Focus: Giants at Redskins Notes
By author
Pro Football Focus has their unbiased analysis up today, let’s take a look at the Giants related notes of interest.
"The left side of the Giants’ line had a poor day as run-blockers, with Shawn Andrews at left tackle starting the bidding low with a grade of -3.6 and David Diehl at left guard going lower at -4.2. This was reflected in the running stats, for the 10 rushes of left end, left tackle and left guards the Giants recorded only 10 yards, a measly 1 yard per carry. It wasn’t as if it was a case of a couple of bad runs ruining the bunch either: The long run was 4 yards as the Giants simply failed to establish the running game in any direction."
It doesn’t help that Rich Seubert went down with an injury early either… after a couple big runs from the big man Brandon Jacobs up the gut and one nice bounce to the outside, the Giants couldn’t get anything explosive happening in the run game. The Redskins no doubt came into Sunday’s game trying to stop the run since both Jacobs and Bradshaw dialed up 100+ yard games on the Skins in their prior meeting — to me clamping down on the Giants run game also showed a spirited finish for their defense with nothing to play for but pride.
"Osi Umenyiora (+8.4) went out with a bang, registering a positive display in every phase of the game. As a pass-rusher he registered two sacks, three hits and four pressures. In run defense he made two stops and showed good awareness covering screens, showing the all-around package that he rarely puts together in one game. This game was a rebound performance as a pass-rusher after registering a hit and one pressure in his prior two games. The Giants will be looking for more consistency from Umenyiora in 2011, as his pass rush tended to come in single-game gluts this season.After an inconsistent second half of the season Barry Cofield (+3.5) finished with the sort of performance that marked the first half of his season. Cofield registered a grade above +1.0 for five straight games from Weeks 3 to 9 but has only managed it twice since (this Sunday and in the Week 11 road game with the Eagles). Consistency has been a problem for the Giants, no more so than their defensive tackles. Both Cofield and Chris Canty started the season strongly but struggled to maintain that form through the season."
Chris Canty was the biggest guy on the field by a long shot, I even pointed it out to the people in my area comparing sizes of the Redskin Defenders right in front of us. For Canty not to have finished strong and get more consistent push up the middle is indeed a problem. He had a better year that last, as did Cofield — but statistically as well as visually, there is still a problem at DT for the Giants getting that central push consistently.
Another thing PFF does that I like, they isolate the rookies. Here is how JPP and LJ (DT Linval Joseph) stacked up in the final game.
"Jason Pierre-Paul (+0.2) saw the most snaps of his rookie season (41) in his final game, but registered a disappointing one hit and one pressure on 31 pass rushes. … Linval Joseph (-2.4) also saw the most extended action of his rookie campaign (25 snaps) but was blanked (no tackles, no pressure, and little disruption) by an underwhelming Redskins interior offensive line."
From what I could see from behind the Redskins bench, JPP played on the inside more than I thought he should have from a straight pass rushing perspective. But I’m going to come to his rescue a bit here and say that his one hit and one pressure had a purpose. He would get paired with Justin Tuck but then not twist or do anything of note… he’d actually go further inside. That simply leads me to believe that his bull rush was causing more disturbance up the middle than anyone else and it collapsed the pocket effectively for Osi Umenyiora to get wide and strip the ball, which happened quite a bit. From what I saw, JPP effectively took one for the team by design.