I will talk about: 1. Chad Pennington 2. Leon Washington 3. D'Brickashaw Ferguson 4. The Defense 1. Chad Pennington All this talk about how he is going to kill one of our WRs needs to stop. His passes have no less zip than they ever have. He has never gotten the ball quickly to the outside, he relies on his timing, and last night he showed that he still has timing. The only bad thing about the pass to Coles that got him winded was the accuracy, it was not realyl even an issue of velocity. He threw the ball high and Coles got low-bridged, but as far as ball speed it was no different than the nice one he threw to J-Mac. 2. Leon Washington I really like this guy, he is exciting to watch. I can see where Trey Ko get's the hype from, I also am starting to think that Washington can be the real thing. He has awesome quickness, and its probably his size that held him back in the pre-draft rankings. On his one run up the middle there really was very little room but he was able to quickly pop his way through for a few yards. I think he and Miller are pretty equal as returners but if Leon isn;t gonna drops punts and kicks he has to be the guy. I hope he gets some time at RB too. 3. D'Brickashaw Ferguson I don't think last night was his best night but then again it was a step up in competition for him too. He handles Andre Carter pretty well last week against Washington. Whoever says he isn't gonna be as good as we need him to be is wrong at this point. He has showed more good than bad, and he clearly has the desire to get up to speed as fast as he possibly can. It was good to see how seriously he took those false start penalties and I am sure he will work on stopping those mistakes. It was also nice to see Mangini notice that Brick was upset and call him over to talk when he walked off the field. 4. The Denfense I was very happy with how many times we made them punt. Other than that lapse at the end of the first half, we held our own against a pretty good offense. Bryan Thomas had nice coverage on Tiki on the one incompletion and hopefully he comes along as a good LB because his height is certainly nice to have at that position. DeWayne Robertson, however, is just not the answer at NT. I watched him get dominated by the Giants' centre a few times and it was just 1 on 1. This was on passing plays and I don't know if their centre is some superstar, or if D-Rob is supposed to be a pass rushing guy or not, but he did not to well in the instances where I watched. I just hope we can get out ranking out of the 30s (league ranking) in yards allowed. rAnDoM tHoUgHtS: On Jolley's penalty both or none should have been called. Doug really did nothing and Madison looked like a soccer player with that dive. Someone should show that to team Italy, they'd be proud of him. Jon Vilma is all over the field, he's my favourite player now that Wayne is gone, by a long shot. If he makes the team, Tui Alailefaleula will be second. The game was boring and neither team looked good so let's not beat ourselves up over it. Accept that fact that this will not be a great season, pick a few prospects you like, and follow their progression through the season.
I agree. I missed the game last nite, and read some of the posts later. I watched the games today on SNY. I thought chad looked fine, he made a couple nice throws, and seeing this is only his second preseason game, im not too worried. and geez, dbrick is a rookie, he has a lot to learn. just because he made a really great play on the reverse against washington we shouldn't expect him to be antony munoz every play. with all that said, i thought the defense looked very good. not just good, very good. eric barton is a manimal. that one boneheaded play really overshadowed a tremendous 2004 campaing, which i hope he is poised to re-create. the secondairy seems to get better every week. yes it was ugly, but it was also preseason. let's think back to last years giant/jets games, where we manhandled there first team and henderson's "we put our hats on people" bravado. look how that turned out. 4-12 and the giants in the playoffs. just breathe fellas... the season hasnt even began
Pennington has been throwing high for the last couple years. I think when he aims it or trys to be too accurate his mechanics get out of whack and he floats it. I remember Herm used to get on him about being decisive and "letting it rip" but he still struggles with this.
I agree, you can't be worried about D'Brick because of a few miscues, hes still a rookie. I thought Mangold was good at opening some holes in the middle last night.
What constitutes as being "the real thing"? If he becomes just our 3rd down back, does that make him still "the real thing"?
Unreal. throwing the ball high in chads case is not an accuracy thing. Its because he has to float the ball to get it there. How can there be one person alive that doesnt understand this? Washington wasnt drafted high because of his size you say. yeah, exactly. Has he grown 5 inches since the draft????Im very confused as to how someone could have watched the game last night and be upbeat this morning.very confused
I'm sorry, but you can't like Washington off that performance. He was miserable. I wouldn't want him on the field with the starters again. Jonnyd: You are wrong about Pennington. He made a bad throw there, no question, but it was 1 throw. The rest were not bad, and that one he tried to get it over a defender and did not fire it.. His mistake. Our defense was pretty good last night. The Giants have a lot of weapons, and with no help from our offense, the defense held the Giants in check. Our 2 minute offense was pretty decent, and when we went to a more hurry up style, it seemed like our offense picked up some spark. As for Ferguson... he'll learn. He's a rookie and we can not forget that. Remember, when Jones was in at LT, the line play got worse.
Just saw the game. Pennington did NOT look bad. A few high throws and only one real bad one that hung Coles out to dry. Considering the pressure/pass rush he dealt with it could be argued that his performance was better than Eli's Someone needs to teach Washington how to BLOCK! that was sad. The D in the 1st half was a good thing to see. Lack of depth was quite apparent later in the game.
Good post. I didnt see the game once again but that sounded like a better combined version of all the other threads... thanks alot
I watched the NFL Network feed this afternoon. To listen to some on this board, you'd think we were absolutely inept. I mean, the Giants are supposed to be the real deal this year. How could they come away feeling any better than the Jets? Because they won? I didn't see complete domination by the Giants. Yea, the starting O wasn't great, but you take away D-Brick's offside penalty, if Nugent hits the FG and Miller doesn't get called for the unsporstmanlike (I didn't buy that call, unless he said something verbally), it could easily have been 10-3 at half. So, let's not mail in the season quite yet. We went 4-12 last year. Should have won two additional games easily (the December game vs. Fins, when we had the ball 1st and Goal at the 5 and couldn't score; the N.O. game should have been a win; you could even argue we should have taken the game vs. S.D. at home too). So there's no way in 2006 we will be any worse than in 2005. I just don't see it. I'm still expecting a sub .500 season. But I'm not expecting to be sitting with the #1 pick in the draft next year either.
5 foot 8 Leon Washington? Do you not understand the characteristics of a third down back? Come on man...
You should become a Colts fan, then noone will have to listen to you bitch about your quarterback...until round 2 of the playoffs. MICKEY SCHULER....we should have beat SD at the end of that game too......should have handed it off 4 times to Sowell instead of passing....IMO
I agree hes going to bitch and moan about for the enitre season, like mangini is listening. Dude quit it, hopefully everything will pan out.
I agree with most of the sentiments here (exclusing johnnyd - although I do love the avatar). After watching the game on the NFL Network I didn't see anything noticably wrong with Pennington that we didn't know about in 2002/2003. He did then and still has "below NFL average" arm strength. However, that doesn't mean that the Jets can't be sucessful with him at QB. The Jets record (from 2002-2005) with him at QB vs. him not at QB indicates that he is a positive difference maker. It seems to me that anytime Pennington does something wrong people come in and spout it's because of a weak arm. People act as if no other QB in the NFL ever makes his wide receiver jump for the ball as Coles had to. I'm sorry but WR's have to jump high for balls occasionally from both strong armed armed and weak armed QB's. Did Chad overthrow a reciever or two? Yes. However, so did Clemmens, Manning (leading to an INT), and Lorenzen. If you overthrow the receiver it doesn't really matter if you overthrew him by "lobbing" the ball over the receiver or by rifling the ball over the receiver. It's still an incomplete pass. One of the main ways to judge a QB is does the ball get where it needs to be when the receiver is expecting the ball. It doesn't matter how it got there. Of course, you'd like to have a strong-armed, accurate QB with all of the smarts and intagibles because that there is more room for error. I think that most of the "pro Pennington" (and I even hate to use the term) understand that what his limitations are, but realize that he might be the best solution for the time being.
On Chad: I said this last night. I know he threw some balls high, but I liked the velocity on his throws. The one to J-Mac was a bullet. He also had a nice throw into the end-zone that was high again, but in terms of arm strength, not an issue. I actually thought his arm looked stronger last night than it ever has. Pennington is not the problem, but if this line can't protect him, he'll have a problem. On Leon: Other than the KO return last week, I haven't been impressed. Don't know what RB you were watching last night, but if I remember correctly, Leon didn't do too much to get excited about. On Brick: True, he has shown more good than bad at this point. Its going to be a learning process with him, and he's going to have his good games and bad games. The talent is obviously there, and I'm glad we drafted him. On the Defense: True, we made them punt alot, and I really like this unit. I think its going to be the strong point of this team, and can only get better. Dave Ball showed me some serious promise, and I think our secondary is going to round into one of the more aggressive and effective ones in the league. Justin Miller needs to keep his head in the game. Was not happy about the bone-head flag for taunting. Thats got to stop. Eric Coleman made a nice INT and looked good after missing so much time.
Ranking the game. Defense: B+ Secondary played a little loose. Offensive Line: C Situational awareness and blocking a little below par. Could probably cut to starters and a couple of back ups. Running Backs: B Washington, Blaylock, and Barlow should be good enough. Receivers: B Too many bad passes and good coverage to tell for sure. Quarterbacks: D @!#!@#@!#@#!#@##@!#!@!#!#@!#@!#!#@! Looking at trade values myself.....sorry. TE: C Lack of impact in the game. Standouts: Blaylock Coles Vilma Miller Robertson .........
Jtuds... great post, I agree with all of your points except Leon Washington. I love Washington's running ability, but at least for now he should NEVER see any playing time during the regular season... over the last three weeks he has looked to me like the WORST pass blocking running back in the league. Both times that he was in and the QB took the bone jarring hits, they were by Giants who Washington was supposed to pick up, and did not. Until he learns how to pass block, I only want to see him returning kickoffs. He has great potential though.
my biggest fear w/ the rb has nothing to do with them picking up yards. its the pass protection that they need to get on cause right now it not there and its getting our QB's killed
