N.Y. Giants: Week One - The Ford Field Follies

From the desk of:  DO IT FOR THE DUKE

NEW YORK FOOTBALL GIANTS: Game One Reveals Old Truths.

If that carnage was awful to witness, imagine how the Christians felt.  Amazing how getting fed to the Lions still makes spectators cheer with fury all these centuries later.  Goes to show how Roman we still remain today.

WEEK ONE FINAL:

New York Giants   14

Detroit Lions          35

The game I watched was not as close as this score may indicate.

In Ben McAdoo's first game as offensive coordinator, his unit attempted 57 plays, amassed 197 total yards, for 3.5 yards per play.  His QB only passed for 163 yards, got sacked twice, and threw 2 interceptions.  His running game averaged just 2.2 yards on 22 carries.  His already compromised offensive line performed woefully.

Detroit even subsidized the offensive unit with 8 penalties for 85 yards - more than half of Eli Manning's output.

In other words, last season's poor execution, and this year's poor pre-season have officially bled into the 2014 regular season.

Defensively, the Giants played nicely against run.  However, the Giants allowed a total of 417 yards.

You know what that means - Coach Fewell's secondary looked just as confused as ever.  This may be knee jerk of me after one week, but here's Fewell's pattern: begin the season by over-complicating assignments, then when the team is in late season dire straits, simplify secondary schemes resulting in much greater success. That's not necessarily my opinion either.  In the past, Corey Weber and Aaron Ross never really voiced the problem, but over the last few years, Antrel Roll has many times.

Monday night, Matt Stafford, Megatron, and the rest of Detroit's air attack lit up the Giants for 346 yards.  They're good, but the Giants need to do better.

The Giants also had a punt attempt blocked, so their ineptness was well distributed.

Much of this points to personnel issues, which ultimately puts Jerry Reese in the spot light.  At this point, hindsight is indeed everything.  He took Ernie Accorsi's team, supplemented it with 2 key drafts, and as we know, won 2 trophies.

His former running game and offensive lineman all generally deteriorated at the same rate, while talented (or at least par) replacements did not come in a timely manner.  His depth at receiver is long gone.  His defensive line is nowhere deep, or formidable as it once was.  His linebacking corp. is still pedestrian at best.  And no matter how many draft selections he spends on the secondary, the unit remains troublesome as ever.

In recent years, Reese has been relying on cast-offs, an overabundance of free agents, and has drafted rather poorly.  

Welcome to 2014.

Mike