivers twice that I saw. Same story with Brandon Short (5 tackles), although the run defense of Short (like Holmes) softened a bit late in the game. Mike Barrow (5 tackles) had one good hit in the hole, but was pretty quiet.
Defensive Backs: The Dolphins didn’t hurt the Giants with their passing game to the wide receivers and when CBS showed the secondary coverage, it was generally pretty tight. My biggest complaint is that CB Will Peterson is still playing far too soft. For some one of his ability, he should be playing receivers tighter and not allowing easy completions in front of him. This happened three times in the game, including one very costly 3rd-and-7 play on Miami’s field goal drive in the second half. The 8-yard completion on the second play of the second half touchdown drive didn’t help matters either. People think I like to bash Peterson. I don’t. I like him a lot. But I don’t understand why he is playing so soft…it’s like he is afraid to get beat deep. When facing a 3rd-and-7, the corner should NOT be 12 yards off the ball. Peterson did have excellent coverage on an end zone pass that fell incomplete. His run defense was also very good.
Will Allen only gave up one 16-yard completion on a crossing route. However, his “attempted” tackle on the 68-yard end around was downright ugly. He also missed a tackle on McMichael’s crucial 24-yard gain in the 4th quarter.
Nickel back Ralph Brown was very sound in coverage this week. In fact, I don’t remember seeing him giving up a completion. However, he dropped a VERY easy interception in the end zone that would have prevented a field goal. He also missed a tackle on McMichael’s 24-yard gain.
The other costly dropped interception was by Omar Stoutmire who made a nice play getting into position to have the opportunity to make the grab. This drop also came on a drive where Miami kicked a field goal. Shaun Williams got caught too far inside on the 68-yard end around. He had one very good series in the 2nd quarter where he strung out a Ricky Williams run, supplied airtight coverage on TE Randy McMichael on a bootleg pass, and knocked a ball away from WR Chris Chambers.
Special Teams: The injury to Matt Bryant was a huge factor in this football game. It came on his perfect 43-yard field goal that closed the score to 13-10 at the end of halftime. However, with him unable to play in the second half, the opening kickoff in the second half by Jeff Feagles was poor (to the 20 yard line – Kato Serwanga and Nick Greisen making the tackle after a 19 yard return put the ball on the 39). Worse, Feagles was unable to connect on his 29-yard effort after the Giants 18-play, 9-minute marathon in the 3rd quarter. Emotionally, this was a turning point in the game. Bryant’s sole kickoff landed at the 6 yard line with David Tyree and Greisen doing a good job holding the return to 15 yards.
Jeff Feagles averaged 39.5 yards on four punts: 36 yards (fair caught at Miami 13 yard line – David Tyree down in a hurry), 45 yards (returned 33 yards with Feagles making the tackle), 37 yards (fair caught at Miami 24), and 40 yards (returned only 3 yards – excellent coverage by Brian Mitchell and Kato Serwanga). Obviously, the 33-yard return was the sore spot as the right side of the punt coverage team lost contain.
I hear a lot of criticism of Brian Mitchell as a returner, but the criticism of him on punt returns makes absolutely no sense. In four games, Mitchell has only been able to return 3 punts. That’s astounding and it isn’t his fault. Many of the opposition’ punts have been poor short efforts, out-of-bounds, or fair catches were forced. The one opportunity Mitchell had on Sunday was a respectable 12-yard return where he had no blocking in front of him along the sideline.
Where Mitchell has not flashed is kickoff returns. Mitchell returned 3 kickoffs on Sunday for an average of 21.3 yards per return. His numbers were brought down by the fact that he couldn’t cleanly field a bad kickoff and was limited to an 11-yard return. Nick Greisen returned a short kick-off 13 yards to the 33-yard line. Tim Carter tried to make a big play by reversing his field on a kickoff, but the Dolphins were ready and he was only able to manage 9 yards. Worse, Wes Mallard was flagged with an illegal block on the play.
Wes Mallard did partially block a punt that still managed to travel 38 yards due to a good roll.
Truisms For Giants’ Fans
by BBI Reporter/Photographer David Oliver
For all the many ways a football can bounce, there are only a few absolutes for Giants’ fans. The first, and foremost, is that between Jim Lee Howell and Bill Parcells, the coaching sucked; and between Bill Parcells and (fill in the blank for an unnamed future choice???), the coaching sucked. It may be simplistic, it may be like Ben Gay, merely a mask providing temporary relief for a deeper pain, but it does seem to allow us to continue to enjoy the game. I have always thought that to be a true Giants’ fan, one must be an Existentialist; lately, however, I am beginning to think that our love of this team is really rooted either in an absolute Zen discipline, maybe Shao Lin, rooted in subjection to pain creating an inner force which becomes impervious to pain, which, in fact, brings about a clarity of vision. Nah, spend a Sunday at the Meadowlands listening to 80,000 fans imploring their champions with the refrain “dee-fense, dee-fense, dee-fense”, and it comes down to a Samuel Beckett sort of surrealism, much as the cry of the unnamable voice in his work, THE UNNAMEABLE, “I must go on. I can’t go on. I’ll go on.” And so we do.
The membership over in The Corner Forum has already battered this thing in every possible way. Time of Possession – Giants; First Downs – Giants; Net Yards – Giants; Offensive Plays -Giants; Average Gain per Play – Giants; Net Yards Passing – Giants; Pass Attempts & Completions – Giants. But there are a few others: Final Score – Dolphins; Red Zone Efficiency – Dolphins; TDs- Dolphins; Net Yards Rushing – Dolphins. It’s kind of hard to make sense of these stats. Usually, TOP advantage indicates a strong ground game, something which winning coaches value highly. In this case, the Giants had TOP, but did it with an air assault. It is a little reminiscent of the military strategists’ debate over the use of air power and ground forces. In a crude form, the argument boils down to whether you believe you can win a war on air power alone, or whether you need ground forces to do the heavy lifting. The Giants used air power on Sunday, but the ground forces were deployed somewhere else. Which leads to another observation. The Giants have replaced two decent pass blocking linemen with two decent pass blocking linemen. Which, at this point of the season leads to a net gain of zero. But it also means that there hasn’t been any net loss either. So those who want a bruising running game are destined to be angry most of this season. On the other hand, those who think 14-and-2 is a pretty good record, well, they still have another week, at least, of hope. End result – the stats don’t tell us much.
I have a couple of observations to make in this respect. It is a Lewis Carroll world when Jay Fiedler has a QB rating of 73.7 and Kerry Collins checks in with a 59.8. This Giants team should never lose to a team led by Jay Fiedler. Never. Yes, KC threw 3 interceptions. But one was a really bad throw, low and into a sort of double coverage. The ball bounced this way and that and a Miami back showed what good hands can mean in a secondary. The second was the old bounce in the air ball – classic rubric – a ball that bounces in the air will be trouble; and yet, how many times do we see a player try to make a play, only to have the ball bounce in the air? The third cannot be faulted entirely to KC. He made a very nice escape from a sack rush, unfortunately rolled to his right and threw on the run, to an unobstructed view of a wideout, Tim Carter, who was running a route contrary to everything taught to wideouts of things to do when your QB is in trouble. TC just kept hoofing into the corner of the end zone, rather than coming back to help his QB. Carter allowed the defender between himself and his QB – only an absolute miracle would have gotten there. I think it was a 3rd down play, which is probably why KC didn’t just throw it away. At any rate, it may have been a poor decision throw (but I think it was reasonable), but the receiver didn’t help. Which then leads to the question of why, in a tight game, did the coach suddenly decide that now was the time to try out his inexperienced wideout, and his backup running back? Kind of reminds me of my cats who will suddenly decide they need to be in another place and get up and bolt for absolutely no fathomable reason to another room.
For the Giants, the creation of the bye week may just be the worst innovation in the last decade. How can this team not be ready to play after a week’s rest? How can this defense make changes and then be beaten by an offense with Jay Fiedler as a QB? How can a defense completely shut down a running back like Ricky Williams and be beaten by a reverse and a couple of screens? Not one screen, two. Forget the talent level; there is a lot of talent on the Giants’ defensive side of the ball. Shutting down a back like Ricky Williams tells you that there is talent. The system is deficient. The worst part is the misuse of the linebackers – and don’t ever say that Giants’ fans don’t know linebackers because we damn sure do. We have seen good linebackers on good teams, good linebackers on bad teams and great linebackers on Super Bowl teams. And we have seen linebackers revolt against a system which forces them into an Einsteinian analysis of an offense. I don’t care what name you give it; linebackers who move AWAY from the line of scrimmage become a liability. They become susceptible to motion and guile; they become square pegs in round holes. I can remember only one team, long ago in a galaxy far away, which won with this system. And that team had extraordinary players, quite a few who now reside in the Hall of Fame, an extraordinary Head Coach, and it played in a different structure. This system cannot, and will not dominate in a fashion to which Giants’ fans have become accustomed. Take away the reverse, with its out of position, poor tackling follies and the vaunted Miami ground game gained a meager 72 yards. Stop Norv Turner’s running game, and you beat his offense. Six receivers caught passes in a Miami passing offense which strikes fear in the heart of no one. But an average gain of about 12 yards replaces a ground game. Take away Konrad’s 25 yard gain, and it might come down to the two dropped interceptions. It might. So statistically, even this system, which should work against a Dolphin type attack, if against any attack, might have done the job- in any week except the week following the bye. If Michael Vick comes back in time for the Giants’ game, the Giants won’t be facing any more Jay Fiedler offenses for a while. Screens and reverses just might become the play de jour against this defense. At any rate, it will put to rest the argument about talent and the argument about the system. If these players can win in this system, they will have to be very talented, indeed.
The defensive stats are significant. Although Michael Strahan appeared to have a quiet game, punctuated by Ricky Williams tackles, he did have 9 tackles (6 and 3). Shaun Williams had 7 (6 and 1), including a couple of very nice hits. I continue to believe that Williams should be moved to LB in this system. Peterson had 7 (6 and 1) but was soft in coverage too much. He did have very good coverage on the pass into the end zone which was incomplete. Cornelius Griffin had a good game, his best of the year, with 7 tackles (4 and 3) and Kenny Holmes had 6 (3 and 3), but sat a lot in favor of Keith Washington who only had 2 (1 and 1). Brandon Short and Mike Barrow chipped in with 5 each, but both played quietly and Keith Hamilton had a surprising 4 (3 and 1). Lance Legree saw limited action and that’s too bad as to date he has been getting the most effective pressure of the defensive linemen. From the standpoint of stopping the run, the defensive line had a pretty solid game, and as Ricky Williams acknowledged they ‘were hitting hard.’ Everybody played hard. The cracking was good. I walked in at halftime next to RW and he wasn’t moving like a man who was having a whole lot of fun on the day. The Dolphins’ line has some pretty good size, but I don’t know that they are better than the Rams. The Giants D hasn’t come back to the form they showed in that game, but the D-Line has turned it up a notch. The key to pressure is Michael Strahan. When he gets a step or two into the backfield, it collapses the opposition blocking schemes. The most impressive defensive player on the field yesterday was Junior Seau. Whatever ‘it’ is, he still has it. The real problem with the D, scheming and execution, was in the fourth quarter. The Dolphins had the ball for a whopping 10+ minutes. The missed FG led to an air of desperation. A beautiful drive wasted resulted in a change of Ole Mo and there went the win. Darnell Dinkins summed it up best as he told me, “It was tough, watching us lose like that.” It’s pretty much the way we all feel.
I talked to Nick Greisen about his kick off return. I started by telling him he looked ready for the possibility and he told me, “Yeah, because they had done it the last time (short kick), so I asked Brian Mitchell, ‘If they kick it short do you want me to pitch it back?’ and he said, ‘No, just grab it and see what you can get out of it.’” I asked him if coach had said anything to him and he told me, “When I was coming off, he said ‘make sure you put two hands on it’ and I said ‘Coach, don’t worry about it, I’m a running back,’ (High School), laughing. The next play, they put Delvin in for me, in case they did it again.” We talked about Olindo Mare’s last couple of kicks and how the Giants didn’t have a chance to return anything, but he felt that the return team “was continuing to get better every week, and we’re going to break one sooner or later.” Of side interest, I was talking to one of the Miami photographers on the sideline and he told me Mare was not kicking like that last year.
I talked a little to Delvin Joyce who was happy to get some game time but would have preferred to do it when the Giants “were on the winning end.” He said, “It felt good to be in there and work with them (first team)”, so I teased him about the one solid hit the Dolphins got on him. He said, “It wasn’t that bad, if they look bad, then they’re not bad.” He did know who hit him, telling me he believed it was Zach (Thomas). I asked him about Junior (Seau) and he told me “he’s a tough guy” and when I made mention of his critics saying he was spent, Delvin said, “Oh, no, he’s a tough guy, he runs around and makes plays.” We talked about what might lie in the future and Delvin felt that things worked out pretty good, and that they “were going to evaluate it and see how much of a break Tiki actually needs, and just go from there.” Delvin’s performance was not bad. He runs hard, he challenges the middle and he moves forward. The missed catch was not a good throw, high and behind him, and had he caught it, the play would have lost yardage. I was standing right there and the Dolphins had it well covered. Frankly, neither Ron Dayne nor Dorsey Levens would have been more effective in that situation. The Dolphins were plugging the gaps. RD wouldn’t have gotten to the line and Dorsey would have had about the same success as Delvin. Levens has always been a gap runner in his career. The present Giants’ O is not designed for a runner like these two in a come from behind situation. I applaud Coach Fassel’s realization that Tiki will get killed through overuse; I question the timing of implementing the “rest” period. Tiki should have been supplemented earlier in the game, or on the third period drive where Shockey became the focal point. I don’t know if Tiki was hurt, but if you have a ‘go to’ guy, you go to him in the critical stretch. If Tiki was hurt, maybe it will snap some reality into the coach’s planning and he will get Tiki more and earlier rest. Not having Tiki at this critical time, along with not having Bryant, certainly didn’t help the comeback effort.
Cornelius Griffin played his best game of the season. He discussed with me a common thread among the Giants’ players these days and told me, “You have to be smart and play disciplined and keep fighting to get better each week.” Every single player to whom I speak tells me that you have to be ‘smart’ to play in the Giants’ system. (This speaks volumes to me. It emphasizes that the system is a coaches system, a cerebral construct, sort of like taking geometry and overlaying quantum physics. For me, good football players all must have an intuitive grasp of geometry, of axioms, and maybe even trigonometry, with a feel for angles and cosines. But quantum physics does not appear to me to be intuitive; it is metaphysical. I can see such a system presenting difficulties for football players. “Smart” is one of those buzzwords which has always signaled trouble for me. People who speak in such terms remind me of an Administrator I once worked with who classified people as ‘smart’, or otherwise. Every once in a while, someone would get a special accolade and when questioned about his classification of ‘smart’, this Administrator would say, “Yes, but he (she) is REAL smart.” I’m just wondering if the Giants’ system requires not only ‘smart’ players, but ‘real smart’ players. Tom Landry designed a system for smart players, but it was always said that Tom was smart, and I never remember it being said that his system needed smart players. Vince Lombardi designed a system which required discipline and hard work. It was said that Vince was a genius, not that his players had to be. Buddy Ryan and smart will never be used in the same sentence, except here. His players terrorized the league, on defense, for a couple of teams. I never heard smart and talented used in connection with this scheme. Now, Ray Handley was a genius – he was also a disaster. Somewhere along the way, the Giants have gotten too much into this ‘smart’ thing. I’m not sure if its good or bad, but I’m getting weary of hearing it, especially after an L is posted.
So Grif continued on and told me, “While we are getting better, we need to get a win in the process.” We talked about effort and Grif told me, “Every time we get on the field, we have to make a play, to get our offense back on the field, score, we just have to make plays.” I asked him if the defensive line rotation was working out and he told me it was “fine, working out great, I can go sell out on the field and if I need a blow, my guy Lance comes in, and Lance is doing good right now, so he can come in and give me a blow.”
Ralph Brown told me he was getting more playing time and that every week. “I’m learning a lot. There are always different scenarios that I go through that I have to learn from, but I have to remember to carry it on to the next week, I can’t just say, oh yeah, I learned from that and then be faced with the same position and not correct it. When the football is coming my way, I have to focus on it, catch it. The week we played Dallas, I caught the ball; if I dropped that, people are going to say I have bad hands, if I catch this one this week, they say Ralph has good hands.” We talked about the defense and how Giants fans are used to solid defense. I asked him if there was something in the scheme that was difficult, or was it just things happening. He told me, “It’s just mistakes…we have to make our plays on defense. We have so much talent out there that, sometimes, it’s scary, and for us to not be playing as we should be, or making the plays that we should be, it’s like, how can this be happening? Our stats were lower today but we didn’t win the game. There were a couple of plays on third down in the fourth quarter that we didn’t make, that we should have.” We talked about the talent level and the expectations, and believe me, these guys have the same expectations that we do. Ralph told me “once we get this thing going, we got our stats down this week, but there was one thing missing, we didn’t make the plays on third down in the fourth quarter; once we get that corrected, everything will start clicking. The good thing is that we have 12 games left and it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.”
Darnell Dinkins (DD) expressed the frustration to me when he told me, “You want to be out there helping the team more than you know what you are doing; you want to be more than just a practice player. Right now, it’s just tough. It’s just a matter of time right now, but it’s always tough just having to watch, to see your team fight just as hard as they can.” We talked about the Shockey call and DD also felt it was just a bad call, as he said, “I don’t know what the officials see sometimes.” I asked him what he says to himself, what he does, to stay focused as a practice team member. He said, “What I do is focus on knowing that it takes each and every day to get better, and I just focus on making the best of it, like I was just telling the scout team guys, the practice team guys, just don’t look at this like Miami’s defense or New England’s defense, Miami’s offense or New England’s offense, look at it as you getting yourself better; it’s all the same, if you run the corner route or the out route, you’re blocking down on the defensive end, it’s the same thing, it’s just different names for the plays. I just focus on getting better each and every play, so when I go back out there with this team, I’ll be able to give my best effort to help us win. That’s what I motivate myself to do. I still come in early and prepare for the game as if I was going to be out there on Sunday, so if anything happens I won’t be out of the loop because I was down or feeling sorry for myself. I’ve got too much pride about myself to let a situation or a circumstance stop me from working hard, and that’s what I do when I go out there. You can look at tape, I just go out there; the defensive ends, they’ll tell you I’m still working hard, I’m making them work.” I asked if can pick out tendencies or moves or tricks of the trade. DD told me, “Actually, I just ask them what things could I have done better or how it came off, pretty much it’s about the fight; they love to fight that I give them; I’m not going to let anybody just beat me down, so when you line up against me, you’re going to get a fight, you’d better be prepared. That’s what I look for; I generally look at tape to see how I’m stepping because a lot of things depend on footwork and leverage. I try to make sure I’m doing the things that I can to be a better football player.”
That’s pretty much it for this week. To sum up, what I saw from the sideline was a team that fought hard, with plenty of cracking along both lines. The Miami offense line coach would get his guys together every time they came off the field. He was part screaming, part teaching, part wetting his pants. They had their hands full. There wasn’t much action until late in the game when Ricky Williams actually gained a few tough yards, then they were up and yelling encouragement. Coach Wannstedt looks as if he has a very light hand in the offense. Most of the time he looks to be just another huddle member, although he listens to Norv all the time. The Miami offense was unimpressive against the Giants D and the Miami D was led by Junior and Zach. Luke Pettigout pretty much neutralized Jason Taylor, on one play just reaching out and arm clubbing Jason as he began his outside move. Chris Bober looked to be pretty hurt at one time, hanging his right arm at his side; it may have been a stinger or something he shrugged as he didn’t come out of the game. Amani had some trouble getting free this game, but Miami’s secondary is pretty good. Carter was a nonfactor. Once Shockey got angry, he was a force and Ike would make two catches, then make a bad play, on one play coming on a slant across the field and actually looking as if he was pulling up rather than be hit by Marion. Then he makes a spectacular grab look easy.
It was a tough, but relatively boring game, ending up in the L column. I will be back for the Eagles game.