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Face It: Brees, Saints in Different Stratosphere Right Now

by John Fennelly on October 19th, 2009 at 7:57 am

drewWatching yesterday’s game was painful, I need not tell you that.  It has been awhile since the Giants were completely ravaged in such an ugly manner: the Divisional Playoff vs Philadelphia; the inexplicable loss to the Browns on MNF and the two home whippings in 2007 to Green Bay and Minnesota.

What pleased me yesterday……….

about the Giants’ play – nothing – but FOX did relieve us of having to listen to the caustic wit of Joe Buck (who is doing the ALCS).  Thom Brenneman, who is primarily a baseball play-by-play man, did a great job bringing Giants fans in from the ledge by calling an even game with no wisecracks.  Thanks, Thom.  Troy Aikman was his laid-back self, but I’m not sure he didn’t revel internally while watching this massacre.

The second thing was Darren Sharper’s INT for a TD getting called back because of a roughing-the-passer penalty.  Had that play been allowed to stand, my wife would have had to call the EMS on me to report an emotional disturbance.

What I hated about yesterday……….

Just about everything else.  I saw the Giants hit Saints’ QB Drew Brees only once. They say he was hit three times, but you’ll have to prove that to me in a court of law.

Jeremy Shockey catching a TD pass.  Yeah, we’ve won without him, but the guy can still play.  Meanwhile, the two players we got for him (Clint Sintim, Rhett Bomar) attend games in sweatsuits. All in good time, I guess.

Sean Payton.  Where were these plays in Super Bowl XXXV? Or in the NFC Championship Game in 2007? Yesterday was the third time this guy cost me money….

A Sinking Feeling

Were the Giants overrated because they bowled over a string of patsies? It appears to be so.

In watching the Jets and Eagles lose to two teams that have no business beating anyone, I realized that Drew Brees and the Saints are THATMUCH better than the Giants.

They have too much on offense and just enough on defense for us or anyone to compete with.  This could be their Super Bowl year.  I know they don’t hand out the Lombardi trophy in October, but this team could get home field throughout, meaning we’ll have to go back down there…….

Will the Giants be a better team by then?  What do we have to look forward to?  The films of this game will open the eyes of every offensive coordinator who faces us from here on in.

I hope this is just a one-week bump-in-the-road….but as the Morgan Freeman character said in The Shawshank Redemption “Hope can be a dangerous thing”.

Let’s hope not.

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About John Fennelly

Managing Editor of SNY.tv's Giants Football Blog - the ultimate destination for New York Giants' news, opinion and entertainment. View all posts by John Fennelly →
  • royhobbs7

    John,

    This time last year, the Giants were the best team in football. Alot can happen in the next 10 or so weeks; we all know that. And hopefully, a little bit of health to some of our defensive players (i.e., Ross, Canty, and Boley) will make a bit of a difference.

    I also believe that if we play the Saints again (i.e., in the playoffs), we need to put more pressure on Brees even if it means disguising a number of different blitzing packages.

    • mark4212

      I agree with what roy was saying.

      Overall the giants offense missed a few plays. Their game plan was out of the normal. They should have run the ball, and run the ball some more. They can’t match point for point with the saints. Not many teams can. The missed long opportunities should have been taken on 2nd down and not 3rd downs, especially the 1st drive of the game. Getting that first down and continuing that drive would have completely changed the game.

      Defensively the gameplan was terrible, and they made no adjustments at half time. The Giants relied too heavily on their front 4 being able to beat the o-line and it was apparent 3 drives into the game that it wasn’t working. Sheridan had to devise blitzing packages to pressure brees and make him hurry the decisions. Would it have worked, maybe not, but sitting back on your heals in a zone didn’t work AT ALL!

      The Special teams was the lone bright spot. Sinorice moss has no role on this team and won’t be back this off-season. Hixon was very very good, returning kicks, the coverage was pretty solid for the most part. The 2 penalties were bad calls by the ref. How can you have a horse collar when the player is parallel to you? I thought you had to grab and pull back?

      It was sloppy, poor game planned and poorly executed.

      • BigJohn

        I feel the special teams helped us on returns but KILLED us in our coverage. I think we had 45 yards of penalties on the coverage that gave the ball to the Saints at the 50 or closer 3 different times. It is tough enough stopping the offense when they have 80 yards to go but when you allow them to be in your redzone after one big play it is bad news.

    • http://www.blognyg.com John Fennelly

      Thanks Roy…..well put – one game does not a season make…

  • jmc_47

    Although I do not believe the Giants would have been beaten the Saints under any circumstances, I think there were a few crucial plays in which the Giants did not execute that would have kept the game closer. Now closer is not much consolation, but it would have giving a glimmer of that dangerous hope in that the NYG is not as bad, and as behind the Saints, as yesterday suggested.

    First there was the ‘almost interception’ by Corey Webster on the first drive. The sack / fumble of Eli following the goal line stand. The lousy pass interference call on Colston. Three non-plays that would have greatly changed the outcome / perception of the game.

    Yes, it was a brutal @$$ whipping, but there is still hope…dangerous or not… that the tables can be turned.

    • http://www.blognyg.com John Fennelly

      This is all true, but the Giants were as Aikman said “outmanned”…..they miss Ross and Phillips in games such as these….guys who can flatten the Lance Moores of the world….

  • BigRB

    For anyone looking to beat the giants, the gameplan is pretty simple: Chuck up the ball towards CC Brown, cause he aint looking, oh and make sure at least one of the refs have a vendetta against Corey Webster.

    Other than that, make sure you have Peyton/Brady/Brees because every other quarterback can be held in check without blitzing.

    • http://www.blognyg.com John Fennelly

      Brown was exposed, no doubt about it….and the officials did not have a very good game overall, either.

      You’re right – it still takes a great QB to do this to the Giants, but Brees is one of them. Should they meet again, hopefully they will be more prepared.

  • BigJohn

    Maybe I am an optimist but as badly as the Giants played they were only(only?) down 17 points at halftime. I feel this should have probably only been 10 but I have no problem with the Giants trying to get in FG range for Tynes with a minute left.

    If we did that means we are down 7 and we get the ball. I trust our QB especially in the 2 minute drill.

    Now I know you can always say if the Saints didn’t score 48 points we win, if we scored 49 we win, etc but I feel as badly as we played we should have only been 10 points down at halftime. Obviously the fumble is huge and it is part of the game but if we don’t fumble we are down 10, we get the ball in the 2nd half and that lead is not insurmountable by any means.

    This does not hide the fact that we could not stop anyone on defense but to clearly play our worst game on defense against a high powered offense like the Saints and be down 10(I know it was 17 but I am just making a point) while we get the ball in the 2nd half it seems a lot less worrisome. Now obviously we need to play better on defense and make a stop but there is always room for improvement and I am glad we lost this way now instead of in January. Now we know our weaknesses and we can work to improve them. I have all the faith in the world in Tom Coughlin to make the necessary adjustments and get this team back on track vs. the Cardinals.

    • http://www.blognyg.com John Fennelly

      My fear is that the Saints scored 48 points and could have scored more, but reeled it in.

      The Giants should have had 40 points also…..if these teams were both clicking and trying on offense, they would set a single game record

  • DSulls

    I’m not going to say that we lost this game because of the refs — clearly we didn’t — but they certainly didn’t help. Take this image for example:

    http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=72108bbcbdaadafc1bee9a6e9edd9c76e04e75f6e8ebb871

    I was laughing out loud when I saw this on TV and just had to rewind and take a picture. Where are the refs???

    That was on the big 3rd and 17 play in the 3rd quarter (i believe) that led to another Saints touchdown…. There were a lot, A LOT, of no calls on holds by the Saints offensive line on some of their bigger plays of the game — including a few of their big 3rd down conversions. It’s football and a holding penalty can probably be given on each and every play, but some of the missed calls were just blatantly obvious. Don’t even get me started on some of the blatantly wrong calls they made against the Giants.

    With that said, I thought Sheridan was supposed to be calling a similar game to spags?? Where were all the deceptive blitzing packages that spags used to confuse the hell out of the QBs???? With Spags’ packages the opposing QBs had no idea where the blitz was coming from — if any was coming at all. In my opinion, this game was lost on the defensive game plan. The Giants have the talent to contain these guys…. hell the Jets even contained them with no problem, but they need a better game plan than what we got yesterday…..

    • http://www.blognyg.com John Fennelly

      Good points…..I remember that holding play on Robbins….unreal….

      • DSulls

        Yeah, apparently, in a move to even further protect the league’s quarterbacks, the league is now allowing choke holds… /sarcasm