A lot of talk coming into the season was whether the New York Giants could replicate the same defensive performance that they had last season, which became dominant in the postseason.
With Michael Strahan in retirement and Osi Umenyiora out for the season with injury, one would reasonably expect a drop off in performance.
Last night was not one of those nights.
In a spectacular defensive performance, the Giants corralled and controlled the Washington Redskins from start to finish in a workmanlike 16-7 victory.
Feeding off an incredibly intense home crowd at Giants Stadium, the team appeared poised to blow the Redskins out in the first 20 minutes of the game. At no point were they ever seriously threatened.
Defensive coordinator/genius Steve Spagnuolo devised a scheme that once again maximized the abilities of each player and it was executed nearly to perfection.
Offensively, the Giants quickly jumped on a Washington defense that was missing cornerback Shawn Springs and saw Jason Taylor playing at far less than one-hundred percent.
Eli Manning and Plaxico Burress (who earlier in the day signed a new five-year contract) connected on several plays on the first Giants scoring possession.
After a pass interference penalty on Redskins cornerback Fred Smoot put the ball on the one-yard line, Manning play faked a run and rolled right. Linebacker Marcus Washington attempted to cutoff his angle to the end zone, but instead cut back to his left and dove into the end zone for the first Giants touchdown of the season.
On defense, Justin Tuck (Strahan’s replacement at defensive end) electrified the crowd with a sack of quarterback Jason Campbell on the Redskins first offensive play.
Tuck was triple teamed on the play, but somehow was able to elude blockers as Campbell was rolling slightly to his right and brought him down for a seven-yard loss.
Numerous times on third down, Washington was denied of a first down by great individual plays by the secondary.
Rookie receiver Devin Thomas appeared to have one first down, but another rookie, the Giants Kenny Phillips, one yard short of the first down, stoned him.
Santana Moss also looked to be near a first down before Corey Webster clocked him, dislodging his helmet, once again one-yard short of the stick.
Mathias Kiwanuka, returning to the defensive line, made another key stop on a third-and-one, stuffing running back Clinton Portis for no gain.
The final score of the game did not do justice to what went on out on the field.
Campbell had very little time to throw, and when he chose to, receivers were not open.
To illustrate, in the first half, Campbell completed two of six passes for 17 yards. Twelve of those came on a touchdown pass to Santana Moss on a blown coverage.
As a whole, the Redskins did little to nothing against the Giants defense. Prior to last minute of the game, Washington had only moved the ball into New York territory twice. For the game, they finished with 11 first downs and 209 total yards.
If the defense can play like this, they can become a dominant force in the NFC and perhaps make a return trip to the Super Bowl.
For one night, it was a good start.
No comments:
Post a Comment