Big Blue Kickoff Live 9/22 | Giants vs Chiefs Review

John Schmeelk and Paul Dottino review the Giants vs Chiefs game, talk about the Giants offense, and take calls from fans.

0:00 - Chiefs review

14:35 - Giants offense

31:40 - Calls

45:20 - Roster building

51:30 - More on the Chiefs game

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Episode Transcript

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

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Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're on Giants dot com.

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Do you know what I saw? New York Giant Crack.

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

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Fourteen the final one ton down.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
We all were Old Taffick.

Speaker 4 (00:20):
What well happen?

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

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Let's go on. The Crazy Dog has a hot Welcome
to the Big Blue Kickoff Live on this Monday. Giants
fall to oh to three. They lose to the Kansas
City Chiefs twenty two to nine. Hi, everybody, Welcome to
the Big Blue Kickoff Live presented by Cadillac, the official
luxury vehicle of the Giants. I am John Schmelkey as
Paul Latino. We're here in the Hackett Sack Meridine Health

(00:44):
Podcast Studio. Keep getting better and Paul I'll start here.
We talked a ton about this game last week. We
talked about on the pregame show, and I think I
said this three or four times on different shows. This
was gonna be a low scoring generally game that it
was going to come down to which team made a
couple of big plays to turn it into a victory,

(01:07):
and the Giants simply did not make any of those
types of plays, I mean big plays, not many. The
Chiefs and the Giants that opportunities and they failed to
We'll get to those. And the Chiefs made enough of
those big plays to get the ball into the end
zone and kick a few field goals and come over
with the wins. So this to me comes down to

(01:29):
the Oja age old thing. Paul, your your minus two
and turnover ratio. You don't have success in the red zone.
You have the opportunity to get some takeaways. You fail
to do that, and you go up against the team
that has Super Bowl pedigree and you can't make those
types of mistakes and have those types of shortcomings if
you want to win the football game.

Speaker 4 (01:50):
You know, without getting too deep into the forest, I'll
just say, generically speaking, you got a six to six
game with the ball and in really good position to
get some points. Now, of course, the fact that they
lost their kicker, you know, right before kickoff, or at
least he was hurt and as it turned out, you know,
wound up kicking some field goaling for this one. Yeah,

(02:13):
he did get one later on, but we know that
Brian Dables said the first fourth down they went for
was because he didn't have a kicker. He did admit
to that, and that cost him a possession.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
And Jamie Gillen did try an extra point and he
had it blocked right and by the way, that was
not the fault of the line, that was a low kick.

Speaker 4 (02:32):
Yeah, then you also had well and also you got
to remember Oshevsky had a hold because Gillan was the
normal holder.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
So that doesn't help either. Yes, okay, I have seen
them practice that at practice though they have worked on that,
but yes, but correct, they're not there regular guys.

Speaker 4 (02:48):
You're right, all right, So and then and then really
what it comes down to and I wonder this, and
I didn't ask Russell Wilson this because I didn't get
a chance to sit with him in the press conference.
When he throws the airmail to the corner for neighbors
and he underthrows the ball and he gets it accepted,
and to me, that's the whole turning point in the game,

(03:09):
because the Chiefs not only wind up turning that with
the help of a giant's penalty into points which breaks
the six to six tigh but they get the double
dip because they get the ball to start the third quarter,
they drive seventy four yards, they score ten unanswered points.
A six to six game becomes sixteen to six before
the Giants touch.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
The ball again.

Speaker 4 (03:30):
So to me, that's the game right there, in a nutshell,
that's the game. And why does that happen? Because the
Giants don't make plays in that six minute stretch and
the Chiefs do. And the Giants make mistakes in that
stretch and the Chiefs don't. And that's the microcosm of

(03:51):
why the Chiefs won the game. And I wonder, though,
here's the question that I did not get a chance
to ask Russell Wilson, and maybe you will.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
Will second my opinion. Does he throw that ball? You
might not. No, No, I'm laughing because I posited as
the same exact question to Bob Pop and Tiki Barber
on the post game before you came upstairs. I asked
him the did you I did.

Speaker 4 (04:14):
Okay, knowing they didn't have the kicker available, was he
force feeding trying to get that big bite for a touchdown?

Speaker 2 (04:23):
Did he forced to play? Look? And you don't know
how not having a field goal kicker changes your play
calling from Brian Dable for one and then the decision
making from the quarterback. I rewatched the whole game this morning,
like I usually do, just finish it around twelve to
twenty five, and it wasn't any better John on that play,

(04:45):
Russell Wilson's number one read is wan No Rominson on
a deep overright route. He looks at that, and the
problem you run into is that by the time he
gets to Neighbors down the right sideline, it's too late.
He's already deep into his route and there's not enough
room in the back of the end zone to put
it over the top. Correct. Now, that doesn't excuse the underthrow.

(05:05):
It still was not a good throw. He should have
made a better throw. He really did not give the
league Neighbors much of a chance to catch that football. No,
it has to be a better throw. But yeah, I
don't know what his mindset is there. I don't But
by the time again he got because they had about
two or three guys on one though Robinson on the crosser.
By the time he got back to Neighbors, he just
had to run out of space in the back of
the end zone. So he probably shouldn't have even attempted it.

(05:26):
But what does Brian Davile teo say, You and league
neighbors one on one, and it's a one on one situation.
You want to give them a chance to make The
play just wasn't executed particularly well. We'll say this and
we'll get to the kicker thing in a second in
more detail, I thought in general, because of this specific play,
I want to bring it up now. I thought much
unlike the Cowboys in Week two, I thought the chief

(05:48):
safeties did a phenomenal job of staying over the top
on everything. Giants players who were just not getting behind
the Chief secondary, I agree with that. Once or twice
they did, and those happened to be plays with the
Chiefs got pressure and you weren't able to let that go,
let that ball go. But for the most part, I
thought the Chief secondary played great football. They had two
safeties back for almost the entire game, and I thought

(06:10):
they did a really good job. But you'll look, and
Tiki made this point in the postgame show, and it
happened to all of us in different ways. We finished
the pregame show around eight or five, and you know,
I got fifteen minutes before kickoff. I usually grab a
little food. I run to the bathroom to make sure
I get back in time for kickoffs. I don't miss
any place. And as I'm heading to the bathroom, I

(06:32):
look down and I see the Dan Salomon tweet and
the reaction again, and it's nobody's fault. Right, Graham gonna
was healthy heading into the game. It's not like they
should have had somebody else actor this kicked very well. Yes,
this is just something that happens. So it's no one's fault.
But you hear it and you're just like, come on, like,

(06:53):
really give me a break, like again after last year,
And again it's nobody's fault. But there is a Ian
Burns even said this after the game where it changes things.
It changes how you approach things, the defense feels like
it to make more plays. Everything changes. And again I
don't know what the answer is here. You know, Graham
Minna was thirty eight years old. Maybe we're just getting

(07:14):
to the point now where he's not able to stay healthy.
We might be there that you can't have this in
a game, like I said, and this, so I opened
the show the way I did that you knew was
going to be low scoring and close and you have
to get every points you can, and you have to
take advantage of every possession. Without a kicker, it's impossible
to do that. It's impossible to do that. So it

(07:36):
just it just made things much more difficult than they
had to be. And again, nobody's fault. It's not Graham's fault.
It's not the team's falls, not the coaches falls, not
the gym's fault. But it happened, and it just put
the team in a very bad spot.

Speaker 4 (07:49):
Yeah, and you know, John, the thing that really kind of,
I guess gnaws at me is that, over the course
of the last couple of weeks, Brian Dable has told
us that, you know, they've even allowed Gillen to take
some kickoffs at practice, and he even did in Dallas

(08:10):
he had.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
A kickoff, So they have.

Speaker 4 (08:15):
Coaching wise, actually, I think they you know, they said
it was part I think Gobriel said it was partly
strategy why they were doing that. But also I was
saying to myself, Okay, maybe this is also a way
to maintain Ganeau's health. And by the way, they right
then and yeah, and they also by the way, kicked
Jude and Mcatomney a ton of King in the summer.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
Yeah, they absolutely did. They didn't even have Ganeau kick
after the first preseason game.

Speaker 4 (08:39):
And and Ganau had gone into off season training had
told me how great he felt. They were saying he.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
Was kicking fantastic. And you're right.

Speaker 4 (08:48):
They gave Mcatamney an awful lot of reps during the
entire offseason from start to finish. So in my mind,
not only did Ganeau do everything to make himself healthy,
but I thought the coaching staff has tried to maximize
his health.

Speaker 2 (09:04):
And this is still what happened. And you have mcatmy
here in case Graham Gna does get hurt, here's the problem.
He got hurt after the active so they so at
that point, there's there's really absolutely nothing you can do.

Speaker 4 (09:17):
So no, because the the activation period for practice squad
guys is four o'clock the day before, correct, So you know,
even if it had happened yesterday morning, it's too late.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
Yeah, and what are you gonna do? All right, let's
talk about the defense a little bit more, and and
and and then we'll guys, let's go about the offense
and then we'll touch on the defense. Kay ye. Pauls
we already touched on a little bit on the offensive
side of the ball. Again, I thought, giving the Saint
Chiefs are playing their two safeties deep most of this game,
I thought they ran the ball pretty well. It was
probably the best running game they've had. Yes, again, it
wasn't dominant. They didn't, you know, break off a bunch

(09:50):
of long runs. But it was functional. I want to
buy my great words. It was good enough. Yeah, it
was good enough. The running game was okay. One of
ten on third down enough, over one on the red
zone not good enough. I need to do a better
job down there. And the thing with the third downs palls,
they were reasonable for the most part. They were not
third and lungs. A lot of third and sixes, a

(10:12):
lot of third and five, a lot of third and four,
a lot of third and sevens, not double digit ones.
And I went back again and on passing plays, the
Chiefs did not blitz a lot. They sent a few
blitzer early in this game, but they did not blitz
a lot. They showed blitz a lot, but they kept
dropping back and it was a lot of foreman rush
Paul and I thought, especially doing a stretch in the
third quarter, the left side of the Giants offensive line

(10:34):
had a lot of issues. Chris Jones and Carl Loftis
had their way with that side of the line, in
my opinion, in the second half of that game. In
the fourth quarter, Carl Loftis was kind of walking Marcus
Bow into the lap of the quarterback an awful lot.
Chris Jones had three straight plays I think it was
either the Giants first or second drive or the third
quarter where he was able to work past John running. Now,

(10:55):
Chris Jones is a great player. That's gonna happen sometimes. Yeah,
But again, they were getting pressure without having the blitz,
which allows you to keep to safeties back, and not
just that they were doing a good job shading a
linebacker to the Mylak Neighbors side. They were paying a
lot of attention to the Meleak Neighbors if they didn't
have a safety over the top. If he ran an
inbreaking route, one of their linebackers would literally at the

(11:17):
snap turn his body and face towards Neighbors to turn
off an inside route and play virtual bracket coverage against
him too. So they were doing a lot in their
game plan to keep the ball away from Eleague neighbors
and Paul, I gotta be honest. We'll get to the
stretch in a second. But in general, I did not
see a ton of guys getting open in the secondary

(11:37):
in this game.

Speaker 4 (11:38):
No, And that was gonna be the point I wanted
to make is that, first of all, in terms of neighbors,
it was like he was in a shark confested pool.

Speaker 2 (11:45):
No, there were a lot of bodies around him. Put
the chum in and then everyone just that's just the
way it was.

Speaker 4 (11:51):
I mean, they they were magnetized. Despangolo is not stupid.
No sooner giants want to get the ball to We
set this last week, you know, on Friday's show with Matt,
I flat out said it it's gonna be about Spagnolo's scheming.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
And you said a pressure. You're right about it. Neighbors
did not get the catches because he put too much
into it.

Speaker 4 (12:10):
Now, by the other token, I agree with John on this.
I don't think there were enough of open guys. As
much as the chum was drawing people to neighbors, I
didn't see enough of other guys getting open on enough
of opportunity. Totally agree with you, and I'll be frank
with you.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
I don't understand that. I really don't. I mean, and again,
I think some of the past pressure in the second
half had something to do with it. We didn't have time,
they don't have a pressure was not overwhelmed. It was
not overwhelming. You're I'm not arguing with you. You're right.
And look, let let's go through that one series in

(12:51):
the red zone, because that was the one red zone
failure that they had late in the game. The Chiefs
were up twenty two to nine on this point, the
Giants drove it down. They had it and make sure
I have this correct. After the Wando Robinson catch from
Russell Wilson down the middle of the field, which is
an unbelievable throw the way again, the same type of
play verse Dallas. It was cover two. They threw the

(13:11):
little skinny post right past the linebacker who actually wasn't
wasn't a bad position. It was beautiful. First, Alston hit
an unbelievable throw to one, the Robinson get the ball
down to the four. So on the first play, and
I'll go through these one by one. Look, it's a
it's a bad sequence you watch it, but I think
there were reasons for all four plays in this sequence

(13:32):
and why they happened doesn't mean it wasn't bad, doesn't
mean people did not mess up and there wasn't people
to blame. But at least this is from what I
saw what I'm looking at. The first play, on a
first and goal at the four, Russell Wilson drops back
to throw. Not a ton of pressure on that particular play.
It was a six man pressure that eventually got there,
and it looked like Russell Wilson was trying to get

(13:55):
it to THEO Johnson near the goal line right off
the snap. But Trent mcduffy is free on a corner
blitz and he jumps and he kind of cuts off
that passing land a bit, and then Russell Wilson has
to bring him back down. He tries to throw it again,
he has to airmail it because again shorter quarterback can't
get it over the rush. He airmails it out of bounds.

(14:16):
They call him for intention to grounding, which I happened
to think was the crreit call. I understand the argument.
It goes right over Johnson's head, but it was so high. Whatever,
whether you like the call or not, that's why that happened, though, right,
it was disrupted. Could give Kansas City credit for that pick? Yes,
and again that was one of the blitzeres they did have.
It was a six man pressure and McDuffie was on
block on that blitzing off at the slot. Next play,

(14:37):
this was the Russell Wilson on a second and fourteen
at the fourteen yard line. Now second and goal at
the fourteen the Russell Wilson quarterback draw.

Speaker 3 (14:44):
Right.

Speaker 2 (14:47):
We talked about on the postgame show. I'm trying to
word this properly, which is why he hesitated. Tiki Barbari
did not like the call on this play. I went
back and I looked at it, and I've been texting
you back and forth with Tiki this morning about the play.
Did you see the alignment from the Chiefs before they
ran the quarterback draw?

Speaker 4 (15:04):
I was down on the goal line at that point.
Not look at the alignment as well as that would.

Speaker 2 (15:09):
Okay, there was literally between the two defensive tackles about
six yards. Nobody was there. The only linebacker was lined
up over the left end, and the two safeties were
lined up on the numbers. To say there was a
lot of room to run a quarterback draw would be

(15:31):
the understatement of the century. Now. Tiki pointed out to
me as we were texting back and forth, well, you know,
when guys are lined up that way, what are you
trying to set up? You're trying to set up a twist, right.
They get the end to come back towards the middle,
and it looks like that's what it was supposed to be,
which I honestly didn't notice on our first watch. Tiki
pointed it out to me, which is why I talked
to the pros. They see stuff that we don't. I'm serious, guys,
these guys see stuff on tape that we don't, which

(15:51):
is why I asked them. And the problem on this play,
Paul is there's so much room. John Michael Schmidz tries
to get to the second level to get the linebacker.
He does fine. Chris Jones pushes Greg Van Rotten right
towards the middle. John Runyon gets pushed right towards the middle.
Marcus bow gets pushed right towards the middle. These guys
had natural angles set up by the formation I'm by

(16:14):
the alignment of the Chiefs, and they can't execute those blocks.
And Russell Wilson only gains what four yards on that
play today on to the ten yard line. That should
have been a much bigger play. I have a problem
when the play and for the fans, I get it.
Russell Wilson's not a super athlete anymore. I get why
you don't like the call. But if you actually look
at the alignment to make a snap, I get why

(16:34):
they ran it when they did. It actually set up
well for the play the Chiefs had called so did
not get executed well. But again, if you don't want
to run Russell Wilson on that spot because he's an
older quarterback, it's not a huge athlete anymore. I get
where you're coming from. But to me, you see where
that defensive lineman was lined up, and I should and
I can even tweet out what it looked like pre

(16:54):
snap if you guys want to take a look at
my Twitter feed, I'll put it up after Paul starts
talking here. I thought, but there was a lot of
room from the run. So I'm not sure the NFL
wants all twenty two up on social media. I would
I wouldn't risk that. Go find it, folks. If you
can find the end zone copy online of that, you
will see the alignment dow'n talking. Well, if you have
NFL plus you can yeah, or NFL plus really really

(17:15):
good point. Absolutely all right, any two comments on those
first two plays, Paull before I get to this at
last two.

Speaker 4 (17:20):
Actually, I have no dispute with anything that you said
so far. And again, I actually thought the Wilson draw
wasn't a bad call. From where I was looking on
the sideline, I thought that there was going to be
room there. I couldn't see the alignment as well as
you did, because you're looking at the twenty two. Yeah,
of course from the back of the end zone.

Speaker 2 (17:37):
I did not.

Speaker 4 (17:38):
Look at that series yet. I've actually got to the
beginning of the fourth quarter and I kind of turned
it off.

Speaker 2 (17:43):
I was little discussed, okay, and now we're getting to
the point where we're talking about what we mentioned earlier.
When no one's getting open on third and goal of
at the ten, Wilson goes back to pass Carl Loftus
again kind of pushes Marcus Bow into Russell Wilson's Oh,
I remember that, And guys, no one's open on this play.
There is nowhere to go with the football. There's not

(18:05):
even like a contested throw that Russell Wilson can make
correct there is nobody open on both this particular play.
Both plays on the second one, I felt like he
could have thrown at the THEO Johnson because he's bigger
than the guy covering him and he you know, Paul,
it's fourth down. Who cares if it gets intercepted?

Speaker 3 (18:24):
Right?

Speaker 2 (18:24):
Who cares? That's understood. No, there wasn't somebody obviously open,
But at that point you have to give your guy
a chance to make the play. That part I agree.
But again a guy gets pushed back and this I
believe it was Charles and menihw in this situation, pushes
the Giants lineman back in the Russell Wilson's face and
again shorter quarterback. So he's trying to get it over

(18:45):
the lineman's head. He can't get it over the head,
and I think he's trying to throw out THEO Johnson
by the way, and he ends up air mailing it
over his head and it hits the crossbar. It looks
like a throwaway. He's trying to get the THEO there,
but again he's unable to because he's got a guy
in his face. Shorter quarterback.

Speaker 4 (19:03):
I think he said in the postgame press conference that
that that the ball came out of his hand a
little bit. I have to go back and I have
to listen to that he couldn't fully step into the
throw properly, and.

Speaker 2 (19:12):
That, yeah, he lost a guy in his face.

Speaker 4 (19:14):
And what if we talked about at the beginning of
this year, pouls the pocket thing you cannot have.

Speaker 2 (19:17):
With Russell Wilson out of the pocket, you cannot have
pressure in his face. But again, I get it. You
have three uncatchable passes and a quarterback draw. When you
start first and goal at the four. It looks bad.
It's bad execution all around. It has to be better.
But again, looking at each one of those plays, there

(19:38):
were reasons why each one of those plays went the
way they did.

Speaker 4 (19:40):
Yeah, I will only emphasize being down there on the
goal line on the third and fourth down throws, there
was nobody who I would consider quote open. You can
tell me maybe Johnson could participate in a contested catch situation.

Speaker 2 (19:56):
And again you want, I won't argue that you have
to give your guy a chance on a fourth that
you can't. Well, that have to make the ball, that's
for sure. And again and Russ tried, he said in
the postgame press contantly tried, he just got away.

Speaker 4 (20:05):
From Yeah, because as a fourteen year vet, I'll be
frank with you, I would have a hard time believing.

Speaker 2 (20:11):
That he did just chuck that ball away. No, it
doesn't make sense. It doesn't make anything.

Speaker 4 (20:15):
It doesn't make any sense. Rookie might do that because
he has a brain lock. Russell Wilson's not doing.

Speaker 2 (20:20):
Especially someone that we know is willing to throw the
ball up and contested catches and exactly play. So I'm
with you, you know, yes, that would be my only counter
on that conversation. Bad execution doesn't look good. We should
do the one positive. I al thought two positives out
there again. I thought Jermaina Luminor has played a really
good game. Right tackle talked about again, they did not

(20:40):
come from Jermaina Luminoor's side. No, he did another nice job.
And Cam Scataboo, who now looks like we might see
a lot more of him moving forward, depending on what's
up with Tyrone Tracy. We haven't heard anything yet, but
obviously it did not look great with him coming off
the field the way he did. We'll see what happens there.
But Schkataboo did a nice job. I thought he had
a couple of cup backs, maybe when he should have
stuck play side on a couple of zone runs. But

(21:01):
other than that, you know, you like his hands. He
breaks tackles, he makes people miss, he plays with energy,
he energizes everybody. He plays through the whistle, and him
and Devin Singulitary and now it's very important you have
three backs Dante Miller and he could have elevations from
Dante Miller now too, So I would think, so, I
think that's what you're looking at. But those are the
two positives I took out of the offensive side of
the ball.

Speaker 4 (21:22):
John, Quite honestly, there were no other positives. It was
incredibly disappointing in so many ways, and even defensively. You know,
some very important key mistakes, and I know you want
to get to that in a minute, but you know, overall,
this goes back to the statement that was made about
making the key plays when you have to make them.

(21:46):
That the Giants make a single play other than Scattaboo's
thirteen year touchdown where he showed extra effort to dive
across the goal line, did they make any plays above
the exces.

Speaker 2 (21:56):
And I would consider that Russell Wilson throw on the
Robinson above the x's and others, because such a tight throw,
terrific throw, a throw though that he's more than capable
of making it. Yeah, a great throw though, so great throw.
I agreed. And that's it, right, that's pretty much it.
That's it. That's it. And by the way, same for
the defense. And why don't we go over to the
Chiefs das.

Speaker 4 (22:15):
And that's what I mean, because it goes for both
sides of the ball, right, And they had chances, as
Burns said, to.

Speaker 2 (22:21):
Get takeaway and this is it didn't get the ball.
And this is the frustrating thing. The defense was not
bad in this game. It was only give a three
hundred and ten yards of offense. The Chiefs were not
marching up and down the field. They only gave up
twenty two points. Now it should have been twenty five.
The Chiefs did miss the chips shot field the four
yards to carry. Yeah, I thought the run defense could
have been a little bit better, but it was fine.
It wasn't debilitating by any No. They controlled Patrick Mahomes

(22:44):
of scrambling ability, something we talk a lot about in
the pregame show that's killed teams this year. They did
a good job not letting him scramble and kill him
with that.

Speaker 4 (22:50):
The one thirty three yard bomb to the one yard line.
He extended that play long enough and.

Speaker 2 (22:55):
Then scrambling running. No, okay, yes, okay, right, though he
did the one to the right sideline.

Speaker 4 (23:00):
Yeah, and that and that unfortunately just getting there split
second too late. And and look at look at look
at the catch to Thornton Maine two.

Speaker 2 (23:09):
By the way, I'm sure Abdul Carter is kicking himself
for not bringing Mahomes down on that. Every opportunity to
tackle him on that, I think my game a little
stiff arm. I think that's what I saw on the
on the coach's date. But Carter got two hands on him,
and I'm sure he was kicking himself for not taking
him down in that situation. I thought Brian Burns was
an absolute monster again in this game. Terrific, especially in
the first half. I thought he played great, and especially

(23:32):
after he went down.

Speaker 4 (23:33):
Yeah, he came right back, came right back in and
he was hustling all over the field.

Speaker 2 (23:37):
I love this guy. But again, the two opportunities and
I shouldn't say that. Three or four opportunities that I'll
bring up here Paul is the Pauls and a Deebo
dropped interception which she's eventually scored on that drive. So
that's literally putting points on the board. There where a
debo by the way, and I don't know if it
was his responsibility or safety was supposed to be there,

(23:59):
but the coverage allowed. I believe that.

Speaker 4 (24:03):
Was Taekwon Thornton or is that Hollywood Brown? That might
have been Hollywood I though I think it was Hollywood Brown.
Was wide open on a deep post like no one
was near him. And if Mahomes makes a better throw,
that's a touchdown.

Speaker 2 (24:16):
Oh, I agree with it. And a de bo comes
over tries to make a play because Mahomes underthrows it,
should have picked the ball off, hit him in his hands.
He can't do it. That's two. That's play number one.
Have you ever seen a quarterback like Patrick Mahomes throw
two backwards passes into the ground before in the same game? No, well,
he did it.

Speaker 3 (24:34):
He did.

Speaker 2 (24:34):
How many times did the Giants come up with those
backwards passing? Zero? Correct? The first one was just bad
luck on a bounce he bounces it down his Isaiah,
but I think it was Pacheco right right in the chest.
He throws it down, goes right to an offensive lineman
in his chest. Bad luck. Nothing you can do. It
wasn't really an opportunity for the Giants to get to
that ball in my opinion.

Speaker 4 (24:54):
All but on the second one there was. Bobby Ocarrikey
needs to fall on it well and well and again.
This goes back to the field goal kicker thing. Is
Bobby o'caak thinking we don't have a field goal kicker.

Speaker 2 (25:05):
Do I need to score a goal here? And by
the way, I also want to tip my captain Patrick
Mahomes on that play. That's one of the best quarterback
plays I have ever seen on a loose ball in
my five years of being on this planet. He bolted
after it and he dropped the ball out of his hands. Yeah,
he didn't dive on it.

Speaker 4 (25:21):
Bobby has the ball in his hands, not Maholmes. Not
a very good grip.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
Well, I think he was still probably gathering it as
he picked it up off the ground. But Patrick Mahomes
rips the ball away. I'd rather Bobby just fall on it. Yes, ideally,
I agree with you.

Speaker 4 (25:40):
Bobby also probably didn't think that Patrick Mahomes would be
like you say, bolt coming out of the offensive back here.

Speaker 2 (25:45):
Probably didn't get after that ball. Probably didn't. So I
do have to tip my captain Mahomes. It was a
great play, but yes, you got to make sure you
come up with that ball and that will give the
Giants the ball inside the ten yard line. Correct, maybe
you score a touchdown, the whole game is different. And
when you have those types of opportunities balls to take
the ball away from the other team and you go
zero for two again and if you want to count

(26:07):
the first backwards past oh for three to get it,
and then later in the game you had another chance
an interceptional pulse. In the debo that he did not
come up with. That one was a little bit tougher
in my opinion. But yeah, I'm not crying on that.
Other people have said that. I just wanted to bring
it up to make sure we're being I thought that
was a tougher one too. I have to agree with you.
I don't think that's necessarily totally fair. But look again,

(26:27):
the defense wasn't bad, but you miss those opportunities. The
pass rush was good. The pass rush wasn't dominant, right,
so you just not getting quite enough from anyone out there. Again,
I thought Burns was fantastic to make enough plays to
come away with the win. And that's that's kind of
what you're looking at. Again. We talked about it against

(26:47):
a team like the Chiefs, every time they present you
an opening, you need to seize it. And the Giants
did not do that in this game.

Speaker 4 (26:53):
And that's what makes it so annoying for the Giants
because the Chiefs were a very beatable team last night,
and of course they were. That's it, very simple. They
were very beatable team and the Giants just did enough
to squander opportunity after opportunity. And now this is where
they sit and you know, we'll hopefully find out.

Speaker 2 (27:13):
I guess what is it? Dables supposed to talk at
around two thirty two, Yes, and folks, I should bring
that up, and Paul was going there. I'm sure I
know everybody wants going to talk about who the quarterback
is gonna be. Brian Dabele took the same tack that
he did in week one. He's not gonna make any
decisions after the game. He talks at two thirty today.
It was one thirty after Week one, Paul and I
kind of waited to find out what the deal was.
We're not going to do that this week since he's

(27:34):
going on at two thirty, and I didn't want to
get into that whole thing because we're gonna have a
whole week to talk about that. It'll be Lance and
Sidetach tomorrow. You can call them, you can talk about that.
Whatever decision gets made. If you want to tall us
today and ask us about it, we can talk about
it today too. That's fine. I'm not gonna turn your
calls away. We're happy to have that conversation. But I
felt like it was more important to talk about the
game off the top here than talk about something we're
not gonna have an answer to right or we're gonna

(27:56):
have an answer to an hour after the show. So
when people listen to this on the archive, like no,
I'm serious, they'll be like, why are they talking about
who's gonna be starting quarterback when everyone knows already Ms
Daviell's talking at two thirty. So I thought it was
more important to talk about the game today.

Speaker 4 (28:09):
Yeah, no question. And you know, I think the one
thing that I want to stress to you folks out there.
I did again talk to Burns after the game, and
we played some of that on the postgame show yesterday.
It's not necessarily the same old giants. Burns and other
players in that locker room were very assertive in that

(28:31):
we know it's owing three and there's another game Sunday,
and you got to win that game Sunday. But the attitude,
the mentality, the togetherness, the leadership group in this locker
room is strong enough and good enough that they have
not splintered. And you made a comment to me.

Speaker 2 (28:50):
I would hope you're not splintering after three games. Well,
a lot of other people outside the building are splintering.
Oh that's true, that's fair. And you made a comment
to me.

Speaker 4 (28:59):
I thought it was very relevant yesterday on the postgame show,
and now trying to remember what it was.

Speaker 2 (29:08):
Was it that it seemed like the veteran players.

Speaker 4 (29:10):
About Wilson you mentioned to me on the postgame you
asked me, you said, you're in the downstairs, Paul, what
do you think I mean? It seems like from what
the clips you heard that the team in the locker room,
the guys was still behind the decision to stick with Wilson,
and I couldn't agree with that more because I was
right up there at a bunch of guys' faces at

(29:32):
their lockers talking to them. Everyone got those questions, and
believe me, believe me, the folks who are in charge
of writing the newspaper articles, they peppered that subject to death.

Speaker 2 (29:46):
And nobody, nobody was jumping on board. So I agree
with you. I think this locker room is strongly behind Wilson.

Speaker 4 (29:56):
I think they appreciate his career, they respect what he
has tried to do to unify this team, and I
also believe that they admire his everlasting positivity to try
to help, you know, drag things out of the mud.

Speaker 2 (30:11):
Now again, eventually, all this good stuff that you just
talked about has to turn the wins at some point,
because at some point the rope breaks correct and it
has to turn the wins. So we'll see how that
goes it Again, we'll know later on today who the
quarterback is going to be in week number four if
they make the change. I get it, and I've said
this since the offseason that we're not gonna know when

(30:33):
Jackson Dart is ready. The only people that are gonna
know when Jackson Darter is ready, are Brian Dable? And
that to me is what's gonna and Mike Kafkin and
you know that group, Joe Shane and that's what's gonna
guide this decision. And we don't know that. We're not
in the meeting rooms, we're not out of practice. We
don't know if he's you know, destroying the defense on
the scout team, like, we don't know how any of
that is going. Nobody has told us players don't answer

(30:53):
those questions in the locker room. We don't have those
answers for you, So we'll see what the giants do.
I understand the argument both ways. To be honest with you,
I know I'm not gonna deviate from what Paul and
I talked about all summer. You have a plan to
be patient. You just stick with that plan and be patient.
I know it's hard, and we talked about how hard
it was gonna be if this was the situation in
the summer. We literally talked about this exact situation and

(31:16):
how hard it would become. Well, we're here, this is
where we are, and we'll see what the giants end
up doing. And again, no one has a better feel
for whether or not Jackson Dart's ready to go than
Brian Dable, and he'll make that decision and we'll see
what happens.

Speaker 4 (31:27):
This was always one of the plausible scenarios, but one
I think everybody was hoping to avoid.

Speaker 2 (31:32):
Yep, but here we are two one nine, three, nine
four five one three two a one nine three nine
four five one three. Our rapid reaction is up in
the Giants Little Podcast. Make sure you go check that out.
It's brought to you by Citizens. You can find it
on the Giants app, Giants dot com Slash podcast. That
is an audio only so go subscribe on your favorite
podcast platform. It really helps us out. Let's go to
the calls and lead off with Kevin in Philadelphia. Kevin,

(31:55):
you're first on Big Blue Kickoff Live today. Thank you
for your patience. How are you today?

Speaker 3 (32:00):
Hey?

Speaker 5 (32:00):
Good analysis guys. Like a lot of the folks in
Giants Nation, I think we're in a bit of a
logical conundrum of the worst time here. I mean I
listened to the analysis of the Chiefs game, the Dallas game,
the Washington game, and I even listened to a few
from last year. In the previous year, and you know,

(32:23):
we get to a point where maybe at a macro level,
you say, hell a bottom line, this team is not winning.
Why are they not winning? Is it the level of
talent that has been brought together, is it the coaching
of said talent, what have you. But there has to
be some underlying reasons or a thinking behind it, because

(32:48):
every game turns into well if this happened, if this
could have happened, the opponent was too daunting, whatever. But
the bottom line, like I think you just said a
few minutes ago, is you know, they got to win games,
and they don't win games, and we need to know
why they're not winning games. And I'll give you an

(33:09):
example and then I'll hear your thoughts. So you mentioned
in your analysis, here's Malik Neighbors, arguably one of the
best five to ten best receiving talents in the league.
Go okay, and you've got the Chiefs committing a dB
a safety and often a linebacker. It then begs the question,

(33:31):
you mean to tell me that in the scheming for
this game, the offensive scheming, you're not going to have
some ways of combating that. And if you can't combat
it because you don't have receivers that are capable of
getting open, that's the problem. But if you feel that
the receivers you have are talented and are of the

(33:55):
caliber you want, then you have to lay it at
the doorstep of the coaching and preparation. So that's where
I get into the conundrum I'm referring to and would
love your thoughts well, Kevin.

Speaker 2 (34:07):
Look, I think your overarching point and appreciate the call.
Thank you very much. I think I understand where you're
coming from. Then that when you're trying to figure out
the big picture reason on what's going on, what's the
overall reason this thing's going wrong? And I do think
week to week, game to game, it's different every week.
I think it's hard to say that, Okay, well this
is the reason, this is the reason every week all
of this is happening. I don't think that's fair. I

(34:28):
think every game is its own thing and every game
is different. But look, that's the type of big, overarching
thought and conversation that you know that happens way above
our pay grade upstairs with with with ownership. And I
wish I had a better answer for you, because I
do think there are players on this team that are good.
But at the same time, I also know and that

(34:51):
Brian Dabele was a good offensive coach. Like you talk
to people around the league. I've said this before. They
all have a lot of respect for what Brian Dable
does as an offensive coordinator. People keep trying to hire
Mike caf to run their offenses. He keeps getting interviews,
So the league has respect for what he's done. Why
hasn't it exactly come together. I wish I could put
my finger on it for you and say, well, this
is it. If you fix that, everything's gonna be okay.

(35:14):
I don't, Kevin. It's a fair question, and I get
where you're coming from. I just don't have that answer
for you. You know.

Speaker 4 (35:21):
One of the other things that Burne said yesterday after
the game is that the Giants have not really played
complimentary football. The game flow has basically been very jagged
and ragged because every time you think that they've got
a good offensive series, something sabotages it, and usually it's

(35:42):
one of their own misfortunes. And then maybe if they
get a couple of good defensive series and you think
it's gonna be okay, well, then all of a sudden
something goes wrong on defense. It's a litany of things
that just continue to be peppered throughout the games.

Speaker 2 (36:00):
You're right, John, I wish it was.

Speaker 4 (36:02):
Just one thing all the time, if there is one
common denominator, kind of through the first three games, too
many mistackles.

Speaker 2 (36:11):
I still think there were a few last night that
I would like to have had back yea, And again
if I were tackling them, and I would say this
generally speaking, a lack of execution, guys not making enough
plays and given what this wing to an anti given play.
But again then you can make your army well, why
a they not executing well? Is because they're not be
in a good position? Are they not good enough to
execute well? That gets back to Kevin's question too, And
I don't have that answer.

Speaker 4 (36:30):
No, No, I think you know after three games too.
I know nobody wants to hear this, but it is
a small sample size. And before you start to make
very big, broad brush, huge decisions about what needs to stay,
what needs to go, what do you want to change,
you got to go through more than three games. I
mean this is almost like a bite of a cookie.

(36:52):
I mean three games is.

Speaker 2 (36:54):
Look, it's fairness and for hey, Paul, you're a quarter
of the way through the season. I know, I know,
I mean gets gets gets late fast, It does, it does.
We knew it was going to be a struggle, folks.
The schedule was difficult. This was not a secret. This
is why you had to win the Dallas game last week. Yeah,

(37:14):
this is why you have to win that Dallas game.
How different would you feel right now if you were
one and two? You know what I mean?

Speaker 4 (37:19):
All right?

Speaker 2 (37:20):
And I think the other thing you worry about now too,
is that you see what the Bears just did to
that Cowboys defense, and you wonder, well, what that offense
explosion last week?

Speaker 4 (37:28):
Was it?

Speaker 2 (37:29):
Your offense was really good? Or are you just facing
maybe the worst consideration has to be consideration? That's a
question too, right, So all things to consider moving forward here,
Let's get back to your calls at two A, one, nine, three, four,
five one through. Let's go to Michael and mont Laurel. Michael,
what's going on, man?

Speaker 6 (37:46):
Hey, how's it going?

Speaker 2 (37:47):
Guys?

Speaker 6 (37:49):
Feeling kind of how Kevin just went through and he
basically kind of said the macro environment thing, the biggest
thing overall is the last decade we're zero and three
again were it's the same thing over and over and over.
The lack of preparedness, a lack of execution, some holes
in the talent on the roster, not building the roster correctly,

(38:10):
not fixing the other line. Finally, maybe not bringing in
the correct pieces. Overall, for the last ten plus years,
we can nitpick different positive things, we can say different excuses,
we can do the weekend week out thing, but at
the end of the day, we're not winning games. It's
all attributed to, at least in my opinion from the
macro standpoint, and you guys mentioned it. What's the one
common denominator. The one common denominator is that this team

(38:32):
from an ownership perspective, has not changed or deviated in
the last ten to fifteen years. We have to stop
doing the same thing over and over again, because that's
the definition of insanity. We need to bring in third
party ownership operations, think about the way the team is
built top down.

Speaker 3 (38:47):
Different.

Speaker 6 (38:48):
It's not to say anything as a one week thing.
Overall is the same conversations every week now.

Speaker 2 (38:54):
Michael, look late Michael, by the way, on the field,
I have no argument with you. You're absolutely right. We've
had these same conversation going back to twenty thirteen. I'll
make that. I think it's fair to say that right
now there's different pieces of different people in different chairs,
different people doing different things, but no argument the problems
on the field, and look, they change year to year,
game to game largely. But I get where you're coming from,

(39:15):
and you're not wrong. The product on the field has
not been good enough. There's no argument for me at all.
But I will say this. You say that the consistency
has been upstairs, but I will put this to you.
When the Giants hired Joe Shane as their general manager,
and look, you want to argue that they tried to
keep continuity going from Jerry Reese to Dave Gentelman because

(39:35):
David been here previously. I can peer that argument. That's fine.
I get that. And do you want to make the
argument cool. I'm not going to fight you on that one.
But they literally said, Joe, do whatever you want. That
is what the Marintage family said to Joe Shane. He
completely redid the front office, brought almost an entirely new
scouting staff. A couple of the pro guys stayed. There

(39:58):
are some new pro guys as well, they've promoted some
guys from within technology, but there's a lot of new
people working on the analytics side of things. They've made
a lot of changes Mike up there, and they allowed
Joe Shane to build this the way he wanted and
they've given him the freedom to do that. I mean,
we usually al saw on hard knocks that John marrab

(40:21):
would have really liked Saquon Barkley back in this building.
Joe Shane didn't think it was the right move. He said,
all right, go do it. You're the GM, I'm giving
you the ability to do this. So Joe Shane has
had a very different approach than what Dave Gettleman had.
It has been very different. He's brent on a lot
of different people upstairs. So to me, there has not
been a ton of continuity in that way going from

(40:44):
Dave Gettleman to Joe Shane. There has been a lot
of changes there. John Mara let Joe Shane implement the changes,
the strategy and the policies that he wanted to put
in putting this organization and building it from the ground up,
and he's allowed him to do that. Now again, results
look similar, and I understand why that's really frustrating. And
I'm not arguing with you on that. You're absolutely right

(41:05):
about it. But and Paul Police, stop me if you
think I'm wrong on any of this, and then Mike
you can respond and and and finish for sure. But
there has been since Joe's gotten here a ton of
changes upstairs in this building.

Speaker 4 (41:17):
An immense amount of changes. They basically turned over the
whole Apple card. And I would even go further and
say that, you know, sometimes when you have coaching staff changes,
you know there'll be two or three guys who kind
of hang around from the previous administration. But if you
look at the Staves over the last several years, how
many of the guys on the staves had previous connections

(41:40):
to the Giants? Well, there were Spagnolo, there was Jason Garrett,
and after that, who else?

Speaker 2 (41:48):
I mean one since the ones Dable came in that
that that was over you are anymore.

Speaker 4 (41:52):
Everybody else came from the outside. So I mean, I
I I'm with John on this one. I don't see
I don't see a lot of the same folks in
those spots or or same procedures either happening they over
do you know here here's look, I'm gonna step out
of the box.

Speaker 2 (42:11):
He a little bit, and you can punch me in
the arm if you want. It's had to be in
the arm. Well okay, uh.

Speaker 4 (42:18):
The Giants general manager Joe Shane and his next second
third people in command when the Giants go on the road,
they go on the road ahead of the team. They
go out and see in person college games that they
are in person doing in addition to the scouting staff yep.

(42:41):
Then they hustle to the Giants road game and meet
the team at the road stadium. After Sometimes each of
the guys in Joe's inner circle have gone to see
a Saturday afternoon college game followed by a Saturday night
college game, then taking a red eye or driving if

(43:02):
they have to to get to the Giants road game.

Speaker 2 (43:05):
By the way, in week one, they did Friday night,
Saturday afternoon, and Saturday night.

Speaker 4 (43:08):
Yeah, three games, that's correct. So please understand one thing.
You may not be happy with the results because nobody
else is either, But don't tell me that they're doing
the same old, same old thing for the last ten years.
And don't tell me that they are not breaking their
bones in every way possible to try to make this

(43:29):
team better because I know it personally, all right, Mike, go.

Speaker 6 (43:33):
Ahead, Yeah, no, no, And I appreciate that. It's not
a lack of effort or anything associated with that. I
know the organization has moved in a I would say
a tweets direction, but the consistency is still there, even if,
like the ownership made the decision to give and relinquish
more power to shown at the end of the day,
let's think about it, ten fifteen years down the line,

(43:53):
the offensive line is not picked. We still have coaching issues.
We went through Macadu, we went through Judge, we went
through Shermer, same thing here with we went We're probably
go to go through Dable. Maybe it is a thing
we're shown needs more time, and maybe Dabele needs more time.
But they've had a pretty good amount of time thus far,
and the changes that have been implemented the organization have
not resulted in winning football yet at the end of
the day, that's what the fans need, and it's a

(44:14):
result oriented.

Speaker 3 (44:15):
Business, Mike.

Speaker 2 (44:15):
And that's fair, that's fair, and that's right. The card
is fair. We are we are not arguing with that
with you. We're not. We have not made one excuse
walking on the show here today.

Speaker 3 (44:24):
No.

Speaker 4 (44:24):
Zero, just tried to give you a little more of
the full picture as to behind the scenes and guys.

Speaker 2 (44:29):
It's not like, you know, mister Mahers sitting there watching
tape and picking out the offensive tackles. No, no, that
is what's happening here. Year years ago.

Speaker 4 (44:39):
The old legendary story about Wellington Mara was that, you know,
he would get these college magazine street us, Yes, and
he would literally try to start scouting guys by looking
at the magazines. I mean, this goes back to the fifties,
you know. I mean that's not what they're doing today.

Speaker 2 (45:00):
Believe you me.

Speaker 4 (45:01):
Have you seen the video on giants dot com of
the quote draft war room that is like a Star
Trek or Star Wars Mastership and Control Center. I mean,
they have done everything they can do update this franchise
to make it.

Speaker 2 (45:19):
As competitive as possible. Please tell me more about sci
fi television, Paul, Battlestar Galacti. We got a third one.
Good job fall this yet, I'll get you made me
laugh at I don't think that.

Speaker 3 (45:32):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (45:33):
All right, let's go to Abdua Minneapolis. He's been holding
the longest, Abdul, what's going on?

Speaker 3 (45:37):
Man, big job. I'm so bummed out that we're having
this conversation again.

Speaker 2 (45:43):
So are we?

Speaker 3 (45:44):
But and of course, so first of all, this is
just two comments on some of you guys said earlier
in the show. I think everyone saw this happening with
about Graganow. The guy missed sixteen games the last two years.
He's thirty eight years old, right, Like, you guys really
didn't think that he'd be hurt again this year, Like
I think that you know.

Speaker 2 (46:02):
No, no, no, no, no, you're right, No, Abdul, if
you would have gotten hurt in a normal way, would
I have been shocked? No, But you can't predict it's
gonna be after let me finish.

Speaker 3 (46:12):
You knew he was gonna get hurt, no matter what.
I knew it, Like when I spoke to the Offeason's like,
why are we keeping go? He's gonna get hurt this year?
Everyone said that. Everyone said that, and lo and behold
they're game. He's hurt already.

Speaker 2 (46:25):
But again, due you can adjust if he gets hurt
in a normal fashion, No do You're not wrong? And
if Gno would have gotten hurt this year, I wouldn't
have been that surprised. I don't think Paul would have
been that surprised, but you can adjust. When it happens.
No one, no one would have called me and said, hey, John,
you know what, He's gonna get hurt the day of
the game, ten minutes before kickoff.

Speaker 3 (46:43):
I guess my problem for the for the which which
is the bigger which what we want to talk about
is that I think we have a large enough sample
sample selection of of right now. The Giants have been
out coached and ol GMed to the past four past
fifteen years, and I guess, and no one knows why,

(47:04):
but it's happening again. You know. It's like when you
watch other teams, when you watch the Redskins, they were
in the same position four years ago as the Giants,
but they retooled, they got the right coach, they got
the right GM, they got the right players, and now
they are where they are. And it's so frustrating when
you see teams, you know, right quarterback exactly, but they

(47:24):
got the people in there to make the right decisions right,
and it seems like we just continually get the wrong
people to make the end. It's and it's and it's
and it's different people. That's why it's so frustrating. You know, Joe,
Shane and Dabele are different than Judge and you know
and uh the uh Older gms you know get them exactly.
You know, you think I was so for them, but

(47:47):
now I'm at a point where I'm like, I don't
trust them. I couldn't trust stable or shown to make
the right decisions as far as I can throw them. Honestly,
That's why I feel like I have zero trust and
what they're going to do next, and it's that's so
deflating as a for a for a people were for
fans all I understand in October and like it's over.

Speaker 2 (48:10):
Adua, look, I understand why you would feel that way,
and in three I can't. I'm nothing I can say
is going to convince you to think otherwise because the
results are what they are.

Speaker 3 (48:20):
I'm not looking around.

Speaker 2 (48:21):
Oh no, I know that. I know you're not. I
know you're not. No Vent. Please Vent. It's okay, I
got you. I understand, you know.

Speaker 3 (48:26):
And so people like should we start Dart? I have
zero zero. Whatever they do, I think they'll make your
decision the decision, you know, and it's like, it's so
frustrating back to have that feeling, you know, because I
was really the one thing I called earlier in August
and I said, the one thing that's going to uh

(48:48):
possibly derail the uh the season would be uh the
the eventive coordinator and the lack of run defense. And
so far, you know, the defense wasn't the problem last game,
I can tell you that. But now it's like because
I thought I thought day Ball would figure out with
Russell Wilson and neighbors and you know, but it's like
you're looking at this offense. You look, so the teams

(49:10):
that play Kansas City the last two games were moving
the ball on them, you know, in the air. Suddenly
we can't figure out how to like pass with with
with two deep safeties, Like we don't know how to
figured that out. That wasn't some kind of like weird,
like you know, eccentric see game plan, but from Kansas
City too deep safety. They can't figure out a way

(49:32):
to scheme that. And that's why it's so frustrating when
you see the next week, we'll see Kansas City get
killed by the other team, and like, why could we.

Speaker 5 (49:41):
Do with that?

Speaker 2 (49:42):
Honestly, I'm not sure when to see Kansasity get killed.
I don't think their defenses, you know what I mean yet, No,
I understand what you're saying.

Speaker 3 (49:48):
You know, so anyway, so I don't know. I'm not
really looking for answers at this point. I'm just thoroughly
disappointed that it's not even October and or you know,
I'm thinking about next year already, and it's just I
get it. I wish I wasn't here anyway, you know,
I get help to turn it around, you know. At
this point, I think they should put in Dart, you know.

(50:10):
I hopefully that will open up in the middle of the field,
and he's a little taller, you know, it might give
them more of an option, It might give him, you know,
something that Russell doesn't have. But I'm also afraid that,
as you said, the locker room is still really respects
Russell Wilson, you know, and I don't want able to
lose the locker room, you know, with that move. So
it's kind of once again, it's a tough situation to
be in and I really wish we weren't there.

Speaker 2 (50:30):
Thanks appreciate to call my friend. And by the way,
the chiefs are tenth in the league, allowing one hundred
and eighty three passing yards per game. Now, some of
that got shifted a little bit by what happened this week.
But Jalen Hurts did not throw for a lot of
yards against the Chiefs last week. No, he did not.
I mean to say their past defense has been bad
this year, I don't think. I don't think it's accurate,
just from my perspective. No, I concur with that.

Speaker 4 (50:52):
I think, Uh, you know the one thing that I
will I will push back a little bit on we
don't know exactly what those routes were. When we said
earlier on that one drive in the fourth quarter, when
we saw guys covered in the end zone, Uh, and
there was nowhere for Wilson to really go with the
ball to find an open receiver. I mean it's easy

(51:16):
for anyone to say, well, why didn't they scheme them open? Well,
how do you know they didn't have some good plays
called and the guys just didn't get open. I mean
it is incumbent upon a player to do what he's
got to do to break free from his guy, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (51:32):
Yeah? No, Look, I mean look, and Brian Davils said
after the game when you, you know, score nine points offensively,
that's not everybody that's on the play. It is it is,
and and no one explained escapes blame for that. So
jore one nine three nine four five one three. It's
got to coach Kevin out in Arizona. Coach, what's going on?

Speaker 7 (51:52):
Hey, guys, how you doing doing all right?

Speaker 2 (51:54):
Coach?

Speaker 7 (51:54):
On a not a happy day?

Speaker 2 (51:56):
You know, Coach, We actually spoke last week and it
turns out the Chiefs it not blitz a lot, so
our little game plan of streams and traps would not
have worked out very well as the guys that win.

Speaker 7 (52:06):
No, I just goes to show you, No, we don't
know everything we should know anyway, that's true.

Speaker 3 (52:11):
I show that after last night.

Speaker 7 (52:15):
After last night, I think I'm officially coming out of
retirement and I'm going to offer my services to help
script situational play calling. When you're on the goal line
or in the red zone where you don't empty the backfield.
You're gashing them with the run game with Scataboo and
the other backs, and you go and you're on the

(52:36):
four yard line three minutes left in the game, and
you go empty backfield and you're gashing them in the
run game. They were moving the ball on the ground.
I mean there was a couple bad reads by Scataboo,
a couple.

Speaker 4 (52:51):
Wait.

Speaker 7 (52:51):
Look, we're on the four yard line and you're spreading
the offense and you have Scataboo out in the trips
to the right side. I mean, come on, this is
a situational football that you have to know.

Speaker 3 (53:04):
Mister Kavka.

Speaker 2 (53:05):
Well, I will yield to Paul Datino here because I
know he wants to run the ball inside the ten,
so I will let him.

Speaker 4 (53:11):
I think agree with you on this one. I'm a
big proponent of the power running game.

Speaker 7 (53:16):
Obviously, empty backfield, I know, empty back build. They were
empty back build the entire series the four plays.

Speaker 2 (53:23):
Yeah, coach, empty.

Speaker 4 (53:24):
Coach, That's yeah, that's look. I understand those people who
believe in that philosophy. This is one of those agreed
to disagree things.

Speaker 3 (53:34):
Right.

Speaker 2 (53:35):
I'm a power run game guy. And by the way, coach,
just so you're aware, and I just went and I
double checked it. The first and goal at the four
on the intentional grounding Singletary was in the backfield next
to Russell Wilson on that particular play. The other ones
were empty, if I recall properly. But the first and
goal at the four singletary wasn't the backfield? Just to
make sure we have that straight.

Speaker 4 (53:54):
No. I am a big proponent of powering the ball
and muscling the ball in. But the theory behind and
you know this, the theory behind going empty backfield is
to quote spread everything out so that you get all
those defenders out sidelined the sideline and allows you more
room to do what you're gonna do.

Speaker 2 (54:14):
I'm not sure, by the way, did did you see
the next gen stats that coming into this game have
the Giants head run spread more than any other team
in the NFL. They have not seen that. Yes, so lovely,
You're welcome.

Speaker 4 (54:25):
No, and you know, but but you know what, my man, Kevin,
here's the thing for me. I would I would not
only load up in the power run game when you
get down that close to the end zone, but I'd
bring in a jumbo package and I'm gonna load up
with two or three tight ends.

Speaker 2 (54:41):
I'm gonna or I'm gonna bring in an extra offensive
lineman and I'm gonna smash mount the ball in now
Here's But that's just me, I do wonder and Kevin
and Kevin and Kevin.

Speaker 7 (54:50):
Hold on, that's what everybody should do.

Speaker 2 (54:52):
Kevin, Kevin, real quick, I want I want to know
Kevin one second, Kevin one second. I want to ask
both of you guys this question. You have plenty of
time to finish, don't worry. Do you think down twenty
two nine first and goal at the four with three
twelve to go? Do you think there's a worry that
if you run it and don't make it, you're losing
a lot of the clock.

Speaker 4 (55:11):
That is absolutely consideration. I don't think there's any doubt
about that. It's going to be something that you have
to compute. I would say this though, too. One of
the problems with the spread offense in that situation is
that people get married to it and they'll often use
it even earlier in the game when the clock isn't

(55:31):
that important.

Speaker 2 (55:32):
Yeah, I agree, and I don't think that was necessarily
the case in this game. I think it was nine
stuck with the run game.

Speaker 4 (55:37):
It was not pretty well, it was not the case
in this particular game, but in general, the philosophy behind
using the power running game when you get in close
is not only do you want to muscle the ball
in because you want to believe in your guys with
the strength and the power and the might and their
physicality and their will. But you also want to take
some of the will out of the other team's defense.

Speaker 2 (55:56):
That's true. That's that's a psychological thing. You're trying to
beat them into the Kevin, go ahead.

Speaker 7 (56:01):
I'm sorry, Well, I have to agree with Paul on that.

Speaker 3 (56:05):
And like I said, we're.

Speaker 7 (56:06):
Talking the four yard line here. We're talking the four.
If it was if it was like the seven, the
eight to ten, maybe there's some room there to come maneuver.
With the spread offense, you've got a little bit more space.
You don't have any space when you're on the four
yard line. So I go with the power and get
him in there. Look, you're moving the ball. We were
moving the ball. What we run for one hundred and

(56:28):
seventy one eighty yard What was the stats on that, John,
We lose right.

Speaker 2 (56:33):
Let me check rushing Giants had one hundred and thirty
rushing yards four point eight yards per carry.

Speaker 4 (56:37):
Now, Kevin, I would one caveat and you and I
are not going to like this particularly, but we have
to admit the Giant's interior offensive line has not exactly
blown people off the line of scrimmage.

Speaker 7 (56:52):
True, But I'll tell you what, when they took out
the left tackle and brought in I thought that was
a mistake too early in the game. I know they
had him scripted for twenty five plays, but he was
fine and they were moving.

Speaker 4 (57:08):
Yeah, but this was but the medical staff had put
a limit on him thanks to the wet run. I
appreciate him, man, Thomas told us after the game. We
really didn't get a chance to say that on this program.
We talked about it in the post game. Yeah, Thomas
was given a medical limit by the training staff. They're like, okay,
you can get out there, you can start, you can play,
but when you hit your limited plays, you're coming out.

Speaker 2 (57:30):
And everybody understood what that was going to mean.

Speaker 4 (57:34):
And if it was going to be in the first half,
it was going to be in the second half.

Speaker 2 (57:38):
Whenever it was going to be.

Speaker 4 (57:39):
He was coming out when he got his finish line.
They were not going to push him any further.

Speaker 2 (57:44):
And he did not look happy about it on the sideline.
I don't I don't think. I mean, he understood it
and he accepted it. Obviously he talked after the game.
I'm sure he did not want to come. Yeah, I
don't think this was an option.

Speaker 4 (57:54):
This also like we're gonna we're gonna talk to you,
feel better, We're going to give you more.

Speaker 2 (58:00):
What's the deal. It's really sounded like it was set
in stone. It was a finite, which is a shame
because he played really well for that I know, But
it was a.

Speaker 4 (58:07):
Fine out number based on the medical staff's opinion of
what was going to happen. And there was no consultation,
there was no debate, there was no second guess. He's
gonna play these number of snaps. Hopefully he won't do
anything that's gonna make himself more injured or hurt. And
we're gonna get about Yeah.

Speaker 2 (58:25):
And look, I think I think we're also seeing from
the bigger sample size now that both told us some
work to do. You know, he's not exactly where he
needs to be yet, he had some mission. Again, we
talked about what was his issue going to be this year.
Paul's a rookie. It was going to be more power. Yep.
And what does George Carloftis do best? Yeah, he does that.
He plays with power and I think you saw, especially
in the second half, some issues there with him getting

(58:46):
pushed into the quarterbacks lap. People wanted to You can
look at the PFF grade if you want. I hope
some people like it, some people don't. Whatever. But in
the second half, especially late in those goal line situations
we were just talking about, there was some issues with
getting pressure off of that left side.

Speaker 4 (59:01):
I do like enough of what I've seen from him
in this small sample size early to believe he's a
legit prospect.

Speaker 2 (59:07):
Oh, one hundred percent agree. I'm with you. When you
have those types of feet, he's got pretty good hands too.
I'm with you, one hundred percent. I think he's going
to be a really good player. But I know people
are like, well, when Thomas gets back, you pove him
the right tackle within him or guarden, do you do
all these other congomerations to try to make sure you
can get everybody on the field. I don't. I'm not
there right now. I'm not there. No, no, no, no,

(59:27):
all right. Final thoughts Paul before we say goodbye here, Well.

Speaker 4 (59:30):
I'm really interested to see what coach has to say
about Tracy because it did not look very good. After
the game. He was clearly hurting and not feeling well,
and because it's a medical situation, he's not required to
talk to the press after the game. He does not

(59:50):
have to because he's got to deal with his medical issue.

Speaker 2 (59:53):
And my guess is that today we're going to get
the old haven't a chance to talk to the medical
people yet today about Tracy, So my guess is that
we're not going to know anything until Wednesday. We may not.

Speaker 4 (01:00:00):
It may be simply he's going for his MRI or
whatever it is he's gonna have to go for and
we may not know anything that could that absolutely could
be true. But I'm hoping for him, not just for
the team, but for him that it's shorter rather than longer.
He was running the ball well too before he was, Yes,
he was, And you know that's That's the one thing

(01:00:21):
right now that as I sit here at uh what
one thirty now on Monday afternoon, I'm really kind of
hoping that he's not out long term, despite the fact
that I'm a big Dante Miller fan, and I'm hoping
he gets activated.

Speaker 2 (01:00:33):
All right, folks, before we say goodbye, just or remind
there you can join us at the Ultimate New York
Giants Women's Tailgate presented by Joe Malone. It's coming up
this Sunday, September twenty eighth, right before Giants and Chargers
ten am to noon and lot g at Metlive Stadium.
You can hang out in Madeline Bark, who's the tailgate host.
Giants Legends will be there. You can enjoy a curated
custom merchandise shop, exclusive Kendri Scott activation, tailgate games, giveaways, photos,

(01:00:56):
a DJ, entertainment, and a lot more Tailgate food and
one drink ticket included with the ticket purchase. Tailgate is
twenty one years of age and older only. All right, everybody,
that's a big blue kickoff live on this Monday at
twelve thirty tomorrow, it will be Lance Meadow and Matthew
Sittak with you. Remember Brian Dable will speak at two
thirty today and he will let us know who the

(01:01:17):
I mean. I think he'll let us know who the
Giants starting quarterback will be next Sunday when the Giants
host the Los Angeles Chargers at one o'clock at MetLife
Stadium for Paul Latino. I'm John Schmulk. Thank you to
Johnny Mack and Pearson Butler. We will see you next
week or tomorrow whatever, Sorry, we'll We'll see you tomorrow
on Big Blue Kioff Live at twelve thirty until then,