Some New York Giants played hard during Sunday's 23-0 defeat at the hands of the vastly superior Seattle Seahawks, some didn't. We might as well go through the motions ourselves here at Big Blue View, offering up our traditional 'Kudos & Wet Willies' review of what went on.
Kudos To ...
The entire defense -- Do I really have to explain why? The Seahawks would have won this game by 40 points or more without the prideful, hard-hitting effort by the Giants' defense.
Justin Tuck -- Tuck was officially credited with a half-sack, a quarterback hit and six tackles. He did much more than that, however. He spent much of the afternoon in the Seattle backfield chasing quarterback Russell Wilson. Often, Tuck's efforts were in vain. Wilson did do this to him:
Tuck's play was still admirable, and the more you watch the free-agent-to-be the more you think there is no way the Giants can let him get away.
Jerrel Jernigan -- Caught a career-high seven passes for 67 yards. He took one vicious hit across the middle from Kam Chancellor and still gained seven or eight more yards. Jernigan also had a 31-yard kickoff return. The unfortunate thing? It's pretty bad when Jernigan is your offense's best player.
Antrel Rolle -- For playing and hitting hard Sunday, and for playing well. Rolle had seven tackles, one for loss, an interception and a pass defensed. He also stood up and defended coach Tom Coughlin post-game, putting the blame for lack of effort by certain guys where it belongs -- on them.
Cullen Jenkins -- Somewhat like Tuck, the veteran defensive tackle deserves credit for continuing to play hard and make Wilson work for everything he and the Seahawks got. Jenkins had a half-sack, a tackle for loss and a pair of hits on Wilson.
James Brewer -- For getting 'hurt' and letting Brandon Mosley play. More likely this was a 'benching' and the Giants just offer up 'ankle injury' to make it sound better for the ineffective third-year lineman.
Wet Willies To ...
Eli Manning -- A ridiculous five interceptions. There were no unfortunate tips, no mis-communications, no real explanation other the fact that four of those were off-target throws. The Hail Mary we'll forget about. Without doubt on the other four the receivers (mostly Hakeem Nicks) could have at least given some effort to bail his quarterback out, but they were poor throws, and ill-advised in a couple of cases. Manning has regressed terribly, mostly because it's obvious he has no trust in anything around him. It is painful to watch. Field Gulls noted that Richard Sherman and Byron Maxwell caught more of Manning's passes (4) than Nicks and Cruz did (3).
Offensive line -- Brewer was a horror show, but the rest of the line wasn't any better. David Diehl and Kevin Boothe kept getting pushed backwards. Defensive ends kept running around, and through, rookie Justin Pugh. After re-watching the offensive snaps I would submit that it's possible Boothe had the worst day of anyone. The only lineman who had anything resembling an OK day was the oft-criticized left tackle Will Beatty.
Hakeem Nicks -- Yes, Manning threw some horrific passes and there is no reason for him not to be more accurate when he has time to throw. Nicks and Victor Cruz simply must, however, make better efforts at the ball. There were at least four interceptions, one thrown toward Cruz and three toward Nicks, where better plays on the ball could have at least knocked the passes down. Nicks made little real effort on two of them, and had the third taken away from him. The free-agent-to-be seems to have already checked out.
Brandon Myers -- His play has been largely regrettable this season. His post-game Twitter tirade, airing the Giants' dirty locker room laundry for the world, is even more regrettable.
James Brewer -- I had to give Brewer a 'WW' of his own. What Brewer has managed to do in the past three games is take some of the heat off David Diehl, which isn't easy. Brewer completely ran by guys he should have tried to block on at least two occasions. He certainly has proven that he is not part of the solution to the Giants' line woes.