'Kudos & Wet Willies,' return of the defense edition

by Ed Valentine on Oct 20, 2008 6:00 AM EDT in Kudos & Wet Willies Comment 37 comments

After Monday's loss to Cleveland New York Giants' fans hoped to see an angry active defense against San Francisco Sunday. That's exactly what we got as the Giants overwhelmed the 49ers, 29-17.

A week after not even laying a hand on Cleveland quarterback Derek Anderson, they sacked the flustered J.T. O'Sullivan six times, intercepted him twice and caused him to fumble four times.

Two plays, a long touchdown pass in the first half and a blocked field goal returned for a touchdown made the score reasonably close. The Giants weren't terrific on offense and also committed 11 penalties -- which can't make Tom Coughlin happy.

Overall, though, it was a good day. The Giants (5-1) even got a bonus as the St. Louis Rams routed the Dallas Cowboys, 34-14. The Giants lead the 4-2 Washington Redskins by a game and the 4-3 Cowboys by 1.5 games.

Now, as we always do, let's review the action 'Kudos & Wet Willies' style.

Kudos to ...

Michael Johnson: Two interceptions for the second-year safety -- the first two of his career, in fact. The first one set up a field goal and the second one negated a potential San Francisco touchdown. That makes Johnson responsible for a 10-point swing in the game all by himself. Yes, he gets 'kudos.'
Chase Blackburn: Yep, he is too slow, too inexperienced and he darn near cost the Giants by committing a stupid penalty in the Super Bowl last season. Oh, and some idiot blogger (I wonder who?) didn't even think he deserved to make the team this season. Yet, there was Blackburn Sunday with 10 tackles, a sack and a forced fumble. Not a bad job. Maybe we should keep this guy around, after all.
Justin Tuck: Only one tackle, but two sacks and -- just as important for a defense that has not created many turnovers -- two forced fumbles.
Dave Tollefson: Five tackles and a sack for a guy who isn't even active when all the Giants defensive lineman are healthy. The fact that this guy was wallowing on the Oakland practice squad last season tells you a lot about why the Raiders are, well, the Raiders.
John Carney: Had a kick blocked, but that was not his fault. Nailed two more field goals -- including a 48-yarder -- and all of his kickoffs were hit to the 10-yard line or deeper with some good height. Those of you complaining that Carney, 44, does not have enough leg to be relied upon can just stop. You have absolutely no case. Sorry, but releasing Carney and activating Lawrence Tynes at this point seems like a stupid thing to do.
Derrick Ward: Everyone keeps screaming for Ahmad Bradshaw to play more, and he did Sunday. Yet, Ward just keeps doing the job. Three catches for a team-high 50 yards Sunday, including a 35-yarder on a screen, and four rushes for 19 yards. I don't see him fumbling the ball, either.
Domenik Hixon: Only one catch, but two beautiful solo tackles on special teams.
Jeff Feagles: Six punts for a 48.8-yard average, zero return yards and a couple more punts downed inside the opponents' 20-yard line. What a weapon this guy is! Can we get him to punt until he's 50?

Wet Willies to ...

Aaron Ross: Second rough week in a row for last season's No. 1 pick. Josh Morgan victimized him for a 30-yard touchdown reception in the first half. I still trust Ross, but he has to find a way to stop giving up big plays.
Ahmad Bradshaw: I know the guy can make big plays, and I love him, but I am officially off the Bradshaw Bandwagon until he starts securing the ball. He fumbled once Sunday and was lucky to have a second fumble overturned by replay. That on the heels of struggling to handle a couple of kickoffs Monday against Cleveland. The way Brandon Jacobs and Derrick Ward are producing -- and not fumbling -- there is no real good reason to be handing the guy the ball. He's becoming as dangerous to the Giants as he is to opposing defenses.
Jay Alford: I don't think I have ever seen a snapper for a field goal or extra point completely whiff a block. Alford ended up flat on his face after missing his attempted block on the blocked field goal. Fortunately for the Giants they were playing the 49ers, and not a truly good team.
Plaxico Burress: Only three catches for 24 yards, a stupid unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and a shouting match with Coughlin on the sideline following the penalty. A pretty listless effort from Burress.

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Comments

i thought the defense responded nicely

everybody except Ross was excellent. i’m excited for Michael Johnson’s coming out party as well. i think he’s gonna be a player.

by SBakerTheTouchdownMaker on Oct 20, 2008 6:46 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Gmen

First game I’ve missed in over a year. I’m definitely happy to hear the Johnson had such a great game. How did Eli do? Did he bounce back at all or just not much to report?

by potroast on Oct 20, 2008 8:50 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Eli was OK

Not great, not bad. He did fine, and might have done better with a little more help from Plax. I am not worried about Eli at all.

by Ed Valentine on Oct 20, 2008 9:04 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Plax

Plax has not looked on the same page with Eli since the suspension…

by Woogie526 on Oct 20, 2008 9:18 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I thought

Coughlin should have told Plax to take his pads off and go home when they had that exchange. Coughlin has brought this team too far to be shown up like that in front of the cameras.

James Butler gets a Wet Willie from me. Out of position a few times, and at least two missed tackles. I am pretty sure they teach you in, ohhhh, Pop Warner to wrap a guy up when you tackle him, not try and shoulder him to the ground. I am still trying to figure out how a defense this good has a guy that bad starting.

And I will also throw a Kudo to Steve Smith. I think very slowly, by accident or on purpose, he is becoming Eli’s “go-to” guy, especially on 3rd downs.

Giants fan from the womb to the tomb

by Jim Schmiedeberg on Oct 20, 2008 8:54 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Butler

We go back and forth on this guy. He’s not perfect, but he’s been pretty good overall. He will never be an All-Pro, but I think he makes more plays than we give him credit for.

by Ed Valentine on Oct 20, 2008 9:06 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I respectfully disagree

He puts himself in good position, but he is not a playmaker. He doesn’t have the speed & athleticism needed for the position he plays in this D. Then when he makes errors like that, it only makes the situation worse because he doesn’t have the talent to make up for mistakes.

by potroast on Oct 20, 2008 9:54 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Well

As long you do it ‘respectfully,’ Pot, then we are all good. Butler is the guy on this defense we seem to talk about the most. Yet, Spags keeps running him out there. He must like something he sees.

by Ed Valentine on Oct 20, 2008 9:56 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

True

I can’t argue about Spags trusting him. He knows his players better than I do.

by potroast on Oct 20, 2008 9:58 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

The Best 11 guys

I think it’s pretty clear that Johnson and K-Phil are the two best safeties.. so why don’t we start the two of them to get “the best 11 players on the field”

by Hoyadestroya85 on Oct 20, 2008 2:01 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Best 11

I think they are both already on the field quite a bit. There seems to be a three-man rotation with Butler at the moment.

by Ed Valentine on Oct 20, 2008 2:17 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Rays

Kudos to the Rays for beating the Red Sox.

I didn’t want to have to root for a Phillies Team.

by Woogie526 on Oct 20, 2008 9:17 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

There is

a sport besides football being played right now?

by Ed Valentine on Oct 20, 2008 9:19 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I told myself I wasn't gonna watch anymore baseball

after the Mets 2nd straight brutal finish, but that was one of the best ALCS’s ever, and it’s been really hard for me not to get caught up in the Rays thing, b/c a) they’re a really fun and exciting team, and b) I put down $25 dollars on them winning the World Series back in May, when they got off to their hot start. I don’t remember what the odds were, but they were good enough that I stand to make a pretty good chunk of change.

by cjmulrain on Oct 20, 2008 9:32 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

And the Emmy for Best Performance goes to

6’3" 266 lb Madison Hedgecock for his reverse swan dive in response to a shove by 6’0" 205 lb Nate Clements that resulted in a 15-yard Unnecessary Roughness penalty on SF and a first down for the Giants. Two snaps later, Clements was called for Defensive Pass Interference. In all, Clements penalties gave the Giants 46 of the 73 yards on the touchdown drive.

by TerraByte on Oct 20, 2008 9:26 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

During the game yesterday

I dubbed it “The Hedgecock Plunge”

Giants fan from the womb to the tomb

by Jim Schmiedeberg on Oct 20, 2008 9:41 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Like those ice tea commercials

by TerraByte on Oct 20, 2008 4:37 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Feagles

is such a weapon. The Skins have been having major problems with punting: they drafted Durant Brooks this season, but he’s only been averaging 32.1 net yards on his punts, last in the NFL. Now his career is pretty much over with the Skins and they signed a new guy who averaged less than 40 yards yesterday. The Cowboys are having problems punting too. It’s an area of the game fans don’t pay too much attention to, but field position is so important, and nobody is better than Feagles, even after all these years.

by cjmulrain on Oct 20, 2008 9:36 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Vikings

are also having problems w/Kluwe as their punter. We take Feagles for granted, and we shouldn’t.

by Ed Valentine on Oct 20, 2008 9:45 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Feagles doesn't need to punt until he's 50

He only needs to punt until his son (whose name eludes me at the moment) is old enough for us to draft him.

I watched the Jets game yesterday afternoon too (there was nothing else on) and that guy Lechler on Oakland is pretty damn good too. And I wonder if they’d trade us Sebastian Janikowski for one of our extra receivers. That dude has a freaking LEG – kicked a 57-yarder to end the game in OT and probably had a good five yards to spare.

by JoshNY on Oct 20, 2008 11:15 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Janikowski

granted, it’s been a long time since I’ve watched an Oakland game, since they’re never on TV anymore, but Janikowski always had a powerful leg. His problem has always been inconsistency: for every 55 yarder he’d kick, he’d miss a 32 yarder. Not sure if he’s fixed that or not, but it would be worrying.

by cjmulrain on Oct 20, 2008 1:23 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Not to mention

I seem to recall he had some off-the-field adventures earlier in his career.

by TerraByte on Oct 20, 2008 4:40 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Lechler punts

the end of the ball so it has backspin. I wonder if this is going to be the next big thing in punting.

by TerraByte on Oct 20, 2008 4:42 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

possibly

but you have to figure that if it were easy to execute, more people would be doing so already

by JoshNY on Oct 20, 2008 5:23 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Simply because...

I’m an equal opportunity basher…Carney did have one KO that looked like he almost whiffed the ball on. He was clearly trying to kick it deep but what resulted was an effective squib kick. If I remember correctly SF started around their 30 on that KO.

by Intellectual Derriere on Oct 20, 2008 9:56 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

well you were saying all last week

They should have kept Tynes, and you were right. If people would just listen to you, we’d have alot less problems.

Like that email, where you said the Giants were going nowhere last year, and I told you “No, the Giants know what they are doing, this is our year!”

Giants fan from the womb to the tomb

by Jim Schmiedeberg on Oct 20, 2008 10:06 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Revisionist History

Is just another service I provide for free to Big Blue View readers!

Giants fan from the womb to the tomb

by Jim Schmiedeberg on Oct 20, 2008 10:07 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

You covered it all, Ed. Good job.

We’ll have to play better vs. the Steelers. Plax has me worried. Has the deserved suspension screwed up his head (further)? He and Eli were out of synch too much. I couldn’t help but recall the same thing with Eli and Shock.

by george cronin on Oct 20, 2008 10:13 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I hear you

You might want to check the Plax post that will be up a bit later today. An opportunity to discuss this even more.

by Ed Valentine on Oct 20, 2008 10:18 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

The defense...

I’m not ready to say that everything is all better just yet. I’ll hand it to the run defense for sure, given the job they did on Gore all game long, but I think this was a case of capitalizing on an inexperienced quarterback with turnoveritis more than anything. Now, don’t get me wrong, capitalizing on an inexperienced quarterback with turnoveritis is better than NOT doing so, but I don’t think it tells us a whole lot about the defense. As the announcers pointed out, the schedule gets a whole lot tougher from this point onward, and the exact same performance (Eli completing 16 of 31, say) that’s good enough to beat the Niners by 12 at the Meadowlands probably loses in Pittsburgh or Philly or Minnesota.

Sorry to be such a Debbie Downer.

by JoshNY on Oct 20, 2008 11:26 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

The big "D"

I have to agree with JoshNY…maybe it’s me, maybe it’s the 3 picks E had against Cleveland, and maybe it’s because when we stop the rush (for the most part), they look good, or when Johnson picks off an (inexperienced QB), I will give credit where it’s due, but on the pass-rush, we get little to no pressure on them, got squat on Anderson and it just seems really laid back…! I know w/o Strahan, Osi and an injured Pierce, it hurts us BIG time, and it almost seems like Tuck is non-existent except for a couple of plays here and there – someone tell me I’m crazy, because I don’t believe we’ve seen a “quality” team yet, as we will with the likes of the Steelers (at home) in the last 8 weeks. Sunday, will be a true test – and I have to listen to a Steelers fan talk smack – he may get out of 3 hours Sunday without a fat lip…we’ll see.

Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence.

by LI-cowgirl on Oct 21, 2008 2:46 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Welcome to the site.

Never seen you post before.

by Woogie526 on Oct 22, 2008 10:24 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

...thanks Woogie

I’ve been checking out other "Big blue" Blogs and this seems to fit me well!

Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence.

by LI-cowgirl on Oct 22, 2008 12:14 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Alford

I’m still questioning why we did not find a real long snapper in the offseason.

by queler on Oct 20, 2008 11:38 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

His snaps

have been fine. but missing that block — and completely whiffing — was pretty awful.

by Ed Valentine on Oct 20, 2008 11:58 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I listened to the radio

So I didn’t see the play, but from Coughlin’s presser it sounded like Alford didn’t so much whiff, but the guy hurdled over him. The fact remains he’s a DT, he hadn’t long snapped since high school, and was pressed into service after the injuries in camp last year. Especially with the erratic snaps last year, I don’t know why we at least didn’t teach the the punt snapper to snap for FGs too. (I guess they might have, maybe he stunk at it).

by queler on Oct 21, 2008 5:49 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Bradshaw thought....

Remember when Tiki had fumbling problems and Coughlin forced him to carry the ball up higher and closer in to his chest? I believe that Bradshaw should be doing the same thing. He’s carrying the ball too loosely out there and that’s why he had the fumble(s) yesterday. Were he carrying the ball slightly tighter, I have to believe that we would be seeing a different outcome out there. And really, that’s the only thing holding him back right now.

by Cody K on Oct 20, 2008 12:14 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs