Giants - Patriots
1999 Game 3 - 8PM ET
Televised nationally on ESPN
Focus
on Defense
What's
the difference?
What's the difference between the Giants Defense this year
and last?
Before you jump in here and say that Chad Bratzke and his
11 sacks is what's missing, listen to the second question.
What's the difference between the Giants Defense last week
against Washington (0 sacks, 0 ints) and Tampa Bay (2 sacks,
4 ints) just the week before?
That's right, we have to stop and think this stuff over.
Let's get back
to question one. Sure the Giants miss Chad.
They felt that they couldn't afford him and still stay under
the salary cap with the other moves they were making.
Chad got $9 million up front from the Colts to sign as a free
agent and he's averaging a sack a game. That's 2 so far, and
Chad's sack output by itself, matches what the whole Giants
team currently has altogether.
Now onto question
two. In the fist game against Tampa Bay, the Giants were fierce
on the defensive front line. What
happened to the Giants pass rush in game 2 against the Skins?
Even though the Giants front four didn't get a sack in the
opener against the Bucs, the intense overall pressure forced
QB Trent Dilfer into mistakes and linebackers Jessie Armstead
and Corey Widmer picked up one sack each. Certainly
the Giants will need that kind of pass rush this week to have
a chance of beating the Patriots.
What's
the cure?
Could it be New England? Maybe, not because they
are a weak team, but their offensive line has had injuries.
Right tackle Zefross Moss has a sprained left ankle and left
guard Heath Irwin has a sprained right knee. Their replacements
in the Colts game had their moments and the Giants might be
able to get some pressure on Drew Bledsoe.
In fact, it's mandatory if they want to nail down a win.
Defensive tackle
Robert Harris didn't play the opener because of an ankle sprain
and didn't do very well in the second game. He and fellow
defensive tackle Keith Hamilton are in there to shut down
the running game, but the Skins piled up 164 yards on the
ground, including 126 by halfback Stephen Davis.
The sloppy tackling
was also a big factor in giving up 50 points for the first
time in 33 years, and that has to go as well. The Redskins
gained 139 yards after the 14 missed tackles. To put it mildly,
Coach Jim Fassel was not happy.
Exactly
who are the New England Patriots?
This year, they're a come from behind team. They did it In
both games. QB Drew Bledsoe rallied the Patriots from a 21-point
deficit to defeat the Colts, 31-28, and has thrown for 639
yards, the most in the NFL. Bledsoe ranks fifth in NFL QB
ratings and has thrown 5 TDs and one interception.
Somehow the Pats won, even though they set a team record by
committing 15 penalties in the game for 135 yards. That even
included an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on coach Pete
Carroll. Now there's someone who coaches with feeling. Some
say that Giants Coach Fassel lacks what it takes to keep the
players focused. Maybe he should be out there drawing some
penalties. After all, the Pats are 2-0.
In case you're wondering how Pete Carroll drew a penalty,
and who wouldn't, it happened when the Patriots were behind
21-7.
Carroll was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty
for kicking a penalty flag during a protracted protest of
an illegal contact call against Ty Law.
Carroll said that he was more upset with his team than the
officials. "I just got that flag out of frustration and disgust,"
Carroll said. "We had so many flags flying that it was raining
on us down there. We're just making too many mistakes, and
we've got to get better."
New
England had 7 penalties in their season-opening win against
the Jets the week before.
Giants
on offense - Running.
The
Giants' running game would be dead last in the NFL if it weren't
for the Cleveland Browns, an expansion team. The Giants have
averaged 55.5 rushing yards per game, while the Browns have
only 46.
Fassel plans to use fullback Charles Way more, but the real
problem with the Giants running game is that there are no
holes open to run though, because the blocking has been ineffective.
Last week against the Skins, Way had a 7 yard TD, and in 1997,
he rushed for 698 yards. He had only 432 yards last season,
but Gary Brown was carrying the load then. This year Way has
9 carries for 17 yards. Shaun Bennett actually leads the team
with 69 yards on 17 carries, and has a 4.0 yard average, but
only because of last week's 40 yard run against the Washington
Redskins,otherwise the average drops to 1.8 yards per rush.
Still, coach Fassel said that Charles Way was one of the few
players who played well last week. For some reason, he doesn't
seem comfortable with letting twice-injured second round pick
Joe Montgomery play. Joe did miss a good hunk of preseason
play, but you have to wonder if there is more to it than that.
If the running game doesn't work again this week, I'm sure
we'll hear more about it.
RB Gary Brown (injured knee) will work on individual drills
this week and it's possible he could make an appearance against
the Eagles on Oct. 3.
Giants
on offense - Passing.
Some
fans think that if the Giants put Kerry Collins in there instead
of Kent Graham, all the problems will be solved, but the passing
game deficiencies are influenced by the running game. It all
comes back to keeping the opposing team off balance.
Because teams don't take the Giants' running game seriously,
QB Kent Graham can no longer fake teams into thinking the
team is going to run. Consequently, the linebackers are remaining
back in coverage, shutting off the passing lanes and cutting
down on Graham's effectiveness.
Graham was quoted as saying, "If
your running game is struggling, your play-action passing
is not going to be as effective, so we're
going with more straight drop-backs, so we can see the field
more.
If your play-action passes are working, you can fake the handoff
and get those linebackers to suck up in there. Then, you don't
have the underneath coverage."
Bottom line on all
of this is, the offensive line is the problem, and has to
improve it's performance for the Giants to win.
Some
history.
The Giants and Pats inaugurated ESPN's Sunday Night Football
series on November 8, 1987, when the Giants won that game,
17-10.
They also played in a memorable game in 1996. The Giants dominated
the first half, building a 22-0 first half lead, capped by
a 23-yard interception return for a TD by Jason Sehorn.
Drew
Bledsoe went on to lead the Patriots back from the 22 point
halftime deficit, to win the game 23-22.
The Giants lead the series 3-2.
The
troops.
Jason
Sehorn will get into this game. His counterpart, CB Conrad
Hamilton is listed as doubtful and may soon undergo an MRI
for his knee. If doctors can't pinpoint the problem, Jim Fassel
said Hamilton likely will undergo arthroscopic surgery. Unfortunately,
this would delay his ultimate return. Hamilton is listed as
doubtful for Sunday.
Under
Fassel
Giants are 0-1 when the other team scores over 50 points or
more.
Notes:
Some good things:
QB
Kent Graham ranks 3rd in the NFC with 112.6 fourth-quarter
passer rating, including 73.3 comp. pct. (11 of 15).
WRs Hilliard and Toomer both had 100+ yard games last week.
7 of Hilliard's 10 catches have been for first downs.
Brad Maynard leads NFL with 8 punts inside 20.
NE ranks 24th in total defense, 19th against the rush, 22nd
against the pass.
Some bad things:
Giants - 3rd Down Percentage: 12.5
NE - 3rd Down Percentage: 48.1
Giants - Passing yds/game: 184.5
NE - Passing yds/game: 309.0
Pete Carroll is 11-2 with the Patriots in games played before
Oct 15.
Patriots have forced 8 turnovers this year, tied for first
in the NFL.
Giants rank 28th in total offense, 30th in rushing, 21st in
passing.
Other
notes:
Both
the Giants and the Patriots were trailing 21-0 in the first
half last week, but the Giants lost their game to the Redskins,
while the Patriots went on to win theirs.
In sort of a 3 card football monty, the Giants play New England
who beat the Jets in Game 1, while the Jets face the Redskins,
who play their second game in a row at the Meadowlands this
week.
Last week, the Jets gave up 23 first downs in their loss to
Buffalo.
Bill Parcells is unhappy with his entire defense, and he said,
"They ran the ball on us and they converted third downs,
and we didn't contain the quarterback all the time. So that's
about as much as you can screw up."
None of that sounds very good going up against a red hot Redskins
unit, which could be the surprise scoring team of the NFC
East.
Next week
The Giants play the Eagles on Oct 3 at 1 PM.
New England is at Cleveland 1 pm.
Click
on the Team Giants logo to be informed of all Giants game
previews and reviews. |
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Previous
Stories
1999
NFC EAST - Week 2
|
Team |
W |
L |
T |
PCT |
PF |
PA |
Home |
Away |
AFC |
NFC |
DIV |
Streak |
Dallas |
2 |
0 |
0 |
.1.000 |
65 |
42 |
1-0 |
1-0 |
0-0 |
2-0 |
1-0 |
W2 |
Arizona |
1 |
1 |
0 |
.500 |
41 |
43 |
0-0 |
1-1 |
0-1 |
1-0 |
1-0 |
L1 |
Washington |
1 |
1 |
0 |
..500 |
85 |
62 |
0-1 |
1-0 |
0-0 |
1-1 |
1-1 |
W1 |
NY Giants |
1 |
1 |
0 |
.500 |
38 |
63 |
0-1 |
1-0 |
0-0 |
1-1 |
0-1 |
L1 |
Philadelphia |
0 |
2 |
0 |
.000 |
29 |
44 |
0-2 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0-2 |
0-1 |
L2 |
|