The Tall Guy Eats His Crow

GMENHQ’s newest mystery contributor “The Tall Guy” has a few words to say about the Giants loss to the Seahawks

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For my dinner tonight, I’d like a serving of crow

Well, the game has been played, and we thought that the Giants would be feasting on another avian adversary. Instead, the Seahawks lived up to their reputation as a bird of prey and struck down the G-Men. Hard.

So, from an analytical standpoint, what went wrong for our guys?

1)Regression to the mean. This is a statistical term that is used to indicate a pattern that returns to its average. Through the first four games the Giants had minimized turnovers. In this game, they lost two fumbles and had three INT’s, with one of them coming on a deflected pass to Victor Cruz when the Giants had a chance to salvage a victory. This is shades of last year, when seven of Eli’s interceptions happened this way.

2)Lack of a running game. We are now at a point in the season when the O-line should be working together, and yet the running game still struggled. Part of this was the absence of Brandon Jacobs, who is out with a MCL sprain. The other reason that the Giants have struggled is due to the opposition’s strategy of filling the box with more defenders. By shutting down the running game, the Giants are forced into 2nd and 3rd and long. The opposing defenses can pin their ears back, and force Eli into rushing his throws (possible int’s) or take the sack.

3)Poor preparation. The Giants seemed unready or unable to handle the no-huddle offense, and the Seahawks were able to move the ball at will. The substandard rushing defense failed to hold the opposition to short gains on 1st and 2nd down, which allowed the ‘Hawks to be flexible with their offensive plans.

Where does this leave us from the standpoint of an evaluation? Offensively, the Giants were OK. They were able to move the ball, and Victor Cruz looks like this year’s emerging superstar. He had two costly errors, but also made a number of huge plays to put the Giants in position to eke out a win. Defensively, there is a lot of room for improvement. The Giants insisted that they prepared for the no huddle, but it doesn’t look as if they did. Special teams played well, and there were no major errors. From an injury standpoint, both Chris Snee and Zak DeOssie have concussions, so we will see what their status is going forward. I guess if I wanted to be harsh, I’d say that the coaching staff failed to prepare the players, and the players failed to execute the game plan. Maybe this was a classic case of overconfidence, playing in front of a home crowd with an underrated opponent that they thought they could dominate.

All of this doesn’t augur well for the coming week’s contest, as the G-Men will play a revitalized Buffalo Bills team, who are now at 4-1 after handling the Eagles another defeat. And now, to eat my dinner. Please pass the Tabasco sauce.