New York Giants: Gilbride - Simon Bar Sinister Strikes Again

From the desk of:   DO IT FOR THE DUKE

NEW YORK GIANTS FOOTBALL:  In The Case Between Ahmad Bradshaw And Coach Coughlin, All You Need Is Love.


You know what to call that exchange between Ahmad Bradshaw and Coach Coughlin?  I call it love.  The two have been through a lot of battles together.  The Giants feature back was no doubt relying on the equity he has built with his head coach over the last five-plus years.  The Tom Coughlin of six and seven years ago wouldn't have let that fly.  Then again, this wasn't exactly Tiki Barber accusing his coach of being horribly out coached.  This was a case of a running back wanting the Giants to run the ball more so than they did against the Redskins to that point.  So no harm no foul.  And that's the way everyone on the team treated the situation too.


Granted, Ahmad did act as if not rushing for 100 yards was going to lose him a side bet or something. But let us remember for a second, Big Buddy is no longer here to keep Little Buddy's emotions under wraps.  Brandon Jacobs did that well.  In fact, they served each other very well in that regard.  So this is in effect Ahmad Bradshaw's first season unplugged.  Demanding more from his team mates is something a two time Super Bowl champion should be doing.  It just happened to manifest itself in slapping Victor Cruz upside the helmet, and losing his bearing with Coach.  Hey.....


Ahmad Bradshaw is far from being problematic.  So why should we, or I, take issue with Sunday's incident.  As long as Coach remains alpha-male in the room, it's all good.  What was problematic, were the Washington Redskins.


Coming off two weeks in which Ahmad rushed for over 300 yards, I get Bradshaw's point.  Fact is, the Washington Redskins forced the Giants into abandoning the run.  Subtract Eli's two scrambles for four yards, and Big Blue only rushed the ball seventeen times all game; eight times in the first half, and nine times in second.  Meanwhile, in an otherwise horrible effort, Eli put up forty passes in trying to keep Big Blue in the game.  In the process, he threw two interceptions.  Coach Gilbride was already calling a short passing game anyway.  So yeah, why not run more?


I do not know if the Giants anticipated that kind of defensive effort against the run.  In fairness to Coach Gilbride however, I get what he was doing too.  This game was actually right out of the old Mike Ditka era Bears play book - keep it short, keep it short, keep it short.  Once Ditka suckered the defense in, he then had Jim McMahon unleash a bomb to Willie Gault late in the game.  Whether by the run or short pass, I guess the result is all that matters.


Coach Gilbride did not resort to throwing hey makers early in the game like I though he might. But nor did he try establishing the run early.  Instead he loaded up on a short passing game in the first half.  He left the hey maker for the very last.  Simon Bar Sinister strikes again.



Other Stuff:  David Wilson did not get to run the ball from scrimmage.  Ahmad Bradshaw rushed the ball twelve times.  Andre Brown carried five times.  I thought this last game would have been a good week to get Wilson a nice package of reps.  Coach thought otherwise.  In four kick returns, he totaled 106 yards with a long of thirty two.




Mike.BTB