Buffalo Bills 24 – New York Giants 7
Game Overview: Last week, I took my shots at Head Coach Jim Fassel. This week I’m taking my shots at ownership and management.
You’re a fool if you think the only problems with this team rest with the coaching staff. And the 87-year old Wellington Mara, his son John, and Preston Robert Tisch are fools because they are only going to rid themselves of half of the problem by firing the coaching staff. The other major move the Giants need to do is fire General Manager Ernie Accorsi, but they won’t do it. We’re talking about an ownership so loyal to those who work for it that you’ve got guys like the 76-year old Harry Hulmes and the 71-year old Rosie Brown still employed in the player personnel department.
Last week I said average coaching will provide you with average results. So will average management. And Accorsi has been nothing but average. Let’s look at some FACTS:
Accorsi took over for George Young in 1998 and has overseen six drafts. There is only one player from the 1998 draft still on the roster (Shaun Williams). There is only one player from the 1999 draft on the roster (Luke Petitgout). There are only two players from the 2001 draft on the roster (Will Allen and Will Peterson). In other words, three of Accorsi’s six drafts have only produced four players that still are playing in the New York Giants uniform.
And there have been many high draft pick busts:
- The Giants spent a #3 and a #4 on WR Brian Alford in 1998.
- The Giants drafted HB Joe Montgomery (#2) and HB Sean Bennett (#4) in 1999. The fact that neither panned out also caused the Giants to spend their #1 the following year on a halfback, who also turned out to be a bust.
- The Giants drafted HB Ron Dayne with their first pick in 2000.
- The Giants spent a #4 on DE Cedric Scott in 2001 and drafted a kicker in the fifth round who they never even scouted.
- The Giants spent a #3 in 2002 on an Ivy League offensive lineman (Jeff Hatch) who remains benched while rookie and street free agents start over him.
- The #4 pick in 2003 (Rod Babers) didn’t make it out of training camp.
Then there is free agency. In his six years, Accorsi has only signed three free agents who have made a positive impact for more than one year: QB Kerry Collins, MLB Mike Barrow, and OC Dusty Zeigler. DE Kenny Holmes has started for multiple years, but he never played up to expectations. The rest have been short-term solutions who faded quickly or didn’t play well at all.
So where did all the cap room go? Much of it was spent on inflated contracts for marginal players such as LB Corey Widmer, RT Scott Gragg, FS Tito Wooten, CB Jason Sehorn, and SS Shaun Williams. He also let players go such as DE Chad Bratzke, OG Ron Stone, and PK Morten Andersen. The Giants have never really replaced Bratzke, having to spend big bucks (Holmes) and draft picks in an attempt to do so.
And perhaps the most damning indictment is that Accorsi did not supply the team with proven veteran offensive linemen to replace Jason Whittle and Mike Rosenthal on the right side of the offensive line. It was risky enough to pencil Ian Allen and Tam Hopkins in as starters, but borderline incompetent not to provide veteran competition. The rookies the Giants kept on the roster may end up being very good players, but Super Bowl caliber teams don’t rely on first year starters. You say Offensive Line Coach Jim McNally said he didn’t want vets? Well guess what, Accorsi is the one who is supposed to call the personnel shots, not the assistant coaches.
“They’re our customers and when they leave, that’s just the same as the guy calling up or writing a letter and saying, ‘You’re not doing what I want you to do. I’m very dissatisfied,'” said Wellington Mara after the game. “It’s a message that comes loud and clear. It tells me we’ve got to improve our product. How we do it is something we’ll discuss.”
Well Mr. Mara, you can only fix half the problem by getting rid of the coaching staff. Without better personnel decisions, this team will remain average.
Overall Performance: For once, Jim Fassel said it best in a self-damning evaluation of his team: “We do not play the game of football very well, we cannot block people, we don’t tackle people, we don’t cover people, we don’t catch the ball in critical situations. I have never seen it and never in my seven years here have we ever played football the way we are playing right now. Honestly, I am at a loss for words.”
Beautiful Jim! That makes us feel so much better.
Giants on Offense: The short of it was that the offensive line of LT Jeff Roehl, LG Wayne Lucier (later Scott Peters), OC Chris Bober, RG David Diehl, and RT Ian Allen was so poor that almost nothing could get done by the skill position players. There were no holes to run the football (24 yards rushing) and QB Kerry Collins had almost no time to throw the football. On almost every passing play, Collins was getting sacked (6 times), hit, or under immediate pressure. Aside from the 77-yard touchdown strike to WR Amani Toomer, the Giants only managed 156 yards passing. For the entire game, the Giants only accrued 10 first downs. There were seven 3-and-out possessions by New York. The Giants only had the ball for 20 minutes.
“There was a time when Coach Fassel didn’t know what to call,” HB Tiki Barber said. “We’d call a run to the left and their safety would be up on that side. We’d check off to the other side – and the other safety also would be up. They knew they could bring those guys up because they would be able to pressure Kerry if he tried to pass.”
Giants on Defense: They played hard for a while, then gave up. There must have been at least 20 mistackles. All three linebackers were big time culprits as I saw Brandon Short, Dhani Jones, and Michael Barrow repeatedly let ball carriers run through their arms. The tackling in the secondary wasn’t real good either as the Bills picked up a bunch of yards after the catch with Will Allen, Frank Walker, and Johnnie Harris missing a number of tackles.
The Giants allowed what had been a dismal offense to rush for 151 yards and pass for 275 yards – for over 400 yards of total offense. Prior to this game, the Bills had not scored a touchdown on the road since September 14th at Jacksonville, a span of 18 quarters.
The Giants did not force on turnover – the third time that has happened this year.
Giants on Special Teams: Jeff Feagles punted poorly, and he almost whiffed one kick. His nine punts only averaged 36.8 yards.
Punt and kickoff coverage was good.
The return game remains anemic. Brian Mitchell returned two punts for 16 yards. Delvin Joyce averaged 15 yards a kick return; Mitchell 20.