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Well before I left, I was mentioning that I thought this was a huge statement type game because here we were at 11-1 and a chance to go into another good teams place and 1) Clinch the division and 2) Clinch a 1st rd bye. It was a chance for a young team to show everyone in primetime they really belonged at the top of the league and were a clear cut favorite to win the NFC.
They still may win the NFC, but there's no question that after the last two games the offense, particularly the QB play has to be concerning. If you had told me before the game we were going to hold the Giants to 260 yds, 10 pts, 12 first down and get 3 turnovers, I'd have bet everything I owned in Vegas over the weekend on the Cowboys winning huge. And yet they failed.
1) It's hard to be overly critical of Prescott because he had been so good the entire year, but his performance Sunday was dreadful and gave us almost no chance to win. He had decent protection most of the night and guys open too, and most of the time he didn't see them. He also looked incredibly confused at whatever he was looking at. He threw the ball poorly. I wonder if some of the inaccuracy was due to not wearing a glove on his throwing hand, because he was off on far more throws in this game than any other game this year. I dont know for sure but I dont think it was overly windy, just cold, heavy air.
2) I've seen many people crying about play calling and I will say what I typically say about it, other than one or two head-scratchers (that may have been audibles anyway) I dont think there's much to complain about. The guys just didn't execute. The pass protection was pretty good for the most part and I did see guys open on a number of those plays, but Prescott either didn't see them or many times threw inaccurately. They had some good success running in the 1st half but the Giants did a much better job in the 2nd half slowing Elliott down (9 carries for 21 yds and really only 1 good run the entire half)
3) The last 3 games, we rank dead last in the NFL in 3rd down conversions, and Sunday night was particularly awful. 1 of 15. The last two games in particular this is what is killing the offense and stopping drives. Another really eye opening bad number, they are just 2 of their last 24 3rd down conversions and NEITHER of those were converted with a pass. Most of the year we were excellent on 3rd downs, but the last two have really been bad. Tampa comes in Sunday night with the top pass defense in football over the last 5 games, so it will be a major test for our guys.
4) I'm as big a Dez Bryant supporter as there is, but that game Sunday (particularly the fumble on next to last drive) was just garbage. It wasn't even a good hit that dislodged the ball either. No question the two worst players on the field for us Sunday night were Prescott and Bryant, and we are going to struggle to beat anyone if they play that way again.
5) So Garrett came out and said Prescott was starting, but seemed to stop short of saying Prescott was the guy no matter what and the rest of the year. Then today Jones was asked if there was a scenario he could see where Romo would replace Prescott and he said "you'll know it when you see it". I didn't hear the context of the entire conversation, but Jones also said it was a "legitimate discussion" to be had about the poor QB play. My translation- if the offense is really bad again this week and we lose, Prescott might not be the starter vs Detroit in two weeks.
6) Lost in most of the grumbling over the bad offense was how well the defense played. Yes, the Giants missed a couple of plays but we also missed some plays. Every team misses some plays. The body of work was outstanding though. Only 10 pts allowed. Only 12 first downs allowed. Only 2.8 yds per rush allowed. 3 turnovers and a lot of good pressure on Manning. They had one bad play all night. Sean Lee put on a show on that side of the ball and the DL play was the best we've seen from this team this year. After how awful they were vs Washington the defense has definitely played better the last two games. if they can continue that trend and get the offense going again I think we'll be in good shape in the playoffs.
7) Like I said above, I dont think the blame is on playcalling as much as it was on bad play/execution, however I continue to wonder just what this staff/franchise's infatuation with Lance Dunbar is. I wouldn't even have this guy on the team, let alone give him any meaningful snaps. What is absolutely mind boggling though is not having your team's best player on the field in crunch time. With two different drives at the end of the game with the game on the line, there was Dunbar on the field in place of Elliott, and its beyond moronic. We did the Giants s favor by taking Elliott out. Dunbar is bad in blitz protection and he has absolutely zero explosiveness now. That kickoff return he tried he looked like the slowest player on the field, hell I could have run him down. Elliott gives you a chance at the 83 yd TD (ie, Pittsburgh game). Dunbar gives you ZERO-NONE-NO FUCKING CHANCE at those type plays, and we saw how important that type play is again Sunday night. NYG had zero offense all night, but won the game because they got their best, most explosive player the ball at a key time and he made a huge play. Elliott is that type of player. Leaving him off the field was fucking retarded. I really wish one of those idiot local guys would call out Garrett and Linehan about this in these press conferences, but they never do.
8) Lucky Whitehead should be cut. Just do it and be rid of him. He's been pretty much a zero as a return guy anyway and his ball security is terrible.
9) Not really sure why we are activating Darren McFadden, unless (hopefully) its to replace Dunbar. McFadden also has kickoff return experience so he could help there too.
10) Mentioned Lee above and his phenomenal game (18 tackles, 2 TFL's, couple of QB hits and a fumble recovery) but I thought it was by far Benson Mayowa's best game (6 tackles, sack/forced fumble, two TFL's) and Anthony Brown made a great play for a pick on Manning and continues his quality play. Barry Church stone heanded two tailor made INT's, but the 2nd one was really devastating because we'd have had the ball deep in their territory. He actually made good plays both times too, but couldn't come down with the ball. Justin Durant nearly had a pick (albeit it'd had been a really tough catch), and I think there might have been another one we almost had. It was by far the most chances we've had in a game this year, so that's a positive sign too.
11) The ball was carrying nowhere all night in that cold air, but Bailey's 55 yd FG nearly made it and he nailed it dead center. Nobody talks about FG's ever being great plays, but if he had made that one it would have been maybe the best kick of his career with the conditions considered. Obviously he'd have made that easily in ATT Stadium. He's a huge weapon for us in close games.
After what we've seen from Prescott the last two weeks, I now have a really uneasy feeling about the rest of the season and its a really delicate almost no-win situation for the coaching staff to be in. You dont want to ruin the kids confidence but at the same time, you are close to the win or go home mode now and bad games like we saw Sunday could kill is in January even if the rest of the team does its job (like Sunday). I do wonder how long the leash will be if they really struggle this week, but like I said above I take Jones' comments today to mean if its really bad again this week and we lose, that Romo might be back out there vs Detroit.
They still may win the NFC, but there's no question that after the last two games the offense, particularly the QB play has to be concerning. If you had told me before the game we were going to hold the Giants to 260 yds, 10 pts, 12 first down and get 3 turnovers, I'd have bet everything I owned in Vegas over the weekend on the Cowboys winning huge. And yet they failed.
1) It's hard to be overly critical of Prescott because he had been so good the entire year, but his performance Sunday was dreadful and gave us almost no chance to win. He had decent protection most of the night and guys open too, and most of the time he didn't see them. He also looked incredibly confused at whatever he was looking at. He threw the ball poorly. I wonder if some of the inaccuracy was due to not wearing a glove on his throwing hand, because he was off on far more throws in this game than any other game this year. I dont know for sure but I dont think it was overly windy, just cold, heavy air.
2) I've seen many people crying about play calling and I will say what I typically say about it, other than one or two head-scratchers (that may have been audibles anyway) I dont think there's much to complain about. The guys just didn't execute. The pass protection was pretty good for the most part and I did see guys open on a number of those plays, but Prescott either didn't see them or many times threw inaccurately. They had some good success running in the 1st half but the Giants did a much better job in the 2nd half slowing Elliott down (9 carries for 21 yds and really only 1 good run the entire half)
3) The last 3 games, we rank dead last in the NFL in 3rd down conversions, and Sunday night was particularly awful. 1 of 15. The last two games in particular this is what is killing the offense and stopping drives. Another really eye opening bad number, they are just 2 of their last 24 3rd down conversions and NEITHER of those were converted with a pass. Most of the year we were excellent on 3rd downs, but the last two have really been bad. Tampa comes in Sunday night with the top pass defense in football over the last 5 games, so it will be a major test for our guys.
4) I'm as big a Dez Bryant supporter as there is, but that game Sunday (particularly the fumble on next to last drive) was just garbage. It wasn't even a good hit that dislodged the ball either. No question the two worst players on the field for us Sunday night were Prescott and Bryant, and we are going to struggle to beat anyone if they play that way again.
5) So Garrett came out and said Prescott was starting, but seemed to stop short of saying Prescott was the guy no matter what and the rest of the year. Then today Jones was asked if there was a scenario he could see where Romo would replace Prescott and he said "you'll know it when you see it". I didn't hear the context of the entire conversation, but Jones also said it was a "legitimate discussion" to be had about the poor QB play. My translation- if the offense is really bad again this week and we lose, Prescott might not be the starter vs Detroit in two weeks.
6) Lost in most of the grumbling over the bad offense was how well the defense played. Yes, the Giants missed a couple of plays but we also missed some plays. Every team misses some plays. The body of work was outstanding though. Only 10 pts allowed. Only 12 first downs allowed. Only 2.8 yds per rush allowed. 3 turnovers and a lot of good pressure on Manning. They had one bad play all night. Sean Lee put on a show on that side of the ball and the DL play was the best we've seen from this team this year. After how awful they were vs Washington the defense has definitely played better the last two games. if they can continue that trend and get the offense going again I think we'll be in good shape in the playoffs.
7) Like I said above, I dont think the blame is on playcalling as much as it was on bad play/execution, however I continue to wonder just what this staff/franchise's infatuation with Lance Dunbar is. I wouldn't even have this guy on the team, let alone give him any meaningful snaps. What is absolutely mind boggling though is not having your team's best player on the field in crunch time. With two different drives at the end of the game with the game on the line, there was Dunbar on the field in place of Elliott, and its beyond moronic. We did the Giants s favor by taking Elliott out. Dunbar is bad in blitz protection and he has absolutely zero explosiveness now. That kickoff return he tried he looked like the slowest player on the field, hell I could have run him down. Elliott gives you a chance at the 83 yd TD (ie, Pittsburgh game). Dunbar gives you ZERO-NONE-NO FUCKING CHANCE at those type plays, and we saw how important that type play is again Sunday night. NYG had zero offense all night, but won the game because they got their best, most explosive player the ball at a key time and he made a huge play. Elliott is that type of player. Leaving him off the field was fucking retarded. I really wish one of those idiot local guys would call out Garrett and Linehan about this in these press conferences, but they never do.
8) Lucky Whitehead should be cut. Just do it and be rid of him. He's been pretty much a zero as a return guy anyway and his ball security is terrible.
9) Not really sure why we are activating Darren McFadden, unless (hopefully) its to replace Dunbar. McFadden also has kickoff return experience so he could help there too.
10) Mentioned Lee above and his phenomenal game (18 tackles, 2 TFL's, couple of QB hits and a fumble recovery) but I thought it was by far Benson Mayowa's best game (6 tackles, sack/forced fumble, two TFL's) and Anthony Brown made a great play for a pick on Manning and continues his quality play. Barry Church stone heanded two tailor made INT's, but the 2nd one was really devastating because we'd have had the ball deep in their territory. He actually made good plays both times too, but couldn't come down with the ball. Justin Durant nearly had a pick (albeit it'd had been a really tough catch), and I think there might have been another one we almost had. It was by far the most chances we've had in a game this year, so that's a positive sign too.
11) The ball was carrying nowhere all night in that cold air, but Bailey's 55 yd FG nearly made it and he nailed it dead center. Nobody talks about FG's ever being great plays, but if he had made that one it would have been maybe the best kick of his career with the conditions considered. Obviously he'd have made that easily in ATT Stadium. He's a huge weapon for us in close games.
After what we've seen from Prescott the last two weeks, I now have a really uneasy feeling about the rest of the season and its a really delicate almost no-win situation for the coaching staff to be in. You dont want to ruin the kids confidence but at the same time, you are close to the win or go home mode now and bad games like we saw Sunday could kill is in January even if the rest of the team does its job (like Sunday). I do wonder how long the leash will be if they really struggle this week, but like I said above I take Jones' comments today to mean if its really bad again this week and we lose, that Romo might be back out there vs Detroit.
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