Big Blue Kickoff Live 11/3 | Giants vs 49ers Review

John Schmeelk and Paul Dottino review the Giants vs 49ers game, talk about the Giants defense, and take calls from fans.

0:00 - 49ers review

15:00 - Giants defense

28:20 - Calls

36:00 - More on the 49ers

46:00 - The wide receiver room

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
And I will.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
It's time for a Big Blue Kickoff line.

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Nobody can ever tell you that you couldn't do.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
It because you're on Giants dot com.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
You know what I saw to York Giant.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Tray and the Giants Mobile at.

Speaker 3 (00:15):
Seventeen thirteen at the finals One time down.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
We all we're all taffick what they well.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Part of the Giants podcast network.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
That's going on, Crazy dogs an Hi, everybody, It's Monday,
Good afternoon. Welcome to Big Blue Kickoff Live presented by Cadillac,
the official luxury vehicle the Giants. Right here in the
Giants Podcast Studio, presented by Hacking Sack Murdy and Health
Keep Getting Better, Josh Belt, Paul Tattino. Giants fall to
the San Francisco forty nine Ers thirty four to twenty four,
and we'll dig into the nitty gritty of this game

(00:44):
as we move along here. We'll take your calls of
course at two O one nine three nine four five
one three. But Paul, I'll just say this to me,
this is a really disappointing game where you headed into
this game and you saw how banged up the forty
nine Ers team was. You know, there were five and three.
The Giants are two and six, and the record is
you know, there's a big difference in the record, but
even if you look at number Vegas put on the game,

(01:04):
it was very low. They thought the game was gonna
be very competitive. The forty nine Ers defense last week
against a Texans offense that has struggled, had really had
trouble getting off the field. The Texans held the ball
for forty minutes in that game last week because the
Niners defense could not get a stop. They allowed one
hundred and fifty seven rushing yards in that game to
a bad Texans run game. And the Giants come into

(01:26):
this game, and it's not fair to say they were
non competitive because they were in the game. It wasn't
a blowout, but you never really got the sense in
the second half of this game that the Giants were
gonna make a run and come back, and the defense
was a big problem. They give up thirty four points.
I'll get to that. I'll get to that in a second,
I promised, because I know that's what most of you

(01:46):
guys want to talk about. But heading into this game,
and I said this in the pregame show, Paul mm
HM that the Niners are going to score points in
this game. The Giants were down to their fourth and
fifth cornerbacks. The Niners were going to score points, right,
they were gonna score points. And the Giants offense, and
I thought it was gonna be a shootout. And I said,

(02:06):
the Giants offense, this is not need Paul can attest.
This is not me saying this after the fact that
not an allpreing game show.

Speaker 3 (02:13):
And I thought, be high twenties to win the game too.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
And the Giants offense, We're gonna have to keep pace
with the with the San Francisco forty nine ers. And
after the Giants came out and scored on the opening drive,
which again to Mike Kafkin Brian Daviles credit, they've done
a great job of doing this year. They script that
first set of plays, or even if it's not technically
a script, they install the plays you want for that
week for that particular matchup. But for the most part,
has been very successful. They march down the field, they

(02:36):
run the ball, they throw a bunch of short little
passes that they open up using some good scheme stuff,
and they march right down and they score a touchdown.
It was great. Unfortunately, We did not see them do
that until the fourth quarter. Next five drives for the
New York Football Giants. Three plays eight yards. Third drive

(02:57):
of the game, five plays, twenty five yards. They got
a first on that drive. Congratulations, guys. Next drive three
plays three yards. Next play, next drive, three plays three yards.
Next drive four plays. That's including a missfield goal and
zero yards. So after getting fifty nine yards or sixty
four net yards part of me on their first drive,
they proceed to gain twenty nine over their next five

(03:22):
and they score zero points, and because of a missfield
goal by Graham Cano, which is obviously disappointing, they go
into halftime down seventeen to seven. The Niners score field
goal on their first drive. At the second HAF it's
twenty to seven, and La Paul, I'll be honest with you,
and this is why I wanted to start with the offense.
And again we'll get to the defense. I know that
was a huge problem. If you told me heading into
this game the Giants would have seven points at halftime,

(03:45):
I would have told job. I'm almost sure they were
gonna lose the game. And that's why I wanted to
start there, because with all the injuries on defense in
the secondary. You knew it was gonna be problematic against
Kyle Shanahan. We said this last week. The offense was
gonna have to do their part against the Niner defense
that had no one in their front seven, no one.

(04:07):
Everyone was hurt, except for Mikeel Williams that plays a
prominent role in terms of their pass rush. Everyone was hurt, Warner,
Fred Warner hurt. The offense had to do their part
in this game to keep pace with the Niners offense,
and in the first half they did not do that.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
Why don't you tell the people how many yards rushing
the Giants had in the first half.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
I don't have that because you had that was the
top of your head. I got it right here. Yeah,
the Giants in the first half had a whopping thirty
eight rushing yards. Yeah, on three and a half yards
per carry and no runs of more than eight yards. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
And the truth is, when you have a rookie quarterback,
the balance is so critical. The Giants two games that
they won, they ran the ball almost forty times in
both of those games.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
Okay, they were playing with leads in those games, well, yes,
but they had a lead here too. It was seven nothing.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
That's a fair point. If you cannot get that running
game established in the first half to at least put
your quarterback on a somewhat decent playing field, you're putting
him uphill and you're asking him to climb up hill.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
And I'm gonna give you a couple of numbers to
back that up here, Paul. On the Giants first drive
by Mike County, they only had one third down. It
was a third and six, which is technically, if you
want to look at how the NFL keeps tracks of
the third downs, that's a third and medium. They usually
go one, two to four or two to three, one
to four, five, four to seven, whatever it is, four

(05:41):
to six and then seven or yes, seven plus yes,
this is how the It is usually four to six,
seven plus one to three. So third and six. They
convert that on a dark scramble on their first drive.
The next drive, third and ten, the next drive after
two fall star penalties on a third and three, that
becomes third and thirteen, next drive, third and twelve, next drive,

(06:03):
third and seven, next drive, third and ten, and those
are all the third downs that they could not convert,
and they had to either miss kick and miss a
field goal or punt the ball away because they could
not run the ball and camp Scataboo is not there.
And I think that made a big difference in this game.

Speaker 3 (06:20):
Now it's a shame because Singletary actually did a decent
job to the.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
Ones that he had. Yep.

Speaker 3 (06:28):
I happen to be a huge Tyrone Tracy fan, and
I thought he was going to have a whopper of
a day.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
You told me over one hundred and ten scrimmage yards.

Speaker 3 (06:35):
What I said, and I stand by that. I absolutely
would say the same thing again if they played tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
You will not find bigger Tyrone Tracy fans than the
two of us.

Speaker 3 (06:45):
And yet they just didn't get push. Now, what we
know about Scataboo is that even if there's not much there,
he will fall forward and get you an extra two
to three yards, even when maybe it's just not available.
I don't I'm not demeaning the other two backs by

(07:05):
any stretch of the imagination. They're both pros. Singletary is
a veteran who's been around a long time. He's more
of an inside runner. He does run hard. Tracy runs hard.
They're just not the same type of battering ram that
Skataboo is. Now, that's not to say if Skataboo played
yesterday that he would have run for forty yards in
the first half himself.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
Correct, I don't. I don't want to.

Speaker 3 (07:28):
I don't want to deceive anybody into thinking that. I
believe Skataboo's injuries the reason the Giants did not get
a running game going. I don't want people to believe that.

Speaker 1 (07:38):
But there is no question that they did not get
push now, and it hurt. Thirteenth on the game, thirteen
carries for sixty one yards by the Giants run game.
It's over. It's almost for It's four and a half
yards per carry. It's not bad, yeah, but it's what happens.
The effectiveness of those yardage I understand, and within the
game flow, I get that, and yeah, and it just

(08:01):
wasn't there, especially against the Niners run defense that that
certainly struggled last week. So I'm with you on that.
And then as for the passing game, I thought Dart
did okay in this game. A lot of his numbers
came on two drives at the end when the Niners
were up three scores in the fourth quarter. So take
that with a grain of salt, but he fought, he
got back. He made some really nice throws, the one
to Slayton that he dropped, the under Rolfzchewsky that he caught.

(08:22):
There were some nice plays, so give them credit for that.
But overall, he held the ball about three seconds a
drop back, which is much better than last week, and
he was three point six. I don't think guys really
got opened down field a ton when I rewatched the
tape this morning, there weren't a bunch of guys running open.
On plays where guys did run open. I thought Marcus
Bow allowed some pressures in this game that short circuited

(08:44):
some potential throws down the field. I thought on a
couple of those third and longs, Jackson maybe could have
held it a little bit longer because I thought the
protection was actually pretty good on some of those. He
ended up going to the checkdown. But again, I thought
the Niners did a really good job of put an
umbrella overthinks. Whether they were playing cover six, where they
were playing quarters, whether they were playing cover three. They
played the guys legitimately deep. They weren't getting nosy, they

(09:06):
were forcing everything in front of them. So again, you
need a little bit more from the giant offense. You know,
you only had those two explosive plays, the one the
gunner and then you had one over the middle of
the Slayton again on one of those last two drives
in the fourth quarter. Before those last two drives, Paul,
you didn't have a play of over twenty yards in
this game, No, before those last two drives. So, and
if you can't run it on early downs and you

(09:27):
can't get explosive plays, how are you moving the ball
in scoring points? Not gonna happen. No, it's not gonna
happen anything on the offense before you go to the defense.

Speaker 3 (09:37):
I will just add one other item to this, and
that is I was really happy for Gonnroschewsky with that touchdown. Yes,
So he is a guy who has come back from Nowheresville.
Remember he wasn't even on the team at the beginning
of training camp, and then when Ford Wheaton got hurt,
they made the call to bring him in as a
functional wide receiver who.

Speaker 1 (09:56):
Knew the playbook.

Speaker 3 (09:58):
He played all well, and I mean so well. They
couldn't cut him. They couldn't cut him, John. He made
every play you could imagine during training camp in the preseason,
has had a nice job on special teams, really done
a good job on his kick returns, and they gave
him a chance to play receiver yesterday at the end

(10:20):
of the game. And that was his second career touchdown catch.
He's been in the league wide five or six years now, right,
that's his second career touchdown catch. He felt I could
tell the pride that he hadn't maken that.

Speaker 1 (10:31):
Oh, I'd like to see him of an opportunity moving forward.
See how that goes. The only thing I'll say about
the offense, and we've talked about this lot here, how
they've gone to a lot of multiple tight end stuff
over the course of season. Daniel Bellinger did not play
in this game. Jermaine Lumino did not play in this game.
That's why Marcus Bowl played a right tackle. They only
ran ten twelve personnel in this game. They led the

(10:52):
league in three wide receiver sets this league this year
at over ninety percent. Raymond MacLeod got most of those
snaps and they got targeted once for five yards. So
I wonder if they could go back and do it again.
If you do a little bit more two tight end stuff,
try to either get Manerts or for DONI in the
game and try to keep doing what you do in
the last few weeks where you use those two tight ends,
you get teams in the bigger personnel, You have them

(11:14):
get closer to the box, You run some more play action,
you create some opportunities down the field for your tight
ends or your other players because you have a bigger
personnel in the game. They went to the eleven personnel
a lot, and I don't think they got what they
needed out of it.

Speaker 3 (11:25):
No, And to be honest, I don't know what the
realistic expectation was out of Ray Ray McLeod, since he
just got here, you know, a short time ago.

Speaker 1 (11:36):
I was a little bit surprised that he played.

Speaker 3 (11:39):
As many snaps as he did, considering that some of
the other receivers have been here longer. But nonetheless he
got a ton of snaps, had the one target.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
He played every snap but two in the game. It
was over ninety percent.

Speaker 3 (11:53):
Yeah, and again I'm not sure I understood why, but look,
they must have had a reason.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
I quite frankly. Fifty two to fifty seven part of
fifty two to fifty How was this for a surprise,
though Jalen Hyat was returning kickoffs and did a pretty
good job. Yeah, he was okay, you know, And that
was kind of odd to see McCleod in the receiver
spot and he's known as a kick return guy. To
see Hyatt in the kickoff return spot, and then the

(12:21):
CEO Chefsky at the end of the game in the
receiving spot. You got to see guys doing some different things.
Those all musical chairs. It really was. And you know,
when you lose all these guys, Paul, you have to
try to figure things out. And I think that's what
they're trying. More you can do right, something that works here.
And then Ray McLeod's the speed guy. So we talked
about not getting explosive plays. I get it. You want
him in the game instead of say a little Jordan Humphrey.

(12:43):
He was a bigger receiver. McLoud has the speed to
try to create some of those explosive plays. They just
didn't happen to get them in this game against the
forty nine ers. All right, let's get to the defense here, Paul,
and look Mike Caveat here and I always talk about
players in personnel. The Giants' secondary, it was just battered
and bruised Deonte Banks act as their top corner. You

(13:06):
had Corey Block on the other side. Bernard Jared Converse
came in at the end of the game after Corey
Black got banged up in this game. So that's the
caveat because you look, and I went back and I
rewatched this, and leaving the stadium yesterday, I was a
little annoyed. I'm like, look, you have all these great
players up front, and you did not get enough pressure

(13:31):
on Matt Jones, did not disrupt him. No, But then
I rewatched the game today and you know what it's
because he was getting the ball out fast on every
single play. Well shot in ahead knew what he was doing.
Two point four eight seconds average time to throw fifth,
fifth or fifth. I think it was fifth quickest in
the NFL this week. And it was either play action,
so you didn't have standard drop backs. They moved the

(13:53):
pocket a couple times too, but it was just quick passes.
And when your secondary allow guys to get open quickly
and the ball can come out as soon as the
quarterback's back foot hits, there's not much your pass rush
can do in those situations.

Speaker 3 (14:07):
Shanahan was going to avoid that that front as much
as he possible.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
And look, I'm not trying to tap myself pat myself
in the backyar. But when we did our over runners
in the pregame, right, I put the over runner for
giant sacks. I believe it two and a half. If
I'm not mistake, you did. And I went under and
you and he both went over. And the explanation I
gave and I said, Kyle Shannon, And again this is
not me trying to brag. It's just I thought we
stre coming that. Shanahan schemed the hell out of this thing.

(14:34):
He knew that his offensive line, which again is missing
their center. Hennessy started at center, Brendle was out. You know,
Spencer Buford came back for the first time this year.
You know, their offensive line is not great. It's kind
of something that they've patched together a little bit this year.
He knew they weren't gonna be able to hold up
against the Dexter Lawrences. And look what Dexter got one
on ones in the pass game in this game. He
did push the offensive line backup a bunch of times,

(14:58):
but too often they just got the ball out really fast.
And when your secondary allows guys to get open quickly,
your defensive line is not gonna be able to get home.
And that to me, And we'll get to the run
defense too, because I was also a big problem, and
we'll talk about the front with that for sure, But
in terms of a lot of these third downs and

(15:18):
trying to get off the field, pall guys were just
opened very quickly, the ball got out, and there was
not much the defensive line could do in those situations.

Speaker 3 (15:26):
Yeah, totally concur you know, you would gone through a
logical path with your reasoning. Tiky and I thought that
the Giants front would be fierce enough that they could
get possibly the three sacks, and that's why we went over.
I think what was more disappointing to me. You know

(15:49):
that when a quarterback is going to and you could
tell from the beginning of the game that it was
coming out. I mean it was very obvious as the
game was progressing. He was fourteen to fourteen the first half.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
Yes, okay, so we could we could see exactly what
they were doing. It was no longer a secret by
the time you got to the second. By the way
I think the Giants anticipated there is a reason They
barely blitzed in this game. Oh no, day. They knew
the ball was gonna come out, and Shanahan teams eat
up the blitz.

Speaker 3 (16:17):
Here's my point. What really disappointed me more is that
you know, when that's gonna happen, one of the things
you try to do, and the Giants were unable to
do it. I'm not saying they didn't try, but they
certainly didn't get it done. Get your hands up in
the passing.

Speaker 1 (16:34):
No, that's a great point. It's a great point, Paul.
You know, I didn't even think about that. You have
to understand that, all right, they're gonna make it really,
really hard for us to get there. So what do
you do.

Speaker 3 (16:45):
You peel back a tad maybe on the rush, and
you worry about just getting in the guys windshield. Get
those hands up, make sure you stand up the offensive lineman.
Do everything you can to clog up the potential throws
that he's gonna make, because he's just looking to do
that little quick short start.

Speaker 1 (17:02):
Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom. You got to
create traffic in front of him.

Speaker 3 (17:08):
I don't know if the Giants tried to or not.
I certainly didn't see them effectively do it.

Speaker 1 (17:13):
No, I agree with that. So that's why I saw
in the passing game. And look, I think this is
what what I status art for the game. This is
Max Junes's highest passing rating of his career. I think
I saw one point two probably it was it was
it was something like that, hard to do better, if
not the highest one of the highest. He was twenty
nineteen to twenty four for two thirty five pair of
touchdowns and and the thay it disappointing, Paul. If you

(17:36):
the ball's gonna come out that quick, you would think
you're gonna limit the number of explosive plays that the
other team gets. Yeah, and that to me is and look,
I know the secondary is banged up. And by the way,
they did play a bunch of different coverages. They tried
Cover three. They tried man, they absolutely do. I can
give you guys the breakdown if you wanted. I went
down and I went through PFF and they gave the

(17:57):
the coverage breakdown for the Giants defense. Cover three was
the primary coverage forty four percent, eighteen percent quarters eighteen percent,
cover one three percent, Cover two, four percent, Cover six.
So they ran a bunch of different coverages in this game.
They tried they it just wasn't very effective. The thirty
nine yard pass to McCaffrey on the little swing route
when Corey Black is in cover three and he gets

(18:18):
his eyes inside when he is outside responsibility. Thirty nine
yard game. You had the pass to Kendrick Bourne. I
think that was one of those little quick slants over
the middle or a little dig routes where there again
they were in cover three and Dante Bank's game a
little bit too much space. He got in front of
the safety. Sky Moore had the twenty one yard catch
on Corey Black. You would the Juwan Jennings slant for
twenty yards. You know, it was a bunch of stuff

(18:38):
going towards the middle of the field. And again we're
gonna get to the run defense. Now. They did a
great job with play action where the Giants linebackers had
to be nosy around the line of scrimmage and that
opened up the middle of the field on all those
slants and crossers, a thing towards the middle that allowed
those passes to be completed. Because again the Niners ran
the ball effectively in this game. Paul Heading into the

(18:59):
game and we talked about it. McCaffrey had just under
five hundred rushing yards, but much like Saquon Barkley last week,
was around three and a half yards per carry, and
they weren't an efficient running attack. Well, that quickly changed
this week. That became exactly the opposite of what the
Giants couldn't do correct And in the first half they
ran to the edges a lot. They had forty five
rushing yards to the edges in the first half. Then

(19:21):
the Giants kind of that got that cleaned up, and
then I was like, all, oh, we'll just rum up
the middle of it. And on their last two drives,
I think they only completed two passes on their last
two drives of the game, and they ran the ball
over ten times on those two drives, and then I'm
getting two touchdowns out of it. So the Giants once
again could not stop the run. Offensive linemen were getting
to the second level again and they were getting hands

(19:42):
on linebackers, so they couldn't get there in time. And Paul,
and this has been a running story for three years
now with the rush defense, going back to Wing Martindale's
final year here. It just has it's just not good enough.
It has to be better.

Speaker 3 (19:56):
Yeah, John, I don't have a whole lot of answers
on this one. I certainly expected it to be better.
We do know that Mike McFadden's injury was a big deal. Remember,
and by the way, that Foles in there a lot
of the time he has Lewis aw got hard and
left the game as well.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
And Fouls is a really good athlete. We actually saw
cover Christian McCaffrey on to play pretty well. Whipper did,
but he's a smaller guy and the stuff around the
line of scrimmage, it's a work in progress.

Speaker 3 (20:21):
Well, he's more of a nickel linebacker and a special
teams player, right, That's truly what his his NFL resume states.
And so he was forced into doing more than yeoman's
duty yesterday, and it was certainly something that was a
challenge for him. I will say this, John, I felt
bad for Corey Black because he got here a couple

(20:43):
of days shortly before the Philadelphia game, right, and he
gets thirty defensive And this is why I'm not killing
Corey Black.

Speaker 1 (20:51):
No, no, no, no, it is not. He's a good guy.
Did you guys just talk to him last night. I
did not have much of a chance to talk to him.
Really good guy, really really good because sixth round pick
that two, I mean, come on, yeah.

Speaker 3 (21:03):
And and I talked to him about the Philadelphia game
that the couple of days earlier, and he was really
happy and grateful to be back. Never wanted to leave,
was happy to get a chance, was was overwhelmed, obviously
at the thirty snaps he played in Philly. He understood, Yes,
I mean it is what it is. I mean, there's
there's there's no getting around it. He was in the

(21:23):
deep end of the pool.

Speaker 1 (21:24):
I will say he never wanted to leave. He did
choose to join the Jets practice squad and instead of
the Giants practice squad, So clearly he chose to leave.
He could have stayed here if he wanted to. Ine
devised him a little bit. Nevertheless, yes, okay, he could have.
My point is that he could have stayed if he
really wanted. Okay, I got you, I got you.

Speaker 3 (21:40):
In any case, So the play yesterday, Jennings does an
in and out stutter step move on him, and Black
just trips over his own feet.

Speaker 1 (21:49):
He put him in a blunder. That's it.

Speaker 3 (21:52):
He trips over his own feet. This is a veteran
receiver against a kid who's you know, making his second
NFL defensive appear parrance and he trips over his own
feet on the little stutter step in and out move
and there's nobody there because that's his guy.

Speaker 1 (22:07):
It's a one on one situation.

Speaker 3 (22:09):
And that's where we talk about sometimes how your one
on one matchups you have to win them. Now, in
this case, because of the injury situation with the Giants,
the forty nine ers knew that if they could get
a one on one matchup with one of their vets
like that against a Corey Black, chances are the Niners
were going to win the matchup.

Speaker 1 (22:29):
And they did that.

Speaker 3 (22:31):
That's good coaching. And by the way, for the Giants,
it's not like that's bad coaching.

Speaker 1 (22:36):
You don't have another choice. You gotta play the guy
you got right. Well, how many times did the Niners
throw at Drew Phillips in this game? I think it
was only once. Maybe they were throwing at the two
outside corners because wasn't there. The knew so Na Deva
wasn't there, And I'll cool, I'll close it with this
with the defense, the Niners wanted to win this game
offensively in a specific way. Yes, the Giants never forced

(23:00):
them to get out of their comfort zone and play
football a different way. They were able to be successful
on early downs, get into third and reasonable, and they
were able to do that all game long. And the
Giants defense never made enough plays except for Brian Burns,
who once again he broke up a third down, which,

(23:22):
by the way, Christian McCaffrey would have been I don't
know if he'd been off to the races, but there
was a lot of room on that pass to the
right sideline that he batted down. And then he forced
the only take away the game with or had the
only well I guess forced the tad he did. He
hit the quarterback and Abdul Carter ended up getting the
bumble recovery on the play right and Burns had his
eleventh sack of the year. But other than that, nobody

(23:44):
else made a big play in this game. To put
the I mean, I think they had one run that
one for two runs that went for negative Yorns in
this game. They were never behind the sticks. They were
able to control this game offensively and play it exactly
the way they wanted to play. John.

Speaker 3 (23:59):
We talk all the time, and I love to use
that whole Parcels phrase about pathwayte to victory. The Niners
understood exactly what their highway to victory was, and Kyle
Shanahan and his staff, to their credit, they were able
to say, Okay, here it is, Fellas.

Speaker 1 (24:16):
It's really clean.

Speaker 3 (24:17):
This is exactly what has to be done. Do you
want to control the narrative of this game? Do you
want to control the game flow? Do you want to
be in basically dictate exactly how this game is going
to turn out. This is what you need to do.
And we know where the giants are weak, we know
where the giants are shorthanded. It's pretty simple. And I

(24:38):
always say it's not hard. Parcels used to say the
same thing. It's not that hard to diagram the pathways
to victory. The hardest part is to get the guys
that you have available, especially if you're banged up or
if you have backups playing for whatever reason, to get
them to do what it is that needs to be done.

(24:58):
Finding the recipe is the east.

Speaker 1 (25:01):
It's getting the guys to dud the recipe that becomes difficult.
And here's the disheartening part of it to me. I
think the Giants knew exactly where that highway was, Yes,
where they're gonna try to get on the highway, sure
they did. How fast they're gonna drive on the highway?
What exsit they're gonna get off the highway? The Giants knew,

(25:21):
but again partly because of the injuries. But again the
front seven stopped in the run. That's not an and
look the one linebacker. Sure you can't let one injury
just completely just destroy your whole run defense. Amazing how
this works. And they were not good enough even though
they knew what the Niners were gonna try to do,
they didn't do anything that I gained the forty nine

(25:41):
ers that I haven't seen Kyle Shanahan do a bajillion
times right watching the Niners play football. They were outplayed.
They were not able to be better than the forty
nine ers on the field, and that that was disheartening
to me.

Speaker 3 (25:54):
And that's why would you hear coaches, coach and players
play well. Not only did the Giants not become stout
physically against the run, because we saw the different things
they tried to do when we.

Speaker 1 (26:06):
All knew what was going to happen.

Speaker 3 (26:08):
While on the other side of the field too, we
also knew some of the things that the Giants had
to do, and it all started with getting a balanced
attack with the running game, which the offensive line did
not do enough upfront to let them do it.

Speaker 1 (26:22):
Look the case Clube, Robert Salad did nothing that no
surprised us. They ran a lot of own He did
a lot of simple stuff and a lot of straight
for man rushing. He didn't blitz anyone. No, he ran
a lot of stunts. They do that. It's exactly what
we talked about they were gonna do during the game. Guys,
win your matchup and when you just go out and
when when you play two set and when you play
too high safeties like they did. From Look, the Niners

(26:43):
started basically every one of their plays in two ice
safety and they would kind of convert that into cover
three and one safety deep sometimes. My point being they
never had extra guys in the box. No, no trying
to say the team's gonna put an umbrelllo over you
and play soft coverage. You have to be able to
run the football consistently.

Speaker 3 (27:00):
And then maybe then maybe if they do start to
cheat up a little bit. Now you might be able
to hit a big player or two downfield, but the
Giants just never got that established. Even though they scored
on the opening drive and went on sixty five yards
was it sixty nine? Sixty nine sixty nine yards on
the opening drive, which was marvelous, But then from that

(27:20):
point forward, they didn't do enough upfront to own the
line of scrimmage to allow the mixture of plays that
they needed to use to get San Francisco out of
their game plan.

Speaker 1 (27:35):
Two one nine, three nine four five one three. Check
out the Giants Little podcast. The wrapperd reaction from last
night's game is up there already. I think it's Madelin
and O'Hara that were up there was with Shaan doing
TV post game yesterday. He was right, so be Madeline
Sean O'Hara up there talking about what happened in that game.
Check it out. It's on your favorite podcast platform. Go
to your favorite podcasts feed and subscribe, and if you're

(27:56):
on Apple Podcasts or any of these other podcast platforms,
leave a positive roof you. If you review for us
or follow the podcast, subscribe, that will really help us out.
All right, let's go to the phone I'm gonna stay
on line two here, Johnny Macklein. Go Jane Phoenix. First, Jay,
what's going on?

Speaker 4 (28:11):
Hey, guys, Just like You've been listening to you guys
since the beginning of the show and just disappointed. I
haven't called in for a couple of weeks because I've
just been so frustrated with what I've seen. But you know,
as I look at this, one of the things I'm
really excited about is that we've got Jackson Dart. I
feel like we've got our franchise quarterback, and I feel

(28:32):
like the offensive line is playing better, and between those
two or not, I don't feel like we're losing games
because of them. I know that there's been some bad plays,
saying games, some bad turnovers, all that stuff, but the regime,
the regime has had four years to build a roster
and prepare it for their quarterback and to build and

(28:55):
create depth, and they have not done that. You know,
we've got coaches. Well, first of all, they brought in
players who can't execute what the coaches want. The coaches
can't get them to execute, and then we can't hold
them accountable for their lack of execution. Now, some players
obviously we're not. You know, some guys are not playing
more and so and so forth, But Deontay Banks is

(29:15):
an embarrassment to the history of the Giants defense. And
I've personally just gotten to the point where I can't.
I can't, I can't, I can't support what's going on
with what the current regime is doing. This team has
been has lost ten has had ten losing seasons out
of the last twelve. These guys have not figured out

(29:38):
how to solve that problem and fix it. And I
don't know what they're going to do if they're going
to hold people accountable from a coach and GM perspective
before the year's over, if they do. We do have
coaches on the staff today who have been offense. We've
got Tim Kelly, who's been an offensive coordinator four times
in this league, four seasons. We've got Marcus Mark who's

(30:00):
been a Falcons defensive coordinator twice, and Andre Patterson has
had some experience a defensive coordinator throughout his career as well.
It just enough is enough. I mean, I hear that
yesterday that there was more than a round forty to
fifty percent of the fans that at MetLife were forty
nine er fans like it's all on point. It's just

(30:21):
it's just embarrassing. And as a longtime Giant fan, this
is not what we are, what this franchise is supposed
to be, and it's got to stop. So that's all
I got. I got no questions.

Speaker 1 (30:34):
Now, thank you.

Speaker 4 (30:35):
He's hoping that somebody, somebody here is that we're tired,
We're done now.

Speaker 1 (30:39):
I appreciate the call, Jack, Thank you. Look, I get
the frustration. I understand it's been a been a long
time where the team has struggled. I get it. You
know this this group so many or four years. I
understand that too. I understand where you're coming from. I mean, look,
they've given up over thirty points three weeks in a row. Uh,

(31:01):
They've been down three scores in the fourth quarter of
the last two games. They got the twenty and twenty
four points, Paul, But a lot of that, again is
end of the game garbage time stuff, where they were
in the teams for the serious part of those two games.
So look, it hasn't And Brian Dables is gonna come
on and do his press commons sated. What time is
he going on? One thirty alright, so we can try
to track what he says at the end of that

(31:22):
for the fans out there, and he said it after
the game last night. It's not good enough. It has
to be better. It has to be better, you know.

Speaker 3 (31:28):
I think the hardest part about it is, you know,
you go in with your starters, your frontline players, and
you're kind of scuffling through the beginning of the season,
and the only three start really kind of put them
behind the eight ball because now when you were already
three feet below sea level, now you don't have any

(31:49):
wiggle room. So now some of the injuries start to
pile up. And if you'd only had one or two
wins that you had given away, you.

Speaker 1 (31:58):
Might've had a little wiggle room.

Speaker 3 (32:00):
Imagine John, if they had not given away the Dallas game,
or the five turnovers in the New Orleans game, or
obviously I don't even want to discuss the Broncos game,
but let's just say for argument's sake, you got two
of those three that you were able to lock down
and not give away. How much different are things right

(32:21):
now if the Giants are four and five instead of
two and seven. And I'm not trying to be funny.

Speaker 1 (32:27):
But I'm really not. But they didn't. That's no album.
They didn't. But this is why I always tell people,
and you know, my Dad's been telling me for years.
I don't know why you scoreboard watch from the first
week of the season, and I don't know why.

Speaker 3 (32:43):
You know, if you lose a tough one early in
the year, you get as upset as you do if
you lose one in December. And I say, dad, because
the way it works in this league, with the way
tiebreakers are, every game can come back and bite you
in the butt.

Speaker 1 (32:59):
Every game can. It's the same, and it sure does.
And when you give away a game, I don't care
what month it's in, when you give away a game,
because of the quickset of mediocrity that is the NFL,
when you give away games, they will come back and
haunt you. There's no way to escape at John. They're
like the grim Reaper coming from behind in the shadows.

Speaker 3 (33:22):
They will sting you. And in this case, look at
how badly those giveaway games have stung the Giants. They
could easily be four and five.

Speaker 1 (33:31):
And that's just being very very kind. I could even
say they could be five and four. Oh no, I mean,
you can win every close I'll go four and five.
I'll go four and five. They could be they yes,
And that's the problem. Here's the problem, give away games.
They're not good enough to be four and five. Well,

(33:52):
because it wasn't. It wasn't fluke plays that led the
five turnovers against the Saints. It was a Giants making mistakes. Yeah, yeah,
it wasn't. It was their defense being unable to stop
Dallas and Denver. At the end of those two games.
I didn't say, lady, luck took them. I said gave
them away. One hundred percent. You gave them away. You're
a hundred percent right. I didn't mean to imply that
you said otherwise. But okay, I'm gonna give you. I'm

(34:15):
gonna ask you a basic question here. I don't know
if you've looked at this, and the only I love
to use advancedtats. I'm gonna give you the simplest stat
of all time on defense. What do you think the
Giants rank right now in terms of points allowed per
game on defense? Ah, they're in the bottom six. I think,
uh yeah they are. They are fifth worst. Yeah. The
only teams worse than them are two teams that historically

(34:35):
have two of the worst defenses we've ever seen in
the Bengals and the Dallas Cowboys. The Tennessee Titans, who
have only won one football game this year and already
fired their coach. And then the Chicago Bears, who the
Giants happened to play next week. I know, so that
and who just gave up forty two points to that
since I think it was the final in that game,

(34:55):
So forty two points to the Bengals last week. So
I mean, it's hard hard to win games when you're
giving up the fifth most point in the National fow.
Oh there is, there is no doubt. And again and
he's right by the way the calls right the off
The offensive line has been pretty good. It was pretty
good again this week. Wasn't an offensive line at least
in the past protection wise, Yeah, I needed to see
what'll push in the run game. Fine, then that's fair,

(35:17):
no argument for me. I think that's fair. And look,
Jackson darts shown a lot of flashes where you think,
if he continues to develop, he can be your guy.
He's not there yet, but he's shown enough where you think,
if he can use to develop, he can be that guy.
On the rookie curve. He's doing real well on the
rookie curve. He's doing well. I think that's very I
have no no argument with that statement at all. Two

(35:40):
one nine, three nine four five one thro let's got
a David on North Carolina Johnny Mack. David, what's going on?

Speaker 5 (35:47):
Hey, gentlemen? Oh boys? The uh the last caller, They're
just kind of kind of hit a lot of the
pain points.

Speaker 3 (35:59):
You know.

Speaker 5 (36:00):
I think about a lot of time our dear friend
Lynn and Maryland that called in earlier this year, and
I think Lynn knew that the roster still just wasn't
good enough, and that's fine. I wasn't expecting, you know,
necessarily playoffs, even if the Wilson experiment worked out great.

(36:21):
But you know, I think we all wanted to see
a Giants football team that in today's NFL with all
the parody, with all the injuries that happened week to week.
I mean, there just seems like there's seventy key injuries
with every team week to week that there's no reason
to not be competitive, a competitive football team for four
quarters and then and that's where of these games are decided,

(36:44):
and usually it's by a very high end or elite
quarterback gets the chance to get the ball in their hands.
And with these kickers that kick them from fifty and
sixty yards, hey, he's got one of these guys get
the ball in their hands. Games close on the fourth quarter.
That that's the different And yet there's a million other
things that happened, drop passes, terrible plays, YadA, YadA, YadA,

(37:06):
But that's what these games come down to, and for
too many years the Giants haven't been able to even
come close to that. And you know, this year, the
sure of the Broncos was the heartbreaker. The Cowboys was
a heartbreaker, but you know, there was some signs that
there was finally enough talent on this team to where
we were starting to get in that mix where you

(37:27):
know that gim it's a game in the fourth quarter.
And that's what I was hoping for coming into this
year as a fan. But as you know, sure, yes
there was injuries yesterday, but as you guys pointed out,
that was an injured football team on the other side
of the field yesterday. And the NFL is out of

(37:48):
all the sports leagues we all know it no disrespect
to the other sports. Coaching matters more in this league
than any other league. And yesterday, in my humble opinion,
you sought two excellent coaches get the most out of
a be Up football team. In the forty nine Ers,
Robert saw is an excellent defensive coordinator. Kyle Shanahan. I mean,

(38:10):
the guy his offense speaks for himself. It doesn't matter
who the quarterback is, it doesn't matter who the running
back is in that Shanahan's zone running system. The guy
knows how to call plays. He knows how to prepare
a team to win. I'm telling you right now, this
is nothing personal. It's no disrespect. I hate calling for

(38:31):
people's professional positions. Mister John Marra, please, I beg you
do not let the Jackson Dark draft pick influence your
position on keeping this regime. We're all tired of change,
We're all tired of the mery go round. As the

(38:51):
last caller said, it's an undisciplined team, John Paul. They
kicked themselves in the foot every aim, with penalty after penalty.
And it's not just this year, it's every year. Brian
dave All has been there, and you see it in
the camps, how they run camp. I mean it's club Ned.

Speaker 1 (39:10):
I don't know about that that one.

Speaker 5 (39:14):
Years do we have to watch Darius Slaton, who's a
tremendous gentleman, I mean tremendous gentleman, drop footballs for this
team and be the number two wide receiver. He has
terrible hands, he's a body catcher, and yet year after
year he's our best option because he's the last man standing.
This team has had plenty of chances to draft difference makers,

(39:36):
premium picks, premium premium picks.

Speaker 6 (39:39):
I mean, don't I.

Speaker 5 (39:43):
Know, I know we're all tired of change, mister Merrick,
Please do not let that influence your decision than another
coach coach this great kid and can do a better job.
Thank you, no, thank.

Speaker 1 (39:53):
You, appreciate the call. Let's go to Jason and New Haven.
He's up next, Jason. What's going on?

Speaker 4 (39:58):
Hey, John, Paul?

Speaker 6 (39:59):
You got doing?

Speaker 1 (40:00):
That's going on? Good?

Speaker 7 (40:02):
Good?

Speaker 6 (40:03):
Yeah? I was at the game yesterday. It was my
first game going to for the season. I usually go
to one that one a year, and uh yeah, I mean,
you know, I hate to even for you guys to here,
have to even hear the fans and the complains. I'm
sure it's tough on you guys, But you guys do
a good job of laying people you know they're frustration,

(40:23):
So I know, I definitely appreciate you guys.

Speaker 1 (40:25):
Sadly, David, we I mean sadly, Jason. We have gotten
used to it over the last a few years. So
that's why we're here. We are here for the fans.
You guys call in talk about the game however you
want to talk about it. Trust me, everyone in the
building understands that the fan base is frustrated, and frankly rightfully,
so we get it. It's okay.

Speaker 6 (40:45):
Yeah, So you know, I'm going to sound like a
broken record. The first two gentlemen did an awesome job
kind of described. And I was at the game yesterday,
and you know, just you know, I'm always usually them.
I try to be domstic fan because I know the
game of football. It's hard to play it in college
it's hard, and I can imagine on NFL pro level

(41:06):
it's very hard to get wins. I mean it's very hard.
These are the top of the line athletes, top of
the line players, coaching and coaching staffs and all that.
But man, after yesterday, you know, like the last gentleman said,
I'm not one to call for people's jobs, you know,
and that's not what I'm here to do today. But man,
you can see the difference in the coaching in my

(41:29):
opinion yesterday, and for whatever reason, it seems like whatever
is happening during the week, I'm not there, fellas. You
guys have a little more access than the regular fan,
of course, but it just seems like whatever's going on
during the weeks just not resonating on Sundays. Yeah, we
have some players that are playing well, dark the offensive line,

(41:50):
you know, those guys are playing well. Burns is having
I mean, if we were even a winning team, he's
running away defensive player of the year. He's having a
tremendous year as a giant there over there, you know,
probably the best I've seen in the last few years.
So we have some guys, but man, I mean, I
want to give coaches a benefit of doubt. But after yesterday, man,

(42:12):
it's just it's just hard to anymore because we could
blame whoever we want to play in banks Bow with
the penalties, THEO with another big drum yesterday, which I'm
so overt THEO. But man, I mean, who can we
blame anymore. I mean, if there's anything right the defense yesterday,

(42:36):
just watching it live, they just look so uninspired, so lethargic.
And yes, as a professional athlete, you need to have pride,
you know, in your play because it's your resume. You're
a play on the field of your resume. But they're lestargic.
It just didn't seem like they were in it yesterday
for whatever reason. And if anything that a coach is responsible,

(42:58):
in my opinion, Fellas's attitude, fundamentals and discipline of a team.
That's my opinion. Those are the three things a coach
is responsible for outside of developing a quarterback and you
know all that kind of thing. And it just it
just I just I'm at a lost of words, man,
Like yesterday, just watching half of that that met life

(43:19):
be nigh us fans was just it's it's just rough, man.
I don't know where we go from here. The season's
not over. I get it, Fellas, but man, the coaching
needs to step up. I know players play the game,
but coach, Like the last gentleman say, coaching is a
big part of any pro sport, Like the last gentleman said,
definitely football. So you know, like I said, I'm not

(43:41):
calling for anybody's jobs. I'm not. I'm not going to
do that because that's not my place. But the record
over the last few years with this regime, my gentlemen said,
just hasn't hasn't been up to snuff. And unless something
drastic happens, like we win the rest of our games,
you know that decision will be made on it own.
And like I said, I thank you guys for dealing

(44:02):
with the fans and our frustration, but you know this
has to turn around and dart. Thank god we have
dark because if we didn't, man, this season would have
been really, really rough to watch. So thank you to
keep doing keep doing a good job, and I'll take
it off.

Speaker 1 (44:17):
There appreciating my friend.

Speaker 3 (44:20):
You know, the only response I have for you, Jason,
to be fair, Kyle Shanahan is one of the top
shelf elite coaches in this league.

Speaker 1 (44:30):
Oh he's a top three offensive coach and most weekends,
most weekends, they're going to have an edge in staff
just by look at the guy's resume.

Speaker 3 (44:42):
Was he had four double digit win seasons in the.

Speaker 1 (44:44):
Last six I have to look, I don't know that
I think that's what it is so, and he is
recognized universally respected around the league and recognized as one
of the top shelf, elite guys like Sean Payton is,
like mcveigh's, like Andy Reid is Kevin O'Connell.

Speaker 3 (45:00):
Right, there's a handful of them. Those guys are top shelf.
And so, as we described earlier in the show, you
had to figure he was going to come in with
a very very high percentage game plan. They executed it.
And that's what happens. When you execute a high percentage
game plan, John, you usually win.

Speaker 1 (45:21):
Yeah, all right, fans, Look, I understand the frustration. We're
here for you at the vent. Let's go to Corey
and Arizona. He's up next, high Corey.

Speaker 7 (45:31):
Hey, how are you guys there?

Speaker 1 (45:33):
We're good.

Speaker 7 (45:34):
Well. Last week when I called, I was sold Darius
Laton is consistent by you, John, And I just wanted
to say, if you meant consistently been a practice squad
caliber bumus whole lousy career, you were correct that dude
cannot catch his beach ball from a foot in a
half away.

Speaker 1 (45:49):
Corey. The point I made if you go to his
Pro Football Reference page, look at his number of receptions
and receiving yards over the course of his career year
to year. He has been very consistent in that regard
in terms of production when he's been healthy for the
majority of his career or his hands inconsistent. Absolutely, I
would not argue that poll will not argue that he's

(46:10):
head drops throughout his career with the Giants. That I
will not argue with you. But his production has been
fairly consistent over the course of his Giants career. That
was the point I was making.

Speaker 3 (46:19):
Man, you could usually count on it will be about
fifteen yards to catch by the end of the season two.
I mean, that's just a fact.

Speaker 7 (46:28):
We still need a number two receiver, like a real one.

Speaker 3 (46:30):
No one's they think they can upgrade.

Speaker 1 (46:33):
By the way, Corey, I think in the off season
when we had this conversation and I said, if there
was one thing, I think we had a show. Actually
we did a show, and I think the show is
if you could add one thing to this team, what
would you add? I think I said, number two wide receiver.
I think that was my answer, So I don't disagree
with that.

Speaker 7 (46:51):
The other thing the other day, when you were on
the air with Sean O'Hara, you said that the fans
always want to blame the head coach. As far as
I can remember, we didn't have many double or multi
score leads with Pat Shermer and Joe Judges tenor because
a person that was awful. This head coach has found
a way to make this team lose multiple games where

(47:12):
we had multiple score leads and historically awful fashion. He's
fifteen and thirty nine and one since being carried by
a six and one start against a Cupcakes schedule in
twenty twenty two five and sixteen and one against the division.
I really hate, like the other previous callers said, I
hate calling for coaches jobs. I've never hated a head

(47:33):
coach until Dable, except maybe McAdoo when he benched Eli Regino.
This guy just isn't it. You're undisciplined, they find ways
to lose. They have talent across the board. There's no
reason it has to be this bad.

Speaker 1 (47:49):
Di Cory appreciate the call man, and my point is
that in all sports, by the way, not just in football,
when things go poorly, everyone goes after the head coach.
Tom Thibodau got fired last year after bringing next to
the Eastern Conference Finals. Aaron Boone has gotten the Yankees
of the playoffs countless times. Fans won a fire him
after every year. And again, that doesn't always mean that

(48:11):
people are wrong. Sometimes it is the head coach's fault.
I understand that I'm not saying that, but I'm speaking
generally as sports fans, when things go bad, the easy
thing is to try to change the coach across the sports.
That's the only point I was trying to make.

Speaker 3 (48:24):
Or the quarterback, or the point guard or the goaltender,
whoever the best player is there, you go.

Speaker 1 (48:31):
That's kind of usually how it goes.

Speaker 3 (48:33):
And as we all know, the coach is one person
and the roster is so many people, and with salary caps,
you can't change out the whole roster. Yeah, correct, I
mean I get it. It's it makes it always makes
logical sense to go after one instead of many.

Speaker 1 (48:48):
It's the easy lever to pull. Right. Oh boy, all right,
let's go to Demayer in North Carolina. Demare, what's going on?

Speaker 8 (48:57):
Hey, how you guys doing that?

Speaker 1 (48:58):
We're doing okay? Demare? How are you.

Speaker 8 (49:02):
Disappointed? Yeah? I've been in Giants Stand all my life,
and you know, I'm not that old. I'm only twenty six,
but I remember what the Giants used to look like
in my youth, and I remember what a competent defense
looked like. And I have to say, this is probably
the most disappointing defense I've ever seen in my life.
And it's not to say that the Giants don't have

(49:24):
talent on this roster, because they do, especially on the
defensive side of the ball. But Shane Bowen has absolutely
I feel like, has absolutely no idea how to use
that talent on his defense. Dexalloiance I feel like, is
being unutilized. He's not playing no tackle as much as
he used to, even though last year Shane Bolin let
him play that position and he had nine sacks in
about seven games, and then he turns around and completely

(49:48):
pushes him away from that position. I understand that Dexter
is a big part of why Dan Burns is having success.
He takes a lot of double teams, but there is
still opportunity for them to utilize him best, and I
feel as though Shane Bowen has no idea how to
figure out how to do that.

Speaker 1 (50:03):
De Mayor, I will be honest with you. You can
argue that this defense is underachieved, and that's fair. I
don't disagree with that overall statement. I think it's a
fair point. I don't think Dexter Lawrence's lack of production
and I watch the tap every week has anything to
do with where he's lined up on the defensive line.
If anything, it's easier to get double teamed when you're

(50:26):
lined up at nose tackle. It's not harder, it's easier.
So I honestly, I'll be honest with you. I looked
this up. I did this last week, Demare. I looked
at Dexter Lawrence's win rates and pressure rates based on
where he was lined up. Did you know his win
rate and pressure rate is better when he's at the
three technique than when he's a nose tackle.

Speaker 8 (50:48):
I mean, and that's good though, But I just think
though we've seen the more dominant Dexter Lawrence playing those techs, No, but.

Speaker 1 (50:54):
I get it. No though, I agree with you. But
this year but no, but, Demir, this year, he has
not been more dominant when he's been at nose tackle
than when he's been elsewhere. I looked it up. I
sorted PFS's ability to sort by snaps based on what
gap the defender lines up in on a player. Is
it at the zero, is it at the one? Is

(51:15):
it at the two? So I did zero and one technique.
I put that into one bucket. I put two and
out in another bucket. He had a higher win rate
and a higher pressure rate when he was two and
out rather than at zero one.

Speaker 3 (51:28):
If I may, if I may, and I'm not going
to look at Dexter Lawrence as an individual here, I'm
just going to talk about the spider web that is
the National Football League. Every single unit, whether it's offense,
defense or special teams, is a spider web. To just
start isolating one player is like isolating one thread in

(51:51):
that spider web. It doesn't make sense because.

Speaker 1 (51:55):
One player.

Speaker 3 (51:57):
Is impacted by all of the other that hook up
to that strand in the spider web. When you look
at the Giants, I ask you very kindly, if you
said to me at the beginning of the season, this
was going to be a top ten defense, not only
would I have agreed with you, I would have said
they had a chance to be a top five. I

(52:18):
preached that from the top of the Empire State Building
because I thought about.

Speaker 1 (52:22):
The talent and you agreed. I didn't disagree.

Speaker 3 (52:24):
Okay, most people did. What do you have on this
defense this year? And we could sit here for the
next week and a half and not even leave the
room and talk about all the problems and all the
mistakes that have been made. But the bottom line is this,
A number of the players on this defense have not

(52:47):
played to their max potential. Outside of Brian Burns, I'm
not sure that anyone on this defense has maxed out
to the backs of their football card.

Speaker 1 (52:58):
I think Burns is probably the one, right and you
would agree with that. Would you agree with that?

Speaker 8 (53:02):
Caller is probably.

Speaker 1 (53:05):
That's there? You're absolutely right. Now, that's there.

Speaker 3 (53:07):
Let me pull back and give you Cordell flot also,
and thank you for saying that. I appreciate that, because
you know what, Cordell has gotten better every year he's
been here.

Speaker 1 (53:17):
He deserves that recognition. I'll give you.

Speaker 3 (53:20):
That's it. Two guys who have played to the max
of the back of their football card on that entire
defensive unit.

Speaker 1 (53:28):
That that is not good enough, period, end of story.

Speaker 3 (53:33):
And that's a whole lot of reasons why that's not happening.
And to just single out any one player or one
person when you have so many people not playing up
to their level of production, it doesn't make sense now.
I I also understand that all of us want an

(53:54):
easy answer. We would love to point to one guy
or one coach or one play, one scheme and say, oh.

Speaker 1 (54:02):
That's the problem. There is so much going awry right
now on this defense. I just it's hard for me
to just sit here and allow somebody to just pick
on one player. I just can't do that. I'm sorry,
but I hope you understand where I'm coming from.

Speaker 8 (54:20):
No, I definitely do. But it is kind of frustrating
as a sad when you when I can look at
other teams where I can say they don't have more
talent than us, and I see them get more production
as they said players based off of just putting their
guys in better positions. Me personally, I might not have
the exact numbers on it, but it just feels like

(54:41):
I'm not seeing my players being put in their best
positions to win. And you might it could be just
the fact that these players just aren't as good as
we thought they would be, or it could be just
the fact, like maybe if they're just checked out at
this point, you know, they like they they're just tired
of losing. They've been losing for the last three years.
We started two and seven the last three years. It

(55:01):
could just be them checking out, but there for some reason,
I just feel like there's a bit of a softness
to this defense. I don't I don't see the aggressiveness
that Shane Bowen preached that you know, would be coming
with this defense. I don't see the like the relentlessness
that I think we all expected to be seeing out
of this even like I understand our front four is

(55:23):
one of the best in football, you know, I understand that,
but I would still like to see some type of
you know, a lot more blissing. I would like to see,
you know, a lot more stunts. Ran I like, I
don't like it's just me personally. I don't really like
the idea of just sitting back, like, yeah, we have
a great fun for let them go rush and then
you know, everybody else to play coverage. That just hasn't

(55:44):
been working for us, and especially with the secondary we
have right now, Like I'm not I don't want to
you know, trash on on on black or you know,
like I'm more upset with Deontay Banks still get me wrong.
I as full as though completely underwhelming player for a
first round pick. Complete disappointment. I don't know if it
was just the fact that he just doesn't fit in

(56:04):
the system, or he just hasn't developed the way we
want it. He just I don't know. He's just not
the same person from Maryland from what I saw in
the run game, him just completely bouncing off of people,
him completely missing, taking horrible angles. I don't know who
that Deyoncey Binks is, but that's not the guy I
saw coming out of Maryland, and that's not the guy
I saw in his rookie year.

Speaker 1 (56:25):
I'm not I agree with you, by the way, I
agree with you moreheartedly and thank you appreciate the call.
His play has gone backwards. It has. There's just no
other way to describe it. His play has belied all of.

Speaker 3 (56:37):
The potential that we saw coming out of school and
as a rookie.

Speaker 1 (56:42):
You're absolutely correct, all right. So I brought this up
going from the two technique out for Dexter Lawrence this
year a fifteen point eight percent win rate and eight
point nine percent pressure rate. He took two numbers in
your head, right, it's gonna take me a second to
bring the other ones up there even roughly an eight
right or to fifteen point eight. So I was like

(57:02):
more like sixteen right, sixteen and eight. So zero in one,
fourteen point eight win percentage and a six point nine
percent pressure rate at zero in one, okay, and right,
I can't go to two. I for nose tackle. That
that's that's not nose tackle. You're lined up on the
guard shoulder, You're not lined up on the center. It's not.
So he's been better as a pass rusher when he's

(57:24):
been lined up on the garden outside as compared to
the nose tackle. And look, I looked that up last
week because I see that argument on the internet. It
doesn't it doesn't play out. Like I tried to improve
the theory. I said, all, I'm gonna go in there.
I'm gonna try to prove this steer to see if
it's right, because watching the tape I never did think
it was right. It's not. This year he has not

(57:47):
been better as a nose tackle and a one technique
than he has been lined up over the guard or
lined up outside of the guard. It's just he just
hasn't been it's a fact, all right, it's easier to
get double team the nose tackle. His double team numbers
are still high, like we talked about last week, They're
not as high as they've been before, but it's still
very high. He get double team the lone. I thought,

(58:08):
he asked, you had a pretty good pass rushing game
this past week. He pushed the pocket a lot. But again,
now the ball's coming out so fast you're you're not
gonna be able to get there. It's just the way
it is. It's not his fault.

Speaker 3 (58:19):
This is an unfair question to ask you because you're
not the one responsible for the chart. Okay, but just
because you win your block or your snap or your
opponent at that line of scrimmage, doesn't mean you were
able to make the play.

Speaker 1 (58:36):
Oh no, no, look this is again a thousand correct.
So this is just that you beat the block. That's
what win That's what win rate is. That's what this status.
That's what this statu is. That's what win rate is.
Win rate is means you beat your block. Pressure rate
means you impact the quarterback on the pack. That's why
those are different. That is correct.

Speaker 3 (58:56):
So pressure in the quarterback does it mean you hit
the quarterback right, That is correct.

Speaker 1 (59:02):
So I get you he has This is again this
is PFF tracking. They have one quarterback hit at zero
and one technique Outside of that, he is two quarterback hits,
so three total on the care which again it's not enough.
Quarterback hits not enough. And again I think, and again
I think. I think his pass rush has been okay, Paul.

(59:25):
The bigger issue for me, and I'm waiting for this
to load here so I can give you the exact count.
How many tackles for losses and no gain do you
think Dexter Lawrence has in the run game this year?
Maybe two? He has two. That's not enough.

Speaker 3 (59:41):
So I could appreciate, just to kind of counterbalance the
numbers that you offered. I can appreciate the win rate
against the block. I can even appreciate the pressure rate
against the block. But you got to see some tackles
for losses. You got to see some quarterback. It's you
gotta see some sacks. Those three statistics, and again they're

(01:00:06):
only numbers, and it's all about the spider web.

Speaker 1 (01:00:09):
Let's make that clear. This is not all It's all
about the spider web.

Speaker 3 (01:00:14):
That is the front four but this is how numbers
sometimes don't match what you see or what you're digesting
or what the full complete picture is, because as they
always say about statistics, you can almost make them tell
any story that you want.

Speaker 1 (01:00:31):
Bless you. And I don't deny what what what his
ability is to still play good football, because he's played
good football. I don't think Dexte Lawrence has been terrible, No,
he's not, absolutely not.

Speaker 3 (01:00:46):
I think Extel Lawrence has played well. But when you
compare him to his high standard, it's those other categories
that I just talked about. There hasn't been as many
slash TFLs and sacks, the splash plays. He has been
a compiler of those numbers.

Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
Not this year.

Speaker 3 (01:01:04):
And that's where I think a lot of the disconnect
is when people are saying that, you know, he hasn't
played as well as you want him to, and I
understand that because the splash play numbers are not there.

Speaker 1 (01:01:20):
One four, five, one three. Let's go to Lennon, Columbia, Maryland.
He will wrap us up today, Hilandy.

Speaker 9 (01:01:28):
Hi, guys UG two and seven again? Wow, all right,
eight games to go. Let's see if we can try
and build a little momentum, Keep Dart healthy, watch his progression.
You know, the biggest position is that quarterback position. I
think we got one and so so we try to

(01:01:48):
move forward.

Speaker 4 (01:01:51):
A boy.

Speaker 9 (01:01:52):
A lot of red there yesterday. Let me remind everybody
that that was not a day of the game walk
up crowd. Those are people buying tickets in advance. The
stadium is virtually i'll guess ninety seven percent sold out.

(01:02:14):
There's a lot of Giants fans selling tickets, a lot
of Giants fans. That's not a that's not a good sign.
That's not a good sign. We're losing a whole generation
of fans here. It's not just yesterday, it's not just
this season. It goes back and back and back, and

(01:02:35):
everybody is frustrated the organization. Look, the organization is sideways.
There's there's problem stopped to bottom, corporate suite, to the
locker room. It's just sideways. We're gonna have to bounce

(01:02:57):
back from this. If I were going to pinpoint one
thing this morning, one thing that's kind of really bothering me,
and it's pretty simple. We simply have to get better players.
These other teams that remain near eight and eight nine
and eight playoffs consistently. They just seem to be able

(01:03:21):
to acquire players to carry them forward, even in the
short term two games, three games that they can put
in the game. We don't seem to be getting those
kinds of people. When you miss on your I'm not
telling you any think you don't know here, but when
you miss on those high picks, it forces you into
the free agent market and you overpay. Now, I'm not

(01:03:43):
going to be silly about this. Injuries are making a
difference this year. I mean no question, John, you pointed
it out with the you know, the back four there
and by.

Speaker 1 (01:03:51):
The way, when, oh, by the way, real quick, let's
just also not forget about league neighbors injury and offense too.

Speaker 9 (01:03:57):
And you can, but you've got to the acquisition. Let me,
let me, let me point to a couple of things.
Last year, in the sixth round, we drafted an inside
linebacker who made the roster and made the roster again
today it seems this year, but seems to have regressed
this year that massele Okay. Now, hopefully he manages to

(01:04:17):
turn that around. In the seventh round last year with
a two hundred and fifty second pick in the draft,
the forty nine ers drafted an inside linebacker. You know,
I think he had fifteen tackles yesterday. He may be
the Hall of Famers replacement and Fred Warner inside linebacker

(01:04:39):
in the sixth round. The forty nine ers, in the
next round, drafting after us, pick an inside linebacker in
the inside linebacker is starting to emerge as a player
only a second year this year. This year, with the
two hundred and forty fifth pick in the draft, we
draft Corey Black Right the two hundred and forty ninth

(01:05:02):
pick in the draft, the forty nine ers pick a
guy named Colby, who they was a right guard at
Iowa last year played right guard ninety percent of his
snaps at Iowa right guard, No problem, Just put him
at left guard because the draft before the forty nine
Ers had drafted in the third round they're starting right

(01:05:24):
guard for probably the next eight years. Puny okay, So
they answered Colby, And Colby is standing out and he
didn't play yesterday. I knew he was injured, which makes
the situation worse. They had two new offensive linemen second
week in a row, Dexter. Dexter's facing a backup center
on the opposing team, second week in a row, backup center. Well,

(01:05:46):
anyway back to Colby. Colby looks like he's going to
settle in. If I had thirty seconds with Joe, I'd
ask him, Joe, what were you thinking at two forty five?
We got two many too many offensive linemen? Did you
really think Neil was going to move in there? Did
you really think Kubas was ever going to be strong

(01:06:09):
enough to play Garland?

Speaker 1 (01:06:10):
In fairness, if Kolby's on this team, he's not playing
over running Van rowten. He's not. Oh, I think he
is absolutely not, absolutely not.

Speaker 6 (01:06:20):
Okay, all right, all right?

Speaker 3 (01:06:22):
Let me you do know they drafted Marcus Bow in
the fifth round, right, yeah? And you do like him
or do you not?

Speaker 9 (01:06:31):
I like the potential. I like the potential, you know,
good pitbull. I like the potential.

Speaker 10 (01:06:39):
Do you like Michael mcad who was a few years ago,
by the way, and starting inside line back. Let me
put it that way, right, Michael mcfathen okay, ground pick,
starting insideline backer until he got hurt, busted up his foot.

Speaker 1 (01:06:53):
What are you gonna do?

Speaker 9 (01:06:54):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:06:54):
Yeah, So they've they've been there have been some of
those here too.

Speaker 9 (01:06:58):
Just to let me go back to cold be for
a second, and it's just the minor point. The point
is we're not bringing guys in who can play when
other guy's get hurt. I mean, it's it's true. I
know there's been injuries. It's really an we just gotta
get better football play. We can keep talking about it.
We gotta play better. We gotta play better. People are regressing. Okay,

(01:07:23):
that's a whole different issue. That's that's that's a coaching issue.
I mean, why why does Miles Why is he regressing?
He got hurt yesterday. I know what I'm selling. I
will say this, Heades Banks regress. How does Newban regress?
Mois Why did these guys regrets?

Speaker 1 (01:07:37):
Mouis Au did not play well against Lilly last week,
but I thought he actually was okay in the first
half of this game against the forty nine ers until
he got hurt, and then I honestly I noticed on
tape there was a step down when he went off
the field. Now, I agree with you, the two weeks
before that there were some rough moments. I have no
argument with that. Zero argument. You're one thousand percent right.

(01:08:00):
I get what you're saying. He's a consistent player. That's
just what he is.

Speaker 9 (01:08:05):
Okay, I know you guys want to go a couple
of quick ones. Thank you for taking Michael. I think
that elbow is not right with Dexter. I just don't
think it's right. I just don't think it's right. I
think we're going to hear there with surgery after season
they're gonna.

Speaker 6 (01:08:19):
Do, sir.

Speaker 9 (01:08:20):
He's just it's it's not right. It's not right, and
I think it's affecting him. You know, completely on this.

Speaker 8 (01:08:28):
In some read.

Speaker 9 (01:08:28):
You know, let's see what we can do in the
second half. Keep Dart healthy. Uh, you know, you gotta
win some games. We got four home games left. Got
to win some home games. Hey, there's a there's a
basic rule in retail, in the retail business, never let
your best customers leave your store disappointed. It'll come back

(01:08:50):
to haunt your long term. We're seeing it, We're seeing it.
These these people are just they're going elsewhere, and you
know what, the kids are going elsewhere, And that's the future.
That's the future. All right, all right, I'm all over
that quisitions. We got to get better players in here. Hey,
thanks for taking my call.

Speaker 1 (01:09:10):
And look, you always have to draft better. That's always
a thing. You always have to draft better. It's the
foundation of your team. And look, just to be clear
about this, Paul said this before, I just want to
reassert this again because everything that happened last week with
the back and forth of Dexter Lawrence. Look at me,
I'm a metriss guy. You guys all know that, right.
Dexa Lawrence this year has nineteen pressures in two hundred

(01:09:32):
and seventy six passush opportunities. He's a fourteen percent win rate,
which is actually pretty good for an inside It's a
higher win rate than he had last year in terms
of beating blocks. All right, His pressure rates much lower
than was last year, which again plays because there's fewer
quarterback hits and stuff like that. So especially in the
pass rush game, he's not having as many quick, dominant

(01:09:54):
wins that of leading to sacks like they did last
year and quarterback yets. But he's still being impactful pushing
the pocket as a pass rusher now as a larger
piece of the run defense. Again, I think it's very
hard to Paul's point with the Spider Web of how
defense had run defense is working the NFL with anything
on one person. I'm not a great guy with that.
I don't you know me. I think everyone up front

(01:10:18):
is included in the issues with the run defense, and
he is in that buck with everybody else. That doesn't
no doubt. That doesn't mean he's not getting a lot
of attention. He's getting a lot of double teams. That
is all happening. He has four hands on him all
the time. We're not saying that, but when you look
at the defense as a unit, we're talking about this
as a team. He's part of that team concept. That's
all we're saying. We're not going after him. He's still

(01:10:39):
a good player. But again, you haven't gotten enough splash
plays from anyone on this defense. Spare Brian Burns. You
just haven't gotten it.

Speaker 3 (01:10:46):
That's a simple fact, Brian Burns. I'll be look, it
will be criminal for he is not He's got another
half a season to go, but if he's not all pro,
it would be very disappointed.

Speaker 1 (01:10:56):
He's playing great football. I mean, yes, I know the
voters will ever vote him in because the team's not
good enough, but he should be a defensive player of
your candidate, like there's no doubt.

Speaker 3 (01:11:06):
Oh, if the record was better he would be Yeah,
all right, Paul, that's it.

Speaker 4 (01:11:10):
John.

Speaker 1 (01:11:11):
Should I look up who's on tomorrow? I'll look up
who's on tomorrow. Let me say, who's on tomorrow? Does
come in the case of band aids, it should? It
should maybe some like maybe some cause anti anti biotica
cream to make sure the woonds don't get infected. Big
Bluekelf Live schedule. Here we go. In the meantime, folks,

(01:11:33):
make sure you check out Giants TV. It's our streaming app.
You can find that. All are popular smart TVs. You
can download all contents on there, as on the Giant
Small Blap as well your down a very Roku, Apple TV,
all those places. Make sure you check that out. Tomorrow
would be November fourth, So tomorrow will be Lance and
Sidetak coming away right here on Big Blue Kickoff Live
at twelve thirty. Then you have Broken O'Hara on Wednesday

(01:11:54):
as usual, me and Casie Us on Thursday, and then
the Tino and Sidetack on Friday. So our normal schedule
here on this first week of November. Hope everybody had
happy Halloween for Poul Tatino. I am John sh Milk.
Thanks for being with us. We'll be back with you
tomorrow for another big Live at twelve thirty, presented by Cadillac,
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(01:12:15):
that