Here we go, Football 2021 is here. It’s the Prophet’s 7th year writing at this website. It is also my 62nd Giants’ season. I started watching this team at age 7 and I have seen it all over that time, the good, bad and ugly. It is an exciting time for all who love this game! It is a challenging water shed year for Dave Gettleman, Daniel Jones and Giants fans everywhere.
After 2 years, we don’t know if Daniel Jones, who was the 6th overall pick in 2019, is a starting NFL quarterback. He has more turnovers 39 than touchdowns, 37. He has only won 8 games in 2 years but he has not beat a winning team. Four of those wins came from a rebuilding Washington team that has a losing record both years. Garrett hid Jones last year. Jones only had 210 yards/game passing. All the games they won, the Gmen had over 100 yards rushing. One game they even had over 190!
I am entering my 7th year on nygunderground.com providing the truth about the Giants that is not pom-pom waving or sugar coated. To paraphrase the line from the movie A Few Good Men, “can you handle the truth”? Hopefully you can and continue reading now and every week for an update before every game in “The Prophet’s Pulpit”.
Dave Gettleman’s legacy is tied to his decision to take Daniel Jones as the overall number 6 draft pick in the 2019 draft. He willingly put his head in the noose with Jones. Both would either sink or swim together. If Jones is a bust, Gettleman will be put out to pasture for a premature retirement even though he is already 70 years old. In his first 2 years Jones has more turnovers, 39, than touchdowns, 37! Like his predecessor, Jerry Reese, Gettleman went on a free agency spending spree to ensure that if Daniel Jones fails it is not going to be his fault. I will refer to Jerry Reese going forward as Jerry “Reach” as we all know his legendary reaches like Ereck Flowers and Eli Apple to name a few.
It was a tale to 2 halves in the Giants Finale. The Giants got outto an early lead and hung on after the Dallas comeback in the second half. The Giants have been starting the recent games very slowly. Judge must had made a fast start a priority this week. They only took a little over 3 minutes to score on the opening drive. Shepard ran in a 23-yard touchdown and Gano missed the extra point. Gano set his personal record today with 30 consecutive field goals which is also the Giants record. He hit a 50-yard field goal to make the score 23 and that is also a record. He has 5 50 yard or longer field goals which is the Giants record. Shepard had his best game of the year with 8 catches on 10 targets for 112 yards and a touchdown. He also had 24 yards rushing on 2 attempts with the long 23-yard TD run. Dallas cornerback Anthony Brown was beat constantly by Shepard. Brown played off Shepard and Dallas never gave him any help.
The Giants play the Dallas Cowboys this week for a possible trip to the playoffs. The winner of this game if the Washington team loses will be the NFC divisional winner. More absurdly that winner will host a home playoff in the playoffs with a 6-10 record!. Right now, that game would be vs the Buccaneers pending Sunday’s action been completed.
The recent history for the Gmen vs the Cowboys is not good. Dallas has won the last 7 in a row. The last time the Giants won was 12/11/16 at home by a field goal 10-7. The Giants arebehind in the all-time series history 45-69-2. The last meeting was the game where Dak got hurt and was out for the season. Dalton had brought the Cowboys back for a 34-point tie. We all thought the game was going to overtime. The Cowboys had the ball at their own 12-yard line with 52 seconds to play. The Giants played a prevent defense that prevented the win. Dalton threw 15 yards to Cooper, 19 yards to Gallup, and the dagger, 38 yards to Gallup. Lewis had bad coverage on him with a top tap on the sideline. After the review the catch was good. Zuerlein hit a 34-yard field goal to beat the Giants 37-34.
For the Giants to win their last game the game plan is simple. They need to run the ball for well over 100 yards. This will also take the pressure off Daniel Jones. He is immobile since he suffered the hamstring injury. Jones was sacked 8 times by the Cardinals and 6 times by the Ravens last week. The offensive line that was playing better mid-season has been breaking down. Jones has just 3 yards rushing the last 2 weeks on 1 attempt. The Cowboys allow a league worst 161 rushing yards/game and they are tied for the league worst 5.0 yards/carry with Houston. Gallman and to a lesser extent Morris have to have a big game. Dallas is 32nd vs the rush but they are 11 vs the pass. The Gmen are 29th in passing which is another reason why the run game is critical.
For the third week in a row, the Giants get off to a slow start and this week’s game was over before the end of the first quarter. The New York Football Giants never got off the train that they took to Baltimore. The Ravens took the opening kickoff for 82 yards on 13 plays that ate up 8:12 minutes. The Giants go 3 and out and take 1:36 off the clock. The Ravens again go on a long drive of 10 plays, 65 yards on a 5:05 drive. At 11 seconds left in the 1st quarter this game is over!
The last 3 weeks the Giants have been off the Joe Judge script for the Giants to win. The script is first rush for 100+ yards/game. This keeps the other team off the field and minimizes what Daniel Jones needs to do. Second, get a good game out of the defense holding the opposition to 20 points or less. The Giants are 31st in scoring with 17 points per game. Thirdly, the plan is to keep Daniel Jones passing around 200 yards/game. This minimizes turnovers. He has 14 this year which is down from last year’s 24.
The Giants got behind Sunday by 14 points in the first half to the Ravens. They were down 13-3 to the Browns at the end of the first half last week. Two weeks ago, they were down 13-0 to the Cardinals at the half and 20-0 midway through the third quarter. All these games were over early taking the Giants out of the 2020 winning formula. Against the Ravens the Giants had 54 yards rushing. Against the Browns the Gmen ran for 74 yards and vs the Cardinals they ran for 78 yards.
The Giants without Daniels Jones and Pro Bowl cornerback James Bradberry were beat by 2 touchdowns by the Browns last Sunday night. The outcome was never in doubt. Some questionable offensive decisions and a Giants team that came up small in the red zone. The Browns running tandem of Chubb and Hunt had a night off as they only combined for 71 yards rushing, Mayfield without Bradberry sliced and diced the Giants zone defense for 297 yards, 84% completion percentage on 32 passes, 2 touchdowns, and a 126.2 quarterback rating.
This week’s opponent, the Ravens, have been playing much better and need to win the next 2 games to have a chance at a playoff berth. The only way the Giants can win is to limit the run game because they are not going to stop it. They need to force the Ravens to throw more than they want. Bradberry will be covering the Ravens only deep threat, Hollywood Brown. Snead and Boykin are not much of a threat. Mark Andrews is probably the 4th best tight in the league behind Kelce, Kittle and Waller. He has had 301 yards on 22 catches on 27 targets and 2 touchdowns the past 4 weeks. Martinez and the Giants safeties will have to keep him in check. Andrews is the passing red zone target.
This Sunday night primetime contest between the Browns and Giants was the most predictable game of the weekend. I don’t know why the spread was not double digits. I predicted it as a 15-point loss and it was a 14-point loss. (it would have been a 15-point loss not for a Parkey missed extra point). With both Bradberry and Holmes out I knew Mayfield would have a field day finding the holes in the zone defense. I also knew Landry would have a big game without Bradberry going step for step with him. He had 7 catches on 8 targets for 61 yards and a touchdown.
The key for the game that the Giants did not generate a pass rush all game. Mayfield had 3 and 4 seconds at times to place the ball. When Baker is comfortable he has his best games. If you can pressure him all game he will fold to the heat. He used his usual roll outs to find the open man. He was only sacked once by the Giants. They were also loading up the box to stop the Browns run game. However, they did not have to run because the completed passes came so easy. The Browns ran in the 4thquarter to end the game. Eight different Browns’ players caught at least 1 pass. Mayfield finished the game 27 completions on 32 passes for 297 yards, 9.3 YPA, and 2 touchdowns, and a 126.2 QB rating.
The Giants had a Golden Opportunity to take a big step and solidify their lead atop the NFC East. What happened is that they were reading their press clippings while the other 3 teams in the division won. Washington now has the inside track to win the division. I think they can win 2 of the next 3 and finish 8-8. The Giants have to hope they go 2-1 and Washington goes 1-2 and they both go 7-9 and the Giants would win the division because they beat Washington twice. To what end is it to win the division. You fall 8-11 spots in the draft and you get the first-place schedule picking up the Packers and the Rams or Seahawks. I’m looking for them to make a playoff push next year and fill the missing pieces on this team.
The NY Giants achieved a remarkable feat in the modern NFL. The League is built on passing, much less scoring, with the rules. We all collectively complain when our team gets flagged for borderline calls on aggressive plays by the secondary. The league is designed to produce more scoring and leniency toward offense. Well, your New York Football Giants defy the league’s mantra. Explain 81 yards in net total passing offense? How is that possible? Eighty-one yards of passing? 81? Their average per pass play was 2.5. Yikes!
Daniel Jones came into the game with a compromised hamstring and exited with a compromised passing game, unsurprisingly. Daniel Jones has a history of turnovers in the pocket. He showed it in the first series when they moving into the Cardinals territory. Daniel Jones once again showed that he has NO pocket presence even on his right or non blind side as Golden wrecked him for a sack and fumble. That set the tone for the rest of the day.
Arizona, who did not go into the game with a highly rated defense, knew that Jones was not going to beat them with his legs as he has with other teams. It is nice to have the mobility as a compliment in a QB but think of all those mobile running QBs in the past and how they turned out? Think RG3, Kapaernick, and even Lamar Jackson now. Cam Newton has paid the price in taking a beating and is a shell of his past. The game is predicated on passing and that is not DJ’s strong suit. See chart below:
The OL was exposed again as they struggled to pick up blitzes and stunts to exacerbate his pocket presence issues. Personally I would like to see the analyst on FOX and CBS show replays of all 22 on what he is missing with check downs and wide open reads on the other side of the field and where he is not progressing in reads of the defense. On 3rd down at the end of the half in their territory, where he was luck to not turn it over again, he was telegraphing to the right side of the field but missed a wide open RB in the flat on the left side of the defense. It is late in year 2 of your development as a QB and these reads are expected of an NFL caliber QB. Frankly, we expect at this stage of his development the ability to understand when to check down to your RB, throw the ball away under duress or just plain take a sack versus risking a turnover deep in your own territory. The one trait Eli had was his pocket presence. We complained about his habit of checking down too early but we would gladly accept that over this.
The Giants defense statistically did not have their best game versus what he have seen the last 2 months. Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray was able to get out of the pocket and avoid pressure when it was applied. He was able to make plays outside the pocket and made a super athletic play on their first TD while avoiding the pressure. Kingsbury attacked the lack of speed of the LBs with Murray out of the pocket which is something the Seahawks did not capitalize on. However, they are handicapped by their other teammates on the offense. The offense left the defense with a short field early on which led to 10 points and kept them on the field with numerous 3 and outs as they achieved a pathetic 3/12 on 3rd downs.
No doubt, we are impressed with Judge’s command of the locker room and getting the most of a roster that is void of talent. We won’t beat him up on the OL getting exposed again as we feel it has more to do with the lack of talent. We were wrong about Hernandez and we are not giving up on Thomas but he must improve his technique to be a starting LT in the NFL in the future. We hope that Judge has more say in personnel as old dinosaur Gettleman is not going anywhere, in our opinion. He needs to look at the QB position, OL, LB, WR and we hope they move on from Saquon as they have shown you do not need to spend a lot of cap space on the RB position since his injury. The rebuild is still on and hard decisions need to be made this offseason and of course we hope that Mara moves on from Gettleman.
So at 5-8 record, the Giants are still in striking distance of winning this crappy NFC East. It is wild to think this team which began the season with a 1-7 record still has a chance! But their next two opponents are the Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens. Can they rebound from this disappointing performance?
The Giants are coming off their biggest victory probably since Super Bowl 46. That makes four wins in a row after a dismal start of 1-7. The Giants are looking to win the division and win at least 3 of the 4 last games.
The Giants and Cardinals used tom play every year. The Giants have a big lead in the series 80-45-2. The Giants have lost the last 3 in the series and have not won vs the Cardinals since 2011.It took a 29-yard catch from Eli by Hakeem Nicks to get the go-ahead touchdown with less than 3 minutes left in that 2011 contest.
These teams played last year. All I can remember that 11 minutes into the game, the Giants were down 14-0. Edmunds ran the first 2 touchdowns in. I was ticked because I benched him because Drake was supposed to play and he played 1 play and was never seen again. Needless to say, I lost in fantasy in thatleague that week. I also remember the Jones turnovers. He had an interception early and 3 fumbles of which 2 were lost. #Danny Turnover has been better his last 3 games with the turnovers. We will have to see if he can play. He is a game time decision.
