N.Y. Giants: Eli Manning Poised To Play In Narrative Defining Game

From the desk of:  DO IT FOR THE DUKE

Dave Gettleman Banking on Eli Manning's 

Ability to Turn Back the Clock

SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL

New York Giants

vs.

Dallas Cowboys

FROM

The House That Jerry Built

New York Football Giants: Dallas Cowboys Will Do Far Better Job Exploiting Absence of Olivier Vernon; I'm Concerned With Extra Load Being Placed on Snacks Harrison.

The Giants will play once again minus the services of their top pass rusher, linebacker Olivier Vernon, who will miss a second straight week with a high ankle sprain.  The Giants say he'll be ready by next week.  But history says this injury is notorious for slow healing, and sometimes responsible for hampering entire seasons.

Without him, the defense last week generated little in the way of quarterback pressure, registering one sack, and just three other QB hits.  On the ground, Leonard Fournette was having his way until sidelined by a strained hamstring.  Otherwise the Jaguars go on to rush for 137 total yards.

Sunday night the Giants face Dak Prescott, Ezekiel Elliott, and a superior Dallas Cowboys offensive line.  If Week One is any indication, the Giants will have difficulty generating much, if any pressure against Dak Prescott.  But there are reasons why the Cowboys only scored eight points last week against Carolina.  Without Dez Bryant, they have no legitimate high threat receivers to speak of.  It just renders their offense more predictable.., that's all.

But it also creates a great case study into new defensive coordinator James Bettcher's creativity.  His unit allowed the Jaguars only thirteen offensive points last week.  Bettcher should be daring Dak Prescott to beat them.  If Eli Apple, Janoris Jenkins, and Curtis Riley capably handle their respective assignments, Landon Collins can then potentially help stack the box against Ezekiel Elliott, and thus allow Bettcher to sneak in an occasional blitz.

On a somewhat different note, it appeared to me last week that playing minus Olivier Vernon at some point began taking its toll on Snacks Harrison.  In that regard, I envision this week unfolding similarly.  Keep an eye on Snacks, Coach, because he's the one player I feel the defense can least afford to lose.

THIS IS EXACTLY THE TYPE OF GAME DAVE GETTLEMAN IS TRUSTING ELI MANNING TO CARRY THE TEAM, AND WIN.

Point directly at Big Blue's offensive shortcomings for Week One's loss against the Jaguars.  Much was, and is still being made of Ereck Flowers poor performance.  When truth be told, the entire line played a flawed and inept brand of football.  Nate Solder was the first to admit that.  All told, the Giants rush 23 times for 114 total yards, but subtract Saquon Barkley's 68-yard romp, and the Giants rush 22 times for just 46 yards.  And if we're pointing fingers, the left side of the line (not the right) proved least effective.  The unit as a whole allowed two sacks and six more QB hits.

It seems Saquon Barkley's role is yet to be defined.  Last week he rushed 18 times with only two receptions, which is contrary to what many anticipated.  I would argue this week calls for 25 rushes of smash mouth type football.  After which I'm sure he'll be making many more receptions out of the backfield in the weeks to come.  In the meantime, Dallas is sure to test his abilities at reacting to an NFL blitz.

However, most problematic of all was last week's disconnect between Eli Manning and his receivers.
Eli's naysayers say elite quarterbacks find ways of carrying entire teams to victory regardless of the talent level surrounding them.  This week, that couldn't ring more true.  Getting open against Jacksonville was not necessarily a problem for Odell Beckham, Sterling Sherpard, or Evan Engram.  But timing and accuracy were.  I might be an Eli apologist without realizing it.  But even I'll admit this is Eli's game to either win or lose all by himself.  If he and his receivers clean up their act, the Giants should get out of Dallas with hard fought, well earned victory, and allow fans to breathe a little sigh of relief.

Or not ...

N.Y. Giants: The New Blue Administration

From the desk of:  DO IT FOR THE DUKE

All Scapegoats Have Left The Building

New York Football Giants: The Four Men Responsible For Correcting John Mara's Recent Mistakes.

I've been a witness to some fairly bad Giants seasons.  Of course, there are generations who've endured more than me.  Others not so much.

Only five times previous to last year did the Giants ever lose as many as twelves games in a season: 1966, 1974, 1980, 1983, 2003.

The first time they ever achieve double-digit losses comes in 1964 with a 2-10-2 record.  I was not yet born in 1966, and still too young when in 1974 they post a 2-12 record.  But the team goes 3-11 in 1976, the first year I can recall bleeding blue.  A few years later, Ray Perkins coaches the Giants to the first twelve-loss season of my recollection.  Three years later Bill Parcells in his first season as head coach leads the Giants to a 3-12-1 season.  Then twenty years pass until 2003 when Jim Fassell coaches the Giants to a 4-12 record.

No New York Football Giants fan, dating back to 1925, had ever been made to endure a thirteen loss season.  Then last year happened.  Today, our multiple generations of Giants fans are now united as one in so far that we all saw them together at their very worst.

High-five!

Since everything starts at the top, how does John Mara proceed forward after the worst season in the history of his family business?  The simple answer is hiring a new general manager, selecting a new head coach, assembling a new staff, collectively working to cut the dead weight, targeting key free agents, and ultimately marching forward with a roster purged of at least 45% of last year's personnel.

But nothing is ever that clear cut and dry, is it?

After all, John Mara himself played an uncharacteristically large role as a meddler and enabler, not only last season, but over the last few seasons.  We know John Mara is a loyal person, and that long relationships do not usually end well, and saying good-bye is hardly ever easy.  In the case of Jerry Reese, perhaps he was a bit too loyal.  He and Jerry Reese scapegoated Tom Coughlin.  Mara in turn then took the lead in scapegoating Ben McAdoo.  With no more scapegoats to be found, the time finally come for them both to part ways.

In addition to Reese's departure, John Mara also humbles himself.  Any effective owner or executive understands the value of self-reflection and accountability.  So he admits recently to being solely responsible for orchestrating last year's Eli Manning consecutive starts streak fiasco, and completely miscalculating the resulting backlash.

For better or worse, the changes that should have been exacted several years ago are now in place.  To what lengths and to whom's satisfaction will be an ongoing matter for debate.

Dave Gettleman is the new general manager.  I didn't necessarily agree at the time with all his draft selections, but he nevertheless has a supporter in me.  He preaches about playing the brand of Giants football I feel for too long has been lacking around these parts.  At the same time, I find his previous body of work for the Carolina Panthers commendable.  I like the way he generally handles his business, and the press in particular.  There are concerns regarding his health, although he says everything is fine.  I'll nonetheless be preoccupied with his condition throughout the season because I believe in Gettleman, and want for him to see his transformation of the Giants through to completion.

Next on the totem pole is Pat Shurmur, hired back in January to replace outcast Ben McAdoo as head coach of the New York Giants.  I'm not going to pretend I know much, if anything about him.  I will say to this point he has exhibited more depth of knowledge, an undeniable self-confidence, superior presentation, and a noticeably better command of outside interference and/or unnecessary distractions than did his predecessor.

Shurmur serves last year as Minnesota Vikings offensive coordinator with positive results.  He spends his first ten seasons coaching with the Philadelphia Eagles.  After which, he serves two seasons as St. Louis Rams offensive coordinator.  He then moves on to become head coach of the Cleveland Browns under then executive Mike Holmgren.  And later returns to Philadelphia for three more seasons until landing at Minnesota where in 2016 he starts out as tight ends coach, and by 2017 is back to serving as offensive coordinator.

This all makes him an offensive schooled head coach, just like McAdoo, Coughlin, and Fassell, before him.  On the one hand, we'll see how he interacts with his own offensive coordinator, and how in turn he manages and trusts defensive delegation, and lastly his ability to fuse both together into effective overall game management.

Mike Shula is the new offensive coordinator.  I don't care who his father is, the guy has thirty years of coaching experience.  Moreover, he's a Shurmur guy.  If you recall, with Kevin Gilbride (and Tom Coughlin) it was always high risk/high reward, and interceptions be damned.  Under Ben McAdoo, Eli was coached in shorter yard higher percentage passing, albeit with lower rates of interceptions, but was stymied the whole time by poor game-planning, a substandard offensive line, and the Giants woeful inability to rush the ball.  Dave Gettlman has enacted changes to the offensive line, drafted a highly touted college back, and re-signed a healthy Odell Beckham Jr. to a new contract, all of which might help Mike Shula and Eli Manning manage a potentially well balanced attack.

The new defensive coordinator is James Bettcher who comes to the Giants via the Arizona Cardinals.  He took over an outstanding Cardinals defense former coordinator Todd Bowles left behind in order to accept the New York Jets head coaching position.  However, under Bettcher, the Cardinals nevertheless remained a stout, league respected unit.  Year in and year out, they've been among the league leaders in fewest rushing yards allowed.  That much can not be denied.  But the true common denominator with regards to Arizona's defensive prowess is more a matter of personnel than perhaps their two former coordinators.  The Giants defensive unit Bettcher is inheriting, quite frankly, has more problems than a math book, and I wish him luck figuring it out.