On paper, the Giants have the edge in this game. Although the Saints offense is one of the best this year, the Giants defense is held to a high standard.
So much for standards.
The NY Giants lost to the New Orleans Saints today, 48 to 27. In all honesty, this game was over long before the whistle blew at the end of the 4th quarter. The Giants had a tough time moving the ball early against the Saints, which is forgivable. Unfortunately, while the Giants were stuttering on offense, the Saints, led by early MVP candidate Drew Brees, dissected the Giants defense piece by piece, move the ball unabated to take an early 14-3 lead over the Giants through the first quarter. Personally, the game was over after the Giants first drive.
The Saints had no problem moving the ball down the field early and often, while the Giants struggled, and that set the tone for the game. As a Giants fan, the tone was extremely negative. The Giants heralded defense had no response to Drew Brees passing the ball. The Giants secondary was borderline pathetic, allowing Saints receivers to catch the ball and then make poor attempts at tackling. Even before the Giants secondary had an opportunity to fuck things up, the Giants defensive line proved to be completely ineffective. They managed one sack all game, and it was from linebacker Chase Blackburn. Also, I did not see this sack live, so it may have been in junk time when the Saints put their B-crew in, I have no way of knowing.
So what is the verdict on the Giants being an elite team in the league? It remains in question. This was a game the Giants didn't need to win, but the performance they put forth can only bring more questions about where this team is actually headed.
Certain questions from last year have been answered, and were underscored today - the Giants aerial attack. No Plaxico - No Problem. Steve Smith and the Manningham-Nicks combo with a side of Hixon have proved to work successfully enough to open things up for the running game. No Derek Ward - Who Is Derek Ward? Ahmad Bradshaw is proving himself as a very viable option as #2 in the running back depth chart.
The problems for me are what I saw on defense today. It was terrible. The secondary is clearly built with "run-support defensive backs", so when a ball goes in the air they don't know what the hell to do. Those issues go hand-in-hand with the defensive lines ineffectiveness to get to Drew Brees. The Saints offense is arguably the most difficult offense to go up against - Peyton and Brees have constructed that offense to have interchangeable parts (they have 3 running backs who are effective to different degrees, and something like 9 wide receivers who get the ball each game...) but the Giants have no excuses to lose in such a fashion. Let's do it GMeN! You're better than that...
No comments:
Post a Comment