New York Giants 24 – Cincinnati Bengals 17
by FJ
OL: The first string OL looked EXCELLENT. Oben, Bishop, Scott, Stone and Gragg opened some nice holes for Barber and Way and, even more importantly, protected Kanell so well that he was only touched twice. They played about 1 1/2 quarters before giving way to the backups, who did not fare as well. We’ve been hearing training camp reports about the linemen playing different positions. I guess it really was just for diversity. In the game, Bishop played only LG (not C), Zatechka played RG (not RT), Reynolds played LT (not LG) and Engler played C (not G). The only guy I saw line up at more than one position (besides Zatechka, who was also the 3rd TE a couple times) was Stoltenberg, who played LG with the second team and C with the third. I don’t think Fricke or Myles played at all (I could be wrong).
QB: Even before I saw Fassel’s comments in the paper this morning, I used the same word to describe Kanell. He looked “comfortable”. He threw some nice passes, and had two sure completions dropped (Barber and Cross). He also overthrew a few open receivers. He could have very easily completed 13 out of 15 rather than just 8 out of 13. Graham did not look comfortable. He only threw a few times (the Giants were working on their running game by then), but a couple throws were weak. He also fumbled twice when the second string line couldn’t protect him. Cherry looked good when he first came out, but he got worse as the game went on. He showed off his strong arm on a 60 yard bomb to Jurevicious; unfortunately it was 10 yards beyond JJ’s reach. He underthrew several screen passes, bouncing them in front of the receiver. He scrambled very nicely on one play, picking up about 6 yards.
RB: Barber showed some speed and quick moves, especially on his TD run up the middle, but he also dropped an easy pass. He did not stand out, but the Giants were concentrating on the passing game for the 2/3 of a quarter that he played. Gary Brown played the rest of the first half, and ran hard, but we better not expect many big plays (long runs) out of him. Wheatley played the entire second half behind the second and third string lines. He usually got positive yardage, but didn’t look like he was running that hard most of the time. Instead of hitting the hole quickly, he was staying in the backfield, picking his hole (a la Hampton) then running through it for a 3 or 4 yard gain. Not bad, but not spectacular. At FB, Way looks like he’s in mid-season form. He blocked hard, caught a couple passes, and ran well (picked up about 21 yards on one carry). Eric Lane played alongside Brown, but did not stand out. The second best RB on the field for the Giants, in my opinion, was Comella. He ran well, blocked well, and caught a few passes. He reminded me of Charles Way. I think this kid is a a keeper.
TE: Cross looked fine. He dropped an easy pass, but caught several others, including the TD, and fought for extra yardage. Haase did not impress me very much. We may be keeping only 2 tight ends again.
WR: Hilliard did not catch a pass in the short time he played, but he looked like he was open on almost every play. Same with Calloway. Everybody is talking about Calloway’s demise, but he looks even better to me. He got open quite often, caught about 3 passes, and looks like he is Kanell’s favorite target. Patten came in as the third WR and looked good. He showed his speed and also fought for the ball. This kid is still improving. Don’t be alarmed that Toomer didn’t catch a pass. He got in about 2 plays as the 4th WR, then played on the second string along with Patten, but the Giants didn’t pass much then. Alford played mostly third WR for the 2nd and 3rd strings. JJ did a good job catching a deflected pass from Cherry. Douglas had a pretty catch and run for a TD. He showed good quickness and cutting ability. The Giants unveiled their big lineup for one play, with JJ, AT and BA all on the field together.
DL: The starting 4 looked fine, stopping the run and applying a good pass rush. The second string featured Jones at RDE, Holsey at RDT, Peter at LDT, and Hunter Adams at LDE. All of them looked good, especially the 3 veterans. Adams switched to RDE for the 3rd string, along with a shuffling of other players. DT George Williams looked decent. LDE Estes got upfield a few times. Hobgood-Chittick hardly played. Holsey came back into the game at LDE with 16 second left and easily picked up a sack against the Bengals 3rd string OT.
LB: Widmer, Armstead and Buckley all played fine, but the best LB on the field Saturday night was Galyon. He was all over the field for the second team. Fox has to find more ways to get him on the field. Colman played MLB for the second team, along with Philips at SOLB. He made some nice plays, but got beat almost as often. Monty stood out on the 3rd team.
DB: Sehorn and Sparks looked AWESOME! Sparks forced a fumble, and picked off a pass. Sehorn was unjustly called for interference on one play (he was in better position to catch the ball that the receiver), then intercepted a pass on the very next play. But it was the way he did it. He flew to the ball, diving in front of the WR, then jumped up, ran across the field and picked up 26 yards. The backup CBs did not impress. Hamilton applied some hard hits, but got beat a few times. Massey and Lincoln were both beat a couple times and, I think, they were both flagged as well. The rookies didn’t stand out. The Safeties all looked pretty good. Wooten and Young played with the first team. Young, paired with Sanders, alternated with Williams and Ellsworth for the rest of the game. I always though Sanders was too small to play safety, but he looked excellent in run support. Williams was a little confused and got beat a few times, but he apllied some nice hard hits. Ellsworth looked like he’s ready to step in and play whenever needed. Young looked a little confused, but looked good when he pursued a running play all the way across the field and ended up picking up a loose ball.
ST: Although Daluiso missed one FG (40+ yards), he nailed all his shorter attempts. And his kickoffs were just like they were 2 years ago. Most of them were 8 yards deep in the end zone or beyond. Maynard looked like what we expected last year. He had two booming punts of 58 and 59 yards. Hopefully, he’ll be more consistent his year. Brice didn’t kick as well, but he spent a lot of time just trying to catch the errant snaps (Stoltenberg was the long snapper). Barber never got a chance to return a punt, but had a fair catch. Toomer let a pair of catchable punts bounce, but looked good on his one return, heading straight upfield for about 11 yards. Patten had a beautiful kickoff return for about 45 yards. He looked really fast. In the second half, C. Hamilton and Alford replaced Wheatly and Patten at KR. A few players made nice tackles on kick coverage, including Buckley, Galyon, and Douglas. Sanders and Hamilton were the gunners on the punt team; Williams played Wing Back. Massey picked up a stupid special team penalty, blocking his man while he was out of bounds (unsportsmanlike conduct).