Oakland Raiders 20 – New York Giants 17
Overview: Ugly game, ugly loss. The Giants committed too many penalties (15 for 90 yards), couldn’t convert on third down (1-for-14), couldn’t establish a running game (71 yards on 23 carries for a 3.1 yard-per-carry average), and experienced too many defensive lapses. That in a nut shell was the ball game. In order to get back on the winning track, the Giants really need to get their running game going and to stop committing so many penalties.
Quarterbacks: Danny Kanell (23 of 33 for 188 yards, two touchdowns, one interception) didn’t play as well as his stats indicate, but played well enough for the Giants to win the game. As we pointed out last week, what we like best about him at this early stage of his career is the quick decisions he is making — something that obviously helps him also get rid of the ball quickly. And surprisingly, for the most part, he is making good decisions on where to go with the ball. His biggest problem right now remains his accuracy. Not only does he need to do a better job of giving his receivers an opportunity to catch the ball, but he needs to place the ball in a better spot for the receiver to comfortably catch it and do some damage after the catch. We thought one of his best passes was the swing pass to Tiki Barber on the first drive. This pass is a lot harder to throw than most realize and Kanell did a good job of leading Barber with the throw so Tiki was near full speed, moving forward when he caught it. We also like the fact that Danny is a tough guy and will stand in the pocket and take the hit in order to deliver the ball. His touchdown toss to Chris Calloway is evidence of this as he got smashed as he threw the ball. Despite completing 23 passes, Kanell did miss too many open guys, including on key third down plays. He also has to be more aware of the yardage he needs when he does decide to run with the ball — he looked almost lackadaisical on his 3rd down scramble where he ran out of bounds before the yardage marker. And if Danny is ever going to become one of the better quarterbacks in the league, he has to lead his team successfully in the two-minute drill with the game on the line. Kanell had his chance to be the hero and either tie or win the game on the final drive and came up way short.
Wide Receivers: Decent game against two solid cornerbacks, but nothing special. What really surprised us is that the Giants did not take a couple of shots deep down the field. It is obvious that Kanell and Ike Hilliard (8 catches for 78 yards and one touchdown) are becoming more and more comfortable with each other. Hilliard came up big on the Giants’ first drive with two catches, one for 18 yards and one for 10 yards and a touchdown — on the latter, he showed real nice instincts and toughness scrambling into the endzone over the middle. Chris Calloway had a so-so game (4 catches for 43 yards and one touchdown). He made a real nice adjustment on his 20 yard touchdown catch against CB Eric Allen. But although Calloway is super-solid and Ike Hilliard is a big-time playmaker, what is readily apparent is that neither scares opposing defenses deep due to their lack of speed. The Giants need to do a better job of vertically stretching the field with their other receivers such as David Patten, Amani Toomer, and Joe Jurevicius. None of these guys had a catch in the game.
Tight Ends: Howard Cross actually had a good game in the pass receiving department. He made a couple of tough grabs (2 for 15 yards) and had a big catch and run called back. Al Pupunu (1 catch for 2 yards) was practically invisible. Again, the tight ends much share some of the blame for the anemic running attack.
Halfbacks/Fullbacks: What is going wrong with the rushing attack? To be honest, we’re not sure. Is it the offensive line? Is it the backs? Most likely, it’s a combination of both. Tiki Barber (13 for 32 yards and a terrible 2.5 yard-per-carry average) does not seem to be hitting the holes when they are there or running very decisively. Oh sure, he had a couple of decent runs, including a nice looking run to the right in the second half, but the Giants need more than a flash here and there. They need consistent productivity. Granted there are some runs where the blocking is not there and he has no chance, but on a number of others, there seems to be running room and he isn’t taking advantage of his opportunities. We also don’t see that shake-and-bake elusiveness and explosion that we saw in camp last year and early on in the 1997 season. He is getting tackled way too easily. The good news is that he’s getting better as a receiver (5 catches for 34 yards). His big catch-and-run on 3rd-and-long was “Meggett-like” in that he cut back against the grain and showed some real toughness fighting for the necessary yardage.
Gary Brown (3 carries for 0 yardage) hasn’t really been given a chance to get into a rhythm. He had no chance on his 3rd-and-short attempt when he was gang-tackled in the backfield for a loss. We’d still like to see what he can do as a feature guy, but we’re not sure that will ever happen in this offense. FB Charles Way played a bad game. After his 21 yard gain on the first drive, he only picked up seven yards on his next four carries. On one run, he completely missed a nice looking hole the line had formed for him.
Offensive Line: Not a very good game for this group. The Raiders controlled the line of scrimmage, shut down the running game, and got too much pressure on Danny Kanell. Of course, the latter is largely the result of the absence of a running game. Most distressing is the fact that the Giants could not convert on their numerous 3rd-and-short attempts throughout the game. We wonder if the offense is trying to be a little too cute right now with all the pulling up front. Mobility is not a strength of this line. Perhaps the Giants would be better off trying some mano-a-mano stuff up front — straight ahead drive blocking. What we really didn’t like was seeing the guards pull on the above-mentioned Gary Brown short-yardage conversion attempt. Pulling in short yardage invites penetration. In pass protection, we saw LT Roman Oben get cleanly beaten for one of the few times in his young career (by Pat Swilling). RT Scott Gragg also gave up a sack. The interior trio also had some problems with pressure and blitzes up the gut. There were also four costly holding penalties (though we thought the Lance Scott holding call was BS).
Defensive Line: Yes, Michael Strahan (6 tackles) and Chad Bratzke (7 tackles, two assists) each picked up two more sacks this week, but we thought the line only played an average game. Jeff George had far too much time in many obvious passing situations. DT’s Keith Hamilton, Robert Harris, Christian Peter, and Bernard Holsey did not get enough pressure up the middle. Most inexcusable were the four off-sides penalties picked up by Hamilton and Harris. Strahan played the run well, but Bratzke must share some of the responsibility for the soft run defense on the right side. Harris did force a key fumble in the second half. Cedric Jones made a nice play against the run and then followed it up with some decent pressure on George on the very next play.
Linebackers: The Giants’ linebackers are hurting. All three starters were hampered with injuries. Right now, WLB Jessie Armstead is a shell of his former self. It was brutally obvious that his ankle injury was causing him all kinds of problems. Jessie was a real liability in run defense and he and MLB Corey Widmer were successfully neutralized on Napoleon Kaufman’s 80-yard touchdown scamper on the first offensive play of the game. Marcus Buckley (hip) also looked gimpy out there. His poor coverage on TE Rickey Dudley let Dudley pick up 26 yards on 3rd-and-26 late in the game. Marcus was also flagged for being off-sides as was SLB Ryan Phillips. Scott Galyon was forced to leave the game early with an Achilles injury. He did look good on one dog up the middle. Armstead’s best play of the game was on a blitz where he sacked George.
Defensive Backs: This group did not play as badly as the stats would indicate. Tim Brown did pick up over 120 yards, but a couple of big plays to him were simply well-executed throws and catches where the defensive back had little chance to break up the pass. Brown beat CB Conrad Hamilton for a 22-yard touchdown. Brown got a step on Conrad on the play. Brown also beat CB Carlton Gray for a 29 yard gain on 3rd-and-10, but Carlton had Brown extremely well covered — it was an excellent throw from George. The Raiders rarely went after Phillippi Sparks and that speaks volumes about the game he had. Tito Wooten had nine tackles, but dropped an interception that he might have been able to return for a touchdown. He also might have been at least partially responsible for Dudley’s 26-yard completion. The safeties were nowhere in sight on Kaufman’s TD run. CB Shaun Williams was burned badly on one key long completion.
Special Teams: Except for one long kick-off return and one miss from Brad Daluiso, the special teams played well. Brad Daluiso was excellent on his kick-offs, nailing three into the endzone. He made two field goals, but his one miss cost the Giants dearly. Kick off coverage remains a problem. Because of Daluiso’s long kicks, the Raiders were only able to return one kick, but they did so for 42 yards. Brad Maynard punted extremely well and punt coverage was very good. Amani Toomer screwed up on one punt but letting the ball bounce instead of fielding it, but redeemed himself with an excellent punt return later in the game. David Patten looked real sharp returning kicks and the Giants are now doing a nice job of blocking for him.