New York Giants 17 – Arizona Cardinals 10
Game Overview: This game was a lot closer than it should have been. Offensively, the Giants dominated the line of scrimmage, but there were two crucial mistakes by the men up front in short yardage that killed two drives and some sloppy ball-handling by Kerry Collins that stopped two more. The lack of scoring productivity in the second half (3 points) is a bit misleading in that New York only had the ball for four possessions. The first ended on an interception, the second was stopped inside the Arizona five yard line on downs, the third resulted in a field goal, and the last was simply designed to run out the clock.
Defensively, the lack of a consistent pass rush was a bit disturbing and CB Jason Sehorn had all kinds of problems trying to defend WR David Boston. One long Arizona drive in the first half was halted with a forced fumble by DE Michael Strahan. The Cardinals’ sole touchdown was set up by a poor 16-yard punt. The field goal was set up by a Kerry Collins’ interception.
Tight Ends: To me, the offensive star of the game was Dan Campbell. It wasn’t so much the one-yard catch for 11 yards where Campbell took a big hit and kept going for more yardage. It was his blocking on running plays that really stood out to me. Many of New York’s big runs outside the tackles were only possible because Campbell made excellent blocks – including sometimes on a defensive end. Campbell was also open on a deep pass, but Collins slightly overthrew him. Howard Cross also had a strong game blocking except for one major exception. Cross, along with Ron Stone, got beat in the 3rd-and-1 short yardage situation near the end of the first half and Ron Dayne was stuffed on what was looking to be a promising drive. The other negative on Cross was that he looked slow as molasses on his five-yard reception on 3rd-and-7 from the Arizona 12-yard line in the second half. Had Cross caught the ball smoother or got his feet moving faster, Cross would have easily picked up the first down and the Giants probably would not have been forced to settle for a field goal. But aside from those plays, fans should not lose sight of the fact that a few of the Giants’ positive runs (including Dayne’s touchdown) were made possible from strong blocks from Cross.
Offensive Line: The offensive line played very well on Sunday across the board. Pass protection was superb and I don’t think I spotted an offensive lineman give up a serious pressure, let alone a sack. The run blocking was very strong with only two major gaffes that proved costly. One was the aforementioned short-yardage play where Cross and Stone allowed penetration on 3rd-and-1. The other was the 3rd-and-goal play from the one-yard line where it seemed the entire line was beat to the punch by the Arizona defensive line. The Cardinals were the ones to get superior leverage on the play and Ron Dayne never had a chance. These plays proved costly, but the line for the most part dominated the Arizona front seven. I felt that LG Glenn Parker played his strongest game of the year and even looked good again on the pull. RT Luke Petitgout had a real nice game both as a run and pass blocker. OC Dusty Zeigler was active engaging linebackers at the second level and strong at the point of attack. LT Lomas Brown played well and had some key blocks on running plays. There was one series of plays where I was miffed at RG Ron Stone in the second quarter (ironically this was on the Giants’ second TD drive). Stone was not doing a real good job of sustaining his blocks on running plays on this drive. But aside from that and a play where he didn’t get out quick enough on a pull and a penalty for being illegally down field on a screen, I graded him positively. Stone missed a downfield block on the safety too on Ike Hilliard’s 21-yard reverse; Hilliard may have scored if Stone makes the block.
Running Backs: Finally, Tiki Barber (17 carries for 118 yards) looked like his old self. He was getting strong blocking up front, but he was also doing a good job of accelerating at the right moment and looked real good bouncing one inside play to the outside for 21 yards. He had a sharp looking 17-yarder in the third quarter behind strong blocks from Stone, Petitgout, and Greg Comella and followed that up two plays later with a 12-yarder behind Petitgout and Campbell. He made some real nice runs to the outside on the Giants’ last drive too where New York was simply attempting to run out the clock. It was nice to see his quick feet and explosion back.
I’m trying not to sound like a Ron Dayne-apologist, but Dayne (19 carries for 49 yards, 1 touchdown) simply did not benefit from the same strong run blocking that Tiki did. The two negative plays that really stick out are the two short-yardage plays I mentioned above where the run blocking broke down. On Dayne’s first carry of the game, a left-side run that picked up 1-yard, Campbell got a good block on the corner, but Stone didn’t get out quickly enough on the pull. Ron Dayne’s next carry was a very strong right-side run for a 4-yard touchdown that came behind excellent blocks from Cross, Campbell, Petitgout, and Parker. His third run was a 13-yard burst up the middle with solid blocking from Zeigler, Parker, Brown and Stone. His next run picked up three yards. His fifth run (1-yard) was hampered when Comella missed a block Then came two carries (for -1 and 2 yards) where Stone didn’t sustain his blocks. He had a 9-yarder in the second half when Stone and Zeigler gave him good blocks, but then was tackled for a 4-yard loss on the next play when the linebacker cleanly shot the gap on a right-side sweep. His best run of the day, an excellent cutback run that picked up 26-yards on the Giants’ last drive, was called back due to a penalty on Amani Toomer. The point? When Dayne gets good blocking, he is effective. When he doesn’t, he looks mediocre.
Greg Comella played pretty darn well for the most part as a lead blocker, but did miss a couple of blocks (to be fair, he had a tough angle on both plays). The thing that I liked the most was the Giants’ decision to allow him to test the deep middle of the field and he responded with a 20-yard reception. The Giants should allow him to run down the field more as a pass receiver.
Quarterback: Kerry Collins (15-out-of-24 for 155 yards, one touchdown, and one interception) was OK, but he was too sloppy with the ball on three occasions: (1) his fumbled snap on the Giants’ first scoring drive (this did not prove costly), (2) his fumble on a play where he was not touched on 3rd-and-7 (stalled a very promising drive on the Giants’ second possession), and his very poor overthrow of Joe Jurevicius on the first drive of the second half that was picked off. Collins wasn’t pressured all day, yet he didn’t make many plays down the field. He underthrew an open Amani Toomer deep on the first play of the second drive. He also annoyed me again with his tendency to roll out to the right when there was no pressure (this jumpiness in the pocket is most disconcerting). His best play of the game was his perfectly thrown pass to Ike Hilliard for a touchdown on the skinny post. One dangerous tendency Collins has to be wary of is that he is patting the ball before he releases it. This is a key that defensive backs can use to jump on his passes.
Wide Receivers: Not real productive, but it is hard to tell if the problem rested more with them or Collins. Amani Toomer (4 catches for 43 yards) should have done more against his opponent. The Giants used him mainly on out patterns. Toomer had some good blocks in the ground game, but his holding penalty brought back Ron Dayne’s best run of the game. Ike Hilliard (3 catches for 43 yards) had a big 27-yarder for a touchdown. But he also dropped a pass on 3rd-and-7 right before Pochman’s 16-yard punt that set up the Cardinals in great field position. Hilliard also took the Giants’ out of field goal range on their last drive of the game with his holding penalty.
Joe Jurevicius only had one catch for 14 yards. He had the ball jarred loose in the endzone on a wonderful pass from Collins (it was a great play by the safety). He also dropped what I thought was a catchable pass on 3rd-and-10 right before the missed field goal.
Defensive Line: Played on OK game against a very strong and very big opponent, but the pass rush was lacking across the board. The run defense was mostly positive, but there were some minor breakdowns. The strongest game was once again played by DE Michael Strahan (7 tackles, 1 sack). Strahan started the game off by making an excellent play down the line of scrimmage to stop the HB Michael Pittman to a one-yard gain. But Strahan (and Jessie Armstead) got run at for 8-yards on the Cards’ fourth drive of the game. Strahan came through with the defensive play-of-the-game on the same drive with his inside rush, sack, and forced fumble of QB Jake Plummer on 3rd-and-goal from the 7-yard line. The ball was then picked up by Kenny Holmes and then lateralled to Mike Barrow. The ball ended up in New York’s possession on the 45 yard line. A huge play. Strahan and Mike Barrow expertly sniffed out a draw play on 3rd-and-11 from the 12-yard line on Arizona’s first drive of the second half. But aside from the sack, Strahan really didn’t get any pressure on Plummer until the Cardinals’ last sustained drive of the game in the 4th quarter. Strahan got caught too far inside on a 6-yard run by Thomas Jones. He and Keith Hamilton did a great job of stuffing a shovel pass to Pittman on 3rd-and-4 on the same drive.
DE Kenny Holmes (2 tackles, 1 fumble recovery) flashed some, but he still isn’t making enough plays. His pressure on Plummer forced an errant throw on 3rd-and-3 on Arizona’s fourth drive of the game. His stout play at the point of attack on 1st-and-goal in the second quarter allowed Brandon Short to make the play on Pittman from the backside for a 3-yard loss. He also blew up the running play to his side on Arizona’s first possession in the second half where Pittman lost one yard. That was the best aspect of the game for Kenny – his run defense was much improved and I don’t think I spotted one play where he got pinched inside this week. But he needs to make more plays as a rusher.
So does Cornelius Griffin (2 tackles). Griffin is just not getting to the passer. His run defense was up-and-down. There were times where I spotted the double-team shoving him 3-4 yards down the field. But he also had some moments in run defense at both the point-of-attack and in pursuit.
DT Keith Hamilton (5 tackles, 1 sack, 1 pass defensed) played well in his first game back – especially early. He had an 8-yard sack on the third play of the game on 3rd-and-11. His run defense was also pretty strong at the point-of-attack – something I thought he would have more problems with given his shoulder injury. He and Shaun Williams did miss tackles on a Pittman run for 13 yards in the second half however.
DE Frank Ferrara lost contain on the strongside on the play where Plummer threw his 38-yard scoring pass to WR David Boston – a big no-no.
Linebackers: I thought Brandon Short (5 tackles, 1 fumble recovery, 1 pass defensed) played an excellent game. He may be coming on. He recovered a fumble on Arizona’s second drive of the game. Brandon caught Pittman from behind for a 3-yard loss on 1st-and-goal from the seven. One drive later, Short disrupted a sweep to the right and tackled Pittman for a 2-yard loss. Late in the first half, he did a good job of defending a draw play and then deflected a pass intended for the tight end on 2nd-and-4. In the 4th quarter, he combined with Mike Barrow and Griffin to stuff a 3rd-and-2 rushing attempt for no gain.
Mike Barrow (8 tackles) was steady but unspectacular. Jessie Armstead (3 tackles) was too quiet. Armstead combined with Griffin to stop Pittman for a 3-yard gain on the second play of the game. But Jessie missed an easy sack opportunity on Plummer when “the Snake” simply ducked and let Armstead fly over him.
Defensive Backs: Jason Sehorn (3 tackles, 1 pass defensed) had a rough game against a top-notch opponent in David Boston. To be fair to Jason, he says that David Boston got away with a flagrant push-off on his 38-yard scoring play (plus, Plummer had too much time on the play in question). But there were too many plays where Boston beat Sehorn for key gains. On Arizona’s second drive of the game, Boston beat Sehorn for 22 yards. But on the very next play, Sehorn forced Boston to fumble and Short recovered the ball. On the Cards’ 4th drive, Boston caught a 16-yarder on a down-and-in pattern on 2nd-and-15 against Sehorn and Shaun Williams. On the same drive, Boston beat Sehorn for 20 yards down to the 7-yard line. In the third quarter, both Sehorn and Williams were lucky that Plummer missed Boston deep on a pump fake or a 93-yard TD would have resulted. In the 4th quarter, Jason got beat by Frank Sanders on 3rd-and-5 for a first down. Jason finished strong by knocking the ball away on a right side pass intended for Boston.
The rookies held up better. I was particularly impressed with aggressive play of Will Peterson in coverage. Will Allen kept things fairly quiet in his direction as well. Peterson got beat by Boston for 11-yards on an out pattern in the second quarter, but that was about it. On 3rd-and-4, Peterson’s solid hit forced an incompletion in the same quarter on a late drive. In the third quarter, he had real tight coverage on his man on 3rd-and-8 to force another punt. For his part, Allen had a clean shot at Plummer on a blitz, but rushed too out of control and the quarterback side-stepped him. This hurt because Plummer completed a pass for 20-yards on the play. Allen and Williams gave up a 13-yarder to Boston on 3rd-and-5 on the Cards’ first drive of the third quarter. But those were the only negatives that I saw. He finished the game off by intercepted Plummer’s last pass.
Williams (8 tackles) didn’t make any plays on the ball and that was disappointing. He also missed a tackle. Sam Garnes (2 tackles) almost picked off a pass in the endzone right before the scoring toss to Boston – he had great position on the play.
Special Teams: PK Morten Andersen missed a 38-yarder. PK Owen Pochman’s first kickoff was impressive (into the endzone), but the rest were terrible. The second and third were low, line-drives. The last was a very bad short and low kick. His punting was almost as bad. He had a nice pooch punt, but everything else was real short – including a 16-yarder that gave the Cardinals the ball at the Giants’ 38-yard line.
The good news is that despite the poor kicks and punts, the coverage units performed well with Kevin Lewis, Thabiti Davis, Will Allen, and Damon Washington leading the way.
Tiki Barber had a nice 16-yard punt return, but also made a big mistake by signaling for a fair catch late in the second quarter when he had a lot of open field in front of him (the Giants had for once done a good job on the opposing gunners). Ron Dixon and his blockers continue to do nothing on kick returns.
By The Time I Get To Phoenix
by David Oliver
Ah, the good old days. Glen Campbell transforms into Dan Campbell who transforms into Campbell the cook I once worked with, he in the kitchen, me in the parking lot at Dan Dowd’s Steak House in West Orange, NJ. Campbell was a tall, elegant black man who used to regale us (my buddy and I) with tales of home in North Carolina, of visiting Mom and her home cookin’, squash and rutabaga and sweet potato pie. These are the constant currents in a wandering mind , today, yesterday and even tomorrow. There is a lot of time in airports and on long distance flights to think – it used to be enjoyable, but I’m not so sure anymore. Today I am thinking of both yesterday and tomorrow because it is about this time of the year that I am wondering why I do this. And I resolve to myself that it will be my last year. That carries through until about February, when the Giants again crash into my bubble and I compulsively return. This time I am just not so sure.
I never feel really mainstream here at BBI. Maybe that’s why I haven’t left just yet. I have been called about every name in the book, from bag of wind to racist to “old man”; all terms meant to hurt. Most often these names are cast by folks much younger than I am, allegedly or by self-proclamation, far more liberal than I am, more succinct with the English language than I am, or should I properly say, am I? The latest occasion is being called “racist” for posting a dark humor piece on our President’s new found machismo. Word plays are not humorous anymore and use of the word “turbinator” is now racism. How silly of me. I have researched for a week now and I cannot find a race of turbans, or turbinates. Seems to me that lots of people wear them, white people and black people, Semites and Aryans. Well, here’s the rub. It is fairly obvious from a perusal of the board here that few people have ever read Michel Foucault or any of the other French semanticists, or any semanticists for that matter, so why would I expect them to know the dialectics of semantics? We are in an age of semantics where anyone can throw any term around and give it self-definition. The young are particularly prone to this anti-intellectualism, but those who proclaim themselves “liberal”, as if that is an advanced human condition, also lapse into it. To categorize is to define and to do so willy-nilly, in a mean spirited fashion, or without factual knowledge to base term-throwing upon is not only anti-intellectual, it is totalitarian. I have spent a lifetime fighting the smugness of people who believe they have a monopoly on rightness, so I don’t suppose I’ll stop now.
Case in point: A person for whom I have the utmost respect chided me on this same incident. It was gentle, but it was pointed. Now, a few days later this same person, whom I know to be good of heart and spirit, uses the term “dwarf throw” in relation to a football play. Was it mean-spirited? No. But it does show how the term, based on an event, has entered into mainstream language. Well, it just so happens that my son is a dwarf – yes, a real, actual, living dwarf, all of 4’4″ tall. Think it doesn’t hurt? Think it’s different growing up a dwarf than it is being black, or Jewish, or having poor vision and thick glasses, or being excessively glandularly overweight? Well, it’s not. But is it racist to impute the use of a hurtful term, even in a non-derogatory fashion, or sexist, or funny ha-ha, or sardonically funny? No it’s not. It’s not uncaring, it’s not even stupid. But it is painful, no? So my friends, before you casually throw names around, names like racist which have a very nasty implication, bite your tongue and lighten up. And if you are under the age of 20, shut your ass because you simply have nowhere enough experience on which to call anybody anything.
I haven’t flown since the events of 911 and I have wanted to see for myself what is happening these days. I wasn’t very happy. I made it through security at Dulles in no time at all. Thankfully, I had an e-ticket and paperwork because the line at the ticket counter was nightmarish. I was searched a couple of times, had my film dropped all over the place, the usual harassment, but I went through ok. The laughable part was that there were few European looking people doing the checking. One of the security agents and I shared a laugh as I told him I wanted to see his government issued identification – after all, there were 19 Middle East men involved in 911 and no Euros that I could recollect. Sound racist? Sure, it sounds that way. Funny thing is that I look Middle Eastern, as much as Euro and certainly not mainstream American, so I have been profiled by everyone, everywhere. This is one of the conundrums of multi-culturalism. We are at war with Middle Eastern and Far Eastern civilizations and people from those same civilizations protect us. Fertile ground for Heller, or Kubrick.
Airports today are very Orwellian. Loudspeakers blast warnings about where not to leave what, empty your pockets, don’t look left or right, and for God’s sake, don’t laugh. Oceana is at war. I proceed to the gate and indulge in small talk with a fellow passenger. (My wife cracks up at this “chattiness” about me – I never talk to anyone, let alone strangers, so she finds this amusing, that I can sit and learn a person’s history in an hour). My flight mate is middle age, well-dressed and manicured, professional looking, and it turns out that she is a professional and in the healthcare field. She hails from Phoenix, by way of the well-heeled Chicago burbs. We talk current events a little and she tells me how shocked she was to see the Pentagon. We get to the President’s talk and I opine how sad it is that he finished 5 th in the ratings. She had made a decision that I was simpatico politically and says, “Can you blame them? (viewers)” I am intrigued. We talk a little more and she tells me, “Well, he is inflammatory.” Ah! Here we have the use of terms again. Code word – inflammatory, I am conspiratorially to believe, equates to whacko. Bang, gender difference, financial difference, what? I am a middle aged male, yes, old. My life began during WWII, I grew up during Korea, lived through Viet Nam and the Gulf and a 100 other skirmishes, all the while surrounded by the ‘Cold War.’ Is an inflammatory President a bad thing? I spent a career being called upon to do dirty work for a number of Presidents and I am enjoying our ‘inflammatory’ President. He doesn’t speak with the affectations of a Harvard professor, he may not ever apologize for America’s Past, as some other, more erudite, intellectual Presidents, he may not give in to the howling jackasses of a dissipated civilization as another did in Iran, when American Diplomats were held hostage, in short, he appears to be a President with testicles – and that’s no code – he is a man.
When I was in my 20s and early 30s, I was involved in some community activities. I always wondered where were the 50 year old guys? Now I am one of those 50 year old guys and I know. Why appear on someone’s radar screen when it isn’t necessary? I have more scars than Moby Dick, I’m flat out tired of bullshit, I don’t care to indulge in vaginal politics, I ain’t paying reparations for something I have spent a lifetime doing my part to correct, and I appreciate a President with balls. So I spend my time looking out my window watching the squirrels, birds and cats all enjoying the sanctuary and food I provide for them.
Airborne, I am given a plastic knife for lunch, but I also am given a metal fork. Hmm! I don’t know what I can puncture with a butter knife, either plastic or metal, but I know I can create some havoc with a metal fork – bend the tines, or just use them all. So I read THE LEXUS AND THE OLIVE TREE on the way out – get it, it gives much thinking material. This follows the TALIBAN by a Pakistani journalist, and will be followed by the NEW JACKALS next week. It amazes me that we can be so smart and dumb at the same time, so willing to accept ideology without an experiential basis, so averse to understanding the full potential of technology, so prone to cite Isaiah and Jeremiah, but not Orwell or Huxley or Henry James, the prophets of our age.
The return was even more a surrealistic adventure. Arrive at the Phoenix Airport at 6AM for an 8:45AM flight. Security is tight. Polite, yet obnoxious. I watch men and women in their late seventies, maybe eighties made to empty their pockets of everything, and get subjected to a search. They wander a little, not sure of which line to be in, shaking like leaves blowing in the wind. I think, how sad. Oceana is at war. What this does is it creates a scene of confusion, of pandemonium around the security counters. Good opportunity to sneak past somewhere else. I am wand searched, then the ultimate indignity, hand patted. I have taken everything out of my pockets, worn a belt with a non-metal buckle, the works, but I am hand-patted. Oceana is at war. I am glad it makes some twit feel more secure that 70 and 80 year old folks are searched and that I was hand patted, because WE WERE NEVER A THREAT TO BEGIN. Then word of the American jet spreads through the crowd, followed by more anxiety. And the incident in Washington where the guy had to go to the bathroom. Poor fellow. Of course, it’s just happenstance the idiot has some Mary Jane and a cleaver in his possession. Am I missing something here? The final indignity – those passengers are made to land with their hands behind their heads or on the seat in front of them. Yep, that’s the American way of life. Oh, I am forgetting, Oceana is at war.
I mention this because my next seat partners are a middle age couple, chic in that money sort of way. He tells me they live in San Francisco Monday to Friday, then fly back to Phoenix, actually Sun City for the weekend. Nice Condo, no maintenance, golf courses, the works. We discuss the American airlines incident and the wife says, “We should just nuke all of those trouble-makers.” My ears perk up. She speaks softly, is educated and very direct. So I tell her that I know she is speaking lightly, but that I am one of those nuclear solution proponents. She tells me, “No, I mean it. It is time to let the world know that this is America and Americans won’t stand for this behavior.” All is not lost. I am not the last freak left on earth. I must redouble my efforts to get my wife to move to Arizona, land of the bleached blonds, the scorpion and John McCain. The rest of the trip is anti-climatic. I have found soul mates. Her husband and I talked football and he asked me, “Do you think Kerry Collins is the answer?” As A San Franciscan he still hasn’t gotten over the loss of Y.A. Tittle, much as I have never gotten over Sam Huff.
Is Kerry Collins the answer? The man must have been reading BBI. I had several answers for him. First, what is the question? Second, sure, at least as long as EA is the GM. Third, he may be if he can get to and win a Super Bowl. Fourth, yes, statistically. Fifth, are you kidding me. I thought that about covered the field, so I settled into thinking about the game. And the game was another Kerry Collins thing. He fumbled, he threw an interception, he threw a TD pass, he looked lost on a boot play, he directed some nice drives. Just as Churchill described the Soviet Union, Kerry is still an enigma wrapped inside a riddle. Does that make him a bad QB? Of course not. I was interested because of the natural juxtaposition in the game. On one side Kerry Collins, drop back, pocket passer QB, tall, strong, leads teams to Championships, but remains unloved. Certainly not Trent Dilfer, although Dilfer now wears the Ring; not even Vinny Testaverde yet. On the other side, Jake the Snake Plummer, short and wiry, elusive moves, dangerous, exciting, and loved. But he hasn’t done a whole lot – one playoff appearance. In truth, watching the game, one would think The Snake was a dynamo. He eluded sacks, passed downfield, created excitement. At the end of the game, Kerry was 15-of-24 for 155 yards, with a rating of 77.6. Jake was 13-of-26 for 172 yards and a rating of 68.1. Each had an interception, each had 2 fumbles. Kerry went home a winner. He is still questioned. Jake went home a loser. He is still Jake the Snake Plummer, play-maker extraordinaire and dangerous QB. Go figure.
It carries over. BBI argues ad nauseam over Ron Dayne. Is he a bust? By the time Shaun Alexander gets here, the media and fans should be on a raw edge. However, in this game, RD carried 19 times for 49 yards a TD and an awful 2.6 per average. Sure Tiki carried 17 times for 118 yards. Look at the other side. Pittman had 17 touches for 54 yards, Jones 5 for 15. By the way, wasn’t Jones a more sought after back in that draft? Big Ron is slowly being Wheatley-ized – a sprinter forced up the middle on his carries. He is making the transition without complaining. When the weather gets cold and the Giants’ line starts punishing people, big Ron will get his yards.
Tiki had a great game. He had the “Lightning” look again. He ran to all areas of the field but was particularly impressive coming right, where Parker, Stone and Luke were making cavernous holes. I fully expected him to break one of those runs, but he came through the hole flat, not linear and by the time he turned it up, he was bottled on the sideline. But his was an impressive performance.
The offensive line had a good rhythm, except on the goal line. On Dayne’s TD he went right over Stone. Not over as in behind; literally right over him. Coming the other way, the Cardinals flooded the line. I count at least six guys within hand reach of the tackle. This is where the Giants could use a bruiser fullback – and basically, it is the only place where such a player could be put to good use. I asked Whittle about the goal line and he told me he didn’t have the answer, that “we just need to get down there in the Red Zone and score some points…we need to run the ball like we know we can. We’re starting to get in sync. It’s that time of the season when we’ve got to pick it up and really start playing well. We just can’t leave it on our defense.”
So I asked him about the rhythm, the communication thing, prefacing it with the ‘roll call’ by MS, Barrow and Jessie, and the bond on that side of the ball. Whittle told me, “We definitely have a bond (the offensive line). We go out there and we see each other, we know exactly what the other guy is thinking, what we’re going to do; we have a lot of fun when we’re out there; it’s different. I remember when I first moved to the offensive line from the defensive line when I was in college. When you’re on defense, you’re just out there going balls to the wall. You’re not thinking about, well, obviously you have assignments, but you’re just going 100 mph, you’re psyched up. On offense, I think, you have to be a little more mindful with what you’re thinking about, like, okay, it’s 3rd down and short, they’re in a nickel; we know what they like to do, or they have the possibility of bringing these people in, and different things…it ‘s a little bit different.” I went back to the goal line and he said, “We just have to go back and see what we’re doing wrong. I ‘m sure it’s something minor, that’s usually what it is on offense. It’s usually something tiny that we’ve just got to correct and all the guys have to do their job.”
I continued this theme with Glenn Parker, who I think, had his best game of the year. Glenn was finishing up with another interview and he was saying, “We didn’t put up enough points to really finish the job the way we should have. We’ve got to score more points. We obviously left at least 14, maybe 21 more points off the board today. Tiki is getting back to his rhythm and the offensive line…the right calls are coming in, the offensive line is doing better. When you win, there is plenty of credit. Everybody gets some.”
So I followed up on the problems and he told me, “A little breakdown here, little breakdown there and we’re missing big opportunities. When you lose, it’s not everyone’s fault. It wasn’t the offensive line playing poorly. What happens is that everybody can do the right thing on certain plays, but if you’re a little bit out of sync, like say the offensive line with the QB with the receivers, it’s going to result in a bad play. I don’t think we were playing poorly before. It’s just that all, the entire offense is in sync now, everybody is getting it together and we know what we’re doing.” Glenn looks and sounds like he’s in form again and he told me, “I felt good out there. There were a couple of misreads on my part. We probably could have gotten another TD, I think. I’ve got to look at the film, you never know until you see it, but we’re coming together.”
It looked that way today. The game, from the sidelines, appeared to be boring, which usually means the lines are controlling. It is rough, tiring football. At one point, I noticed Luke on the ground and Whittle went to help him up. It was a difficult task because Luke was drained from the day’s efforts.
The offense held the ball for almost 34 minutes. These guys rolled up334 yards on 67 plays, 41 rushing plays. I had a few minutes with Coach Payton and I asked if he was pleased with the ground effort and did he plan it that way. He told me, “We went in with a plan to be balanced and we wanted to message our running game. We didn’t go in with the thought that we were going to run it only, but it certainly was pleasing to get that back on track. Those guys blocked well up front today. The two backs ran well and it was nice to have a game like that.” He was pleased with Tiki’s performance and felt that this was a carryover from the bounce the team got in last week’s win. He was less inclined to discuss the Red Zone offense and told me it’s more a goal line offense problem He said, “We got down to the goal line one time and we ran Dayne one time and fell short, then we ran a boot pass and Campbell got held trying to get out…we’ll look at exactly what we’re doing when we get down to the 1-inch line, so I don’t know if it’s so much a Red Zone offense, as much as a goal line offense. You know if we finish that play, if we get the field goal that we missed, then all of a sudden you feel pretty good about it. I think it’s important that you look at correcting what’s broken…” He trailed off here and I finished by asking him about the discussion over opening up the offense. I asked how he responded to those questions and he answered me simple, “I don’t react to it really. Our job is to win.” He started to say something about looking at last year and listening to everybody, but thought better of it, so I left him to another reporter.
I had a long talk with Frankie Ferrara, but I’m working on a piece about him, so I’ll save that for later, but Jason Sehorn was answering questions late in the locker room. He was chiding some reporters on their questioning of the win and said, “What do you expect, that every game is going to be a blowout?” He went on to say “They didn’t do anything. All game they got…one long play, that was about as obvious as a push-off gets.” He refused to accept that it was an ugly win and said, “An ugly win is if they move the ball, move the ball, move the ball and we get lucky, they move the ball and just drive on us – that didn’t happen.” And finally on the push off he told us he yakked at the ref, but the ref, of course, didn’t respond, they never do. He was asked if David Boston had said anything and he cracked everybody up when he said, “Yes, he did. I’ll tell you exactly what he said. He said, ‘I make $500,000, you make (so much). They give that one to me.'”
I finished up with Mort Andersen who had a big old ice bag on his right knee. He was in good spirits. Everybody is happy with a win. Mort told me, “I hit one bad ball today and I’m not happy with that, but the game is fine. It’s a challenge every week.” He talked about parity with the players moving around and a road win being a good win. He told me the game was still fun for him. He liked the personality of the Giants, the character. He felt that they had shown they could come back and that they could sustain a lead. He told me, “I like the way we’re going right now. By no means are we playing our best football, but we’re winning games, games that we had to win. Hopefully, we can steal a couple that maybe, well, games that people don’t think we should win.” I asked how he was finding Giants Stadium and he told me, “It’s a difficult place, no question. I’ve played there enough throughout my 20 years that I’m starting to figure out a little of what I need to do, but I think the key is to hit a solid ball in there and not to do too much with the ball, just hit a solid ball and trust your swing, and it should go.”
There’s not much to say about the D. It shut Arizona down. Strahan, Barrow, Holmes and Jessie were ever-present. Brandon Short had another good performance. We didn’t get a chance to visit after the game, but we conversed across the din in the locker and he told me he felt he was getting better – I told him, it shows. We’ll talk after one of these games. The secondary did it’s job. Boston and Frank Sanders are fine receivers and Plummer is a nightmare. Several time, he was trapped for a sack and somehow got out. I was right behind him on the goal line once and I was primed for a sack shot. Next thing I knew he was heading around the right side. One of the great plays was the Strahan sack and strip of the Snake. The ball bounced 5 or more yards and Holmes raced over and scooped it up. Strahan was up and the two of them were racing downfield, with Michael doing some nice blocking. The Mike Barrow came buzzing up and Holmes looked back and flipped him the ball. It was fun to watch. Ross Kolodziej looked good in there in his minutes, giving chase to the Snake a couple of times. Frankie also got some time and again looked good.
It wasn’t exciting, but it was a nice win. One of these games, the Giants are going to put 40 points up on the board. Next week, the Vikings. It’ s Monday night, against a team bent on revenge. It has all the earmarkings of a disaster. It also has the potential to be the launch pad to the playoffs. Go Giants.