I’m still pissed about the Giants losing.
I recognize that everything forward is some form of armchair quarterbacking from a guy that has never been in the NFL. Still, it is plain as day to see that the Giants are not who people thought they were. In fact, the NY Giants are a team that is buoyed by the play of their surprising talented secondary, which supports a defensive line that has less chance of getting to the quarterback than any perhaps in the history of the Giants. It isn’t even their fault the team lost though. No, that falls on the shoulders of bad 4th quarter coaching and one unfortunate play.
The Giants found themselves in similar situation to the Seahawks fateful SB 49 pass debacle. Once again, the team should’ve run the ball. It doesn’t matter that the flyweight offensive line hadn’t made holes all day. It isn’t important that they were only up three. No, this is about that clock and the limited time that was left. Here is what happened: The Giants called a pass play and Eli, with no options, threw the ball out of bounds. This stopped the clock and caused the Cowboys to have time to march down the field and score. Two things went wrong here:
- Coach called a pass play.
- Eli, with no options to pass, threw the ball out of bounds.
I get the call: You want to score and put the game out of reach. Still, given that the Giants are such a conservative and smart team offensively, why not make the conservative call here and run the ball. If you run then you at least chew clock, which gives the Cowboys less time to respond (which would have changed the play calling on the Cowboys side and led to a Giants win). As for the play itself, Eli relied on muscle memory and mental training to dump the ball once he was in trouble.
I get it.
Getting it cost the Giants the game. If Eli holds on the rock, it creates a time suck and gives the Cowboys less time to respond… See above. So, yeah, I am upset. Still I have a lot of hope for the season, because the secondary showed up. Now I just wish JPP would show up too.