There’s no way that the New York Giants open the season 0-2 again… right?
With this new west coast offense designed to help quarterback Eli Manning get rid of the ball quicker and designed to help build the run game with new running backs Rashad Jennings and Andre Williams, the Giants will get things together and avoid another 0-2 start and not get embarrassed at home, right?
(To put things in perspective, the Giants haven’t started 0-2 in consecutive years since 1995-96.)
Well, if last Monday’s 35-14 loss says anything, then don’t get your hopes up.
The Giants preseason struggles continued into their opener at Detroit last Monday night and extended into their defense, which looked as bad and as lost as the Giants’ offense. If they can’t get things right, they could get beat even worse by this surging Arizona Cardinals team that rallied back in the fourth quarter against San Diego last Monday night.
If they can’t get things right, expect talks of 0-6 to happen again, not to mention the talks for “Fire Coughlin (he’s been on the hot seat since 2005), get rid of Eli, move the team into the city, yata, yata, yata.” (Possibly overdramatic overreactions, but you get the idea.)
First and foremost, the Giants have an advantage in a sense taking on Arizona considering both played on Monday night let alone the fact that the Cardinals are traveling east to MetLife Stadium, something that has hurt west coast teams through history.
With that said, the Giants have to execute offensively and that starts with the offensive line.
If anyone hasn’t figured it out by now, Eli Manning is NOT a west coast style quarterback. He’s not a guy who can take a quick drop, make a quick read (or decide to throw to his first read on pre-snap) and get rid of the ball quick. That’s not to say he’s a bad quarterback (which we know he’s not at all), but he’s flat-out not a fit for Ben McAdoo’s west coast offense.
If the offensive line can hold together, make their plays in the run game and give Eli some time, the Giants could have a shot against the Cardinals defense. Eli will have to do better than an 18-for-33 for 163 yards performance and cannot afford to turn the ball over. He needs to prove on Sunday that he’s picking up this offense and can execute it the way everyone is hoping he will.
“I know we’re going to have to grind through sometimes,” he said during the week. “It’s not always going to be perfect and easy…. You might not always be ahead of the game on some things, that’s just part of it. But you can still go out there and be efficient, you can make improvements, hit on some big plays, do some good things.”
One of those good things that Eli has to do is to get the ball to wideout (and new Giants captain) Victor Cruz.
The fourth-year receiver has averaged 80 catchers and 1,200 yards and eight touchdowns his last three years. However, against Detroit, Cruz had two drops late in the game and Eli stopped looking his way, something he cannot do. The same goes for Reuben Randle and Mario Manningham (the Odell Beckham Jr. when he finally plays) If Eli can get the ball into their hands early (preferably on their break) then all three can make something happen.
“No question, that would be something that would be very important and that could naturally be looked at as an improvement,” head coach Tom Coughlin said on Friday. “Most patterns have a triangle progression or some type of a priority followed by a progression. Many times those things prevail as to where the ball goes.”
Translation: the ball goes to the open man, or it’s supposed to.
Then there’s the story of the Giants defense, which, if you weren’t watching the game carefully Monday night, you would’ve thought that the offensive players were playing defense as well – it was that bad.
While both Larry Fitzgerald and Michael Floyd aren’t Calvin Johnson and Golden Tate, they are still very, very good receivers. Considering that Cards’ coach Bruce Arians loves to throw the ball downfield, especially with a strong-armed quarterback in Carson Palmer and various, various threats, expect the Giants secondary to get a lot of work on Sunday.
Big Blue’s defense should be in their nickel or dime packages for a good majority of the game, keeping everyone covered, at least for the most part.
On Monday night, the Giants secondary allowed Johnson to sneak behind their safeties on their way to a 67-yard touchdown on Detroit’s opening drive. They cannot have those kind of breaks in coverage against Palmer, Fitzgerald and company.
The one thing that the Giants did do well however is defend what was supposed to be a good running game in Detroit with Reggie Bush and Joique Bell. They limited the Lions to just 76 yards on the ground in 30 total carries (2.5 yards per carry) and could do even better against the Cardinals and young runningback Andre Ellington, especially if linebacker Jon Beason plays.
Overall, the Giants have a good shot to rebound from Monday night and go to 1-1.
Throughout a majority of the Tom Coughlin era, the Giants (for the most part) have been a good team when their backs has been against the wall. That theory will be tested against the Cardinals today.
Giants 17, Cardinals 14.