Doing a re-watch of the Redskins game

[Allstarjim]

1. That was a terrific throw by Eli to Nicks... better than I initially thought. The great thing about it was Eli sliding up in the pocket, and in a somewhat awkward body position, threw an absolute strike to Nicks downfield. I want to see more of that pocket mobility out of Eli.

 

2. The criticism of Fewell is valid. So I'm only through the first 10 minutes of the first quarter. The first two Washington possessions, Fewell blitzed on every pass attempt. Some of those were probably run blitzes, too, and Grossman was 0-4 passing in those first two possessions. Grossman did miss Gaffney on a long ball with a heavy blitz in his face. Had he completed that pass, it was going to be a TD. Maybe this scared Fewell. Because the next series, 3rd and 4, a passing situation, Giants rush only 4, and Grossman completes to Moss. Grossman completes his next two pass attempts with only a four man rush, so he went 3-3 with no blitz, 0-4 with the blitz. So he leads them down inside the Giants 20, and after Giants stuff Hightower on 1st down, Giants rush 4 again on 2nd and 10 and Canty gets a sack. So this time, rushing 4 worked. On 3rd and 15, Fewell sent the house, and it resulted in another incompletion.

 

So to summarize, Grossman was 0-5 against the blitz, and was 3-3 with one sack not facing a blitz. The drive ended in a missed Gano FG. I will see if this continues.

 

3. At least early in the game, the offensive line looked really good. Beatty had trouble on one block but at least made the defender take a wide path to Eli, and really, Eli shouldn't had that ball out sooner. Play resulted in a incomplete, after Eli's arm was hit going forward. The play that Eli scored on the bootleg the offensive line just dominated the LOS, it was very impressive.

 

4. Jacquian Williams in on passing downs, looks pretty fast, and Greg Jones in on 1st and 2nd downs.

 

5. JPP seems to dominate his blocker on every play.

 

More later

[JackStroud]

nice that you saw the bright side

 

but if the Giants learned anything it that they cant mail it in, and the intensity level has to rise, the rookies used, and Jacobs has to return to the #1 spot, at least for now

[Allstarjim]

OK... so on the subsequent Giants possession (late first quarter).

 

Nice move by Eli rolling out to the left due to an inside pass rush, and delivered a the ball to Ballard. It was a low pass, a little wobbly, but he made the throw on the run and it was a completion, and led Ballard perfectly on that one. That was the pass that Ballard caught near the sideline falling down.

 

Kerrigan looks like a real player for the Skins. Three different Giants blockers got a hand on him and he pressured Eli, which caused an intentional grounding. On the play however, Eli had Nicks in the middle of the field and didn't throw the ball. Nicks exploited the coverage and Eli ended up throwing to nobody. On another play, Eli couldn't find a receiver. On the replay, I see Cruz breaking to the outside on a curl route where the defensive player was. He has to read that DB and curl to the inside. Eli could not throw him the ball because of that. These are some little things that don't show up in the box score, and can be easily missed watching the game.

 

And again, this is the possession that Gilbride ran the ball up the middle with Jacobs on 2nd and 20 (following the penalty).

 

Subsequent Redskins drive - on first down, all the linebackers bit on the play action, and then backed off into coverage. Giants rushed only 4, and Linval got through the line and put a nasty hit on Grossman, but it came after Grossman delivered a ball for the first down, I believe to Fred Davis. Grossman now 4-4 when not being blitzed.

 

EDIT*** Ok, so after a Hightower run with a holding penalty, on 1st and 20 Giants rush only 4 AGAIN. Grossman delivered a nice ball to Armstrong who dropped it when he was hit by KP. Nice hit there, but if Armstrong hangs on, that's a first down again... when the Giants didn't blitz. So now Grossman 4-5 when Giants only rush 4.

 

But that's ok, because on the very next play (2nd and 20), Giants rush only 4 again, Grossman not pressured, and he completes a 23 yard pass to Fred Davis. BTW, Giants were in a zone on that play, Davis ran a seam route right pass Jacquian Williams who completely ignored him. Davis just ran free completely ignored until he caught the ball. I'm thinking Williams should've picked up coverage there.

 

2ND QTR -

 

Now 3rd and 5 same Wash possession, Fewell sends a blitz, Kiwi lays a nice hit on Grossman, and Gaffney drops the ball. But it looks like the blitz did affect the path, making the throw a little off and little more difficult to catch. Up to this point, I should add Kiwanuka is playing a hell of a game. He's everywhere and setting the edge, getting pressure, beating blockers, he really looks great both rushing from the DE spot and as a linebacker in run support.

 

4 and 5, Now this is just infuriating. :furious: 4th and 5, Skins go for it, and the Giants only send 3... not 4, but 3.... you've got 8 players in coverage all playing pass all the way... and Moss gets a ridiculously easy 7 yard completion right on the numbers from Grossman. Just a simple out route by Moss. Rolle had coverage, but all the DB's were playing back, behind the first down line about 2 yards. Moss just runs a little out route, and by the time the pass gets out, there is NO CHANCE for a defensive player to stop Moss from getting a first down. This is what Rodgers did to us last year in the blow out. You have a chance for a turnover on downs here, and you're essentially playing a Prevent Defense on 4th and 5. Honestly, that's what that defense looked like. I actually am starting to think Fewell had money on this game (that he put down on the Redskins). Forget the fact that they didn't blitz even though the blitz had resulted in a win for the defense every time it was employed, but the defenders are playing BACK?! Behind the first down marker? WTF is going on?

 

After a couple of running plays, Grossman finally gets a completion in the face of a blitz on 3rd and 2... This time the blitz was a little late, and Jacquian Williams had a gap that he was slow to shoot through. The ball is delivered to Armstrong with Rolle on the coverage, and Armstrong made a diving grab with outstretched hands to bail out Grossman.

 

The next play the Skins put it in for the TD on the Hightower run to the outside. On that play however, Canty almost blew it up in the backfield because he REALLY timed that snap, he dove over the center and grabbed Rex's foot, and Grossman actually handed that ball off to Hightower while falling. TE Logan Paulsen got away with a little hold on Boley, but to be honest I might not have called it, either, it wasn't over the top egregious. *EDIT*, after they showed the hold from another angle I'm changing my story, that was a bad hold on Paulsen and Boley absolutely would've at least taken away the edge and forced Hightower back inside to Jones, or Boley would've made the tackle himself. This is also the play that Jones got criticized on for taking a bad angle to the ball carrier. To me you can tell he was looking for Hightower to run it inside, when he should've started breaking to the outside just a second sooner, and he would've gotten there. But it was a well designed play for the Skins, and to be honest they should've never have gotten that ball down there to begin with if not for Fewell's soft coverage. I think I'm at something like 1 for 6 in terms of Grossman's success rate against the blitz, and he's 6-7 passing with a sack when the Giants only send 4 or less rushers.

[JackStroud]

just curious Jim but did you see significant halftime adjustments by the giants or was Fewell taking a nap?

 

I hate passive defense...........Id rather get creamed by a long pass than a death by a thousand knives

 

seems the Giants played very conservative D last week

[CrazedDogs]

Awesome thread, Allstarjim. I had planned to grab a torrent and do the same kind of breakdown, but haven't had time.

 

I'm very curious to see how many blitzes Fewell sent... I only remember maybe four or five, all of which were effective, but you're picked up on several more already... and it seems like those were mostly effective too.

[Allstarjim]

just curious Jim but did you see significant halftime adjustments by the giants or was Fewell taking a nap?

 

I hate passive defense...........Id rather get creamed by a long pass than a death by a thousand knives

 

seems the Giants played very conservative D last week

 

 

I'll tell you when I get there... I'm only in the 2nd quarter. I'm going to have to pick up the pace, though. As you can easily see, I'm just basically charting the success rate of Grossman when he faces a 4 man rush vs against a blitz. It's absolutely clear the Giants are easily disrupting Grossman when they blitz, and he's easily finding receivers even when the Giants drop 8 into coverage. If I can see this strong correlation, what is Fewell and TC thinking?

 

If you guys look... first two Wash possessions, 3 and out, defense is blitzing on every pass play. Next two possessions... Redskins are moving the ball all the way down the field into our red zone both times... the first drive only stopping because of A BLITZ, and the second one they score on. It's very bizarre that not only are they not blitzing with much greater frequency given it's success vs Grossman, but they aren't playing press coverage on the receivers and giving them free releases from the LOS.

[Allstarjim]

Awesome thread, Allstarjim. I had planned to grab a torrent and do the same kind of breakdown, but haven't had time.

 

I'm very curious to see how many blitzes Fewell sent... I only remember maybe four or five, all of which were effective, but you're picked up on several more already... and it seems like those were mostly effective too.

 

Thanks CD, please just call me Jim, though.

[Treehugger]

4 and 5, Now this is just infuriating. :furious: 4th and 5, Skins go for it, and the Giants only send 3... not 4, but 3.... you've got 8 players in coverage all playing pass all the way... and Moss gets a ridiculously easy 7 yard completion right on the numbers from Grossman. Just a simple out route by Moss. Rolle had coverage, but all the DB's were playing back, behind the first down line about 2 yards. Moss just runs a little out route, and by the time the pass gets out, there is NO CHANCE for a defensive player to stop Moss from getting a first down. This is what Rodgers did to us last year in the blow out. You have a chance for a turnover on downs here, and you're essentially playing a Prevent Defense on 4th and 5. Honestly, that's what that defense looked like. I actually am starting to think Fewell had money on this game (that he put down on the Redskins). Forget the fact that they didn't blitz even though the blitz had resulted in a win for the defense every time it was employed, but the defenders are playing BACK?! Behind the first down marker? WTF is going on?

I'm still mad about that play too. Why the hell wouldn't you have the DBs up to jam the receivers on 4th & 5? Just a complete brainfart from Fewell.

 

Great stuff BTW Jim. Do me a favour and keep an eye on Ross too; I feel like he's taken a lot of unwarranted criticism for his play though I can't recall any serious fuck-ups besides not getting his body turned around on the TD (not that it would have helped as Grossman put the ball to the other side).

[CrazedDogs]

I'm still mad about that play too. Why the hell wouldn't you have the DBs up to jam the receivers on 4th & 5? Just a complete brainfart from Fewell.

 

Great stuff BTW Jim. Do me a favour and keep an eye on Ross too; I feel like he's taken a lot of unwarranted criticism for his play though I can't recall any serious fuck-ups besides not getting his body turned around on the TD (not that it would have helped as Grossman put the ball to the other side).

 

I can't wait until the NFL gives us the option of the end zone camera angle... the sideline angle makes it damn near impossible to evaluate the defensive backs on TV.

[Allstarjim]

On to the first Giants possession of the second qtr, big miscommunication on the kickoff. Devin Thomas looked like either he was waiting for someone else to catch that ball at the 5 or he was planning to take it off the bounce and the ball actually bounced away from him sideways... he's got to be more aggressive in running up to catch that ball...

 

After a first down by Hakeem Nicks on a WR screen, Manning gets a beautiful pocket, and this is the first big miscommunication of the game between Manning and a receiver. Eli throws a deep ball to the sideline, and Manningham runs a post. It's hard to see who misread the play, there, but the safety did seem to be running to the outside when the ball got out there, and the CB (Hall, I believe), was on the outside and over the top of Manningham, so I'm guessing here, that Mario made the right read there and if Eli waits a half second longer he can see Mario break inside, and there is a lot of room in that direction. This is a tough one to call because no replay of this play and you can't see how the route develops or what alignment the safety was in before the ball gets out there.

 

After a 2nd down run of 7 by Bradshaw (who, to this point, has ran hard through the holes being provided by the OL, who also have been doing a good job), it's 3rd and 3 and Manning diagnoses a pre-snap blitz... it looks like Washington is going to send 6 prior to the snap, and I'm going to spend a little time on the Washington defense because it really was a brilliant design. If you have this game on your DVR this play is right about at the 9:30 mark of the 2nd QTR.

 

The offense has a tight formation and Hixon is positioned on Eli's right side right by Pascoe. DeAngelo Hall is over Hixon in what appears to be press coverage. London Fletcher comes up in between the DE and NT showing blitz... and Eli points this out to his offensive line, you can see him point right at Fletcher. But Fletcher isn't going to blitz... Fletcher backs off taking away the underneath route. This is NOT what David Diehl was expecting. All of a sudden, you see Diehl looking for a guy to block. The Skins do blitz, but it's DeAngelo Hall that is the blitzer on the OUTSIDE. McKenzie takes his man, which I believe is Kerrigan. Diehl ends up doubling Cofield, I believe, who Baas is already successfully blocking. Beatty has Orakpo on the outside and blocks him effectively. Here's a play where everyone is doing their job, but because Eli told the OL to block Fletcher, and Fletcher didn't come, nobody was there to stop the blitzing Hall on the outside. Ahmad Bradshaw was in the backfield just to Eli's left pre-snap, and he runs forward, not seeing Hall coming... who he has to chip there... Ahmad instead just runs forward to look for a pass just pass the line of scrimmage, but by the time he's open Hall has already pressured Eli into throwing the ball away. You can't blame that on Diehl there, because he did need to account for Fletcher if he was blitzing... but because of the design of the defense, the Skins TOOK AWAY a blocker on the Giants OL essentially, and had 6 in coverage, and still got a free man to go unblocked to hit Eli. Now here's the second part of the play... the cover guys COME UP to play tight up on the receivers, and Eli had no one to throw to quickly, and he throws it away incomplete, and the Giants have to punt. That is a defensive play to get your offense back on the field. Not whatever the fuck Fewell was calling to this point in the game.

 

Simply beautiful. Bradshaw has to see the field with a QB's eyes, there, and he would've gotten over to chip Hall, and would've had a lot of room on the outside for a swing pass, too.

[Allstarjim]

Next Redskins' possession... 1st down, nice stuff of Hightower in the backfield for a loss of two. Jones shot up the middle and overran Hightower a bit, but it did force Hightower to stutter step, and that allowed Kiwi to clean him up.

 

On 2nd down, Giants rush 4, and Grossman completes a little over the middle pass to Hightower, who gains 5, and nobody was accounting for Hightower on the play, no one picks him up.

 

On 3rd down, Grossman throws a deep ball down the right sideline to Armstrong, who is blanketed by Corey Webster... Webby is all over him, and knocks the ball away... again the Giants only sent four, but this time Tollefson got a great bull rush on Grossman and maybe made him hurry the throw, he was closing in big time. 3 and out.

 

Giants get the ball back and on 1st down, Skiins send 1 blitzer from Eli's blindside, and this time Jacobs is in there and picks up the blitz, stoning S Reed Doughty. This allows Manning to complete the ball to Manningham for a big gain on an out route. The throw didn't have a lot of zip on that one, though, and Manningham had to wait on it. Eli needs to step into that throw. Ends up being a 24 yard completion.

 

On 2nd down, Eli throws the quick screen to Nicks again, this is the 2nd or 3rd time they've run the play so far, and so far it has worked every time, as Nicks picks up 6 yards. I did not hear "Rocket" before the snap.

 

Nice throws in this series from Eli, too. Stepping into them, got another nice gain on a completion to Manningham, and a beautiful 10 yard hitch to Nicks that he turned into about a 20 yard gain. Jacobs also has a few hard runs in this series moving the chains, and he has a nice 16 yard run in there to set up 1st and Goal at the six. Bradshaw runs the ball into the endzone for the TD on the next play... blocking was text book on that drive. Really superb by the OL all the way around, and Jacobs really was effective both as a runner and a blocker making that drive a success.

[JackStroud]

I just read Fewell intentionally went into a shell and played a soft Cover 2 per Rolle because we weak at corner.......weak at corner???????? We had the 2 starting corners from our last SB win both still young guys

 

Rolle yesterday opened his big mouth and said the Giants would beat the Skins 95 out of 100 games.......Idiot should have had his head in this one and been more aggressive.

 

If this is the case Fewell has to go with Coughlin and Eli.......inconsistency, and conservatism should be printed on the Giants Team Flag right now

 

THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE........other teams in the NFL PLAY TO WIN at all costs......most do not have the talent we do, but they do have the DESIRE and they DO take chances to get there

 

I'm disgusted.........we have played D like a bunch of pansies since Spags left

[CrazedDogs]

I just realized... was Orakpo's number called all game? Beatty...maybe he's not merely wishcast into the LT role... shutting down Orakpo is no joke.

[CrazedDogs]

Next Redskins' possession... 1st down, nice stuff of Hightower in the backfield for a loss of two. Jones shot up the middle and overran Hightower a bit, but it did force Hightower to stutter step, and that allowed Kiwi to clean him up.

 

On 2nd down, Giants rush 4, and Grossman completes a little over the middle pass to Hightower, who gains 5, and nobody was accounting for Hightower on the play, no one picks him up.

 

On 3rd down, Grossman throws a deep ball down the right sideline to Armstrong, who is blanketed by Corey Webster... Webby is all over him, and knocks the ball away... again the Giants only sent four, but this time Tollefson got a great bull rush on Grossman and maybe made him hurry the throw, he was closing in big time. 3 and out.

 

Giants get the ball back and on 1st down, Skiins send 1 blitzer from Eli's blindside, and this time Jacobs is in there and picks up the blitz, stoning S Reed Doughty. This allows Manning to complete the ball to Manningham for a big gain on an out route. The throw didn't have a lot of zip on that one, though, and Manningham had to wait on it. Eli needs to step into that throw. Ends up being a 24 yard completion.

 

On 2nd down, Eli throws the quick screen to Nicks again, this is the 2nd or 3rd time they've run the play so far, and so far it has worked every time, as Nicks picks up 6 yards. I did not hear "Rocket" before the snap.

 

Nice throws in this series from Eli, too. Stepping into them, got another nice gain on a completion to Manningham, and a beautiful 10 yard hitch to Nicks that he turned into about a 20 yard gain. Jacobs also has a few hard runs in this series moving the chains, and he has a nice 16 yard run in there to set up 1st and Goal at the six. Bradshaw runs the ball into the endzone for the TD on the next play... blocking was text book on that drive. Really superb by the OL all the way around, and Jacobs really was effective both as a runner and a blocker making that drive a success.

 

Tollefson pulled that out a few times on Sunday. Never got home, but came close, and would have been a factor if there had been... oh, I don't know.... maybe a fifth pass rusher.

[mikmak]

This guy has a pretty funny recap from a Redskins perspective.

 

 

Kind of corny but I like the "Honey Reed Doughty happened"

 

[mikmak]

I just realized... was Orakpo's number called all game? Beatty...maybe he's not merely wishcast into the LT role... shutting down Orakpo is no joke.

 

 

He hurt is ankle early on in the game. Played the whole game but was out on quite a few plays.

[Allstarjim]

Now about 2:48 2nd QTR, Redskins ball:

 

1st and 10 after Tynes (holy shit) kicked the ball through the back of the endzone.

 

Giants blitz, a basic blitz as Kiwi was the extra rusher. Moss runs a quick out for a gain of 10 and a first down. Ross was in coverage and again, no press coverage, and Ross was definitely covering the deep ball and looked like he was taking away the inside for Moss. Instead Moss ran to the outside, and it was a pretty easy completion.

 

Next play, same exact defense except Kiwi is blitzing from the opposite side. This time it's Cooley... Jones was on the "coverage". He's played pretty damn well to this point but this time he got caught trying to read the QB's eyes too much, and missed Cooley running across into his zone. He have Cooley a big space to work with and Cooley easily got the first down, as Jones recovered to run him out of bounds. Grossman going to quick passes here against the soft zone coverage to negate the pass rush. 2-2 against the 5 man rush this series so far.

 

Next play, Giants only rush 4. Again, a nice effective bull rush by Tollefson and he ALMOST gets home, throwing his hand up just missing stopping this pass by Grossman... but it's a long pass to Gaffney on the ouside, Ross in coverage. On this play, Ross picks Gaffney up and Gaffney absolutely torches him. He beats Ross by 5 yards, and Grant was a bit late coming over to break it up. No excuses for Ross... he bit on a little fake to the outside by Gaffney, and Ross totally moves his hips toward the LOS, and then Gaffney was by him easily. It wasn't even much of a shimmy, Ross has to read the receiver much better than that.

 

Next play, another 1st down of course, Giants only rushing 4 again, of course, and Grossman throws a screen to Hightower. Boley sees the pulling Guard and diagnoses it quickly but it's to the opposite side of the field that Boley is on, and a referee gets in his way, slowing him down. Jacquian Williams was slow to diagnose the play and started to move back to cover the TE, who cut block Williams legs out from underneath him once Hightower caught the ball. Ends up being a 9 yard gain setting up the tying score.

 

This is the play I think you're talking about Tree. Again Giants only rush 4, but doesn't matter because this is a fade route and the ball is out very quickly, to Anthony Armstrong for the TD. Ross had tight coverage, but it really was a perfect fade. Ross gets his head around but looks over his left shoulder, when the ball was coming over his right shoulder, as you said. The only thing Ross could've done better there is read Armstrong's eyes to see where the ball was coming from and just put his hands up... but really a perfect throw and it's very difficult to defend the perfect pass.

 

This takes us essentially to half time as the Giants just sit on the damn ball with 37 seconds and all of their timeouts... just a draw to Bradshaw.

 

 

So guys, I'm going to give you the breakdown of the second half later... can't really do it now. Hope you enjoyed the breakdown of the first half.

[Allstarjim]

I just realized... was Orakpo's number called all game? Beatty...maybe he's not merely wishcast into the LT role... shutting down Orakpo is no joke.

 

He was a non-factor in the first half, CD.

 

Tollefson pulled that out a few times on Sunday. Never got home, but came close, and would have been a factor if there had been... oh, I don't know.... maybe a fifth pass rusher.

 

He did get one sack. I think that one came in the 2nd half. One thing I keep seeing and it's always mentioned but I'll say it again, the Giants are so slow to get to the LOS and run a play. I really hate it. I think they would get in a better rhythm if they would go quicker at least early in the game. Plus it just limits the number of chances you're going to get to have the ball and get points. If you believe your offense is better than the opponent, no reason not to speed up the game... if you think the opponent has the superior offense, it makes more sense to be methodical and try to slow the game down... a la the 2007 Super Bowl... but it seems like it doesn't matter for Gilbride, he's just slow all the time.

[Allstarjim]

This guy has a pretty funny recap from a Redskins perspective.

 

 

Kind of corny but I like the "Honey Reed Doughty happened"

 

 

 

Haha that guy is awesome.

[Treehugger]

I can't wait until the NFL gives us the option of the end zone camera angle... the sideline angle makes it damn near impossible to evaluate the defensive backs on TV.

I would LOVE the option to watch the games on "coaches tape" ie. the whole field.

[Treehugger]

Tollefson pulled that out a few times on Sunday. Never got home, but came close, and would have been a factor if there had been... oh, I don't know.... maybe a fifth pass rusher.

He had a sack.

[BIGBLUE01]

He had a sack.

 

Whew.....Im not the only one that missed it.

 

I watch Giant games meticulously, and I cant remember seeing Dave w/ a sack. But then again, I hit the booze extra hard extra early that day.

[JackStroud]

Tollefson is one of our better players.......very dependable.......chases people down, puts pressure on QB if not an all out sack.......he happens to share the field with 3 of the best of all DE's ever

 

I'd like to see Tollefson at MLBer....hes very fast and a sure tackler

[CrazedDogs]

He hurt is ankle early on in the game. Played the whole game but was out on quite a few plays.

 

Well thank you, Mr. Ants-at-a-Picnic

 

But nah, that explains it. Wondered where he went, I was worried about that match up.

[CrazedDogs]

He had a sack.

 

oops... I forgot.

 

Tollefson doesn't suck, I'm surprised he hasn't gotten more of a chance to start somewhere else.