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.

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