Giants Dominate Ball Control in Home Opener

After an offseason of questioning how the Giants would perform without Plaxico Burress, New York answered emphatically.

The Giants owned the time of possession, controlling the ball for just over 36 minutes on 70 plays while the Washington Redskins only had the ball for just under 24 minutes and ran only 51 plays.

Eli Manning led a solid passing attack that provided far better results than the rushing game which struggled to find success. Manning finished the game 20-for-29 with 256 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

His favorite target proved to be third-year veteran Steve Smith who made big plays whenever he was called upon. This was never more evident than in the Giants final scoring drive when Smith spun around and caught a pass right over a defender’s shoulder to convert on a third-and-long situation.

Third-down passing was one of the Giants’ strongest areas in the game. Manning started the game five-for-five for 85 yards including a 30-yard score on a short pass to second-year receiver Mario Manningham who fought for most of the yardage. Manningham finished with three receptions for 58 yards and a touchdown.

Kevin Boss also contributed with three receptions for 62 yards.

Manning did make several mistakes passing, most notably his lone interception that came because of a throw off his back foot, never giving his receiver a chance to make a play.

While the running game didn’t perform as well as it’s league-leading performance last season, it didn’t play bad.

Ahmad Bradshaw led the team with 12 rushes for 60 yards and had the team’s longest rush with a 22-yard dash on the second possession.

Brandon Jacobs finished with 16 carries for 46 yards and his longest run, for 15 yards, came on the very next play.

Bill Sheridan has a lot of good to take out of his first game as defensive coordinator, but the absence of Steve Spagnuolo was noticeable as Jason Campbell didn’t face much pressure.

Another kind of absence was also noticed—Osi Umenyiora who missed all of 2008. On Washington’s third possession of the second quarter Umenyiora rushed around the left edge, striped the ball from Campbell’s throwing hand, picked it up and ran the ball back for a 37-yard touchdown.

Justin Tuck led the attack against Washington with one and a half sacks.

When New York wasn’t putting pressure on Campbell, he was putting pressure on them by consistently attacking the middle of the field—12 of Campbell’s 19 completions came on throws across the middle; seven of which were for more than 10 yards. This is definitely something the Giants will have to address in practice this week.

The Giants saw their first round pick Hakeem Nicks limp off the field early in the fourth quarter and return soon after with a cast on his left ankle. The initial ruling is a sprained ankle, and x-rays were negative. It is not certain whether he will miss time or not. Nicks finished the game with two catches for 18 yards.

Danny Ware also left the game on the opening kickoff with a shoulder injury.

The Giants will be in Dallas next week to try and ruin the Cowboys’ opening of their new stadium next Sunday night.

Read more NFL news on BleacherReport.com

Hakeem Nicks’ Late-Game Heroics Aren’t Enough for a New York Giants Comeback

Following an embarrassing loss in Chicago, the New York Giants had a lot to improve on in their Week 3 matchup against the crosstown rival New York Jets.

One of those questions was what did the Giants get when they spent their first-round pick on Hakeem Nicks this past April?

And if Nicks’ performance Saturday night was any indication, the Giants may have gotten exactly what they were looking for: A solid replacement for Plaxico Burress.

Nicks started his night gaining 16 yards on a comeback route in the second quarter. He was then quiet until Big Blue’s second drive in the fourth quarter when he and backup quarterback David Carr hooked up for a 22-yard touchdown pass, laying out for a pass that went right over the defender.

On the team’s very next drive, Nicks found himself wide open and ran Carr’s pass in for a 71-yard touchdown.

Nicks would finish the game with six receptions for 144 yards and two touchdowns.

But it was a couple of failed two-point conversions that ultimately ruined the Giants’ chances to pick up their second win of the preseason.

Another area that had plagued Big Blue in the first two weeks of the preseason was the offensive line’s performance, but with all five starters playing together for the first time this preseason and a solid showing from the backups, Giants quarterbacks had very little pressure to worry about all game.

Carr was the leading passer, going 12-for-17 with 181 yards and two touchdowns.

Eli Manning’s numbers were less impressive—9-for-21 with 91 yards, a touchdown and an interception—but his receivers were dropping a lot of passes, one of which led to the aforementioned interception. He also overthrew his receivers six times.

Ahmad Bradshaw once again led the Giants with 47 yards on eight rushes, including a 27-yard rush to the left side. Brandon Jacobs saw limited time after taking a hit to the forearm from an opposing player’s helmet and finished with six carries for 24 yards.

Arguably, the game’s most exciting play came from the other New York quarterback: Mark Sanchez. On the Jets’ fifth drive of the game, Sanchez was being forced back by three Giant defenders and threw to a wide open Chansi Stuckey, who then broke several Giants’ tackles for the touchdown.

This is yet another problem the Giants have had this preseason—tackling.

The Giants have one last game Thursday in New England before opening up the season against Washington on Sept. 13.

New York Giants Running Backs Strong Behind Weak Offensive Line in Loss

There was nothing flashy about the Giants’ losing effort against the home-team Bears Saturday night.

Giants starters on both sides of the ball have nothing to celebrate after poor performances in their second preseason game against Chicago losing, 17-3.

However, starting running back Brandon Jacobs had a few good runs behind another disappointing performance for the offensive line. Jacobs’ numbers (seven rushes for 27 yards) didn’t show his power Giants fans have come to expect as he fought for yards on every run and even plowed through feared Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher for a first down.

Despite Jacobs’ efforts, the offensive line struggled even more than in Monday’s win over the Carolina Panthers.

Both starting guards (Chris Snee and Rich Seubert) were out with injuries, but it was the starting tackles (David Diehl and Kareem McKenzie) who were the story as most of the pressure came because of their poor play, including a forced fumble by Alex Brown which was recovered by the Giants.

Because of the constant pressure the Giants were only able to pass for 170 yards in the game with Andre Woodson leading the team with 95 yards. Eli Manning finished the game seven for 10 with 62 yards, including a 25-yard pass to Steve Smith on a deep curl route to the left. And David Carr went two for six with eight yards passing.

While Woodson did lead the team, 55 yards came on a deep pass to Hakeem Nicks which was a bit under-thrown, and he was constantly overthrowing or throwing behind his intended targets.

The Giants starters on defense didn’t perform much better giving up a field goal and two touchdowns on the Bears’ first three drives of the game. The first touchdown was the easiest for Chicago as second-year running back Matt Forte burst through a huge hole in the middle for a 32-yard score on the fifth play of the drive.

When Jacobs was done, Ahmad Bradshaw once again showed his speed and elusiveness breaking off a 17-yard run to end the first half and a 23-yard run in the third quarter. He would finish the game as the Giants lead rusher going for 54 yards on six carries.

Third string running back Danny Ware also had a few good showings, returning the Giants first kickoff to the 38-yard line after hurdling a couple of Bears defenders. Later on in the second half showed he off his speed and quickness with a 16-yard run to the left end. Ware would finish the game with eight carries for 34 yards and four receptions for 30 yards.

The Giants continue their preseason next Saturday when they take on the Jets in Giants Stadium, and a more stable performance by the offensive line will be expected.

No More Excuses For JaMarcus Russell

Ever since being taken with the top pick of the 2007 NFL Draft, Raiders and NFL fans alike have praised JaMarcus Russell simply based on hype.

Russell missed most of his rookie season due to contract negotiations which may have hurt his transition from the college game, but even that is no excuse for some of Russell’s performances in his first year as the full-time starter.

It seemed fairly consistent that Russell would finish games with stat lines like the one in a shutout loss to the Atlanta Falcons where he went 6 for 19, 31 yards and an interception—with a passer rating of 19.

In 6 of 15 starts last season, Russell had a completion percentage below 50—four times it was under 40.

Oakland’s 5-11 record isn’t completely Russell’s fault, but when a team has the 10th highest yards per game on the ground and the lowest average through the air there is something wrong with the passing game.

The Raiders don’t have one of the best receiving corps in the league, but there is enough talent there for Russell to work with as shown in the team’s final three games of 2008—three games where Russell performed exceptionally well.

The team went 2-1 in these games, and Russell had six touchdowns with only two picks, completion percentages above 50 (which should be expected from a starting NFL quarterback) and a passer rating of roughly 104. In the team’s largest win during the three-game stretch, a 27-16 victory over Houston, Russell had two touchdowns with no picks, a passer rating of 128.1, and a completion percentage of 72.

He had performed well in other games during the season as was the case in a 31-10 victory in Denver where he was 9-10, but it was a good rushing game and solid day on defense that ultimately won Oakland the game.

This was the case in the final game of the season where Oakland kept Tampa Bay out of the playoffs with a 31-24 win. Russell had one of his better games of the season going 14 for 21 with two touchdowns, but again it was the rushing game of Michael Bush that was key to this victory.

Yes, Russell was solid in the final few games of 2008, but he also had good games earlier on in the season only to be followed by games where he couldn’t seem to find his receivers.

2009 will be an important season for Russell and reports suggest that he is starting out the year well as he is supposedly getting the receivers together for private practices to develop a rapport with his targets.

If Russell continues with his inconsistent performance, Jeff Garcia will take over this season, and Russell won’t be an Oakland Raider for too much longer.

Top 10 Difference Makers for the 2009 Giants

There are a lot of questions surrounding the 2009 Giants. Will the receivers step up and fill the void left by Plaxico Burress? How will the defense fare under new defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan? Will the Giants running game suffer from the unproven players in the passing game?

These are just a few of them, but what one factor will prove to be the most determining for Big Blue in 2009?

Aside from the much discussed struggles in the receiving corps, the Giants have many other questions throughout the team. Steve Spagnuolo is gone and former linebackers coach Bill Sheridan will have a lot to prove in his first season as defensive coordinator. With many of the same players and a few key off-season acquisitions on defense, Sheridan will be expected to keep the defense running at the same level Spagnuolo had them running at. But this big question mark doesn’t even make it into this top 10.

The additions of Chris Canty, Rocky Bernard, C.C. Brown and Michael Boley to the players who were already there gives Sheridan more than enough to work with on defense, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t any uncertainty on the defense.

Following a Super Bowl victory and an early loss in the playoffs last season after leading the NFC with a 12-4 record, expectations are as high as they have been in years for the New York Football Giants, yet, so is the uncertainty.

Head Coach Tom Coughlin will have to get his team to believe in the players they have. Yes, especially at receiver, but that shouldn’t be hard. As long as Coughlin realizes what are the most important factors to his team’s success then the 2009 Giants should continue to dominate. And here are ten things Coughlin and Giants fans should realize heading into the ’09 season.

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