dbair1967

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As I said last night, I am very surprised we won. The Giants are clearly not a very good team but they hung in there pretty well against a really good Jags team last week. Bortles didn't play all that well vs NYG and then he turned around and blitzed the Pats yesterday. Barkley also had that highlight reel long TD vs an excellent Jags D.

1) Offense continued with some struggles after two good series to start the game. Loved the deep throws early and this has GOT to become a weekly thing we see. It's great to complete them (like the Austin TD) but at the very least you have to make attempts at them to spread the opposing D out more and not let them crowd 8-9 guys up so close to the LOS. After the first two series they really resembled a lot of what we saw last week, until that last TD drive. Now THAT was what we all wanted to see. Long, time consuming drive that culminated in a game clinching TD run inside the 5 yd line.
14 plays, 82 yards and over 8 mins in crunch time. Hope we start seeing more of this now.

2) Other than playing prevent defense towards the end of the game, they had to love what they saw for the rest of the night (other than some missed tackles, below). Might have been one of the more aggressive defensive game plans we've seen, maybe having to go back to the Wade days in terms of bringing as much pressure as we did. For most of the game, our front 7 overwhelmed their offense. Barkley really did nothing to us running the football and Eli was constantly harassed and/or sacked. We may not have this much success blitzing every week, but its definitely something teams are going to have to game-plan around.

3) It's only two games, but so far the CB duo of Awuzie and Jones looks extremely legit. They blanket their receivers. Even the one deep ball Awuzie did yield he was right there and it pretty much required a perfect throw to have a chance. I am not so much surprised that Awuzie is good, he looked good late last yr when he finally got on the field. But Jones' development at CB is a surprise. So far he has been outstanding.

4) I thought Connor Williams had a pretty good game, especially compared to last week. While the Giants dont have a ton of defensive talent, their front 3 is pretty good and Williams seemed to hold up pretty well.

5) New PK Maher drilled both PATS and both FG's. Good sign after the opening FG miss last week. (note, Dan bailey signing today with the Vikes after their kicker blew the game yesterday)

6) It's been a long time coming, but it's hard to not be impressed by the LB corp. They have some serious speed at this position now and unlike in past years, that speed is seemingly showing up almost every play. Liked what I saw from LVE yesterday in his first extensive real game time. Jaylon Smith had a really good game too.

7) Seems like an obvious thing, but Tavon Austin needs to be more part of the offense, and not just on those little gimmicky plays close to the LOS.

8) On the downside defensively, there were still too many missed tackles, especially by Frazier and Heath.

9) While Connor Williams got a ton of negative press for some of his preseason and especially last week v Carolina, the OL that really most concerns me right now is Lael Collins. Not sure if he is playing injured (seems like I remember him getting dinged up late in preseason/camp but I dont recall what it was) but he does not look right to me. Doesn't seem to be generating much push at all in the run game, and his pass blocking has been mediocre to average at best so far.

10) No receptions for the TE corp last night (though Gathers was open for a should have been TD that Prescott missed) and the blocking was truly abysmal from those guys. Then Jarwin botches an onsides kick (and was subsequently removed for the next one). Safety on defense and TE on offense are the two obvious holes that they probably need to do something about as soon as they can.

11) Really am not understanding the Brice Butler thing at all. I dont see what adding another JAG WR to an already JAGGY type group is going to do. He really brings nothing to the table and he torched the coaches and organization when he left a few months ago. seems like a stupid move to me. I noticed they also worked out QB Landry Jones today too, which wa somewhat interesting.

12) In regards to Prescott, the completed TD to Austin was great and he had a few other nice throws (especially early) but the rest of the game was a struggle again. Some seem to be concerned with him keeping the ball and running on those read options, but for our offense right now it's really a necessity. Teams are absolutely crowding the LOS and slanting/crashing people inside to stop our run game. If you arnt a good throwing team, the only other option to help loosen some of that up is make the defense respect more of the field. While him running more brings injuries potentially into play, he does do a good job of sliding most of the time. he gets what he can and usually goes down without major contact.

13) Maliek Collins apparently has a sprained MCL, not sure how long he will be out yet but he would be a loss if he is gone substantial time.

Teams have shown over the years that if you have a dominant run game and good to dominant defense, you can go far. It's still too early to proclaim us a dominant defense, but the last 5 games of last yr and the first 2 games of this year seem to show that our defense is legit. The run game needs work and there is no doubt Frederick is a huge loss up front for us, but if they can get that going things could get interesting. The schedule is not bad the next 3 weeks (at Seattle, Detroit, at Houston) and we'll be getting Xavier Woods, Datone Jones and possibly most important, David Irving back in the next few weeks. I still think they need to make a couple moves as S and TE though.
 

Doomsday

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Again as per usual, excellent summation and examination. To which I will add:
Loved the deep throws early and this has GOT to become a weekly thing we see. It's great to complete them (like the Austin TD) but at the very least you have to make attempts at them to spread the opposing D out more and not let them crowd 8-9 guys up so close to the LOS.
Not to mention the oft-called pass interference the long bomb often generates. Ya can't get those 60-yard PA bennies unless you're throwing that deep ball.

THROW THE FUCKING DEEP BALL! Especially early. Even if only to let them know you will.
 

Dodger12

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Teams have shown over the years that if you have a dominant run game and good to dominant defense, you can go far. It's still too early to proclaim us a dominant defense, but the last 5 games of last yr and the first 2 games of this year seem to show that our defense is legit. The run game needs work and there is no doubt Frederick is a huge loss up front for us, but if they can get that going things could get interesting. The schedule is not bad the next 3 weeks (at Seattle, Detroit, at Houston) and we'll be getting Xavier Woods, Datone Jones and possibly most important, David Irving back in the next few weeks. I still think they need to make a couple moves as S and TE though.

Good write up dbair. Can you give me an example of who you may be referring to with the part I bolded. Off the top of my head, I'm thiking you may have been referring to Seattle. But Wilson is more than a bus driver.

Also, the other couple of times Dak went downfield were pretty poor throws. It's almost like he throws it up just to say he took a shot but the balls are uncatchable. We won't get too many PI's in that scenario.
 

theoneandonly

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There were a few disturbing stats last night. One on the defensive side of the ball was Gnats going 8-18 on 3rd down, also dont believe there were any take aways. If the Gnats can 8-18 on 3rd down with a toast QB and sieve OL, scared to think about what a competent offense will do against them.
 
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This clip is a good metaphor for how I view the game:

[video=youtube;8NlrgjgOHrw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NlrgjgOHrw[/video]

I was very encouraged by the defense, and I thought the defensive secondary as a unit had the best game I can recall probably going all the way back to before the Legion of Boobs.

Zeke seems to be getting into football shape so hopefully he has a series of dominant games soon.

Dak's game is still weak, but he didn't make any game changing mistakes like a late pick six. He nearly had an endzone pick though.

The defense really just needs to work on better 3rd down efficiency.

There's a lot to be encouraged by, but I remain very cautious. We'll need to see this kind of game against an upper tier team.
 

Doomsday

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Zeke seems to be getting into football shape so hopefully he has a series of dominant games soon.
During the postgame interview with Tafoya he had on a half shirt showing off his abs. Unlike last year he looks chiseled, not an ounce of fat on him. Shows me he takes it at least somewhat seriously.
 

NoMoRedJ

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Again as per usual, excellent summation and examination. To which I will add:
Not to mention the oft-called pass interference the long bomb often generates. Ya can't get those 60-yard PA bennies unless you're throwing that deep ball.

THROW THE FUCKING DEEP BALL! Especially early. Even if only to let them know you will.

Aldavis.jpg
 
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