Big Blue Kickoff Live 11/20 I Key Matchups Against Detroit

Paul Dottino and Jonathan Casillas chat about the Giants’ key matchups in their upcoming game against the Lions, talk about the defense, and take calls from fans. 

0:00 - Lions preview

27:50 - The defense

39:08 - More on the defense

45:57 - Dexter Lawrence

54:48 - Blitz packages

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
It's time for a Big Blue Kickoff line.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Nobody can ever tell you that you couldn't do it
because you're.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
On Giants dot Com.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
Do you know what I saw to York Giant Crack.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
And the Giants Mobile.

Speaker 4 (00:16):
Seventeen fourteen, the final one time down We all We're
all taverage?

Speaker 5 (00:21):
They did well happen?

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Part of the Giants Podcast Network.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
Let's go on?

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hell Crazy Dog has itn.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
Hello again, everybody, and welcome to Thursday's edition of Big
Blue Kickoff Live, presented by Cadillac, the official luxury vehicle
of the New York Football Giants. I'm called Tatino. He's
two times Super Bowl champ Jonathan Casias so glad you
could join us today for the next hour to talk
Giants football. Our phone number is two A one nine
three nine four five one three two O one nine

(00:47):
three nine four five one three, or you can find
us on social media on Twitter or I Guess It's
x hashtag Giants Chat And as always, an archive of
this show if you're not listening to it live, is
available on the Giants Entire Podcast Network, on the Giants
Mobile app podcast platforms everywhere, and at Giants dot Com
Slash podcasts. As always, we're coming to you from the

(01:10):
Giants Podcast Studio presented by Hackensack Meridian Health. Keep getting better,
and folks, if you were sleeping over the last twenty
four hours, well we're going to get you caught up
on the fact that rookie quarterback Jackson Dart is advancing
in the Concussion Protocol and that meant yesterday he was

(01:30):
entitled to do non contact practice drills. Now that was
done in the field hous Giants were able to practice
in there yesterday. And basically what it comes down to
is this as it stands. No, yeah, that wasn't a
field towns. Yeah, I was trying to remember. As it
comes down to, is this, he's got one more stage

(01:52):
to clear, that last stage stage five in the protocol.
Have you ever been at it?

Speaker 2 (01:57):
By the way back in the day, wasn't really the
same type of situation.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
Okay, Now they do five specific stages. Okay, he's got
one more stage to clear and that's the last one.
They may not clear him today, They may not even
clear him tomorrow because on Saturday, the Giants have a
walk through Saturday morning before they bought the plane to
go to Detroit. As long as he's cleared by then,
that's all that matters. Whether it's today tomorrow, as long

(02:23):
as he's cleared by Saturday, he's good to go for
the game and into him. Head coach Mike Kafka said yesterday,
if he's medically cleared to go and the staff is
satisfied with that, he starts. Jameis Winston becomes the number
two against the.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Lines, and Jackson Dart took first team reps right yesterday
as well. That was that was good to hear he's
on track, that he's actually out there. I'm taking first
team reps. That means he's headed in the right direction.
Fingers crossed. Hopefully he can get cleared because I love
that kid. I love the way he plays the game
of football, and I hope this is a learning lesson

(02:56):
for him, because you know, I've heard, We've all heard, right,
things should be done differently, play calling wise, to not
have the ball in his hands, it's really him because
it's only so much you can coach him up to do,
and he has to learn how to play the quarterback
position in the NFL in of taking in terms of
taking care of himself, you know, there's only so much
a coach can do, you know, because some of these

(03:18):
plays where he's taking hits, they're not design runs. There's
scrambled plays that he basically chooses to run. But he
has to understand that it's not just him out there. Yes,
you should be tough. This is a tough man's game,
but there has to be discernment on some of these decisions.
And sliding is a good thing, and he has shown
the ability to to slide. He's shown that he has

(03:39):
made the decision to slide, and he's getting better. He's
getting better, he's getting better. Hopefully this is a learning
thing for him, you know. Tiki Barbera says it, and
I said it too. Rookies are dumb, you know, because
they're young, and it's just because they don't have the experience.
That's what I say. The rookies don't have the experience,
and you live and you learn. Hopefully this is a
learned experience for him and he could be out there.

(04:01):
I like the way the offense looked with Jamis. I
think he was decisive last week. I think he got
in and out of huddle. There was no pregame glitchers
or I mean pre snap glitchers or anything like that.
I thought he moved the ball significantly well. He threw
the ball, willingness to throw the ball downfield, and in
his words, he had was what was the term he
used a sergical execution. I don't know if it was

(04:24):
that per se.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
I might debate that a little bit, right, I don't
know if it was.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
That per se. But he looked like a veteran quarterback.

Speaker 3 (04:32):
Yes, he did well to tell your problem.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
Yeah, he looked like a veteran quarterback that understood the
offense very well. He has a short term memory, which
is really good when you do make a mistake because
he's willing to throw that. He he's a guy that
won't be discouraged and I think that's that's one of
his good traits that he has. And the Jamis Winston
Show was in full effect last week, Paul, Yes, it was.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
Quite Frankly, the Packers probably could have had at least three, yes,
maybe four interceptions. They did get the last one in
the end zone, which unfortunately was the nallum of the
coffin for the Giants in the game. But hey, if
Jameis Winston and if by some stretch of the imagination.
The Giants get sidetracked with Dart's progress this week, and

(05:17):
it's determined that he doesn't play. Jameis Winston is certainly
fully capable of producing a competitive football game.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
He's serviceable, and I love what he said after the game.
I don't know if it was on Monday. They asked him,
you know, what were you doing while you were waiting,
you know, your second third string or third string? Really
when Russell Wilson was yeah active, he was like, I
wasn't waiting, I was preparing, you know, and that mentality. Man,
you got to be a fan of Jameis Winston, you know,

(05:45):
and not just you know, his on field play, but
the off the field stuff that he brings, the positivity
that he brings, the emotion that he brings to the game.
And you know, I had a conversation with him last week.
He's just a fiery guy.

Speaker 5 (05:58):
You know.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
He's a guy that I think you can rather behind.
He's a good leader out there.

Speaker 3 (06:02):
Okay, so now I need you to put your helmet
back on and be a defensive player for me. You
know that there's a lot of hype about dark scrambling.
You know, there's a lot of hype about his designed
running plays. You also are aware that there's a lot
of talk here in New York about cutting that down,
and the Giants have shown him a bunch of videos

(06:22):
to try to teach him about There are different situations
in ways you can reduce the amount of hits that
you take. You're a defensive player. And I'm not necessarily
talking about as an evil type of mentality, but you know,
this quarterback likes to run, wants to run, and there's

(06:45):
a lot of force perhaps outside the building, but also
inside the building about being safer and not running. Do
you approach that quarterback any differently when you line up
opposite his snap.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
Only in terms of his willingness to run, especially on
a third down situation in the red zone, which the
run for a quarterback goes up when you have a
quarterback of that style like Cam Newton. Cam Newton, third
and five wasn't a passing situation for them. It was
about fifty to fifty maybe even heavier towards the run.
That's kind of the Giants when Jackson Dark has the ball,
especially in the red zone. So it's not the thought

(07:22):
process of like, oh man, this guy's susceptible or he's
been knocked out of a game.

Speaker 4 (07:26):
No.

Speaker 3 (07:27):
No, And that's why I said it's not an evil question.
I'm not asking you in that regarding injury factor. I'm
talking about strategic.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
Yeah, you have to be very aware of the running
capabilities of a quarterback because it adds an extra blocker.
You know, usually a quarterback on a traditional run play,
he's out of the play. He's turning his back to
the defense and he's handing the ball off and he
doesn't do anything. Now you add him in because he's
the runner, and you get the additional running back as

(07:56):
a full back or pulling guard per se or pulling
h back, you get an extra body. So you have
to have eleven guys aware of the quarterback run situation.
And you do have to be aware of a guy
that can do that. That's why every now and again,
when you have a non mobile quarterback and he takes
out the red zone and he runs the ball, nobody

(08:16):
accounts for him because people are not used to him
running the ball. If you're not accounting for a guy,
there's really nobody to cover him because you have one
extra guy. Every team is basically on run plays you're
slated to go against ten guys because the eleven guys
the quarterback, he's usually out of the game in terms

(08:37):
of blocking, in terms of the scheme of the run.
But when you add him into the run gaming, he
is the guy holding the ball, you have kind of
a mismatch and an advantage over the defense. So the
defense has to be aware of it, and you have
to have a job specifically for someone to take care
of the quarterback run game.

Speaker 3 (08:57):
Now, this may be an irrelevant question because once you're
on the field, everything happens so fast, so there's not
a lot of time as a defensive player to process.
You have to react. But if he is running a
run pass option, an RPO play, or he's running a
read option play, are you, in the back of your

(09:19):
mind be able to process and think, Okay, they probably
don't want him to run on this play, so take
that option out of it and we're just going to
play it straight.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
You can't do it, No, you can't, not such a
defensive guy. Yeah, The thing you have to understand is
he is a quarterback. Quarterbacks do slide and when you're
going in, even if he breaks the line of scrimmage
and becomes a real runner. He's basically not a quarterback anymore,
but he still has the option to slide, which running backs,
any offensive player can do that. Running backs do not

(09:50):
do that. I haven't really seen a run back slide
at all, like in watching ball now like when I
played before, I played, Receivers do it. Aj Brown does
it all the time. He's a bigger wide receiver, but
he's a guy that gets down and doesn't like to contact.
But the slide is differently because they have protection when
you slide. So I would say, as a defender, be

(10:11):
wary of him sliding and make sure you pull off
because that will hurt our team if you engage with him.
And you know, guys pull off late. A couple weeks
ago against Chicago, Caleb Williams slide slid really late. Bobby
kind of hit him in his knee, but he was
avoiding him. But you heard the crowd kind of get
involved in that. And I understand because your quarterback got

(10:32):
hit in the head. But his willingness to get to
move away from it. It's hard, and that's the thing.
It's so hard to do that. But if you understand
that you're going against a quarterback. He does have an
option to do that, and you not to take anything
off of it, but you have to be aware of
what that looks like because it doesn't look like a
guy leaning forward to get extra yards, which he is

(10:54):
a runner. You can hit him, however, you need to
hit him, but once he slides, you have to pull
off because they'll call penalty on that.

Speaker 3 (11:00):
All right, I'm going to ask you one other thing
before we start getting to the phone calls. I know
you folks want to dial us up. Two one nine three.
The Giants running game these last two weeks, uh, Tyrone
Tracy ran for over seventy yards against San Francisco a
solid defense and limited carries, but he was productive. And
then last week against Green Bay a very good rushing defense,

(11:24):
ran for nearly ninety yards and looked awfully good doing it.
Back to back games now where he looks like the
Tyrone Tracy we saw last year. And this offensive line,
in my opinion, has not nearly gotten enough credit for
lifting themselves up from the basement of the NFL to
clearly middle of the pack and functional and in conjunction

(11:47):
now with first Scataboo and now Tracy, the Giants running
game is now something I think defenses have to recognize.

Speaker 2 (11:54):
Yeah, one hundred percent. And the Giants showed last week
that that was their mentality. You know, that was Kafka's
first game as the interroom head coach, and I think
he wanted to put that physical presence out there that
the Giants have lacked. And I'm not just saying that
from visual aspects, but statistically right, defensively and offensively, they

(12:15):
haven't successfully ran the ball consistently. And defensively they've given
up the worst yards to carry in the NFL. And
when you think of physicality in NFL, you think about
establishing the run. And if I'm not mistaken, about eighty
percent of the time on first down they ran a
football last week. So that's something that they wanted to do.
I think tempo had a lot to do with that too.
They were in and out the huddle, They had a
kind of fast paced tempo and they established that early

(12:38):
against the Packers last week, and it kind of was
the dictator of how the game was going to go. Right,
no matter what it was, whether they were getting two
or three yards, they still decided to stick to the run.
And when you can do that, I think it opens
up things on offense right. And I think when you
look at Detroit and what they can do, think about
the game that they just came off against the Eagles.
Jared Goff struggled throwing the ball with almost fifty times

(13:00):
and he only had thirteen completions.

Speaker 3 (13:01):
He was really inaccurate. It was a rough game and.

Speaker 2 (13:04):
They basically lost three out of the last five. But
they have good, like fantastic games in between those three losses,
and I would think that this team would try to
get back to being the physical presence that they have.
This team, when Jared Goff's on, he's thrown for eighty
percent completion percentage. This team can score fifty points. They
did it already. They can go over five hundred yards.

(13:25):
This is a dangerous team, but they are I think
they're they're like starting goal with their run game. Montgomery
Man without a doubt, Sonic and Knuckles. I think they're
the best running back tenem in the league. And when
you look at them how they bounce back from losses.
They established a run early in games. So just like
the Giants, when you want to have that physical presence

(13:47):
and get something going in the passing game, you. Mostly
people think, oh, get some quick passes. Yeah, you can
do that too, but also run the ball so you
can get the safeties to move up a little bit,
get the linebackers to bite and play action, and that
works as well.

Speaker 3 (14:00):
Okay, you just led me into another question on the
flip side of the ball though. Okay, you inadvertently did it. Sorry, folks,
We're gonna have to hold on a second.

Speaker 2 (14:09):
We got so.

Speaker 3 (14:12):
This Lion's all lined is a solid offensive line. We
know they want to run it. They've got two backs
who are very complementary in their styles and they can
hurt you in so many different ways. And you're the Giants.
You're last in the NFL dealing with other teams running games.
You're down to potentially if Flannigan Fowls, who was ill

(14:33):
and did not practice yesterday, depending upon his availability, you
could be down to your fourth string inside linebacker next
to Bobby Okarake. Folks, this is a tall mountain to
climb to expect the Giants to contain the Lions rushing attack.
I'm gonna throw something out here, Jonathan, and the Giants

(14:56):
have not shown a propensity to do it. Might you
go with four down linemen go with a heavy front
because the linebacking cores is extremely thin. In fact, it's
right to the bone. Never mind thin, they're cut to
the bone. And some of these formations where you have
edge rushers lining up as a defensive end, how are

(15:18):
they going to hold up against this team?

Speaker 2 (15:20):
Yeah, that's rough, man, you know. Flanning again, Foules being
out pulsing a deebo still questionable right for this week?
Did he practice this week? He didn't practice.

Speaker 3 (15:29):
Well. They were talking just before we came in here
with defensive coordinator Shane Bowen about it and he's still
very iffy as to whether or not he's gonna be
able to go.

Speaker 2 (15:38):
So, man, it's rough when you get into this part
of the season and nutrition has taken a toll on
the team, you know, and I would employ whatever they
feel is necessary. And the thing is that Giants do
have depth among the defensive line. They do have multiple
pass rushers, stand up guys, and as the weeks has
gone on, I've seen Burns playing off the ball significantly more.

(16:00):
I think he's definitely one of the best, if not
the best, pass rusher in the league. But he has
some versatility and the first couple weeks of the season,
I was like, why do you have him off the ball?
Ever since I've said that, I've always watched him off
the ball, Paul, He's just as good as any middle linebacker.
When he's off the ball. He's a terrific He's a
fantastic football player, so he should be All Pro. When

(16:21):
you have a guy like that that adds that versatility,
I can see you maybe putting Abdul maybe on the
line as more of a more defensive line handing the
ground type of guy, and maybe adding Burns to the
linebacker group and the rotational piece right next to Bobbyokarake
because he can do it, and he can do it
at a very high level. I'm not saying the Giants
are gonna do that, but because you do have so

(16:42):
many outside linebacker pass rusher type guys, some of these
guys like Burns can do very well off the ball
playing inside the box, and I think you have to
deploy that because those are your best players and you
have to put your best players out there.

Speaker 3 (16:55):
I'm just suggesting that maybe in this case, because of
the matchup and again knowing how thin you are, that
you go to more of a full three defense than
a three to four.

Speaker 2 (17:04):
I see what you're saying.

Speaker 3 (17:04):
You know, maybe maybe this is the week that Jordan
Riley comes off the practice squad. Maybe DJ Davidson has
to be part of that down front with Robertson Harris
and Dexter Lawrence. You know, maybe they've got to do
some significant tweaking specifically because of this matchup. Knowing that
the Lions are gonna take the hammer to you, They're
not going to hide that.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
Not only opposition to that is you say, basically was
the Giants are like almost like a five to two
type of situation. You have two stand up guys. If
you do a four to three basically fundamentally traditional old
four to three defense with four down linemen, that means
you need three linebackers, Paul. So that's where the linebacker position,

(17:48):
which is basically weak side strong side. Now you can
take that sam linebacker, but you still have to have
two middle linebackers in that regard. That's the position I played.
I was a true will linebacker and three and the
Giants that position, that's a position that they're on their
fourth guy if planning again, Files is out. So that's
a position you have to figure out because no matter
what defense you deployed, whether it's a four to four

(18:10):
like old high school stuff, whether it's a five to two,
four to three, whatever the situation is, you have to
have a week side linebacker. That's who the Giants do
not have. That's the guy that they're on their fourth
guy with.

Speaker 3 (18:21):
I know, the only thing you could possibly do. I
hate to say this, but just bring Belton in as
make him the pseudo guy.

Speaker 2 (18:28):
Yeah, but he's he's the nickel, I know, so you
would have to bring in somebody else to bring I
get it, but get it.

Speaker 3 (18:36):
I'm just throwing out different ideas because there's no easy
answer here.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
There's but that's why you do. That's why I said.
That's why I brought up Burns because Burns has showed
the ability to play off the ball kind of in
that hybrid you know, weak side linebacker type type role.
And you know Robertson Harris, he's been getting a lot
of great reps this year. I feel like he's having
a great season for the New York Giants. You know,
when he needs to fill in, add him into maybe

(19:02):
the starting lineup, Bring off Burns and now you're going
to take away from Burn's ability to rush a passer.
But you need a middle weekside linebacker. You need that guy,
especially against this team that wants to establish a run.
And they're not just running in big personnel twenty one
and twelve, which is two running backs and two tight
ends groups. They're running in eleven personnel, so you you

(19:23):
probably need to match up with eleven in certain situation.
They'll still run with two linebackers. So this is a
team that's gonna present. Yeah, this is one of the
better teams in the NFL. When they're rolling, they're the
best team in the NFL.

Speaker 3 (19:39):
And the matchup of how they play it really does
not suit the Giants this week at all.

Speaker 2 (19:45):
They have the best downfield block and wide receivers. They
have the best run after catch skilled players as a whole.
Jamiir Gibbs is the best running back receiver in the game,
and he's like the fourth best receiver on this team
because I'm a ross Brown's incredible, Jamison Wayams speed is unmatched,
Sam Laporter one of the greatest after the catch catch

(20:07):
catch guys in the NFL at the tight end position,
and David Montgomery's no sage either. So this team presents
a lot of problems on offense. The only guy that
I seen be human at times, which we saw last
week the Eagles. It to him is when you get
pressure on Jared Golf, he's not the eighty percent completion percentage. God.

Speaker 3 (20:25):
Okay. The problem is, though, if you're gonna blitz heavy
and you're gonna come with a lot of pressure, chances
are you're gonna get gouged by a.

Speaker 2 (20:31):
Drug place, big place. Yeah yeah, live by the floor,
dive by the sword. But how do you Because I
love the way that Kafka basically said that what he
wanted to do post the game, he said, I wanted
to be aggressive on offense, defensive, special teams. I think
a team like Detroit, you may have to live or
dive by of sward. With this team, you do have

(20:53):
to blitz on running, on running situation, sure.

Speaker 3 (20:56):
Ended safeties between the tackles, right.

Speaker 2 (20:59):
You have to this offense a little bit because they're
good enough. When they understand what you're doing and you're
sitting back in a certain defense, a shell defense, this
quarterback can pick you apart. This line, this line is
good enough to get on man and man I had
on the hat. They'll double the right guys aka Dexter Lawrence,
and they have the best blocking receivers in the game.

(21:22):
I'm a Ross Saint Brown, Pooking the Cool. Those are
two guys who are very tremendous receivers. No, no, no,
I'm just talking about in the league. Oh yeah, they're
the two best that you don't know when they're gonna
run her past. Because these guys, you don't have to
sub in the guy. Remember Dwayne Harris for us, we
would sub him in on run place because he was
a tremendous run blocker.

Speaker 3 (21:41):
He was tough.

Speaker 2 (21:42):
These guys block like h backs. I brought him Pooking
the Cool because he's the same as I'm a Ross
Saint Brown. These guys they will play inside the box
like a tight end, you know. But then they also
released on pass plays, you know. So the Giants have
to do a good job. And I like that. Cough
could use the word aggressive. You have to attack this offense.

Speaker 3 (22:03):
And then Williams runs BYO deep that listen.

Speaker 2 (22:06):
You gotta hold up. You gotta give up something. You
gotta give up something, and it might be a team
a game where man, you do your best to shut
down the run and you make them one dimensional, you
make them a big play team. Yes, you could give
up big plays with that. This team is one of
the best teams in big plays. But when they get
their run game going, they are the best seam in

(22:28):
the NFL. BAUL, They're the best team in the NFL
when they can run the ball for two hundred and
thirty yards, when they can pass the ball for over
three hundred ie against the Commanders, Yeah, they're unstoppable.

Speaker 3 (22:39):
Gotta get a lead on them, for sure. Gotta do
something to at least to at least alter some of
their comfort zone.

Speaker 2 (22:45):
I used to say this, and Greg Williams used to
say this, and we had a great offense with Drew
Brees back in My Saint's days. The key was against
a Peyton Mannon led team, a Tom Brady led team,
you know, high flying, high powered offenses. We would always say,
we have to steal a possession wherever I was creating
takeaways on defense or fake punt fake field goals, which

(23:08):
I know that's not really that frequent now, but how
else do you steal a possession from this high powered offense.
You want to limit the amount of time that they're
out there with the ball. Ye, because this offense is
so dangerous and so many different players can take it
to the house sixty yards. And then they got the
David Montgomery, just a hard nosed, tough, physical running back

(23:28):
that'll give you those tough three four yards on the
consistent base.

Speaker 3 (23:31):
See. That's why, for me, the best philosophy going into
this game isn't even about what the Giants do defensively,
because I think the Lions are gonna pretty much have
their way with what they can do in this matchup.
I think it's all about the Giants being able to
control the clock. Control the clock, hold the ball, bring
it down into the mud, try to get the game

(23:53):
to a twenty one to seventeen kind of game, you know,
limit the possessions to maybe eight possessions.

Speaker 2 (24:00):
They did that last week. Well, they did a good job,
and they didn't finish. That's the key that the Giants
haven't done this year because when you look at the
Dallas game, when you look at the Denver game, when
you look at some of the games, the Bears game,
right the Giants, they were in all of those games.
Of course, they had a big d against the Charger
I mean against the Broncos. But the I think when
you look at this season and you and you look

(24:21):
at it postseason and we're talking about it, the I
think the the common theme was the Giants didn't know
how to finish, right because they're in every game. Yeah,
maybe not the Commanders game, in the Chiefs game early
in the season, but dark and with Jameis Winston being
they're in every game. They have to figure out how

(24:42):
to finish.

Speaker 5 (24:44):
It.

Speaker 3 (24:44):
Early in the fourth quarter.

Speaker 2 (24:45):
Yeah, they were. It was fourteen to six score games. Yeah,
until they said that the last time they're hammered. They're not.
They're in every game. The Giants had to figure out
a way, no matter what happens in this game, to
finish the game. Because if you can keep this this
this offense, which is a high line offense like the
Eagles that last week, and you can hold them to
a couple of scores and I say a couple of
scores fourteen to seventeen points, maybe even twenty twenty one points,

(25:08):
that's a great day for a defense against the against
this offense, Now you have to figure out a way
to match that on offense. Like you said, I think
the ball control is going to be huge. Not turning
the ball over, not giving them an extra possession to
you stealing, Yeah, exactly. And these running backs barely fumble
these days. They do a good job and taking care
of the football. You have to figure out a way

(25:30):
to get the ball from them. If you can't take
the ball away from their offense. A fake punt going
forward on fourth down. I know this team does it
all the time. This is built in their DNA, even
when it doesn't make any sense. It makes no sense
when they were doing last week, I know, but they
still did it. Do you match them with that or
do you try to find another way to take advantage

(25:50):
and take the ball away from this offense.

Speaker 3 (25:52):
I give you two numbers before we go to our
phone calls. And this just tells you the kind of discipline,
kind of foundation that the Lions come from. They have
only eleven drop passes as a team so far this year. Wow, eleven.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
And we spoke about three weeks ago and the Giants
were at nineteen.

Speaker 3 (26:11):
Oh there, they're well over twenty.

Speaker 2 (26:13):
Yeah, they were over twenty something that week and multiple
drop that.

Speaker 3 (26:16):
In fact, I got, I got, well, I don't even
got to drop I want to look at it right now.

Speaker 2 (26:20):
You sat on another page and jeez, and how about
this one.

Speaker 3 (26:26):
They have the fewest missed tackles in the league forty
miss tackles after ten games. That's it.

Speaker 2 (26:33):
That's Kelvin Sheppard right there, baby.

Speaker 3 (26:35):
Former Giants linebacker.

Speaker 2 (26:37):
You know him well, Yes, I do.

Speaker 3 (26:38):
Good guy.

Speaker 2 (26:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (26:39):
Always they abackers.

Speaker 2 (26:41):
Man Campbell and Angeloni.

Speaker 3 (26:42):
Man, they're very Campbell's an old school middle linebacker guy.
He's like a Chris Pielman, right.

Speaker 2 (26:48):
Yeah. But he does very well in the passing game
as well. Do he can do a good job covering
some of these skills running back. I mean, you're going
against Jamier Gibbs on a consistent basis. You better learn
how to cover those guys.

Speaker 3 (27:00):
In any case, Yeah, this this is a really rough
matchup for the Giants. I love talking real football.

Speaker 2 (27:05):
Man, for sure. Man, It's always always love. I look
forward to this when when the when the Smelk sent
out the schedule and he was like, there's a mix up.
I didn't know if it was us matching up? Was
the mix up? And I said, Paulie, yes, I love
talking to my god paul of You know nothing against Smelk,
but we we we got some history we do. The
last couple of years, we watched every single home game
together and then we both get fired up when we

(27:27):
talked ball.

Speaker 3 (27:28):
We we eat excess and those like a bowl of
chicken soup.

Speaker 1 (27:31):
We just love it.

Speaker 3 (27:32):
All Right, We're gonna go to our phones at two
one nine three nine four five one three. Let's go
line three, Rob and Yonkers your first up on the show.

Speaker 4 (27:41):
Hello, Yo, good afternoon, guys.

Speaker 6 (27:44):
How you're doing, how you're doing?

Speaker 3 (27:45):
Hey, thanks for calling.

Speaker 6 (27:47):
All right, So my first thing is defense. I know
you guys, what what does football start? When you saw
like five six years old, the first thing they teach
you is, hey, when you're on defense, wrap up, wrap
guy up. It drives me out of It drives me
out of my mind when I see Banks bumping his
shoulder into running backs in the end zone and like

(28:10):
and then he's always the last lot of defense and
he puts no effort in.

Speaker 3 (28:14):
I saw it, me crazy. I know the one you're
talking about.

Speaker 6 (28:17):
He literally puts my wrap them up. He Li You
literally just literally took your shoulder pad and bumped them
against his shoulder pad and stood there and looked at.

Speaker 5 (28:25):
Him runing the end zone and I'm like, what are
you doing?

Speaker 6 (28:27):
And the last game I forgot what it was. But
he was a last live defense. He like he saw
the player, the players ready in the end zone. Okay,
but I give up.

Speaker 2 (28:35):
That's just it.

Speaker 6 (28:35):
I just give up. And I still understand why why
are there so many open receivers? There was two games
in a row. There are so many open receivers. It's
eleven on eleven. If it's eleven on eleven, someone should
be blocked, someone should be guarding someone.

Speaker 3 (28:51):
Well, it wasn't the open receivers that beat the Giants
last Sunday. It was Green Bay's game winning touchdown drive
where they had two different plays a third of yard
catch and then the one in the end zone where
the defensive back first it was flat and then it
was on a black who had blanket coverage. They were
right there. They couldn't cover a guy any better, and

(29:14):
still the Packer receivers made the play, got the fifty
to fifty ball, and the Giants wound up losing the game.

Speaker 2 (29:22):
So even the Elik Willis touchdown with Banks on coverage,
that was that was a really good coverage Banks, and
those plays happened and I'm gonna speak to that play
you were talking about. That was when the running back
ran the ball in right. I showed it to the
hangout group the other day. And if you watch that
play over, and I'm not saying it's his fault, I

(29:42):
mean it is his fault. Flannagan foules right, the B
gap opened. He was a huge B gap and that's
his gap, and he hesitated. He bit on the outside.
And when you're at this point of the season right now,
guys are trying to do more than their job. You
do your job because that's supposed to be a tackle
for loss. Three people was on Dexter Lawrence on that play. Yes,

(30:05):
the B gap opened up. You blitz that as an
outside linebacker, right, and you don't put your guy Banks
in that situation. Bro, I don't expect these cornerbacks to
tackle running backs. I don't. I really don't. That's when
I say do your job. Plus. You don't do somebody
else's job. You do your job. Plus, because a lot

(30:25):
of these runs, right, especially runs that zone runs that
hit on one side and are designed to bend back
or the outside runs that stay front side or backside,
whatever the case is, they're designed to be one on
one with the safety or a corner. I do not
expect no corner in the league to tackle any running
back because these running backs, that's why they get paid
the way they do, because they can make a guy miss,

(30:47):
they can break a tackle, they can run through them.
Now what I've seen from Banks, and I'm with you,
I don't understand why he keeps trying to tackle these
guys high. You don't tackle them high when they outwill
you bout thirty forty pounds? You shoot at their legs.
That is a legal play that you can do in
the NFL, and you have the advantage as a smaller guy.

(31:08):
You can shoot at their legs and that will help
you because you know why, the next time he sees
you out there, he's gonna have a little decision to make.
He's not gonna be like, oh, this guy don't want
to tackle me. No, he's gonna shoot at your legs.
And now you have to think about that, and you
caused that a little bit of indecision. I've seen some
tremendous tackling defensive backs, Malcolm Jenkins being one of them.
He was a corner turned safety. Of course, everybody know Malcolm.

(31:30):
Malcolm played corner at Ohio State. He was a big guy.
He didn't tackle guys up top. He shot their legs
out because he could do that, and had that made
him a better tackler because now the guys might slow
down when it comes to point of contact. Now Malcolm
can finish up top. I've seen a lot of cornerbacks
take guy's legs out because that's what they should do

(31:51):
against a guy that's bigger than them. I train kids
all the time when I'm training defensive backs, safety corners,
I tell them we had a kid that played a
little had a kid Watkins that played at Long Island
University right now. They played Florida the first game. I
told them, do not tackle those running backs up top.
Do not do it. You chop them down because they're big,
strong and powerful guys. You're one hundred and eighty pounds.

(32:14):
Do not try to tackle those guys up top. And
that's something that when it happens a few times, is like,
all right, maybe I should go lower. So I'm with
you with that one. With Banks like, I don't think
it's an effort, think it's a decision making thing. You
have to make a decision to do that, and then
it looks like bad effort because you can't tackle these guys.

(32:34):
Sakwon Barkley's not getting tackled one on one with a
running with a cornerback that's tackled them up top. Not happening.

Speaker 3 (32:39):
He was a better hitter and a better tackler as
a rookie than he has been his last two years.
And I personally believe go ahead, and I appreciate the call,
thank you. I want to finish his point, though, go ahead,
We'll get you another time. The thing about Banks is
I think he needs to clean out his head because
his plays at defensive back has gone in the wrong

(33:00):
direction these past two seasons. He was much better in
his rookie year than he is now in every aspect.
And even though he's doing well with kickoff returns and
we just heard from Michael Blade that they love him
on kickoff returns, I think when he gets into this
offseason and decompresses and just gets away from it. Remember
he just had the baby's twins. Oh, I didn't know

(33:23):
that year. Yeah, just a couple of weeks.

Speaker 2 (33:25):
I didn't know that.

Speaker 3 (33:25):
Just a few weeks ago he had some kids I
don't know if that also was part of the whole distraction,
having a family and stuff, But I think that Banks
needs to clean out his head at the end of
the season, decompress, get with whoever the defensive coordinator is
going to be for the twenty twenty six campaign, and
spend the off season rediscovering the player that he was

(33:48):
when he was at Maryland. I would not give up
on this guy now. He's only going to be going
into his fourth year. He does have the year is
on his contract. He's with the Giants through twenty twenty six.
Pick up his option. I would tell him, you're gonna
go into the final year year deal without the extension. Okay,
give him a chance to prove it. I'd like to

(34:10):
see what he does with that opportunity.

Speaker 2 (34:12):
And he has to do it, no doubt.

Speaker 3 (34:14):
If he wants to make a career, right, he's got
to do it.

Speaker 2 (34:17):
You're talking about he got these new twins here. If
you want to play in the NFL, you have to
perform better. Because the trend for him as a fourth
year guy is fourth.

Speaker 3 (34:27):
Year he will be a fourth year guy.

Speaker 2 (34:30):
Is trending down this year, and that can't down. It
cannot happen. It cannot happen for your longevity in the league.
You know, it's all about timing. It's all about timing
when you hit the market for not even hit the
market when you're up for a contract. It's all about timing.
That's why you look at Daniel Jones. Why did Daniel
Jones get because he played his best football when it
was time to play your best football. And you don't

(34:51):
wait until the contract because when you stack those years up,
that's what really secured you as a really good player
in the NFL. But everybody see this film and not
that his effort in all of the plays, because a
lot of people talk about effort. I'm telling you right now,
there's not a lot of cornerbacks that can tackle running
backs above the knees and it can bring them down.

(35:13):
They're just not physically capable to do that. I was taught.
I mean, I'm always doing it because I play linebacker.
But I saw defensive backs being coached to hit guys
below the waist because that's advantageous for them. Yes, you
got to have your head on the right side so
they'll knee you in your head. But I just don't
see guys tackling guys like that. He has to make

(35:33):
smarter decisions when it comes to making tackles, take better angles,
better support angles when he's on the outside, because you
don't need to make tackles. Sometimes when they bring it
out to you, all you gotta do is send the
guy back into where you're forcing from because most of
the time he's outside coming in and if he chooses
to go inside, which I've seen from him, not even

(35:55):
just him, a lot of the younger defensive backs multiple
times this year. You take it. Weigh your help and
you have ten guys on defense that's supposed to help you,
but your decision making will make you on an island,
and now it looks like you're the bad tackler when
I don't expect DB's to be good tacklers. Right, Deon Sanders,
what's his not? He wasn't a great tackler, but he

(36:17):
made smart decisions though, so he didn't he wasn't out
there as much. You send them back. Jack Rabis to
say this all the time, I got the receivers on
an outside and I send everything back to you guys.
Because he knew red Jack Rapper was a little dude
right when he had to do what he did. But
then I've also seen him get ran over a couple
of times, but he was he was low and he

(36:38):
tried his best, and that's all I could ask for
a corner. And because he don't make smart decisions, it's
not looking like he's trying his best at times. And
we're talking about banks.

Speaker 3 (36:47):
Here, there can be a perception, yes, if you make
the wrong decision is different than necessarily what you're really
seeing exactly.

Speaker 2 (36:56):
Like sometimes people think like, oh, he didn't get a
great effort early in the season, Nubin. He was one
on one with Saquon on that one of those games
and he broke outside and they would like his effort. No,
he just took He just made the wrong decision. It
wasn't his effort. So some people look at that as
being like, oh, the efforts there, the effort's not there,
and it's like, no, he just made the bad decision.
You have to be better, You have to be a

(37:17):
better decision maker, especially on defense, especially when you're one
on one with the most talented athletes in the world.
That's what the running backs are in the NFL, sure,
the most talented. They're all fast. They all can cut
on a dime, tremendous balance, they're all super explosive. They're
the true they're the best athletes in the world. You
gotta make better decisions when you try to tackle those guys.

Speaker 3 (37:38):
Well, you know better than anybody, Jayson, you played the
game for almost a decade. The bottom line is, if
you take a bad angle on somebody, you're not putting
yourself in a good tackling position. So now, no matter
what technique you have, if you have taken a bad angle,
chances are pretty good that you're going to score.

Speaker 2 (37:56):
Up the tackle yep, And it might look like you're
not giving them right effort. Right because a lot of
these players in the NFL, and that's tight ends, receivers,
the offensive guys, quarterbacks like Caleb Williams, Jayden Dames, even
Jackson Dark, they make you look silly at times because
they understand angles. They understand uh the decisions that you make,

(38:19):
They make decision off it. They understand leverage very well
because they've done a lot of these guys been playing
football since they were six years old. Tackle football. I
didn't start playing until I was fourteen, Right, there was
a difference when I got to the league from a
guy like myself that was playing roughly what eight years
nine years when I got to the NFL at that
point of my life, to guys that were playing almost

(38:39):
twenty years of football. There's a difference when you play
that long and they treat it that way.

Speaker 3 (38:45):
All right, let's go back to the phones at two
one nine, three, nine four five one three. Coach Kevin
is in Arizona. You're next on the program.

Speaker 4 (38:52):
Hello, so coach, Hey, Hey, how you doing. Guys?

Speaker 3 (38:56):
Hey, good to talk to you.

Speaker 4 (38:58):
Yeah, what's gonna talk to you? Times? Uh Paul and
uh uh Jase. I got you made some comments earlier.
I think I have to agree with you, and I'm
going to give you guys two keys. I'm not going
to make this call along and I'll just hang up
and let you guys respond. The first the first key
is if if Kafkack can repeat what he did last
week and control the ball, that's the best, the best

(39:19):
thing you could do to keep that offense of Detroit
off the field. So that's key number one. Do what
you did last week, control the clock, give you give
your team the best chance to win. The second part
of my comment is after all my years of coaching,
it's pretty simple. If you stay in the same defense
and the same look, guess what the offensive coordinators up

(39:39):
in the box, they're going to pick you alive. Yeah,
Detroit is gonna They're going to score on endlessly. So
I say mix it up, mix it up, do a
zone blitz if you want, make sure you got somebody
to cover. Yes, it's risky, Sure you might get you
might get burned. But I'll tell you what. It's better
than sitting back and just letting them dictate the entire
game and totally can control you like they did last week.

(40:02):
If they didn't drop half those passes, they would have
had a lot more points. But listen, we've got you
got to mix it up. You got send send five.
I think Carl Banks made a very good point about
two three weeks ago numbers. Send six, but drop guys
to cover where the guy replaced the guy that you're sending.
Mix it up, keep that offense off balance. Golf is

(40:23):
not listen, he has his reads one, two, three, he's
looking here here here. If you mix it up in
disguise and you drop guys to replace the guys taking
their place, and you mix it up and you send four,
then the next time you send five, or you go
to a zone in the back back end instead of
just staying in man the whole game. If you just
rush for and staying man, you're gonna get eaten alive.

(40:44):
So mix it up, send a zone, blitz, have guys.
I love even the radar defense where guys are all
standing straight up on the on the defensive line. You
don't know who's coming, you don't know who's going, you
don't know who's dropping. You got to mix it up.
You just can't stay in a vanilla defense for men
rush and zone, I mean in man coverage, especially with

(41:04):
our injuries in the back end, you got to take chances.
Sure somebody might break free, you might give up a
big play, but I'll tell you what, I'd rather take
my chances and gamble. Just based on the last few weeks,
in the last fourth quarters that we've been watching this breakdown,
mix it up, take a chance, show a little fire,
and bring bring some energy into that backfield and maybe

(41:25):
cause some disruption. That's that's my view. That's that's where
I think of that and ball control on offense. I
think those are the two keys that maybe maybe we'll
see some good news here for the Giants this week.
That's my That's all I have to say.

Speaker 3 (41:37):
All right, Kevin, thanks for the call. Please call again
out now. JC. To be fair on the other side
of this coin, if you're going to be really really
aggressive with a lot of blitzeting, especially if you're going
to send a lot of fives and some sixes and stuff,
well you're probably going to be more apt to do
that if you've got your legitimate starting secondary behind them.

(42:01):
And I'm gonna just say that you could be a
big gun shy in doing that when you know you've
got second and third stringers playing in your secondary. I'm
not saying that I disagree with your premise because I'm
by nature I'm an aggressively played defensive guy myself. But
I do see the other side of that coin when

(42:23):
sometimes you're saying, well, look what we have playing back there.

Speaker 2 (42:26):
Yeah, I agree with you. I also agree with him
with being basically versatile and showing some diversity on defense.
You know, Jared Goff, you know before last week he
was I think the highest like completion percentage in the league.
There was like four games where he was right around
when he has time percent comp He's.

Speaker 3 (42:43):
Like a surgeon.

Speaker 2 (42:43):
Yeah, he is. You can't let him do that. You know,
last week you saw the game. Did you watch the
game against the Eagles. I don't know if you watch it.

Speaker 3 (42:50):
I did not watch the whole game.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
I looked at cut ups, right, So I watched it
live on TV. Like you know, a lot of times,
I don't have time to watch all of the games.
But I actually watch that live and not even listening
to the commentary. You saw he was rattled. He was
completely rattled last week. He couldn't complete the ball even
when there was guys open at the end of the game.

Speaker 3 (43:09):
It was a throwback to some of his early days
with the rams.

Speaker 2 (43:11):
Right, which you can see and we haven't seen that
in years from toll Golf. But that goes to show
you when you can get pressure on the guy. Ie
Tom Brady in the Super Bowl against the Giants, right,
Tom Brady's the best quarterback ever. He looked like a
normal quarterback, if not below average quarterback because of what
because of the pressure that was on him, right, And

(43:32):
it's not just the defensive line, it's the scheme. It's
the defensive backs because a lot of times when they
send twenty numbers and single digit numbers out of the
defensive backs, thirty numbers like the offensive line don't even
account for those guys. They'll come clean free. You gotta
get them down. You gotta have them thinking of it,
and then you become you line up again, and then

(43:55):
you play coverage on the back end of that. Now
he's sitting back and he might get anty. That's what
I saw the Eagles last week. They got pressure on
them early in the game. They discouraged them because they
were in the d backs faces every single play, every
pet catch was contested, and at the end of the game,
even when they had some time he was in the pocket,
he was completely rattled. I haven't seen him like that

(44:15):
in a while, but I know why because they was
all over his but early in that game, and they
got him down early in that game. And I think
the way to be able to get this team to
slow down a little bit. Number One, you're gonna have
to stop the run. I don't think the Giants can
actually do that against his team. Number Two, you have
to rattle this quarterback. You have a guy on this
team that's second in the league in sacks and Brian Burns.

(44:36):
Don't allow him to be the only don't make him
the only guy that can get pressure. Send it from
different ways. Show something that you haven't done, because this
team is good enough. If they know what you're doing
they have They can score fifty points, they can have
over five hundred yards. I've never seen an offense like this,
not in a very long time. This is like the Rams,

(44:57):
the best show on turf back in the day.

Speaker 3 (44:58):
They executed at a high level, and their fundamentally.

Speaker 2 (45:00):
Sound, and they're explosive at every position.

Speaker 3 (45:04):
They got every position, they got playmakers. Although the port
is out, he is a big deal. What is out?
You know, he's one of the higher productive tight ends
in this league, so having him out does take a
little bit of a poison out of their out of
their ven. Want to do that this week? You want

(45:29):
to do that? Hey, God, throw it, throw it, don't
run it. We go back to the phone. Scott in
New Mexico. Go ahead, you're next in the show. Hello,
Thank Scott.

Speaker 7 (45:45):
I think your points are Both of your points are
because you're both minded and the only comment I would
make before I get to my main point, there's a
pretty wide gap between being in the game and actually winning,
and even though the Giants have been in the game,
they don't know how to close. But in the running game,

(46:08):
the thing that I'm concerned with is you always need
an anchor in the middle of the field as far
as you're definential personnel who can stop the run. That's
always been Dexter Lawrence. I'm not trying to sing of
home out, but if you look at his stats, which
I'm not gonna bother to read, I just reviewed them
as compared to his seasons from twenty two to twenty

(46:29):
four Thelming, They're underwhelming. They're a good point, and I
wanted to know. As defensive minded people, of which I
am too, I think if you have a great defense,
you can win a lot of the games. I mean,
people like Bea, the far As Buckner, Chris Jones, Leonard

(46:51):
Williams is having a great year in Seattle, yes he is,
Jeffrey Simmons. I mean, these are the guys that you
need as anchors, and Dexter Lawrence, to me, was all
that anchor. I don't think you're can have a good
run stopping game without that anchor. So the question I
have for you is the injury that he had to
the elbow more significant than anyone's imagining. Or is his

(47:15):
play simply not performing the way he used to, which
would be disquieting to me. And you know him fairly well.
So if you don't have the exter lawrence being able
to handle the run, how do you have a good
run stopping defense? And so I was wondering if there

(47:35):
are ways to mask what And his snaps are down
from last year. I think he had his averaging seventy
now he's down to fifty, and I'm wondering, what is
the problem with him?

Speaker 4 (47:48):
Is there a problem?

Speaker 7 (47:49):
Because I've always thought of him and Chris Jones as
being the top two run stoppers in the NFL and
the sort of interchangeable.

Speaker 4 (47:59):
Both are great.

Speaker 7 (48:01):
But what's the problem with Dexter right now? And I'm
not trying to sing on now because obviously it's a
team game, but Surs, you have that anchor right there,
but she's always been even though he might get double
or triple team, they're not. He's not effective as he
was the first three years this season? Do you have
any any explanations for it?

Speaker 4 (48:20):
All?

Speaker 3 (48:20):
Right, Scott, We'll take We'll take this answer when you
hang out. I'm gonna let you go schematically about this,
but I do want to talk to the elbow thing
for a second. When he got the dislocated elbow the
end of last November, I talked to a sports orthopedist
who was not familiar with Dexter's case. Let me make

(48:41):
that clear. I'm giving you a generic hypothetical here, based
on sports medicine. I was told it could take up
to a full year to get full range of motion,
full strength, and full confidence back in that arm. Let's
not forget the season starts in September. It does not

(49:01):
start in November. Only now are we getting a full
year removed from his initial injury. Let's let's keep that
in the back of our minds. I'm not using that
as an excuse or even a reason. What I'm simply
saying is, hypothetically, there may be still some physical residue

(49:23):
with that arm where it is not exactly where he
needs it to be.

Speaker 2 (49:28):
There is not a maybe, that's a fact like like.

Speaker 3 (49:32):
Well, I don't know how he healed. I don't know
the answer that.

Speaker 2 (49:37):
It's not the same as it was before. I don't
fix so surgery.

Speaker 3 (49:42):
Yeah, Eddie, wears a brace.

Speaker 2 (49:43):
But I'm gonna use your point to talk about myself.
When I had a list freak injury my second year
in the league, and I missed the entire season. When
I came back, Paul, I came back and played opening
week against Green Bay Packers on Thursday Night Football, and
I had his first sack of the season against Aaron
Rodgers in that game. And it took me eighteen months
to fully recover. I was playing games and I couldn't

(50:07):
stand on my left foot by itself, and I was
playing games that way. The reason why I retired was
because I wasn't quote unquote injured, but I couldn't give
a good output anymore. Like my body was so torn
up and beat up. And I've recovered from most of
the things, and I played well the following season. And
I think that's a point that you made there that

(50:29):
I fully agree with. I don't think Dexter Lawrence is
fully recovered. He's not injured anymore, but he probably doesn't
have the strength that he had years prior. Mind you,
he's not moving around one hundred and eighty pound guys.
These guys are three hundred pounds plus. Sometimes it's two guys.
You know, so I do see that. But watching film

(50:49):
last week against Green Bay, he had his best game
of the year. He did, he had his best game
of the year. So he was trending in the right direction.

Speaker 3 (50:55):
We're getting to that twelve month period.

Speaker 2 (50:57):
Right, He's trending in the right That's why I thought
you were gonna say for a year.

Speaker 3 (51:01):
Well that's what I'm I am saying that it is
possible up to this point, the first two thirds of
this season, maybe he hasn't been physically exactly what he
needs to be and he's not gonna admit that.

Speaker 2 (51:13):
No, he's not.

Speaker 3 (51:14):
You can't say that, no, because now you're giving everybody
a target.

Speaker 2 (51:17):
And he's not on the injury report because he's not injured.
He's recovering, just like anybody's recovering, and you stay in
physical therapy, you stay in rehab, you do your maintenance consistently.
But he's probably going home every night, like you know,
like come on, like talking to his arm, like that's
what I did, Like I'm trying to play on.

Speaker 3 (51:35):
Your head too, so magically impact there were certain things.

Speaker 2 (51:40):
I couldn't do on my left side, Like if you
asked me to run the hoop, you know how you
bend And I couldn't do that, and I was playing
and I was not on the injury report.

Speaker 4 (51:51):
You know.

Speaker 2 (51:51):
So that's that's what I'm saying. People don't understand your
physical and mental toll that football plays on you, you know,
And you see it timing and in time again where
it's like some guys are like, oh, he's not the
same anymore, But the following year he has a great year.
That's because he probably wasn't really fully recovered, not just
physically but mentally to how do I play with this

(52:12):
new arm, this new leg that is not the same
as it used to be. There's a couple cases like
Adrian Peterson in twenty twelve where he rushed for two
thousand yards after acl like that doesn't happen, you know
what I mean, Like that doesn't happen. That's the anomaly
in some of these injury situations. But I do see
Dexter and he has a great point. I think all
phenomenal defenses do have an anchor, and I think the

(52:34):
anchor that we have is maybe just not feeling like himself,
you know, and he's I think that's what we're seeing
out there. We're seeing a guy that maybe doesn't feel
like himself and he's trying as hard as he can,
but he can't do certain things. But I have seen
like last week's film for Dexter, for number ninety seven,
look the best I've seen all you did, and that

(52:54):
is a good sign to see.

Speaker 3 (52:55):
And when a guy like him has put a standard
way way well up here and he's not quite himself, well,
it's noticeable.

Speaker 2 (53:04):
And I want to talk about what Bank said about him, right,
everybody you know Banks, why would you talk about Dexter.
I agree with him and I disagree with him. I
agree because you should call out your best players to say, hey,
you set a standard yourself on how you played. But
when he said they don't respect him, that is totally wrong.
You watch the film, he's still getting doubled. So you

(53:27):
tell me if they respect him or not. Because the
play we were talking about with fineget Foules with that
B gap, Dexter was triple team on that play. There
were three guys on Dexter. So when you talk about
the respect, he's still getting that respect. That's where the
other guys need to go ahead and shoot that gap
because it's bigger than it would be if Dexter wasn't there.

(53:47):
That guard is not coming off as fast as he
normally would because Dexter is still demanding that double team
and he's having guys stay on him. I expect other
guys to make up for Dexter Lawrence's numbers not being
what they're supposed to be.

Speaker 3 (54:02):
Let's not forget that. Even though Bobbyokarakay has been healthy
old season, uh Michael McFadden was a downhill stuffed the
gap line machine with over one hundred tackles last year.
That loss does not get talked about enough. With this
porous rushing defense. Real Quick, Phill in North Carolina, we

(54:25):
want to get you in before we end the program.
Go ahead, you're next on the show. Hello Phil, Phil
down here, Okay, go ahead. We're squeezing you in, Phil.

Speaker 5 (54:37):
Thank you. I had new time because yeah, sorry, uh so,
Real Quick, I got two days. One is defense defensive calling.
I noticed, you know the contrast would wink. It's not
just a frequency of blitzing, although that's a big part
of it, but it's the randomness of the blitzing. Rink

(54:57):
did a lot of corner blitzes and we can't do
that in the present configuration because we play mostly man
ten yards off, so there's like no way we can
get those corners into blitz. So I think that that
predictability is really hurting us, even when we you know,

(55:20):
when we're doing a standard rush, because Wink would be
great at bringing those guys up. The second part of that,
that's part B, is that the consistently playing off by
ten yards. I hate it. I hate it with a passion.
I'd rather be jamming, not every play, but jamming and

(55:42):
going down with the ship with the fight, not this
vanilla defense. And obviously we got nothing to loose because
we're the worst defense in the league. And so that's
my first part. So the second thing, because I know
you're in a rush, is it's very apparent to me

(56:02):
sometimes and maybe to you guys too, Like when we
get some of these top prospects and they've talked about
and you see them on the pro field, whether it's
Evan Neil and he's his lack of stability, you know,
we're flopp him all over the place, and or even
Carter in that I see he's a good player, but

(56:26):
he doesn't not have the closing speed of a Micap Parsons.

Speaker 3 (56:29):
He just does.

Speaker 5 (56:31):
You can just see it on the screen.

Speaker 3 (56:34):
How do we physically? He's probably pretty close to being
as talented, but he's just not there yet because he's
what do you say about rookies young?

Speaker 2 (56:44):
But that's it, let's say the experience.

Speaker 3 (56:48):
There you go, young and inexperienced, and he's got a
lot to learn, there's no doubt. But I would not
close the book on him or make a blanket statement
like he doesn't have the speed or the talent or
skill level to be a dominant player in this league.
I suspect he probably does. We just haven't seen it
come out yet.

Speaker 5 (57:07):
Hey, I hope you're right, Paul. I'd rather be wrong,
But I don't know.

Speaker 3 (57:12):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (57:12):
I've seen a lot of football in my you know,
almost seventy years, so I understand. I just kind of
see these things, you know. So but if you could
comment on the also on the defense, I appreciate it,
and they'll take it off the air, sure, all right,
real quick?

Speaker 2 (57:29):
Well, I mean, look, I don't think that when you
have something great right, you can like stand on business right,
you can you know, use your guns right. The Giants
haven't had that, so why not try some new stuff?
You know, Like, if what you've been doing hasn't been working,

(57:50):
it would make sense to me to add something extra
in that nobody's prepared for, you know, And I've said
this plenty of times. I just said it like twenty
minutes ago. They don't account for DB's blitzing. Most of
the time they just come scott free. And if you
haven't shown that, the first time you do it, I
bet you it's gonna be free.

Speaker 3 (58:09):
I will just make one comment here and you can
yeay or name me if you like. Because they've blown
four games in the fourth quarter, okay, specifically with five
minutes or less to go. That says to me. And
this is not about the rush defense in particular, because
that's one segment that we just know the bodies are

(58:31):
not really stout enough to get it done right now.
But I would say that schematically, when certain game situations
come into play, they are not making the proper adjustments
and not in the right mindset and not I said
the word to John the other day. They're the most
unclutched team that I've ever seen. It's unbelievable because you

(58:56):
can't you can't tell me this team does not have
enough talent if they can shut out Denver for three
quarters and then suddenly boom, give up thirty three points. Look,
if you truly don't have the ability, then they're gonna
score on you during those other three quarters. Ye, no
team is going to go three quarters and say, oh,

(59:19):
you know what, We're not gonna play for three quarters.
We're just gonna let the Giants stop us at will,
and in the fourth quarter we're just gonna turn it on.
That's not what's happening here. These teams are playing for
four quarters. So that says to me it's not a
talent issue, because if it was, these teams would be

(59:40):
leading the Giants from the very beginning for all four quarters.

Speaker 2 (59:45):
Yeah, I agree, and clutch finish, you know, synonyms, I
would say, especially in terms of sports. And look what
the Packers did. Packers, I don't know how many drops
they had on offense. Collectively offense and defense, they probably
had seven and eight drive between the interceptions and Dobbs
dropping I think three passes. They didn't do a great job,

(01:00:05):
but at the end, when it came down to it,
they made the catches that they were supposed to make
big time catches by Dobbs and Christian Watson on that
last drive and the big time interception to seal the
game for their defense. And it's not about what happens
in the first three quarters pall. Most of these games
come down to the fourth quarter in the last couple possessions.

(01:00:29):
You have to play your best football late in games,
whether it's mentally physically, the fatigue that sets in, whether
it's the doubt that creeps in in the back of
your head. So this is the same old thing that's happened.
The Giants have to do a better job in getting
rid of that and figuring out a way to finish
these games, because that's what we've seen. The Giants have
been in almost what Giants had eleven games, they've been

(01:00:49):
in nine of them. Even even the game that they
won against the Eagles, they would beating the Eagles pretty
handily the whole entire game.

Speaker 3 (01:00:55):
Okay, So if you don't have talent, if the talent
really does, think you're getting hammered in almost all those games,
and that's.

Speaker 2 (01:01:03):
Not happening the games like we've seen in the past.

Speaker 3 (01:01:06):
You have to have some level of capability to be competitive.

Speaker 2 (01:01:09):
They have it and by the way, missing that finish
that clutch gene as you said.

Speaker 3 (01:01:14):
And I have the Giants for four drops in the
Green Bay game too, so we could talk about the
Packers drops, but the Giants also had four drops. And yeah,
as long as I got the chart up, I'm going
to give it to you, Jonathan. Twenty six drops this
year by the Giants, and thirteen of them were either
first downs or touchdowns that they dropped. How about that?

Speaker 4 (01:01:34):
Wow?

Speaker 2 (01:01:35):
All right, we can't hand on that note. You got to.

Speaker 3 (01:01:39):
I don't know what else to say. It is what
it is, folks, that'll do it for this edition of
Big Blue Kickoff Live presented by Cadillac, the official luxury
vehicle of the New York Football Giants. Just as a reminder,
do you want to get into one promo announcement the
Giants huddle and the Giants roundtable that you do what?

Speaker 2 (01:01:57):
I forget what they call that hang out?

Speaker 3 (01:01:59):
Hang out there, Giants hangout. The Giants Hangout is up.
It's on the archive from this week's program. Jonathan is
always a part of that. The Giants huddle is usually
done by John Schmelk. We had all kinds of interviews
there with Giants people, previews of the game, NFL dignitaries,
great stuff. It's all there as part of the Giants
Podcast networks again on platforms everywhere, as well as giants

(01:02:21):
dot Com slash podcasts. We're coming to you from the
Giants Podcast Studio presented by Hackensack Meridian Health. Keep getting better.
Giants in Detroit one o'clock on Sunday in the MotorCity
for Jonathan can see us on Paul Tatino. We'll see
you next time on Big Blue Kickoff Live. So long, everybody,