Game Preview: Arizona Cardinals at New York Giants, November 3, 1996

Approach to the Game – Arizona Cardinals at New York Giants, November 3, 1996: We have to laugh. Every time the Giants win a game, the press and some of the fans start talking about playoff possibilities. Let’s get real. The Giants have a losing record with only half the season remaining and they are 0-4 in their own division. At the very least, the Giants would probably have to go 6-2 the rest of the year even to have an outside chance of earning a Wild Card at 9-7. It ain’t going to happen folks. Regardless, this game against the Cards is big for other reasons. In their first four games the Giants went 1-3. In their next four games, the Giants went 2-2. In their last five games, the Giants have gone 3-2. Slowly but surely, the Giants are starting to build some momentum and some confidence. A loss against the Cards could erase much of what has been gained over the last six weeks (bye week included). The Cards were embarrassed by the Jets last week and will be looking to redeem themselves. We expect the Cardinals to play very well against the Giants on Sunday because of this. Make no mistake about it, the Cards are not that bad of a football team. Plus, the Giants are still missing a number of their key weapons in DT Keith Hamilton, CB Phillippi Sparks, and WR Amani Toomer. Cardinal QB Kent Graham, a former Giant, will be more than motivated to play well in order to show up the man who cut him, Dan Reeves. We look for a real war in the Meadowlands on Sunday.

Giants on Offense: OK, this unit has risen from the dead to passable in the last six quarters of football. Can they keep it up? Once again, the onus will be on Dave Brown. Dave, you’ve played reasonably well for a game and a half. Are you going to keep it up or revert back to your inconsistent ways? Will the head coach keep allowing you to win games rather than to lose them? A lot of questions will be answered on Sunday. Dave and Dan have proven nothing to us yet. Dave needs to keep improving and Dan needs to keep allowing Dave the freedom to do so. Once again, we argue for the plays that we think will help the Giants the most: slants, screens, bootlegs to the FB, and the seam pass to the TE/H-Back. Thomas Lewis and Chris Calloway have played well the last couple of games as well, but greater consistency is needed. There have been just too many dropped balls this year. The Giants also need Lawrence Dawsey or Omar Douglas (with Toomer out) to step it up. The Cards have one of the very best CB’s in the game in Aeneas Williams, but the rest of their secondary isn’t as strong. Howard Cross has disappeared completely from the offense. If the Giants don’t have confidence in him or he can’t get open, it’s time to work Brian Saxton into the line-up. The Giants have had good success in recent years of burning the Cards with passes to the tight end. The offensive line is steadily improving, but they face a real nightmare this week in the form of Eric Swann, Simeon Rice, Michael Bankston, Eric Hill, and Seth Joyner. The keys will be Greg Bishop versus Rice and Swann and Bankston versus the interior trio of Lance Smith, Brian Williams, and Ron Stone. The Jets ran the ball up and down on the Cards last week and we look for the Cards to come back strong this week. We would like to see Wheatley receive some serious playing time. We’d also like to see more opportunities for Charles Way to catch and carry the ball. It’s time for the Giants to get their running game going.

Giants on Defense: The Cards have some very dangerous weapons on offense. We don’t like going into a game with Sparks and Hamilton out of the line-up. The Giants got by last week, but how long can they keep up the solid play while missing two of their key components? The Cards don’t have a strong offensive line, but it is better than it has been in recent years with the addition of Lomas Brown at left tackle. Chad Bratzke and Cedric Jones will have their hands full with him. Up front, it all starts with stopping the run. HB LeShon Johnson has been up-and-down. At times, he looks like a spectacular game-breaker, at other times, quite ordinary. The Giants need to keep him and reserve Leeland McElroy, who hasn’t been used much this year, under wraps. One of the Cards most talented players and a guy who regularly kills the G-Men is FB Larry Centers. Centers can do it all: run, pass, and throw. We’d keep Jessie Armstead and/or Tito Wooten on him all day. The Cards also have a decent WR corps with the likes of Rob Moore, Frank Sanders (who has also given the Giants problems), and Anthony Edwards. Then there is Kent Graham, the former Giant looking to embarrass his former coach, Dan Reeves, the guy who cut him. Which Kent Graham will show up? The fiery, leader who can burn teams with his strong arm or the quarterback who couldn’t hit the broad-side of a barn? The answer to this question will probably determine who wins this game. What we are sure of is that the secondary rotation of Sehorn, Randolph, Hamilton, Campbell, Wooten, and Ellsworth will have to do a good job on the WR’s and the guys up front need to get in Graham’s face to rattle him. Randolph, in particular, needs to step it up. Stuff the run, keep an eye on Centers, and get after the passer.

Special Teams: We called for a blocked punt last week and we thank Tito Wooten for providing it. This week we’d like to see the Giants return a kick or punt for a TD — is that asking too much?(grin) The special teams for the Giants have had a strange year. The coverage units, for the most part, have been very solid, but they continue to give up one big return per game. This has got to stop. Leeland McElroy returned a kick for 92 yards last week — the Giants need to keep him under wraps. Brad Daluiso can’t hit a field goal from over 40 yards out and this is going to cost the Giants big time soon.

Outlook: If the game isn’t on in our area and we miss it, we know the Giants will win. They are 3-0 when we miss them, 0-5 when we watch them. Semi-seriously, this game is going to be a real war. The Cards are coming off of an embarrassing loss and Kent Graham has something to prove. Having a kicker with a mental block doesn’t help. These young Giants still haven’t learned to keep the ship at an even keel week-in and week-out. Cards 13 – Giants 10.