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Game 4 preview

Sun Oct 7, 1:00 pm (FOX) - Washington at Giants

Redskins can spell trouble for the Giants.
The Giants barely beat Washington in the last game they played. They couldn't put the ball in the endzone, and Brad Daluiso (he's not here anymore) did it all with three field goals of 46, 27 and 28 yards. So the Giants came away with a 9-7 win. You might remember that was the game where head coach Norv Turner (he's not there anymore) inserted Jeff George (he's not there anymore) to replace Brad Johnson (he's not there anymore) with just eight minutes left to play. George immediately led his team on a 10 play 97-yard touchdown drive against the suddenly inept Giants defense to make the score 9-7.
George then engineered another drive to the Giants 30 in the final minute, and the Giants would have lost if Eddie Murray (he's not there anymore) had connected with a 49 yard field goal. Murray also missed an easier one earlier in the game, and so the Giants came away with their first win in Washington since 1995.

Those other games.
In their other game last season at Giants Stadium, Washington easily beat the Giants 16-6. If not for that one loss to Washington, the Giants would have swept their division last year instead of finishing 7-1.
The Giants lost both games to Washington in 1999. The last game 23-13, and the one before that, Washington walked all over the Giants in their own stadium, beating them 50-21.
Now for this game the Giants are two-touchdown favorites to beat the Redskins.

The Redskins have been outscored 112-16, in three losing starts this season.
They are last in offense in both yardage and points scored, and last in defense in both yardage and points allowed. After that game last year when the Redskins lost to the Giants, Norv Turner said, "That's as poorly as we've performed offensively as long as I can remember. Norv is gone now, because owner Dan Snyder had said that the Redskins must repeat as division champions for Turner to keep his job, and that didn't happen. If Norv is still following the Washington Redskins, he'll have to take note of total points scored this year and revise his statement.

So what's the problem?
Dick Vermeil's Chiefs beat the Redskins 45-13 last week, and he lays it on the players, "They don't have enough good football players.", he said. "If Marty Schottenheimer's got enough football players, I promise you they'll play well. They got some old guys that like to moan, that finally have to go to work for a living. I've been through that before."
Not all of the players appreciate Schottenheimer's methods, and one "old guy" decided to give up football instead of playing under a coach he considered to be a "young-player" coach. Deion Sanders also was angry that Ray Rhodes, the team's defensive coordinator last season, was not retained by new head coach Marty Schottenheimer. Deion Sanders decided that it would be a good time to retire from football.
Schottenheimer had said that the Redskins would be a better team with Sanders than without, but it's known that he puts his stars on equal footing with the bench-warmers.

More old guys.
More than a dozen contributing veterans are gone from last year, and Bruce Smith, a 17-year veteran, took offense to Dick Vermeil's comment. "I just thought that was classless and very unprofessional what Dick Vermeil said,'' Smith said. "If he wants to criticize, fine, do it in a way that doesn't seem unprofessional." Smith feels that the players "would like to have a clear understanding what's expected, and be treated like men and not like some teen-agers that are delinquent or something like that."
Schottenheimer says, "I've been accused of that before in every place I've coached. There's some that don't want a lot of structure, and I can understand that." Schottenheimer is big on rules and structure, big on grueling practices at training camp, and on alarms being placed on doors to enforce curfews, and he won't tolerate losing.

Schottenheimer's not used to losing, and he won't let his players get used to it either.
In Cleveland and Kansas City, Schottenheimer posted a 145-85-1 regular-season mark over 14 full seasons. So what happens now when players lose a game 45-13 under Marty Schottenheimer, the second-winningest active coach? What does the coach do after his defense gives up scores on seven straight possessions, including six touchdowns? Normally, the Redskins break down the videotape so the defense watches only defensive plays, and the offense watches only offensive plays, but Schottenheimer made sure the whole team saw every one of Sunday's plays. Think about it. How much would they have to pay you as a fan to watch the Giants Super Bowl loss to the Ravens over again?

So why the losses?
Schottenheimer says, "I think it's a combination of the new coaching staff, new players. We don't have a great deal of familiarity with one another, but we're accountable to perform and coach, and we're not doing a very good job of it right now. There are a lot of good things that happen on every play. Unfortunately, there are one or two breakdowns on every play as well.''
That's what concerns coach Jim Fassel, that Schottenheimer will work things out and eliminate those breakdowns. The Redskins play tough against the Giants, and any team can always pull it together for a division game. Both coaches will tell you that attitude is everything, and if Schottenheimer pulls his team together at the same time Fassel's guys are looking for an easy win, the worse can happen.
Fassel laid it out, "I don't want to hear anything about their record,"he said. "That's a talented team. I think our guys know that well enough. Still, they also saw that from day one of practice, that he's resting Tiki Barber and saving him for the games coming up after this week.

Last week the Saints were driving in the fourth quarter.
Players are like fans sometimes. The Giants' offensive players, standing on the sidelines during the final Saints drive, admitted it was tough to watch. "I was nervous, but it was a confident nervousness," tackle Lomas Brown said of a game not decided until the final play. "I don't know if such a thing exists, but I just made that up. Put that in the dictionary."
Sorry Lomas, you can't lay claim to that word. "Confident nervousness" is a feeling many Giants fans know all too well, from years of watching the Giants play football. Check that last two point win over the Redskins last year for an example.

Notes:
The Giants are favored by 14 points. The last time they beat the Redskins by more than 14 points (30-10) was Dec 13 1997. Charles Way ran one in for a touchdown, Danny Kanell threw a touchdown pass to Chris Calloway, and Jason Sehorn had an interception return for another. Daluiso kicked 3 field goals during the game. Jeff Hostetler was the quarterback for the Redskins at the time.

Next Game
Oct 14, Giants at Rams 1PM.

For those very organized fans.
If you use a Palm Pilot and want to keep the Giants schedule, and actually the whole NFL schedule on it, there is a free download available here at PFL.

Last Week's review, game 3 - Giants 21 - New Orleans 13


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