Atlanta Falcons 27 – New York Giants 7
Game Overview: The movie line that came to mind after the Giants’ embarrassing loss to the lowly Atlanta Falcons comes from the film Patton. Towards the conclusion of the movie, there is a scene where Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, staring up at the wartime strategic situation map with the Russians moving into Berlin and the Americans approaching the Elbe River, says “This is the End. The End.”
The Fassel regime has about two more months of life, then it is over. There are no miracles left. There are no excuses. This team that was supposed to contend for the NFC East title is currently residing in the division basement. Injuries are only now mounting, but they weren’t an issue up until this point – so that can’t be used as an excuse. The season was sabotaged by special teams disasters against the Cowboys and Eagles, turnovers and an inability to produce points against the Dolphins and Patriots, and a complete no-show against the Falcons.
Despite press stories to the contrary, this isn’t the first time under Fassel that the Giants didn’t come mentally ready to play on game day. The contests against Detroit in 2000, and the Cardinals, Eagles (away game where Philly rushed for 300 yards), and Falcons in 2002 immediately come to mind. But this wasn’t Jim Fassel’s biggest problem. Fassel’s biggest problem was that his Giants’ teams won when they weren’t expected to win, but lost when they were expected to contend. In the six year’s from 1997 to 2002, Fassel’s teams made the playoffs three times, won two division titles, and an NFC Championship. But those successes came in the “rebuilding” years of 1997, 2000, and 2002. The Giants of 1998, 2001, and 2003 were supposed to be good teams. The irony is that if these trends were flip-flopped, the heat would be on General Manager Ernie Accorsi rather than Fassel.
Among a certain group of Giants’ fans, there is a palpable sense of giddiness that Jim Fassel is on his way out. Excuse me for not being one to join in their celebration. What we are watching is the downfall of a GOOD man…a man who lives and breathes New York Giants football. He is part of the Giants’ family and that makes him one of us. But at the same time, we will never understand the tremendous personal sacrifice, heartache, and emotional toll being the head coach of this football team has taken on him. I have bitched and moaned about Fassel in the past, only later to come to his defense once again because I realize that Fassel is a hard-working, intelligent, sensitive man who loves his family and his players. He wanted nothing more than to make the Giants winners. How can you root against a guy like that?
But the bottom line in this sport is winning. Winning is the ultimate denominator, especially when expectations are at their highest. When a team falls short of that goal, it is far easier to fire the coaching staff than it is the players. In addition, at a certain point, how the head coaching situation is addressed becomes a public relations matter. Ownership and management seldom can ignore the outcry of the masses who call for blood.
Why didn’t Fassel’s teams win when the expectations were higher? It’s a good question. For some reason, the team always seemed to lack a sense of urgency until the season was on the brink. There always seemed to some crisis, offensive inconsistency, and special teams problems throughout his regime. As the offense personnel improved, the defensive personnel deteriorated. The 1997 New York Giants was one of the best defensive teams I’ve seen the Giants field; the 2003 New York Giants’ defense is mediocre at best. Fassel also made the mistake of picking Johnnie Lynn to succeed John Fox.
Contrary to the Falcon fiasco, Fassel’s teams usually came to play on game day. The level of coaching was fundamentally sound and the players respected their coach and most of the coaching staff. But one rarely was left with the impression that Fassel and his staff had out-coached their opponent. Put Fassel up against the likes of a Bill Belichick, or Jeff Fisher, and Fassel was left wanting. So were the halftime adjustments. Does that make Fassel a bad coach? Of course not. He is an average coach in an average league.
So at season’s end, General Manager Ernie Accorsi will fire Fassel. Accorsi will pick a new head coach and likely retire after the 2004 season. This will be a mistake. What Accorsi should do is be a man and step down at the same time that he fires Fassel. Let his successor pick his own head coach since this is coach he will have to feel comfortable in working with. George Young made the mistake of leaving the Giants a year too late as well.
In 2004, the Giants will have the offensive personnel to win. But they need to get better defensively. Contrary to what Accorsi believes, defense does win championships. The Giants need better personnel in the front seven and at safety.
As for the Atlanta game, the same old problems this season reared their ugly heads once again: turnovers, red zone mistakes, inconsistent offensive line play, missed opportunities, an inability to force turnovers, and defensive breakdowns. But in the Atlanta game, we saw the Falcons clearly control both lines of scrimmage. We saw the Giants’ two more important offensive players – Kerry Collins and Tiki Barber – make killer mistakes at the worst possible times. And we saw a run defense that was embarrassingly soft. In the end, the defense quit playing altogether. That’s the game in a nutshell.
Giants on Offense: Atlanta basically rushed three down linemen and occasionally blitzed a fourth, while dropping seven or eight into coverage. Their intent was the same as that of the Patriots – to take away the downfield passing game and make the Giants work the field. Where the Falcons probably exceeded even their wildest hopes was the amount of pass pressure the three or four rushers were able to generate on Collins. Kerry was sacked three times, and pressured and hit on many more plays. This pass pressure, combined with so many Falcons playing back in coverage, made it extremely difficult for the Giants to move the ball through the air. This defensive alignment is vulnerable to the run and Tiki Barber did rush for 120 yards on only 16 carries. But he also fumbled twice and Collins threw two interceptions.
These turnovers were disastrous. Barber’s fumbles came at the Atlanta 22- and 5-yard lines. Collins’ first interception was in the end zone with New York at the Atlanta 20-yard line. And Collins’ last interception gave the Falcons the ball on the Giants’ 8-yard line. In other words, the Giants blew three clear scoring opportunities and gave the Falcons a touchdown. Penalties by the offensive line sabotaged another Giants’ drive that had moved the ball to the Falcon 22-yard line.
Quarterback: This was QB Kerry Collins’ worst game of the season (25-of-40 for 202 yards, 0 touchdowns, 2 interceptions). Collins’ two interceptions were obviously killers. His first was thrown towards a double-covered Tim Carter into the end zone on a play where it looked like he had Jeremy Shockey breaking open for a touchdown. His second was thrown right to a defender as Kerry panicked when a free blitzer was rushing at him. It was also clear that the pass rush was affecting him and the defensive coverage of the Falcons was confusing him. At times, Collins was getting rid of the ball too quickly when he didn’t have to – reminiscent of his play against the Patriots and Eagles earlier in the season. Kerry had another interception wiped out due to a penalty on the Falcons, and Atlanta defenders dropped two more passes that should have been picked off. A bad performance all around.
But let’s make one thing clear. Collins is one of the better quarterbacks in this league. He played a bad game on Sunday, but every quarterback in this league has bad games. The Giants can win a Super Bowl with him at the helm. The same people calling for his head right now probably called for Phil Simms’ head before he won a Super Bowl. Collins has already proven he can win big games in big situations, bring his team from behind to win, and produce in the playoffs.
Offensive Line: Jim McNally may be an outstanding offensive line coach, but he proved once again that he can’t mentally prepare his players well enough to play a 3-4 defense. Worse, there were not only mental breakdowns, but physical ones. It is absolutely unconscionable that the Falcons were able to generate so much pass pressure on Collins by rushing three men against five offensive linemen. In terms of pass protection, the offense line was dominated up front and that is a big reason why the Falcons won the game. I saw breakdowns by everyone across the board with respect to allow pass pressure…everyone was at fault. Ironically, probably the steadiest guy was RT Ian Allen. All three interior guys really struggled. And Luke Petitgout is making far too much money to give up any pressure by a journeyman Atlanta defensive lineman. The line did much better in terms of run blocking with both guards looking sharp on the pull. However, holding penalties by Diehl, Bober, Petitgout, and Lucier, as well as a false start penalty by Petitgout helped to abort drives. Petitgout was also flagged with a tripping penalty on a screen pass.
Running Backs: Tiki Barber had a big day statistically with 120 yards on 16 carries (7.5 yards per carry) plus 10 catches for 38 yards. But the two fumbles completely overshadowed those results. And Tiki’s second fumble, at the Atlanta 5-yard line with the Giants trailing 20-7 with 11 minutes left to play, ended all hopes of a comeback victory. Tiki Barber obviously has a major fumbling problem. This wasn’t the case in 2000, 2001, and most of 2002. But towards the end of 2002, Tiki started to turn the ball over. Hopefully, this is merely a prolonged slump for Barber, but if it isn’t, the Giants need to find a new halfback in the draft in the offseason.
Dorsey Levens carried the ball twice for 1 yard and a touchdown. Delvin Joyce carried the ball once for 3 yards.
Wide Receivers: Nothing more clearly indicates that the Falcons took away the deep passing game than the fact that while Tiki had 10 receptions, Amani Toomer and Ike Hilliard only had 6 combined. Toomer had 4 catches for 33 yards and a long reception of only 15 yards. Hilliard caught 2 passes for 18 yards with a long of 9 yards. Toomer dropped what should have been a key 4th-and-2 pass. The Giants picked up the first down due to a Falcon penalty, but had Toomer caught the ball, the Giants would have had the ball inside the 10-yard line right before the half. Hilliard dropped a deep pass on 3rd down in the 3rd quarter.
The good news was that Tim Carter had his most productive day as a Giant with 4 catches for 56 yards. He made an outstanding, leaping 21-yard catch on 3rd-and-16 in the 1st quarter. He also had a key reception to convert a 3rd-and-11 in the 4th quarter.
Tight Ends: Jeremy Shockey (partially torn PCL) is likely done for the season. He had 3 catches for 46 yards with a game-high 28-yard reception for the Giants. This catch was a superb, leaping effort. Shockey did well run blocking this week. However, his holding penalty right after Atlanta had taken a 20-7 lead really hurt.
Marcellus Rivers (2 catches for 11 yards) and Visanthe Shiancoe (1 catch for 7 yards) were not big factors in the passing game after Shockey left the game hurt.
Giants on Defense: Atlanta had no passing attack to speak of on Sunday as Kurt Kittner only completed 9-of-23 passes for 65 yards. As I said in my game preview, the key for the Giants defensively was to shut down the running game. Instead, the defense decided not to show up and allowed the Falcons to amass an incredible 216 yards rushing. “We got our butts kicked,” said Defensive Coordinator Johnnie Lynn. “We got knocked off the ball.” No kidding. What made matters worse for the defense is that the Giants’ offense basically handed the Falcons 7-points in the 3rd quarter with Collins’ interception that was returned to the 8-yard line. But instead of limiting the damage by holding on 4th-and-goal, the left side of the defense completely collapsed and an easy rushing touchdown resulted. And the defense deserves full blame for Atlanta’s first drives of both halves. The Falcons drove 68 yards in 6 plays in the 1st quarter and 77 yards in 9 plays in the 3rd quarter. After Tiki’s second fumble, the defense packed it in for the day…easily allowing the Falcons to run time off the clock and put another score on the board. Embarrassing!
Defensive Line: No pass rush, no run defense. As bad a performance as I’ve seen with the Giants. DE Michael Strahan in particular, given his lofty “elite” status and pay check, deserves special criticism. Many of the rushing yards came in his direction, including the 4th-and-goal rushing touchdown. DE Kenny Holmes had problems holding his ground at the other end of the line. And all of the tackles disappointed, including DT William Joseph, who has yet to make much of an impression this year. (Incidentally, I thought the two defensive holding calls on Keith Hamilton were absolutely atrocious).
Linebackers: Terrible in run defense as well as they didn’t flow to the ball well, often misread the direction of the back, and allowed cutback lanes. The only good news was that they did a good job of defending an Atlanta bread-and-butter play: the screen pass. Once again, undercoverage was a problem as the fullback wasn’t even covered on his touchdown reception. Dhani Jones did make a couple of plays in the backfield.
Defensive Backs: Allowed only 9 completions and 65 yards passing, but much of that most likely had to do with the quality of the opposing quarterback. However, defensive backs are supposed to play run defense too. FS Omar Stoutmire missed HB Warrick Dunn badly on the latter’s 45-yard touchdown run. To his credit, at least Stoutmire made a play on the ball on a deep pass this week…a play that a free safety should make all the time. He also almost decapitated WR Peerless Price on an amazing reception by the Falcons’ receiver on a key 3rd down situation. SS Shaun Williams’ play has deteriorated so much that he no longer can even cover the tight end. The Falcons’ best pass play was one where they isolated TE Alge Crumpler on Williams one-on-one outside of the formation. Williams couldn’t handle the assignment. And where is Williams against the run? That is supposed to be the strength of his game! CB Ralph Brown dropped an interception that probably would have been returned for a touchdown. He later knocked away a pass in the end zone. The Falcons stayed away from Will Allen until late in the game.
Special Teams: Punt and kickoff coverage was solid against a dangerous opponent. Jeff Feagles punted 5 times for a 34.8 yards-per-punt average. Kick and punt returns remain a problem. The blocking stinks and Brian Mitchell only managed 7 yards on five punt returns and 40 yards on two kickoff returns.