As Usual, Final Scores Don’t Tell the Stories
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
The easiest way to tell a good Giants performance from a bad one is that usually, when you look at the scoreboard after a good performance, the Giants have the most points. I stress the “usually” because the Giants’ best game this year was the opening day loss to the Colts. Yesterday they beat the Atlanta Falcons in Atlanta by the impressive score of 27–14, but for most of the game, or at least nearly all the first half and the beginning of the second, it was difficult to tell which was the better team. I’m still not sure.
Once again, the Giants gave up a spectacular touchdown run — a Falcons’ team record 90-yard burst by Warrick Dunn, early in the third quarter — and once again any attempt at offensive consistency was hamstrung by penalties: 10 more to add to their league-leading total, three of them for the Dreaded False Start, which is beginning to look like their signature offensive play. Once again, Eli Manning and the offense started as though in a stupor, putting up just a field goal in the first half and producing two interceptions (though one, caused by a tip at the line of scrimmage, probably shouldn’t be blamed on Manning). Once again, they couldn’t cover on special teams, giving up 144 return yards, 79 more than the Falcons.
But, just as the Giants seem to find a new thing to do wrong each week, so do they often compensate by finding something new to do right.This week the timing was sensational for the pass rush to arrive.The defense recorded seven sacks on Michael Vick, a career worst for him and two more than the Giants managed in their previous four games.
Vick, deprived of his deep rolls to the right and left by defensive ends Michael Strahan and Osi Umenyiora, who had two sacks, and finding the middle sealed off against him by nose tackle Barry Cofield, who got one sack and was in on another, was a mess. He had some success running — 68 yards on eight carries, mostly in the first half — but none at all in the second half, when, increasingly, the Giants gambled brilliantly with delayed blitzes from linebacker Brandon Short and once from cornerback Corey Webster. I say “gambled”because in all three of those sacks, defensive coordinator Tim Lewis caught Vick on his blind side.
That’s due in large part to Vick’s not merely being the most overrated, but increasingly, the most predictable quarterback in the league. He never uses his amazing speed to stutter step and buy time for his receivers to get open, so if he’s rushed from the outside and can’t immediately read the coverage downfield, he’s vulnerable to all kinds of surprise blitzes. Vick always looks directly at his primary receiver, holding his gaze so long that a blitzer from the opposite side usually has a decent shot at him. His play fakes are so bad they wouldn’t fool a French film critic. The result is that any defenders coming into the backfield usually ignore the running backs and go straight for Vick. On this day, they got to him.
The Giants did one other thing right: They kept their cool for a change. Dunn’s touchdown run, which came on the Falcons’ first snap from scrimmage in the second half, looked to be the kind of play that causes the Giants to fold up tent, particularly when they’re playing a non-division team who they have no grudge against. After Dunn’s run, the Giants came back on two long unflustered drives — no major penalties to overcome — paced by five runs from Tiki Barber of 12 yards or more and punctuated by two quick touchdown passes from Manning to Jeremy Shockey, who, amazingly enough, had never caught two scoring passes in a game. (This says a lot about the limitations of Tom Coughlin’s and John Hufnagel’s game plans, but we’ll let that pass for this week.)
It was an impressive second half show, though it once again left Giants watchers wondering why the team always waits until the second half to put on an impressive show. It also left cautious observers wondering if the Giants could have pulled it off against a Falcon defense that didn’t have with so many injuries to key players. John Abraham, who returned to the Atlanta lineup this week after a groin injury and dominated his opponents on the Giants offensive line in the first half makes you think not; the offense really only began to roll in the second half when Abraham, still sore, was on the sidelines.
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Jets fans may be thinking similar thoughts about their team’s fortunes. Daunte Culpepper’s injury left the Miami Dolphins with a mediocre Joey Harrington at quarterback, and though Miami had two interceptions and a lost fumble in their loss to Gang Green yesterday, they still accumulated nearly 400 total yards, 135 more than New York. In fact, the whole thing looked pretty ugly for the Jet everywhere but on the scoreboard. They fumbled three times but lucked out on each recovery; they had ten penalties assessed to Miami’s six and were outrushed 129–103. They didn’t record a single sack on any of Harrington’s 43 pass attempts.
Yes, yes, I know — it’s only the final score that counts. But I’m worried about the four times out of five that you can have such dreadful statistics as the Jets had on Sunday and still win a game.
Eric Mangini woke up in the fourth quarter with only a 6–3 lead and remembered that he has a good quarterback. He turned Chad Pennington lose for two long touchdown passes to Laveraneus Coles covering 80 yards — more than half the Jets’ passing yards for the day. Then, with a 20–3 lead, about 10 minutes to play, and the game seemingly put away, Mangini pulled his defense back in one of those wussy prevent defenses, allowing the Dolphins to march 155 yards on 23 plays in two successive possessions. This kind of conservatism on offense an defense is stifling the Jets and failed to result in a regulation tie only when the Dolphins missed a 51-yard field goal try at the gun.
The Jets now play two games against Detroit and Cleveland, who have a combined record of 2–9, before getting a bye. If the Jets are any good, these games should amount to little more than full contact scrimmages. In any event, the Jets can’t afford to lose either one, because they then face successive games against the Patriots at Foxboro and the league’s best team, the Chicago Bears, at the Meadowlands. Let’s be realistic: If the Jets don’t win three of these next four, there’s no point in talking about the playoffs.
Mr. Barra is the author, most recently, of “The Last Coach: A Life of Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant.”