Probably the most meaningful, exiting, unexpected and critical win of the year. My two cents, please comment THE GOOD 1 - Fitz put the game on his shoulders and made it happen despite some poor OL pretection and predictable running game 2- Our WR tandem is money and spectacular when the chips are down. 81 is becoming a contributor 3- Bilal Powell is outstanding as a complimentary back and under utilized in the passing game 4- The Defensive line and the LBs played a solid game. The whole D stood firm when it counted the most 4- Team resilient and courageous fighting spirit under adverse conditions THE BAD 1- Our Play calling on first down with Ivory running between the tackles is telegraphed a mile away 2- Stupid, unnecessary, critical errors 3- Total absolute lack of TE participation to help move the sticks 4- The absolutely idiotic reluctance to not give Milliner a chance when the secondary is crumbling THE UGLY 1- Special teams are destroying our marginal chances to be successful for the playoff run 2- The schemes against the pass, the secondary performance and reluctance to double team the top receiver by the CS We need to correct our obvious mistakes to have a fighting chance, but this team has enough fighting in them to make it happen
Also the good, going forward, especially against the Jills. Gailey showed that he's adapted well enough to the roster, to mitigate the blitz. Vagiants managed a few sacks, but he'll be ready for Ryan. In that game, I would expect the TE, not the back to do the damage, bc on blitz, Rex will look to take away what Gailey did today. Gailey should expect that. This is where he will earn his money.
Enunwa helps a ton in the run blocking game. Having Powell back from injury has helped a ton. Ridley looks useless. Not sure what he can do. Powell is a threat out of the backfield and a solid runner. Him and Ivory should be good enough. Ivory has been meh to me lately.
I agree with your "good." With the exception of your #4, I also agree with the bad. NONE OF US have any idea why Milliner isn't playing. IMO it's absurd and ridiculous to blast Bowles for not playing Milliner when we have not seen practices, don't know if Milliner is really healthy, if he knows the D, or is prepared to play. There could be a very good reason or reasons why Milliner isn't playing. If it turns out that Bowles isn't playing him because he doesn't like playing young, unproven players, then I'll join you in saying that Bowles needs to change in that regard, and he's wrong or stupid for being stubborn or biased against young players. Until we have concrete knowledge with regards to that, I think it is premature to characterize Bowles as "idiotic" for not playing Milliner. That's not up to your usual standard. I'm not surprised by some posters saying crap like that, but I am surprised to see it coming from you. Under the Ugly, again, I disagree with your #2. I seriously doubt that Bowles refused to double team Beckham Jr. I'd be willing to bet that it was blown coverage/assignments or confusion in the secondary since players are playing that haven't been playing a lot .
You are the voice of reasonableness. You might be 100% right, but I have a feeling there is something there with Milliner than is more personal than performance.
There could be something there other than performance. Maybe Milliner kicked Bowles' dog or something. Maybe Milliner didn't work hard enough during his rehab or to learn the D. One thing I'm sure of is that Bowles wants to win. If he thought Milliner would help the team win better than Walls, I'm sure that Milliner would be on the field. One thing that would make sense is that it's a discipline thing. Mo was held out during the 1st quarter for being late to a meeting and was fined. I think there is probably a good reason that Milliner is not seeing the field. He's not working hard in practice, doesn't know the D or something like that.
Cromartie should be added to the good. For all of the crap he gets I remember Cro making some good plays today. I also do not remember seeing him get burned deep.
There really is no reason for Quigley to see be punting for us. ZERO Im not blaming Harris' TD on him , because the coverage was awful and Harris is also very good , but there has to be someone available out there that can do better than he is. A good punter would atleast mask some of the other issues were having on ST's.
The two big negatives from this game were: 1) Special teams (obvious and blatant) and 2) I'm very worried about our offensive line. Very worried. edit: I honestly think the defense is taking too much heat. They were undermanned and kept us in the game for 3 and a half quarters, only giving up 13 points and making the biggest play of the game when they absolutely needed it.
The offense seems to be more effective when they pick up the pace, and get into something like a hurry up mode. I wish they would do more of that.
The special teams has been a complete dumpster fire since Westhoff's last season with us. I think we got really spoiled in that department when we always had amazing kick returners. Miller, Smith, Washington, Mcknight were all home run hitters on returns. The offensive line needs to be revamped. Brick needs to take a paycut. Winters should be demoted to being a backup. Giacomini and Carpenter are decent I guess but nothing special. Unfortunately there's not much to be done about any of this during the season. Feels like the D has been up and down all season long. They showed up today for the most part. Even with Revis and Williams, Odell still would have had a decent game. I think the D-line could have done more work against a banged up Giants o-line. They still did well enough obviously.
Greg Buttle provided an interesting explanation on why the STs coverage has been so bad, at least partly. Because we have so many injuries in the secondary, 2nd/3rd string DBs, who normally would be on punt coverage, are now starting. Guys behind them can't be on punt coverage either because we can't afford any of them to get hurt; we are too thin. So we are playing wide receivers and/or guys off the street who aren't as good at punt coverage. It seems plausible enough.
This makes sense, but it has been awful all year, even when our secondary was, to my knowledge, fully healthy.
Great win ... But these Special Teams are a fucking abomination. This coach better be gone before next season. They cost us points EVERY damn game. Today's POS performance featured ... a PR TD An offsides on a Giants punt giving them a first down A running into the K penalty, for a re-kick and 17 yards of worse field position A muffed punt by Kerley A 37 yard punt by Quigley Did I miss anything? This unit is a complete embarrassment week after week.
