Week 1 Recap: A Giant Mess

Sep 13, 2011

The worst fears of a Giant fan came to fruition. The Giants didn’t play well for long. They played about a half of good football. The offense was able to rack up chunks of yardage in the first half. Their defense which was without starters DE Justin Tuck, DE Osi Umenyiora,CB Terrell Thomas, and MLB Jonathan Goff played well at times. However the Giants were not very good when rushing only their front four.Redskin QB Rex Grossman had plenty of time to pick the defense apart when facing seven men in coverage. He was able to find the open man time after time. If the coverage was tight it was a tick late getting there. An example of that was the TD ball to Armstrong that whizzed over Giants CB Aaron Ross’ shoulder.
The key play of the game took place on the first drive of the third quarter. After a penalty on WR Hakeem Nicks the Giants were backed up in their own territory. Apparantly the Giants went to the well once too often as Eli Manning tried to throw a quick pass to Nicks, aplay that has served them well and one that has been a big gainer. However this time the play was diagnosed perfectly by rookie Redskin DE Kerrigan. He did not let himself get cut down by RT Kareem McKenzie and as a result batted the ball up to himself for an easy pick 6.
My overall first impression of the 2011 NY Giants is that there is work to be done and done quickly. I believe both coordinators OC Kevin Gilbride and DC Perry Fewell need to get their new pieces into positions to make plays. Kudos go to Jason Pierre-Paul who had 2 sacks on the day,one of which was a crucial sack on third down. I also liked the fact that TE Jake Ballard resembled former TE Kevin Boss in running and catching a pass down the seam for a huge gain. The areas that need improvement are the offensive line in their pass protections. Eli Manning can be elusive at times but can’t be under constant pressure. I also thought that the running game which did not gain 100 yds, was underutilized. RB Ahmad Bradshaw only had 6 carries. Defensively the guys back in coverage need to cover better to give the Giants pass rushers an extra second or two to better disrupt throws. I always like to see pressure up the middle because I know the Giants ends will have outside containment handled.
To sum up week 1 I’d like to bring up something former Giant coach Bill Parcells said. He said after week 1 half of the teams think they have something and the other half doesn’t know if they’ll win a game. After this week’s performance the Giants won’t win many, but I’m sure this Giant mess will be addressed accordingly.