Dallas Cowboys 27 – New York Giants 0
Overview: When you win, things are never as good as they seem; when you lose, they are never as bad as they seem. It took us a while, but this is a philosophy that we have learned to believe in that covers both life and the game of football. 27-0 — that score sticks out at you like a sore thumb. You say the Giants looked so good against the Bills last week and Dallas looked so bad. What happened? Did anyone notice that the Skins, who looked pretty bad against the Eagles last week, beat the Bears — the same team that killed the Cowboys last Monday night? The problem for both the Giants and Bears was that they both were facing quality teams on their home turf who were embarrassed the week before. That’s an invitation to disaster — as we predicted it would be. The Giants blew their big chance on opening night. They had the Bills beat, and they let that game slip away. This missed their chance to be 1-1 after playing two Superbowl contenders back-to-back. 27-0 hurts…it’s embarrassing…it leaves you sick to your stomach, but don’t make too much out of this game. It’s the next month of football that really matters in determining the progress of this team.
Quarterback: Embarrassing and awful. Dan Reeves employed the strategy that we had been calling for and Dave Brown made us look like idiots. First play of the game, play-action to Amani Toomer on first down, the very same play we would have called and Dave Brown throws it right to the defender. Second series, the Giants run on first down and then pass on second — again, we liked the playcalling. However, again, Dave Brown throws a bad pass. You can’t blame the coach, you can’t blame the line, you can’t blame the receivers — Dave Brown was just bad. 1993 and 1994 were learning years; we knew they would be rough for Dave Brown and we knew the Giants would struggle because of that. However, this is Dave’s third year as starter. It’s time to step forward. We keep telling ourselves, “patience, the line is young,” “patience, two of the receivers are young,” “patience, these are the Bills and Cowboys after all.” To be honest, our patience is wearing thin. Good players make plays. Period. Yes, a lot of times it’s the quality of the surrounding talent that makes a QB look good, but good quarterbacks also make plays on their own. Dave doesn’t do this. What’s more is that we are starting to get somewhat annoyed at some of the excuses he is making, both on the field (yelling at refs for not calling defensive penalties that are not there) and to the press (saying “if this or this just happened, then…”). He gets ticked off at the pass protection and the play-calling. Not to sound like a commercial, but shut up Dave and just do it! He continues to dance around and he looks confused on too many plays. He did not disguise his screen passes well and we caught him “birddogging” more than a few times. He also takes too much time in the pocket. Make the read and throw the ball Dave! The positives? How many could there be when you’re shut out? We thought he was right on the money with his two deep passes — one intended for Calloway in the first half and one intended for Toomer in the second half. But geez, the Giants had zero net passing yards in the first half and minus six yards after three quarters! This isn’t the 1930’s, it’s the 1990’s guys! As John Madden said, “That’s not NFL-calibre football.” Danny Kanell looms larger and larger.
Running Backs: Rodney Hampton was Rodney Hampton. He is a tough, punishing runner with little-to-no explosiveness. When there is no hole there, he will still pick up 1-3 yards. However, on the other hand, when there is a decent hole there, he will make a 4-8 yard run out of something that might have gone for longer if he just had another gear. He used to have that extra gear, but it’s long gone now. Ty Wheatley played quite a bit, and again, we commend Dan Reeves for his rotation of the running backs. Wheatley made positive yards on almost every play he touched the ball, sometimes even when the blocking wasn’t there, but he still hasn’t broken one like we know he can. Give him time! Keith Elias is officially in our doghouse. On a 3rd-and-4 play in the first half, during one of the few series where the Giants had something going on offense, Elias completely ignored the blitzing linebacker (his PRIMARY responsibility) and ran a safety valve pass pattern instead. Dave never had a chance. This is one of those plays where the media will blame the line or blame Dave, but it was Elias’ mental screw-up that stopped the drive. Charles Way continues to impress at fullback as a lead blocker. We think he may soon become a Pro Bowl candidate if he continues to improve.
Tight Ends/H-Backs: Since so many of our readers have been knocking Howard Cross a lot recently, we decided to watch him closely while he was blocking and try to determine whether or not we were overrating his run blocking. Well, our convictions were confirmed in our minds in that Cross often destroyed his man when run blocking. The Giants ran an interesting play in the first half where they tried to get Way deep down the sideline, but because he was well covered, Brown passed to Cross in the flat. We don’t remember the Giants using Cross as a safety valve in the flat before. Once again, Aaron Pierce did not run his route deep enough in a critical situation and the Giants turned the ball over on downs in the 4th quarter even though he caught the ball.
Wide Receivers: Not good at all. A WR didn’t catch a ball in the first half! Thomas Lewis wasn’t activated for the game due to back and hamstring injuries and Amani Toomer got the start. We are rapidly losing patience with Lewis and his injuries. Yes, he may be better than Mike Sherrard, but if he doesn’t play, what difference does it make? Amani didn’t look good to us running his routes. He wasn’t crisp in his patterns (a criticism he carried with him coming out of college) and we blame him for the fumble on the reverse to Wheatley (the ball was there). He also dropped a very catchable deep ball. We’re not too worried because, after all, he is a rookie and this was his first start. We thought Chris Calloway should have caught the deep ball from Brown on 3rd-and-26 — it was right in his hands. Again, good players make good plays. Calloway didn’t. Lawrence Dawsey was not a factor and only had one pass thrown in his direction.
Offensive Line: Their play in the first half was much improved over their performance against the Bills. The run blocking was much better than we expected it was going to be. Ohh, there were some breakdowns and some blocks should have been sustained longer, but we were pleasantly surprised at some of the holes opened against a defense that was often playing the run. The pass blocking was also improved. In the second half, Brian Williams allowed DT Chad Henning to get too much penetration on 3rd-and-two running play. LT Greg Bishop somehow forgot to account for DE Charles Haley on Haley’s sack and forced fumble. How does that happen? Scott Gragg gave up a sack to DE Tony Tolbert
Defensive Line: Very strong against the run in the first half, they did start to wear down in the heat and the fact that they were once again on the field too long. We like having Keith Hamilton and Robert Harris starting in the middle — it gives the Giants a couple of 300 pounders to help clog up the middle. Thus far early in this season, we have been impressed with the way these two are playing. No, they shouldn’t be confused with DT’s like the ones the 49ers have, but they aren’t that bad. Emmitt Smith was not much of a factor in the game. Harris also supplied a couple of good pass rushes on Aikman. We saw DT Bernard Holsey get good penetration on his first play from scrimmage and disrupt a Smith run — he’s improving as well. Strahan played decently against a great player in Erik Williams, disrupting a number of runs, but he and his defensive line companions rarely pressured Aikman on passing plays. Chad Bratzke was only so-so. With the score out of hand early, quite a few back-ups on defense saw a decent amount of playing time. Cedric Jones continues to look confused and Ray Agnew continues to make few plays.
Linebackers: The biggest surprise to us so far this year is the play of the linebackers. Jessie Armstead didn’t do much in the preseason, but he looks like he is becoming a playmaker and a leader on the defense. We were really impressed with his aggressive penetration that disrupted a number of running plays. Corey Widmer was much stronger weaving through the trash this week and made a number of solid tackles. Corey Miller was burned on Smith’s TD catch, but we thought he had good coverage — it was a perfect pass. In the second half, on Smith’s longest run of the game, MLB Coleman Rudolph ran himself right out of the play. Then he looked foolish trying to cover TE Eric Bjornson. He can’t play the run or the pass — he’s a waste of a roster spot. Scott Galyon made a nice tackle on Emmitt Smith to force the Cowboys to kick a field goal on 3rd-and-1. Marcus Buckley looked good on one play, playing off the block and stuffing the running back.
Defensive Backs: Live by the blitz, die by the blitz. For the most part, we didn’t think the coverage of starters Phillippi Sparks and Jason Sehorn was that bad in the first half, Aikman was just amazingly accurate on his deep throws. Yes, Sanders and Williams had a step on Sehorn and Sparks, respectively, on their TD catches, but we thought both plays were relatively well covered. Sehorn was burned very badly late in the first half by Kelvin Martin down the middle — a play that set up the Cowboys’ final TD. However, the guy who played extremely poorly was Thomas Randolph, the guy who we had been pushing over Sehorn. For some reason, the Cowboys bring out the worst in Randolph, and Kevin Williams in particular eats him alive. It was very obvious that Aikman looked in Randolph’s direction every time and Randolph did not make Aikman pay. In the first quarter, with the game still tied at zero, the Giants had forced the Cowboys into a 3rd-and-a-mile, yet Randolph’s pass interference penalty gave the Cowboys a first down deep in Giants’ territory. It was a stupid play because (1) Randolph never should have let Williams get behind him in that situation, and (2) he never looked back for the ball, thus drawing the pass interference penalty. On other plays, Randolph was playing off the ball far too much for someone with the kind of speed he has. With his speed, he should play much more aggressively than he does. FS Tito Wooten and SS Jesse Campbell never seem to be around the ball and Wooten still is not getting over fast enough on the deep passes. Maurice Douglass played extremely well on the goalline stand early in the first quarter after the Giants’ turnover. Indeed, the entire defense during this series played inspired football.
Special Teams: The kick and punt coverage continues to be solid, but the blocking on kick and punt returns also continues to be atrocious. Wheatley and Toomer never have a chance. Mike Horan punted exceptionally well this week. Brad Daluiso was never called upon; the Giants never got in field goal range — that’s how bad the Giants’ offense was on Sunday.
Coaching: We have no problem with Dan Reeves this week. We liked the playcalling in the first half — Dave Brown and others such as Amani Toomer just did not execute. The offensive line is improving and the defense is playing extremely well. Too conservative you say in the second half? The game was over at halftime, and there is no sense in demoralizing your quarterback and offensive line anymore than you have to. The Giants offensive line needs to practice its run blocking and we liked the fact that the Giants didn’t abandon their game plan. We also like the fact that many of the back-ups got some playing time on defense. If we had any pet peeve, it’s playing Rudolph and Elias as much as they do.
