Gameday Blog: First Quarter Update – Jets 7, Giants 0

It was a slow start to the game as both the Giants and Jets went three and out to start. The Jets took the ball first after winning the coin flip.

Pennington came out throwing, but the Jets managed only four yards on third and 10 from their own 28 to start the game.

The Giants did not fair much better on their first possession as Manning’s would-be-first-down pass to Shockey was broken up by a nice play from the Jets’ Eric Smith.

The Jets’ next possession featured a little trickery as a direct snap to Leon Washington earned the Jets 10 yards and a first down on 3rd and 4. Pennington tried a QB sneak on 3rd and 1 but came up short. It looked as though the Jets might go for it on fourth down, but Pennington took a delay of game penalty trying to draw the Giants defensive line offside.

JETS SCORING ALERT: A nice punt from Ben Graham downed the Giants at their own 8-yard-line. After an incomplete pass to Burress, Brandon Jacobs got his first carry since opening night, taking the pile ahead for 9 yards.

On 3rd and 1 it looked as though Jacobs would gain a first down after running hard left, but Jets safety Kerry Rhodes stripped the ball from the Giants’ back, picked the ball up at the 11-yard-line and ran it into the east end zone of Giants stadium giving the Jets a 7-0 lead after an extra point from Mike Nugent.

The Giants went three and out on their next possession after two unproductive runs from Derrick Ward and a short completion to Giants’ backup tight end Michael Matthews.

After a punt, the Jets took over on their own 39-yard line and marched on a 10-play drive to the Giants’ 24-yard-line, highlighted by a 17-yard pass from Pennington to a wide-open Chris Baker, and a 4-yard Pennington run on 3rd and 3.

The Jets drive stalled, however, when the Giants’ Matthias Kiwanuka smothered and broke up a screen attempt on 3rd and 7. The drive was wasted when Nugent missed a 42-yard field goal.

NOTES: Neither team looks impressive, the Giants less so than the Jets.

Sacktastic!

On the same day that Michael Strahan broke Lawrence Taylor’s franchise record for career sacks, it was another defensive end, Osi Umenyiora who stole the show for Big Blue Sunday, leading the Giants to a 12-sack, 16-3 victory over the Eagles.

From a fan’s perspective, this was one of the better games I’ve ever attended. Nothing gets a stadium more jacked up than a sack in a big spot. The Giants had 12 of them on Sunday. Twelve! Add to that a defensive touchdown and two punts downed inside the five and you’ve got a formula for success. The offense stalled a bit (see interception inside the red zone, missed 34 yard field goal, missed extra point), but if we’ve learned anything as Giants fans, solid defense wins games. Period.

Is this the same Giants D that gave up 80 points in the first two weeks?

Granted the Eagles looked like a high school team without Brian Westbrook and a slew of pro-bowlers – so I’m not entirely sold on the Giants D just yet – but they sure have looked impressive over the last two weeks. Our attacking defense has arrived…maybe.

And here’s another thing – is Plaxico Burress playing like a man possessed or what? This guy has come down with a big TD catch for the Giants every week, despite ailing from ankle and thumb injuries. We’ll see if he can keep this up. I’d also like to see Eli getting the ball to Shockey in rollout situations a little more.

What do we think about a possible return of “thunder and lightning,” with Brandon Jacobs coming back from injury and Derrick Ward flashing some Tiki-like moves over the last few weeks?

Starting this Sunday we’ll be starting something new on WNBC.com. I’ll be covering the Giants-Jets game from inside the press box, so make sure to check in for some in-game blogs and a game story following this Sunday’s “Metro Bowl.”

Giants Show Some D, Even More Heart

Before Sunday’s game I thought I’d mix it up a little – old school style.

Instead of wearing an Eli Manning or Jeremy Shockey jersey as per usual, I went with Phil Simms, #11, hoping that some old-school Giants football would rub off…I never expected the old-school Giants defense to make the trip forward from years’ past.

Sunday’s win against the Redskins was huge on every level: undefeated division opponent; on the road; down 14 points; suspect defense; after an 0-2 start.

Backs to the wall, a yard away from starting 0-3, they did it. No one believed they would, but the Giants did it – they stopped the Redskins on four straight plays and flipped the bird to everyone who ragged on them after Green Bay.

In last week’s blog I questioned the Giants’ eclectic heart (especially the defense) and was convinced they’d break mine again on Sunday. I’m glad they stuck it to me.

There’s hope again for us – not much (I don’t expect playoffs) – but the Giants showed pride Sunday. They rallied from 14 points down on the road and held the Redskins when it mattered. In a way, the Giants’ season was on the line and they showed enough resolve to prove that they still care, a lot.

Much can be said about the Redskins LOSING Sunday’s game, (i.e.-where was Clinton Portis at the end?) but the fact remains, the final score read Giants 24, Redskins 17.

In football – a team’s week-to-week stock rises and falls very easily, especially this early in the year and especially for devoted fans. I wouldn’t punch the Giants’ playoff ticket just yet, but for the first time this season – and perhaps dating back to last season – we saw a team start to head in the right direction. Let’s hope it continues.

Bam! Pow! Zing! Attack!

The problem with attacking defenses is that they are generally high risk and high reward. The attacking defense, in theory, makes a lot of big plays but is vulnerable to giving up the big play on occasion. On Sunday, the New York Giants defense epitomized to perfection what an attacking defense should be…except there wasn’t really any attacking. And no reward either.

Coming into the 2007 season, words like blitz, attack, pow, zam and zing were thrown around. You got the sense Steve Spagnuolo was going to launch a full-blown assault on opposing offenses with results so destructive that you’d need to peel jerseys off the turf. Here’s a secret that we’ve learned through the first two weeks of the season – the Giants don’t have the personnel to be an attacking defense.

Let’s look at the numbers:

Total Yards Given Up: 846 (621 Passing!)

Sacks: 2 (both by Justin Tuck – paging Osi Umenyiora and Michael Strahan?)

Interceptions: 2 (both by Gibril Wilson…Sunday’s was on a gift tipped ball)

Total Points Given Up: 80 (this isn’t the NBA)

If said “attacking” is going on, we’re doing a heck of a job, huh? Two sacks, two picks, 40 points a game.

There wasn’t a single defensive facet working Sunday. Pass rush was atrocious (I think I saw Brett Favre check his fantasy stats between a five-step drop and completion); linebackers can’t cover the middle of the field, (NFL tight ends can’t wait for Big Blue); and the secondary is prone to the big play (see: being torched by 57-year-old quarterbacks).

Bottom line, AGAIN, is that this is the same exact team as 2006 sans Tiki Barber. It’s the same old mistakes, same old excuses, same stupid penalties, same old Giants.

Jeremy Shockey and Amani Toomer both killed touchdown drives with stupid, stupid penalties. Don’t worry though, Tom Coughlin, the disciplinarian will work it out.

Excluding some promising looks from the offense, I am disgusted with the Giants’ performance Sunday. If there is any sense of pride left in this team, I’d ask that they please show it now. Losing is fine, just not like this. It’s hard to watch a team show no heart when thousands of Giants fans keep giving so much of theirs.

Not Exactly The Week 1 We Hoped For…

Sorry for not writing until Monday afternoon but I’ve spent the last few hours trying to cover Jason Whitten over the middle. Somebody’s got to do it.

Ok, so we learned three things on Sunday:

1)I can’t pick against the spread: 6-8 on Sunday. If I win both Monday night games I’ll be 8-8. Does that clinch me a playoff spot in the NFC?

2)The Giants defense is atrocious. Tony Romo is good – but not “I won my fantasy week because of him” good. I am not even remotely confident in the Giants’ secondary and Mathias Kiwanuka looked as comfortable at linebacker as the class nerd playing dodge ball in gym class. Also, I saw John Madden get less winded running sprints before the game than the Giants D-line.

3)The Giants are the exact same team as last year minus Tiki Barber. Just when you think the game is lost, they come back to give you hope, only to say 10 plays later, “you silly, silly man, did you think we were ACTUALLY going to pull it out?” Last year’s team did just enough to lose the big games. Last night wasn’t any different.

Plain and simple, the defense let us down Sunday night. Injuries aside, you can’t get torched for 45 points and 336 passing yards. Defense gets an F for Sunday’s loss. I’m more worried about the secondary than the injuries.

Let’s look at the bright side of things, now.

Ok…done.

Just kidding. In reality, we’re 0-1 after an injury-plagued game, on the road. If we take care of Dallas at Giants’ Stadium later in the year, we can call it a wash. Last night would have been a HUGE win, but it’s not the end of the world.

Manning looked better than I’ve ever seen him. Assuming his injury isn’t long term – the passing game looks promising, and who needs Brandon Jacobs when you’ve got Derrick Ward, right? There were glints of Tiki Barber last night from Ward, but I wouldn’t christen him the savior running back just yet.

At the very least we saw that Ward can be an extremely effective third-down-type back. Paging David Meggett…

No, seriously, we need David Meggett and any other football player that’s played running back before. Send resumes to: OnTheHotSeat@coughlin.com

Bottom line, it could be worse – we could be the Jets.

–Ryan

Who Is Anthony Mix?

Anthony Mix is a 24-year-old undrafted free agent (2006).

He’s a 6-5 receiver (looks like a tight end) out of Auburn who weighs in at a whopping 252 pounds.

Against the Jets Saturday Mix had 7 catches for 45 yards with a touchdown.

On August 11, Mix had one reception, a touchdown for 10 yards. Against the Ravens on August 19 he pulled in 5 catches for 43 yards.

In 2005 playing for the Auburn Tigers, Mix had 23 catches for 288 yards with two touchdowns. A year prior he had 19 catches for 294 with 3 touchdowns.

Mix is in his second year with the Giants. He spent 2006 on the Giants practice squad. I’d look for Mix to be among the mix of Giants wide receivers this year. He’s impressed coaches in practice and in preseason games and his size and speed and reason enough to keep him around. Tom Coughlin would like to see Mix play a more active role on special teams, but it the Giants receivers go down this year with injuries, Mix might get his chances.