Did you know that when Eli Manning has faced blitzes this year, his passer rating is 76.6, while when he’s not blitzed, it’s 101.0?  Neither did I, before I read this piece by Mike Garafolo in the Star-Ledger.  (Garafolo’s the best Giants beat reporter out there, in my opinion – I recommend making his daily coverage your go-to.)

I’m not exactly sure what to make of this statistic because teams blitz more in obvious passing situations, when a guy’s rating is more likely to be lower anyway.  The article didn’t put these numbers in any kind of context in terms of where Eli stands vis a vis the rest of the league.

But according to Pro Football Prospectus 2008: “Eli Manning was hurried on a below-average percentage of pass plays, but when he was hurried – during the regular season, at least – he had the worst DVOA of any quarterback with at least 30 passes.”  So there you go…

On Eli’s first pick Monday, the Browns brought 5 (which means they blitzed one) and he was hit as he threw.  He had pressure in his face on the third pick too, though the Browns didn’t blitz.

His tendency to throw off his back foot in the face of pressure is well-documented.  A frequent shit-talking line of opposing teams is that they feel Eli can be rattled if they get pressure on him.  This isn’t to say that Eli’s turns into a total jellyfish in the face of pressure; rather, it just means that protecting the quarterback may be a little more important for us than for other teams.

Speaking of guys hitting Eli, the Browns’ Shaun Rodgers was not fined for intentionally driving his 578-pound upper body onto Eli a full step after he threw, which led to Eli’s chest injury.

I think he should have been: It’s not as if Rodgers’ momentum carried him into Eli, and he knew Eli had released the ball when he delivered the initial hit.  Now, I suppose he’s entitled to that initial hit, but driving the force of his upper body as they went down was just unnecessarily rough, given that he knew Eli had thrown the ball.  And that’s what that was: unnecessary roughness.

Eli has downplayed the injury, but he always does.  But last year, the shoulder injury sustained in the opener against Dallas was much worse than anyone let on – I got this from Ralph Vacchiano’s Eli Manning: The Making of a Quarterback.  So on this one, it’s kind of anybody’s guess if he’ll be limited or not.

Last but not least, no discussion about Eli under pressure would be complete without mentioning this play. 

Here’s an amazing quote in Vacchano’s book from head Mike Carey, the Super Bowl’s head referee:

“It was like a scene out of National Geographic, where it’s a lion jumping on the back of a wild horse.  You could see him just desperately trying to pull out and some how he did.  Usually, a quarterback goes straight ahead when that happens and just tries to get yardage.  For some reason he turned around and ran back deeper into the pocket.  Lucky for him that he did.  He had a little safe haven.”

So much for the nationally-televised coronation….  I’m sure most of us had forgotten how much losing sucks.  It’s been a long time since we’ve felt this way, which I guess underscores how lucky we’ve been this calendar year.  And hey, at least we’re not the Cowboys.

I started to worry – I always worry, but seriously worry – during the drawn-out pregame hype on ESPN.  All throughout the week, I had no problem indulging in the media love-fest surrounding the Giants, but as it crescendoed an hour before the game, it began to take on an ominous edge in my mind.  The “humanizing” segment on Coughlin featuring the Snees (Chris and Tom’s daughter) was an especially surefire sign that things had become too good to be true.  At that point, I knew a letdown of some kind, at some time, was imminent.

I just hoped it wouldn’t be last night.  But as I keep telling myself, we weren’t gonna go 16-0.  Even great teams will occasionally turn in terrible performances.  And last night, the 2008 Giants – who have become a great team over the last eight games by discovering an ability to play consistently well on both sides of the ball – laid their first egg.  It was a terrible performance, to be sure, but one that is now in the past while we are still in first place at present.

Or so I keep telling myself.  Because last night’s loss was not only brutal, it was worrisome, particularly because of our pass rush.

Neither or front four or are many blitzers could get close to Anderson all night.  Play after play, he was able to sit back, calmly scan the field, and find the open man.  Pretty quickly, he got into a rhythm where he was making his reads and firing strikes.

This makes it two out of three games where our pass rush has let us down (the Bengals game, the 6 sacks notwithstanding, was the other).  After that game, the Star-Ledger’s Mike Garafolo took stock of our pass rush over our first few games.  His conclusion was that while the sacks were there, the quarterback hurries were actually way down from last year.  Last night, neither the hurries nor sacks were there.

This points to two things that should really concern Giants fans: 1) We miss Osi and Strahan a lot more than we wanted to think at the beginning of the year.  Sure, Tuck’s great, but Kiwanuka and McDougle might not even be good.  At the position, it’s possible that we’ve gone from historically good to merely above-average.

And 2) Our blitzes were completely, utterly, scarily ineffective last night, which makes you wonder if we’re tipping them in some way.  There was talk after the Bengals game that we were tipping them, but that quieted after the Seattle blowout.  Maybe its time to start thinking about that again, as well as the uncomfortable possibility that the league may have caught up with Spags.

Could it be that our pass rush is a shell of what it was last year?  After last night, it seems possible.

While the pass rush was worrisome, there were some things last night that were merely bad.  There’s a distinction there: the bad stuff you expect will turn around.  The worrisome stuff you’re not so sure.

The play of the secondary, for instance, was bad.  But with all the time Anderson was given and with the confidence in his protection he accumulated, those guys faced a real uphill battle.

Obviously, Aaron Ross – a universally popular Giant, it seems – had a truly horrific game.  The first big play to Braylon – you rarely see Ross miss a tackle like that – the second big play to Braylon, and the fourth quarter touchdown to Braylon were all back-breaking plays and were all Ross’ fault (though it’s hard to kill a guy for suddenly getting a cramp).  On the touchdown to Darnell Dinkins, Ross was playing the deep safety position, and seemed a little slow coming over the top to help Pierce.  The good news is that he appears to be okay.  Good player, awful game.

The tackling was pretty bad last night too.  Repeatedly, the Browns were able to slip out of the initial tackle to pick up a couple extra yards to put them in “manageable” situations (the announcers were so big on that concept last night).  Against the Bengals, the tackling was poor too.  In both instances, this was probably a function of being on the field for so long but it’s still something to watch going forward.

In terms of the merely bad stuff offensively, there was obviously Eli.  It was a bad performance, but one that can be shrugged off – all quarterbacks, even great ones, have them.  And aside from the interceptions, Eli was actually pretty decent last night.  (I know, I know…  If my aunt had balls, she’d be my uncle, but still.)  His throws were generally pretty sharp, and he completed 18 for 28, or 64% of his passes, which is actually a hair better than his 2008 completion percentage and significantly better than his career mark.

The rest of the offense was fine.  We ran the ball very well and put up 373 yards of total offense, only 57 of which were full-fledged garbage-time yards gained during that bizarrely time-consuming drive at the end of the game.  (What the hell was that, anyway?  No, we weren’t going to win the game, but it was still mathematically possible.  You don’t give up, Tom!)

So in the end, you can shrug off some things about this game.  Eli and the secondary played poorly, but that’s in the past.  The pass rush, however, and to some degree the tackling, are things to worry about going forward.

Injuries:

The bye week did wonders for Kiwanuka, who says he’s feeling about as good as he’s going to.

“There’s a little bit [of pain there], but I’ve played with far worse injuries than this.

Manningham, whom the coaching staff seems to have wanted to supplant Moss as the fourth receiver this week (and fifth receiver when Plax gets back), picked up a narsty stomach flu and returned to practice just today.  It remains to be seen who will get those snaps during the game.

Either way, the whole thing doesn’t bode well for Moss.  The guy seems to be on his way out of town, barring some bad injuries at receiver this year.

R.W. (calf) is back to practicing in full.  Jerome McDougle (knee) was limited on Wednesday, but expects to play Sunday.

The Pass Rush:

A very interesting article by Mike Garafolo of the Star-Ledger the other day. Although the Giants’ total of 13 sacks gives them the league-lead in sacks per game, their quarterback “hurries” are down substantially from last year.  The G-Men have 18 total hurries this year, a far cry from last year, when they averaged 15 per game.

These numbers, taken with the good job the Bengals did picking up the blitz last week, have led to discussion that the league is catching onto Spagnuolo’s schemes.

When asked if this year’s pass rush was on the same level as last year’s, Spanuolo himself said:

“No, probably not.  Some of that credit belongs to the offenses.  And the other thing…is that there’s a lot of film on our defense out there and there are some smart offensive coaches.  There start to pick up a little things and we have to be a little bit of a step ahead of that.”

The G-Men think they might have been tipping their blitzes last Sunday.

Said Barry Cofield, “We definitely felt like we picked up on some things.  Coach Spags presented them to us and we all agreed that that could be the case.  We’re definitely going to try to do a better job of disguising.”

And Tuck said: “When you get to go back and look at film from the view of your opponent, you’re going to see some things where you are kind of tipping your hand.  We got to him early; they made some adjustments.  The things we got home with early, they did a good job of picking them up [later in the game].”

Plax:

The details emerging after Plax’ suspension have been pretty disconcerting.

First, we heard that he had two restraining orders taken out on him this summer by his wife, though we don’t know whether this has anything to do with what happened last Monday.  We have no more information other than that it was a family situation that Plax felt was an emergency at the time.

Then, there was this article by Jay Glazer of FoxSports that Plax has been fined staggering 40-50 times during his Giants career.  So maybe this incident represents more than just a one-time relapse into immaturity.

Ralph Vacchiano, the Daily News beat writer, shed some light on Plax in his live chat with Giants fans on Tuesday:

I don’t think Burress and Coughlin have ever really gotten along.  They’ve peacefully coexisted more than anything else.  I remember talking to Burress a year or so ago and he said that he used to break Coughlin’s rules just for the heck of it, just to see what he could get away with.  That’s not exactly the mark of a good team player.  But Burress insisted he had changed.  Unfortunately, that’s not the case.  When he missed that meeting that led to his suspension, his teammates said that him missing a meeting wasn’t unusual at all.  I’ve also heard that he’s been fined dozens of times over the years.  I don’t think any of that is the result of, or will result in, strong negative feelings towards the Giants.  Hell, the Giants just enabled him with a five-year, $35 million deal.  I just think he’s Plaxico being Plaxico.  He just doesn’t care about fines and rules.  He does what he wants and he shows up on Sunday, gets his money, and that’s all that matters to him.  I’d bet anything that when he comes back from his suspension, he accepts responsibility but says that he’d do it again because whatever his reason was meant more to him than missing a game.  And I think the Giants knew this was the way Burress was.  If you want to get his remarkable talent (and I think he’s one of the top three receivers in the NFL) then you have to accept the rest.

Ok…  I have to say this was pretty disappointing to read.  I was under the impression that Plax had transformed and grown out his pain-in-the-ass-ness.  I guess that’s not the case.

But if I understand Vacchiano correctly here, it’s really not that big of a problem.  Plax and Coughlin “peacefully coexist,” and the new contract Plax just signed would seem to indicate that theirs is a tenable, if not ideal, relationship.  But will this suspension imperil it?  Hopefully not.

Punt Returns:

This kind of got lost in the shuffle, but now that R.W. is healthy, he has been seen returning some punts in practice, along with Bradshaw.

When Colonel Tom was asked whether Hixon may not return punts this week because he’s starting at split end, he replied, “We will see about that.”

This is stupid.  Hixon is by far our best punt returner (and kick returner); there’s no reason he shouldn’t handle both those responsibilities.

The Kicker Situation:

Conflicting takes from the beat reporters here: Mike Garafolo of the Star-Ledger says his knee has been swelling up and likely won’t play, while Vacchiano of the Daily News’ says he’s probably play.

Are there any Giants fans who want Tynes back at all, let alone if he rushes back?  There seemed to be a disconnect between the media coverage of Tynes after the Green Bay game and Giants’ fans opinion of him.  Correct me if I’m wrong, but he’s not really a hero in our minds, right?  I guess we’re grateful for the 47-yarder, but overall, I think most of us still want to strangle him for the two previous kicks.  And we  still don’t trust him.  Lawrence Tynes, you are no Matt Bahr.

Danny Ware Arrested:

Danny Ware, who earned a roster spot by running pretty during the preseason, was arrested in Athens, GA last Saturday after the UGA-Alabama game.  According to police, he was standing in the street with a girl oblivious to oncoming traffic, and blew a .152 on his BAC.

But according to some eyewitnesses who commented on the Athens-Banner Herald’s website, Ware was merely the victim of a power-tripping asshole cop.  According to these witnesses, Ware was standing not far from the curb trying to hail a cab when a cop abruptly rolled up and arrested four people for no good reason.

With our Big Three at running back, Ware probably won’t play a role on this year’s team.  But Jacobs is a free agent after this year, so it’s not out of the question that we will hear from this guy someday.

Madison:

This is a nice article by Paul Schwartz in the Post about how Sam Madison has evolved into a kind of player-coach in the secondary.  Madison took a $500,000 pay cut to stay with the G-Men, and though his skills are clearly diminished, he provides a valuable veteran presence for A-Ross, Webster, and Dockery.  And, of course, he made a great play on 3^rd down in overtime against the Bengals, enabling us to get the ball back and drive for the winning field goal.

The story would be even more heartwarming, however, if Madison hadn’t committed that egregious 15-yard personal foul penalty in the NFC Championship game that led to Donald Lee’s go-ahead touchdown.  Fox replays didn’t capture him throwing down Brandon Jackson last year, so I have never seen that clip.  Has anyone?  Is their any hand-held YouTube footage of this one?

Great performance by the D, of course, which held the ‘Skins to 217 yards and 11 first downs.  Here are a few scattered observations.

–Great job by the D-tackles, especially Big Fred, who looks like he’s matured into a near-star at the age of 31.  The solid D-tackle rotation of Robbins, Cofield, and Alford is an unsung aspect of the great job Jerry (and Ernie) did building this defense.  Last year, our DVOA against the run was -8.5%, 10^th best in the league.  A lot of the credit for that goes to the D-tackles. 

–Bryan Kehl, the rookie linebacker from BYU, rotated every other series with Gerris Wilkinson.  With all due respect to Gerris, this has to get you excited about the prospect of grooming two young ‘backers.  Kehl contributed in his first NFL game with 5 tackles, while Gerris had 4.

It’s all part of an overall philosophy of getting as many guys involved as possible, according to this article by Mike Garafolo in the Star-Ledger.  We used all four ends on Thursday (the starters plus Wynn and McDougle), and five wide receivers caught passes. 

Here are Colonel Tom’s thoughts on the matter:

“We know it’s a marathon, not a sprint, and you’re going to need everybody.  You need everybody involved right from the get-go, and we had this rotation going in a few spots a year ago.  We like what we saw from it, and we probably can develop this a little more, to be honest with you, where we can get some other people involved.” 

This is a good approach that fits well with the depth we have on the roster.  (Why this depth of good athletes hasn’t translated into good coverage teams, I don’t know)  This is basically about hedging for injuries, which of course are inevitable.  Like, we don’t want Gerris to have gotten all the snaps and then go down in Week 12, leaving us with an inexperienced rookie in his place.

–How good did Aaron Ross and Corey Webster look?  My friend Wong, with whom I watched the game, made a great point about how although Ross is good athlete, he does a great job playing within his athletic limitations.  For instance, he takes smart angles on tackles and is smart about wrapping up and not going for the big hit or flashy submarine.  And what an awesome blitzer that dude has turned out to be… 

A-Ross had eight tackles and made a beautiful play on that endzone deep-ball to Moss.  Although he got beat on the Moss touchdown, 1) he got picked by a crossing pattern; and 2) it seemed like his assignment on the play was asking a little too much of him.  Following Santana Moss across the field in single coverage with no help in sight?  That’s tough.

As for Webster, he made a beautiful play just before the touchdown when he leapt up to tip the ball on the Campbell bootleg, possibly breaking up a touchdown.  He also made a nice play on the ‘Skins first drive of the second half when, on 3^rd an 8, he closed on Moss and made the tackle after he caught the ball a couple yards before the first down marker. 

Webster’s clearly still learning, but dude’s athletic potential is unlimited.  It amazes me what a good athlete he is – the best word to describe him is rangy.

–Speaking of rangy, and speaking of dudes with unlimited athletic potential, Kiwanuka was all over the place, making 6 tackles, 4 of them solo. 

As far as the pass rush goes, I think he can be counted on to pick up a lot of the slack left by Strahan and Osi’s absence.  What I’m more concerned about is his ability to anchor at the point of attack on running plays – the ‘Nuke-man is tall, and doesn’t have a low center of gravity, the proverbial “sand in his pants.”

And after the Samuels incident, I’m also worried that this guy might be injury prone.  He’s one of those tall, long-limbed dudes who I can see being susceptible to taking shots and being nicked up, kind of like Shockey and Jacobs. 

And yes, I thought was Samuels did was out of line.  At first I thought that he just took him down cleanly, but I watched it again and he brought his upper body down on ‘Nuke’s leg.  I don’t think it was intentional dirtiness – it was more instinctive than that – but it was out of line just the same. 

–Kenny Phillips made a big tackle on special teams and got significant burn.  (And yes, the coverage teams were horrendous.)  You have to think that this guy is gonna be one our more prominent defensive players by the middle of the season.

–This is old news, but how effective are our blitzes these days?  Do you remember our blitzes under Tim Lewis, when everyone watching on TV and their mothers knew what was coming?  Spags is the man.

In the Star Ledger today, Mike Garafolo says the Giants will go to the draft looking for a corner if DeAngelo Hall slips away.

If they don’t get Hall (because another team offers a better deal to Atlanta or they can’t negotiate a new contract with Hall’s agent), the Giants will likely go to the draft to find their corner. And while it’s still extremely early in the process, there’s a chance they could wind up with their second consecutive winner of the Thorpe Award (for best defensive back in college football) after drafting Aaron Ross last year.

Arizona cornerback Antoine Cason is projected by many draft gurus to be selected late in the first round or early in the second. A few scouts, who requested anonymity because they don’t want to publicly reveal their team’s draft boards, agreed Cason is currently a late-first to early-second selection. The Giants, at No. 31 overall, are likely taking a long, hard look at Cason.

There are a few other cornerbacks who might be available late in the first round: Troy’s Leodis McKelvin (5-11, 190 pounds), Tennessee State’s Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie (6-2, 183) and Kansas corner Aqib Talib (6-1, 202), who grew up in Trenton before moving to Texas.

At 6-0, 191 pounds, Cason has a similar build to Ross’. And like Ross, Cason played a lot of zone coverage in college but has a long build — something the Giants knew would help Ross play tough on receivers at the line of scrimmage. Cason has also shown the ability to play man-to-man coverage.

Good plan, since they need help in the secondary.

Note: Took a needed vacation this past week, hitting the tables in AC, so sorry for neglecting the blog.

According to Star Ledger, the Giants may be looking to trade for DeAngelo Hall.

According to two people with knowledge of discussions between the teams, the Giants are willing to give Atlanta their first-round pick (31st overall) in April’s draft in exchange for Hall. The people requested anonymity because of the private nature of the trade talks.

Giants general manager Jerry Reese declined to comment yesterday morning when asked whether the Giants have inquired about Hall, the eighth overall pick in the 2004 draft.

The Giants had hoped to make a run at the Seahawks’ Marcus Trufant and the Raiders’ Nnamdi Asomugha, according to one of the people familiar with the team’s off-season plans, but each was made the franchise players by their respective teams. The Giants would owe two first-round picks if they signed either player. Patriots cornerback Asante Samuel, who will become a free agent next Friday, is viewed by the Giants more as a player whose success is the product of New England’s defensive system than his own ability.

Hall, 24, is a fast, tough and talented player who had 17 interceptions in his four NFL seasons. However, he had a tumultuous 2007 season with the Falcons. In a loss to the Panthers in September, he drew three penalties on Carolina’s game-tying drive and then got into a shouting match with coach Bobby Petrino on the sideline. Hall was fined $100,000 and benched for the first quarter of the next week’s game for the incident.

Hall would be interesting get. Yes he could be a cancer, but with the veteran leadership on the team, I don’t see it as a problem.