1nce Again

I am trying to figure out whether the feeling at the end of these gut wrenching losses keeps getting worse or if I do such a good job of making myself recover during the week that I forget how bad it felt the last time. In any event, the Giants lost another game last night. Each week it seems to be a different combination of the same recipe. A few idiotic penalties, unable to get a big stop on defense and a couple just wacky plays (hello Kiwanuka). Throw in come controversy and you have the Giants season. The only aspect this game didn't have that the others did was horrendous play by the QB, who actually played really well yesterday. In any event, there are a number of good and bad aspects of the Giants from yesterday, so I will list and comment on them below.

Good

1. The QB. He played very efficiently. You could tell they were focused on a couple things early. Get Shockey the ball and give the QB an opportunity to get in a rhythm through safe throws. He did not get sacked all game or turn it over. He made good read and checked down to Tiki when he had to. He played the way he needed to if the Giants were going to win. As a fan you can only hope that he can build on this down the stretch of the season.

2. Gameplan. As I said above, the Giants seemed to have a very precise gameplan and they stuck to it for much of the game. They stopped the run on defense, were committed to it on offense and kept the pressure off of #10. They were able to put good pressure on Tony Romo, but did not tackle well enough to get him down. I felt the coaches were very dilligent in sticking to this plan, which with better execution would contributed to a win.

3. Effort. You could tell that the Giants were up for this game. After the tough loss in Tennessee there were some that felt the Giant smay just not show up yesterday. They did show up and it was clear both on offense and defense that they were playing hard for the entire 60 minutes. Some of this intensity boiled over though through over the top and careless penalties.

Bad

1. Red Zone Offense. They were inside the 10 yard line three times and came away with only one TD. The bottom line is to be effective in the red zone you have to be able to run the ball. They struggled with that, especially inside the 20 yard line. While I have heard people angry about the calls they played inside the 10, I am not one of them. The fade to Plax is always a good call, and the incomplete to Shockey would have been a TD if the pass was on target. The slant to Plax was a good call because you have to figure the cornerback was thinking fade. It turns out either Plax tipped his route or Aaron Glenn just made a veteran move and jumped the route. The QB could have thrown to another receiver, Plax could have done a better job in running his route. In any event, I believe it was the execution, both running and passing in the red zone that was to blame.

2. Tackling/Big plays. The Giants defense played ok, but the tackling was attrotious. They consistantly got to Romo, but could not bring him down. As a result he would roll out and get a big play down the field. In addition, Kiwanuka intercepted a ball and inexplicitely dropped the ball without getting touched after running 10 yards the other way. The Cowboys recovered and marched back down the field for a TD. The pass to Witten at the end of the game killed them, as did not converting the 4th and 1 at the near the end of the first half.

3. Special Teams. The Giant punter has been great all year, but yesterday he muffed one and netted only 15 yards on it. The main problem though was the kickoffs. Jay Feely just can not reach the end zone and the Cowboys were consistantly getting field position at their own 35-40 yard line. That puts so much pressue on you defense through out a game. In addition, the Giants don't seem to have any explosiveness in their return game. Can we please try Sinorace Moss next game and get something going back there?

Controversy

1. Time out with 1:40 to play. Plaxico called it, but the Coach did not want it. Plax said he thought he saw Coughlin running down the sideline calling for a TO. At the time I did not kill them on this, even though I knew it was stupid. I thought they called it to make sure they were all on the same page, since they had struggled in the red zone all game. It turns out they left way too much time on the clock and it burned them bigtime.

2. Going for it on 4th and 1. I felt this was the right call, but the wrong play was called. Jacobs is one of the most dominant short yardage back in the sport. Give it to him up the gut and force the Cowboys to stop him. They did not do this. They called a stretch play instead and Demarcus Ware was able to run Jacobs down before he got outside. I never understand why teams do this, but once again the Giants got burned by it.

3. Anyone who is calling for Coughlins' job right now is an idiot. The team is still in line for a playoff birth and they are still playing hard. If they don't make the playoffs then you can talk, but they are still very much in the hunt and the players have definitely not quit on him.

Lastly, there are two major positives to come out of this devistating loss. Number one is the play of the QB. I do not want to get ahead of myself, but he played a very good game. He spread the ball around and did not turn the ball over. I hope that the coaches concentrate on not overwhelming #10 and keeping him an a rhythm like last night. The second major positive is the injuries. Osi Umienyori, Brandon Short, Sam Madison and Moss all returned last night. If Michael Strahan and Cory Webster can return next week, then the team will be as healthy as it has been in over a month. It will definitely be an interesting last month of the season. Some may feel like its anti-clmimactic, but if the Giants play like they did yesterday, and just find away to reduce mental errors, they can still have an impact on the playoff picture.

Something is up with the formatting on the blog right now. Excuse me if there are dumb spelling errors. Right now there is no spell check function. In addition, the bulleting is not available, so I will do stuff about the rest of the league/sports/weekend later on.

STKAFI