Dawkins: No Plax Made A Difference
...posted by Anthony De Rosa...
Brian Dawkins of the Eagles believes the Giants offense takes a step back without Plaxico Burress. Here is a quote from him on NFL.com
Listen, I don’t mean to take anything away from the rest of their guys or that receiving group, but not having Plaxico out there meant we could funnel our defense in different ways and force the ball more to where we wanted it to go. We were able to take our chances in man coverage on the outside and get nasty with pressure on the inside. You can do everything right with Plaxico and he is 6-5. He can make up for any advantage you create by simply mauling and out-jumping you. He makes you back up and back off. Did it make a difference? Absolutely.
To be fair, and in the interest of being aware of both sides of this argument, the Redskins may simply have not had enough time to reconfigure their defense in Plaxico’s absence. The true test for the Giants will be over the next few weeks, and especially next week against Dallas, to prove that they can win without Plaxico.
This past game is too soon to start pointing fingers.
I agree with Dawkins. They used to Double team Burress. Yesterday they didn’t double team anybody.
That said, if those 2 balls were caught, the game changes completely, even without the blocked FG TD.
There’s no denying we are a worse team without Burress on the field. The only question that matters is: are we still good enough to win it all without Burress? I think we just played terrible yesterday in all facets of the game, and Burress wouldnt have made much of a difference.
As for the Redskins, remember, Burress wasnt gonna play that game because of the hamstring anyway. They SHOULD have adjusted their defense. And to me, it appears they did. They stuffed the box and played 1 on 1 with their supposed elite secondary, but we burnt them with the pass anyway. I think the wind hurt us more than anything.
Next week will be the true test. If we cant move the ball in Dallas, then I think we can start worrying.