Way too early to panic

[parlintm]

It's taken me a while to get over the loss on Sunday -- not the loss but how poorly we looked for the first 3 quarters.... again. I was in Seattle for the game and I've never heard a stadium that loud before. Playing the NFC champs in that type of atmosphere after our win on sunday is very difficult and I saw a letdown coming. Unfortunately -- we looked terrible. Reason for concern? Yes. Reason to panic and flush this season down the toilet?? I dont think so. Here's why:

 

Offensive struggles -- Our offense has been ok so far. Unfortunately we've been in a hole every game and haven't had the opportunity to run our gameplan. Granted, I think that we got away from the run too early but that's that. Our offense puts up points and should only get better this year. Eli has clearly improved. We have 2 very good running backs and a solid recieving corps. Our oline is good enough. This offense will be fine and will give us the chance to win every week. I think everyone would agree that our problems lie on the other side of the ball.

 

Defensive struggles:

1. Obviously they start with our inability to stop the pass -- this potentially has a lot to do w/ our lack of pass rush. Fortunately we get a bye when we need it most. While many of you were frustrated w/ Tim Lewis' press conferance, I actually thought that there was reason for hope. Most importantly, he took the blame for the struggles. He didnt blame the players for missing their assignments, which is what has happened. Instead he said that it was his scheme and he has done a poor job of teaching it thus far.

 

As I've said before, Tim Lewis has been in the league a long time and knows the game better than any of us (although I think many of you disagree with this). He knows that this defense hasn't performed and has promised changes. Im curious to see what these are -- but I think the reason everyone is frustrated is because we have the players and they just havent played anywhere near their potential -- so I dont think that its out of the question that the Giants D will come out of the bye week playing much better.

 

2. Pass rush -- There is NO way that our defensive ends continue their poor play all season long. While Strahan is older and Osi has a new contract, these guys are simply too talented to play the way they've been playing all year. Im not couting these guys out yet.

 

Defensive strengths -- I guess the only positive has been our ability to stop the run. If you told me that we would struggle immensely against the pass or rush but be good against the other -- I would choose to stop the run in a second.

 

One more comment on defense - Emmons is out. Im very confident that we're going to see Wilkenson as his replacement. Gerris will bring some much needed speed to our LB's. I saw a lot of him in college and he's a phenomenal athlete and a bruising tackler. I also think that once he's in there, he won't be coming out. I think he's going to impress a lot of people.

--

 

So far we've played the Colts, Eagles and Hawks. For a relatively new defense, of all the teams we play this season, these are the 3 toughest ones to start the season with. Our next stretch of games are against teams w/ much less potent offenses.

 

Redskins -- AT home. A perfect team to get some confidence back.

 

At atlanta -- As the saints showed -- all you gotta do is contain vick and dunn. While that's not easy, our defense should be able to do it. If you can do that -- vick cant throw for ######. An offense that plays right into our defensive strength.

 

At dallas -- Assuming our team can get back on track against the previous 2 offenses, this will be a good test.

 

The next four games, houston, chicago, jax, tennesse don't have any great passing games to speak of. So these 6 games give us plenty of time to improve the defense. Some have said that teams don't improve substantially over the course of the season -- those who said this couldnt be more wrong. All you have to do is look to last year for evidence of this.

 

The remaining games are the following: Dallas, carolina, phily, new orleans and washington. Once again, with the exception of phily, no great passing teams. And our 2 most important games (dallas and phily) we get to play in our house.

 

As I mentioned, the worst is over. The remaing teams on our schedule don't have the offensive force that the first 3 had. Our defense needs work. The players and coaches know this. It's week 3, not week 13... and IMO it's wayyyy too early to be throwing in the towel.

 

The rest of our games are very, very winnable -- even with a mediocre defense.

[so-cal dub]

Defensive struggles:

1. Obviously they start with our inability to stop the pass -- this potentially has a lot to do w/ our lack of pass rush. Fortunately we get a bye when we need it most. While many of you were frustrated w/ Tim Lewis' press conferance, I actually thought that there was reason for hope. Most importantly, he took the blame for the struggles. He didnt blame the players for missing their assignments, which is what has happened. Instead he said that it was his scheme and he has done a poor job of teaching it thus far.

 

As I've said before, Tim Lewis has been in the league a long time and knows the game better than any of us (although I think many of you disagree with this). He knows that this defense hasn't performed and has promised changes. Im curious to see what these are -- but I think the reason everyone is frustrated is because we have the players and they just havent played anywhere near their potential -- so I dont think that its out of the question that the Giants D will come out of the bye week playing much better.

 

2. Pass rush -- There is NO way that our defensive ends continue their poor play all season long. While Strahan is older and Osi has a new contract, these guys are simply too talented to play the way they've been playing all year. Im not couting these guys out yet.

 

Good read, but let me ask you this. If the defense does continue to perform poorly, win or lose. Dont you think it does have something to do with Lewis' game plan? And wouldnt you think he needs to be replaced?

[njsmalls]

If you want to be the best. Beat the best. We lost miserably to the best and stole a win from a good team. The Giants are not in the running for a Lombardi at least this year. Remember what team this is...you all should know our franchise by now. We're not turning anything around! They'll muck it up again next week and lose at home with some stupid bullshit happening. Santana will burn us again. Lavar may get a hit on Brunell but that's it. The Giants have been sloppy, weak and progressively have gotten worse each week. This is real life and real life is a freakin' tragedy. This isn't a feel good movie. This is the Giants.

 

The only thing we can be sure of is Eli...I mean we can't even be confident Tiki will give us 100yds rushing! What the fuck do you expect out of the Giants if our arguably best player can't do his job?!

[Nas]

I totally agree with Armstead98. We had a terrible game in Seattle and it maybe for the better. Teams tend to rebound with vengence after a game like that. I was far more upset after our win against philly... I don't know. I didn't think we'd come back and when we did, I was deflated. The seattle game featured a pass-happy Giants.. early.. which is out of character. We all learned something there.

 

Come back and spank the skins then move to Atlanta and sack Vick. That's it.. I'm not going to look further... for now

[GiantsFanInFL]

see we have flashed our capability in all these games but have yet to put a solid game together. our O seems to abandon the run way too early and (beating a dead horse) we should use the hurry up just a bit more and not wait until the end of the game when we are too far behind to use it. Eli and the team has shown that we can run it very very well. And when it comes to the D, Im still waiting for them to show up to a game period.

[UK-Giantsfan]

an excellent post ...... i agree entirely ......things will look OK when we are 2-2 ( and 2-0 in the East )

[NeMesiS]

Excellent post Armstead...I guess will see what this team is made off against the Redskins.