N.Y. Giants ~ Gilbride; Art of Deception or a Babbling Fool?

From the desk of:   DO IT FOR THE DUKE

DIVISIONAL ROUND PLAYOFFS

SUNDAY

NEW YORK GIANTS

vs.

Green Bay Packers

From

LAMBEAU FIELD

NEW YORK GIANTS FOOTBALL:  Someone get Buddy Ryan on the Phone!


POST:  Coach Perry Fewell's Time Is Now



Sometimes people are better off seen and not heard.  And along those lines, what I don't know can't hurt me.  The problem is, if you're a Giants fan, you have intimate knowledge regarding a certain Offensive Coordinator who drives me absolutely nuts!





Tell me this is a joke; or a ploy; or an exercise in the art of deception.  Please tell me this is  something other than what Kevin Gilbride believes to be the truth.  Please do this for me.  And please tell me he's not in the process of losing his right mind just before the biggest game of the season to date.





I'm bewildered.  I'm beside myself.  This is ponderous!  But if this is a ploy, and it works, I'll be happy to call him the sideline version of Wile E. Coyote; Super Genius.  After bashing him forever,  I finally gave the guy a pat on the back for his play calling against the Jets, Cowboys, and the Falcons.  I think he had a better season than last.  Then he goes and says something like this;  -from the New York Daily News, here's Peter Botte's opening paragraph from Friday's article:

Offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride believes the “conventional wisdom” that the Giants must run the ball effectively to keep Aaron Rodgers and the Packers’ high-powered offense off the field as much as possible in Sunday’s divisional playoff game “honestly doesn't hold much water.”

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/giants/ny-giants-master-balancing-act-article-1.1005549#ixzz1jNkKZrE8

Peter Botte also explained how "... Gilbride believes consistently moving the chains — either via the ground or the pass — effectively will limit Rodgers’ opportunities on Sunday...,"





Theoretically, he's not wrong.  Strategically, those are the words of an idiot.  But see?  These are precisely the kind of things that got him punched in the face!  Someone get Buddy Ryan on the phone! Sometimes Kevin Gilbride's logic defies logic and assaults your sensibilities.





Let's go back to the video tape, shall we?  Crunch this.





Against the Dallas Cowboys, the Giants rushed the ball thirty-one times for 106 yards.  Dallas elected to run the ball a mere sixteen times.  Against Atlanta, the Giants ran the ball thirty-one times for the second consecutive week and rushed for 159 yards.  Atlanta attempted twenty-one rushes in the game.  Additionally, the Giants ran seven more plays from scrimmage than Dallas.  Against Atlanta, both teams ran off an identical sixty-one plays from scrimmage.  Yet in both games, the Giants held on to the ball for nine more minutes than their opponent.





What does Coach Gilbride NOT understand?  Please tell me if I'm wrong.  But if you're winning the time of possession battle based on the same number of plays from scrimmage, while rushing the ball considerably more than they are and winning the last two games by a combined 60-16 score, does that not tell you the Giants have been successful at keeping the opposing offense off the field?  If we are winning time of possession yet only getting off the same number of plays, does that not tell you the running game is working well towards controlling the clock and the other team's ability to score?





These are either ponderous statements by Coach Gilbride or deceptive genius at work.  We can only hope his thinking is closer to the latter.  As a result of running the ball, the Giants won the time of possession battle by a considerable margin.  Is the correlation not clear to Kevin Gilbride?  Is he mad?  Without running the ball as the Giants have, and as a result controlling the clock the way they have, with any less time in possession is it not logical to say the opposition could have ended both games with more plays from scrimmage than the Giants?  And if you're giving the opposition more plays, are you not opening up more opportunities for them to score?





What happened at the end of the game last time we played Green Bay?  We gave them the ball back with too much time left on the clock and allowed Aaron Rodgers to get his team close enough to kick the game winning field goal.  We can blame that on the DEFENSE if you want.  But I think I made my point.





The last time we played the Packers also signalled the rebirth of the running game.  Since then, the Giants have regularly broken the 100 yards-a-game plateau, and not coincidentally, they are winning again.




Mike.BTB