Big Blue Kickoff Live 12/15 | Giants vs Commanders Review

Paul Dottino and Matt Citak review the Giants vs Commanders game, talk about different position groups on the roster, and take calls from fans. 

0:00 - Commanders review

20:30 - Calls

36:30 - Special teams

43:40 - Roster chat

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

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

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Nobody can ever tell you that you couldn't do it because.

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You're on Giants dot com.

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Do you know what I saw New York Giant.

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Crime and the Giants Mobile at.

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Seventeen thirteen the finals one tun down. We are world taffick.

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What they did well happen?

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Part of the Giants podcast network.

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Let's go on Hell Crazy Dogs hasn't fun?

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Hello again, everybody, and welcome to Monday's edition of Big
Blue Kickoff Live, presented by Cadillact, the official luxury vehicle
of the New York Football Giants. Paul Tatino, He's Matt Sidetech.
We'll be here for the next hour to talk New
York Giants football with you. Talk about the Commanders game yesterday,
as well as any other NFL news that you might
want to discuss. There were some big injuries yesterday that

(00:48):
caused headlines and ripples throughout the remainders of the NFL,
and so certainly we would open up the phones to
that as well. Our number is two A one nine
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nine four five one three. As always, we come to
you from the Giants Podcast Studio presented by Hackensack Meridian

(01:09):
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(01:30):
not watching us on giants dot com or the app,
you can watch us on YouTube because we also cybercast
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All right, Matt, we might as well get right to it.
We talked to Mike Kafka this morning in his media briefing.
He did say the Giants came through injury free as
far as he knew. He did have to have another

(01:51):
meeting with the medical staff shortly after the call, but
did not anticipate that there would be any lingering injury issues.
Maybe that's the best thing that came out of the game,
short of the fact that Abdul Carter absolutely had a
bust out game, the kind of game that all of
us believe he should be able to have on a
regular basis. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (02:11):
I mean I was gonna say the injury front news
is just about the only good news coming out of
yesterday's game. I mean, you're right, Abdul, you know, but
I believe it was Brian Burns after the game in
the locker room said it was Abdul's coming out party.

Speaker 3 (02:27):
But yeah, Abdul was great.

Speaker 6 (02:30):
But I mean, as just about anyone in the locker
room would tell you, a great performance like that doesn't
mean a whole lot if the team ends up losing
the game, which is obviously what happened. I mean, you
talk about.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
Needing to play complimentary football.

Speaker 6 (02:45):
And what we saw yesterday it was kind of just
whatever the opposite of that is. I mean, the Giants
were just outplayed on all three sides of the ball,
you know, on offense. In the first half, the Giants
just could not get anything gone, you know, as good
as the second half as Jackson Dart had, and he
did have a great second half. First half, the numbers

(03:07):
not that great, not good at all. On defense, I mean,
just more of the same issues that the Giants have
been had on the defensive side of the ball all season,
really struggling to stop the run. Marcus Mariota, you know,
only completed just over fifty percent of his passes, but
just for two hundred and eleven yards a touchdown, did enough,
didn't turn the ball over Mariota that is, but ja

(03:30):
Cory krossky Merritt averaging over five yards per carry. Again,
same issues the Giants have been dealing with on the
defensive side of.

Speaker 3 (03:37):
The ball all season.

Speaker 6 (03:38):
And then I don't really know what's going on with
the special teams because for a good chunk of the season,
the Giants special teams unit had been performing the best
we've seen it in years, and it just seems like
things have just completely fallen apart the last couple of games.
I mean, yes, they're the two missed field goals from Coup,
both of which were over fifty yards, but still an

(04:00):
NFL kicker, you you know, think there's a good chance
he's gonna hit at least one of them, if not both.
And then just the coverage the special teams coverage units. Again,
the Giants are top ten in punt return coverage and
kick return coverage for a significant portion of the season,
and the last couple of games it's just similar to all,

(04:22):
you know, kind of everything else it's just completely gotten
away from them. I mean, the punt return touchdown was
it was bad. It was bad, and it's it's hard
to highlight any any good from this game with how
much bad there was.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
Unfortunately, I don't know that I totally agree with you,
but on w here's what I will say. Oh, there
were plenty of good things in this game too. And
to be honest with you, the punt return is set
up by a line drive kick right down the middle
of the field by a punter who just got here
a couple of days ago. He kicks a fifty five

(04:57):
yarder out, kicks his coverage and he kicks a line
down the middle of the field, and that's what sets
up the return. That's the problem. That's the first mistake.
The second mistake is a your Barnes miss a tackle,
and then the third mistake is Johnston the punter also
missed as a tackle. Those were the two guys who
had a shot at the return guy. But it's all
set up by the line drive kick down the middle

(05:19):
of the field. We heard from coach Golbriel that it
was ball placement in New England on the punt. That
was the beginning of that problem on the return for
a touchdown against the Patriots. Now, yeah, that's bad, that's bad.
What did we see that was good?

Speaker 3 (05:41):
Well?

Speaker 2 (05:42):
I thought Tyrone Tracy had a heck of a game.
I thought he thought he ran the ball effectively, did
some good things. In the passing game. We saw another
couple of very bad, costly drops by Slayton, one for
a first down on a third down conversion and one
for a touchdown.

Speaker 3 (06:00):
Bad.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
But what did we see elsewherether it was good? Well,
Jackson Dart did respond well. He gave them an opportunity
to still be in the game. Absolutely he did. We
saw the defense come up with two takeaways, which is
very positive. I mean, just to be fair, there were

(06:23):
some positive things here, but clearly the big, the big,
the biggest positives are no injuries and Abdul Carter having
a sensational game. But Brian Burns, once again who we
talk about each and every week, you know, gets that
fumble recovery off the belt and forced fumble and gives
the Giant I mean, they get two takeaways late in

(06:43):
the game to give themselves a chance to get out
of a very deep poll that they had crawled into
because of the final sixty five seconds of the first half.
You see, here's what I've been complaining about for years
with this Giants team, and this is one that has
not gone away. Dan Salibon, the senior writer from Giants

(07:04):
dot Com, wrote this in his advanced notes that were
on the website. How Washington's defense was sixth best in
the NFL in allowing fewest points in the final two
minutes of the first half. I'm sure you saw it, yep. Okay,
And of course the Giants ranked twenty seventh in that

(07:27):
category because they had allowed well over sixty points combined
in the final two minutes of a first half this season.
That has been a buggaboo for this team for years. Folks.
If you followed the New York Giants for a while,
you know that the final two minutes of the first
half you want to close your eyes, okay, and just

(07:48):
hold on for dear life, because bad things are going
to happen. And they happened again yesterday a thirteen to
seven game, as poorly as they played, and I do
believe that the wind was a major factor.

Speaker 3 (08:03):
Dart was not as.

Speaker 2 (08:04):
Accurate as he usually is, although on a number of
cases he was, there were other cases where he wasn't.
I thought he also improved, by the way. In terms
of how he handled his scrambles. I thought he did
a much better job. There was only one play where
he went shoulders first. There wasn't anyone really there to
hit him, and he gave himself up that one. I

(08:27):
kind of would have still rather he gone feet first.
But everything else that he did yesterday, I thought he
played much smarter in terms of his own security and
protecting himself. So I thought that was a plus. But
as far as the final sixty five seconds of the
first half, just it's incredible how something goes wrong in

(08:51):
so many of these games. In that one little stretch
of time, you get the pump returned for a touchdown.
You then get the interception where I wasn't thrilled with
the decision to throw that ball. Because of the difficult
weather conditions, Dart had to throw a tight rope to

(09:13):
Slayton down not to Slayton to Hyatt downfield. And while
Hyatt did not play defensive back on the play and
knock it down, which is certainly the least you wanted
to do, the ball was significantly underthrown. It was low.
It was on a line drive. You knew it was
gonna as soon as he threw the ball. I knew
he wasn't going to reach the receiver. That was pretty

(09:34):
obvious to me. And so the interception then turns into
a big return, which was dreadful because now the Commanders
get a free three points tacked on to the six
they already had. So the Giants get outscored nine to nothing.
In the final sixty five seconds of the first half,
it's now twenty two to seven. I'll be honest with you, Matt.

(09:56):
At that point, I'm thinking this quick stand is too deep.
I'm not sure they can come out of this. But
they do. They come out of it, and they make
it a game. And of course they get a failed
fourth down conversion as they're trying to come back. And
by the way, if you look at the old twenty two,

(10:16):
Darius Slayton's wide open in the end zone and he
throws the ball short and low Towandale Robinson. Good play
by the Commanders. The dB gets over there, but Dart
simply had a look to the left and Slayton was
wide open in the end zone. All right, it happens
rookie mistake. He stared down his receiver. He paid for it.

(10:40):
And then, of course, I think we've all seen the
last play to Wandelle Robinson. I don't want to make
a big deal out of it, but there was contact
on the play. And who knows that the Giants got
it first in gold inside the fifteen. I'm not saying
they take it in I'm not, but there was contact
on the play. No flag in any event. A couple
of things I did like though. They did hold. They

(11:03):
did hold Washington to three for eleven on third downs.
You wouldn't sign up for that, I would, Okay. Uh,
they did only give up one sack, and he threw
the ball thirty six times. You only gave up one sack.
It's pretty good, Okay. So you know, there were a

(11:23):
few things that were I don't want to say overly positive,
but not quite as abysmal. I mean, I appreciate you're frustrated,
you feel really bad, but we gotta be careful not
to paint brush the whole game.

Speaker 3 (11:40):
I mean, I hear you.

Speaker 6 (11:41):
But you can look at any almost any loss and
like pinpoint very few specific things they're like, well, this
was good, of course, I'm not saying that, but when you.

Speaker 2 (11:52):
Lose your eighth straight game, oh, it's terrible, Like it's terrible.

Speaker 6 (11:56):
Yes, there are, obviously there are players, especially the young players,
that have their individual performances yesterday that give you confidence
going into next year and beyond, and mostly talking about
Abdul and Jackson there because again in the second half,
Jackson was great.

Speaker 3 (12:14):
I've watched the film.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
You did say that, Yeah, and I've watched.

Speaker 6 (12:19):
I went back this morning and I looked over the film.
Even on the interception, he did throw the ball a
little late. You know, he's been throwing with anticipation since
he became named the starter. That was one throw he
did not. He kind of waited until Hyatt came out.

Speaker 3 (12:34):
Of his pay. And maybe it's because Hyatt hasn't played much.

Speaker 6 (12:38):
There's you know, the chemistry that Jackson has with some
of those other guys does not seem to be there
with Hyatt. Hyatt didn't, you know, was not the most
aggressive coming out of his note out of the route.
You know, not to pinpoint that play on one person
because it's kind of it falls on both of them.
But but yeah, there are certainly some things you can

(13:01):
look at and say well, this was good.

Speaker 3 (13:03):
I'm not saying that there's not it's just.

Speaker 2 (13:07):
Eighth straight game.

Speaker 6 (13:08):
It's hard to focus on any of I get things
when when there's just so much bad going on right now.

Speaker 2 (13:14):
Look, it stinks that you give up another horrible rushing game.
The rushing defense.

Speaker 6 (13:22):
Just that that's got to be the I think that
has to be the number one priority we've been. The
thing is, we've talked about it being the number one
priority in the offseason the last couple of off seasons,
and unfortunately it has not improved. I think it has
to be the number one priority this offseason. In addition
to building around Jackson, it's got to be figure out

(13:43):
a way to somehow improve this running event. It's not
going to improve overnight. No, you're not going to go
from a historically bad rush defense to a top five
unit in one season. But there's steps that you can
take to go from the bottom of the basement where
the Giants the run defense has been the last couple
of seasons to you know, maybe middle of the pack

(14:05):
next year would be a significant upgrade and something I
think we would all sign up for.

Speaker 2 (14:10):
Yeah, one hundred and forty four yards rushing on thirty
seven carries for Washington way too much.

Speaker 3 (14:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (14:15):
So Corey Krosky Merritt, who has had flashes this season
but has not had consistent sustained success on a weekend
and week out basis, averaged over five yards per carry.

Speaker 2 (14:25):
The run up the middle on the touchdown was just horrific. Yeah, okay,
So I mean we could talk about the bad points too,
because there's plenty of those. Okay. The net yard's on
the punch because of the big return for the touchdown
was only twenty two point eight yards. That's not good.
You can't have that.

Speaker 6 (14:41):
No, And I'm gonna say even if you take out
the return touchdown.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
It's still not good.

Speaker 6 (14:46):
Jalen Lane on the other two punt returns, Yeah, twenty
eight yards that's awful as well.

Speaker 2 (14:51):
Not good, No, not good. Belton got turned around by
McLaurin on the touchdown pass. Yeah, literally got spun around
and smooth sailing, he's gone. And then at the very
end of the play inside the five yard line, a
Debo doesn't tackle and Belton whiffs. So even after the

(15:15):
long completion, they don't get the receiver down inside the five.
See folks, I don't want you to think that I've
ignored all the bad stuff, because there's more bad than
good here, Okay, But I also do want to point
out some of the good things too. That's all I'm
trying to say. I wasn't trying to kill.

Speaker 3 (15:30):
That's that's fair.

Speaker 2 (15:32):
It's just I mean, two of twelve for this offense
on third downs, yeah, not good. Two of four on
fourth downs not good. The oh for two on the
field goals, you know.

Speaker 6 (15:46):
Anyway, all right, That's one thing I do want to
discuss that I've just seen been discussed on social media
a lot over the last let's call it sixteen there's hours.

Speaker 3 (16:01):
Yeah, the fact.

Speaker 6 (16:03):
That Jackson Dart was taken out for another concussion test
on that run. I mean, he didn't even get hit
in the head on that play. I watched the replay
from several different angles. He did not get hit in
the head. The fact this has become a very big
narrative now, Jackson protecting himself taking these hits where the lead,
and especially because the one time that the league did

(16:26):
not flag him to get tested was the one time
he actually did have a concussion, right, They've become it
seems like They've just become very sensitive to this, and
now anytime he takes any sort of hit, it's get
him off.

Speaker 3 (16:38):
He needs to get a concussion test.

Speaker 6 (16:39):
I mean, every time he's been flagged for concussion tests
by the spotter, he's been cleared for every single time.
The one time he wasn't taken off was the one
time he had a concussion. And the thing that just
bothered me. I don't know if you had a chance
to watch Sunday Night Football last night.

Speaker 2 (16:53):
I did not.

Speaker 6 (16:54):
So there was a play where JJ McCarthy was running
with the football and literally lowered his helmet and went
helmet first into the defender like we've seen Scatt do
at the beginning of the season. Not way you want
to see your quarterback. And yet Chris Collinsworth goes on
air and not to call him out because I think
he's fantastic, but he goes, oh, you know that's the

(17:16):
sort of run the Vikings brought JJ McCarthy.

Speaker 3 (17:18):
Yeah more, you know, they.

Speaker 6 (17:20):
Love his aggressive running style and taking on defenders like that.
And I'm watching and I'm like, is this for real?
Because if Jackson Dart did that a he would have
been flagged for a concussion test and b everyone would
be ripping him apart right now. Wow, I was watching
it made me so frustrated watching that. I'm like, you can't,
for one young quarterback say this is how he should run.

(17:42):
He needs to be aggressive, that's why they brought him in,
and then the other guy be like, he can't do it,
he needs to protect himself.

Speaker 3 (17:49):
Jackson Dart is bigger than JJ McCarthy. JJ McCarthy has
an inch on him. Jackson Dart has I looked this
up last night? I want to say, ten to fifteen pounds?

Speaker 7 (17:57):
Sure?

Speaker 6 (17:58):
Sure, So he has more you know, come packed than
JJ McCarthy, which you would think makes him a little
bit more able to kind of take on hits and
defenders like that. Not that any quarterback should be taking
on a lot of hits, but it just really really
frustrated me so much hearing that and seeing you know,
reporters and stuff analysts on social media complimenting McCarthy for

(18:21):
his aggressive run style, but then the same people rip
Jackson for doing the same thing.

Speaker 2 (18:26):
The inconsistencies in comments, see, that's part of what really
causes a lot of the overblown narratives. Okay, which is
why Like I said, I'm with you. Eighth loss in
a row stinks many more bad things than good. But
what you've got to do is you have to line
up all your vegetables on the table and say these

(18:49):
were good vegetables and these were the ones that were rotten,
and you have to identify all of it. That's the
reason that I do that, folks, I'm not doing it
for any other reason. You have to look at all
of it. Every point that was really bad, you gotta
say it. Every point that was really good. You don't
ignore it just because you're so disgusted that you lost.

(19:10):
That's the reason why bring it up. I'm not trying
to be mean to you or anybody else out there.

Speaker 3 (19:14):
That is fair.

Speaker 6 (19:15):
I mean, you know, there are things from any game
that you point to as like this was kind of
a positive.

Speaker 2 (19:22):
We need to build on new hope.

Speaker 3 (19:23):
So and yeah, I shouldn't say every game. I shouldn't
say every game.

Speaker 6 (19:28):
There are specific little things that you can pinpoint and
be like, Okay, the overall game was bad, the team
did not play well.

Speaker 3 (19:34):
This individual thing, though, was good.

Speaker 6 (19:37):
We need to build on this and do this on
a consistent basis weekend and week out. So it's at
a point where we don't have to just point it
out because it was so good one week. It's become
something that we're just used to seeing every week. That's
what the goal is, to be sure, no doubt, no doubt.

Speaker 2 (19:50):
So in sorting through the wreckage, all right, that's kind
of what we saw between the two of us at
the game yesterday. Don't know if you guys saw some
of the same things, or maybe you saw something different,
we would be happy to discuss. Two on one nine
three nine four five one three is our phone number
here on Big Blue Kickoff Live, and we will go
to the phones and we will start with Jason and

(20:13):
new Haven. You're first on the show.

Speaker 4 (20:16):
Hey, Paula, Matt, how you guys doing?

Speaker 3 (20:17):
Hi good?

Speaker 4 (20:18):
How are you good? Good?

Speaker 7 (20:20):
Good?

Speaker 4 (20:20):
I'll feel bad for you guys. You guys had to
withstand all that wind and cold weather yesterday.

Speaker 2 (20:26):
I'm gonna be honest.

Speaker 3 (20:27):
We were up in the press box where it was
nice and warm in the fourth quarter.

Speaker 2 (20:31):
I was downstairs and it hurt. It hurt. In fact,
that was with Brandon London. You know, we had to
do our hit on the MSG postgame show and he
was he was in serious pain. The wind was hurting him.
It was hurting me too, But it's like, oh man, the.

Speaker 6 (20:47):
Only cold I had dealt with was waiting to get
into the locker room after the game. In the tunnel,
I was frigid, and I for some reason did opering
my jacket.

Speaker 2 (20:55):
But you know what, Jason, to be honest, I'm not
trying to be funny. It's been a lot harder just
to watch watch some of these games and watch how
the Giants have been almost there more often than not.
That's harder. That's harder to watch than any win. To
be honest with you.

Speaker 4 (21:10):
Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely, And Paul, you don't apologize for seeing
the negative. I think a lot of times, and I
think part of it is just too because we've we've
just been a bad, bad or I just I do
hate to say organize it, but the product going to
feel has been bad for years, So I get while
a lot of fans and media are just very very

(21:31):
very negative on this team, and part of it is
self imposed. So no doubt, Paul, there there are some
positives takeaway, and I'll make a quick point so other
callers ab dual absolute best game of the year. I
like the way he responded to some of the things
that he was lacking in terms of preparation. And you know,
I'm just going on for reports. I'm not, you know,

(21:52):
in a lack of room. Nothing but but hell of
a hell of a strip, sack, the force, fumble, and
the pitch. That is what we were expecting when we
took him third. Overall, I'm just so happy that he
responded and showed up yesterday. So just kudos to him. Man,
Just just very pleased in what I saw from yesterday.

Speaker 2 (22:13):
And before anyone calls that a one trick pony situation,
remember he had missed the first series of snaps against
the Patriots because of a transgression. Came back into that
game and had a sack and played well against the Patriots. Yes,
so he's actually had two good games in a row.

Speaker 6 (22:29):
The last three quarters of that Patriots game, which is
what he was on the field for, he played great.
He didn't it just got a little overshadowed by the
situation was benching for the first.

Speaker 2 (22:37):
Quar So we're starting to see something there, you know,
the arrows starting to point in the right direction.

Speaker 6 (22:42):
It's I think the thing that made yesterday so great
as you mentioned, it was two games in a row
of seeing it.

Speaker 3 (22:48):
Which we haven't really seen from him.

Speaker 6 (22:49):
You know, he's shown flashes, had like a good game,
but then would kind of disappear in a sense the
next week or two, and then show up again a
couple of weeks later with the good game, but not
stacked perform good performances. So it was good to see
him have two consecutive strong outings. He's got to be
the guy. That's his last three weeks are potentially.

Speaker 2 (23:11):
The most important for let's see, let's see him totally
kick some butt. Three tackles for a loss. Yesterday was
really nice.

Speaker 4 (23:17):
Absolutely on two other points, and I'll try to make
quick I've been a big defender of this gentleman. I
know from what I've heard he's great in the locker room.
He's had some big plays throughout his career. But man,
that dropped by Darius yesterday.

Speaker 2 (23:32):
Man, I know.

Speaker 4 (23:35):
I just you know, dark Dark didn't have a great
first half, but I thought he responded very very well
in the second half, and that dropped by Slaton. Man,
it just really really upset me yesterday. You know, I
know he's gonna be here next year because of the contract.
But man, he he, I don't know. I'm gonna leave

(23:56):
that alone. But I was just very disappointed that I drop
last point. Matt. You made a great point, man, and
it is just an overall arching theme that I have
an issue with the NFL concussion game evaluation strategy. To me,
is one of the biggest jokes in the NFL. There's
no consistency and it seems completely arbitrary. Right. I've seen

(24:19):
a lot of quarterbacks this year, from May to Josh Allen,
a lot a lot of a lot of quarterbacks take
some relacious hits, relatious hits, and I haven't seen I
didn't see a lot of in a lot of those games.
I didn't see anybody called over. I didn't see an
arrest signaling anybody over. Right, But for some reason yesterday,

(24:43):
and I get it, has started taking some big hits. Absolutely,
we're not we're not disagreeing with that part, right, But
but my thing is this yesterday, like you said, Man,
I didn't see any hit to his helmet or his
knack or you know, anything like that for them to
have pulled them out, man, And he was right yesterday.

(25:03):
I agree with Jackson dark In this postgame interview, I
don't understand what's going on and part of it too,
and Paul out and with this Paul and Matt, Paul,
you made a great comment a few minutes ago before
I got on the phone, when we have to be
careful with narratives, right, And for the last few weeks
the big narrative around Jackson, and some of them been

(25:26):
self imposed. You know, I get that, especially with the elephant,
but man, we have to be really careful when we
take these narratives just in general. I'm not saying you
guys are me and we make it to be uh well,
this is the truth of the matter, right, I just
I just don't like it.

Speaker 2 (25:46):
Man.

Speaker 4 (25:47):
It just seems like the NFL is running with this
Jackson dark. Even yesterday Jonathan Jonathan VILLEM. I know you
guys probably didn't hear it, but even he was going crazy,
Oh why is Jackson Dart running? Why is he escaping
the pocket? He's gonna get hit, He's gonna do this,
He's gonna and it's like, Yo, this guy is trying
to win a game. He's trying to win. He doesn't
like losing. You could tell in his face is agonizing

(26:07):
so I'll take I'll take the phone call off the air.
I just don't like the whole They need to really
look at this concussion protocol in the off season because
it seems very arbitrary and very health the skelter. So
I'll take the phone call off the air.

Speaker 2 (26:22):
Guys, fellas, thank you, Thanks appreciate it. Jason. Yes, perception
does tend to become reality, and that is a danger
that all of us have to be very, very careful of.
I will say this. You guys know me. I'm one
who doesn't like to see my quarterback run a whole lot.
I'm the biggest proponent of don't take off, And I

(26:47):
can tell you I thought he did a much better
job protecting himself and did not put himself in harm's way.
I was very pleased with his advancement in that area.
And if I've feel that way, knowing how much I
hate guys to run around, then what does that tell you?

Speaker 3 (27:05):
Yeah? One hundred percent.

Speaker 6 (27:06):
So that was actually when I went back to the
tape earlier this morning. The first thing I specifically went
to look for. I looked, pulled up each of his
individual runs, right, and what he did at the very
end of it.

Speaker 3 (27:19):
He had six rush attempts I believe, yes.

Speaker 6 (27:21):
On five of the six he either slid, gave himself up,
dove forward like did something to avoid major contact, one
of them being the play that he still got taken
off the field for Like he did dive down. He
wasn't like standing up taking a hit from the two defenders.
He dove towards the turf. There was only one one

(27:42):
run where he didn't. It wasn't a big hit. He
got taken down. It was a very normal tackle. But
there was just one of the six runs where it
was open field. The defender was close, like was right there.
There's no way he was going to escape, or he
wasn't even close to the first yard the sticks. He
was still like five or six yards short and he
got tackled. But and you know, obviously he.

Speaker 2 (28:04):
Was still in the process of going down though he
was giving himself up.

Speaker 6 (28:07):
Not on that run. No, he was just taking down again.
It was the softest different we might be I think
different probably are because it was it was not a
big hit in the slightest minute. It was very normal,
just take the guy down. But that was the only
play where he did not, you know, quote unquote protect
himself when running the ball.

Speaker 3 (28:28):
And so I agree with you that he clearly this
is what his eighth eighth start.

Speaker 6 (28:35):
Now I don't even remember it's it seems like it's
starting to catch on, really click with him, like I
need to be out there for my guys, for my teammates,
and the only way to make sure that happens is
by not taking so many hits. As he mentions every
time this is brought up, it's a physical sport. He's
gonna take some hits. It's just the way it goes.

(28:58):
But the biggest thing is being able to protect your
from some of the unnecessary hits, which yesterday I agree
with you. I think he took a very big step
in the right direction on that front, not taking some
of those unnecessary hits.

Speaker 2 (29:10):
And by the way, one other comment about a guy
who I don't want this to go unnotice because look,
I'm a big fan of Daniel Bellinger. On that one drive,
he had three consecutive pass receptions. I believe it was
like fifty yards for the.

Speaker 3 (29:24):
Three year fifty five in a row.

Speaker 2 (29:27):
And then on the next play they get down near
the goal line, he goes in motion and he kicks
out thirty five the edge defender thirty five yards. Yeah,
he kicks out the edge defender so that Tracey could
run in for the touchdown. It was it was a
great sequence for him. That's the kind of guy Daniel
Bellinger is. That's why he is respected and loved in

(29:50):
that locker room. Coaches love him, players really dig him
because he's the kind of guy who will do anything
that's required. He's tough for the nails and and you know,
I know he doesn't get a lot of pats on
the back, and he is tight end number two here
behind THEO Johnson, But the truth remains, he's a football player, man.

(30:11):
You know. Tim Kelly said that last week when he
was talking to us. He goes, he's just a football player.
Love having him on the team, and I hope he's
still here next year. Just just personal observation because that
one sequence shows you what he can do for your team. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (30:28):
I mean, as you mentioned, he is obviously tight end
number two, but he does a lot of things that
as great as THEO Johnson is and as much as
we like him, he does a lot of things sort
of the nitty gritty of the tight end position. That
THEO Johnson does not do quite as well. THEO Johnson
obviously is a great pass catching tight end. No one's
gonna deny that he's the best pass catching tight end

(30:50):
on this team. But in terms of the physicality and
the blocking, that's Daniel Bellinger. Daney Bellinger is the number
one tight end on other team. I mean, Chris Manherts
would probably be up there too, but Manhus just does
not get too many snaps these days, right, So.

Speaker 3 (31:06):
Yeah, I'm with you.

Speaker 6 (31:07):
And every time he's got an opportunity to show off
his hands, Bellinger, that is, he takes advantage of it.
I mean we don't really again, he doesn't get too
many targets. So it's not like we don't talk too
often about drops from Bellinger because he doesn't really drop
the ball. But part of that is just not getting
too many opportunities. But yes, that was a great sequence.
I was very happy for him that he had that

(31:29):
little stretch. He got put into the spotlight for a
little bit. But you're right, I think the best play
of that sequence was the block on the touchdown a round,
which is probably the play that's gonna get talked about
the least by most people.

Speaker 2 (31:39):
Of course, of course, so it goes and before we
get to our next callers, certainly send out some get
well wishes to Michael Parsons and also to Patrick Mahomes.

Speaker 3 (31:51):
Awful.

Speaker 2 (31:51):
The league is not better off. In fact, it takes
a big hit when it's superstars have to sit on
the sideline because of a serious injury. This is horrible
for the NFL that Patrick Mahomes is probably going to
miss I would think a lot of next season, if
not the whole season. Who knows, same thing with Michael Parsons,

(32:14):
Because you get hurt in December. You just don't know
what the rehab is going to be for those guys,
Whether or not they'll make it back early in the season,
middle of the season, late in the season. Is it
better for them that maybe they don't play for a
whole season and take a year off. We don't know
the answer to that. But here's what we do know.
Those two guys are two of the biggest superstars in

(32:38):
the game today and it stinks, it absolutely stinks that
both of them suffered serious injuries yesterday.

Speaker 3 (32:46):
Yeah, it's awful.

Speaker 6 (32:47):
I agree with you, and Ian Rapport did just come
out and confirm Michael Parsons torn ACL. It was believed,
expect it is confirmed now unfortunately. Yeah, I mean it's
it's rough. Fortunately, it's part of the game. Obviously, the
Giants we know all about this. Milak Neighbors seems to
be an afterthought now, but obviously Miliak Neighbor is week
four towards ACL and has been out for the season.

Speaker 3 (33:10):
The only thing I will say.

Speaker 6 (33:11):
Is that just your ideally, if you are to tear
your ACL, which is never an ideal situation, obviously, you
want it to be towards the beginning of the season,
you know, like Malik's was in terms of the recovery
and being ready for the next season. But Christian Watson,
the receiver on the Packers, did tear his ACL late December,

(33:34):
even later than this last year, and he's back playing.

Speaker 3 (33:37):
He missed the beginning of the season, I want to
say he missed.

Speaker 6 (33:40):
The first six or seven eight ish games, but has
been back the last month and has looked fantastic. You know,
they always say when you come back from a tourn
ACL that first season, you're not really yourself and you
don't look like yourself, right, Christian Watson sort of looked
like himself, if not better. So it is possible to
come back, beat the timeline that people put out for

(34:02):
you and come back looking better than ever. And in
terms of at least Mahomes' case, and I know, I
saw this on on Twitter last night, very very I'm
gonna say, weird, how his timeline compared to Tom Brady's
timeline in terms of at this point of their career,

(34:23):
how many Super Bowls they won and then suffering the
torn acl It's it matches.

Speaker 3 (34:30):
Up very, very like, oddly too similar.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
Just love to play that game they do. That's what
numerologists do. They match up these crazy numbers.

Speaker 6 (34:41):
But it just it was just crazy how closely they
matched up in terms of, you know, super Bowls before
the age of thirty, the success they've had in the league,
and then the injury. And obviously we all know Tom
Brady came back and had a pretty pretty good second
half of his career. So I have no doubt that
both of these guys we'll be back at some point
down the road and I'm sure will look like their

(35:04):
normal selves.

Speaker 2 (35:05):
All right, real quick, before we go to our other
phone calls, anything up on the huddle expected this week
that we know of that we need to promote, not
that I know of as of today.

Speaker 3 (35:18):
There definitely will be stuff up.

Speaker 2 (35:20):
There always is.

Speaker 6 (35:21):
I don't know what Pearson and John, I didn't know
if there might be something in the cam.

Speaker 3 (35:25):
There definitely is not that I gotcha. I don't know
what it is.

Speaker 2 (35:28):
Giant Tuttle podcast. Search for it on all of your
podcast platforms everywhere. John does a lot of long form
interviews with not only Giants personnel, but also a ton
with NFL personnel as well. Quickly want to mention this
one too. Special Olympics New Jersey's annual Snowboard Snowbowl is
headed to Rutgers Football Stadium in twenty twenty six. The

(35:51):
annual Flag Football tournament will be on the field from
March sixth through the eighth in twenty twenty six. The
six on six twenty will feature competitive, recreational and co
ed divisions, and all proceeds benefit thousands of Special Olympics
New Jersey athletes across the Garden State. Register your team
today at New Jersey Snowbowl dot org. That's Njsnowbowl dot org.

(36:14):
All right, let's get back to the phone calls, and
it looks like We've got John in New Jersey. Next up,
you're you're on bbklllo.

Speaker 8 (36:22):
Hey, what's up guys? How you doing great? Show is
always thank you, thank you. Yeah. I'm kind of the
opinion poll. I think the special teams did us in
yesterday actually very winnable game. Yeah, you know the and
I feel like it's kind of twofold between not having
the the kicking personnel, which has been a problem now

(36:44):
last year and this year, and then you have the
coach who's attempting fifty two yonders with the guy I'm
pretty sure I'm not confident he can hit a forty
two yonder.

Speaker 2 (36:54):
You know, I want to again I address that with you,
and if you just hold on a second, I'm gonna
let you finish in terms of the two field goals. Now,
you know, the operation is they will send the kicker
out before the game and he's gonna kick, and he's
gonna test the wind and everything else. He's gonna go
to both ends and he's gonna come back and he's
gonna tell his Special teams coordinator what he feels comfortable with,

(37:17):
and then they're gonna talk it over with the head
coach and let him know now, I don't know if
there were any subsequent conversations because I didn't get a
chance to talk to Kalfka after the game. I'm in
the locker room. I would love to know what were
the conversations before Kup went out there for the fifty
two and for the fifty one yard field goal, because
it looked to me and I don't know if did

(37:40):
he answer this, did Kafka? I didn't think he answered
it in terms of it was it an operation failure
or was it just the win took the ball?

Speaker 3 (37:47):
I don't remember. I'm not sure if he was asked
about it.

Speaker 2 (37:50):
I've been around a long time, my friend, and I'm
not trying to make any excuses for anybody, but my experience,
in my eyes tell me when the ball hooks like
that on a field goal, it means that one of
those real nasty meadowlands gusts came, took the ball and
literally moved it like a Dwight Gooden curveball and hooked

(38:11):
the darn thing fifteen to twenty yards off off course.
I've seen that happen in this building too many times
to know, right.

Speaker 8 (38:22):
My thing is that if there were no wins, I
wouldn't trust fifty two yard well.

Speaker 2 (38:26):
And that's your prerogative. I guess my problem with trying
those field goals, and I would love to talk, In fact,
I'll talk to Gobriel of course this week about it.
I just wonder under those conditions, it seemed to me
that that was the bigger problem. And I'm not so
sure that I would have been too anxious to kick
those field goals, given the fact that the conditions were

(38:50):
so variable and apt to wreck the kick. I mean,
even Washington the kicker missed the extra point for goodness sakes.

Speaker 5 (38:57):
Yeah, the only thing before the the second fifty two
yard it was JMSH had a bad penalty, and then
it's and that's the bigger problems.

Speaker 2 (39:08):
I mean, that's the bigger problem. Yeah, you're right that
that penalty, that's the bigger problem. You get that penalty
and now it makes the kick a real nasty proposition.

Speaker 3 (39:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (39:21):
The only thing that Kafka said after the game yesterday
about the field goal situation was he was asked why
young Wayku was set out I guess the second time,
and whether or not the first miss, you know, factored
into his decision for the second one, and he said, basically,
it did not. He was inside the line that we

(39:41):
had discussed, so clearly they know were the fifth. The
second one was at fifty one yards. That was within
you know, the line that they said, you know, if
we get within this distance, we're going to try the
field goal.

Speaker 3 (39:52):
It was within that based off of.

Speaker 6 (39:54):
I guess pregame and how young Wayku was kicking in
the pregame.

Speaker 3 (39:58):
Obviously it did not work out.

Speaker 2 (40:00):
See during the game, I don't know. Were you at
the game, sir.

Speaker 8 (40:03):
Yeah, no, I was, okay, I actually watched this at
about one of the money.

Speaker 2 (40:07):
Oh my goodness, I feel bad for you. Did you
get to sleep afterwards?

Speaker 8 (40:11):
Yeah, if you were in the building.

Speaker 2 (40:14):
If you were in the building, what you would have
seen is that one goal post flags, the one where
the kickers had the problem, was flapping. The other goal
post was not.

Speaker 8 (40:25):
That's why I was curious, because they actually kicked the
second field goal. I believe it was after the quarter,
so I was wondering which thought he was kicking it regardless,
it seemed like so I'm thinking the same thing as
you got to find out if if one side was better,
and then they switched aside. It seemed like his mind
was made off you know what I mean. I just
found it very odd for a guy who's coaching for

(40:46):
his coaching future to make that decision.

Speaker 4 (40:49):
But anyway, go anyway, I do.

Speaker 2 (40:51):
I do appreciate the issue and the inquiry because I'm
going to ask myself.

Speaker 4 (40:55):
But go ahead, and one one more thing?

Speaker 8 (40:57):
Can can I just get you? And I know it's
tough to common because I know you guys are in
the building, But the DEVO and Holland, I mean, I'll
give you my opinion. I feel like I, you know,
I'm not scouting these guys before the season, but I
feel like Holland, I'm watching these the tape and and
he seems like he pulls up at the end of
when he's in run defense. I'm expecting a safety to

(41:19):
be more of a smash mak guy and I don't
see that at him.

Speaker 7 (41:22):
And I'm not.

Speaker 8 (41:23):
Seeing the interceptions, and it's very underwhelming. I feel like
we were hoping they would shore up that defensive backfield
and it seems like it's another question offt But that's all,
you know, another disappointing one. But I still don't think
we're far off. I think we'll. I think we're right
there if we get the right you know, some more
personnel and the right coach. I don't think we're we're
too far. But anyway, thank you guys.

Speaker 2 (41:44):
Appreciate the phone call.

Speaker 3 (41:45):
Thank you, Josh.

Speaker 2 (41:46):
I'm gonna I'm not gonna pull any punches on this one.
Quite frankly, I think both of those veterans have not
performed to the back of their football cards. They just haven't.

Speaker 6 (41:56):
Yeah, I mean, look, when the Giants went out and
signed the two of them in the front first, you know,
forty eight hours of free agency, or agreed to deal
with them. The big storyline around that was that, look,
the Giants just brought two guys that are just playmakers.

Speaker 3 (42:10):
They're force turnovers.

Speaker 6 (42:11):
I mean, the biggest thing with the debos how many
interceptions he had in his career prior to coming to
this team with Holland. You know, obviously coming off last
season wasn't his best season. He'd be the first one
to admit that, but previously was a playmaker for the
Dolphin secondary. And you're right, it's just so far this
season we have not seen them create any sort of

(42:33):
big plays. I mean, a deebo obviously dealt with the
injury that forced him to miss however many weeks he
ended up missing. But Holland's been out there just about
every week, I think, and even when a Deebo's now
healthy back out there. And you're right, they're just unfortunately
not coming up with those any sort of the big
splash plays that you know, was a big reason why

(42:54):
they were brought here in the first place.

Speaker 2 (42:55):
They certainly have not lived up to their advertised billing
at all player. And those are two of the guys
that I'm really really looking at hard during the off
season to say, hey, we need you to play like
you're supposed to play, you know, but that's been the
case with most of the defense this year. To be fair,
they're not the only two. We're not going to single

(43:16):
out those two guys. No, outside of flatten Burns, everybody
on that defense needs to play like they're supposed to play,
and they haven't done it. We go to Rich in Virginia.
You're next on the show.

Speaker 9 (43:28):
Hello, Merry Christmas, Happy Honiga and happy Holiday's.

Speaker 2 (43:32):
Godfather and Matt and you're too rich.

Speaker 3 (43:34):
Thank you Rich, same to you.

Speaker 9 (43:35):
So have you guys heard anything about restructuring contracts on
the big salary players Michael Karakat and Brian Burns, because
obviously that would help us out next year to fill
some gaping holes and free agency by getting more cap money.
Have you heard anything.

Speaker 3 (43:55):
As of now.

Speaker 6 (43:57):
No, I mean at this point of the season. The
only reason to do any sort of restructuring now would
be the clear cast space for the twenty twenty five season,
which I don't think is necessary at this point. So
any sort of moves like that would would be once
the season ends. You know, there's that two month period
leading up to the start of the negotiating period in
the beginning of March, probably sometime in like February.

Speaker 3 (44:21):
The month of February would probably be when a move
like that is done, not now.

Speaker 2 (44:27):
And Rich Honestly, the team doesn't make that stuff public.
The only way it comes out is if the agent
decides he's going to put it out there with the
trade wins. Yeah.

Speaker 9 (44:35):
I figure they're going to say that, but I had
to ask because you're in the building. Second thing is,
you know, we go back to sixty one and we
have a conference call every week three dieards that actually
even older than me, and we have a saying in Paul,
I really appreciate your honesty today as we have a
saying called SG same old Giants. Some things that just

(44:56):
never change that they can't fix. For instance, they can't
cover the end. You go back to Jay Novochek, they
couldn't cover him. They can't cover the tight end today.
Run defense. You know, if you listen to Carl Banks
and he's on the pop ever, you can believe he
is absolutely incredulous that our edge guys get sealed off

(45:17):
on that outside run by one hundred and eighty pounds
wide receivers. I think John said last week the Giants
give up more runs or an average of seven yards
on any outs on the outside runs. That leads the league.
That's why it's it's just so frustrating for us diehards.
Did you see the same things over and over and

(45:37):
over And that's why we say, Sam, oh Giants, it's
just frustrating. And you hit the nail on the head today, Paul. Yeah,
there's a lot of there's some positive things here, but
it's just incredulous that they cannot you know, they cannot
stop that outside rung. They can't cover the tight end.
The defensive backs totally agree with the assessment of Holland

(45:59):
and Ebo. By the way, it was at Deebo on
that McLaurin touchdown pass. His technique to try to tackle
Terry mccormany good, It was over the top and he
fell off.

Speaker 2 (46:11):
Not good.

Speaker 9 (46:11):
I mean, come on, it's just so frustrating the fan
base we are at the you know, it's just incredible,
just incredibly frustrating. And you know, we go back to
the period of the mid sixties where they, you know,
the defense gave up an NFL record of over five
hundred points. But my gosh, this is it's for the

(46:32):
fan base, and I guess I speak for everybody. It's
just so frustrating with no changes.

Speaker 2 (46:39):
See Rich the issue that you've got to figure out
now nobody can really understand the psychology of what a
season gone bad has on individual players. That is a
very difficult thing to quantify. Parcels taught me this many
many years ago. And what you don't know when you're

(47:02):
watching a player play under these circumstances is did you
over evaluate right, did you over evaluate what you thought
that player was or what he could be, or did
all of the circumstances and the losing and the misery
that's been happening and collapsing on the team wind up

(47:24):
taking him psychologically out of his game to where he
now becomes part of that implosion, if you will, And
is he being damaged by the implosion? Can you now
dig him.

Speaker 3 (47:39):
Out of that?

Speaker 2 (47:41):
And that's the big question the Giants are going to
have to ask about a number of their players, for example,
a debo holland are these guys going to next year
with a breath of fresh air and an off season
two regroup? Are they going to become the players that
the Giants signed? Look at the tape of a d

(48:02):
boat with the Saints. He's really good. He's really really good,
no doubt so. But is that guy still that guy?
Or has he been so damaged that he's not that
guy anymore? I know?

Speaker 9 (48:15):
But good point. However, they've been like that since the
beginning of season. Let's be honest.

Speaker 4 (48:19):
Well, you're back back to the.

Speaker 9 (48:20):
First point you made absolutely critical that evaluation process on
the draft and the free agency is Joe Shane's responsibility
and his scouts and his evaluation team. Now he said
there was press conference he's going to evaluate anything. He
better be evaluating himself.

Speaker 2 (48:38):
Ish.

Speaker 9 (48:38):
You know, I don't want to get into a long
discussion on Joe, but I'm you know, I've been really
disappointed in him and his his his record. I mean,
you know, you're a big Parcels fan, as am I
remembered you are, Your record is and those that's the facts.
So you're you're reinforcing I point out the first part evaluation,

(48:58):
I mean evaluation of they're human beings too to make mistakes.
But he's missed. I mean it's it's as a giant fan.
He got Evan Neil a top five pick. He's not
even playing Hiott. They moved up to get him. Oh
my gosh. You know you only have seven or eight picks.
Seven picks in the draft you got to hit.

Speaker 2 (49:18):
Well, let's talk about two other guys who we don't
know now.

Speaker 10 (49:22):
Tyler Numan, he's gone in the wrong direction. He was
really good as a rookie, right, we all thought the
world of them. This year not so much, right Banks,
Banks showed a lot as a rookie. He's gone in
the wrong direction. So are these what are these guys?

Speaker 2 (49:38):
Who are they?

Speaker 3 (49:40):
I don't know.

Speaker 9 (49:42):
The evaluation team it is, but the question is there's
more misses than than hits.

Speaker 2 (49:48):
But the question becomes were those guys either misevaluated or
did circumstances implode them? And can they be resuscitated? That's
the question.

Speaker 9 (50:02):
That's a huge question. Again, that's football operations.

Speaker 2 (50:09):
Anyway, Rich appreciate the call always, my friend, Thank you,
Thanks Rich be Well. You know we have seen many
a teams as we talk about Lancel. He says, in
the last decade, what is it like five teams every
year for the last decade who didn't make the playoffs
the year before make the playoffs the following year. Part

(50:29):
of that is they get luckier with health. Part of
it is their schedule. Part of it is players have
bounced back seasons. Part of it is changes in coaching staff.
You know, there's part of it is the influx of
new players they bring in the next year. There's a
lot of reasons why teams can actually flip it. Giants

(50:51):
haven't flipped it for a while. Can they flip it
in twenty twenty six? And how many of these guys
need to be part of it if they're going to
flip it.

Speaker 6 (51:02):
This is a very complex answer for sure. I mean,
just going back to I guess what Rich first asked about.
We don't know about restructuring contracts and stuff, but like, no, no, no,
But if you look at the players that are under
contract next year, I'm not going to name any specifics,

(51:22):
but there are some guys that I don't think it
would surprise any of us if the Giants do decide
to move on from them in order.

Speaker 3 (51:29):
To save cap space.

Speaker 6 (51:30):
I mean, there's some a couple of guys where it
would again, it would not be very surprising just based
on like playing time, if guys that are gone, If
guys are set to make million, like let's just hypothetically
five million dollars, but the guy doesn't see the field
at all, you know, there's a good chance that they
will move on from him in order to save that money.
So in terms of that, you know, you could look

(51:53):
yourself at the players and how much they're making next
year and evaluate that yourself. Which guys you know might
find themselves potentially on the you know, on the block
that we're not going to do that ourselves. But in
terms of just you know, the turnaround, obviously, in an
ideal world, like we all the turnaround that we would
all like to see going into next year is.

Speaker 3 (52:17):
What we are witnessing right now.

Speaker 6 (52:18):
In New England, they had won four games last year
with point with their rookie quarterback, great point. They fired
their coach, they brought in a new head coach, a
lot of roster turnover, and now they are one of
the top teams in the AFC. And I'm not saying
that that's that's the road the Giants are going to
go down, because the Giants have a lot of work

(52:39):
to do.

Speaker 3 (52:39):
Obviously, we're two and twelve right now. There's a lot
of work to be done.

Speaker 6 (52:43):
But my point is being it's not impossible to turn
things around. There will be significant changes this offseason. You know,
the whole building today, what it looks like now is
potentially gonna be a lot different from what it looks
like a couple months from now. So there is a
chance to turn things around. I think the turnaround here

(53:04):
might be a little slower. I'm not gonna necessarily say
I expect us to go from you know, two and
twelve going into the week sixteen this year to double
digit wins next year. You gotta take a one step
at a time, but there is the possibility and I
think a decent chance if the right people are brought
into the building to help lead this organization, if they

(53:26):
bring in the right head coach.

Speaker 3 (53:27):
I don't even know who that is. No, I have
no idea right now.

Speaker 6 (53:30):
I go back and forth on names that I've heard
of who I might be interested, and we'll save those
discussions for a couple of weeks from now when the
season is over. But it is possible to turn things around,
you know, I just don't. I don't want fans to
think that I'm saying it's going to be a flip
the switch sort of turnaround.

Speaker 3 (53:47):
It's gonna take some time.

Speaker 2 (53:49):
Much to my dismay from ourselves is retired unfortunately.

Speaker 6 (53:52):
But from honestly, from where we are, the only direction
you can go is up.

Speaker 2 (53:57):
Yeah, one more call when from Columbia, Maryland. You're last
on the show today.

Speaker 7 (54:01):
Hello, Hey, how you doing? Guys? Well, let let the
evaluations continue. I mean, that's all we can do at
this point. I mean, top to bottom football operations. We've
got gonna have to make some decisions. But make no mistake,
we can't fire seventy five people. I mean, we're not

(54:22):
going to fire seventy five players. Some of these guys
are coming back. The real determination is who are the
guys we're going to build around the so called core?
I mean, can we even get the ten names? You know,
I don't know. I haven't done that yet, but I
think that's where it starts in terms of the you know, turnaround.

(54:44):
I have to admit I'm not as disappointed. Well, I
should say I'm more frustrated than I am disappointed. I know,
you guys remember I'm probably the original away from being
a year away guy. I thought we'd be a little

(55:04):
further along this year, and that that's where the frustration
comes in. Sure, But you know, we got to find
those We got to find the key players. You know,
we got to get a new leader in the locker room.
You know, new coach. Ownership's got to make a decision

(55:24):
about Joe, whether or not he's the right guy to
take us forward and help pick the next coach and
organize the draft and so forth. And then we got
to find some good players out there that that you reinforce,
that we can build around. I'm still I haven't given up.
I'm still looking at twenty seven. That was my thoughts,

(55:46):
you know, last January that we got to get off
the mat and we got to build a little bit.
And I guess that's you know, to you know, live
to twenty seven. A lot of good things have to
happen into twenty six, but we've got to do it
step by step. And but it's it's sure have been
a frustrating run. Let me. Let me mention a couple

(56:08):
of things about the safeties. But by the way, I
have this personal feeling that I applied to basketball, bas
Major League Baseball, basketball, even hockey. With free agents, it
takes time. It takes a little time for them to
get in the groove. I mean, it's a whole different

(56:30):
environment in the in the locker room and in the community.
A lot of they go through a lot of changes.
I always think, and I'm hoping this is the case
with Holland and Adebo, that that the second year is
better than the first year. I think that I see

(56:50):
that in baseball sometimes, and I see that in basketball,
and I really do believe that the second year. Maybe
I'm being foolish about this, guys, but I do think
that the second year is always a little better than
that first year when you were a free agent. Let
me say something about the safeties. Jeezus, guys, have you
ever seen three safeties? And I'm gonna include Belton in this,

(57:14):
who do more The closer they get to the line
of scrimmage, the further they're away from the line of scrimmage,
the worse it gets. I was hoping it would be
the opposite. I mean, I mean, you guys understand what
I'm saying. I mean, Nuban made a couple of plays
yesterday behind the line of scrimmage. All right, Belton makes

(57:34):
place behind the line of scrimmage. Holland makes place close
to the line of scrimmage. You dropped them ten or
fifteen yards off the line of scrimmage, and it is chaotic.
I don't get it. Guys, can you respond to that
for me?

Speaker 2 (57:47):
Place Well, they've long talked about box safeties as opposed
to settle fielders. Yeah, Nuban at Minnesota was a ballhawk
at a settle fielder. Yeah. So this is one of
the mysteries that the Giants have to solve. And when
I said before, and we could go into each individual

(58:08):
player if you like, it'll take forever. They've got to
figure out why are a number of these players not
performing to the back of their football card. What are
the reasons? Are the reasons irrepairable that, Okay, that player
is not that guy who we thought he was and

(58:30):
he can't be fixed, and or hey, maybe we made
a mistake. We thought he was that guy, but he's
actually this guy and that's on us, and that's our fault.
They got to figure that stuff out. And if they
can figure out, Okay, this is what's wrong with him,
but we can fix that, we can clean that up,
and we can get him to be him again, that's

(58:52):
what you really want.

Speaker 7 (58:53):
Need safeties who can get to the ball. I mean,
how many tipped passes our safeties have you? I mean,
you don't even need all of your fingers on one hand.

Speaker 2 (59:05):
And a debo, whether it was Nuban in college or
debo in the NFL, have been turnover machines. That's all
they did, Paul.

Speaker 7 (59:15):
They can't get to the ball with us, all right,
so that the second year will be second.

Speaker 2 (59:21):
It's very simple.

Speaker 7 (59:22):
It was a play in the first half on a
third and oh, I don't know, Jesus may have been
a third and fifteen where Mariota threw a ball to
along the sidelines. Noah Brown okay. I mean he's a
Noah Brown is just he's a player on the on
the Commander's he's no special receiver. And Holland was. Holland

(59:47):
was right there. I mean, you got geez, you gotta
make that play. You know the play I'm talking about.

Speaker 2 (59:52):
I understand. See the problem. The problem with these guys
is that they put a lot of tape already, you know,
in front of you, whether it was NFL tape or
in Newban's case, college tape. You look at all of
that tape and you believe what you see, right. Andrew
Wall always said, believe what you see and the tape
doesn't lie.

Speaker 7 (01:00:14):
Oh yeah, Well, if that's what it is, I don't lie.

Speaker 2 (01:00:17):
So then I have a right to expect that. Yeah yeah,
And and and the Giants aren't getting that.

Speaker 7 (01:00:25):
Listen quick one let me I don't want to. I
just I don't want to use up too much of
your time. I know you're at the end here, but
let me let me say something about Slayton. It seems
to me that if if Slayton can kind of corral
the ball close to his body, he's a better receiver
than when he has to stretch his hands out, am

(01:00:48):
I seeing things ball? They were on his hands.

Speaker 2 (01:00:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:00:53):
I think he's a better receiver when he can cradle
it to his body.

Speaker 2 (01:00:57):
Yeah, I think.

Speaker 7 (01:00:58):
I don't know if it's depth perception or whatever it is,
but he just and you know the touchdown that he scored,
you know, the long one that he's scored against New England,
I guess it was his only touchdown of the year.
When he caught that ball, He's just exploded over the middle.
He ran through the two safeties. I mean, that's the
speed that he has. But she's those hands. It's just

(01:01:21):
whenever he seems to stretch out and his when he's
stretching out the it's elbows seem bent. They're not really extended.
It almost I know he's not trying to short armor.
I'm I'm not going there. Okay, he's not trying to
short armor, but it just seems like he's short arms
those when he reaches out for that ball and his

(01:01:43):
hands just can't corral him. I don't know. It's again
more frustration than it is disappointment. Hey, three games, let's
let the evaluations come in continue, Let's win some games.
She's we got to win some games. Guys. All right, hey,
thank you, go Giants, Go Giants.

Speaker 6 (01:02:04):
Final thought, I will say, PFF just put out their
team of the week.

Speaker 3 (01:02:10):
They named ab Bill Carter their Rookie of the Week
for a strong performance. That is one positive to take
away from me.

Speaker 2 (01:02:18):
Justifiable.

Speaker 6 (01:02:19):
Yeah, he would have been confusing to me. If someone
else had won that.

Speaker 2 (01:02:23):
I would think, right, all right, that'll do it for
this edition of Big Blue Kickoff Live presented by Cadillac,
the official luxury vehicle of the New York Football Giants,
and we have, as always, come to you from the
Giants Podcast Studio presented by Hackensack Meridian Health. Keep getting better.
We will be back with another show tomorrow twelve thirty
pm Eastern Time for a live edition of Big Blue

(01:02:44):
Kickoff Live. And as always, you can catch this show
on the archive, on the Giants Podcast Network and all
of your podcast platforms everywhere. From Outside Tech. I'm pulled
the Tino. We'll see you next time.