Tuesday, December 22, 2009

So what happened last night

I'm serious. I was at FedEx and my upper deck seats are not conducive to picking up the nuance of a game.

It seemed like every time a Giant got the ball in his hands there were already blockers arrayed against all of the Redskins linebackers and DBs. And the reverse - we seemed incapable of getting blockers to the second level and every ballcarrier was immediately under threat.

The protection problems were obvious, and nothing new.

That's doesn't seem like enough to explain the total domination that seemed to occur.

So until I can get the TiVo going (hopefully tonight) I'd appreciate if you can use the comments section to try and explain just what I witnessed. I look forward (sort of) to your take.

7 comments:

  1. I'm not even sure where to start?!

    Offense: The line couldn't do anything which left Campbell with no time and meant that Ganther often had to break as he received the ball on run plays.

    Special Teams: I think Devin Thomas is still a little cocky after having a good game two weeks ago and tried to return every kick at any costs, often running sideways or in the wring direction in an effort to do so... just bad! I don't even want to talk about the "FG fake" before halftime. Wow!

    Defense: Got almost no pressure on Eli all night. The Giants ran A LOT of screens and draws to keep the D off balance and it worked better than they could have ever hoped. The secondary played bend but don't break coverage and offered 10 yard cushions to WRs on 3rd and short.

    That's about all I have for you. I was seeing red after the first quarter and probably blocked out part of the game from memory. ;)

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  2. Thanks C-Money. It did look to me like Thomas was trying to get too cute with things. I noticed in the second half that Rock was back to returning some kicks.

    Was the pressure from blitzes or just line on line?

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  3. I say this without any anti-Zorn agenda... We wuz outcoached during the 1st half like nothing I've ever seen, on both sides of the ball.

    The defense blitzed right into screens. Clearly the 'Skins have established some patterns about when they press and when they don't. If the 'Skins didn't blitz, Eli had all the time in the world. But whenever they blitzed, Giants had a screen or draw play. Lots of screens and draws on 3rd down, so apparently the 'Skins have gotten predictable about blitzing on 3rd downs.

    The offense was all about the o-line, Campbell never had any time at all and Ganther didn't see many holes. But there were some holes, the players just bounced out of them hoping for more and failing. The blitzes from the Giants came often, and the 'Skins called hardly any screens against them, certainly no draw plays that I saw, they were trying to beat blitzes with quick slants but that's not as effective. A failure of the o-line, but we knew that was inevitable, so I blame the coaching and playcalling for not accomodating the facts on the ground.

    I think the coaches have done a good job over the past few weeks, but they got outsmarted this time, and then the weaknesses of this injured and thinly talented (at least on the o-line) squad really showed. Especially once the 'Skins were down by two scores early, it spiraled downhill quickly.

    I couldn't bear to watch the second half, so I have no idea if it got any better.

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  4. Oh, and that 2nd attempt at the trick play before halftime was just silly. Just silly. The first time, maybe. But to trot out the very same play after the Giants called time out? Ludicrously dumb.

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  5. The Giants D was all about the stunt and our O-Line never picked it up. Correct me if I'm wrong (seriously) but isn't it a lineman's job to block inside-out? You block the tackles and ends first, and if they're covered, then you handle LBs and so on. At least, that's what I always thought. I don't know how many times I watched an end stunt around to the middle and a guy like Levi was standing there holding the tackle, watching the end fly in untouched.

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  6. Ganther oley'd a few key blocks as well.

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  7. Thanks guys. Frankly, I've felt since '05 that Bugel may be overrated. Remember it was only a couple years ago we had 5 linemen who were considered very skilled, but usually had protection problems anyway. And it was usually as a result of not picking up blitzes, stunts, etc, rather than just getting physically beaten. I don't have the knowledge require to analyze the details of a lineman's technique, but I assume those problems were the result of poor coaching. Like Gibbs, I suspect that Bugel has never been able to adjust to the intricacies of modern defenses.

    And yeah, Ganther has been just godawful in pass protection. Although from what I've noticed its come from missing pickups entirely - when he actually executes his assignemnt he's made solid enough blocks, I think, in previous games. But now I figure I'll see some blown blocks from him tonight.

    Starting the 1Q review right now, so should be up later tonight. I initially forgot to set my TiVo so I have to do 1Q off NFL Rewind, so it will be slow going.

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