Week 1 Report Card

There are two ways to look at Sundays game.  The optimist will say, hey they didn't play well--4 turnovers, 9 penalties, 1 blocked punt allowed--and still won the game going away.  Tighten up the mistakes and they'll be fine.  The pessimist, on the other hand, will point out the running game was non-existent in the first half, the special teams were a joke, the defense gave up too many 3rd and longs, and all this was against an opponent that, frankly, doesn't look very good.  I'll let you decide which side you're on, but here are my week 1 performance grades for the defense, offense, and special team.


Defense: 

We can talk about the 3rd down conversions, but the bottom line is the Giants gave up only 237 yards (5th best in week 1), 89 yards on the ground against a supposedly great rushing team, forced 5 turnovers, had 4 sacks, and held their opponent to 16 points despite being given awful field position to work with all day courtesy of turnovers and horrific special teams play.  That's a pretty damn good day.  The question is whether or not this was the result of solid defense, or a completely inept offense.  We'll find out next week for sure.


Grade:  B

Offense:

Forget the 3 interceptions, Eli looked solid.  More importantly, he looked confident in his receivers.  Steve Smith has apparently graduated to double coverage, so Hakeem Nicks and Mario Manningham will be vital weapons for this offense  (feel free to join the party anytime you want Ramses Barden).  Both stepped up in that role on Sunday.  The running-game remains a concern, but thanks to some second half adjustments they ended up with a respectable 118 yards on the ground.  The Colts got gashed last week by Arian Foster and now they are without Bob Sanders, so if the Giants struggle to run the ball next week, then I'll worry.

Grade: B-

Special Teams:

They should play the "Entry of the Gladiators" every time one of the Giants special teams units come out on the field, because they are circus act right now.  I'm not saying anything you don't already know, but the special teams will cost them at least one game this year if things don't turn around.  They need to find some combination of guys who can run down and make a tackle, or make a block.  As for the punter, Tom Coughlin said it best, "Patience is not a good word right now."  I don't care that he was a draft pick, I said it before, and I'll say it again, I'm not interested in developing a punter.  You have patience with a rookie QB, not a punter.  It's clear Dodge struggles under pressure (he shanked his first few kicks in camp, his first few punts in preseason, and now his first few punts in a regular season game) so even if he starts to show some consistency in the regular season, can you really trust that his nerves won't get the best of him in the fourth quarter of a big game come December.  God help us when the winds pick up. 


Grade: F 


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In case you missed it, Kevin Boss suffered a concussion on Sunday--and it's not his first.  He will definitely miss this week and we'll have to wait and see after that.  Also, Chase Blackburn re-sprained his MCL (same injury he had in camp) and William Beatty hurt his foot.  Blackburn says he hopes to be back this week--although that seems unlikely.  Beatty remains a bit of a mystery as Ralph Vacchiano reported that he needs surgery and may miss the season, but there hasn't been any conformation of that, and Mike Garofolo reported that his timetable is uncertain.  The Giants signed Bear Pascoe off their practice squad and released LB Bryan Kehl to make room.  I would think that if the Giants expected Beatty to really miss the year he would have been placed on IR to make room for Pascoe--so maybe that's a good sign.  I'll let you know as soon as see something concrete.  I'm sorry to see Kehl go, but if you remember I figured Pascoe would make the team over Kehl to begin with, so it's not too surprising.  Kehl was also the one who missed his assignment on the blocked punt--which Tom Coughlin called "embarrassing"--so that may have been the play that sealed Kehl's fate.