Nov 8, 2009; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning (left) and San Diego Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers talk prior to game at Giants Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jim O

Take a look at this brief off-season quarterback carousel just so that you can understand where I’m coming from:

• The Indianapolis Colts cut Peyton Manning so they can draft Andrew Luck.
• Peyton Manning signs with the Denver Broncos after putting the NFL on a three year waiting list. Wait, what? It wasn’t three years? Sure seemed like it.
• The St. Louis Rams got a fortune in return from the Washington Redskins so they can take RG3 right after the Colts select Luck.
• Matt Flynn signs with the Seattle Seahawks after being Aaron Rodgers’ backup.
• Jason Campbell leaves Oakland after having his starting job taken away and signs with the Chicago Bears to become Jay Cutler’s backup.
• Kyle Orton does the same thing and goes to backup Tony Romo in Dallas after starting for two teams last year: the Kansas City Chiefs and the Denver Broncos.
• Denver Broncos’ third string QB Brady Quinn moves to Kansas City to become that team’s newest backup QB.
• Chad Henne left the Dolphins to challenge for the starting QB job with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
• The New York Jets brought in Drew Stanton to be Mark Sanchez’s new body double.
• David Garrard comes back to the league after a one year absence to join the Miami Dolphins.

We have backups becoming starters, starters becoming backups, rookies being drafted presumably to start from day, guys out of the league for a year and one of the greatest QBs to ever play in the NFL cut for a player to have never played a down of professional football before. Confused yet? That’s because it is confusing to keep track of which quarterback is on which team now in the new quarterback driven NFL.

With the signing of Manning to the Broncos there is now another starting quarterback that could be had for the right price: Tim Tebow for a 5th round pick, presumably. The two teams with a most glaring need at a QB, if the 49ers don’t bring back Alex Smith, that is, are the Cleveland Browns and Miami Dolphins. You have to include Miami because a Matt Moore/David Garrard combo doesn’t scare anyone.

The Browns were never in the hunt for Manning but aren’t enamored with incumbent QB Colt McCoy and lost out on the RG3 sweepstakes. The Dolphins went all in on Manning but came back empty handed; then their second choice Flynn spurned them for the Seahawks. That leaves the potential of either one of those two teams signing Alex Smith, he of the 49ers, who has no idea of his job status thanks to the Peyton Derby, and the aforementioned Tebow.

Plus there are other potential first round quarterbacks besides Luck and RG3 that could be taken by the Browns or Dolphins like Ryan Tannehill or Brandon Weeden, both of whom, if you ask me aren’t worthy of being selected in the top ten of the draft but might be taken that early because the Dolphins (picking 8^th overall) and the Browns (picking 4^th overall) won’t have any choice other than dangling a future first round draft pick in order to trade back into the latter part of the upcoming 2012 NFL Draft.

By my calculations we might have a total of 11 teams with a new starting QB/quarterback question marks entering next season:

-Redskins – RG3, Vikings – Ponder/Webb?, Jaguars – Gabbert/Henne? Or maybe even Tebow?, San Fran – Smith/Kaepernick/Josh Johnson?, Arizona – Kolb/Skelton? Cleveland – McCoy?, Seattle – Flynn/T-Jax? Titans – Locker/Hasselbeck?, Indy – Luck, Miami – Moore/Garrard? and Denver – Peyton Manning.

11! That is a ridiculous amount of turnover at the most important position in football.

Now you can see why I’m pretty happy that the Giants have Eli Manning and we didn’t have to put up with the Peyton circus and the revolving game of quarterback musical chairs that teams like the Redskins and Dolphins plus players like Tebow and Smith have had to put up with this offseason. Heck, the Giants are even keeping their back-up QB David Carr.

NY POST

Here are some of the Giants and Jets Headlines from across the world this morning:

Enough Already! Lets get it on! (NY POST)

Jets, Giants each eye win to keep postseason hops alive (NY POST)

Giants must make most of opportunity (NY POST)

Odds aren’t with Giants (NY POST)

Steve Serby’s Special Q & A with Justin Tuck (NY POST)

GIANTS, Jets friends off the field (NY POST)

Despite Jets talk, it’s still GIANTS town (NY POST)

GIANTS WR Manningham doubtful (NY POST)

Daily News

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Perry is looking for answers....

The New York Giants enter their day off today as the leaders in the NFC East. However, all is not rosy in East Rutherford. The Giants may be in first place, but everyone knows the Giants cannot make a run in the playoffs with the defense playing the way they are.

Here are some of the awful statistics that represent and define who the Giants are defensively:

• Ranked 30th in Yards Allowed Per Game at 391.6
• Ranked 27th in Points Allowed Per Game at 26.8
• Ranked 22nd in Rushing Yards Allowed Per Game at 127.9
• Ranked 29th in Passing Yards Allowed Per game at 263.7
• Ranked 10th in INTs with 15
• Ranked 6th in Sacks with 36
• Ranked 26th in Total TDs allowed with 26.

But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves and focus on this messy game.

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My reaction on Thursday was unacceptable,” the star defensive tackle said in a statement on his Facebook page Friday night. “I made a mistake, and have learned from it. I hope to direct the focus back to the task at hand — by winning.”

Well it took almost 30 hours for Suh to come to his senses. Why it took so long we may never know. However, it is too late in my eyes. The damage has been done.

It was not bad enough that he crossed the line on the football field but then to deny it after the game….Suh needs to pay and he needs to pay a hefty penalty. The league should act fast and not let this drag into the games on Sunday. Suh should be fined upwards of 100k (Rex got 75k for dropping an F-BOMB) AND he should have to sit out at least two games. He has no one to blame but himself and needs to take some time to look in the mirror.

“It’s up to them whether or not they want to boo. And that’s what they do,”  “No, I don’t take anything back I said about not caring.”

Thought #1 from me: Brandon, the fans care and by saying you don’t take back anything you say, you are only hurting yourself. New York City is one of the greatest, if not the greatest sports town going. Our fan base is passionate and intelligent about football. However, you appear to be neither..

“We don’t want to hear that,” Jacobs told Boomer & Carton. “We don’t want to hear anybody as we’re trying to work hard and play and overcome adversity as it is already. And they’re making it even harder for us to overcome our adversity when they do things like that.”

Thought #2: See thought #1. Also, we wouldn’t boo if you averaged more than 2.9 yards per carry. Except for the catch in the first Eagles game, can someone tell me something positive Jacobs has done for the GIANTS this year?

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“My question to them was, ‘Why?’ ” Coughlin said, when asked what he told the players in the locker room. “What did it take to understand what the Eagles were going to be like coming in here? You didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that team is 3-6, back to the wall, they’re going to play their butts off.

“To get where we want to go, we’re going to have to play harder. And better. And we didn’t.”

Coach goes onto say:

You’d think your team would rally around that,” Coughlin said. “We didn’t do that. We had someone try to retaliate, which didn’t help any more than take away a 15-yard [personal foul] penalty. I would expect the team to rally at that point, but I didn’t see that either.

“I’m really disappointed. Coming out of San Francisco, the talk was — by the players — that we’ll fight, we’ll play hard, we’ll do all that. I didn’t see that. I saw the penalties. I saw the skirmishes.”

To see more of what Coach said, click continue reading… (more…)

Eagles 10

Its been UGLY! The GIANTS forgot to show up in the first half…pathetic!

Key Moments

1. Young cannot get it into the end zone. Eagles settle for Field Goal.
2. Nicks couldn’t hold onto the deep ball from Eli
3. Jacobs gets stuffed on 3rd and 1…shockers!!! not!
4. Phillips gets a pick off a nice deflection by Ross
5. Three and out after starting on the Eagles 45, end up on our own 43
6. Jackson decides to taunt the GIANTS and costs his team big time!
7. Near INT but led to a big hold by the GIANTS defense at 2:27 mark of the 2nd Quarter.
8. We punted to Jackson–enough said. Ran it back to the 14 yard line of the GIANTS
9. Steve Smith burns the GIANTS and scores a TD from Young. Kiwi got burned on the play
10. Ballard drops another big pass down the middle of the field
11. Three dropped passes
12. Tynes good from 48 yards, gets the GIANTS 3pts
13. Giants were pathetic in the first half.

THE GOOD

• Giants defensive front. How great was it to see Justin Tuck back on the field last night? He changes the dynamic of this defensive front 7 so much it’s scary to think about losing him for an extended period of time. Glad he’s back. And although starting DE’s Justin Tuck and JPP only shared 2 sacks between them, they were in Bradfords face constantly and shut down the Rams ground attack by getting tremendous penetration all night, especially in the red zone. How many wobbly and errant passes did the Giants force because of pressure – a ton. One of the dominant parts of the game for the Giants by a wide margin.

• Antrel Rolle. 8 tackles and a forced fumble, a great showing from Rolle all around. He picked up the slack from Aaron Ross and Michael Coe and did a great job tearing all over the field, making tackles, and pressuring Bradford when asked as well. Played really well last night.

• Michael Boley’s awareness on the fumble recovery. How about Boley realizing the backward pass was deflected, picking up the live ball, and taking it to the house after the Giants failed to touch a downed receiver earlier in the game. THAT’s how you finish a defensive play. Way to get to the ball, and finish through the whistle. That should happen on EVERY play. Way to turn an ordinary play into a game changer.

• Domenik Hixon. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again — why Domenik Hixon was not the starting #3 until proven otherwise still has me scratching my noggin. But Hixon proved last night he has tremendous big play ability. The catch in the endzone he tipped and caught was HUGE. It will be one of the plays of the year for the Giants, I’ll say it right now. Hopefully it’s an offensive turning point that the Giants can rally around for weeks to come.

• Run game. The Giants ran well, got physical, and set the tone early with the run game and stayed with it. Earth, Wind, and Fire 2.0 — I liked what I saw from everyone including Danny Ware. Play calls and execution for the most part were spot on, I loved the designed screens to both Bradshaw and Jacobs, and the pitch to Ware for the key first down late in the game was executed perfectly. The NY Giants running game is back.

• Red zone offense. 2/2 once they got inside the 20. Now they need to work on consistency moving the ball between the 20′s and they’ll be all set.

• Coaching. Keeping the players motivated, for Coughlin’s brilliant record of challenging calls, for running the ball, for benching Aaron Ross, for a great rotation of players, and getting some results on Special Teams for the first time in too long of a stretch. The Giants won the defensive and special teams battles tonight, they did not beat themselves with turnovers and penalties, and the Giants coaching staff has a moral victory they can hang their hat on going forward.

THE BAD

• More injuries to key players. Domenik Hixon (knee) and Mario Manningham (concussion)left the game and their status going forward is uncertain. This could be really bad for the Giants. But it’s not quite ugly… because I’ll say this about Victor Cruz — way to show up this game. You have to wonder if Cruz as well as Devin Thomas will have more opportunities next week against the Eagles.

• Eli’s INT. Eli Manning overall had a good night. Not great, certainly good though. But the first INT was tragic because the Giants had a nice drive going. He didn’t see the safety, didn’t lead Manningham, and it was doomed the moment the ball left his hand. At first I was thinking — that was too easy. Then I saw why, the safety baited Eli a bit and he simply never saw him.

• Vertical pass defense. The Giants have got to find a way to defend the middle seams, and it is by no means an easy task. I’m simply going to point out that since Green Bay torched the Giants last year, every game they’ve played since the defense has been exploited by a huge weakness. The corner/post/corner combination. I think every NFL offense utilizes this vertical passing combination, the Giants cannot defend it. Here is a good in-depth description of the strategy, here are the bullet points concerning the middle route:

The middle-read receiver will take the fastest vertical release he can. He will get a pre-snap and a post-snap look at the middle of the field. If the middle of the field is open he will go for it. If it is closed he will run a square-in route. He will take the fastest release and push to a depth of 10-12. If he reads MOFO (middle of field open) he will stick his outside foot and head for the nearest upright. He wants to catch the ball at 18-22 yards, and is expecting to get hit after he catches it.

The crux of the problem for the Giants is this — with the scheme they play the Y receiver is basically always going to always be open 18-20 yards downfield in the middle of the field unless the QB is hit, hurried, or sacked. Sound familiar? It doesn’t matter if it’s a slot receiver or tight end, he’s going to be open and the Giants base cover defense has no way to stop it. The only way the Giants have a chance to stop this play from developing is to blitz, and that leaves other options open for the QB with the defensive backfield shorthanded. And so forms the “bend but don’t break” defense that Perry Fewell talked about when he was first brought into his first presser. Annoying to watch unfold for all Giants fans, but their run and goal line defense ultimately held up.

THE UGLY

• Aaron Ross. I don’t care if he was a #1 pick, this guy is a BUST. Ross had one good tackle on the goal line, that’s it. He deserved to be benched frankly. He stinks. Once again playing 5-10 yards off his man, I cannot believe an NFL corner would honestly think he had a right to complain after being pulled for someone else after that display. Thank the good lord the Giants coaching staff wised up and tried a new approach. I wonder if my “Aaron Ross SUCKS” tweet to Pat Hanlon had anything to do with it…. I doubt it. Even though Michael Coe let the Rams score their only TD — Ross was not working. Punt returns fine, corner blitzes, fine — he simply CANNOT play his position. And the Giants will not win if he continues to be this much of a liability.

Jake Ballard.

After losing Kevin Boss to the Oakland Raiders anybody officially involved with the Giants kept saying that former third round pick Travis Beckum was going to be the man to step up and fill in for the loss of Boss. But Beckum had an unimpressive and injury-riddled pre-season and was out for the regular season opener. Stepping up in his absence was Ballard.

While 2 catches for 59 yards isn’t the most amazing stat line in the world, Ballard reminded me of a bigger Kevin Boss; a big bodied tight end (he does weigh 275 pounds) who can block and run faster than anybody his size should.

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THE GOOD

The Giants running game. Talk about depth, the Giants have their choice of about 4 quality RB’s that bring a unique flavor to every snap. And while Andre Brown did well enough to give Danny Ware cause for concern, both of these guys better watch out for the next guy in the good column.

DaRel Scott. Dude had a night. After thinking Andre Brown was going to supplant Scott for the final roster spot – DaRel made the absolute most out of every opportunity he had. Every single snap. He went for 114 yards over 12 carries and a TD coming off a brilliant fake punt. Talk about break away speed! But to me he moment I knew he made the roster was when he took a typical draw play up he gut for a first down and about 20 yards. He was into the secondary before I had a chance to blink… I mean his quickness was unbelievable. God am I glad the Giants took a flyer on this guy. Welcome to the final 53 DaRel.

Special Teams. How about taking a page right out of Belichick handbook and winning that third facet of the game… And in doing so the Giants gave themselves a chance to beat the Patriots outright. A combination of good returns, utilizing a great fake punt, and at the same time providing good coverage gave the Giants the advantage they needed to win that battle. Extremely exciting momentum builder heading into week 1 of the regular season.

Defense. After rattling off a quick 10 points following offensive turnovers, the Giants defense held firm for the rest of the game and I would say took over he second half of the game. Particularly when the game was on the line. Giants front 7 swarmed and overwhelmed the Patriots and got much needed pressure to deliver the win for the Giants. While injuries continue to be a concern, the Reserves showed some backbone last night and some pride. Created opportunities with turnovers, got pressure – I’m excited.

THE BAD

Offense continues to struggle. 2 turnovers back to back did not give anyone confidence that the Giants are committed to eliminating mistakes this season. It’s preseason, but avoidable fumbles and INTs deep in your own territory are a recipe for disaster. Good thing the defense didn’t roll over.

Jernigan’s first half. Dropped balls, muffed punts, bobbles. Very shaky and could very well be this years Matt Dodge. Great upside, no experience or confidence – and jitters out the wazoo. His redemption for his 42 yard return and game winning 2 point conversion cannot go unnoticed though. Coughlin will likely be patient and hope Jernigan turned the corner last night.

David Carr had an off night. Turnovers aren’t just reserved for Eli I guess. His best asset is clearly his legs and scrambling for first downs is something I wish Eli could do more of. But you can’t teach that — which is why Aaron Rodgers and Michael Vick are so highly regarded as passers. If Eli ever goes out and he line breaks down, Carr needs to think run first, throw second.

THE UGLY

Clint Sintim. 9 months after tearing an ACL he does it all over again. Coughlin was right, this is going to be devastating for him. For the Giants – we’ll see more of Greg Jones hopefully now.

The Offense:  The Giants moved the ball very well against the Jets. Now the Jets are not very good against the run, as Pittsburgh proved last year in the playoffs, but they are a top defensive team in the league and it was a good measuring stick.  Brandon Jacobs looked solid and ran committed.  He ran over a few Jets on his way to 51 yards on 10 carries, and more importantly ran well in short yardage situations.  This also shows the O-Line is starting to come together and working as a unit.  The receivers however, as a whole, look confused.  Hakeem Nicks made some nice catches against a very good secondary, and Mario Manningham was open a few times, but Eli failed to make the throw, and this is where the problem lies this off-season.  I think Eli has had to take too much on his shoulders what with a new O-Line, in particular a new center, and new receivers.  On certain plays Monday night Eli seemed to have to speak to every player on offense individually.  he would call the protections, then move the backs, then look at each receiver, then try and get people to move or go in motion at the proper time.  While I think Eli is a good Qb, he is going to need help as the season progresses.  I think some of these receivers are doing a great job, but at times they forget where they are.  They have taken penalties for illegal motion, illegal formation, they have not read blitzes correctly, and have run some bad routes.  It is all part of the growing pains of playing in the NFL, but these guys are going to need to step it up, become professionals, and be consistent on every play.  Travis Beckum, Victor Cruz, Devin Thomas, and Domenik Hixon are going to have to contribute something for this sesaon to be a success.

The Defense:  This will be another strong unit this year.  Even with the loss of Terrell Thomas, the Giants proved the other night that they are deep enough and talented enough to be a top defensive team this year.  Aaron Ross continues to play like he did his rookie year.  Antrelle Rolle quietly, well quietly for him, has moved to the nickel corner in passing situations and looked good on Monday night.  The defensive line has learned to get pressure using just the 4 linemen, and that is a big key to success.  If you can rush a QB in this league using just the four guys upfront, your chances of success go way up.  Of course the addition of Osi and “The Prince” down the line will only improve this unit.  The much maligned linebacking core has even looked good this pre-season, and will continue to improve as we move forward.  Giant fans love their Defense, and this unit will make you proud this year.

Special Teams:  And now for the bad news.  Wow, as good as they seemed to look the week before, that’s how bad they looked this Monday night.  A step back for most units.  The punt return situation has remained the same….awful.  As a Giant punt returner your main job has always been to secure the ball first and foremost.  That became a major challenge Monday night.  I think Thursday night will be a test for some young players, and some veterans, to see what we can accomplish in this area.  I am hoping it was just an off night by a young player trying to impress. We will see. Kickoffs will be returned by Devin Thomas, and he will be a major upgrade over the 17 yard average from a year ago.  The punting competition continues, and the health of Lawrence Tynes will determine who the place kicker will be.

So, Thursday night will be a last ditch effort by some players to show something, but I imagine the final 50 if not 53 has already been determined.  Stay tuned to GMENHQ.COM for all roster moves when they are announced on Saturday, and as always, enjoy the game!

Of course there were miscues, lackluster periods of time… but they had only 5 practices in pads before they played this game. Not too shabby if you look at it like that. So here is my good bad and ugly for this past week’s Giants game.

The Good

• 1st team defense looks dangerous, from the front 4 all the way back to the safeties. I liked the amount of pressure coming off the edges, I like the central push and Canty’s repeated penetration to the running lane, I liked Michael Boley’s awareness to get the INT and score — something the Giants didn’t do at all last season on defense despite leading the league in takeaways. A solid foundation to start from whether or not Osi returns to form this year, and JPP looks like he’s going to be a handful for whoever is opposite him. Can’t wait to see the NASCAR package again with Tuck, Osi, Kiwi, and JPP across the front…. QB killers 2.0 for sure.

• Depth at RB. I thought both Jacobs and Bradshaw had their opportunities for big runs and nipped off a couple with wide running lanes. Ware looked good, he just does not excite me as much as Bradshaw or Jacobs does when they turn the corner. I thought Andre Brown looked quick on his 9 yard run and would love to see more next week in place of Ware. Same goes for Da’Rel Scott, but I have a feeling the #4 and #5 guys will be returning kicks before they get ahead of Ware in the backfield rotation. Still, I’m not in love with Ware for whatever reason, can’t put my finger on it but he’s not my favorite weapon.

• No turnovers. No fumbles, no interceptions — two key things the Giants have harped on all season as their focus. Well, they accomplished it and got some takeaways on defense to boot. I’m amazed just based on that ratio that the Giants ended up losing the game… but we’ll get to that later.

• Punting. Both Dodge and Weatherford looked good, and the Giants average punt was over 48 yards and the net punt average was just over 39 yards… but I have a feeling if coverage improved so would the later number. Still, nice work punting the ball.

• Depth at Cornerback. We know what we can expect from CWebb and TThomas, but Brian Witherspoon just became the legitimate #3 DB in place of Bruce Johnson and ahead of Aaron Ross on the depth chart. In fact, if Terrell Thomas really did want to try out that 3rd safety position, I’d give Witherspoon a crack at starting CB on the #2 receiver without issue. Great awareness, coverage, physicality, speed — he could be the complete package for the Giants in place of Prince Amukamara, or at least until we can see what he brings to the table at the NFL level. I know, it’s only one game and a preseason game at that — but I continue to be impressed by B Spoon.

• Domenik Hixon and Devin Thomas for #3 WR. Two solid games from both these guys. They looked quick, had good hands, made some good plays for first downs which is going to be under the microscope all year without Steve Smith holding it down. I think Hixon and Thomas are clearly the early front runners for that slot position and I look forward to seeing more from each of them this preseason.

Thomas also had a good punt return but he may not be the full time answer there if he’s going to be the token Y receiver for the Giants.

The Bad

• The offense. How can the Giants only score 3 offensive points over 4 quarters with the amount of weapons they have? With Boss and Smith gone, you’d think the Giants would want to make a statement. Well it looked rough. Really rough. They barely even made it to the red zone, and the one time they did they couldn’t convert. I agree with Coughlin, there really wasn’t a spark when the Giants had a chance to go up by 2 scores, and I’m disappointed in the Giants offense for not putting more points on the board. Hell, they started on the opposing 23 for one drive and came away with nothing. Play calling WAS predictable, but come on. Victor Cruz dropped a perfectly thrown ball on a nice slant. Then predictably, a run that was stopped immediately. Then, a quick wheel route for 2 yards to a man that was already covered. Field goal no good. Jeez. You had a TD gift wrapped and squandered it big time.

• Injuries. Can Ramses Barden and Travis Beckum get on the field please? Obviously the Giants offense needs everything they can get.

Update: Latest report is still a no go from Barden, but Beckum was practicing today and made some nice diving catches.

• Coaching. I was not a fan of the play calling (too predictable) and I was not a fan of the first FG attempt for 57 yards in the rain when everyone knows Lawrence Tynes had been battling a sore plant foot. This isn’t the ice bowl, this is preseason. And Tynes missed the second attempt as well perhaps because of the negative mindset his first kick left him with. Not smart decision making by the Giants… and it was very un-Coughlin like I thought.

The Ugly

• Special Teams coverage. I don’t know what needs to happen here to light a fire under the butts of Tom Quinn and Tom Coughlin, but something has got to be done here. You’re allowing the opposition to have tremendous field position every time they start their drive — that’s a huge hole you dig the defense each and every time they take the field. ENOUGH.

• Aaron Ross. I’m not sure how a player could be so hyped for no good reason. He is not good folks. HE STINKS. Out of position in coverages all night, he can’t tackle, and basically he’ll be targeted every time he’s on the field if this keeps up. He’s a liability, to CC Brown proportions. If he’s relegated to returning punts for the rest of his days in blue, I wouldn’t mind.

• Tackling all around. How many missed tackles were there, 500? Seemed like it. Get to the ball, make your wrap, and make your tackle. Fundamentals people.

• Return game. Speaking of no spark, what are the Giants telling these guys to do when they catch the ball? Run into the first block they see? It’s a combination of no speed, no aggressiveness, and no awareness in the return game. It’s too bad Hixon won’t be returning this year but I’d rather have a healthy playmaking #3 receiver than a banged up up returner/receiver hybrid. Still, a dedicated answer here is needed. (Psst — Aaron Ross won’t be playing safety OR corner if I had my druthers, this might be his only useful role on the team)