Things to take away from the game...and viewpoints

[Storm]

1. I was impressed with Bradshaw's ability to make something out of nothing and manage not to lose yards on nearly every carry. He will get one or two big gainers per game based on pure ability.

 

2. David Wilson will not see the field if he can't hold onto the ball. And rightfully so. That was one of the most awful fumbles I've seen, he could not have been carrying that ball less securely.

 

3. Our secondary looks lost, right across the line. Michael Coe played by far the best and it was a shame to see him go down so early because I was really impressed. I have no idea what Rolle was trying to tackle on the 1st and 30 touchdown pass that was the backbreaker. It was like he expected the ball to go over an outstretched Austin's hands or something. Phillips had no impact. Corey Webster, our one healthy and some could argue one of the best in the league, got burnt constantly by Kevin Fucking Ogeltree.

 

4. Jason Pierre-Paul made impact play after impact play despite being held on every fucking play. He single-handedly caused the interception, driving his man into Tony Romo's grill. Then, he did the "get-off me, son" on that running play, stuffing the back for a loss, and I have to say, he plays on an absolute different level than every single one of our defenders. Justin Tuck had a horrible missed tackle in the back field that led to a big gain by Murray. I'm not sure if Osi made a single play. Our defensive tackles looked strong early on but you could tell that with pretty much no rotation at the position because we cut all of our tackles (granted, every one of them were journeymen or UDFAs), they broke down in a hurry. A general lack of conditioning was noticeable to me on both sides of the fucking line and I don't get it, what the fuck do you do in the offseason?

 

5. How do you not take advantage of all the penalties on Dallas? 1st and 30. Seriously.

 

6. You cannot win in the NFL if you do not take advantage of being placed on the 2 yard line. Those were the worst 3 offensive calls from inside the 5 that I've seen since, well, last year just about every time we got in the red zone. And to me, even the fact that Cruz was interfered with was questionable....the guy had contact on him but this is the red zone, into the end zone....they are going to let that go every time. How do you not look to Hakeem Nicks or Martellus Bennett in that situation, anyway? No offense to Cruz but he was off, and he is by no means a physical threat in the red zone.

 

7. Chase Blackburn will be replaced by Mark Herzlich, hopefully sooner rather than later.

 

8. Keith Rivers looks like he is going to be the steal of the offseason for us. The guy is FAST. That blitz was impressive, if only he could have stopped on a dime to chase Romo down and drive him into the turf, the fucking guy.

 

Anyway, what else you guys got? Besides the refs, because they were awful consistently. We were awful pretty inconsistently, and there were some bright spots. And I'm thinking we probably scored more touchdowns than that Jets will in 3 weeks, at least.

[Storm]

Further, I thought Fewell called a pretty shitty game. It was like he had a clue in the first half but dropped trou and grew a tale in the second half. Inexcusable lack of blitzing (and that's coming from ME, a pretty conservative guy on that front). The front four STOPPED GETTING PRESSURE. Send the extra guys, especially when you have to try to cover up injury depletion to your secondary. Romo was getting all day in the second half and it's not a mystery why they were able to start scoring on us.

[Allstarjim]

Good thread to sum up the game. I'm not too overly concerned, and I agree with a lot of what you said.

 

Here's my observations:

 

Justin Tryon and Victor Cruz are the two biggest goats of the game. Cruz had what, like 4 dropped balls? And honestly, I give him more blame than Tryon because Cruz is expected to be a star... Tryon is expected to be a 4th stringer that he is. Back to Cruz... this is a guy that spent the offseason basking in his own stardom, partying with Kate Upton, salsa-ing at the Grammy's, and generally soaking up whatever positive media came his way. And all that's fine if you are ready to play when it matters, and he just wasn't. He killed drives tonight... drives that should've resulted in points.

 

As for Tryon, he is terrible as a CB. I don't fault him. He gained a modicum of notoriety last year as a good special teamer and that's what makes him relevant... special teams. But as a defender, as a corner lining up against a WR... that is a mismatch every time for the other team. When Coe went down Romo exploited Tryon over and over. As I predicted to Osi earlier in camp/preseason... Coe can actually be a competent corner... Tryon is meat. We are CC Brown territory if Tryon continues to take snaps on defense. The Giants need to do whatever is necessary to bolster that position.

 

I disagree with Storm on one point... with David Wilson. Yes, ball security is a concern, and it was a concern with him coming out of college. But Sean Lee is a superb linebacker and he just made a play. He got his hand right on the nose of the football and a lot of good RB's in the NFL would've lost the ball in that situation. I thought Coughlin was overly harsh on a player that could be a big difference maker for us, because Wilson did not see another offensive play.

 

The Cowboys are a good team. It sucks to say that, but it's true. They could win the division, and it wouldn't be such a surprise. Brandon Carr looks like a tremendous free agent acquisition. Carr was phenomenal tonight. He was on Nicks a lot and Nicks was very limited. The Giants O-line also didn't do Eli any favors in terms of giving him any level of comfort in the pocket. Sean Lee was also all over the field. And DeMarcus Ware was at his best. The Cowboys' defense is better than we've seen them in a long time.

 

Eli made mistakes. He had an opportunity on the first drive and maybe nerves got the better of him in the first game. Later in the game he should've hit Hixon and missed, even though Bennett scored on the drive. Mostly, you can't criticize Eli too much. But, he did leave plays on the field.

 

Romo was fantastic at avoiding the pass rush. That hurt us because we weren't able to finish plays.

 

The Giants cannot play like this and expect to win a lot of games. They looked like they weren't really ready for the regular season and the Cowboys were. Maybe Will Beatty being healthy will help out on the O-line. I'm sure Prince will help at corner. The front seven was the best group on the field for NY, but even they missed plays on Romo and needed to finish. A lot of opportunities were wasted.

 

You cannot have a first and goal at the 2 and get 3 points. And yeah, we need the regular officials badly. They weren't the reason we lost, but they also didn't officiate this game very well.

 

Rivers was a steal. (Wanted to end on a positive note.)

[Storm]

Just to clarify, I didn't mean to imply that Wilson shouldn't see the field first quarter next game because he should be getting 10 touches a game....it's just that he really, really needs to hold onto the ball and have better vision to see a hit like that, to me, it seemed like he didn't see him coming. It was a great play by Lee, you are right, completely agree....but he ran into there pretty recklessly with the ball on his hip.....Also, he did not seem to respond well to the fumble, either. He looked to be crying, almost, and I'm not trying to bash the kid here, because I loved watching him in the return game and he moves a different speed than even Ahmad.

 

Another note. I wasn't impressed at all with anyone's blocking in the backfield either. Andre Brown is going to turn out to be a waste of a roster spot, IMO, because he's not going to get any touches in the running game and he doesn't appear to be a smart player on special teams or anywhere near explosive enough to return kicks or punts. But he definitely may be worth a look as a true third down back. DJ Ware could end up being a big, big loss on that front.

 

Thanks for the well thought out and intelligent reply, Jim. I tried to summarize what I saw and I'm not sure if anyone likes to read that much, especially when I tend to get wordy....

[Storm]

And if I keep hearing about how Rolle hates playing nickel corner and he feels out of position and blah blah blah I'm going to snap. If he thought he was playing safety better than he ever would play CB, he's out of his mind. He's equally middle of the road at both. He will make an amazing play on 4th and 1 one minute and the next make a completely head scratching error. The safety help was late all night. Too many big plays given up back there from the couple guys who are healthy. DLine not getting pressure in the second half and like you said, Jim, not finishing plays killed any chance of a comeback.

[CrazedDogs]

1. I was impressed with Bradshaw's ability to make something out of nothing and manage not to lose yards on nearly every carry. He will get one or two big gainers per game based on pure ability.

 

2. David Wilson will not see the field if he can't hold onto the ball. And rightfully so. That was one of the most awful fumbles I've seen, he could not have been carrying that ball less securely.

 

Bradshaw's vision was impressive last night, agreed on him, looks the best he's looked in a few years.

 

I had just been talking up Wilson, so of course he fumbles it. My fault guys. I didn't think his technique was too bad on that play though, its not like he's Ricky Watters out there, he just needs to learn that merely carrying it against your body isn't enough in the NFL; he has to actively protect the ball. I think he'll get it (I just hope he wasn't actually crying on the sidelines).

 

3. Our secondary looks lost, right across the line. Michael Coe played by far the best and it was a shame to see him go down so early because I was really impressed. I have no idea what Rolle was trying to tackle on the 1st and 30 touchdown pass that was the backbreaker. It was like he expected the ball to go over an outstretched Austin's hands or something. Phillips had no impact. Corey Webster, our one healthy and some could argue one of the best in the league, got burnt constantly by Kevin Fucking Ogeltree.

 

Yeah, I don't know what the fuck Rolle was thinking on that play. I don't know what Romo was thinking either, because Rolle had that play dead to rights - that should have been a bone jarring hit at worst, maybe even a pick 6 if Rolle sees it - but instead then he ran himself out of the play, and worse, took Tryon out of the play with him. But Coe came up big; this defense is in big trouble if he's out for an extended period. And I wouldn't say Phillips had no impact. At least he didn't fuck up, like the whole right side of the defensive backfield.

 

The long Ogletree double move over Webster reminds me of a play Amukamara got burned on in the preseason; a double move while the corner is looking at the QB. Hope we're not seeing a trend there...

 

4. Jason Pierre-Paul made impact play after impact play despite being held on every fucking play. He single-handedly caused the interception, driving his man into Tony Romo's grill. Then, he did the "get-off me, son" on that running play, stuffing the back for a loss, and I have to say, he plays on an absolute different level than every single one of our defenders. Justin Tuck had a horrible missed tackle in the back field that led to a big gain by Murray. I'm not sure if Osi made a single play. Our defensive tackles looked strong early on but you could tell that with pretty much no rotation at the position because we cut all of our tackles (granted, every one of them were journeymen or UDFAs), they broke down in a hurry. A general lack of conditioning was noticeable to me on both sides of the fucking line and I don't get it, what the fuck do you do in the offseason?

 

Regarding the holding calls, I wish the Giants had figured out what the Cowboys had: hold like a motherfucker, these "refs" aren't going to see it. They did start to call it late in the game though, albeit too little, too late to even up the play in the trenches. But I admit, that was good strategy by, I'm guessing, the Cowboys coaches.

 

Any idea why they went away from motioning Bennet to Ware's side of the field? Bennet chip + offensive tackle seemed to be enough, I thought it worked well, but then they went to other shit and turned Ware loose.

 

The book is out on Romo, the Giants really seemed to be attacking the A gaps, trying to come right up in Romo's face. I think the Cowboys read the book on Romo too, because they seemed to know it was coming. Their offensive line isn't talented, but they were in sync last night. Did a good job of passing off stunting ends (lots of twists inside by Osi and Tuck) and clogging the middle of the line. Gave Romo huge passing lanes. At some point the Giants should have tried bringing some guys from the edge, or at least more upfield moves by Osi and Tuck to keep the oline honest.

 

 

 

 

6. You cannot win in the NFL if you do not take advantage of being placed on the 2 yard line. Those were the worst 3 offensive calls from inside the 5 that I've seen since, well, last year just about every time we got in the red zone. And to me, even the fact that Cruz was interfered with was questionable....the guy had contact on him but this is the red zone, into the end zone....they are going to let that go every time. How do you not look to Hakeem Nicks or Martellus Bennett in that situation, anyway? No offense to Cruz but he was off, and he is by no means a physical threat in the red zone.

 

Ultimately, that was an inconsequential call... but I thought that was clearly defensive holding. But whatever, both teams played with the same refs. Cruz... I'm glad he had a bad game now. Maybe this will help him keep his head straight.

 

7. Chase Blackburn will be replaced by Mark Herzlich, hopefully sooner rather than later.

 

Agreed. The Cowboys were exploiting Blackburn. Murray made him look like he was running in mud, and he also lost a receiver while looking into the backfield, resulting in a TD.

 

8. Keith Rivers looks like he is going to be the steal of the offseason for us. The guy is FAST. That blitz was impressive, if only he could have stopped on a dime to chase Romo down and drive him into the turf, the fucking guy.

 

LOL... I have no idea why the Bengals let him go so cheap. He flashed more than a few times last night. Particularly, I remember a one armed tackle while engaged with a blocker...very badass.

[GorillaNJ]

Running game looked horrible last night. Any time they came out in any sort of power set with Hynoski or the TE's bunched in the offensive line got no push. The only runs that "succeeded" out of those sets where just Bradshaw making something out of nothing by falling between two blockers forward. Power running was a weakness last year too... The runs that had any sort of chance were coming out of a more spread formation...

 

I would have liked to have seen Wilson get a couple more touches in a single back formation.. but after the fumble you knew TC was sitting his ass down. Glad he stayed in on Kickoffs though...

 

Cruz I think ends up the biggest goat of the night though... just catching ONE of those it is a different game we are talking about. Can only hope that this game was a smack in the face reminding him he might be a celebrity all of a sudden but he is not Jerry Rice, but a player still only one year removed from the practice squad. He will regain his focus!

 

 

 

Eli needs to be given more control of this offense like his brother Peyton had in Indy.

[Sephiroth]

Season-opening loss to hated division rival where we look unprepared?

 

Down to sixth stringers at one position after the first game?

 

Ineffective sieve of an O-line?

 

300-yard passers and 100-yard rushers to a defense that's giving up the absurdly huge play?

 

 

This is 2011 all over again.... SUPER BOWL!

[gmenroc]

Lots of comments thus far and the offensive line has only been mentioned briefly? I think that our offensive line was by far, the worst part of our team last night. There was consistent pressure on Eli and we had absolutely no running game to speak of.

 

Cowboys defense is vastly improved and the Giants seemed to be going into this game thinking it was the same old, same old. This game should, better, serve as a wake up call that the Giants can't half ass games and expect to win.

 

Our secondary was every bit as piss poor as our offensive line, but injuries plagued them there. If Prince isn't up to speed for next week, we're fucked.

 

The refs...I didn't see near as much the issue that others are. If there's a holding call here or there that doesn't get called, that's not necessarily going to win or lose games so long as they get the blatent ones. The missed defensive hold on Cruz in the endzone was definitely a hold and needed to be called. But all in all, I think the refs did better than they're being given credit for.

 

Our WRs couldn't get open...though the back shoulder pass to Nicks was pretty. Not sure why we didn't see more of that.

[fishgutmartyr]

Couldn't agree more with Jim--this team didn't seem ready for the regular season yet. It's a shame, too--Dallas really wanted this game, and if we won, I think they would have went into a tail spin for a couple of games.

 

Nice to see the 3 in the 4-3 show up. It's been a while.

 

I don't think the DTs did too badly--both Bernard and Joseph had sacks. It just seems the whole D wore down in the second half.

 

I can't believe how badly Ogletree owned us last night.

[Treehugger]

I think I'm most pissed that Dallas has a legit secondary now. Carr and Claibourne played their asses off.

[Lughead]

Three things to fix

 

OL , both run blocking and pass blocking

Secondary

DT rotation Bennard was out of gas, we had no push half way through the 2nd quarter ..... I am assuming Kuhn was on the not active list

 

 

One to expand on:

 

Bennett in the seam.

this would help the WR's also.

 

 

 

Back to Kuhn, Please tell me the rational in having 53 players on the roster but you can only dress 46?

[Lughead]

I think I'm most pissed that Dallas has a legit secondary now. Carr and Claibourne played their asses off.

I saw some cheap play by them that went unnoticed by the refs

[gmenroc]

I think I'm most pissed that Dallas has a legit secondary now. Carr and Claibourne played their asses off.

 

Dallas' linebackers aren't anything to scoff at either. Ratliff didn't play for them either. So yeah, Dallas defense looks to be pretty decent. I think what pisses me off the most is that the Giants walked into this game expecting the Dallas of last year and not really giving any attention to the moves Dallas made in the offseason. It's like they completely discredited everything Dallas did to better THEMselves as unimpressive and worthless.

 

Cowboys definitely won the game. We didn't lose it, though we did have some mistakes, and the refs didn't give it to the Cowboys.

[Outlaw]

Simple put...this team was not ready to play. When the Giants came out for their first possesion in first half, I told the wife that we are going three and out. They just looked uninspired, like this was preseason.

 

Other than that, I will say that this game was about our lack of a solid OL and our DL getting no Pressure on Romo. Sorry, but Eli was pressured a great deal more last night than Romo was. Romo seemed to have all day at times. And with our secondary looking so bad, he had huge gains by receivers.

 

This is not a surprise to be honest. It was something more than a few wrung their hands over in the preseason.

 

If they can get the OL to open a few holes and to give Eli time where needed, they will be fine. Yeah, I know, Captain Obvious. After that, the DL has to start getting more pressure. We lost this game in the trenches. Period!

[Treehugger]

I saw some cheap play by them that went unnoticed by the refs

 

Oh there was a lot of mugging going on out there and it got worse when they realised the Refs weren't gonna call it.

[Treehugger]

Dallas' linebackers aren't anything to scoff at either. Ratliff didn't play for them either. So yeah, Dallas defense looks to be pretty decent. I think what pisses me off the most is that the Giants walked into this game expecting the Dallas of last year and not really giving any attention to the moves Dallas made in the offseason. It's like they completely discredited everything Dallas did to better THEMselves as unimpressive and worthless.

 

Cowboys definitely won the game. We didn't lose it, though we did have some mistakes, and the refs didn't give it to the Cowboys.

 

They gave up what, 200 yards in penalties? We stank not to capitalise on the opportunities we had.

[BleedinBlue]

I could have predicted last night's outcome and didn't get all upset at the loss. The Giants are coming off a superbowl victory and the Cowboys have been humiliated by the Giants in a past few seasons and are starved for revenge. The cowboys were going to give it 100% and then some and have been getting up for this game for weeks. Management went out and got players specifically to match up with our passing game. Meanwhile, one of the hardest things to do in the NFL is comeback from a Superbowl after spending months basking in the limelight and being called heroes. The Giants just didn't seem as hungry as the Cowboys. A few played their asses off of course (JPP, Rivers, Bennet, etc.), but the whole team didn't appear as hungry as they did at the end of last season.

 

Felt bad for Wilson. Welcome to the NFL. He'll be okay, but he found out the difference between ACC ball, and the NFL and he'll adjust and get there.

 

Was really happy for Hixon.

 

And yeah, Rivers looks like a steal. Cincinnatti gave him up for a lousy 5th rd draft pick (basically nothing) and even ate the balance of his contract because of issues between him and the front office. When he got injured, he didn't get surgery right away and wanted to be put on the PUP and apparantly the Bengals refused accomodate him (because it had something to do with getting paid) and Rivers filed an injury grievance against the team. The front office wanted to get rid of him (cheap bastards) which turned out to be a blessing for us. http://www.nfl.com/n...against-bengals

 

Cruz needs to snap out of it and realize yesterday's heroics mean nothing in the present. The party's over - get back to work salsa boy!

[gmenroc]

They gave up what, 200 yards in penalties? We stank not to capitalise on the opportunities we had.

 

I am of the opinion that due to the play of their front 7, and improved secondary...they kept us from doing what we wanted. We certainly didn't help matters by making our own mistakes...but I'm not above giving credit where it's due.

[CrazedDogs]

Oh there was a lot of mugging going on out there and it got worse when they realised the Refs weren't gonna call it.

 

No kidding. On the play where they finally called hands to the face, I counted three potential hands to the face penalties, two on the Cowboys, and one on I think it was Linval Joseph too. It was turning into a total melee down there in the trenches.

 

Such a sloppy game, by both teams really. As many mistakes as the Cowboys made, a dozen or more called penalties, and really obvious ones at that, I can't believe the Giants were unable to take advantage.

 

But it is week 1. I know its officially the regular season, but I don't feel like you can really judge an NFL team until their 2nd or 3rd game. Those first couple games are spent figuring things out... and the Giants are going to have to.

[Mr. P]

webster and cruz didn't play like starters.

 

the o-line sucked.

 

hixon looks like he could be good if hes healthy (hes always been good when healthy)

 

tuck and osi were invisible.

 

jpp was nice.

[Allstarjim]

I am assuming Kuhn was on the not active list

 

One to expand on:

 

Bennett in the seam.

this would help the WR's also.

 

Back to Kuhn, Please tell me the rational in having 53 players on the roster but you can only dress 46?

 

Kuhn was out there. I don't know if I saw him at any other point in the game, but he took snaps in the 4th quarter for sure. Bennett had a pretty good game but even he dropped a big pass that would've been a first down.

 

Just to clarify, I didn't mean to imply that Wilson shouldn't see the field first quarter next game because he should be getting 10 touches a game....it's just that he really, really needs to hold onto the ball and have better vision to see a hit like that, to me, it seemed like he didn't see him coming. It was a great play by Lee, you are right, completely agree....but he ran into there pretty recklessly with the ball on his hip.....Also, he did not seem to respond well to the fumble, either. He looked to be crying, almost, and I'm not trying to bash the kid here, because I loved watching him in the return game and he moves a different speed than even Ahmad.

 

Another note. I wasn't impressed at all with anyone's blocking in the backfield either.

 

On Wilson, I think he did take that fumble hard and he very might well have been crying. It did not look good. I'm also glad he stayed in there on returns to hopefully put that fumble in the past.

 

I'm surprised at your assessment of the backfield blocking. I thought Ahmad was terrific at picking up the blitz last night. We just didn't get guys open, and when they did, they dropped the ball.

 

The long Ogletree double move over Webster reminds me of a play Amukamara got burned on in the preseason; a double move while the corner is looking at the QB. Hope we're not seeing a trend there...

 

Agreed. The Cowboys were exploiting Blackburn. Murray made him look like he was running in mud, and he also lost a receiver while looking into the backfield, resulting in a TD.

 

A lot of great corners get burned on a double move. I actually think Romo's pump fake threw him, not Ogletree. You could see his eyes in the backfield. Doesn't look good on tape for the corner, but it's a tough play to defend, and even the best corners are going to get smoked sometimes, so I'm not worried about Webby.

 

I'm not sure what you guys are seeing about Blackburn, perhaps I missed mistakes made by him. I remember him making some nice plays last night, particularly in run defense. I know Murray had a big game, but a lot of his yards seemed to come from guys having him and not finishing the tackle (Kiwanuka, Tuck). Speaking of Tuck, don't know what's up with him but Doug Free shouldn't be making you disappear one on one. You're Justin Tuck.

 

However, I will say this about our DL... I'm not too upset with them. Especially when Tryon came into the game, a lot of times it was a 3-step drop and throw from Romo... there was no time to get to Romo because he was getting rid of the ball too fast. But he also did a great job of moving in and around the pocket. One of the best games I've seen Romo play... I think Collinsworth said that last night and even though I think he's a douche I agree with him there.

[RandolphScott]

In 1986 we lost to the Cowboys 31 to 28.

 

In 2007 we lost to the Cowboys 45 to 35.

 

In 2011 we lost to the Cowboys 24 to 17, in which the Giants played like pewp and were still a 3rd and 12 away from tying the game and you know they would have. Why? Because that is what Eli Manning does.

 

In other words. SAVE UP FOR NAWLINS, CUZ WE GOING TO THE SHIP

[RandolphScott]

And that was the worst game Corey Webster had in quite some time. He'll be allright though, Corey isn't the one I am worried about.

[Treehugger]

I am of the opinion that due to the play of their front 7, and improved secondary...they kept us from doing what we wanted. We certainly didn't help matters by making our own mistakes...but I'm not above giving credit where it's due.

 

I agree with you, but it's our D that should have capitalised on their offensive penalties.