My Thoughts on Giants Loss…
I really don’t care if we win or lose our Preseason games. However, I want to see good things and that I did not see with the exception of Derrick Ward. Where was the blitz heavy Eagles ‘D’? There was only one instance of it late in the game, but it isn’t going to work well against a team that’s going to run the ball as much as Carolina did. The Eagles blitz a lot more than once a game, so why didn’t we if we’re using that scheme? Some things just didn’t make any sense. The problem wasn’t just by the young guys fighting for a roster spot because the starters had the same problem.
The Giants came into last night’s game with the longest active winning streak of Preseason games, with 7, not that this matters…but once again, we lost to the Panthers. We struggle with the NFC South altogether. So it is evident that the Giants have a lot of work to do on the defensive side of the ball. Hopefully, they can figure it all out by the time we open up against Dallas. We can’t go into Dallas on Week 1 of the Season playing defense like that and come out with a victory. So this will keep Spagnuolo busy the rest of the Preseason. Hopefully, we’ll see improvement week-to-week.
Late in the game, the offensive line just collapsed. The good thing is that these were not the starters and won’t get much playing time playing like that. Wright was not provided with enough time to make a completion. They committed two bad snaps, one resulting in a fumble (which had nothing to do with Wright) on the Giants’ last drive when they were only down by three points. I’m assuming that the starters will be playing during the season so this should not be as much of a problem.
Penalties continued to hurt the Giants on both sides of the ball. They committed 6 penalties for 63-yards. That means that they were bad penalties (i.e., pass interference and personal fouls) and kept giving Carolina the opportunity to move down-field.
Here’s the good. Derrick Ward had a huge night, mostly on returns. He didn’t gain many yards (29) rushing but picked up a few big 1st Downs when he did run. That’s called ‘making an impact’ with what time on the field you are given. Here’s what Ward had to say about his 67-yard return which set up the Giants first TD, “You try all the time when you’re a kickoff returner to take it to the house. It opened up, and I hit it. I gotta thank my front-line, my wedge, all those guys.” The quote is from the New York Post. Tell me what you guys thought about last night’s game.
