Jacksonville Jaguars 24 – New York Giants 10
Overview: One has to be careful not to read too much into one preseason game. However, the Giants’ embarrassing 24-10 loss to the Jaguars was filled with some ominous warning signs. Number one among those is the Giants’ continued inability this preseason to get their running game going. Like the broken record of recent seasons, the Giants regularly found themselves facing 3rd-and-long against Jacksonville. The first string offense was so bad that by the end of the first quarter, the Giants had no completed passes (zero yards of passing offense) and had not picked up ONE first down. This against a defense that is not considered one of the better defenses in the league. More warning signs? Kick and punt coverage was terrible and the Giants’ starting defense looked like they forgot to tackle. The best thing about the game? No serious injuries and there were a few positive performances from back-up defensive players. Let’s get to the specifics.
Halfbacks: We are going to start off with this group because it is here where we think the Giants have some real problems. Tiki Barber is just not getting it done. Not only did he drop three passes in the first quarter (two coming on critical third down situations), but he is not running the ball with any decisiveness or instinctiveness either. Indeed, Barber seems to be regressing. He is not the same back we saw in college at Virginia. Tiki has no business being in the starting line-up right now. He needs to get his head straight, start catching the ball, and making big plays. If we were Head Coach Jim Fassel, we would put Tiki in front of the pass catching machine at camp and make him catch at least 100 passes a day either before or after practice. A third down back who isn’t reliable catching the ball is worthless. Tiki did a good job picking up a blitz on one play however.
Speaking of Fassel, we love the guy, but it’s time we start to critique him just like we critiqued his predecessor. After all, we do need to be fair. Firstly, we used to come down hard on Dan Reeves for playing favorites with players who were just not getting the job done (i.e., playing Michael Croel over Jessie Armstead, Arthur Marshall over Thomas Lewis, Michael Brooks over Corey Widmer, etc.). Well, we have the same problem now with Fassel and Tiki Barber. Fassel loves Tiki, but Tiki isn’t getting the job done. It’s time to see Tyrone Wheatley or Gary Brown starting. (Editor’s Note: To Fassel’s credit, see “News and Notes” from 8/17/98 — Barber is now in Fassel’s doghouse). Secondly, we continue to have a MAJOR problem with Jim Fassel’s choice of personnel and play-calling on third-and-short situations. With the Giants finally moving the ball on offense in the second quarter, but facing a key 3rd-and-one, Fassel once again had the Giants run wide. (A) You never run a sweep in short yardage (two much can go wrong with penetration and the Giants don’t pull that well). (B) Tyrone Wheatley has not proven to be a consistently instinctive runner on the sweep. (Editor’s Note: Fassel said after the game that that play was designed to go off of right tackle and the starting unit screwed up the play). The Giants should run up the gut with a backfield combination of Charles Way/Gary Brown or Charles Way/Greg Comella. Period.
As for Tyrone Wheatley, he didn’t get many chances and he didn’t have very good blocking, but we thought he had a decent game. He seemed more instinctive and tougher to us running between the tackles. The one thing that worries us about him is that he seems to have lost the explosiveness he had when he played at Michigan. He’s not hitting the hole very quickly and doesn’t seem to have that extra gear anymore. We just can’t fairly evaluate Gary Brown as he had no chance behind a rag-tag second- and third-team offensive line.
Fullbacks: Charles Way only had one opportunity to carry the ball — on an outside run that had no blocking and he went nowhere. Greg Comella looked real good on screen where he ran tough and broke a tackle. We don’t remember seeing Eric Lane in the game.
Quarterbacks: Except for the Giants’ drive in the second quarter that set up Brad Daluiso’s field goal, Danny Kanell was not sharp. To be fair, his stats (2-for-9) are look far worse than they should as Tiki dropped three of his passes. But he missed a wide open Chris Calloway on the first play of the game off a nice looking play-action pass. His third down throw on the same series was terribly off the mark and travelled out of bounds. What was strange about the play-calling too was that it didn’t seem as if the Giants were trying to get the ball in the hands of their wideouts. The good news is that he threw a very nice deep ball to Ike Hilliard and showed great touch and accuracy on his pass to TE Andy Haase on the same drive. However, he underthrew David Patten in the endzone on the same drive (another problem with Fassel’s choice of personnel — we would have used a taller receiver in that situation on that given play call — either Toomer or Jurevicius).
Kent Graham continues to disappoint. Granted he didn’t have great protection, but he generally had enough time. He did too much dancing around (a la Dave Brown). If the receivers aren’t open, then dump the ball off or throw it away. Graham just has never developed his accuracy or touch. His stats for the game are bloated by Toomer’s catch and run — a play that should have been whistled dead after the catch as Amani was touched.
Mike Cherry came in with the game already out of hand — down by 14 with less than eight minutes left to play. He had to pass and the Jags knew it — not a great situation to fairly evaluate a second-year quarterback. Cherry started off by throwing a strike to Joe Jurevicius — showing better decisiveness than Graham did. However, Cherry also threw a terrible interception when he birddogged his back out of the field and led the linebacker right to the play — a pass that never should have been thrown. Another Cherry drive ended when he was hit hard, sacked, and he fumbled the ball away. On his last drive, the pass protection fell completely apart and he was sacked three times in a row.
Wide Receivers: The Giants just didn’t have the ball long enough to get these guys involved in the game much. And when the Giants did throw early on, the ball wasn’t being directed at these guys for some reason. Chris Calloway was wide open on the opening play but Kanell missed him. Ike Hilliard wasn’t able to separate from a Jags’ defender, but showed great concentration on his deep sideline catch from Kanell. Amani Toomer should have been ruled down by contact, but he made a very nice catch of a low Graham pass and showed great presence of mind to get up and run the ball into the endzone after not hearing the whistle blow (smart play from a guy not always known for his smarts). Joe Jurevicius did not see any action until late in the fourth quarter. WHY??? Indeed, another curious personnel move by Fassel when you consider all the playing time Omar Douglas got in the third quarter. Brian Alford and Eddie Goines did not have a catch.
Tight Ends: No catches for Howard Cross. Andy Haase had a couple of catches, but also dropped one that him right in the hands — a rookie free agent has to make the most of his opportunities. The other thing we will say about Haase is that he looks like he needs a lot of work in the weight room to us.
Offensive Line: Ironically, the first team offensive line’s pass blocking seems to be way ahead of its run blocking. Save for one sack where Scott Gragg got beat badly (Oben had trouble with his man on the play too), the first team line did a fine job giving Kanell time to throw the ball. It’s the run blocking (combined with the poor performance of the halfbacks) that has us concerned. The Giants’ passing game may be dramatically improved this year, but the Giants remain a running team first and foremost. Indeed, if the Giants can’t run the ball on a consistent basis, they will be in a lot of trouble. The catch is that the Giants not only still need a lot of work on their running plays, but they still need a lot of work on their passing game. There are only two preseason games left — not a lot of time and/or plays to get things right.
Since we were at a bar and not able to tape the game, evaluating each player is impossible for us. Needless to say, the Giants simply did not get enough movement in their run blocks. There was a noticeable difference in the quality of the line with RG Ron Stone out of the line-up. As for the reserves, LT Toby Myles had an up-and-down night. He still needs a lot of technique work but he does have quick feet and long arms. RT Darryl Gilliam was beaten badly on one sack and almost got Cherry killed. Gilliam has to hope for the practice squad. None of the interior reserves impressed us either — especially after giving up three sacks in a row on the Giants’ last “drive.” Watch out for the “turk” guys, because you won’t be in camp much longer.
Defensive Line: Jacksonville has arguably the best offensive line in the league, and save for a few plays, the Giants did not blitz or stunt much. The defensive ends, Michael Strahan and Chad Bratzke, did not play poorly. Strahan was solid against the run and Bratzke forced Tony Boselli (the best left tackle in the business) to mug him on one play and cause a holding penalty. Inside, Keith Hamilton was very quiet and seemed to have a problem with the Florida heat and humidity. As did Christian Peter. Later in the contest, Peter made a couple of penetrating plays, but for the most part, he was neutralized far too often at the line of scrimmage. On one double-team in particular, he got crushed. Against the pass, throughout the contest, Jaguar quarterbacks had far too much time. However, DT Bernard Holsey had a real nice pass rush where he hit the quarterback just as he threw. The guy who we were most glad for was Cedric Jones however. Early in the game, Jones was tied up at the line of scrimmage but stuck with the play and showed good hustle as the quarterback scrambled and couldn’t find an open receiver. Jones forced Brunell to throw the ball away as he was just about to sack him. The play was caused more by solid coverage, but Jones kept with it. Later in the game, Cedric got his first sack (preseason or regular season) of his career. Indeed, it was a great looking speed rush where Jones beat his opponent to the corner and crunched the quarterback from the blindside. We also saw a couple of good plays from DE Hunter Adams and DT George Bell.
Linebackers: Not a great game for WLB Jessie Armstead. Jessie had a wicked hit in the game, but he missed some tackles and was exposed some in coverage — a rarity for him. His head just didn’t seem to be in the game. Corey Widmer made some good reads against the run, but didn’t finish the play enough times. Marcus Buckley was quiet (what else is new), but didn’t embarrass himself. He also seemed to be the only Giant on the field who remembered how to tackle on James Stewart’s long run in the first quarter. We were more impressed with the second-teamers. We thought MLB Doug Colman, WLB Scott Galyon, and SLB Ryan Phillips played well. Colman showed real good instincts on a number of running plays. Galyon continues to have a nose for the football. Phillips picked up a sack on a good outside rush, almost got there again on the next play, and did a nice job stringing out one outside run. Pete Monty played a lot late in the game and seemed to be around the ball a lot too.
Defensive Backs: Not a good game for CB’s Jason Sehorn and Phillippi Sparks. These two guys have to stop reading their press clippings and play some football. Sehorn’s tackling regressed to his early days with the Giants. Moreover, the Jags seemed to be deliberately throwing a Jason and with some success. He gave up some big yardage on one sideline throw — despite a hurried pass from Brunell that hung up in the air for some time. He also gave up a quick slant for a TD. Sehorn did show excellent concentration and open field running on his pick of a bobbled ball and TD return — but the play was called back when Sparks was flagged for holding. Sparks, for his part, played far too off the ball most of the night. Indeed, on one big 3rd-and-long that was converted to his side, he wasn’t even in the television picture when the receiver caught the ball at the sticks. Besides the costly holding penalty that took a TD off the board, Sparks was also flagged for a personal foul penalty. FS Tito Wooten still has to remember to wrap and tackle, not just hit. The star of the starting unit in our book was SS Rodney Young who had yet another solid game against both the pass and run. Young was around the ball most of the night.
As for the reserves, SS/CB Shaun Williams had a very good game. He stuck to his man like glue and knocked two passes away — one on a deep fly pattern that he was step-for-step with the receiver and one on a crossing pattern that his was step-for-step with his man — very impressive. CB Conrad Hamilton also played well, knocking away a key 3rd-down attempt. CB Jeremy Lincoln was burned badly for a long TD by the Jags’ back-ups. Robert Massey gave up a completion, but did look good in run defense. Raphaol Ball had both a positive and negative play. S Brandon Sanders seemed to be one of the few Giant players fired up for the game. He made a couple of nice sticks.
Special Teams: This part of the team continues to haunt the Giants. The Giants gave up too many big kick and punt returns in the game. Shaun Williams stuck out on coverage making two sure-tackles — he looks like a keeper as a gunner. CB Rashee Johnson also made a nice play — the kind of play that gets you noticed by the coaches. Greg Comella and Corey Widmer also made nice tackles on coverage. Percy Ellsworth got faked out of his shoes by one returner. Brad Daluiso shanked one kick-off that set up a big return. Blocking on returns for the Giants remained pathetic. Brian Alford made particularly weak effort by not blocking anyone on one David Patten return. David Patten showed some better vision as did Wheatley — but Wheatley doesn’t seem to have that extra gear that a good returner needs. Brad Maynard and Will Brice had a mediocre punt each, but aside from that, they both punted well. Brad Daluiso missed yet another field goal in the 40-50 yard range.