Loading ...The defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants' season got off to a rough start. They would lose their season opener against the division rival Dallas Cowboys 24-17. The lack of depth at the corner back position, due to a rash of injuries, was apparent tonight as Tony Romo was able to find his targets fairly easily. The additions made to the Cowboys' secondary forced Manning to hold the ball longer than he wanted, which helped the Cowboys' defensive line get into the backfield before Eli could release the ball.
As was the concern in the preseason, the Giants had a very difficult time rushing the ball. The offensive line failed to open any gaps, making the game difficult for running back Ahmad Bradshaw. This week's key for the Giants will be to get healthy, especially in the secondary. This week will be a longer break than usual since the Giants don't play till next Sunday.
Positives
- Rocky Bernard – Bernard sacked Romo after a strong bull rush move against the offensive guard.
- Keith Rivers – Rivers had himself a solid game. He made several tackles where he met the running back in the gap for the stop.
- Michael Boley – Boley picked off a Romo pass and nearly returned it all the way but was stopped two yards short by a horse collar tackle.
- Jason Pierre-Paul – Although it may not show in the sack column, he consistently got pressure on Romo. The attention JPP demands really helps free up his teammates.
- Martellus Bennett – He had a tough assignment, helping block one of the premier pass rushers in DeMarcus Ware, and was able to hold him to one sack. Bennett also had several nice receptions including a key touchdown reception late in the fourth quarter.
- Steve Weatherford – Weatherford boomed several punts that helped in the field position battle, although the defense was unable to take advantage.
Negatives
- Secondary – The secondary was clearly the biggest issue for the Giants. The Giants have a tendency to allow no name players to have big nights against them and such was the case tonight. The Giants allowed Kevin Ogletree to put up over 100 yards and two touchdowns. The Giants really need Prince Amukamara to return to health. Terrell Thomas was sorely missed on the field as well.
- Rush Defense – The Defense was solid against the run in the first half, but in the second half DeMarco Murray was able to find the cutback lanes which led to large gains on the ground.
- Run blocking – the offensive line failed to open any gaps at all for Bradshaw leaving him with no room to run. It took till the fourth quarter for Bradshaw to get a significant gain on the ground, which came on a shotgun draw play.
- Pass blocking – The pass blocking was poor but the receivers also failed to get any separation from the Dallas corner backs.
- David Wilson – The rookie coughed up the ball in Cowboys’ territory that cost the team some points, and kept him from getting any more carries in the game.
- Victor Cruz – Cruz had probably the worst game of his career. He was found guilty of a couple penalties and dropped several passes that stalled drives. One particular drop happened late in the fourth quarter. The ball hit him square in the chest and fell through his hands which allowed more time to tick off the clock.
Mixed
- Referees – They missed an obvious defensive holding call on Victor Cruz in the end zone that forced the offense to settle for a field goal. However they didn’t embarrass themselves to the extent they did in the preseason.
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in the Negatives you forgot to mention Webster, Tuck, and Osi!
someone explain to me how Corey Webster and Justin Tryon are not mentioned in the Negatives
Going to a Super Bowl is usually a cue for the Giants to spend the next season wading in knee-deep sh!t. This is not a franchise that tolerates success for very long. It’s now time for them to sink down to 8-8, get Eli killed thanks to horrible line play (featuring Gregggg Easterbrook’s league MVP David Diehl, who gave up only 13 sacks last season!), try in vain to work Martellus Bennett into the offense (he’s not very good), and bring Tom Coughlin right to the very edge of not getting a contract extension. You people can’t fool me. I’ve got the pattern down now.
http://deadspin.com/5940567/why-your-team-sucks-2012-new-york-giants
I didn’t realize running the ball was a concern for us. I just assumed we had accepted that we can’t. I mean this is the same exact OL as it was last year.
The run game stunk but it stunk most of last season too.
To me this game came down to the Cowboys WR’s making plays against our DB’s and our WR’s not being able to make plays against the Cowboys DB’s.
The OL was poor in pass protection, most notably Demarcus Wares bi annual beat down of Diehl. But Eli certainly had enough time to make more plays then we did tonight, and I blame that on our WR’s inability to get open.
Romo and co. putting up points on us is nothing new. Our inability to score on them is somewhat troubling.
Chalk it up to rust. Hopefully Carr and Claiborne aren’t really as good as they played tonight.
Repost:
Look, I love to roll in the mud as much as the next guy, but let’s be clear–we were beaten by a team that exploited areas of current weakness: our offensive line, our interior defensive line and our secondary.
They’re no scrubs. Sure, we laugh when people speak highly of the Cowboys, but that’s an exceedingly talented team that has gotten younger and hungrier this offseason. They’ve got a physically brilliant running back who TORCHED us. They’ve got 2 WRs who are arguably as gifted and talented as our top 2 guys as well. Oh and they have Demarcus Ware, who is a stud that somehow gets less press than any of our 3 guys, all of whom are inferior to this guy.
So yeah, this one hurts. Because they were better than our weaknesses. We need to get better, because our divisional rivals sure as sh*t have!
And if you don’t think Philly is going to follow the same gameplan as the Cowboys in Week 4, you are simply retarded. I don’t care who we have out there–they will attack our OL relentlessly, they will beat our CBs like a drum, and they’ll have Lesean gashing us with counters and off-tackle runs all damn day.
People who sucked at one point or another this game:
Osi, Tuck, Kuhn, Boothe, Snee, Locklear, Diehl, Baas, Cruz, Cruz, Cruz, Cruz, Eli, Blackburn, Coe, Tryon, Webster, Rolle, Cruz, Nicks, Cruz, Gilbride, Fewell, Bernard, Linval, Cruz…
…you forgot Cruz
You forgot Justin Tryon.
Who actually deserves some kudos for his role in accomplishing something that many people believed to be impossible.
He made Tony Romo look like a clutch, big game QB.
It’s a rare talent that can pull off such a prodigious feat. Heckuva job there, Tryon.
Who was it that let Austin go on that go-route last year that Romo overthrew?
Ross.
Aaron Ross
Oh, and this not-using-3-safeties-because-we’re-so-deep-at-linebacker thing? Yeah, mother f*ck that.
Bring in Grant. And Kareem.
I rather have hill then grant lol
+1. The three safety look was so much more effective than what we witnessed tonight.
Mathias Kiwanuka: “Referees “are like tires, you don’t realize how important they are until something goes wrong…I respect the job the replacement refs are doing, it’s not easy to go out there, I know they have experience but to go out there with this short a notice and to try to pick up all the nuances of the NFL game a that speed has got to be difficult. We do miss the original referees.” #nyg 7 minutes ago
Hey, Kiwi. The refs weren’t the reason we lost, pal.
Oh and Coughlin, he of Hall of Fame credentials, benching the rookie RB after the fumble.
Way to inspire and “build the bridge” for that rookie, Tom. Can’t wait for that tactic to yield dividends.
The refs didn’t lose us the game. They weren’t all that bad. They were just normal-ref-bad. Which is to say they missed a lot of holding calls. A LOT of holding calls. But that’s the norm, sadly. Otherwise, they did a pretty good job. A couple missed calls here or there, but nothing worse than the regulars.