NY Giants coaches film analysis

We won the battle in the most important stat - win/loss. But, that's not to say there weren't a lot of things that need to improve.

This was a tale of two football teams - on the same team......

The defense looked like a championship caliber team that played together as a team and executed one of the best games I've seen in a while.
On the other hand, the offense failed to take advantage of 6 turnovers by the opposing team(5 picks and a failed 4th down conversion). The hard part in all of this is finding where the fault is. There was a marked difference in causation from the 1st half to the 2nd half - I'll dive into that in a little bit.

The extra noteworthy:
Chris Borland really, really impressed me this week. It wasn't just the INT's, it was his all around game. What I saw him lacking in the last couple weeks - mainly, his ability against guards in the run game, he excelled in this week. He was VIOLENT at the POA. There was one play in particular where the Giants ran a simple dive play up the middle at him. He diagnosed the play very quickly and filled the hole so hard that he knocked the guard back into the running back and the play got stuffed for no gain. The guy plays with a very high motor and has absolutely no hesitation in the way he plays. That's the part that's surprised me most of all. Most rookies or inexperienced guys will show a fair amount of hesitation in their play. They want to make sure they have read the play right and are in the right place; so they tend to react a little slower and are a little hesitant that what they're seeing is what they're seeing. Borland plays without any hesitation at all. When he sees it, he goes and gets it. I love the way he fills in the run game too, he did a great job of holding his own against guards and his technique is VERY good in taking on blockers. He keeps his hips and shoulders square at all times with his eyes on the target through the play so that he's always in position to either make the play or redirect to his help.

The passing game: To me, the passing game was very sub-par this game. There were definite plays to be made, but, for one reason or another we didn't execute. For all the talk and work that was put into the passing game this year, it was very disappointing to watch. In the end - this falls squarely on the shoulders of CK. In the last thread I gave a scouting report on CK for the past few years - from what I see. In that, I mentioned that CK is one of those "2 steps forward, 1 step back" kind of QB's in his development. This was a "1 step back" game. What frustrated me the most was our inability to execute plays and throws that we've done probably hundreds of times.

As usual, I will start out with the offense and work to the defense with positives and negatives.

Offense:
Positives - Frank Gore was big in this game. It's amazing how, even at his age(I say that with a slight frown because I'm only 1 year younger than Frank...)that Frank still produces the way he does. He still has the gear to run away from LB's. There were several plays where he simply outran some LB's to the edge. The Giants were rather susceptible to outside runs and it was surprising to me how well we did run the ball in the game considering that the Giants were stacking the box most of the game. I liked how the Crabtree TD was setup throughout the game. I'll show that a little later in how the play was setup with some successive routes.

I thought Marcus Martin played a pretty solid game. He's much improved over the past couple weeks and is settling in to a starting spot.

We did move the ball pretty well in the game, but, in the end, it isn't the team that moves the ball the best that wins, it's the team that puts up the most points.

Overall, there weren't a ton of positives.

Negatives: As I mentioned above, the passing game was particularly disappointing in the game. I expected a lot more. Anthony Davis has continued to show that he struggles with the speed rush. At this point, Roman has to do something more about it. I understand why he hasn't done more right now because the RB help that he's often giving are to our guards because they've struggled up to this point in pass pro, but, A. Davis has been a big weak link in pass pro as of late. This has been 2 years of the same struggle from the same guy.

Ck has to do a better job of leading by example in these games. He's only going to make the guys around him better and truly be that leader on offense if he can show that he can consistently play at a high level.

The great QB's aren't just great because of their own talent. They're great leaders and great leaders make those around them better. What I see right now, is an offense that doesn't have that kind of leadership from it's QB. To me, For this offense to progress and break through it's ceiling of mediocrity - it won't matter who the head coach is or who the O-Coord is, the QB has to raise his level of play and his leadership abilities to make those around him better.

Right now, we're an under-performing offense, if we had solid leadership, we'd be an overachieving offense, like our defense is. When we had our best years as an offense - in the glory days, our QB's were, above everything else, great leaders and seen as leaders by the team. They made others around them better. Look at the receivers that Peyton Manning has played with. When those guys are with Manning - they're pro bowl elite receivers. Without him, most of them struggle to maintain a starting job. Look at the O-line's Rodgers has played behind. None of those guys right now, or in the past several years, have been pro-bowl guys(with the exception of Jeff Saturday). Yet, Rodgers gets those guys to play at a high level and the offense to play at a high level.

To me, the biggest deficiency on offense has nothing to do with X's and O's, but our QB getting all of our guys to lead our guys to greatness. Unfortunately, that's not something that you simply fix in the short term or that you can diagram into a gameplan. But, that's not to say it's not possible for a guy to grow into that role.

think of Patrick Willis. When he came into the league he was a great player, but not always a great leader. He was very quiet and wasn't the guy to lead the way. Now, he's the unequivocal leader of our defense.

Defense:
Positives: There were a lot, so, I'll try and make it succinct.

I already talked about Chris Borland. So, I'll mention another rookie - Aaron Lynch. Lynch did play a great game, but, to temper expectations a little, the Giants' RT got manhandled by everyone on our defense. When we put Aldon Smith over on that side, he dominated the guy too. Same with McDonald against him. But, what I thought he did very well was maintain levels of rush with Aldon Smith. The pass rush looked a LOT like Denvers did against us. We had two guys coming from the outsides that made the pocket very uncomfortable for Eli. The pressure was most surely causing a lot of his bad decisions. What I saw from our defense was a lot of what I've been seeing, but with the addition of pressure. That's what I call, the "Aldon affect". With Aldon being in the game the Giants were always aware of where he was and often slide protection to his side or made sure they had a back to help out or made him set out wider with a TE or chipped with a TE or RB before they went out into their route. Overall, they did a lot of things to contain him in the rush. This left Lynch and RayMac alone 1-1 on the right side. Physically, Aldon and Lynch look very similar - kinda crazy. When they are both wearing sleeves and you can't see their numbers, it's hard to tell who's who. So, it's exciting to see what our pass rush can look like for a long time.

I thought Chris Culliver played his best game of the season last week. He'd been susceptible to a lot of comeback routes and curls but not this week. He locked down his side of the field pretty well. He allowed a couple catches, but, overall, played very, very well.

Antoine Bethea continues to play at a very high level. I'll be surprised if he doesn't make all-pro this year. He's been everywhere and seems to fit perfectly into Fangio's system.

I thought Dial did a pretty good job in at NT. There was only one play where I really remember him get pushed around a bit. He does provide a better pass rush up the middle from our base defense than Williams did. There was one play where his bull rush was brutal. He nearly drove the center into Manning - causing an in-completion.

The run defense was absolutely dominant. Save for a couple bigger runs, the Giants couldn't get anything past 3 yards going on the ground.

Negatives: Not many. I thought Tank Carradine looked a little overmatched when he got in the game. It was when he was in that the Giants were able to run the ball the most.

Per usual, breakdowns to follow.

"Right now, we're an under-performing offense, if we had solid leadership, we'd be an overachieving offense"

Kap still just hasn't gotten over that hump. Right now he has plateaued as a QB. I think he is to reliant on his athleticism. He does great things because he is physically gifted, much like a Randall Cunningham or early Steve Young. But until he really learns to play the position the offense is going to have issues.

Originally posted by sincalfaithful:
"Right now, we're an under-performing offense, if we had solid leadership, we'd be an overachieving offense"

Yikes, jonny.

No one to blame but yourself when this thread turns into another Kap Thread-esque sh!tstorm.

Originally posted by Jcool:
Kap still just hasn't gotten over that hump. Right now he has plateaued as a QB. I think he is to reliant on his athleticism. He does great things because he is physically gifted, much like a Randall Cunningham or early Steve Young. But until he really learns to play the position the offense is going to have issues.

Randall Cunningham and Steve Young didn't have their offensive coordinators leaving their best WRs on the sideline for the majority of the game

Originally posted by WRATHman44:

Originally posted by sincalfaithful:
"Right now, we're an under-performing offense, if we had solid leadership, we'd be an overachieving offense"

Yikes, jonny.

No one to blame but yourself when this thread turns into another Kap Thread-esque sh!tstorm.

I'm not saying that Kap has been outstanding but the problems with this offense are not that easy to fix

Roman still just hasn't gotten over that hump. Right now he has plateaued as a OC. I think he is to reliant on his first year. He does great things because he has Fangio, much like a Kevin Gilbride or early Jimmy Ray. But until he really learns to coach the position the offense is going to have issues.

Originally posted by Jcool:
Kap still just hasn't gotten over that hump. Right now he has plateaued as a QB. I think he is to reliant on his athleticism. He does great things because he is physically gifted, much like a Randall Cunningham or early Steve Young. But until he really learns to play the position the offense is going to have issues.

I'm going to wait for jonnydel's analysis, but usually he backs up his observations with a lot of good "philm" that I don't have. While I disagree with johnny that it's[b] leadership vs confidence[/b], I'd like to see what he means - because maybe he and I are really talking about the same thing.

Personally, I saw a lot of good execution between the 20's in the Giants game, but I don't have jonnydel's wider perspective, specially on A. Davis' pass protection woes. I agree with Jonnydel that pass protection has been and is currently a problem. But I don't know why, or who is causing the problems, whereas with johnny's resources, he can tell us where the breakdowns are happening (ie he's pointing A. Davis) If so, will putting Jonathan Martin there help in the pass protection?

Originally posted by WRATHman44:

Originally posted by sincalfaithful:
"Right now, we're an under-performing offense, if we had solid leadership, we'd be an overachieving offense"

Yikes, jonny.

No one to blame but yourself when this thread turns into another Kap Thread-esque sh!tstorm.

He probably already knows where it's going to go. The last analysis thread ended pretty much the same way too.

Couldn't agree more with this! I think Kap really needs to elevate his game & others around him with his leadership. There's been numerous times when we've had guys out of formation or false start penalties & other elite QBs get on their players, they demand excellence, they lead the offense/huddle, they come off the field & rally their team. Kap just seems to stand around like one of the other guys on the team. The big difference between the D and the offense is definitely leadership & it shows on the field.

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Ck has to do a better job of leading by example in these games. He's only going to make the guys around him better and truly be that leader on offense if he can show that he can consistently play at a high level.

The great QB's aren't just great because of their own talent. They're great leaders and great leaders make those around them better. What I see right now, is an offense that doesn't have that kind of leadership from it's QB. To me, For this offense to progress and break through it's ceiling of mediocrity - it won't matter who the head coach is or who the O-Coord is, the QB has to raise his level of play and his leadership abilities to make those around him better.

Right now, we're an under-performing offense, if we had solid leadership, we'd be an overachieving offense, like our defense is. When we had our best years as an offense - in the glory days, our QB's were, above everything else, great leaders and seen as leaders by the team. They made others around them better. Look at the receivers that Peyton Manning has played with. When those guys are with Manning - they're pro bowl elite receivers. Without him, most of them struggle to maintain a starting job. Look at the O-line's Rodgers has played behind. None of those guys right now, or in the past several years, have been pro-bowl guys(with the exception of Jeff Saturday). Yet, Rodgers gets those guys to play at a high level and the offense to play at a high level.

To me, the biggest deficiency on offense has nothing to do with X's and O's, but our QB getting all of our guys to lead our guys to greatness. Unfortunately, that's not something that you simply fix in the short term or that you can diagram into a gameplan. But, that's not to say it's not possible for a guy to grow into that role.

think of Patrick Willis. When he came into the league he was a great player, but not always a great leader. He was very quiet and wasn't the guy to lead the way. Now, he's the unequivocal leader of our defense.

Sorry but how can a QB elevate the play of his oline? Buy them Rolex watches, or give them cookies on the sidelines!?

Can someone give examples?

Originally posted by Jcool:
Kap still just hasn't gotten over that hump. Right now he has plateaued as a QB. I think he is to reliant on his athleticism. He does great things because he is physically gifted, much like a Randall Cunningham or early Steve Young. But until he really learns to play the position the offense is going to have issues.

Originally posted by Jcool:
Kap still just hasn't gotten over that hump. Right now he has plateaued as a QB. I think he is to reliant on his athleticism. He does great things because he is physically gifted, much like a Randall Cunningham or early Steve Young. But until he really learns to play the position the offense is going to have issues.

this is still year two of keep, I'm sure peyton manning was a monster and making everyone pro bowlers in year two

Good point, jonnydel, about Anthony Davis. At times, he looked so slow reacting to the speed rush, and he has done that for a long time. IIRC, he was the one who gave up the immediate pressure that caused the poor throw from Kap to Crab in last year's NFCCG that cost us that game. He may be a good run blocker, but he is terrible in pass pro.

On crucial passing downs, I think our coaches should always give A. Davis some help.

Originally posted by verb1der:
Sorry but how can a QB elevate the play of his oline? Buy them Rolex watches, or give them cookies on the sidelines!?

Can someone give examples?

Kap was supposed to go block for Vernon after handing off the ball to him duh

I mean most teams hand the ball off to their struggling TE instead of their Potential HOF Running back