Another one bites the dust…hard … !!! Just when it seemed like the injury situation couldn’t get any worse the Giants placed emerging FS Kenny Phillips on Injured Reserve after an MRI on his ailing left knee showed a cartilage condition which could lead to career-threatening chronic arthritis in the joint. Phillips had been in some discomfort over the past few weeks, but the Giants had hoped that he could gut out the season by taking it easy in practice. Instead, Phillips likely faces surgery, although a final decision as to whether he undergoes the knife is still to be made.
The injury to Phillips comes at a most inopportune time as he was coming off the best game of his career on Sunday when he picked off a pair of Tony Romo passes in the Giants dramatic 33-31 win over Dallas. The injury also further depletes a depleted secondary which will almost assuredly be without starting and nickle corners Aaron Ross and Kevin Dockery when the Giants play at Tampa Bay this coming Sunday. The Giants acted quickly to fill Phillips’ roster spot by claiming safety Aaron Rouse off waivers from Green Bay. Meanwhile, veteran C.C. Brown will move into Phillips’ spot in the starting rotation, although all three of the safeties currently on the roster are natural strong side types rather a FS. Indeed, Brown barely played Sunday in Dallas after a disappointing game the previous week against Washington when he appeared to really struggle in coverage.
For the record, Rouse is a physical freak who runs in the 4.4 range at 6-3 and almost 230 pounds. He also has some experience as he started 11 games with Green Bay after being a third-round pick at the 2007 draft. Rouse has over 101 career tackles and 4 picks as a pro, but isn’t all that instinctive or flexible. There have also been questions about his work ethic going back to his college days at Virginia Tech. If nothing else, though, Rouse should help on special teams.
The loss of Phillips also appeared to be the last thing the Giants were worried about this after both starting DE Justin Tuck and WR Domenik Hixon were forced out of the Dallas game with injuries. Tuck has since been diagnosed with a partially torn labrum in his shoulder and while he will be able to play the problem as he did one year in college, he likely won’t dress on Sunday in Tampa. Meanwhile, Hixon is listed as day-to-day after tweaking his knee while returning a punt against the Cowboys. If Hixon can’t play Sunday in Tampa Bay the Giants will also be thin at WR as 2009 first rounder Hakeem Nicks will definitely be sitting out a second straight week after turning an ankle in the season opener. Nicks, though, has been running at practice and barring any unforeseen setbacks is expected back when the Giants travel to Kansas City next weekend.
The loss of Phillips also takes some of the luster off Sunday’s win in Dallas. But not much! Four days later and we are still trying to make some sense out of the Giants’ dramatic win over the Cowboys on Sunday evening in the grand opening of the Jerry Jones new stadium that many - at least in Texas - are calling the new 8th wonder of the world. Right from the moment the schedule announced this looked like it was going to be a very tough game for the Giants to put up a ‘W’. There were certainly few enough of those in the old Dallas stadium to begin with and one just had to figure that the Cowboys and their fans would be really jacked up for this particular encounter. Indeed, the Cowboys brought their ‘A’ game and while the Giants didn’t appear to be exactly flat themselves, the Cowboys were able to re-establish the line of scrimmage a step or so into Giants’ territory on both sides of the ball which usually leads to a pretty easy win.
At least in theory, it is hard to fathom the Giants even being close in a game in which they allowed an average of almost 9 yards per rush as the opponents piled up over 250 yards on the ground, couldn’t get their own vaunted running game out of low gear, couldn’t get any pressure on the opposing passer and couldn’t et the ball into the end zone when they did get into the end zone. All in all it was a recipe for disaster, but there’s also sometimes a ying for every yang. The Cowboys, for example, in fact were able to pretty much neutralize the Giants’ running game, but they did it by putting 7 and sometimes 8 men on the line of scrimmage leaving the secondary in man coverage which the Giants were able to exploit as the Cowboys couldn’t cover either of WRs Mario Manningham or Steve Smith, both of whom had career days.
There is also no explaining just how bad Dallas QB Tony Romo was on the night. Despite the fact that the Giants really didn’t get much in the way of sustained pressure on the pocket at all and had a banged secondary that for all intents and purposes was starting an undrafted rookie free agent at nickle corner, Romo completed only 13 of 29 passes - that’s less than 45% for the mathematically challenged - for just 127 yards. He also threw three costly picks, one of which the undrafted rookie free agent returned for a TD, while the other two were both huge momentum changers. In the end, Romo finished with an anemic QB rating on the day of 29.6 - you get around 40.0 if you just spike the ball.
On the other hand, Giants’ QB Eli Manning had one of the best days of his career as he completed 25 of 38 passes for 330 yards and 2 scores. And as he has done so many times in the past, Eli saved his best for last completing 11 of his final 13 passes for 162 yards over the Giants final three drives, all of which ended with points going up on the board. Eli was especially calm, cool and collected on the Giants final drive when he connected on 7 of 9 passes as he moved the Giants 56 yards to set up Lawrence Tynes game-winning FG as time expired. That included overcoming a first and 20 early in the drive.
As good as Manning was we wavered all week between Eli and WR Mario Manningham as the Giants’ offensive player of the game. In the end, we decided to go with Manningham whose 10 catches for 150 yards exceeded his career totals of seven catches for 84 yards prior to Sunday’s game. Both guys get game ball though as does WR Steve Smith who also had 10 catches in the game, giving the Giants two receivers with double-digit receptions in the same game for the first time in team history. And while it wasn’t the offensive line’s best games ever as a unit, LT Dave Diehl also deserves a game ball for neutralizing star Dallas DE Demarcus Ware who was a non-factor whenever he lined up on the right side. Ware did have a couple of QB hurries, but both came when he slid over to the other end of line away from Diehl.
The emergence of Smith and Manningham as quality receivers - Smith is currently tied with one Randy Moss for the league lead with 16 total recpetions, while the duo ranks second and fourth respectively in receiving yardage - has rather quickly put to rest the hand-wringing as to how the Giants could ever win without Plaxico Burress. It has also greatly changed the nature of the Giants’ receiving corps. Whereas Burress and long-time fellow starter Amani Toomer were big receivers who used their size to get separation, both Smith and Manningham are smaller, quicker guys who run great routes. Indeed, at least based on the early returns so far this season, both are almost impossible to contain in single coverage. If the Giants didn’t have enough banged up guys, though, Manningham was limited in practice this week by a sore shoulder, although at this time it doesn’t appear to be anything serious and he will be back at it Sunday.
And that means opposing teams may be forced to dramatically alter how the try and defend the Giants. Dallas, for example, put 5 men on the line of scrimmage and just about every down had their inside linebackers attacking the line of scrimmage. As a result, the Cowboys were able pretty much stuff the Giants’ running game, but the 3-4 players left in coverage were exposed time and time again. Indeed, if that is the way other teams want to try and defend the Giants, even Tom Coughlin and Kevin Gilbride, who have been almost wedded to the notion of ’balance,’ any start to wonder why run at all especially if Hakeem Nicks is even half as good as he has appeared at times when he gets back on the field in a couple of weeks.
Money can’t buy happiness… At least that’s the old adage as the Giants left something that could turn into a train wreck in Dallas. In particular, its not the first time that Tony Romo has imploded in a big game, but it may be the first time that there are real whispers around the franchise and beyond that just maybe he isn’t going to grow out of turning the ball over. And the reality in the NFL is that no matter how many plays a QB makes, its almost impossible to win on a consistent basis if he can’t take care of the football.
Meanwhile, its hard to know where Cowboys’ owner and erstwhile G.M. Jerry Jones is at these days. The opening of the new Cowboys Stadium complete with a win over the Giants was supposed to be a crowning - both literally and figuratively - achievement for Jones who ultimately bore an eerie resemblance to the creepy Judge as portrayed by Robert Prosky when Roy Hobbs hit the pennant-clincing homer in the baseball movie ’The Natural’ as he watched Lawrence Tynes game-winning FG split the uprights.
In the end, the good guys won, though, as Eli Manning, just maybe the NFL’s quietest, most humble team-oriented star, at least at QB, rallied the conservative blue-collar Giants to an improbable victory over the loud, glitzy Jones and his Cowboys!
Of course, it wasn’t all peaches and cream for the Giants on Sunday night. Indeed, its hard to believe a team that a team that was a plus 4 (in reality a plus 3 as the Giants turned the ball over on a missed FG) needed a last second FG to win the game. Most egregious was the run defense which allowed the Cowboys to rush for 250 yards while averaging 8.7 yards per carry. That included 4 runs of at least 25 yards by the Cowboys, which is probably as many as a good team would want to give up in a full season. There were lots of culprits including DEs who ran themselves out of plays up field, DTs that couldn’t get off blocks inside, LBs that overran plays, as well as plenty of missed tackles al around. Here’s a breakdown of each of the Cowboys’ four long runs:
1) Barber (Marion not Tiki) gains 27 yards to the Giants 13 with 5:28 left in the first quarter: The Giants left a huge hole on the right side of the defensive line as DE Osi Umenyiora took a great circle route into the backfield on the outside. SS Michael Johnson comes up to the line of scrimmage and lines up just outside Umenyiora as the ball is snapped. Johnson takes a great circle route outside Umenyiora. DT Rockey Bernard is lined up inside of Umenyiora and slants to the inside off the snap. So does WLB Michael Boley. Bottom line its tough to have gap control when no one is in the gap!
2) Jones (Felix not Jerry) gains 24 to the Dallas 44 at 11:19 of the 3rd quarter: Jones dances to the right and slips tackles by both Terrell Thomas and Michael Boley.
3) Jones gains 56 to the Giants 27 at 6:00 of the 3rd quarter: just maybe the biggest hole we’ve ever seen in a pro football game. Similar to the first Barber run, Michael Johnson slides up just outside Umenyiora just before the snap. Dallas TE Jason Witten comes in motion to that side, but rather than blocking slides out into the flat. For some reason, both Umenyiora and Johnson turn their backs to the play and follow Witten into the flat. Again both Boley and the DT, this time Barry Cofield, slant inside leaving a hole a proverbial Mack truck could get through with ease. Indeed, Dallas FB Deon Anderson appears to almost stop when he gets into the hole because not only can’t he find anyone to block, he can’t even see anyone to block!
4) Barber gains 35 yards to the Giants 7 at 4:37 of the 4th quarter: Also known as the blown tire run as Barber goes down on his own after pulling a hammy. The play is a draw and once again on the Giants right side Umenyiora goes hard up field, while Dave Tollefson, in in place of Justin Tuck as a pass rushing DT, slants inside. Still, Terrell Thomas is in the hole, but doesn’t come close to making the tackle.
However, while the run defense was abysmal against Dallas, its probably still a little early to panic. In fact, after a big gainer by Clinton Portis on the Redskins’ first play from scrimmage in week one, the Giants pretty much shut down the Washington ground game, so it ain’t a trend until there are a couple of more games like Sunday. The Giants’ defensive coaches, though, clearly have some work to do on the gap control. Hard to know if the problems against Dallas were the missed assignments or a weakness in the scheme, although its also hard to imagine that’s the way defensive co-ordinator Bill Sheridan and company drew it up!
If they ultimately make a movie about the opening of the new Cowboy Stadium, they might call it the ‘House of Excess!’ The Giants, though, got in the spirit of things was some superlatives of their own. In particular, WR Steve Smith may have run the best route we have ever seen while scoring a 22-yard TD early in the 4th quarter. Smith was so wide open on the play that it looked like a blown coverage by the Cowboys, however, incredibly Smith was actually double-teamed on the play. On the play Dallas CB Orlando Scandrick supposedly had Smith down low with safety Gerald Sensabaugh over the top. Smith, though, put Scandrick on the seat of his pants with an exquisite double move, while Sensabaugh bit so badly on the first move that he couldn’t even get back into the frame.
Adding injury to insult ... Hard to believe that after Dallas OT Flozell Adams drew a tripping penalty for kicking out the feet of Giants DE Justin Tuck, the Giants were forced to call a timeout because there were less than two minutes to play in the opening half and Tuck had to be helped off the field. Also hard to believe that all Adams got was a $12,500 fine for fouling Tuck and later kicking Osi Umenyiora.
Meanwhile, count us firmly among those that feel the NFL needs to address the situation where opposing coaches call a time out just before the ball is snapped on late FGs. Doing so has seldom ever affected the outcome of a game, but it certainly takes something away from the game when a team celebrates making a game-ending kick, but then finds out after the play they have to do a redo. And the day is surely going to come when a Super Bowl ends in total confusion when a coach makes that kind of timeout call before a last-second FG attempt. It should be simple enough to change the rule so that, for example, once the ball is in the snappers hands the only referees that can call a TO are the head referee in the kicking team’s backfield and the umpire on the other side of the ball.
What makes the whole business so weird is that it almost never works. In fact, any coach making such a call runs the risk of having it all backfire if the initial kick is actually missed. The one scenario where we can see the whole time out thing could have an effect if the kicker or snapper aren’t quite sure if a time out is going to be called or not. Ironically, once the time out is called in that situation that threat is gone because a second time can’t be called (or if it is there is a 15-yard penalty). In the same vein, we suspect that the whole ‘ice the kicker’ thing is actually somewhat counter-productive. We’d love to see some numbers to prove us wrong, but we suspect that what actually happens when a team calls time out ostensibly to make the kicker think about it is that in the vast majority of cases the kicker actually gets a few moments to compose himself, take a few deep breaths, and walk through in his mind what he has to do such as keep his head on the ball and follow through.
If the rule is ever changed so that only the head referee or umpire can call the time-out in such a situation the Giants may want make sure that NFL referee #29 who was the umpire in Dallas isn’t around. For the record, NFL referee #29 is someone named Steve Wilson and he was the same guy who blew (if he actually did) the play dead on the Kenny Phillips interception and called called Rich Seubert for holding that put the Giants in a first and twenty hole at the start of their final drive. Bottom line is that if a referee is going to call the only holding penalty of the game on the offensive line with 3 minutes to go in a one-point game with huge implications then it better be something close to a horse-collar tackle. It wasn’t! In fact, the call wasn’t on Seubert at all who by the time the flag came out still hadn’t made contact with any Cowboy. The call apparently was actually on C Shaun O’Hara who had pushed Dallas NT Jay Ratliff to the ground after the latter stumbled over Chris Snee’s foot, but that was a bad call at a bad time. Conspiracy theorists need not write as Wilson is a pastor from Spokane, however, he may also not be one of the NFL’s top umpires as he has never done a major playoff game which are assigned on merit.
On to Tampa… Needless to say that despite the myriad of injuries the Giants are in a solid position entering week three in the NFL. At 2-0 they are the only unbeaten team in the NFC East; even better both wins have come against division opponents. The Giants are also entering what in college terms would be labelled the ‘breather part’ of the their schedule with road games against Tampa Bay and Kansas City and a home date with Oakland. Those three teams are currently 1-5 with the one win by the Raiders over the Chiefs. This is no time to relax though because there are no ‘breathers’ after these three games. And, of course, this is the NFL where on any given Sunday….
Next up is Tampa Bay which is coming off relatively lopsided to Dallas and Buffalo and appears to be a team in transition. Certainly the Bucs will put to the test the Giants run defense which was shredded in Dallas with the two-headed monster of Cadillac Williams and former Giant Derrick Ward. The Bucs can also move the ball through the air with veteran Byron Leftwich throwing to TE Kellen Winslow and big-play WR Michael Clayton, both of whom appear to be back in form. The Achilles heel for the Buccaneers though is an aging defense that ranks 31st in the NFL. In fact, the Bucs haven’t been able to stop the run or the pass, but appear to be more vulnerable to the latter as they can’t really rush the passer and have some real holes in the secondary. Still there is nothing more dangerous in the NFL than an 0-2 team playing at home as this may be their last gasp to save their season before it slips away.
This and that… Santana Moss would have been the logical WR to move up when Domenik Hixon went out against the Cowboys but instead it was Derek Hagen who took over as the #3 receiver and made a key reception on the Giants final drive. In fact, it didn’t appear that Moss played more than a couple of plays in the regular offense. Also not a good sign for #83 that it was Ahmad Bradshaw who took over punt return duties when Hixon went down… Speaking of Bradshaw he emerged as the Giants 3rd own back in the latter stages of the Dallas game and while he didn’t catch any passes did a very nice job picking up blitzers… Chase Blackburn started the Dallas game at WLB but was replaced after only one series by Michael Boley who showed plenty of range, but was rusty on the tackling and timing parts of the game; sort of hoped that Blackburn might slide over to the strong side with Boley back, but Danny Clark stayed there against Dallas, but contributed little… Still waiting to hear the phantom whistle on Kenny Phillips first interception; played the tape over a dozen times, but the only whistle audible is after Phillips gets to the end zone… No harm no foul though as the Giants put the ball in the end zone on a Manning to Manningham pass… Didn’t necessarily like the play-calling on the Giants series though as they left too much time on the clock for Dallas at the end of the half… Probably should have run a draw on second and four with just under a minute left in the half in that situation to bleed some time off the clock… The TD pass to Manningham at the end of the half was the 100th of Eli Manning’s career; #101 came in the 4th on the TD pass to Smith; Manning now needs just three to pass Fran Tarkenton for 3rd place on the all-time Giants list…
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