I knew that going on the road to play the defending champion New York Giants wasn't going to be easy, but I didn't expect things to unfold quite the way they did. The 30-15 final score doesn't show just how much my team was outplayed in our week one match up against the Big Blue machine. There were a few bright spots (I'll get to those later), but much of this game was frustrating for me as I felt there was little I could do to stop my guys from getting steam-rolled. Needless to say I have a lot of work to do if I intend to have any kind of success in this division.


The Offense

John McKay was once asked what he thought of his team's execution after a tough loss. He responded by saying "I'm all for it." That's about how I feel after watching the inability of my offense to put together any kind of consistency against the Giants in week 1. The stats are interesting to look at. One that stands out as huge is the number 6. That's how many times the Giants defense got to Jason Campbell. He was under so much pressure that he also scrambled 5 times for 24 yards. His passing numbers are deceptively solid. He went 24 for 40 for 2 touchdowns with no interceptions, although both TDs were late in the fourth quarter. I can't ask for a much better performance than that from my quarterback when he's on his back all day.

Ladell Betts put up pitiful numbers behind an offensive line that wasn't interested in run blocking any more than it was in protecting the quarterback. He carried the ball 21 times for 31 yards. A big staple of my offense is pounding the ball to set up the playaction pass, and the Giants disrupted my plans all day by stuffing the run and stuffing my quarterback. The offensive line isn't an area where I expected a lot of problems, but it's going to see a lot of attention if this kind of play continues.

The Defense

Where our offensive line failed, the Giants succeeded. Eli Manning was never sacked and threw for 245 yards and 2 touchdowns (with one INT). We never really came close to pressuring Eli as he picked us apart all day. Ahmad Bradshaw cut through the defense like a hot knife through better, picking up 133 yards on 21 attempts. He also caught 6 passes for 43 yards. Despite a disappointing defensive performance, we did hold the Giants to a 33% conversion rate on third downs.

Special Teams

When we were down 30-0 late in the third quarter, I elected to kick a field goal just so we'd get on the board.  Shaun Suisham missed the attempt from 34 yards out.  If he does something like that again any time soon, I'll have a new kicker.


Bright Spots

When you get beat up like we did, it's hard to find the bright spots, but I think it helps to focus on the areas where you're strong in order to have something to build on.  A couple of our receivers played extremely well in this game.  Antwaan Randle El had 8 receptions for 86 yards and a touchdown, which was our first points of the game late in the fourth.  Rookie receiver Limas Sweed also came on strong at the end with 4 receptions for 97 yards.  This is a really impressive effort for his first regular season game, and I intend to give him a lot more chances to play soon.

Despite the fact that we were down 30-0 until mid-way through the fourth, we rallied strong at the end and made it look like it may have been a game at some point.  We were able to recover an onside kick and the defense held the Giants at the end so we could get the ball back and score once more.

Injuries

Shawn Springs broke his arm and is out 4-5 weeks.  This is going to force me to play a rookie (Tyvon Branch) at Nickel, so I'm really concerned now about depth at corner.  I'm going to see if there are any vet players available that can help me out for now.


Final Thoughts

We lost in week one because we got absolutely demolished up front on both sides of the ball.  Our offensive line was unable to protect the quarterback and he had some decent numbers despite their poor play.  In retrospect I probably wouldn't have given up on the run as early as I did.  I don't like throwing the ball 40 times in a game and even though Campbell played pretty well, throwing that many times isn't my own personal formula for winning football games.  Because the Giants were able to beat us in the trenches on both sides of the ball, it got me off my gameplan and forced me to do things as a coach that I'd rather not.

This next week we've got to focus on getting our lines in better shape so we can move the ball and stop our opponent from picking us apart.  We've got another tough opponent in the New Orleans Saints and I'm scared we could go down 0-2.  I want to take that 4th quarter momentum and see if we can carry it on to victory this week.  With an approval that's already dropped down to 37, I can't wait too long before I start winning games.