Giants: Need For a Few Changes?
By Joe Tufaro
I decided to go back and watch the Giants loss to the Bengals play by play, and that was not a fun exercise. While there are many things in play here I did notice that many fans had put a large part of the blame on right tackle David Diehl. I am not one for blaming one particular person in a team game such as football, but I decided to watch the Giants offensive snaps focusing on Mr. Diehl.
I graded the first 51 of the 70 snaps the Giants had on Sunday, after that some changes were made up front. Chris Snee was removed and Diehl was moved inside to guard, a position he is probably better suited for. In the first half the offense ran 26 plays with Diehl getting a positive rating on 19 of them. However he did give up a sack, and on one series missed his block or got beat on every play of the three play drive.
On the first 14 plays of the second half Diehl had a positive grade on 8 of those plays while giving up another sack. It seems that like most of the Giants offense David does well in the 2 minute drill with the quick passes, but he seems to stop his feet after initial contact, and therefore is beaten easily by speed. Diehl is no longer the athletic tackle the Giants need. He does well against a straight bull rush, but even on running downs he seems to not hold his block long enough, and his defender often comes off the block and makes the tackle.
This passing offense needs to get back to running crossing routes, running deep routes to clear out the underneath, and using the TE on the seam route. However with backs needing to stay in to help the line, and Eli getting undo pressure on every drop back, and the running game showing no life, this Giants offense has become stagnant.