Big Blue Huddle

From my seat, he's been David Carr'd.

He's taken so many savage beatings. There are games from his rookie year still on youtube. Totally different QB. You almost don't recognize him. Quicker, lighter on his feet and much more aggressive.

I don't like hearing this kind of stuff, but there's smoke he and other members of the coaching staff have been a bit too casual with the players. I'll leave it at that.

Good read MightyGiants.

The first 3 games took the wind out of my sails. I hate rationalizing football. The expectations were this team was going to close the gap on PHI and DAL and improve on last year's performance level. I respect Daboll and Wink especially, but the country club points are well taken. Bisignano referred to this on a podcast during camp - how the Giants were taken aback by DET's intensity level and approach to the practices, how meetings start later in the day/end earlier than lots of programs he's seen. It's nice that Schoen & Daboll like to be buds with everyone but Management 101 is don't act like your casual friends with the people you're managing. 

I'm in show me mode. I'm no longer talking about this team being good in any fashion. For me, it was all about "closing the gap" and it doesn't appear any progress has been made. OTOH, if the Giants have a bad record but end up playing DAL and PHI tight at the end of the year, I still may take that as a win.

The simplest answer is usually the correct one.

This league will separate the pretenders quick. For guys new on the scene, year 2's kind of that defining year. You may catch people off guard year 1 when there's no book, but year 2, every DC has you figured out. Can we stay ahead of the curve? In the NFL, you either get better or you get worse. The good coaches get buy in and sustain, year to year.

Thankfully, we're only 3 weeks into the season so we don't have a definitive answer yet. But right now, it looks like year 2 McAdoo, Shurmur & Judge. Uninspired football, no leadership and no playmakers. Hard to believe.

Unfortunately, Seahawks win.

The book's out on the Giants: Dysfunctional OL. The key is taking away DJ's scrambling after the protection breaks down. (And it will, immediately.) That's exactly what DAL, PHI, SF and SEA have done. Last year vs. the Hawks, DJ had 6 carries for 20 yards and got sacked 5 times.

I'd love to be wrong but I've lost all faith in this team. The Seahawks will get a jailbreak pass rush, bottle up DJ's scrambling and laugh it up on the sidelines.

RE: Parsons and Carter

No one's disputing they are great players. Everyone knew that entering the draft. The thought was they'd implode at some point and not realize their potential in the NFL.

They are both off to great starts. We'll see if they stay out of trouble because lots of teams thought they wouldn't.

It's just not a good opponent for the Giants to have a must win against. SEA has dominated the Giants in the trenches for years and Pete Carroll really seems to have our number.

And, of course, we're experiencing the realities of this oddly difficult (flat out weird) schedule.

*2 west coast road trips, back to back.

*A MNF game following a Thursday game. (Better to have that extra rest day after a Sunday game.)

*Long road trip to Miami after a Monday night game.

On top of playing really good teams, logistically, it's a mess.

Quite frankly these guys kicked the Giants rear end last year. Couldn't block them. They stuffed Jones/Barkley and easily took away the pass.

We better have a counterpunch ready, because I'll bet Pete Carroll's feeling pretty good about this game. If that royal a$$-whipping occurs again up front, same result. I'll be watching from my couch, with the season on the line.

Jackknife

That's what we'll see from Toney early. He has no real chance of beating out a veteran top 3 of Golladay, Shepard and Slayton this year. If they're healthy, they're the top 3.

But Toney's a 1st round pick, and he'll play plenty. I suspect he'll be the KR, PR and gadget player right away. Get the D flowing with Barkley and come back the other way with Toney. When they stretch horizontally, hit the deep ball to Golladay.

The starting D seems to be coming along nicely.

You can't help but see the parallels to a typical New England D. Always appear short on Edge Rushers but pressure the QB well. The Giants don't have a front-line ER but they do have 4 who can play. Belichick has said his perfect D is the same 11 on the field able to handle every situation. Allows disguise. In order to do that, everyone must be versatile.

The Pats D always seems to be no-names: big, physical team-first grunt guys who play assignment football. You don't need All Pros to have a suffocating defense. It's 11 guys playing as 1.

I'm by no means projecting a great D but don't expect the embarrassment of last year. An "eat it" year with bad coaching staff + breaking in rookies and new players. This year the roster is stronger and more experienced, with key holes plugged. McKinney was a tremendous add - his ability at FS frees up the CBs, Peppers & Love to attack short. Graham (like Bill B.) plays a lot of man coverage - you need a great FS to do that. The Pats paid McCourty a boatload for a reason. Last year, they had to protect Old Man Bethea deep. This year, the 3 S package can be the engine driving the D, a la 2011.

Gettleman has built this thing inside/out - the middle of the field should be tough-sledding, run or pass. Similar to how he built that Panthers D.