Aug

7

2008

(6) Comments

Preseason Week 1 Review - Giants 10, Detroit 13

10:04PM by PLam

Well that sucked.  It’s preseason football:  Giants lose to the Detroit Lions, 10-13.  And the Giants’ first team offense and defense looked pretty bad.  But the game is overall pretty meaningless, and it was a great opportunity to see a lot of the young players that we have been reading about in the training camp reports over the last couple of weeks.  Here’s my review of the game.

OFFENSE

Eli Manning and the starting offense were on the field for two series.  And quite frankly, Eli looked pretty rusty, although he was working with Dominique Hixon playing for the injured Plaxico Burress.  He seemed like he was aiming his passes (only completing 2 of 6 attempts for very little yardage), and his pass to Toomer in the first series was a dangerous throw that could have been intercepted.  The good news is that Brandon Jacobs came out of the gate with a 27 yard run where he juked a DB out of his socks about 10 yards into the run.  I felt like he could have gained more if he kept his head up when the safety went low to trip him up; if Jacobs had kept his head up, he likely could have jumped over the safety and taken it to the house.

Anthony Wright took over in the second quarter and actually looked quite sharp.  No hesitation in his decision-making, his passes were sharp and accurate, and his mobility was evident.  He actually launched a great bomb to Moss, who had a step on a trip of defenders and made a grab 40+ yards downfield.  I was a little disturbed that Moss went up for the ball and caught it against his chest (the same way Toomer used to catch the ball early in his career), but it was nice to see him come down with the ball on a fly pattern like that.  It was the first sign I’ve seen from Moss in his entire time with the Giants.  I also thought Hixon looked good catching balls from Wright.  Derrick Ward at HB also looked like he was fully recovered from his broken leg, running with authority and power, and no hesitation.

David Carr took over in the second half.  He didn’t look entirely comfortable, with some hesitation and delay in some of his passes.  But he connected on a lot of passes and moved the Giants down the field to their only TD (a sharp pass to Craphonso Thorpe).  Brandon London impressed on a nice catch and run in traffic.  Michael Jennings had a couple of catches.  And Danny Ware looks a lot more impressive than Reuben Droughns...if Ware can contribute on special teams, Droughns may be in trouble.  And if Ware makes the team, he’ll be the second HB on the roster that the Giants picked off of the Jets’ practice squad (Ward was the first).  Ahmad Bradshaw did not look as impressive as he did last post-season, but he still ran with conviction.

Kevin Boss looked like the second-coming of Shockey on a catch, hit/get-hit, and drag.  He had a couple of catches and showed that the Giants will probably be fine at TE in the passing game.  He still needs work on his blocking as he got stood up a couple of times.  None of the other TEs made any kind of impact either.

DEFENSE

It was disappointing that the first-team defense gave up such a long TD drive to the Lions to open the game.  There were a lot of “almost” moments, where the Giants almost sacked John Kitna or almost made a big play, but then gave up a big play instead.  That said, Tuck looked good, as did Barry Cofield.  I also liked the play of Mathias Kiwanuka and Danny Clark, both of whom made strong tackles.  James Butler made a couple of mistakes, and his lack of speed is very obvious, but he seems to be a good safety valve in a zone defense as well as getting to the runner/receiver from the underneath or screen play.  Michael Johnson didn’t seem to show much burst either.  Corey Webster got beat on a big pass on the first drive, where the coverage was pretty good, but then he couldn’t locate the ball when he turned around to defend the pass.  Ross was solid on the other side.

Once the starters started leaving the game and the subs started playing, the quality of the defense became erratic.  Standout players to me were Renaldo Wynn, Kenny Phillips, Terrell Thomas, Jay Alford and Chase Blackburn.  Rookie LB Kehl also made some good plays, although he needs to work on his power, because often he would make a tackle, he’s still get knocked back a bit.  And in fact, beyond our first team LBs plus Blackburn, the rest of our LBs do seem pretty raw.

SPECIAL TEAMS:

I can’t believe Lawrence Tynes missed a 44 yard field goal in a dome.

Feagles is still awesome.

Hixon is our best kick returner (also saw attempts by Bradshaw and Droughns, both of whom were mediocre).  Hixon was also the best punt returner.  Bradshaw returned a couple of punts that made me really nervous.  Moss’ punt return attempt was a disaster, where he didn’t catch the ball cleanly, then seemed to be frozen in indecision until he got tackled for no gain.

Terrell Thomas and #41 (couldn’t see who that was) did a superb job on punt coverage.

OVERALL:
It was a sluggish start of the 2008 season for the Giants.  First team offense and defense both need to get the rust out.  It was good to see some of the young guys starting to look good...I’m most excited about Kenny Phillips and Dominique Hixon.  Hopefully next week’s game shows a more well-oiled machine.

Leprechaun said 08/09/08 12:07 PM

PLam said 08/10/08 08:29 AM

Leprechaun said 08/10/08 10:20 AM

Leprechaun said 08/10/08 10:22 AM

DennyDiehl said 08/10/08 08:21 PM

PLam said 08/11/08 07:46 AM