Kickoff Coverage:

Last year, our kickoff coverage was pretty bad.  According to FootballOutsiders’ advanced stats, we gave away 6 points over the course of the year because of Tynes’ relatively weak kicks and our sub-par coverage team, placing us 26^th in the league.

Thursday night, despite Carney’s strong kickoffs, covering kicks was obviously a problem.  Washington’s started their drives after kickoffs on our 27, 24, 35, the 50, and then on our 33 (this was after Kehl’s 15-yard penalty for going low on the wedge).  On average, the ‘Skins started drives on their 34 yard-line.

This is bad.  The average starting field position for an NFL drive off a normal kickoff is around the 27.5 yard line, meaning that we gave away 32.5 yards of field position during the game.  That’s significant, and this is something that has to improve.

Punt Returns:

Here’s my question, which I’m sure many Giants fans are asking too: Why the hell is R-Dubs still returning punts?  Are you telling me a team with Hixon, Bradshaw, Ross, and Sinorice, can’t get someone more explosive in there?

Last year, our punt return game ranked 22^nd in the league, according to FootballOutsiders’ stats.  Things went from bad to disastrous for ‘Dubs in the postseason, when he relinquished his monopoly on sure-handedness by fumbling twice in the Green Bay game (although his return against Dallas to set up our go-ahead drive was admittedly huge).

Yes, Dubs always catches the ball – I’ll give him that.  But the man is slow and not explosive at all.  Last year was great for the Giants, but if we want to stay on top – and maybe surpass the Cowboys in our own division – Tom and the staff have to constantly look for ways to upgrade this team, even if it means taking a risk that someone will muff a punt.  Please, let’s get a potential game-breaker back there.

Hixon:

Hixon’s back was still bothering him last week, which is why Bradshaw returned kicks.  Bradshaw was accompanied “back deep” with Danny Ware, who would seem to be an upgrade from Droughns as the blocker/second option on kick returns. 

HIxon got some action on the coverage teams, probably because they needed competent bodies.  But evidently the coaching staff thought a healthy Ahmad was better than a semi-injured Hixon for retruns.  Expect Hixon to get that job back once the brass is sure he’s healthy.  Frankly, I don’t know when this will be, but probably pretty soon.

Tynes and Carney:

It looks like Tynes might be out through the Week 4 bye. I’m no huge fan of Tynes, and it was nice that Carney hit that 47-yard field goal, but I still think Tynes is the better option going forward.

Last year, Tynes was 8-8 on field goals 40-yards or longer in the regular season.  Carney was 2-5, not a good sign for a 44-year old.  Of course, Tynes was 5-8 from 30-39 yard field goals, while Carney was 5-6, but it still seems like the 44-year old who struggles with the long ones presents a bigger risk going forward.

Interestingly, Carney’s kickoff length average was more than a yard longer than Tynes’, 62.8 to 61.8.

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.

It was an uneven offensive performance, with our low point total (16) somewhat belied by our 354 yards, more than the 331 we averaged last year.  And because we sat on the lead for much of the second half, you have to think we could have done a bit more.

But the second half was poor, no question about it. After gaining 241 of our 354 yards in the first half, we were out-gained by the Redskins 158 to 113 in the second.  A 9 point lead isn’t comfortable enough to justify this – as is their unfortunate wont, the G-Men seemed to fall asleep on offense with a lead that, based on the flow and feeling of the game, seemed bigger than it actually was.

Alas, we Giants fans have become accustomed to this maddening trait, and I doubt it’s gonna change.  This week, we got lucky – our defense played great and the Redskins were clearly not ready to score points at this point of the season.  But we haven’t been so lucky in the past, and we might not be so lucky next time.

One of the reason the scoreboard didn’t fully reflect our dominance in the first half is that we didn’t fully capitalize in the red zone (I refuse to call it the green zone, Tom), where we came away with only a touchdown and a field goal in three trips.  Last year, we were 13^th in the league in red-zone efficiency, scoring touchdowns 54.5 percent of the time compared to the league average of 52 percent.  Based on this percentage, we scored around 2 fewer points on Thursday than what would be “expected.”

Our low point total also owed itself to being stopped on a couple of third and shorts you would expect us to convert: 1) On our second possession, when Ward was met by London Fletcher at the 7 (John Madden aptly called this “a four point tackle); and 2) on our fourth possession, where Jacobs got stopped on a toss sweep, setting up Carney’s 47-yard field goal.

Going forward, these short-yardage situations shouldn’t be a problem.  Last year, we ranked 7^th best in the league in a FootballOutsiders stat called “Power” situations – the percentage of runs on either third or fourth down that result in either a first down or a touchdown.  The year before, we ranked 6^th.  Basically, we have a big, physical line made for such situations.  (My only complaint is that we seem to assume that Jacobs is our best good short-yardage option, just because he’s big.  When we had Tiki, I thought Tiki was better than Jacobs, even in these situations.  Now I think Bradshaw is.  More on this at some point in the future…)

Eli and the passing game:

Like the entire offense’s performance, Eli gets mixed reviews here.  But his sub-par stat-line – 19- 35, 216 yards, averaging 6.2 yards per attempt – sells his performance a little short, I think.

The guy did a lot of great stuff: a couple of those throws to Plax (including the pump-fake on the 30-yarder on the first drive), the pocket presence on the long 3^rd down completion to Sinorice (very nice to see), and a nice play where he stepped up in the pocket and hit Jacobs over the middle come to mind.

There was also his confident demeanor, something not only Madden picked up on, but also my friend Wong, who put it well by saying: “Do you see the balls on Eli now?  He thinks he can pretty much put the ball wherever he wants to now.”

Unfortunately, this confidence verged into recklessness on a few occasions.  I’m not even talking about the interception, on which Boss was actually open – that was just a poorly thrown ball.  What was more troubling were the four near-interceptions resulting from either bad decisions by Eli or miscommunication with the receivers.  One of these four near-picks — when Rogers jumped a route – could have gone back for a touchdown and changed the complexion of the game.

So overall, Eli did some great things and some bad things.

As far as the O-line is concerned, the protection was pretty good in the first half, but pretty bad in the second half.  On each of our first four second half series, the protection badly broke down at least once.  Eli threw his interception with Andre Carter in his face, which might have altered the trajectory of the throw. 

Plax:

What more can you say here?  Toby Hyde, the purveyor of Metsminorsleagueblog.com, pointed out in a non Mets-related note that on passes targeted for Plax, Eli was 10-13 with 10.23 YPA.  On passes targeted for all other receivers, he was 9-21, averaging 3.95 YPA.  This speaks for itself. 

Plax is a great Giant, he was a great signing, and he’s in for a monster year.  More than anything else, the hope of an improved Eli and a healthy Plax is reason to believe we’re gonna be better than last year.

Smith:

First down machine.  Thank God the Panthers took Dwayne Jarrett.

Running game:

Pretty dominant, though less so in the second half.  Still, its’ hard to complain about 4.8 yards a pop over 32 rushing attempts. 

Our run-blocking is probably the best single facet of our team, and is the reason that Jacobs, Ward, Bradshaw are all good contributors.  FootballOutsiders has a stat called Adjusted Line Yards, which seeks to separate the roles of linemen and backs to apportion credit on running plays.  The formula is kind of complicated, but the G-Men ranked 2^nd in the league in this stat last year after ranking 4^th in the league in 2006.  So basically, the stats — whatever value you put in this particular one — bear it out: our run-blocking is elite. 

As far as the backs go, you have to be happy with what both Jacobs and Ward gave you.  But at the same time, you have wonder why Bradshaw didn’t get in.  Ward and Jacobs are fine, but it’s pretty clear that Ahmad’s our best back – some of those holes were so big, maybe Ahmad could have maybe hit a home run with one of them.  The rotation should be set up around Bradshaw, to keep him healthy and fresh, and not Jacobs.  There will be more on this point as the season goes along.

Andy F., the proprietor of UltimateNYG and a huge Bradshaw supporter himself, dug up something of an explanation of the situation from Coughlin’s press conference: 

“That was my fault.  I didn’t get that rotation worked out the way I really would want to. …  When we were making yards, they were tough yards, and I was pleased with some of the things that were happening with Jacobs and then with Derrick Ward.  Not that I am not pleased with Bradshaw, no that is not the case, but I just didn’t get the right rotation.”

(I don’t really understand this.  Did he not put in Bradshaw because Jacobs and Ward were playing well, or did he fuck up the rotation?)

But give credit to Jacobs and Ward for doing a nice job.  As many have pointed out, Jacobs has looked a lot spryer this year than he did toward the end of last year. Maybe the key to keeping him effective over the course of the season is limiting his carries, which is why his 21 carries were a little bit worrisome and unnecessary.

Also, it’s pretty clear by now that Jacobs is a pretty brutal receiver.  He has stone hands, which not only causes drops, but also precludes him from maneuvering immediately after the catch because he doesn’t bring the ball in smoothly.  It’s almost as if you can see the defenders converging on him as he battles the ball.

Ward did a good job, showing his trademark one-cut, downhill style.  He had a nice, smooth catch ‘n’ run as well, which contrasted with Jacobs’ inability to do the same.