Big Blue Kickoff Live 11/25 | Lions Takeaways

Paul Dottino and Jonathan Casillas give some takeaways from the Lions game, talk about the Giants recent coaching change, and take calls from fans. 

0:00 - Charlie Bullen

23:30 - Lions chat

33:30 - Coaching staff

41:20 - Youtube questions

48:20 - More on the Lions

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Nobody can ever tell you that you couldn't do it because.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're on giants dot Com.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
You what I saw to York Giant Crack.

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

Speaker 3 (00:15):
Seventeen fourteen, The Rials one tun down.

Speaker 4 (00:19):
We are, We're all tapering.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
We're part of the Giants podcast network.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Let's go on.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
The Crazy Dogs has a fun.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
Welcome to Tuesday's edition a Big Blue Kickoff Live, presented
by Cadillac, the official luxury vehicle of the New York
Football Giants. I'll Paul Theatino. He's two times Super Bowl champion.
Jonathan you see us. We'll be here for the next
hour to talk New York Giants football, and you can
join the fun if you like it. Two O one
nine three nine four five one three two O one
nine three nine four five one three it. As always,

(00:49):
you can hit us up with a hashtag on Giants
Chat on Twitter and on the Giants YouTube page where
we simulcast our program, and you can also send us
some comments and question ues changed through that as well
as always. If you don't catch the show live, you
can catch it and all of our other programs on
the Giants Podcast Network. It's on your mobile app as

(01:11):
well as podcast platforms everywhere and at giants dot com
slash Podcasts. We come to you from the Giants Podcast Studio,
presented by Hackensack Meridian Health. Keep getting better now. The
headline for the week is not that the Giants play
the New England Patriots in Foxborough on Monday Night Football,
which of course is almost a week away. Not the

(01:34):
headline for the week is that the Giants have a
new defensive coordinator as outside linebackers coach, Charlie Bullen has
been named the new DC, replacing Shane Bowen, who was
dismissed after the game the other day in Detroit. So
here's what we want to do today. I know yesterday,
when the news came out about the maneuver, most of

(01:57):
you probably wanted to talk about the Giants, Steve and
to this point and some of the things that you
saw or certainly wanted to a pint about. I think
what we'd like to do today, for the most part,
is talk about Charlie Bollen and what he might be
able to do to make things better moving forward. The
Giants have five games left now, Jonathan, let me just

(02:19):
start by asking you this, how many times during the
course of your career do you remember either a head coach,
a coordinator, or a position coach change from your college
days through your pro days.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
I think it was just once, just once. I was
in New Orleans with the whole bounty gate situation, but
that was Greg william I was before the season started
when they made basically to switch over. Sean Payton was suspended.
Greg Williams was suspended, so we already knew going into
the season, you know what we were up against. Steve
Spagnola actually coached me for my first year in twenty twelve.

(03:01):
He was a defense court in the beginning of the year,
so there wasn't a switch during the season. But in
twenty seventeen when I was here, that was the year
McAdoo got fired in the old the season, and then
you know, that was the whole fiasco of the twenty
seventeen season. Re Scott fired, McAdoo got fired, Eli Manning

(03:21):
got bench for the first time in his career.

Speaker 3 (03:23):
It was let's not we lived, okay.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
It was very hectic.

Speaker 3 (03:26):
That's why I asked you how many other times? Because
I knew about that time.

Speaker 4 (03:30):
I just.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
It was in twenty seventeen. It was. It was a
bit chaotic, to be honest, it was. But I don't
have the same sense here. I don't see the chaos
in terms of, you know, Kafka stepping up to be
the interim coach, Bullet stepping up now to be the
defensive coordinator. It doesn't feel that's chaotic. This Giants team
has to be the best two and ten team I've

(03:53):
ever seen in my life. The Giants are in every
single game that they played, you know, besides the Eagles,
right the second Eagles game, and I don't really know
of another game with the Giants at least weren't competitive
for three and a half quarters.

Speaker 3 (04:08):
The Niner game was to finished.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Get a Niners game too. So two games out of
the twelve games that the Giants played, but every other
game it was a four quarter game, came down to
almost the last possession, a couple of games going into overtime,
and the consistent thing that we've seen is the defense
not being able to secure the win. I think that
was the kind of last the tipping point, you know,

(04:32):
and the decision to move on from Shane Bowen. You know,
two years of a defense Shane Bowen wise, that was
a run stopping defense in Tennessee when Shane Bowen was there,
and the Giants have been the worst team stopping to
run in the NFL. They're giving up almost six yards
of carry, maybe a little more than six yards of
carry now that last last week twelve yards of carry,

(04:59):
and then and the overtime situation with decks are not
being on the field that last played, they didn't even
get the third down. It was just not a good
situation for the defense. Where you look at the offensive
side of the ball, these guys are doing trick plays,
these guys are fighting hard. And the big question mark
going into the twenty twenty five season was the offense,

(05:20):
and now it's been the defense the entire year, ever
since the first game against the Commanders, definitely the overtime
loss to Dallas and Dallas, you know, it's been the
question mark and the Giants just haven't answered the questions
that's been asked. I've been seeing a lot of gap
integrity issues right, questioning the effort. But when I look

(05:41):
at it, it's not really effort. It's more of the decision,
bad decision making by these defensive players that may look
like there's effort issues. Those are the things that Bullen
has to address. Gap integrity, number one linebacker, secondary guys
that are in the run fit, those safeties that are
in the box being down, and aggressive guys that are

(06:02):
getting crack blocked, you know, to support guys actually being
aggressive and having support on the perimeter. Those are the
things that plague the Giants. Then also guys in the
middle of the field not getting push off the ball.
I think Dexter's doing a great job. He's still getting
the respect that Carl Bank said he wasn't getting. I've
been seeing him getting double team since then, and he's

(06:23):
doing a good job. But there's other guys that need
to hold down the ford a little bit stronger. Look,
this is not switch out. The coordinator fired a quarter
to move on and now all the answers are fixed.
That's not what's gonna happen. We know that. But I
do think that there has to be accountability. There has
to be some integrity, and at the end of the day,
when you want to go ahead and establish your physical presence,

(06:45):
it's all about stopping the run and running the football offensively.
No matter what they're doing in the beginning of the
game with Kafka taking the helm. In the last few weeks,
they're sticking to the run throughout the game, and as
the game progresses on, the run game gets stronger, though
linemen get better. They start leaning on these defensive guys
and it's working vice versa for the defense. The defense,

(07:05):
no matter what happens early in the game, they can
be shutting a rundown, they can be doing a good job.
And as the run the game goes on, they start
giving some leaky plays here and there. Then a big
one pops and you saw that last week. It was
evident because if I'm not mistaken, Gibbs only have fifteen carries,
you only have fifteen.

Speaker 3 (07:21):
Three huge explosive run.

Speaker 2 (07:23):
Its ins insane.

Speaker 3 (07:25):
The defense will only get one piece of reinforcements back,
at least that we know of. We think. We think
that maybe Pulse and the Debo we'll be ready to
play this week. That won't help the rush defense. He's
obviously a cornerback. We don't know exactly where Tay Banks

(07:46):
stands right now. We don't know exactly where Keevon Thibodeaux
stands right now. We found out after Sunday's game, Mike
Kafkas said that indeed, Dexter Lawrence is hurting, he's banged
up now. The Giants are not going any further than that.
We discussed the reasons why you don't do that as
a team or as a player on last week's show

(08:08):
when Jonathan and I were on BBKL, we actually had
that very conversation about Dexter quite possibly not being close
to one hundred percent. And yet what we found out
Sunday is that Kafka, in association with the defensive coaches,
strategically paced Dexter throughout the game because they knew he

(08:30):
did not have a ton of snaps in him, and
so we found out that that's the reason why he
was not out there for the first overtime snap, which
of course resulted in a game deciding touchdown run. So,
you know, to say that that was a surprise to
some maybe so it was not to us, because we

(08:51):
have discussed that very possibility that he is just not
right yet, and quite frankly, he's not going to get
right over the last five games.

Speaker 2 (08:58):
Of the year. No bye week could be helpful after
next week the latest bye I don't know if throughout
the whole NFL. But that's a really late bye. But
you know, a bye is a bye, and you actually
can rest a little bit, take a couple of days
off because you know, when you're going throughout the week.
It's so hard to be, you know, on the injury

(09:20):
report because I wouldn't say injured, because being on an
injured report doesn't mean you're injured, you know what I mean,
Like if you're healthy to play, but you still got
to go through practice and sometimes it's like it kind
of doesn't help with whatever thing you have ailing, but
you need the reps. You need to see what you're
going against this week. And the Giants defense got their
hands full with this offense. You know, Drake May is

(09:42):
a very talented quarterback. You know, he's a guy that
goes through his progressions. He's a rhythm guy. He's very
good at navigating the pocket. He can create with his legs.
I think he has about four hundred rushing yards on
the ground. And you know what surprised me. He's I
think first or second in the league and past and
he hasn't had a three hundred yard game this season.

(10:04):
That's so interesting to me. But that beings. He's a
very consistent, very efficient player. Watching the game last week,
he had to pick six that was kind of an
errant throw on his part. Haven't really seen too many
throws like that from him. He's a guy that is
an accurate throw of the football. He's leading the league
in accuracy, and he distributes the ball. He has no

(10:24):
discrepancy who he wants to go to. I feel like
he always makes the right read. He always makes the
right decision, and that's a big compliment for a guy
that's only in the second year. And he's not even
in his full second year. He's basically in his first
year still because he didn't play for a few weeks
last year and then this year we're in week what
thirteen now, So Yeah, he's a guy that's that's improved

(10:45):
so much since he started. And the Giants have their
handful and they wanted to run the football over there
with Stevenson and those running backs.

Speaker 3 (10:51):
Think about this for a second. There are some really
prolific passers in this league. Yet the Patriots with Drake
may have forty five completions of at least twenty yards
this season, which I believe is tied for second.

Speaker 2 (11:07):
In the National football He's a great down to field three.
He is not afraid to win, and he's very accurate
down here too. Yeah sure, and he makes the right choices.
It looks like, you know, watched a couple of games
from him. I haven't really watched the Patriots this year,
Paul at all. Haven't really seen them too much. I
think I watched the game when they played the Jets
on Thursday Night Football a couple of weeks ago, but

(11:28):
this was my first time actually sitting down and watching
them play. Man. And he's a good talent.

Speaker 3 (11:33):
Man.

Speaker 2 (11:33):
He makes a lot of smart decisions. And there was
one play that impressed me. He was in the midst
of getting sacked and he just kind of just tossed
the ball out of his hands for incompletion, but it
wasn't a sack, you know, ended up being in completion.
And plays like that, man, And you know, you gotta
tip your hat to what they did last week, because
they didn't have a good start against the Bengals last week.

(11:54):
He did throw a pick six last week, they did
punt multiple time to start the game, but man, they
finished strong. This is a team that's a resilient team
led by a coach that has won multiple Super Bowls
for the Patriots. So he understands the toughness and the
situational awareness to have when you have a team that
you know, you're not blowing teams out in the NFL,

(12:15):
you know. So this is a team that's going to
be prepared to finish games. And that's where the Giants
have struggled. They have struggled in finishing no matter what
the game went like during the game.

Speaker 3 (12:24):
Now, just to give you a little bit of a
balancing act on this, he has been sacked in every
single game this year. They have yet to have a clean,
clean game that offensive line of the Patriots. Twice, he's
been sacked six times in a game.

Speaker 2 (12:41):
So he does hold on to the ball, okay. And
they have a couple of injuries now that they have
to worry about coming.

Speaker 3 (12:46):
To today do and he's thrown an interception in for
the last five games.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (12:51):
So it's not all roses are thorns in there too.

Speaker 2 (12:55):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (12:56):
However, clearly he's having a Pro Bowl caliber season, there's
no question about that. Now, before we get to your
phone calls, let's talk about Charlie Bowen forty one years old.
He has had a number of jobs on the defensive
side of the ball in this league. He's been with
the Dolphins, he's been with the Cardinals. Obviously we know

(13:17):
him with the Giants primarily working with the linebackers, but
he has worked with defensive line during the course of
his career as well. He also spent a year, I believe,
with Illinois with Brett Bilimot right, who we know well.
He was here with the Giants for a very short time.

Speaker 2 (13:32):
I had coach in the University Wisconsin.

Speaker 3 (13:34):
Indeed, he was and by the way, doing a really
nice job at Illinois. So this is a guy who's
got some background and some pedigree. Even though he's only
forty one years old and looks like he might be
thirty one years old. I give him a lot of credit.
He's going to that Dick Clark school of youth. But
he has been around a while, and so I guess

(13:55):
what I want to ask you, Jonathan is someone who
was an outside linebacker in this league, the outside linebackers coach.
When you look about look at the hierarchy of the
coaches on defense, defensive coordinator's number one is it usually
the defensive line guy is the second in line, and
then it goes by the units or does the linebackers

(14:16):
coach or at least maybe you take you can take
a guess if you want to. Is the linebackers coach
the next in line behind the coordinator in terms of
formulating the game plan and being in terms of the
heart of what you're trying to do.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
It's it's usually the middle linebacker because they are the
ones that are in charge of communication to the whole
entire defense. But you know, it all depends and you know,
your familiarity with the defense, you know, your familiarity with
the scheme, and your ability to communicate that through all levels,
you know, because being a defensive coordinator, you know, it's

(14:52):
not the same as being, of course, a specific position coach.
Some of these you know, coaches and players that you know,
like the defensive lineman. Not to say they don't care
about what's going on in the back end, but they
kind of don't, you know, like they got to know
what's going on up front. They just want to move forward.
And the further you get back away from the ball,

(15:14):
the more you gotta know and understand. But you know,
I'm not too sure of you know the decision of
why Bulling went, but I do like Kafka's decision making
up until this point because he's trying to do something
because there is issues with the Giants, right, no doubt.

(15:35):
The reason why the Giants moved on from day Ball
because there was issues here. The reason why Shane Bone
got moved on is because there were issues here. And
I think Kafaka is just trying to do his best
job and trying to fix the issues that are with
the Giants because if you look at the Giants, when
you look at the record, I don't think it's a
real good indicator. I'm a Ron Saint Brown, he said it.

(15:57):
I don't know if you heard the interview from after
the game. I did, how he was commending the Giants
and he was almost like surprised of how well the
Giants played Detroit and what their record is.

Speaker 3 (16:08):
Oh, he came out and said, that's not a two intendtion.

Speaker 2 (16:10):
That's not you know, So there are some things here
that the Giants need to fix to go ahead and
finish this season off. That's a word that the Giants
have been on the other side of of not finishing games,
not finishing drives, not finishing quarters. Let's see if Kafka
can figure out away to put the right pieces in place.

(16:31):
Bulling here, you know, I like the decision of not
playing Carter for the first drive. Disciplinary thing two weeks ago,
like put your foot down right, because this is a
team that you know, against the Cowboys Week two, they
were flying, they were exci be. They had twenty one
penalties that were called. Of course not all of them
were accepted. For me, that's showing the team that's not disciplined.

Speaker 3 (16:53):
Well, there's still third in the league endowing flags right now.

Speaker 2 (16:56):
That means that's undisciplined. You have to have discipline players.
You have to have because all of the talent the
Giants have, and the Giants are talented, and the Giants
aren't with their starting quarterback, starting wide receiver, starting running back,
and they're still having the ability to score points, but
they're still making a lot of mistakes. And for me,
you have to have accountability, and it looks like Kafka

(17:19):
is trying to use that to motivate this team to
hold them accountable.

Speaker 3 (17:23):
Okay, now, let me go back to what you said
about a minute ago when you said fourth quarter. We
know that's been the buggaboo for this team all year long.
So give me based on your experiences, and you've worked
for a number of defensive coordinators over the course of
your career, including Steve's Stagnolo, who we all have tremendous

(17:44):
respect for. Did you notice a common thread on your
most successful teams about how the coordinator adjusted changed things,
either personnel or schematically, or maybe even on the fly.
I know Spags love to do things on the fly
in the fourth quarter of games because it's clear that

(18:07):
the Giants defense can hold up for three quarters and
then in the fourth quarter it's not happening. So now
they've made a change for the guy calling the plays.
Has it been your experience that there is a significant
difference in how a fourth quarter defense is called.

Speaker 2 (18:25):
I listen the defenses I've been a part of that
were I think, really good defenses and Greg Williams and
we're just named too, Greg Williams and Coach Spagnola. As
the game went on, no matter what the score was,
when it started getting to those pressure situations, especially if
you have a lead and the offense has to have
certain plays, the defenses I've been a part of, they

(18:48):
don't become lax, they get more physical, they get more strenuous,
they blitz a little bit more, they put more pressure
in pressure situations. And that's what we haven't seen from
the New York Giants. The Giants have been what we've
called soft, playing off the ball from you know, these
cornerbacks in certain situations, third downs and fourth downs and

(19:10):
got to have it placed to get to field goal
range for the offenses, and they're just giving them cushions.
Those are what we call as a in Spagnola used
a chunk defense, where you're the offense has to get
a chunk, so you play off a little bit. And
Spags had that in his repertoire, but he never really
went to it because you always need, I think, to

(19:30):
challenge an offense, you always need to be up in
the quarterbacks face, make him throw not like this from
the pocket, but like this from the pocket where he's
kind of off balance a little bit, because I think
that has an advantage for the defense, right. And of
course sometimes when you do max out blitzer, when you
do zero blitzes, you're leaving guys on the island sometimes.
But you don't let these quarterbacks get into a rhythm

(19:53):
and a lot of times lat in games it's all
on the quarterback because they're doing no huddles. They're doing,
you know, straight from their call. And once a quarterback
gets into a rhythm, it's not about what the offensive
coordinator is calling. It's about what the quarterback's doing and
how he's feeling the game. And if you can mess
up that rhythm, I think you got them, you know.
And the Giants just haven't been able to do that
late in games. I think they're a little bit too passive.

(20:15):
And you shouldn't be passive on defense, especially when the
game is coming down to the line.

Speaker 3 (20:21):
So let me paraphrase here, and you may agree, and
maybe not, but I think you will. My two pieces
of advice for Charlie Bollen would be number one, don't
give free releases to wide receivers in the fourth quarter anymore,
because we've seen too much of that. And oh, by
the way, make sure that your front seven is playing downhill.

Speaker 2 (20:42):
Yes, yes, okay.

Speaker 3 (20:45):
Those would be Those would be the two pieces of
advice I would give him in the fourth quarter that
might change the giants fortunes. Now, you are going to
run into a certain amount of risk with that. We understand,
but let's face it, the other way has.

Speaker 2 (21:01):
It worked, has not worked. And I love Kafka's approach.
The first week when Kafka took over, he said he
kept on saying it over and over and over again,
we are going to be aggressive on offense, defense and
special teams, and I just think that the defense hasn't
really held up his end of the bargain when it
comes to being aggressive. So again what I was saying

(21:21):
later in games, be aggressive. Put the pressure on these quarterbacks.
Drake may he's pretty good, but he's still young, and
young quarterbacks make mistakes. So if the game does come
down to be in a one possession game in the
fourth quarter, put some pressure on him at an extra blitzer,
at a cornerback blitz. Maybe throw something that you haven't seen.
Hold something until the fourth quarter, and then you throw

(21:43):
at him so the first time he sees it is
in the fourth quarter in a cruise situation.

Speaker 3 (21:46):
You know, the last thing in the world that I
would want to see in a situation such as that
is the pitch and catch, which quite frankly, we've seen
much too much of it.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
Yeah, yep, I mean.

Speaker 3 (22:00):
Let's face it, folks, the one thing when it comes
to crunch time, and I've called the Giants very unclutch, right,
That's that's the word I've used. They are unclutch in
the most important moments of the game. They're not making
the plays and the other team is well. I think
part of the reason is the Giants have made it
too easy for the other teams to get those plays.

Speaker 2 (22:20):
Yep, yep. And look, there's something into it that you know,
there's only so much the defensive coordinator can do, but
you haven't had, you know, the players that have been
making plays, even Brian Burns, who has been phenomenal this year,
you haven't had guys on defense make those game ending
closing plays, whether it's an interception to seal the deal,
whether it's a sack, you know, a force fumble, a

(22:42):
punch out, a game saving tackle, a fourth down stop,
a third down stop. They just haven't done them. And
they do it throughout the game. You know, Burns has
had his sacks throughout games, oh yeah, and he's had
his past deflections throughout games. But when it comes down
to it, the Giants have to figure out a way
regardless of the call that's being called for one of
those defensive guys to make a game change and play

(23:04):
at the end of the game in crunch time that
our clutch plays like you.

Speaker 3 (23:08):
Said, folks, that was up two to one, nine three,
nine four five one three. Will take your phone calls
and we will start with Jason and new Haven. You're
first on the program.

Speaker 5 (23:19):
Hello, Hey, Paul and Jonathan, how you guys doing.

Speaker 3 (23:23):
Hi, Thanks for calling, are you, sir?

Speaker 5 (23:24):
I just want to first of all, I just want
to say, you know, if you guys celebrate the holidays,
you know, happy Holidays to you and your family.

Speaker 3 (23:31):
Back at you and to everybody out there, Happy Turkey Day.
Just don't overdo the stuff.

Speaker 5 (23:37):
Yeah, yeah, So yeah, I'm not surprised that Shane was
released or let go. You know, I've said it before.
You know, these guys are still people at the end
of the day, you know. So it's never easy to
lose a job, lose a position, you know. But like
like you've got stayd Jonathan, you've played, Paul, You've covered

(23:58):
the team for decades. It's a results oriented business man,
I mean, it is what it is. And our defense
this year has been a saf I mean, look at
all the games we were in. You know, a lot
of people will knock Joe shame and while he's had
some misses, you know, we we have a talented team.

Speaker 4 (24:14):
Man.

Speaker 5 (24:14):
We've gone toe to toe with some pretty pretty tough teams.
You know, we were thirteen point underdogs going into Detroit.
All I heard last week was, Man, Detroit's gonna smoke us.
They're gonna smoke us. And we were really giving it
to Detroit. Yeah, so that's that stadium was pretty quiet
for most of the games, you know, So listen, man,

(24:36):
you know, it's it's it's it's been a tough season,
but we have some we have some guys that I
think we could grow with and a few positive points.
I know it's been kind of negative, you know, all season,
but a few things from the game that I loved.
Man Wandale has really showed up this year, if I'm
not mistaken. Yes, I think he's ninth in the league
and receiving.

Speaker 3 (24:55):
Yards and.

Speaker 5 (24:58):
That for a slot receiver to be doing on that.
You know, I know our record is bad, so a
lot of people are talking about him. He's having a
hell of a hell of a season.

Speaker 4 (25:06):
Man.

Speaker 5 (25:06):
I don't know what his future will be after this year,
but Man, he's having a really good, really really good season.

Speaker 3 (25:15):
He's got a legit shot of a thousand yards. He
really does, you hat a very very legit shot, which
would be something else. I'll tell you.

Speaker 5 (25:23):
The old Chefsky, the Jamis play man. What can I say? Man,
that's probably and I'm not using her hyperbole, but that's
probably one of the best plays I've seen all year
in any game. I mean, you know, Jonathan as a linebacker,
how do you even come back? I forgot the linebacker
that covered him on that play. I think his last

(25:44):
name was Barnes. I mean, he has to be kicking.
He has to be kicking himself.

Speaker 2 (25:50):
So this is the thing, Jayson, when you win a game,
right like that, like they won Detroit won the game.
So now people can clown you because you won the game. Yeah,
you know, if you lost the game, nobody's gonna clim
anybody because everybody looks bad. Yeah. But once you win
the game and they play it on film, like one
of the Linemerks gonna be like, hey, coach, can you
can you rewind that? Police?

Speaker 3 (26:11):
How about the juke that's embarrassed by James?

Speaker 2 (26:14):
That's embarrassing. Jamis is a big guy.

Speaker 3 (26:16):
Though, well he calls himself an athlete.

Speaker 2 (26:19):
He is a big guy, and he's a great athlete anyway.

Speaker 3 (26:21):
He absolutely is. And by the way, just for the record,
I did check with the Elias sportsbeiau on this. It
is the first ever touchdown catch by a Giants conventional
quarterback back Before the forties, in the twenties, thirties, and
in the forties, a lot of times your quarterback was
really just a running back.

Speaker 2 (26:42):
Under center, right, you know, it wasn't the conventional.

Speaker 3 (26:44):
Quarterback that the league has more didn't catch a touchdown back,
absolutely not, and believe me, if he had, he would
have told you about it. But so that is the
first ever touchdown catch by a conventional Giants quarterback in
the franchise one hundred and one years, which is pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (27:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (27:02):
Absolutely, just just an incredible, incredible play by al Shehsky
to even maneuver and stuff up in the pockets. I mean,
just just a beautiful, beautiful play. One of the best
players I've seen all year. And then my last point,
I'll get off the air, so you guys gonna take
other callers. My my thing with the defense now is
and what I've had issues with the just overall the team.

(27:23):
I only we use the defense right now, just the team.
You know Bill's I remember Bill Parcells saying, used to
preach bad tackling, bad pass rush, not stopping the run,
drop passes, bad run, bad running, pass blocking, penalties all Now.
Of course the players have something to do with of course,
because they're playing. But a lot of that stuff is

(27:45):
falls on the lap of bad coaching. And look with,
look with, look with And I know you guys don't,
but look what Kaska's doing right without neighbors, without dart,
without scatterable, probably out three best offensive weapons probably arguably,
Look what he's doing with this offense. Man, look what

(28:06):
he's doing. That's that's what coaching is right there. Now,
I'm not saying he's gonna get the head coach, but
when I say coaching, that's coaching right there. We just
didn't get that from the defense. So I'll let you
guys go. Man, it's been a rough year, but I
still think we got some talent. I think we're gonna
win a few of these last few games. New England
does not scare me. I didn't think Detroit scared me,

(28:28):
just like the Broncos didn't scare me. And as long
as Taska is being aggressive and going for the throat,
we have nothing to lose. We're two to ten, so
you know what, go for it, send the blitz, like
you said, Jonathan, go after the young man from New England.
We have nothing to lose. So I appreciate you guys.
Happy holidays you too, me man Samuel, call again.

Speaker 3 (28:48):
I want to give you a couple numbers here, Jonathan.
Maybe you've looked at these rankings. Maybe you haven't. The
Giants offense for the season. This is not like just
since start to go over. This is for the season.
They are seven in the NFL in first downs, by
the way, which tells you about a team's efficiency to
be able to drive the ball down the field seventh

(29:09):
and first downs. They are eleventh in third down percentage.
They are eleventh in total average yards per game offensively,
ninth in rushing yards per game offensively, and thirteenth in
passing yards per game offensively. If you didn't follow, that

(29:29):
means they're in the top half.

Speaker 2 (29:31):
Half, top third, top third in every in every category.

Speaker 3 (29:35):
Yeah, and no neighbors for most of the season, no
scataboo for half the season. Rookie quarterback.

Speaker 2 (29:45):
Three quarterbacks actually that played this year.

Speaker 3 (29:47):
I mean, holy smokes.

Speaker 2 (29:50):
And that was the big question coming into this season.

Speaker 3 (29:52):
And think about this. The two best seasons the Giants
have had offensively under the Dable Kafka regime twenty two
and twenty six. Kafka called the plays in both of
those seasons.

Speaker 2 (30:08):
Yeah, yeah, I like Kafka. Man. You know, I got
a relationship with him. He went to Northwestern at the
same time I was at Wisconsin. You know, people, of course,
everybody's asking me who you think is going to be
the head coach. I said, well, let's see what Kafka
can do. And for me, it's not about winning and losing,
especially when it comes to this team. You know, I
don't know what it is, but like you know, last

(30:29):
year to year before, like I was, you know, like, man,
I'm so tired of the Giants not being competitive in games,
and you know, we're getting more competitive games. Still kind
of the same outcome, but it just feels different.

Speaker 4 (30:42):
Right.

Speaker 2 (30:42):
This team feels like they can compete with anybody.

Speaker 4 (30:45):
You know.

Speaker 2 (30:45):
Even last week, you know, I didn't have the Giants
beating Detroit because I just think Detroit is one of
the better teams in the league. But I didn't feel
like they didn't belong on the field with them. You know,
I'm just going off of the Giants can't finish field,
which he was helped out by and he was helped
out and that that was not a good That was

(31:07):
a dumb play. Yes, you know, you know what I'm
talking about. That was And he's a veteran guy. That
was That was so that was so bad that, Paul,
that was that was so bad. But like that is
the things when you have an undisciplined team, and as
a veteran too, the reason why you brought him in
here because of his veteran presence and the play making ability,

(31:29):
and you wouldn't think a guy like that would make
a play like that. I'm not gonna say his name,
but everybody watched the game, you know what I'm talking about.
And and those are the things that need to be corrected.
Sometimes it's not just about x's and o's when it
comes to situational football. That has nothing to do with
them playing good football. That has everything to do with
them making the right decisions. And that's the thing I've

(31:50):
been saying, Paul, It's not about the effort. It's about
the decision making. Some of these guys are not making
the right decisions, whether it's during the play, whether it's
post play, whether it's pre right, they're just not making
the right decisions. And you have to be able to
do get that to at least give yourself a chance.
And the Giants just haven't been making the right decisions,

(32:10):
whether it's preplay, some of these, you know, jumping off side,
some of these, you know, lining up in the neutral zone,
like not being downhill on run plays, not believing what
you see in front of you, not engaging, and then
out getting going inside instead of staying outside, going outside
of state. Like just those decisions makes it look so

(32:32):
bad on film. And then you hear everybody saying, oh,
the Giants are soft and they're playing soft, and the
effort is questioned, and I don't really see the effort.
It's just the decisions that are made. Paul. When you
look at it on the All twenty two, it's like, Okay,
I understand why they're questioning the effort of this play
or this player because he made a poor decision that

(32:54):
makes the whole defense look bad. And that's what the
Giants have to stop doing You have to stop making
poor decisions, especially when it gets late in games, because
everything is magnified at that time.

Speaker 3 (33:07):
Let's go back to the phones, Tim and Charleston. You're
next on the show.

Speaker 4 (33:10):
Hello, Hey, Paul, JC, How you doing good man?

Speaker 2 (33:14):
How are you? Tim?

Speaker 4 (33:15):
Good? So? Paul, Yeah, you just touched on one of
the things I wanted to talk about, which is how
how highly were ranked all the offensive categories. Of course,
upset by the defense. So yeah, I break it down
the problems to the defense and the only reason we're
not even better in offensively is our red zone scoring
is twenty ninth lee terrible, and our turnover differential because

(33:38):
we're not getting enough turnovers. But a couple of other
things I want to touch One other thing I want
touch on for I answer you're what you positive at
the beginning, Paul, is that you know in the past,
the last time the Giants elevated internally and linebacker's coach
to defensive coordinator went fairly well, a guy some people
have heard of by Joe Pelton check and the other

(34:02):
two times where we brought one into the defensive coordinator
who had previously been a linebacker's coach who had another
team with Sight Nola whose fly backer's coach with Eagle
right before that, and then Parcels who after have been
having been with the Giants, Yeah, with the Patriots ly
back to the coach. So hopefully the trend continues of

(34:23):
successfully elevating in line backers, coaches, the defensive coordinating. I
personally would like to see Topkit do well win, you know,
a couple of few games here, and I'd like to
see him really get a real strap to keep this
draft with the offensives had thrived, and then we keep
parding Barcelo, who's obviously been so crucial to the offensive.

Speaker 3 (34:44):
He has been outstanding they building. You know, I think
we should take a second here, Tim, just to again
give Brisillo a pat on the back, because last year
when he got here, we told people that his reputation
and we could see how he was working with these guys.
He was definitely improving the unit, but the overall results

(35:04):
were probably not as high as people wanted them to be. Well,
here in year two, he has really brought out a
whole new style and a whole new physicality in that
offensive line that we haven't seen around here in a
long time.

Speaker 4 (35:21):
Yeah. So, and then to get to what you asked
at the beginning is what things we'd like to see
different on the defense? I mean the obvious one is,
you know, get better, it gets to run. I mean,
but I don't even know where to go with that
right now.

Speaker 3 (35:34):
Yeah, because McFadden is not ready yet to come back. Yeah,
I mean, you know, the dexter's hurting, and you know
McFadden is not is not capable of getting on the
field right now. So what can you do. There's not
a lot you can do to help the rush defense
right now. There's really not unless you go with a
four man down line, which is something I just don't

(35:57):
I don't know that you could do that right now
with only a month left in the season.

Speaker 4 (36:02):
But the other thing I've see, because when teams feel
like they either want to or need to pass against this.
The other thing that I'm saying is like, you know,
when when we're in a zone, it's I feel like
the zone's too so often seems like it's just this
last game of the Lions game. How many times did

(36:22):
one of the Lions receivers pick a spot stop, turn
around and there's a giant three yards to the left
of individual giant three yards to the right of home.
There's a giant three yards behind him, and he's just
sitting there open and catches a calf standing still. Basically,
I just stand when guys split the team and they're
moving between the layers in the zone, that that's hard

(36:42):
to stop. But when guys are just going out there
and planting and no one is even able to take
back the ball, Tim, I just feel like the zone
has been too soft.

Speaker 3 (36:52):
I'm gonna say something that's a little bit off off
what you're talking about. How do they get there? And
you're going to help me with this, Jonathan, how do
those guys get to those spots? They get free releases
off the line, you let them run the route that
they want to run. They will find the dead spots
and the open spots in your zone. It's just that simple.

(37:16):
So it sounds like you got some police after you,
my friend, call us back after you get that squared
away and get your bail money. Okay, please do because
we love you, Tim, we hope you can get the cash.
But but by by giving guys free releases and letting
them run the route that they want to run right

(37:37):
from the snap. You're asking for trouble, aren't you.

Speaker 2 (37:41):
Well, I mean there's there's certain defenses Like in a
conventional cover too, you're not really rerouting nobody. The corners
are rerouting the number one receivers on the outside. But
when you're allowing people to catch the ball in front
of you, like that's what you you're allowing that to
happen in Cover two.

Speaker 3 (37:55):
But but but in cover two, you're also relying on
your corners to close quickly. Yes, and when they are
so far back, they're not closed right very fast at all.

Speaker 2 (38:06):
That's why it's like certain situations, right you know when
you're running these Cover two is a soft defense.

Speaker 3 (38:14):
It is, But the Giants don't run a lot of it.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
No, they don't. They don't. I'm just talking about like
conventional zones that are soft, right per se, and you
basically allow underneath and you have five underneath zone players
that are supposed to rally and tackle and they get
their hands on footballs. Right. Some of these defenses I
feel like are coached up before the snap that are

(38:39):
that have a soft alignment, And that's what we've been
seeing from the Giants. Some of these conventionally soft defenses,
they're soft pre alignment, so it makes it double soft,
you know what I mean, Like you're not just allowing
a four yard catch in front of you, you're allowing
an eight yard catch in front of you.

Speaker 3 (38:56):
You see DB's backpedal as soon as the ball is snapped.

Speaker 2 (38:59):
And they're already aligned right there. And for me, it's like,
if you're aligned that far, you do not move anywhere,
so you can drive up for those shallower routes. And
I just think that, you know, maybe technique is not
taught correctly for the Giants in terms of that, or
it's just not executed correctly. It's one of one of

(39:20):
the other, right, it's one of the other. Because in
these situations, especially late in games like these are challenge situations.
These are up in your face type situations, and the
quarterbacks they're not even holding onto the ball like you
know what I mean, Like they're they're they're on rhythm,
they're they're standing there like this in the pocket and
throwing to uncontested receivers. And the Giants are not a

(39:43):
great tackling team, so it's it's literally like it's just
a snowball effect of not good football at the end
of games, and it's just different. Not keep saying decision making.
And it's not just on the defenders. It's about the
play calls, it's about the situational calls, it's about in
the right personnel group in those situations. Those are all

(40:04):
the right decisions that the Giants have to figure out
a way to do it because it's still not going
to get into easier even when you look a few
weeks down the road and you look at the Las
Vegas Raiders, right, the Las Vegas Raiders are thinking to
their head, oh, this is where we can get our
rookie the ball forty times because the Giants are giving
up six yards to carry. Yeah, you know what I mean.
So it's like, I get it. You're not looking at

(40:24):
the schedule saying like there's a win here. When Giants
have been in every single game this year, besides the
two games that we spoke about earlier, but they haven't
been able to stop what a team doesn't do well
or does do well that Giants haven't been able to
do it when it counts the most, which is the
end of the game or even in overtime. The Giants
haven't been able to form, And for me, it's about

(40:46):
decision making, and if you make the right decisions pre snap,
it'll help during the game, and then I'm during the play,
and then also post snap, stop doing dumb stuff like
smacking the ball out of somebody's hands, like just making
better decisions. That's a start giving yourself a chance to
be competitive in every play.

Speaker 3 (41:05):
T Tie thirty three does has a YouTube question and
I'm just gonna address this real quick. He says, why
is Eric Gray back as the return man again over
Dante Miller after a strong camp in preseason? Is there
a reason that Miller has not gotten a nod all season?
That is a mystery to me as well. Yeah, I'm
a big fan of Turbo Miller.

Speaker 4 (41:25):
I do know this.

Speaker 3 (41:26):
Eric Gray was over a year out with this knee injury,
serious serious, serious, career threatening knee injury, worked his tail
off and I mean his tail to make it back
to the point where he could pass a physical and
get on an NFL field again. So I'm not going

(41:47):
to question the choice of allowing Eric Gray to come
off of the inactive list and get on the field
because I applaud him. I congratulated him before the game
even was played last weekend. For hey, you made it back. Congratulations.
That is a great accomplishment for just being able to
pass the physical and get back into an NFL game.

(42:07):
I'm so happy for him, yep, because you know what
it's like to be hurt. Oh yeah, that's that's a
monumental achievement that he was able.

Speaker 2 (42:16):
To pull off.

Speaker 3 (42:17):
So I'm not going to say should they have activated
Turbo over Eric Gray. What I am going to say
is that there were times earlier in the season where
I thought that maybe Miller could have gotten a chance
to be activated, especially when the Giants went with only
two running backs for several weeks and I was thinking, well,
maybe he could have been the third. They could have
done that about a month ago before Eric Gray was

(42:38):
even able to come back, and Turbo Miller has not
gotten an opportunity. I don't understand it, because he did
have a really good.

Speaker 2 (42:47):
Summer, yeah, in the last couple of years as well.
In Turbo though he showed.

Speaker 3 (42:53):
I thought he showed in the preseason and a camp
he was more than just straight line speed. That to
me was the biggest chaine his game from year one
to year two, and I thought it was enough that
he would get a shot. But I will say this
to the naysayer who says no, they're gonna say he's
a niche back. He's a speedback. You're probably not going

(43:15):
to get a lot of blitz protection because he's a
little bit on the smaller side. He's not as big
and hoky as some of these other backs, So they're
probably gonna say he's a luxury as a speedback that
the Giants really don't have room for, especially with injuries
everywhere else as they would try to fill holes that
were basically busting water everywhere. That's probably the reason why

(43:38):
it's the best one I can come up with.

Speaker 2 (43:40):
So but I appreciate and usually when it comes, like
if opportunities come for guys that coaches feel like they
can trust, you know, that might be an issue there
in terms of UH. They trust Eric Gray a little
bit more in terms of his you know, being the
third running back and also be a special teams guy.

(44:02):
But you have to take advantage of any opportunity that
you have, right And I'm gonna use Isaiah Hodgens for
an example. You know, he was on the Giants a
few years ago. UH got signed off the Bills practice
squad in twenty twenty two, and he led the resurgence
of the New York Giants and that playoff place that
the Giants had in twenty twenty two, making big plays.
He had one hundred yard receiving game in the playoffs,

(44:22):
huge game in the playoffs, just a huge game. And
then again released from the Giants. Right played on a
couple of last season. Purgh And you know, the Giants
brought him in two weeks ago and he's probably been
underneath Wandel. He's been a second best receipt for the Giant.

Speaker 3 (44:36):
Yes, yes, And.

Speaker 2 (44:37):
There's other guys that have been having opportunities consistently with
the Giants and they haven't taken advantage of them. If
guys can have that mindset, it's a mindset that you
have to have, right. Jameis Winston said it. They asked Jamish,
what were you doing when you were waiting, you know,
to see if you were going to play? He said,
I wasn't waiting. I was preparing. And it's not just

(44:59):
the and nose is being mentally ready to when your
name is called. You're ready for the moment when the
ball is thrown to you. On third down, when the
ball is thrown to you on fourth down, like Hodges
was his first week with the new quarterback that he's
never caught a pass from in the game with Jameis Winston.

Speaker 3 (45:16):
He told ready, he told me he had concepts down.
He wasn't even sure of all the players.

Speaker 2 (45:20):
And think about this, right, how many passes did he
probably catch before that fourth down captch from James maybe
five total for the game brought the week?

Speaker 3 (45:28):
I think, yeah, right, for the game, he had five
catches on six targets.

Speaker 2 (45:31):
But I'm saying, like leading up to the game in
practice because you know, the quarterback don't work with one
wide receivers day, That's what I'm saying. So he's had
what one full practice amazing. Friday is kind of like
a sped through practice. Saturday is a walkthrough. So out
of all of the receivers, Jameis might have thrown to him,
let's call it ten times total, maybe baby, if that.

(45:54):
And to have the trust in the guy like that
on fourth down in the you know crucial time the game,
which is any fourth down play is a crucial time
in the game. And then coming back the next week
against the Heidi talent of Detroit Lions in Detroit to
score a touchdown, Like.

Speaker 3 (46:09):
Be ready, guys, by the way, what a laser beam?

Speaker 2 (46:13):
Oh yeah, come on, James, let me tell you something.
Jamis almost a laser beam.

Speaker 3 (46:19):
Great concentration by Hodgen for sure, because it was context.

Speaker 2 (46:22):
They would have flew through his face if he didn't.
Jameis Winston's arm is second to none. And the thing is,
he's such a like when they say that Jameis Winston Show,
we're getting a full you know, full episodes, you know,
and I want to see what's next on the next
episode of James Winston Show. But some of the passes

(46:43):
that he throws. And I've played with three of the
greatest quarterbacks ever, Tom Brady, Drew Brees and of course
the great Eli Manning. Right, this guy can spin it
as good, if not better than the greatest quarterbacks we've
ever seen play. And I've always been impressed by great
throws football, Aaron Rodgers. Jameis Winston is incredible. He's incredible.

Speaker 3 (47:07):
I laugh because he makes some unincredible throws too.

Speaker 2 (47:11):
That's the Jameis Winston Show.

Speaker 3 (47:13):
That is the Jamis Winters one player.

Speaker 2 (47:14):
You're like, wow, look at that ball the theo Johnson
on the sideline, and he does it multiple times and
then one pass is like, Jamis, what.

Speaker 3 (47:21):
Are you doing? You old folks? You remember when you
had rabbit ears on your old television and you'd move
the rabbit ears to a certain area and the picture
would be great, and then all of a sudden, ten
minutes later it would get all fuzzy. That's kind of
the way Jameis Winston is. You got to bang them
with side every everything is looking good, everything's marvelous, as
clear as a bell, and then all of.

Speaker 2 (47:42):
A sudden it gets fuzzy, real fuzzy, real quick.

Speaker 3 (47:46):
He's he's a fun guy. We've enjoyed having him around.
He's got a contract through next season, so all the
more power to him. We want him to do well,
But there are definitely some inconsistencies there that have never
changed eleven years in the league. It's not going to
change now. Coach Marvin, let's go to you quickly here
because we gotta we gotta get to another call before
we sign off. Go ahead, You're next on the show.

Speaker 6 (48:09):
Happy Thanksgiving. But yeah, Jonathan hit most of everything on
the money today. Defensively, I said this. I've been saying
this for a while and I always say that about
my teams. The first thing you have to have you
have to have discipline. That's the first thing I start with.
When my suasion begins and the team has been undisciplined,

(48:31):
that's where you get penalties, mistakes and things like that.
You have to be disciplined. And how you do that
is you got to make them feel that penalty they
calls that, They're gonna feel some pain when they come
to the sideline and I'm standing there because I'm gonna
be waiting for them, and so you have to put
that in and program them that way. I mean, in anything,

(48:53):
a lot of things we do. Uh, I've been in
the military and you can't get to stay in the
military if you're not discipline, and they're going to put
that on you. They're going to build you into that
a disciplined person. The other thing was to win this
This team has been competitive through the whole season. No,

(49:14):
there's been a tough schedule, they've been competitive, and that's
the first thing you need to do when you start playing.
You can't win unless you're competitive, and they've been competitive.
The second thing is once you're competitive, then you learn
to win. And what I mean by learn to win,
you win those games that you should win. And then

(49:35):
after you learn to win those games that you should win,
the last nail in the coffin is you become a winner,
not just learning how to win, but you are a winner.
And that means you're winning games that you shouldn't win.
And that's where they're growing into because this is a
really talented team. Well it's just mentally not this. If

(49:55):
you look at the defense and watching the game, now,
the defense plays well the first quarters. For some reason,
people are going to have big plays. They're professionals on
the other side too, so you're going to give up
some plays. It's when you give up those plays and
I think Jonathan hit it on the net. They're not
aggressive in certain situations. The coach is like, you're playing

(50:19):
on your heels.

Speaker 3 (50:20):
My daughter asked me about this and she said, Dad,
I don't understand why this keeps happening because they're so
good until the end. And I said, but but an
you understand. Part of the thing that a coach does
when he constructs a game plan, He's going to spread
out a storyline throughout the course of the game. He's
got game flow, he's got a framework, he's got a philosophy.

(50:41):
He's setting up plays for later on in the game.
But if the Giants are constantly in the lead in
the fourth quarter, what do you think those other teams
coaches are doing. They're pulling out the best plays they
got and they're not picking and choosing, and they're not
going with philosophies. They're saying, the heck with all of it.
We're behind, we need urgency, we need plays. This is

(51:04):
the best we got. And if the Giants don't make
the proper adjustments to those plays, they're gonna pay for it.
And quite frankly, it's happened time and time again because
they're not coming out with the best defensive plays to
match the team's best offensive plays.

Speaker 6 (51:19):
Yep, yep, that's it, right, that's one hundred percent right.
You always keep those plays in your pocket. We ran
the flee fliper, We ran a lot of trick plays
in that first half, and my my experiences, I wouldn't
do that. I may throw one of them out there
that they I'm trying to get a good jump on them,
to get a good lead on them. I'm not gonna
show them a lot those plays. I hold on to

(51:41):
them until they're needed in situation.

Speaker 3 (51:43):
Coach, they call them the must have plays, right, the
must have plays.

Speaker 2 (51:48):
And both of you guys are talking about the offense.
Now defensively, you need to have that too, you know exactly.
Spagnola and I've talked to you about this specific play.
It's called Storm. It's his all out blit, you know,
when he does it, when it's late in the game
and it's third down and the offense has to have it.
He sends everyone. And the thing is, sometimes they know

(52:08):
what's coming and he still does it. You know why,
because it creates pressure, It creates adversity. And that's the
thing about the Giants Layton games. Offensively, they're not creating
adversity for the offense. They're playing very soft and they're
allowing the offense and it's like, oh, we'll just go
up and tackle it. But the Giants haven't been a
great tackling team all year. Where they're going up and

(52:29):
getting those stops on run plays. There's getting those stops
on those checkdown type of plays. When there's plays that
you know you're allowing them to catch the ball in
front of you. They're allowing them to break tackles and
mistackles after that. So the Giants just need to make
again with the decision, making better decisions when it comes
down late in games. And it's not just having it

(52:50):
in a bag for offense. You need that corner blitz
or whatever you know, play that you haven't showed on
defense to run in the fourth quarter in a certain situation,
maybe towards the left back when you send that left
cornerback when they're not gonna block them at all because
you haven't seen it.

Speaker 6 (53:05):
Alla, right, Yeah, because you rocked them to sleep.

Speaker 5 (53:08):
They saw you for three quarters exactly.

Speaker 6 (53:10):
You emptied the tank.

Speaker 3 (53:11):
Your best stuff.

Speaker 6 (53:14):
That stuff comes out when that is needed because they
not expecting your stuff. And it's and there's some things
that you have created that they didn't even prepare for.
So I'm not when I go into a game, I
got four or five plays in my pockets that they
have not prepared for because the coach didn't even know
about them. Rotch, no doubt, and they prepare for something

(53:35):
if the coach never told them. So I'm gonna shock
them with it. And like Jonathan was saying, you quarterbacking.
I'm coming to get you, but you ain't even know
I'm coming, and so that's how you have to do it.
I'm gonna cut this short, but y'all was talking about
the offense, and I think what's happening is that these
guys are playing well. The offensive line is playing so well,

(53:58):
and I think that's given them time to do some
of the things that they want to do. That's from
the offensive side. On the defensive side, I think we
just wouldn't create us. But enough with the front guys. Yeah,
we're talking about the secondary stuff. Those two the front
end in the back end, they have to work together.
Sometimes it don't in a game is going to happen.

(54:19):
But I want to give a shout out to Darius Alexander.
I thought he played a world games. You guys have
a good thanksgiving you.

Speaker 3 (54:27):
Two coach so real quick. Alexander had his first two
solo sacks before.

Speaker 2 (54:30):
Before we get to the last caller. And I say
decisions again. Offensively, their decision to stick with the run
no matter what happens early in the game, because these
last two games the Giants were not running the ball
efficiently and effectively early in games. But they stuck with
the run the entire game, and that kept them, you know,

(54:53):
able to make different plays. Yes, yes, and you make
it a two yard game here, and then may be
a two yard game there, and then a one yard game.
All of a sudden they break a seven yarder right. That,
like you said, keeps you on schedule. And if you're
you're playing some good ball on third downs and you're
floating around fifty percent and you add a punt here,

(55:14):
you know, with change of field position, that is football.
But your ability and the thought process of sticking to
the run, understanding that as the game goes on, your
aligneman will start leaning on these guys. I'm around Brown
said it. I'm around Saint Brown said it. He said,
those old linemen, we're leaning on our guys later in
the game because of decision to say, we're gonna stick

(55:36):
to this run no matter what. All of a sudden,
you see, you know, Tracy start breaking a couple runs later,
Singletary start breaking some runs later. And it's all about
the thought process of what are we going to be
as an offense. Are we gonna be a big play
type of offense? Do we have the capability of doing that?
Or we gonna be a physical, smash mouth, hit you
in the face type of offense. And I think the

(55:57):
Giants are choosing the ladder.

Speaker 3 (55:58):
Well, they had a relative, relatively efficient run game the
last two weeks when even they had to operate without
a running quarterback, which tells you something. Okay, because we've
all said the Giants running game has been a lot
better this year. Yeah, but Jackson Dart is taking a
lot of that load because he's giving them a lot
of rushing yardage the last two weeks. No, No, it's

(56:21):
all the running backs. The running backs have been actually
doing an adequate job of keeping this offense balanced.

Speaker 2 (56:27):
I want to go to because I know you'd be
getting this to you know, who's going to be the
next Giants head coach? Yeah, I really want a guy
for the New York Giants that just can hold guys accountable,
you know. I just feel like the Giants haven't been
able to do that because they have good players here, right,
But you got to get the most out of your players,
and I don't think the Giants have done that, and

(56:47):
I think that's why you're sitting here at a two
to ten record. Being able to finish games you know,
being aggressive. I think the thought process of Mike Kofka
because he is here, he sees what's going on, and
I think he understands what the Giants need. And is
he gonna happen? I don't know, but at least if
it starts in that way, I'm not even thinking about

(57:08):
anybody else When it comes to a head coach, I'm like,
let's see how Mike Kofka finishes this season. Let's see
if this team could be accountable discipline and if that
can help them at least finish with a win or two,
you know, throughout the rest of the season, because they've
got a couple winnable games in the rest of the schedule.

Speaker 3 (57:23):
I always say one of the biggest hurdles that a
coach has toward the end of a season that's going
poorly is to keep the guys playing hard.

Speaker 4 (57:33):
It.

Speaker 3 (57:34):
Mike Kafka's got five games remaining in his audition. As
long as these guys keep playing for him all the
way to the end, you have to give him consideration.

Speaker 2 (57:44):
Yeah, you have to.

Speaker 3 (57:46):
Now, if they don't and they give up on him
and he loses the locker room at some point over
the next five weeks which we're all going to be
looking at under a microscope. Well, then that's a telltales
sign that maybe he's not the guy. But as long
as there playing for him, you know what, you gotta
sit down and you've gotta contemplate the possibility that he

(58:07):
could be the guy that'll do it. For this edition,
a Big Blue kickoffly presented by Cadillac, the official luxury
vehicle of the New York Football Giants. Don't Forget the
Giants Huddle is available each and every week. I know
John's been working hard. He's got a new one coming up.
I'm sure by the end of the week. A Thanksgiving
edition which will also have a preview of Monday night's
game in Foxborough against the New England Patriots. Once again,

(58:31):
we come to you from the Giants Podcast Studio, presented
by Hackensack Meridian Health. Keep getting better and as always,
Happy Thanksgiving everybody. From Jonathan, I'm Paul. He's Johnny Mack
on the other side of the camera. Enjoy your turkey, everybody.
We'll talk to you again soon.