Regular Season: Giants Lead Series 11-8
Approach to the Game – New Orleans Saints at New York Giants, October 24, 1999: Win, loss, loss, win, loss, win. That’s how the Giants’ season has gone so far. Points scored in each contest: 17, 21, 14, 16, 3, 13. What’s worse is that three of those touchdowns are from the defense and special teams. To say the Giants’ offense is non-productive is an understatement. It won’t be easy this week either. The Saints have a very tough defense and the Giants are banged up on the offensive side of the ball. If the Giants have any hope of making a playoff run, they have to win this game and string some wins together. This lose, win, lose tendency is simply not going to get it done.
Giants on Defense: The Giants’ defense played exceptionally well on Monday against the Cowboys. But they will have to bring that same type of game and intensity this week against the Saints. The Giants can ill afford a let up. Points on the offensive side of the ball for the G-Men will probably continue to be hard to come by this week. Like the Dallas game, this contest should quickly evolve into a game of field position. What is critical for the defense is to prevent the Saints from making a big play offensively and getting some cheap points. Make New Orleans drive the length of the field, but don’t give up a quick score.
Coach Mike Ditka is a big fan of winning football games with strong defense and a tough running game. He’ll rely even more on both Sunday as starting QB Billy Joe Hobert is out with a pinched nerve; QB Billy Joe Tolliver will start. Needless to say, the defensive strategy will be to shut down HB Ricky Williams. This game will be all about trench warfare up front. New Orleans has some talented offensive linemen. Match-ups will be DE Cedric Jones versus LT Willie Roaf (1st rounder), DT Keith Hamilton versus LG Wally Williams (high-priced free agent), DT Robert Harris versus RG Chris Naeole (1st rounder), and DE Michael Strahan versus RT Kyle Turley (1st rounder). Throw in OC Jerry Fontenot and you can see why this will be no easy task for the defense. The Saints will attempt to power the ball at the Giants, probably looking to run left at Cedric Jones, Jessie Armstead, and Jason Sehorn. This is a game where the Giant defenders will once again have to play with toughness, quickness, leverage, and intensity. If the Saints can get their ground attack going, the play-action passes will become much more effective. Hopefully, the linebackers will play as well as they did last week. The Giants need big games from Armstead, MLB Corey Widmer, and SLB Ryan Phillips.
Run defense by the secondary will also be important. Safeties Sam Garnes and Percy Ellsworth were instrumental in keeping Emmitt Smith at bay on Monday. Still, there were too many missed tackles. Third string TE Josh Wilcox will start, but the injured Cam Cleeland will play. He is a fine receiver with excellent size. Whoever is responsible for Cam (probably Phillips or Garnes) needs to keep him in check. Ryan should jam him at the line when possible and prevent an easy release. The Saints also like to throw to FB Aaron Craver. Watch out for draws, screens, and reverses – the Saints will look to slow down the Giants’ pass rush.
One problem area for the defense last week was giving up too many first downs on third and long. S Shaun Williams, who has been forced into the nickel job due to the injury to Conrad Hamilton, really needs to start making more plays. Opposing teams are obviously targeting him. Dallas also went after CB Andre Weathers. WR Eddie Kennison is the Saints’ big play man. I’d prefer keeping CB Jason Sehorn on him while CB Phillippi Sparks contends with the less explosive Keith Poole. Back-ups Andre Hastings and Lake Dawson are possession-types. Ditka may try to bring in these guys in certain situations in order to go after Williams and Weathers.
Stuff the run and get after Tolliver. Jones will probably have his work cut out for him with Roaf. Still, he needs to get more pressure on the quarterback. The Giants would also benefit from more inside pressure from Harris and Hamilton. Look for Defensive Coordinator to continue to mix up his coverages and blitzes in order to confuse Tolliver. Blitzing would also force Ricky Williams to pass block – something that probably isn’t a real strong point for him right now.
Giants on Offense: Things are definitely not looking pretty on offense for the Giants. To make matters worse, HB Gary Brown (knee) is out; FB Charles Way (knee) is gimpy; and we still don’t know if LG Luke Petitgout (ankle) will play. The Saints have an excellent defense. They are very physical and aggressive – the type of defense that gives the Giants problems. Halfbacks LeShon Johnson and Joe Montgomery will be hard pressed to find any sort of running room. The real problem area will be the Jason Whittle versus La’Roi Glover (2.5 sacks) match-up if Petitgout can’t play. Whittle had all kinds of problems with Alonzo Spellman on Monday and Glover is a much better player. The Saints will probably try to keep OC Brian Williams occupied with blitzes in order to prevent him from helping out. RG Ron Stone will have his hands full with the very talented DT Wayne Martin (3.5 sacks). LT Roman Oben, who has not played very well the last couple of weeks, faces DE Brady Smith who leads the Saints with 4.5 sacks. RT Scott Gragg should be able to handle DE Jared Tomich. Nevertheless, the Giants have match-up problems all along the front. Throw in a trio of active linebackers, led by WLB Mark Fields (39 tackles, 2 sacks) and it easy to see why the Giants may have all kinds of difficulties.
What this game will probably come down to is the offense that makes the fewest mistakes, while winning the field position battle, will probably win. QB Kent Graham and all the ball carriers have to make it their number one priority not to turn the ball over. New York Giants fans want to see some offensive fireworks, but it won’t happen this week and the more chances the Giants take, the riskier things will become. I would focus on running the ball to the right with HB Joe Montgomery behind Williams, Stone, Gragg, and Cross. Running to the left is not likely to be productive. When New York does put the ball up, Graham may be well advised to target the Saints’ linebackers in coverage by throwing to Pete Mitchell, Howard Cross, and the running backs.
The Giants’ receivers usually have all kinds of problems with aggressive, man-to-man defense and that is what the Saints run. They ask their corners to play on an island and meanwhile blitz the heck out of the opposition. With WR Amani Toomer and WR Ike Hilliard not making any long touchdown plays this year, CB’s Fred Weary and Ashley Ambrose will not feel threatened by these two. They also have little to worry from the Giants’ quarterbacks as both have not demonstrated the consistent ability to hurt aggressive defenses. “(The Saints) put their guys out there one on one, so a lot of times it comes down to us protecting, us winning one-on-one, and me throwing it right on the money,” says Graham. Let’s see…protection, winning one-on-one, and throwing on the money…this doesn’t sound good for the G-Men. Why bother discussing Joe Jurevicius and David Patten? What have they done this year?
Giants on Special Teams: We all saw on Monday how important special teams are. Special teams decided that game. Newcomer PK Cary Blanchard will be on the spot not only with his field goal attempts (especially since this should be a tight, low-scoring game), but also his kick-offs (he lacks a strong leg). Because of the latter, kick coverage will be even more important this week. Don’t lose the field position war!!! P Brad Maynard and his coverage teams factor into this even more. Eddie Kennison is very capable of taking a punt the distance. The Giants’ kick returns have been anemic after a strong start. P Tiki Barber has to do a better job of judging the ball in flight and holding onto it. The good news is that he looks more and more comfortable back there.