Sunday, November 1, 2009

Giants Go Down Hard

***

PHI 40
NYG 17

That's pretty much exactly what I predicted. Or not.

We tried to come out and play small ball, but the Giants wouldn't let us. They blew tackles and coverages and let us move up and down the field, almost with ease.

McNabb played great. He was confident in the pocket and made smart decisions. There were a few plays where I'd make a pre-snap read and Donovan would throw the ball right where I expected. He was aggressive, but not risky. He was accurate with his passes and gave his guys a chance to make things happen.

We moved the chains and executed on 3rd downs. We got RAC yards early in the game and that helped get us off to a good start.

Leonard Weaver finally got unveiled. He was being grossly underused, but it turned out that was somewhat by design. Andy wanted to use him in a time when we needed it. The time was today and Weaver delivered. Leonard Part 6 had 8 carries for 75 yards. His biggest play was a 41-yard TD on the opening drive. He ran downhill on the play and then showed really good open field speed.

Shady and DJax delivered huge plays that resulted in long TDs. Maclin and Celek caught TD passes. Jason Avant got back in the mix with 2 catches.

The coaching staff had a great gameplan and called a very good game. There were only a couple of gripes I had. I'll get to them in the DGR.

The defense gave up 360 or so yards, but played well. They came up with 2 INTs and never let Eli get really comfortable. He got hot for a short while, but mainly throwing short passes. We controlled Jacobs and the run game. The back seven did a brilliant job in coverage. The Giants scored 17 points, but 10 of them came on short fields.

The defense didn't have any one player who dominated. All of the guys played well and had a hand in slowing the Giants down. Trent Cole was all over the place, but backups Jason Babin and Antonio Dixon were the only 2 to get sacks. Sean Jones played well at FS. Quintin Mikell missed a couple of picks, but Quintin Demps got his first NFL INT. Sammie picked off a pass early and ran it back deep to set up a short TD. LBs Akeem Jordan and Will Witherspoon helped to control the middle of the field.

STs was a win for us, but a couple of bad plays kept it from being a big strength. The Giants blocked an extra point. It turned out to be meaningless, but normally missed extra points come back to haunt you later in the game. Can't have that kind of stuff. Jason Babin couldn't field a short kickoff and the G-men recovered. I give the Giants credit for executing the short kick well and then having great coverage. We had 2 long KORs that set up scoring drives. We also recovered a fumbled KO. We pinned them deep with a great punt/coverage. We got a long PR, although it was somewhat meaningless. Lots of good, but we have to eliminate the mistakes.

This was a big win. After the Raiders game I said that we needed to see what happened so we could understand that game. 2 weeks later, we can see that the loss was a bad day and that's it. The Eagles responded well and now are 5-2. We are 2-0 in the NFC East. Last year we started 0-3 in the division before finishing 2-4 overall.

Dallas will be a big test next Sunday, but the team did a great job this week and showed how good they can be.
_

21 comments:

Dollar Brand said...

Fun game to watch. Dixon seemed to get an awful lot of playing time and is still very raw but what a brute. Loved the catch by Maclin and the turn on third and long by Avant.

There was a real nice blitz pick-up by maybe McCoy? where he took out a Giant flying right up the middle and Donovan completed the pass. Not used to seeing that out of someone not named Westbrook.

I guess Leonard Part 6 is better than Ghost Dad . . . marginally.

Cliff said...

Kudos to the offensive line for giving McNabb an hour and a half to throw that long pass to Jackson. Well done.

I saw Witherspoon playing the ball instead of Boss in the 2nd half. He had good position to potentially make a big hit and break up the pass. Instead, he jumped too early trying for the pick. Oh well. Those stupid playmakers are always over-eager to get turnovers.

channa02 said...

Best offensive game all year. Great execution against a supposedly great D. I'm really hopeful that this is game is a mutual boost of confidence between McNabb and all his weapons that launches them to new heights. Looks like the OL is finally coming together as well. This group could be seriously special. Time will tell. Should be fun to watch.

Baloophi said...

Maclin's TD reminds me of Colston's in the N.O. game when Hanson had him covered. If McNabb has faith he can flip it in there and let Maclin make a play that will help down the road.

Prem Prakash said...

Well done, Winston Justice.

Unknown said...

I thought Clemmons had a sack,maybe it was Babin. I thought it was a great game. Good to see them using Weaver like they did. He's got some speed for such a big back.

Unknown said...

Awesome game, I could probably spend a half hour describing how much I liked the playcalling. Actually running Weaver more than once during the game? Freaking sweet. A called run on 3rd and short? Thumbs up. Continuing to call running plays despite only gaining 3 or 4 yards but putting us in favorable 3rd down situations? Check plus.

If you stick to the basic move the chains offense, the big plays will happen on their own, you don't need to draw up every play to be a home run.

I thought Weaver was going to get caught on his early TD run but then he put on the afterburners and actually pulled away from the Giants secondary! That was crazy speed for a big man.

Random thoughts from around the league today:

The sooner Brett Favre actually retires the better off this planet will be. I am so tired of hearing the endless and incessant analysis of what he is/was thinking/doing. I don't think the Vickings Packers game went a full 5 minute stretch at any point without some reference to Favre.

How does Peyton Manning throw for 347 yards but no TD's? Kind of a weird statistical anomoly there. Mike Singletary and Vernon Davis are a match made in heaven.

Ted Ginn had three times as much KO return yardage as the entire Dolphins offense had today.

Cleveland may as well just release all of their quarterbacks and start over. Derek Anderson needs to be put out of his misery, somehow he's playing worse than Jamarcus Russel.

Theres been a Ryan Moats sighting! 126 yards and 3 td's, its a shame he couldn't put it together in philly.

Unknown said...

Someone on the EMB made a good point (don't laugh) that I just read, and thats about the pass to Maclin. You don't usually see Donovan putting the ball out there for his guys to make a play like you see from a quarterback like Brees. Thats the kind of bigtime throw that I know Donovan is capable of but that we just don't see very often. Sometimes I feel like Mcnabb is so afraid of throwing a pick that he doesn't take any chances or let his guys make a play on the ball.

arby said...

Great win! I thought the Giants were the best team in the division, so I'm shocked. What an explosive offensive display. I was glad to see Maclin's great catch despite being draped by a DB. That was one of the few contested TD's by the Giants all day.

Cliff said...

Yeah, I thought Clemmons had a sack, too. Either that or Eli was able to scramble past the line of scrimmage.

Myron said...

Great showing by the Eagles. But the key now is consistency: they have to continue playing this well. Next week's game with Dallas will be very important - it will be so much easier for the Eagles if they can secure the NFC East crown going into the playoffs, and beating Dallas convincingly is key. At the start of the season, I thought the 'boys looked pretty sloppy, but it seems that Romo's found his groove lately, so that game will most certainly not be a given.

izzylangfan said...

The thing that has impressed me most about the Giants was their line play. Both their offensive and defensive lines have been impressive. So the strong victory yesterday by the Eagles which included Eagles domination of both the Giant lines was extremely impressive.

When the Giants signed Manning for $16 million per season I rejoiced. What an overpayment for only a slightly better than average quarterback. Then in the first five games of the year Eli Manning looked like Peyton manning: making great passes, reading the pre snap defense, and making all the right decisions. Well maybe that is a sample of things to come - someday. But for now Manning (Eli) is ordinary again.

Go Eagles. Mess up Dem Boys.

Adam S. said...

Huge win, couldn't be more happy with how that one turned out.

Jackson has got to be the "biggest play waiting to happen" in the NFL. I don't yet see him as a top 5 WR like some do because he doesn't consistently have top flight numbers like an Andre Johnson or Randy Moss game in and game out. He only has 24 receptions on the year, 3 catches a game just doesn't cut it for me. How this guy doesn't get 8-10 touches a game is insane.

If this O-line continues to play like yesterday Jackson's numbers should take a huge leap. Nobody in this league can stick with him long enough if McNabb is given the time to let D-Jax do his magic.

Love how quickly Maclin is being integrated into this offense. The first couple games I was thinking where's this "top 10 talent" everybody was talking about. I knew it was WAY too early to judge him but just didn't see the explosiveness I expected. Well obvously I was just impatient because this kid appears as though he is gonna something special for years to come.

Unknown said...

It seems like us and Dallas are definitely on a collision course right now. Dallas is playing really well right now so I don't feel like we have to blow them out, but a win over Dallas would definitely make us the team to beat in the NFC East. Honestly I think its perfect timing to play the Cowboys this week, tied for the division lead and both teams having gotten hot lately.

Looks like the ideal prime time NFL matchup.

I feel like we have the edge though, having thumped the Giants and its not like the Seahawks or Chiefs are quality opponents anyhow.

Cliff said...

Yeah, but neither was Oakland...

Boyboy said...

We'll lose to Dallas. This team under Andy Reid refuses to do anything the easy way. God forbid they take control of their own destiny. Case in point, they'd already be in sole possession of first place if they hadn't blown the game to the Raiders. Plus, the last two times we made the playoffs ('06 and '08), we had to back in.

I hope I'm wrong. I think the Eagles are the better team but that doesn't always mean anything. Honestly, I think the Birds should be able to light up Dallas' secondary. Romo should make more mistakes than McNabb. But I'm done trusting the Eagles to win a game that they should win.

Also, they one thing that bugs me about this Eagles team is the lack of a killer instinct on defense. We have some good players that can create turnovers and sack the QB. But I don't see the same fire and nastiness that we had back in the days of Douglas, Trotter, and Dawk.

After building the big lead yesterday I expected the D to just start teeing off on people. Didn't happen. They just seemed like they were going through the motions. The Eagles of old would have smacked the crap out of their opponent while they were down. Maybe I'm just nitpicking...

But the Dallas offense can be explosive. The 'D' has to make a statement in this game. Oh...and Don needs to make sure he he doesn't take a blindside sack & fumble.

Unknown said...

Bradley certainly has some of that fire in him, give him more time in the league and he could bring that to our D.

Great win by the Eagles, gotta love our weapons right now. When McNabb is hot the defense may as well just sit back and watch. Everyone is talking about the future of the Eagles offense with all the young weapons. I keep forgetting Cornelius Ingram. We could get some serious two tight end sets going next year. Though we'd have to take one of our playmakers off the pitch! What a terrible problem to have.

A couple more third down conversions for us and a few less for them and i'd be even happier. That and peters forgetting to block a DE on a play.

Cliff said...

Speaking of TE's, how about that nice little reception and RAC by Alex Smith? Already an upgrade over Schobel and we haven't really used the guy this year.

Unknown said...

I got completely confused by that play. Totally forgot he was even on the team! Part of the shock was that a backup tight end actually looked worthy of being thrown a few balls.

Adam S. said...

I got confused as well. "Wait a sec.....wait who is this big guy running after the catch?? Oh snap that's Smith! look hunny a Smith who didn't drop the ball!"

I was getting too complacent with our backup TE's that I forgot we had a guy there that could make some plays. He got upfield in a hurry that was really nice to see. This offense is gonna be scary good if this line continues to gel.

Boyboy said...

Re. Alex Smith -- can we please assign him a new number? Every time I see #82 with the name "Smith" on the back of the jersey, I have nightmares and flashbacks. Eagles fans have enough insecurities. We shouldn't have to be subjected to L.J. memories too.