St. Louis Rams 31 – New York Giants 10
Overview: The score was close at one point in the third quarter (10-3), but that was no indication of how the game was actually going. The Giants were clearly outplayed by a very talented St. Louis team. Indeed, the superiority of St. Louis’ team speed was most alarming on both sides of the ball. The Rams were faster and quicker. And aside from LT Orlando Pace, they also played smarter. The Giants made far too many mistakes against a team that they could not afford to make them against.
But the Giants need to forget this game quickly and focus completely on the Vikings. Nothing else matters right now.
Quarterback: One of the Giants’ big problems in the first quarter was that they barely had the ball. Two quick three-and-outs proved extremely costly. This not only prevent the Giants’ offense from getting into any kind of a rhythm, but it kept putting the ball back into the hands of the dangerous Rams’ offense. Indeed, the Giants were lucky only to be down 10-0 at halftime, but by then, they were still in a catch-up mode. It didn’t help matters that QB Kerry Collins regressed this week. Collins continues to display a major league arm and quick release. Some of his throws against the Rams were superb like his deep pass to HB Tiki Barber along the sidelines. He also continues to show the ability to make an accurate throw when under pressure even when his mechanics are wrong. But too often on Sunday his mechanics were off. I got the sense the Collins was pressing at times and that he was falling back into some bad habits with his footwork. Kerry wasn’t given much of an opportunity to throw the ball down the field in the first half (due to the three-and-outs and the emphasis on the ground game early). But too often in the second half, his sloppy mechanics led to less-than-ideal throwing accuracy (for example, his underthrow to FB Greg Comella on a deep route). BBI contributor Tom in NY also posted the following in Pete’s Corner on what Head Coach Jim Fassel said about Collins’ performance:
Fassel was on with Mike and the Mad Dog for his weekly spot this afternoon…He said that Collins’ errors yesterday were caused by two reasons – First,he was getting hit often early on in the game and started trying to get rid of the ball too quickly rather than allow the plays to develop, somewhat of a natural but deadly reaction. Second, he was throwing the pass to receivers who were covered because on the same or similar routes earlier in the game they had been open and he had successfully completed the pass to them. This was the reason for the 1st interception – Fassel said the RB was wide open due to a different coverage that Collins did not read.
The first interception was truly a killer. It turned the game from a 10-3 affair to a 17-3 one. While watching the game, a fellow BBI’er pointed out to me that he thought that WR Ike Hilliard and Collins seemed out of sync on that play. Indeed, that looks like that is exactly what happened. “If Kerry holds the ball until Ike comes out of the break, it goes as a big play for us,” said Fassel. “I felt going into this game we couldn’t afford to turn the ball over at all. But not only did we turn it over, we gave them points off the turnovers. You can’t do that and hope to beat them.” “We just didn’t get the timing down on it,” said Quarterbacks Coach Sean Payton. “I know it looks like Kerry threw it right to the safety, but that wasn’t the case. Ike made a stutter move that Kerry wasn’t expecting.” “It’s just something we haven’t worked on. It’s a move Ike likes to make and it’s a good move,” said Collins. “I’ll have to keep that in the back of my mind from now on. It’s something we’ll get down the longer we get to work together.”
On the second interception (both of which were returned for touchdowns), Collins tried to squeeze the ball in between LB Mike Jones and the defensive back. Jones made a heck of a play and scored. The game was out of hand at that point, but Kerry has to be a tad more cautious with his throws. In both games where the Giants were getting blown out (the second game against the Cards and this one), Collins tried to do too much with the football. It’s tough because in such situations everyone on defense in playing pass.
Wide Receivers: The Giants seemed to be in a “max protect” mode – meaning that they often only had two wide receivers on the field in order to keep extra bodies in to block the rushers. Some pro football analysts such as ESPN’s Ron Jaworski are a big fan of this strategy. What it does is give the quarterback and the receivers more time to complete a pass down the field. However, it can also work against you in the sense that it is often tougher to get single coverage or create mismatches – especially against a nickel back. It seemed obvious that the Giants (Fassel and Payton) didn’t think the Giants’ offensive line could handle the Rams’ rushers (including blitzers) on their own.
It’s tough for me to tell what is going on all over the field when I am watching the game at a neighborhood bar (as I usually am), but I think what the Rams were doing was doubling Amani Toomer and covering Ike Hilliard with Pro Bowler Todd Lyght. On the Giants’ second possession, Amani was tightly covered on a short out designed to pick up the first down and he couldn’t make the catch. The Giants were forced to punt for the again after only three plays. With the attempt to get the ground game going and the lack of first down conversions, the receivers didn’t impact much at all in the first half. With six minutes left before halftime, the Giants finally began to move the ball – coming off their own goalline at the six yard line. Toomer got open for 27 yards. Collins then handed off to HB Joe Montgomery, who was running left, and he then tossed the ball back to WR Amani Toomer who threw the ball. Toomer was fortunate that the defender interfered with Ike as the ball was intercepted. The penalty would have set the Giants up inside the 30, but Amani was flagged for hitting the interceptor out of bounds. Statistically, Toomer finished the day with excellent numbers (9 catches for 162 yards). But too many of these yards came when the game was out of reach. WR Ike Hilliard (5 catches for 51 yards) was too quiet. He scored late on a touchdown, but that was another case of too little too late. No other Giants’ wideout caught a pass. Brian Alford was in the line up and he actually was sent deep. The play almost connected. It’s too bad that Brian seems incapable of running any other kind of route.
Tight Ends: I don’t know if it was his gimpy ankle, quality pass coverage by the Rams, or if he was called onto block more than normal, but Pete Mitchell had very little impact in this game. Two catches for 16 yards from one of you major weapons is not going to get it done. I also spotted him getting tossed aside rather easily on one running play at the point of attack. TE Howard Cross made a superb block on Barber’s 30-yard jaunt off the left side on 3rd-and-1.
Offensive Line: Not a particularly strong performance in terms of the ground game. The Giants’ offensive strategy seemed clear – use the ground game to control the time of possession and shorten the game. This is a credible strategy if the line and backs do their job. However, the offensive line just couldn’t get a consistent push. What really hurt was on the Giants’ first possession, facing a 3rd-and-1, RT Scott Gragg could not sustain his block against DE Kevin Carter and Montgomery was nailed in the hole for no gain. This set a bad tone for the offense. To be fair, Gragg did an admirable job on Carter. But he had help much of the day. Gragg just doesn’t do it for me. I like my right tackles to be maulers who can consistently drive smaller defenders off the line of scrimmage on running plays. I’m willing to sacrifice top notch pass protection if my tackle can do that. But Gragg just doesn’t get enough movement for my tastes. Another area that is hurting is at center. Derek Engler is just not getting it done. He’s just not a very powerful or agile player. The run blocking on the left side was particularly weak as every Tiki Barber outside run in that direction (other than the 30-yarder) was shut down at the point of attack. LT Roman Oben kept his man quiet on the pass rush for the most part, but unacceptably allowed Grant Wistrom to sack Collins on a rollout to the right. LG Mike Rosenthal was flagged for the first time, but it was a very costly one. He was called with an illegal chop block after Ike Hilliard had picked up a first down on 3rd-and-5. This would have given the Giants the ball at St. Louis’ 36 yard line with only a few minutes to go before halftime, but the play was called back. RG Ron Stone, the only guy who is really playing well, made a major snafu by tripping up Collins on 3rd-and-goal.
Running Backs: HB Joe Montgomery (12 carries for 41 yards, a 3.4 yards-per-carry average) could not get untracked. He had a few very nice looking inside runs for modest gains, but his blockers, particularly in short-yardage, left much to be desired. Montgomery was stuffed on the aforementioned 3rd-and-1 play, but he also was hit in the backfield on 2nd-and-goal in the third quarter. Joe is a no-nonsense bruiser. I love the way he can find and hits a hole. There was one left-side run where I didn’t think there was any running room, but somehow Joe felt a hole developing and squirted through. What Joe lacks is explosiveness. He’s a bread-and-butter back, he’s not going to make many big plays for you.
HB Tiki Barber (5 carries for 33 yards, a 6.6 yards-per-carry average; 3 catches for 43 yards) played well. He had a big run for 30 yards on 3rd-and-one on the Giants first scoring drive. On that same drive, he also caught an 11-yard pass on 3rd-and-10 and made a real nice 22-yard catch on a deep pass along the left sidelines on a play where he almost scored. Last week, I was soundly chastised by a BBI contributor for not paying more attention to the blocking efforts from FB Greg Comella. I must admit that I didn’t do enough of that again this week. However, Comella made a superb catch on 4th-and-short despite getting nailed by a defender. He also got open deep on a passing attempt that Collins underthrew.
Defensive Line: What in the world has happened to the pass rush??? This is what I think. For one, I think all the rushers in the past benefitted from a scheme where Defensive Coordinator John Fox sent a lot of blitzes (from a variety of directions) at the quarterback because of the confidence he had in the cornerbacks. With all the injuries at cornerback, the Giants simply can’t risk blitzing as much. I don’t buy the Chad Bratzke argument. Bratzke is missed, but the problem is greater than that. Michael Strahan (1 tackle), for whatever reason, is not playing as well. Indeed, he looks like a shell of himself right now. DT Robert Harris may not have always put up good numbers, but he is very athletic and got a push on the quarterback. That very threat caused offensive lines to pay attention to him. Christian Peter (3 tackles) never gets off the line and the opposition never worries about him on passing plays. Thus, their attention can be entirely focused on Strahan (who isn’t play as well anyways) and DT Keith Hamilton (4 tackles). DE Cedric Jones (1 tackle, 1 sack) is a better run defender than Bratzke, but he is not as quick or sudden on the pass rush. Most of his sacks have come from hustle.
Obviously, the Rams controlled the line of scrimmage, particularly on passing plays. QB Kurt Warner had too much time to not only look for his first receiver, but often his second and even sometimes third guy. Hamilton made a very costly mistake by roughing Warner after the Giants’ defense had held on 3rd down deep in Rams’ territory. This penalty prevented any last attempt by the Giants to cut into the 10-0 lead before halftime.
Linebackers: Aside from Jessie Armstead, the quickness of the Rams’ receivers (including HB Marshall Faulk) really exposed the Giants on underneath routes. It looked to me that the Giants mainly stuck with zone coverage against St. Louis. But time after time, Rams’ converted short tosses into big gains by running by Giants’ defenders. Guys like MLB Corey Widmer (3 tackles) and SLB Ryan Phillips (5 tackles) looked like their feet were planted in cement. BBI contributor bw in dc spotted Phillips getting killed by the pulling RG Adam Timmerman on one play. Ryan also dropped a sure interception that he might have scored on. Widmer inexcusably missed an easy fumble recovery that would have prevented three points. The guy who really killed New York was Marshall Faulk (6 catches for 97 yards, 16 rushes for 68 yards). Time after time, the Rams picked up valuable real estate by throwing to Faulk. At certain times, he looked like he wasn’t even covered. Like I said in my preview, I would have manned Jessie Armstead (2 tackles) up on him – but perhaps the zone coverage of others prevented that.
Defensive Backs: This game never should have been as close as it was in the third quarter. The Rams dominated the Giants offensively. They had 181 passing yards in the first half – despite six drops. One of the drops was a perfectly thrown pass to WR Torry Holt over CB Jeremy Lincoln (6 tackles) in the end zone. The corners didn’t play awful. And they certainly were not helped by the lack of a pass rush. The game plan seemed to be to play zone coverage deep and force the Rams to throw short. The Rams did this, but the Giants didn’t make the necessary tackles. For example, Az-Zahir Hakim TD catch was a short pass. CB Emmanuel McDaniel (8 tackles) whiffed on the attempted tackle and Hakim was off to the races. This turned a manageable 17-3 deficit into an insurmountable 24-3 score. The Rams also did a good job of finding the soft spot in the zone coverage at times – especially with Torry Holt. The Giants did keep Isaac Bruce (2 catches for 39 yards) under wraps, but Hakim (3 catches for 79 yards), Holt (5 catches for 70 yards), and Faulk picked up the slack. Too many weapons! Lincoln did a good job of forcing Holt to fumble (Ellsworth recovered). But aside from that Ellsworth (5 tackles) and Garnes (5 tackles) continue to remain too quiet. Their lack of deep speed showed up big time on Hakim’s run. Shaun Williams was flagged with a holding call that allowed the Rams to keep their first scoring drive alive after a 3rd-down stop. CB Conrad Hamilton was back and it was great to see him in there. Pound-for-pound, he is the best hitter on the Giants and he really walloped one Rams’ receiver forcing and incompletion. He got beat for one TD, but he had tight coverage on the play.
Special Teams: P Brad Maynard (5 punts for a 39.8 yards-per-punt average) remains far too inconsistent. Every excellent punt seems to be matched with a poor effort. PK Cary Blanchard missed a 42-yarder. PK Jose Cortez really helped out on kickoffs. He didn’t get any touchbacks, but he, combined with the fine coverage, kept the Rams’ dangerous return game at bay. Punt coverage was also strong. Blocking on kick and punt returns remains a problem area. Tiki Barber and Bashir Levingston could not break one.
GIANTS/RAMS
by David Oliver
What an interesting weekend. I used Priceline to successfully get a low fare to St. Louis, stayed in the Marriott with the team (which cost more than the airfare), returned on a full-fare flight thanks to some schmoozing by a fellow fotog who plied the counter agent with Tiki Barber photos and beat the inclement weather home. Before I get too carried away, I also saw another of those games that only the Giants seem capable of playing; alternately very good/not so good; very courageous/kind of wimpy; worthy of the playoffs/shameful . Yep, an early season throwback.
Read here-NEWSFLASH-the Rams are for real; but we are at least 3/4ths as good. I heard Dick Vermeil in a Sunday pre-game show saying that he hoped the Giants showed up with their A game so the Rams could show everyone just how good they are. The Giants sort of brought their A game, well, maybe their B game, and the Rams did show everyone – except for the Giant players, who appeared unimpressed – just how good they are.
On my outgoing Chicago-St. Louis flight, my seatmate was on her way from Shanghai to St. Louis to meet her boyfriend’s parents. Actually, it was her boyfriend from her freshman year in college. She had gone to China, he had gotten married, had two children, been divorced and somehow they met again in New Orleans after a 15 year separation. She was very excited and nervous. I can tell you all about her parents, his parents, their sisters, the mid west, his wife and a whole lot more. Towards the end of the flight she leaned over and whispered to me “and we haven’t even had sex yet.” I’ve been married for over 30 years now, so I understood that part – it was the telling me that threw the curve. As she was coming all the way from Shanghai, I didn’t want her to be disappointed so I gave her the hotel number for the photographer from INSIDE FOOTBALL, gave her his name as mine and got off that plane as quickly as possible.
Next up I’m on the Metrolink downtown (cheap transit) and I run into one of my plane partners – from Washington. He flew to St. Louis to attend a party that night – same hotel. Strangely enough we leave together Monday morning. I’ve been followed in a number of countries for a number of reasons, but I’m really puzzled as to why the Chinese Government would follow me to St. Louis to A Giants/Rams game. I think I’m suffering from Millennium fever.
Ok, I know, you want to hear about the game. Here it is-ooh! Ouch! Uh! Uuhhh! Damn! Do you get the idea – it was as physical a contest as I’ve seen this year. When Orlando Pace and big George Williams started Sumo wrestling on the carpet, we knew on the sidelines that it was going to be a long afternoon. Look at the photos: see Hammer meet the point of attack time after time; feel the air leave your lungs as Comella levels one of the blue and yellow striped macaws – a late hit – but what a beauty. All we saw was this body go flying across the rug. Look at that Ram offensive lineman grabbing inside Hammer’s face mask trying to digitally redo his dental work, and look at Peter sitting on the bench totally drained.
Game ball to Peter who never gives up and never gives in; maybe his stats aren’t great but he’s always going 110%. Give us 10 other guys like him and we are a winning team. Game ball to Toomer for going over 1000 yards the tough way. Game ball to Montgomery who has the demon in his eyes and then goes over to the bench to thank and cheer on his offensive linemen. Game ball to Ron Barnes – he tends to so many walking wounded that he qualifies for the Clara Barton award.
General observations – Kerry Collins did not have a good game. He does not walk on water, is not in the same echelon as the greats. He is the QB and the Giants will live or die by the focus and concentration he brings to the game – which was somewhere else on Sunday. The most telling play was the interception on the pass to Hilliard. “Ike,” Kerry said, “made another move I didn’t anticipate.” What could have been a huge play for us was a huge play for the Rams. Want an excuse – the QB and the receivers are still learning each other’s moves. Spare me. The key here is focus (put Kent Graham in here and we would have the boo birds screaming, `he’s not starter material.’) Kerry admits to playing fast and excited. There is nothing wrong with that – until the ball is going the other way. Which leads to my next observation – tendencies. The Giants have had success the past two weeks because they changed their tendencies. The Rams showed how well they are coached and how good they are because they studied these changes, recognized the new tendencies and met them head on. It’s not about play-calling, it’s about play-making. The Rams, frankly, outplayed the Giants.
The Giants tries some misdirection plays – more than usual. As Corey Widmer told us after the Redskin game, misdirection can be wonderful, or leave you with a lot of backfield hits. The Giants have now lost the misdirection battle both ways. The Rams either recognized the formations or just flat out beat their men, but either way they stuffed us again and again. The power running game is not yet in high gear – read Roman Oben’s interview in last week’s INSIDER. Without it, opposing teams are still cheating and beating us with 7 plus 1. The Rams are good – don’t doubt it, but the Giants can match them if they elevate their line play and running game.
The Rams first TD – it wasn’t. I was standing right next to the goal post. The receiver was elevated and had no body control. He would not have come down on his own so he couldn’t be pushed out. He was tackled on the lateral plane. The refs in this game were bad, they lost control of the game and made many wrong calls, followed by silly make-up calls after being lectured by both coaches. There are other examples by why belabor the obvious.
The third period started Tiki, Tiki, then three plays decided the contest. First and goal, KC is looking straight into my eyes standing behind the goal; I am secretly pleading, pound it in here. If you throw on first down, with no running game established, a play-fake won’t work. If you miss, then 2nd down is a certain run. With no quick sprint receiver and no towering tight end, a roll pass is left. The Rams are too good to be beaten by this. So on second down, they load it up. On third down, Kerry is stepped on or trips, winds up on his duff, and you could feel the Giant air leave the Arena. If we pound 4 times and score, the air leaves from the other side.
After that it was the Ram receivers catching 8 yard passes and running wild, or the Rams secondary catching our 8 yard passes and running wild. As one paper said, the Giants stayed around just long enough to make it interesting. Who never gave up? Christian Peter and Hammer and Montgomery. Holsey and Ryan Hale got some valuable minutes in relief, as did Scotty Galyon at the end. Most incensed Giant – Iron Mike Rosenthal, after being called for a chop block. It took his position coach, film from upstairs and three of his teammates talking to him on the bench to calm him down. Most confused Giant – Jeremy Lincoln, who kept staring at the replay screen trying to figure out how those little dink passes resulted in TDs. Most depressed Giant – Bashir Levingston, who is aching to break one, but as he says, `same plays, same plays.’
The most disconcerting part of the loss is that no one seemed really upset. It’s as if the team wanted to look good, but never felt it could win. But the Rams were clearly the better team by the score, and maybe even attitude. As Jessie Armstead said, “You’re not in a situation to downgrade anyone when you didn’t win the game…They had a lot of different weapons, we went against them and our defense made some plays and they made some plays on offense.” When asked about the team’s feeling, he said, “All the guys realize the main objective now is Minnesota…Minnesota is not going to come into Giants Stadium and lay down for us…We have to put this behind us and keep moving.” When asked about the talking and pushing and the team’s composure, he said, “That’s football. If you are looking for excuses, write down for an excuse…all that talking back and forth…they won the game…Those guys came out there with an attitude and we had an attitude…They just made more plays than us today.” Jessie, as always, was a man. When asked if the Rams were beatable today, he said, “You can’t say something like that when you didn’t win; we didn’t win so I think that would be disrespect for the game when you say something like that.”
O.J.Childress told me, “It was real fun” being up on the team. I asked him what he thought of the environment at the TWA Dome and he said, “It’s nice. I like how they did the pre-game…and I saw some of my old teammates.” If you didn’t see it the pre-game intros had fireworks and used flashing bright yellow lights and smoke, which gave the players a silhouette effect coming from the tunnel. Very WWF, but fan pleasing. O.J doesn’t think he’s going to get anything but special teams action because he came up so late, but he said, “I’ll be here in the off season. I’d love to come back here so as long as they keep me here, I love it here.”
Jeremy Lincoln told me, “With a team like that you can’t make mistakes….they capitalize on mistakes…Hakim, that should never have happened…that was a 5 yard route that turned into a 65 or whatever, it should have been 10 or 15 yards at the most…” He also said, “They’re great running after the catch…We knew coming into the game that we had to really swarm around them…We watched film, watched the Tennessee game…We were there, they just escaped.” I asked him what he thought of Warner and he said, “Good poise, good poise, made good decisions out there; we put him under a little pressure now and then but he came back, he didn’t rattle.” I then asked him about the chemistry in the secondary, with so many changes and he told me, “It hasn’t been as bad as people seem to think…because we all know what to do…We play a complex defense, our defense is not that easy…Fox puts pressure on us to learn the defense and know the defense or he won’t put you out there…and that’s how it should be.” He also told me, “There’s a fine line between a good and a great corner.” I answered by saying there’s a fine line between a good and a great football player. He said “exactly” and we both laughed.
As Eric already reported Coach Fassel said the team wouldn’t even be shown the Rams film as “There’s nothing to learn.” I’ll wager a week’s wages that the Vikings will look at that film and they will learn a lot. Now it’s up to the Giants to come out Sunday and tackle – we know they can hit. And Kerry had better be focused – the next two weeks will show whether he is for real, or will the inconsistency of the past 3 years show up as more than just a phase. I know many BBI faithful believe he is the second coming of Y.A, but I just returned from Missouri, and as they say, he needs to show me. Bart Starr was on ESPN last night and he was saying that what makes a great QB is his ability to win the big one. This is a very interesting game on Sunday, Jeff George vs. Kerry Collins. Whoever wants it more better show up.
MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY CHANUKAH, HAPPY KWANZA TO ALL. Spend some time with your families and keep in mind what the season is all about. Until next week.