The blame game II
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- January
- 13
All of the Plaxico Burress talk interrupted my plans, but I wanted to get back to another issue from Sunday’s loss to the Eagles.
It has to do with the play calling.
Here’s what I don’t understand, the week off apparently helped Brandon Jacobs tremendously. And despite some early signs of success, the Giants only gave him nine carries in the first half. Derrick Ward certainly deserved a few carries, but I’ve always seen coaches in all sports narrow the rotation for the postseason.
I don’t know if Kevin Gilbride was attempting to change things up or what, but he seemed to ignore the formula that worked so well most of the season.
Eli Manning dropped back three times late in the first half on first-and-five at the Philadelphia 21. He missed Amani Toomer, almost had a Kevin Boss ricochet picked off, then connected with Derrick Ward and came up a yard short of extending the drive.
“I am not second-guessing anything today,” Tom Coughlin said on Monday. “I am not doing that. If we score, if the ball goes in the end zone, everybody is happy about that. We ended up with our distribution of run and pass right on the money. Everybody was disappointed in that. Even if you go to the go-screen, we thought we had that, that has been a big play for us, but we didn’t make the first down on that play.”
Manning says there was a running play called during the series in question, but he switched off at the line in response to a blitz.
The Giants ran the ball 31 times and passed the ball 29 times. Jacobs had 19 carries. Ward had 12 carries. Jacobs aver
aged 4.8 yards per carry. Ward averaged 3.8 yards per carry.
“It’s not about having more carries,” Jacobs said. “It’s just about execution when I got those carries. I don’t think they honed in on the run as well as they thought they did. All we can do is run what’s called and coach Gilbride, he called the plays like he did all year, and he’s been doing a good job of it all year and we trust him and we go out and run what’s called.”
Maybe so, but I’m wondering if you believe the distribution was a little unbalanced.
Jacobs sets a tone and the rest of the Giants feed off his antics. Remember the Baltimore game? Ward is usually more effective when the big man blazes a trail. Let me know.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, January 13th, 2009 at 9:43 am by Mike Dougherty. 
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Ernie Palladino
Some of the play calling was a little head scratching.
I thought with a 1/2 yard to do they should have run jacobs up the gut or on a toss so he could catch them off guard and get some steam going.
On the 4 and 2 jacobs missed the cutback lane that would have been the 1st down as well.
I think on that series with the 1 and 5 Eli missed a few reads.
It looked like he had problems all day with his reads.
I think after the opening kick they tried to open it up with that throw to smith that was dropped and then they got conservative. I think if they had taken another shot what harm could have been done. Even when they were in the “green zone” they never threw the ball in the endzone.
i think it was bad routs being ran and Eli not finding the receivers. If they make 2 or 3 good catches and score a td like that then the safety takes a step back and that opens the running game more. imagine how many yards jacobs gets if the converted a few passes for 20yrds or more.
o well no use crying over it now. Seasons over, Pittsburgh is your superbowl winner again.
but i would also like to point out that 2004 was probably the best QB draft class in a long time/ever because look at those 3 QB’s, in the playoffs everyseason basically and 2 of 3 have rings.
Those 3 guys are outstanding.
I hope I can hire Kevin Gilbride as my next head coach thus insuring the continued medocrity of the Oakland Raiders and also freeing the NY football Giants from the strangle hold that is the Gibride “pass happy” offensive philosophy. Please Kevin, wow me so I may hire you post haste.
MISLEADING HEADLINE !!!
Sorry but I don’t see anyone in this article blaming this loss on anyone but themselves. I guess you need to drum up web hits so there ya go. Sorry excuse for a fluff piece.
Agreed. The wind was clearly a factor, when the spirals that left Eli’s hand quickly turned into wounded ducks. Unless he has suddenly tossing spitters, the wind was taking the ball. Your’e a great running team, why not run until it does not work. Sometimes, coaches, no matter how good, can outsmart themselves.
I agree with the posts that the play calling was suspect. If Eli checked out of a run on 1st and 5 then he is stupid because the run blitz against Jacobs wasnt working. The Giants lost the game on play calling. It was evident the run between the tackles was working and that the Eagles were getting tired and discouraged from the pounding. The line started to feed off the runs and then they started passing.
Dont talk to me about Sundays game! Ofcourse the coaching was horrible. They are reason number 1 we lost. You do not abandon the run like they did espacially the way they did in the eagles inside 30.
WHY DID WE SIT OUR BEST RUNNING BACK AND NOT USE HIM????
They punched us in the mouth that was our plan!!!
JUST FREAKIN stupid play calling!!
Thank God 31 day till Daytona!!!
Sending Eli (instead of Jacobs) head-on into a defensive line on a critical fourth and inches was the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen. And he went in standing up. I thought I was seeing things. Unbelievable.
Yeah, good point, knightsmom. Cause Jacobs did a better job moving the pile when it was his turn.
I know Giants fans can’t comprehend this statement about the unbelievably powerful, unstoppable Jacobs, but when the offensive line doesn’t open up a gigantic hole for him, he’s helpless. He puts his shoulder down, hits one guy, and nosedives. Ward and Bradshaw are capable of making something out of nothing. Jacobs had wide open space to his left on 4th down and he just ran into the crowd, turtled up, and waited for it to be over.
I hate losing period!!! But to lose with the worst coaching calls makes me crazy!!!!