October 31, 2025 • 41 mins
On this episode of the Giants Huddle podcast, John Schmeelk sits down with Giants offensive tackle, Andrew Thomas, to talk about the Giants offensive line play, John chats with the Athletic’s, Matt Barrows, about the matchup with San Francisco, and Bob Papa has his weekly sit down with Giants Head Coach, Brian Daboll.
:00 - Andrew Thomas
13:40 - Matt Barrow
33:20 - Coach Daboll
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's time to get inside the Giants huts. Let's go,
Let's go Giants, get out on the Giants, give me
some join part of the Giants podcast network.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Let's roll.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Welcome to another edition of the Giants Little Podcast, brought
to you by Citizens, the official bank of the Giants.
I am John schmelk Our usual Friday fair. Here, we're
gonna have a interview, a one on one with Giants
left tackle Andrew Thomas. Then Matt Barrows from the Athletical
join us. He covers the San Francisco forty nine ers,
and then of course Bob Papa will be joined by
the head coach of the Giants, Brian Dable. But we
(00:31):
lead off as always with our player interview, my conversation
with Andrew Thomas, and now we welcome in this week's
guest on the Giants Huddle Podcast, brought to you by Citizens,
the official bank of the Giants. He is Giants starting
left tackle Andrew Thomas. Andrew, what's going on, man? I'm
doing great. Thanks for being with us today.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
How are you? I'm doing great? All right?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Are you thrilled that the first question everyone asks you
now is no longer how's the foot doing?
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Yes, definitely great. It's about time, right.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Are you do you still do extra work on it
or is it kind of like business as usual now?
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Still have to do maintenance on it.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
You know, it's a tough injury to come back from,
but you know, starting to feel like myself again.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
How do you think you're playing when you kind of
watch yourself on tape every week?
Speaker 4 (01:08):
I would say solid, I got some things to clean
up to feel like myself again. Last week I felt
like wasn't my best showing. But you go back to
the drawing board and clean up things and hopefully, you know,
play better next week or this week.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
We see how you play. But I think probably for
a player, there's a feel right. Do you feel right
going out there? How quickly did it come back for you?
Was it like the first game you play limited snaps?
Did it take a couple of games for it to
feel natural and right again?
Speaker 4 (01:32):
Honestly, when you're out there, you don't have time to
think about it. You just like I will say, you
know at the house or you know in meetings, I'm
thinking about you know, how will I respond when I'm
back out there? But you don't have much time once
the ball snaps, you just get back into it. It's
kind of like muscle memory.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
How about the one in general? How do you think
the group has kind of come together quickly as now?
That same five that played pretty well I think at
times over the last you know, year or so has
been back together.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
I think this group has so much potent and some
of that I think we haven't even tapped into yet.
I think we've been, you know, protecting really well. I
think we could be dominant in the run game, and
we're still working on that. Teams are playing us a
little different now because of our early success, they're starting
to move a little bit more so once we started
getting the same page with that, I think we could
be dominant.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
When you say teams are playing differently, how so just.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
More pressures, a lot of movement up front. We're really
good at double teams, so they try to maneuver their
front so you can't get as many double teams. Even
Philly last week played us in different fronts than they
did the first time to try to stop some of that.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
That's interesting when you say your teams, your group stills
a lot of potentially be dominant. What are some of
the areas that you still think you guys can take
steps in to take that next step.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
Yeah, I will say what I was just speaking about
with the movement in the run game, just picking it up,
opening up lanes and then just straining in the past game.
Obviously Dart does a great job off schedule, but that
means that we have to block longer. So just doing
a good job straining through the whistle.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah, I'm going to go back to the dark things.
I do think that's interesting the run game. Now, Kim
scatted was not there, and you know he was really good.
You guys do those double teams. He gets in behind
you and no, it was better with his low center
gratagers falling forward an extra two or three yards if
he played right. Tyrone is a guy that played behind
you guys last year, more of a slasher type, right.
Does that change the style in which you guys have
(03:18):
to play upfront? Given the style the running back might
be a little bit different, Not at all.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Obviously we miss Skatt. He's a great player and you know,
wishing them best. He's going to be back next year.
But I have full confidence in our backs, Tracy and Motor.
They are different running backs with their attributes, but that
doesn't change the way we block. We have the same mentality,
the same aiming points, and then once they get in space,
that's when you know, you see the differences between each
(03:43):
type of running back, But for us.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
We block it the same.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
And I know this is in your decision. These are
the players that get called. But do you think the
frequency of the type of running plays might shift a
little bit, whether it's maybe a little bit more gap
stuff to create more space for the slash or rather
than some of the power duo stuff that you were
talking about before.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
I wanna say much different. I think it's more dependent
on who we're playing, what their scheme presents. And like
I said, you know, we get to get on our
double teams, we get to the linebackers and then and
once they get his space, it's up to them to
make the move and win.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Is this about as good as you've seen this group
play together though your line as a whole?
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Do you think I would say so?
Speaker 4 (04:19):
And I would say a lot of that is, you know,
just due to the consistency of us, you know, playing together.
It's tough, you know, with all the injuries, and you
know that's the nature of the league. But they're really
good offensive lines. They spend a lot of time together,
they play a lot of snaps together, and I think
we're starting to jail.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
I want to give you a chance to throw some
love it at some of your guys on the line.
How about you made a Lumino win the job. He's
kind of done a right tackle over the last couple
of years. I feel like nobody talks about that quite enough.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Not at all. Like I think he's he's a great player.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Sometimes I'll say, it's tough to get praise as office
ave line, especially if you don't have that hype. I
think he's you know, he's bloomed later in his career,
and I think he's playing really good ball right now,
even going back to last year when I got hurt,
you know, him switching over the left. People don't understand
how hard that is, and I think he did it seamlessly.
So hopefully he continues to play at that level and
(05:05):
even better.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
I want to ask about the guy that you play
next ye and you have to work in tandem with
a lot, and that's John Running Junior. What makes him
a guy that's that's fun to work with and good
to work with as a fellow offensive lineman where you
guys can do your job as one.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
Yeah, I would say first with John, you're going to
get the physicality, that's just how he plays. But overall
he's just a good football player, like he understands the schemes.
And then we really didn't even get to play each
other that much last year. But I think we're still
you know, communicating with games and stuff like that, just
passing those things off cleaner.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
But I think we're, you know, improving each and every week.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
You see people on the outside throw away throw around
phrases like sacks allowed or pressures a loud and stuff
like that. Do you guys have metrics in house that
you guys use in your room with your coaches that
you use to judge whether or not you individually and
as a group of playing, Well.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Yeah we do.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
We don't have I guess necessarily grades, but we talk
about pressures, hit sacks, you know, missed assignments. That's how
we you know, try to grade ourselves, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
So the offense has been leading into a lot more
two tight end stuff after the Laie Neighbor's injury. How
does that impact you if at all as an offensive tackle,
having a tight end next to you maybe a little
bit more often than you have had before.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
I will say the only difference is just me being
at three point stands more often. Other than that, though,
it is the same scheme. They're dressing up similar plays,
especially in the passing game, because our tight ends are athletic.
They can get out there and run routes, so we run,
you know, similar concepts that we would in different personnel
groups and in run game, just the communication is the
biggest thing. We're up tempo on the ball, so just
(06:39):
communicating with those guys each and nervou snapper because you
know that they have to change spots their motion and
stuff like that, so just making sure we're on the
same page.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Have you seen maybe some bigger fronts against you guys
with the two tight ends, you're seeing less sub against
you and more base and maybe the you know, just
the end's even been a little bit wider too, right.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
I will say we started off seeing more base, but
I think it also depends tight ends we have in
the game because they seem to tape. They seem that
you know, our guys can run route, so sometimes we
do get subbed to someone the heavier person else because
they know there's a threat of them, you know, running outes.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
All right, you mentioned this before having to I think
I had. I took to John Running in the locker
room last week and he said, with Dart, you with
the block to infinity. That was the term that he
used for an offensive tackle. If maybe you don't quite
know where your quarterback's going to be in the pocket,
how does that affect not just the duration, but how
you're blocking on any given play.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Yeah, I would say the sturn off Dart does a
great job of getting to his landmark initially. I think
that's the biggest thing. When we're taking our set, we're
assuming where he's going to be. Not too deep, right,
and not too deep and not too far in the
pocket as well for the you know, the guys in
the middle. But you know, once the play breaks down,
that's up to him. He you know, he has a
(07:50):
great feel for that, a great knack for that. So
we just have to trust in our technique know when
to let go so we don't get holdings. And you know,
like John said, block for infinity, he just go until
you hit a whistle blow because he's able to make
a play. I would say it's pretty fun when we're
at home because you can hear the crowd start to
get loud and it's like, okay, he's scrambling. So I
know to like let go or move around on the
(08:12):
road is a little tougher, but we just try to,
you know, block as long as we can because he's
going to make a play.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
How important is that for an offensive tackle? I think
this is underrated too for a quarterback. Not the set
too deep so you can actually run some of those
speed rushers around then understanding you're not going to run
them right into your quarterback.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
I will say almost eighty percent of offensive line play
is angles. So just knowing where your quarterback is, you
know where to set based on the defensive ends alignment
and what's your technique depending on you know, for the
hot protection or for sorting all those things are. You know,
it's kind of like geometry, you know what I mean,
Like I know where he's at, I know where it's set,
and then after.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
That you just play ball.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
And I think the other part of it too. And
one thing that we talked a lot about when the
Giants drafted him, Dark doesn't run back and out of
the pocket. He tends to run up and through the pocket. Right.
That must be great for an offensive lineman knowing that
he's not gonna you know, you know, you're blocking guy
outside and the guys that was the quarterbacktors show up
where you're blocking the guy right.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Yeah, Like I said, he has a great feel for it.
I don't think that's something you can really coach. Right.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
It happens off schedule. You have no idea where any
of the rushers are going to be, depending on you know,
what they do, if they bring pressure or not. But he,
you know, has a good ability to find the whole
get there escaping and you know, make a play.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Is it that playmaking or is it something else? You
think the reason why since Darts moved in a quarterback,
I feel like the team's been better and some of
these have to have a situations it's third down or
red zone. Your numbers as a team have just been
much better in the past four or five weeks. Why
do you think that is?
Speaker 4 (09:37):
I would say a lot of it starts with how
well we were running the ball. I think that's a key.
We talk about a stat all the time with coach
dabon just talking about playing in the green and basically
that just means like you have early down success on
now you're in thirty and threes, third and fourth, and
those are a lot more manageable than you know, third
and ten. You're seeing you know, different type of exiles,
(10:00):
pressures and stuff like that. But now they have to
play the run and the pass. And then you add
into that dark stability to run. If we you know,
have certain zone calls or certain gap schemes, the defense
knows that it's a chance he could run the ball,
so that keeps them honest. And then in the past game,
I would say, he does a great job getting the
ball out of his hands, and when he does hold it,
he's making a.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Play scrambling that I think that puts pressure on the
defense as well.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Two quick follow ups on that one. How important is
it for an offensive line to have good game flow?
And I say game flow, I mean not being in
third and long and playing with the lead where the
other team can't just play pass. How does that change
things for you?
Speaker 3 (10:35):
I say it's very important.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
It's really tough when they know it's a pass, but
at the end of the day, that's the League, and
the teams that make it to the Super Bowl, they
hold up in those situations. So there will be times
where we will be in those situations that we have
to hold up. But playing with the League is definitely preferable.
I will say for us up front, you get to
run the ball, play action, and you know, hit some
shots and.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Then you reference this a little bit and you're couple
of answers ago. In the red zone, it's tough to throw.
I mean, there's no getting over the top. You can't
stretch the field vertically.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Right.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
If you want to be a good red zone team,
do you have to be a good rushing team? Is
that basically where we are now in the National Football League.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
You have to be a good rushing team. But I
think you also have to be creative.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
And I'll give credit to our staff with coming up
with you know, game plan runs each and every day
because like you said, the space is so conditioned.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
You can't just run your normal things.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
There has to be I want to say gimmicks, but
there has to be some eye candy to your runs,
different motions, different formations to find a gap in the defense.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
All right, let's get to the opponent. This week. When
you look at Robert Sala and what he does on
the defensive front. They have some new players coming in now,
so maybe you don't know how they're going to use
the new guys. Key on White Cleveland faroh those guys,
but they've got so many injuries. So how do you
when you see what he's doing up front with his
defensive line, what do you see?
Speaker 4 (11:48):
I would say they obviously play the rush crush style
of defense, like they're penetrating up front. They run to
the ball I think they're number one or number two
in the league, and turnovers punching the ball out, so
they play hard through the woods. So I would say,
like you said, it's kind of tough personnel wise because
you don't know exactly what you're going to get. But
from what I've seen on tape, it doesn't matter who's in,
(12:10):
they all play with that same style. So we know
we have to be physical, have good pad level and
you know, strain as long as they.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Are traditionally solid. Does not like the blitz, right, but
have we seen him do a little bit more of
that the last couple weeks when he doesn't have Nick
Bosa sitting out there, that can win one on one.
We've seen more stunts, more blitzer and stuff like that
from them on tape.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
Yeah, third down is when it gets kind of crazy.
It's like a fifty percent chance. You don't know exactly
what you're going to get. And obviously we're studying our
tape trying to predict, you know, what they may do,
and obviously they'll have something game plan for us, and
we just have to trust our rules.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Are you ready for some Georgia on Georgia violence in
the trenches with with with you and mikel this week?
Speaker 4 (12:46):
It's be exciting. He's a great player. I actually, you know,
didn't get to meet him. I was going on my
old I'm old head now, but now he's He's done
a great job. Obviously he has a ton of talent,
you know, early pick. So I'm excited for the matchup.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
I look forward to seeing it too, Andrew, good luck
this week and can't wait. And by the way, I
should ask you this, it's a home game. You mentioned
this before. How much fun has it been winning those
like last couple of games at home and just how
well the team is played and seeing how the crowd
is kind of galvanized behind this group this year.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
Yeah, it's the best thing ever. You want to have
that home advantage, like we're going to row is Loud.
It's a tough environment to play, so we need to
create that at home. And the only way you do
that is to win. So hopefully we'll continue to do that.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Andrew, good stuff, and man, thank you. Huddle up, get
in here. If you're lined up here, you gotta go
over the middle with at the score.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Great.
Speaker 5 (13:30):
How do we make that happen?
Speaker 1 (13:32):
I don't know, Bud Citizen does makes sense of your
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(13:54):
November first. Okay, now, the Niners are an interesting team
this week. We have a million injuries. I don't know
who's playing Matt Barrow, so I talked to We did
say we record this interview on Thursday morning. We didn't
know at this time who's playing. When you're listening to this.
We might not know who's playing, but I thought it
was important and we went a little longer than usual
to really go up and down on what's going on
(14:16):
with the San Francisco forty nine ers. So here's our
interview with the Beat Reporter this week. All right, and
now we turn our attention to the Giants opponent this week.
We are joined by Matt Barrow's front of the program.
You hear them when we do our mock drafts every year,
and talking some forty nine ers football from the Athletic Matt,
I appreciate you being with US man boys. Been an
interesting season for the forty nine ers. Do you have
(14:37):
enough guys to feel the forty six on game day
or are you're still working on that?
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Well, coming out of that Texans game, that was a
big question. They balked up a little bit with a
trade and an acquisition. They brought in Keon White from
the Patriots. And you probably know more about Keon White
than I do, given the kind of you know, if
he plays the Jets. I don't know if you do
(15:02):
any Jets reporting. But so Keon White and uh Cleveland
Furrele came in and those guys are are so needed
that despite just having arrived this week, both of them
could be on the field in New York. So they
are really thin at defensive line. They've they've had all
(15:25):
sorts of issues at wide receiver this this year, and
of course, their their franchise quarterback has played exactly two games.
So they've had, you know, probably the worst injury luck
of any team so far, and they're still, you know,
in the thick of it in the playoff hunt.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
All right, I'll get to the offense in a second.
I want to stick on the defense here, Matt, because
you mentioned the defensive line, and just this is gonna
air on Friday, so just so fans understand, we're recording
this at eleven thirty am Thursday mornings, so we still
have full clarity on what the injury report is gonna
look like. But Bryce Huff and some of these other
guys on the front line on defense, Matt, what are
your thoughts for this week? You think there's a chance
(16:04):
they might be up. What do you think they're going
to miss another game?
Speaker 2 (16:07):
I think Huff will miss another game. I'm not sure
about Ucher Gross Mottos. There was talk that he could
come back this week. He didn't take part in that
Wednesday practice. He's sort of a special case. He's been
dealing with a knee injury and then more recently a
hamstring injury, so he hasn't practiced much even in the
(16:30):
games that he's played. So my point is that he
doesn't need necessarily to practice a whole lot to you know,
do the the twelve to fifteen snaps that they're looking
for from him. But beyond that, Alfred Collins is also hurt.
He's their second round pick, sam Ukuano, who's a starter
for them now that Nick Bosa is out. He didn't practice.
(16:53):
He's got an ankle injury, and I believe that's it.
That's That's a lot of guys. So that's why I
think that Keon White, newcomer, Cleland Ferrell newcomer will probably
be in the lineup. And this is the team that
really could not get antony pressure on CJ. Stroud and
the Houston Texans on Sunday, So that's a big question
(17:17):
coming in. They weren't good against the run either. You know,
they controlled the clock the forty nine ers did for
something like I forget exactly what the total was, eighteen
minutes and six seconds, which is a low in the
Kyle Shanahan era and the second lowest since two thousand
for the forty nine ers. So there was a lot
(17:39):
wrong on defense in Houston, and.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
That against the Texans team that, by the way, I
struggled to run the football this year.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
So yeah, probably a lot of them saw a lot
of your listeners saw the Texans play in Seattle and
they were horrible. So it was it was sort of
a bounce back game for them. You know. You see
sort of middling teams do that. Sometimes they'll lose badly
and then they'll rally the troops and play really well
(18:06):
the next week. And the forty nine ers are kind
of in that group, And so I think it's an
interesting matchup from that perspective. The Giants with the Camp
Scataboo injury, how do they react to that? The forty
nine Ers, how do they react to their really dismal loss.
It'll probably expose a lot of things for both teams.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
What is Robert Sala trying to do? Matt to make
up for this lack of you know, explosive pass rushers
up front? Right, you lose? Nick Bosa now huffs out,
Is he blitzing more. Is he twisting and stunting more?
How is he trying to generate pass pressure since he
doesn't have the guys that can necessarily win one on one.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Yeah, all the above. They blitz more against the Texans,
and they had all season. I those blitzes just didn't
hit home. No shacks against Stroud. They hit him twice,
they knocked him down once. And this is with you know,
the Texans running a huge number of plays. So yeah,
that was a problem and that's what kind of prompted
(19:09):
this Keon White move. They may not be done as
far as the trade market too. I mean they could.
They could still stand to use one more guy. Bryce
huff has been really good for them. If you have
any overlap with your with your Jets listeners. But you know,
and I don't think he's going to be out for long.
(19:29):
But I do think he's going to be out for
this game. It might be back after that. But you know,
edge edge rusher, a pure edge rusher, someone who can
rush on third downs. That's been problematic without huff in there.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
How's Michael Williams been your first round pick?
Speaker 2 (19:46):
He's been good. He's been good. He hasn't been lights out,
and a lot of people are noting, a, Wow, this
guy went eleven overall, you expect more output from him.
He's having to play a lot of snaps. He played
fifty seven snaps against the Texans. That's a lot for
any defensive end, much less a rookie. So there's that
(20:07):
there's sort of an exhaustion level that he's reaching. He's
not a he's not a Brian Burns. He's not a
sort of bendy outside you know, burst guy. A power player, right,
he's a power player. So they like to they like
to move him inside on obvious passing downs. But he's
(20:27):
not the guy that's gonna breeze by the left tackle
for a quick sack. And he only has one sack
so far this year. I think the forty nine ers
are fine with that, but you need to have the
other guys. You need to have Bosa and and huff
In there for him to really kind of maximize his skill.
And without both of those guys, it sort of kind
(20:48):
of sticks out. Okay, h fans say, okay, who's their
best defensive lineman left? Well, they've got the eleventh round
pick or the eleventh overall pick in there, let's see
what he does, and he wasn't doing much. That's not
really his game at this point. I mean it's a
fair question. I mean, you would expect a guy taking
(21:08):
eleventh overall would be able to be able to generate
more pass rush on his own. That just hasn't happened
at this point.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
All right, how has life been without Fred Warner? Someone
who is irreplaceable, Like, you can't find somebody to do
what Fred Warner does? So how have they tried to
adjust with him not being in the lineup?
Speaker 2 (21:28):
They had a really good outing the first full game
that he was out against the Falcons, where his replacement,
Tatum Bethune, who's the second year player, twenty four years old,
young guy, really you know, had a lot of electricity
and you could kind of feel it in Levi's Stadium
that the defense was hitting on all cylinders, basically the
same defense that played against the Texans. And there were
(21:52):
lights out against the Falcons. And then you know, the
following week just lots of lots of issues. There was
an energy shoot right off the bat. It's a ten
o'clock start for the forty nine ers, So will you
know the Giants game will be a ten o'clock start
as well, so that's always a bit of an issue
for a West Coast team. And then there were just
(22:13):
sort of the bus that you would expect from a
young player, you know, the bus that you wouldn't see
with Fred Warner in the game. And frankly, there were
a couple in the Tampa Bay game, which is the
game that Fred Warner left, and after he left, there
were some busts. That was a lot better versus the Falcons,
(22:34):
but then against the Texans on Sunday there were quite
a few. And that goes back to a young, inexperienced
middle linebacker who's calling the plays, who's getting everybody lined up,
just kind of slipping up every now and then, and
when you slip up in the NFL, the opponent takes advantage.
So the forty nine ers are working through that. And
(22:56):
the question is, you know, how quickly can this very
very young They've got, like, you know, five or six
guys who are twenty four or younger in that defensive lineup.
How quickly can it get up to speed and start
playing the stake free football?
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Yeah, you know, man, I think before the year and
this is the last one. The defense. I think you
knew going into the season you're gonna have a young secondary, right,
but you were expecting your stars up front to kind
of mitigate that a little bit. Now, all of a sudden,
the secondary is the only group of guys that are healthy,
and those guys are still young. Denomdor Leonor is the
only guy that hasn't been drafted in the last three
years in your secondary. How is that group looked up
(23:33):
in SAD? I know it's got a pretty nice job
as the nickelback. What is Jacksonville looking at in terms
of that giant secondary. We've seen a lot of zone.
How are they using the guys?
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Yeah, they're a zone team, mostly play zone. I think
they'll see that on Sunday. You know, they started the
season with a different safety duo than they have now.
It's sort of a question mark out here. They've got
Jay R. Brown and Malik Mustafa playing safety. They're both
really good players. To me, they're more in the box
(24:04):
type of guys. They're both really good around the line
of scrimmage, really good tacklers, bigger guys. And then but
when you combine that with a defensive line that really
isn't hitting home I think that it exposes them in
coverage a little bit, and you definitely saw that in
the Texans game. So that's, you know, that's that's my
(24:25):
personal critique of something that went wrong in Houston. I
don't think that the forty nine ers is going to
change things up. They really like Mustafa. They think that
he's going to be, you know, a team leader, potential
pro bowler in coming years. So I think that they're
dedicated to him. The question is whether they're going to
(24:45):
remain dedicated to the other guy, Jyra Brown. He's number
twenty seven, But yeah, that would be a potential weak
spot for Jackson Dart and that receiving group.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Well, Lynch should know his safeties better than anyone. So
if exactly, yeah, if John Lynch believes in him, I'm
not gonna argue with him. All right, let's shive to
the offensive side of the ball here, Matt. Is it
hyperbog for me to say this is the best job
Kyle Shannon? I understand how Greedy's been, but has this
been the best job Kyle Shanahan's done. Given all the
injuries at wide receiver, tight end and the quarterback the
(25:17):
Niners have had yet their offense continues to hum at
a pretty high level.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Yeah for sure. I mean I I this happened in
twenty twenty, and maybe Giants fans don't remember this quite
as starkly as forty nine Ers fans do. But early
in twenty twenty they played the Jets and they lost
Nick Bosha and Jimmy Garoppolo and Raheem Mostert and a
whole slew of forty nine ers on the MetLife turf.
(25:44):
And so now MetLife Turf is like the devil to
the forty nine ers, and it is new turf.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
There is new turf. I will say that they replaced
the turf last offseason.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
All right, Well, that'll assuage them a little bit. But
my point is that they had a big space if
any injuries like they're having now back in twenty twenty,
and the team just went off a cliff and they
were terrible. The rest of the year, this team has
remained good, and I think that's largely due to Mac Jones,
you know, just coming in and doing a really good
job at quarterback, but also to Kyle Shanahan. The offense.
(26:17):
Excuse me, I had to sneeze there. The offense hasn't
skipped a beat with Jones playing quarterback, and you know
that's a tribute to him, but it's also a tribute
to Kyle Shanahan because it hasn't just been quarterback. They're
playing guys, you know, Kendrick Bourne came off the street
(26:38):
in week two, and they're playing DeMarcus Robinson who missed
the first four games, and all sorts of guys that
are just not familiar to the forty nine ers and
that offense, and it's been a hodgepodge and Shanahan is
still dialed up a pretty good team. They're not scoring
a lot of points, however, so you know, they've won
(27:00):
squeakers early on in this season and they have a
trouble getting over twenty one points. So my point is
that I think by nature of this season, it's going
to be a tight contest no matter what, So you know,
may come down to field goal kickers at the end
of the game.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Has the offense looked exactly the same with with Mac Jones,
Worths Purty or has Shanahan made any changes to try to,
you know, adjust it to fit the skills of Jones.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
He hasn't made any changes Defenses have made changes against them,
given that Brandon Ayuk hasn't been out there, Ricky Pearsall
hasn't been out there, you know, Juwan Jennings missed two games,
et cetera, et cetera. They just haven't had a really
a dynamic wide receiving duo. So everything's been concentrated on
(27:52):
stopping Christian McCaffrey and the running game, which has kind
of allowed Christian McCaffrey in the passing game to take off.
That that's really what's propped up this team over the
first few weeks is kind of throwing the short ball
to maccafery. I should I should add that George Kittle
was out for five weeks as well, So, you know,
(28:15):
kind of a funny stat from Sunday's loss to the Texans.
You know how next Gen stats charts your fastest ball carrier.
The forty nine ers fastest ball carrier was Mac Jones,
who's dealing with not one but two knee injuries. He's
got a big, bulky brace on one of the knees
and just kind of underscores that there's not a lot
(28:38):
of speed and pop to that offense, especially the passing attack.
So you know, they've had to rely on the short game.
They've had to rely on mac Jones being accurate in
the short game and sort of matriculating the ball down
the field. And that's that's part of the reason why,
you know, the they haven't scored very much. Take them
(29:00):
a long time to get down the field, and they
didn't have a lot of success early on in the
red zone. That's gotten a little bit better lately. But
like I said, when you only control the ball for
eighteen minutes, hard to score a lot of points quickly.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Ricky Piersoll still no. I feel like it's been a
while for him.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
It's been a while. PCL injuries have been one of
the injuries du jour for the forty nine ers, and
pcls can be stubborn. Mac Jones, for example, had one
in August. He's still dealing with that there. Right guard
Dominic Pooney had a PCL in August. He's still dealing
with that. So Pierce all has occurred in Week three,
(29:44):
still hasn't practiced yet, So that kind of tells you
that he's probably not gonna play in this game. I
guess he has a chance to play in it. The
sort of the bigger news on wide receiver is that
I think Juwan Jennings is starting to kind of feel better.
He was dealing with multiple broken ribs for the past
few weeks. That starts to go away, you start to
(30:05):
feel better, and he's starting to play a little bit
more like Juwan Jennings, which is a very physical receiver
that ought to help the running game as well.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
Giants have a really good pass rusher. The nineer is
gonna chip a lot. They obviously they don't want to
hold McCaffrey in the block right. He thought you be
part of their passing and they want them ountain routes,
so they're gonna chip with their tight ends. How are
they gonna try to slow down that Giants pass rush?
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Yeah, they tried to chip Will Anderson last week or
on Sunday, and that just didn't work. Even even with
the ship he was, he was hitting home. So they
just have to be better. Colton mckivitz, the right tackle
was picked on a lot. I don't know whether the
Giants will kind of alternate the guys to get the
best matchups, but if they did, I think that you're
(30:49):
putting your best pass rusher against mckivts on that side
because he didn't do a great job against the Texans.
And on the other side, you've got Trent Williams, who's
not quite the Trent Williams of old, but he's still
better than most at that left tackle spot.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Finally, have the Niners done anything. I know they have
a bunch of East Coast games this year in terms of,
you know, special preparations. I know there's kind of a
old wives tale about West Coast teams playing at one
o'clock on the East Coast. I've looked at the numbers
on that. It isn't exactly what people think they are,
but what is Kyle Shanan said about trying to make
sure his guys are ready to go at these early
East Coast times.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Yeah, and nothing different with the practice schedule. You know,
sometimes they if they have back to back games eastward,
they'll spend the week out there. So they had the
game in Houston, and so that was a question mark
early on, but they decided that they were going to
get back from Houston in time. That was a ten
o'clock start, so they were back in their beds by
(31:46):
midnight on Sunday or Sunday and Monday morning, so I
think that that was the decision. And so the basic
answer to your question is no, they're not doing anything
special with it. You know, he always has very very
loud music playing no matter what. For these practices. I
(32:07):
would I would hate to be a neighbor of the
forty nine ers or some some residential homes around that area.
But yeah, that's that's basically the preparation that they've had.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Matt good stuff. Anything I missed that that that's a
big story that you've kind of been focusing on that
that Giant fan should know about any into this game.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Their weak side linebacker de Winters, who's basically an every
down linebacker. So they're already already playing without Fred Warner.
The weak side linebacker is de Winters. He's dealing with
a knee injury. So it could be that they're without
their top two linebackers in that game, which I would
imagine would be something that the Giants running game would
(32:52):
be very very interested in.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Shall we say, Matt good stuff, my friend see out
here in a few days, look forward to see and
we'll talk.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
So all right, thanks.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
If you want to know how to manage two minutes
of crunch time football, I'm your man, But if you're
wondering about a long term financial plan, you should talk
to citizens. Hey, I can also talk long care.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
I'd like to learn about an Molli routine.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Yes, I knew I could help makes sense of your
money with citizens. Good job for Matt, great information, a man.
The Niners are banged up. The Giants should have an
opportunity here to make some noise against a really injured
forty nine Ers team. All right, let's turn our attention
to the head coach of the Giants, Brian Dable. He
is spoken to and interviewed by the voice of the Giants,
Bob Papa.
Speaker 5 (33:34):
As always were joined by the head coach of the
New York Giants, Brian Dable. And coach, you got a
San Francisco team coming in here. They're coming off of
loss last week against the Houston Texans, but they have
one of the best backs in the National Football League,
and Christian McCaffrey leads the league in touches. It looks
like they're using them every which way but Sunday, and
(33:54):
it looks like he hasn't lost a step or anything. Coach,
when you look at him on film and you study
him and get ready for this game today. What are
some of the things that really stand out when you
watch the tape.
Speaker 6 (34:09):
Well, there's not much he can't do. So he's he's
got quickness and explosiveness, he's got power, he's got speed.
The unique thing about him is that he really can
line up anywhere and play that position. So you have
running backs that time that you can use out of
the backfield or spread out, and they really run running
back type routes. This guy can run receiver routes and
(34:33):
you know he can do it against really any defenders
that are covering him. So they want to get him
the ball. They want him get him the ball early,
they want to get him the ball in situations. He's
a go to player for them, and you know half
the time he's touching the ball.
Speaker 5 (34:48):
Coachum obviously brock Perty has been dealing with an injury
and mac Jones has been starting for them. He's a
little bit banged up as well. You know as of
this recording, not sure yet who's going to start in
the football game.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
Does that cause.
Speaker 5 (35:04):
Tremendous problems when you're trying to prepare for them, or
do they have a lot of similar traits that it's
not like they have two different completely style offenses. Yeah,
they're able to operate Coach Sahan's office at a high level,
both of them. Again, it's it's not two completely different players.
They're different, but I wouldn't say it's like, you know,
(35:26):
you're dealing with, you know, a quarterback that runs and
can move out of the pocket and do all those quarterback.
Speaker 6 (35:32):
Runs and things like that, not that they can't. And
then you have a guy that's just a drop back
passer that sits in a pocket. You know, those two
guys can do a little bit of both. They're both
athletic enough, they both have a good grasp of the system.
They're both good with their footwork, their timing their throws,
which is a premium in that system. So you watch
the games that they've played. But you know, coach system
(35:53):
is pretty expansive. He does a good job with with
both those quarterbacks, and both those quarterbacks can operate a
system at a high level.
Speaker 5 (36:00):
Coach obviously, every team deals with it. Your team is
dealing with it right now with you know, injuries. It
happens in the National Football League, especially on the defensive
side of the ball, with the backfield the defensive you
know secondary, how hard is it or how has it
been trying to just get a lot of different guys
up to speed here so that you know you have
(36:22):
continuity when you get out there and the communication lines
are good.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Yeah, I've got another lot of new guys back there.
Speaker 6 (36:30):
Again, they come in, they spend extra time with the
coaching staff, their position coaches after the meetings, watch an
extra tape. You know, get them as many reps as
you can on the practice field. A lot of new
faces back there. But you know that's the job of
the coaches is to try to do whatever we can
do to get them to understand the things we need
to do. They got to put the time and effort in.
(36:52):
And you know, again, every team deals with it. You know,
we deal with it, whether it's the defensive backfield, whether
it was Andrew Thomas or or in the year, whether
it's Elik Neighbors, whether it's Cam Scataboo. You know, you
just deal with deal with the.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
Hand your delt the coach.
Speaker 5 (37:07):
Maybe people don't under don't give it enough credit, but
it really ties into special teams though, too, doesn't it,
Because you have people that are playing backup roles that
now are starting for you playing more snaps than either
defense or offense, and that that rotation as far as
fits on special teams comes into play, doesn't it.
Speaker 6 (37:28):
Yeah, that's that's a great point, Bob. It's uh, you know,
special teams is critical you get a punt blocked or
give up a long one. That's a that's an explosive
playing the game. That usually changes the game, you know,
for either side. So you know you're talking about the
punt team. There's a lot of things that go into
protecting the kicker, the punter when he's punting the ball,
(37:49):
and the communication that needs to take place with the
variety of looks that you get, you know, whether it's
eight guys up, seven guys up, five guys on one side,
guys walking around and that commune munication, it's you know,
it's almost like an offensive line. Those guys have to
be in sync along with the personal protector. And you
know we've had a you know, not like most teams
and be if you had to get to move guys
(38:10):
around and those guys got as much work as they can.
Speaker 5 (38:14):
Let's talk about offense here. Obviously, Scataboo was a very
important figure to what you guys were doing and you know,
a shame what happened to him last year last week,
but you know it's it's next man up mentality. Uh,
you know, running the football obviously, Tyrone Tracy had a
really good year for you last year. And you know
(38:35):
Singletary when he got an opportunity last week he made
above and ex'es and O's play on that wheel route
down the left side. Is that kind of what it
takes when you're down bodies, is to guys to make
some plays that you know, just a off schedule a
little bit.
Speaker 6 (38:50):
Yeah, And I think that that room is you know,
that's a room that we've had a lot of confidence in.
You know, since we started this year, there's say three
capable play And I'm not saying you have that in
every room like that because you're auting new players and
teaching you guys, but we've had some guys that have
been here that have played football in this league that
(39:10):
have been productive in this league. And you know that's
whether it's Trace or whether it's Motor, have a lot
of confidence in both of those guys to go ahead
and fill whatever roles we need him to fill. Coach,
I want to ask you about Jackson Dart here, because
he's going through this journey right as a rookie quarterback
and you see things, maybe for the first time or whatever.
(39:33):
He's he's done a really good job here of leading
this football team. What are some of the things that
have impressed you the most about him as he goes
through this process of weekend and week out being a
starter in the league. I think he learns from things
that happened the week before. Again, we've we've had a
couple of rookies over the past few years that you
(39:56):
know have done a pretty good job, whether it was Tommy,
whether it's Josh Back and Buffalo, and you know, you
learn from those experience as a coach. And this guy
is a unique player and the fact that you know
he's he's extremely smart for a young guy. He's a
great listener, he's very very humble, and he's got high
expectations of himself and that's why you know he puts
(40:18):
so much time and effort into it. And then when
he gets out on the field, you know he's been
productive and the things that he's done and then the
things that you know, maybe we can you know, help
him be a little bit better at or he's like, man,
this I wish I had this one back. We can
learn from that. And you know, he puts he puts
an unbelievable amount of time into it is very important
to him. He's committed to, you know, helping this team,
(40:41):
helping this offense be the best leader in quarterback he
can be. And you know, I just think the thing
I'm most proud of is each week we learn, you know,
and he learns a few different things that you know,
maybe we can do a little bit better and maybe
we can tweak some things to help him.
Speaker 3 (40:56):
It's it's.
Speaker 6 (40:58):
You know, it's been good with him, and you know
we got to continue to keep criming and learning from
our mistakes and getting better. But certainly happy we have them.
Speaker 5 (41:09):
Coach, we appreciate a couple of minutes. Best of luck
this afternoon, and we'll do it again next week.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
Thanks Bob, great stuff from Brian Dable, Bob Papa, Matt
Barrows and Andrew Thomas for joining us right here on
The Giants Total Podcast, brought to you by Citizens, the
Official Bank of the Giants. Giants and forty nine ers
come your way on Sunday eight one o'clock pregame on
WFN begins at eleven am. He'd also check out a
Big Blue Kickoff Live, our special Saturday edition on WFN
at seven am with Mark Melusis and I thank you
(41:36):
for being with us, everybody, We'll see you next time
on The Giant Total podcast
It's time to get inside the Giants huts. Let's go,
Let's go Giants, get out on the Giants, give me
some join part of the Giants podcast network.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Let's roll.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Welcome to another edition of the Giants Little Podcast, brought
to you by Citizens, the official bank of the Giants.
I am John schmelk Our usual Friday fair. Here, we're
gonna have a interview, a one on one with Giants
left tackle Andrew Thomas. Then Matt Barrows from the Athletical
join us. He covers the San Francisco forty nine ers,
and then of course Bob Papa will be joined by
the head coach of the Giants, Brian Dable. But we
(00:31):
lead off as always with our player interview, my conversation
with Andrew Thomas, and now we welcome in this week's
guest on the Giants Huddle Podcast, brought to you by Citizens,
the official bank of the Giants. He is Giants starting
left tackle Andrew Thomas. Andrew, what's going on, man? I'm
doing great. Thanks for being with us today.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
How are you? I'm doing great? All right?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Are you thrilled that the first question everyone asks you
now is no longer how's the foot doing?
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Yes, definitely great. It's about time, right.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Are you do you still do extra work on it
or is it kind of like business as usual now?
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Still have to do maintenance on it.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
You know, it's a tough injury to come back from,
but you know, starting to feel like myself again.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
How do you think you're playing when you kind of
watch yourself on tape every week?
Speaker 4 (01:08):
I would say solid, I got some things to clean
up to feel like myself again. Last week I felt
like wasn't my best showing. But you go back to
the drawing board and clean up things and hopefully, you know,
play better next week or this week.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
We see how you play. But I think probably for
a player, there's a feel right. Do you feel right
going out there? How quickly did it come back for you?
Was it like the first game you play limited snaps?
Did it take a couple of games for it to
feel natural and right again?
Speaker 4 (01:32):
Honestly, when you're out there, you don't have time to
think about it. You just like I will say, you
know at the house or you know in meetings, I'm
thinking about you know, how will I respond when I'm
back out there? But you don't have much time once
the ball snaps, you just get back into it. It's
kind of like muscle memory.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
How about the one in general? How do you think
the group has kind of come together quickly as now?
That same five that played pretty well I think at
times over the last you know, year or so has
been back together.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
I think this group has so much potent and some
of that I think we haven't even tapped into yet.
I think we've been, you know, protecting really well. I
think we could be dominant in the run game, and
we're still working on that. Teams are playing us a
little different now because of our early success, they're starting
to move a little bit more so once we started
getting the same page with that, I think we could
be dominant.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
When you say teams are playing differently, how so just.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
More pressures, a lot of movement up front. We're really
good at double teams, so they try to maneuver their
front so you can't get as many double teams. Even
Philly last week played us in different fronts than they
did the first time to try to stop some of that.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
That's interesting when you say your teams, your group stills
a lot of potentially be dominant. What are some of
the areas that you still think you guys can take
steps in to take that next step.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
Yeah, I will say what I was just speaking about
with the movement in the run game, just picking it up,
opening up lanes and then just straining in the past game.
Obviously Dart does a great job off schedule, but that
means that we have to block longer. So just doing
a good job straining through the whistle.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah, I'm going to go back to the dark things.
I do think that's interesting the run game. Now, Kim
scatted was not there, and you know he was really good.
You guys do those double teams. He gets in behind
you and no, it was better with his low center
gratagers falling forward an extra two or three yards if
he played right. Tyrone is a guy that played behind
you guys last year, more of a slasher type, right.
Does that change the style in which you guys have
(03:18):
to play upfront? Given the style the running back might
be a little bit different, Not at all.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Obviously we miss Skatt. He's a great player and you know,
wishing them best. He's going to be back next year.
But I have full confidence in our backs, Tracy and Motor.
They are different running backs with their attributes, but that
doesn't change the way we block. We have the same mentality,
the same aiming points, and then once they get in space,
that's when you know, you see the differences between each
(03:43):
type of running back, But for us.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
We block it the same.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
And I know this is in your decision. These are
the players that get called. But do you think the
frequency of the type of running plays might shift a
little bit, whether it's maybe a little bit more gap
stuff to create more space for the slash or rather
than some of the power duo stuff that you were
talking about before.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
I wanna say much different. I think it's more dependent
on who we're playing, what their scheme presents. And like
I said, you know, we get to get on our
double teams, we get to the linebackers and then and
once they get his space, it's up to them to
make the move and win.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Is this about as good as you've seen this group
play together though your line as a whole?
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Do you think I would say so?
Speaker 4 (04:19):
And I would say a lot of that is, you know,
just due to the consistency of us, you know, playing together.
It's tough, you know, with all the injuries, and you
know that's the nature of the league. But they're really
good offensive lines. They spend a lot of time together,
they play a lot of snaps together, and I think
we're starting to jail.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
I want to give you a chance to throw some
love it at some of your guys on the line.
How about you made a Lumino win the job. He's
kind of done a right tackle over the last couple
of years. I feel like nobody talks about that quite enough.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Not at all. Like I think he's he's a great player.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Sometimes I'll say, it's tough to get praise as office
ave line, especially if you don't have that hype. I
think he's you know, he's bloomed later in his career,
and I think he's playing really good ball right now,
even going back to last year when I got hurt,
you know, him switching over the left. People don't understand
how hard that is, and I think he did it seamlessly.
So hopefully he continues to play at that level and
(05:05):
even better.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
I want to ask about the guy that you play
next ye and you have to work in tandem with
a lot, and that's John Running Junior. What makes him
a guy that's that's fun to work with and good
to work with as a fellow offensive lineman where you
guys can do your job as one.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
Yeah, I would say first with John, you're going to
get the physicality, that's just how he plays. But overall
he's just a good football player, like he understands the schemes.
And then we really didn't even get to play each
other that much last year. But I think we're still
you know, communicating with games and stuff like that, just
passing those things off cleaner.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
But I think we're, you know, improving each and every week.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
You see people on the outside throw away throw around
phrases like sacks allowed or pressures a loud and stuff
like that. Do you guys have metrics in house that
you guys use in your room with your coaches that
you use to judge whether or not you individually and
as a group of playing, Well.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Yeah we do.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
We don't have I guess necessarily grades, but we talk
about pressures, hit sacks, you know, missed assignments. That's how
we you know, try to grade ourselves, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
So the offense has been leading into a lot more
two tight end stuff after the Laie Neighbor's injury. How
does that impact you if at all as an offensive tackle,
having a tight end next to you maybe a little
bit more often than you have had before.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
I will say the only difference is just me being
at three point stands more often. Other than that, though,
it is the same scheme. They're dressing up similar plays,
especially in the passing game, because our tight ends are athletic.
They can get out there and run routes, so we run,
you know, similar concepts that we would in different personnel
groups and in run game, just the communication is the
biggest thing. We're up tempo on the ball, so just
(06:39):
communicating with those guys each and nervou snapper because you
know that they have to change spots their motion and
stuff like that, so just making sure we're on the
same page.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Have you seen maybe some bigger fronts against you guys
with the two tight ends, you're seeing less sub against
you and more base and maybe the you know, just
the end's even been a little bit wider too, right.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
I will say we started off seeing more base, but
I think it also depends tight ends we have in
the game because they seem to tape. They seem that
you know, our guys can run route, so sometimes we
do get subbed to someone the heavier person else because
they know there's a threat of them, you know, running outes.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
All right, you mentioned this before having to I think
I had. I took to John Running in the locker
room last week and he said, with Dart, you with
the block to infinity. That was the term that he
used for an offensive tackle. If maybe you don't quite
know where your quarterback's going to be in the pocket,
how does that affect not just the duration, but how
you're blocking on any given play.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Yeah, I would say the sturn off Dart does a
great job of getting to his landmark initially. I think
that's the biggest thing. When we're taking our set, we're
assuming where he's going to be. Not too deep, right,
and not too deep and not too far in the
pocket as well for the you know, the guys in
the middle. But you know, once the play breaks down,
that's up to him. He you know, he has a
(07:50):
great feel for that, a great knack for that. So
we just have to trust in our technique know when
to let go so we don't get holdings. And you know,
like John said, block for infinity, he just go until
you hit a whistle blow because he's able to make
a play. I would say it's pretty fun when we're
at home because you can hear the crowd start to
get loud and it's like, okay, he's scrambling. So I
know to like let go or move around on the
(08:12):
road is a little tougher, but we just try to,
you know, block as long as we can because he's
going to make a play.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
How important is that for an offensive tackle? I think
this is underrated too for a quarterback. Not the set
too deep so you can actually run some of those
speed rushers around then understanding you're not going to run
them right into your quarterback.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
I will say almost eighty percent of offensive line play
is angles. So just knowing where your quarterback is, you
know where to set based on the defensive ends alignment
and what's your technique depending on you know, for the
hot protection or for sorting all those things are. You know,
it's kind of like geometry, you know what I mean,
Like I know where he's at, I know where it's set,
and then after.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
That you just play ball.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
And I think the other part of it too. And
one thing that we talked a lot about when the
Giants drafted him, Dark doesn't run back and out of
the pocket. He tends to run up and through the pocket. Right.
That must be great for an offensive lineman knowing that
he's not gonna you know, you know, you're blocking guy
outside and the guys that was the quarterbacktors show up
where you're blocking the guy right.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Yeah, Like I said, he has a great feel for it.
I don't think that's something you can really coach. Right.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
It happens off schedule. You have no idea where any
of the rushers are going to be, depending on you know,
what they do, if they bring pressure or not. But he,
you know, has a good ability to find the whole
get there escaping and you know, make a play.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Is it that playmaking or is it something else? You
think the reason why since Darts moved in a quarterback,
I feel like the team's been better and some of
these have to have a situations it's third down or
red zone. Your numbers as a team have just been
much better in the past four or five weeks. Why
do you think that is?
Speaker 4 (09:37):
I would say a lot of it starts with how
well we were running the ball. I think that's a key.
We talk about a stat all the time with coach
dabon just talking about playing in the green and basically
that just means like you have early down success on
now you're in thirty and threes, third and fourth, and
those are a lot more manageable than you know, third
and ten. You're seeing you know, different type of exiles,
(10:00):
pressures and stuff like that. But now they have to
play the run and the pass. And then you add
into that dark stability to run. If we you know,
have certain zone calls or certain gap schemes, the defense
knows that it's a chance he could run the ball,
so that keeps them honest. And then in the past game,
I would say, he does a great job getting the
ball out of his hands, and when he does hold it,
he's making a.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Play scrambling that I think that puts pressure on the
defense as well.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Two quick follow ups on that one. How important is
it for an offensive line to have good game flow?
And I say game flow, I mean not being in
third and long and playing with the lead where the
other team can't just play pass. How does that change
things for you?
Speaker 3 (10:35):
I say it's very important.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
It's really tough when they know it's a pass, but
at the end of the day, that's the League, and
the teams that make it to the Super Bowl, they
hold up in those situations. So there will be times
where we will be in those situations that we have
to hold up. But playing with the League is definitely preferable.
I will say for us up front, you get to
run the ball, play action, and you know, hit some
shots and.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Then you reference this a little bit and you're couple
of answers ago. In the red zone, it's tough to throw.
I mean, there's no getting over the top. You can't
stretch the field vertically.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Right.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
If you want to be a good red zone team,
do you have to be a good rushing team? Is
that basically where we are now in the National Football League.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
You have to be a good rushing team. But I
think you also have to be creative.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
And I'll give credit to our staff with coming up
with you know, game plan runs each and every day
because like you said, the space is so conditioned.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
You can't just run your normal things.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
There has to be I want to say gimmicks, but
there has to be some eye candy to your runs,
different motions, different formations to find a gap in the defense.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
All right, let's get to the opponent. This week. When
you look at Robert Sala and what he does on
the defensive front. They have some new players coming in now,
so maybe you don't know how they're going to use
the new guys. Key on White Cleveland faroh those guys,
but they've got so many injuries. So how do you
when you see what he's doing up front with his
defensive line, what do you see?
Speaker 4 (11:48):
I would say they obviously play the rush crush style
of defense, like they're penetrating up front. They run to
the ball I think they're number one or number two
in the league, and turnovers punching the ball out, so
they play hard through the woods. So I would say,
like you said, it's kind of tough personnel wise because
you don't know exactly what you're going to get. But
from what I've seen on tape, it doesn't matter who's in,
(12:10):
they all play with that same style. So we know
we have to be physical, have good pad level and
you know, strain as long as they.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Are traditionally solid. Does not like the blitz, right, but
have we seen him do a little bit more of
that the last couple weeks when he doesn't have Nick
Bosa sitting out there, that can win one on one.
We've seen more stunts, more blitzer and stuff like that
from them on tape.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
Yeah, third down is when it gets kind of crazy.
It's like a fifty percent chance. You don't know exactly
what you're going to get. And obviously we're studying our
tape trying to predict, you know, what they may do,
and obviously they'll have something game plan for us, and
we just have to trust our rules.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Are you ready for some Georgia on Georgia violence in
the trenches with with with you and mikel this week?
Speaker 4 (12:46):
It's be exciting. He's a great player. I actually, you know,
didn't get to meet him. I was going on my
old I'm old head now, but now he's He's done
a great job. Obviously he has a ton of talent,
you know, early pick. So I'm excited for the matchup.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
I look forward to seeing it too, Andrew, good luck
this week and can't wait. And by the way, I
should ask you this, it's a home game. You mentioned
this before. How much fun has it been winning those
like last couple of games at home and just how
well the team is played and seeing how the crowd
is kind of galvanized behind this group this year.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
Yeah, it's the best thing ever. You want to have
that home advantage, like we're going to row is Loud.
It's a tough environment to play, so we need to
create that at home. And the only way you do
that is to win. So hopefully we'll continue to do that.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Andrew, good stuff, and man, thank you. Huddle up, get
in here. If you're lined up here, you gotta go
over the middle with at the score.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Great.
Speaker 5 (13:30):
How do we make that happen?
Speaker 1 (13:32):
I don't know, Bud Citizen does makes sense of your
money with Citizens Official Bank of Eli Manning. Great stuff
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(13:54):
November first. Okay, now, the Niners are an interesting team
this week. We have a million injuries. I don't know
who's playing Matt Barrow, so I talked to We did
say we record this interview on Thursday morning. We didn't
know at this time who's playing. When you're listening to this.
We might not know who's playing, but I thought it
was important and we went a little longer than usual
to really go up and down on what's going on
(14:16):
with the San Francisco forty nine ers. So here's our
interview with the Beat Reporter this week. All right, and
now we turn our attention to the Giants opponent this week.
We are joined by Matt Barrow's front of the program.
You hear them when we do our mock drafts every year,
and talking some forty nine ers football from the Athletic Matt,
I appreciate you being with US man boys. Been an
interesting season for the forty nine ers. Do you have
(14:37):
enough guys to feel the forty six on game day
or are you're still working on that?
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Well, coming out of that Texans game, that was a
big question. They balked up a little bit with a
trade and an acquisition. They brought in Keon White from
the Patriots. And you probably know more about Keon White
than I do, given the kind of you know, if
he plays the Jets. I don't know if you do
(15:02):
any Jets reporting. But so Keon White and uh Cleveland
Furrele came in and those guys are are so needed
that despite just having arrived this week, both of them
could be on the field in New York. So they
are really thin at defensive line. They've they've had all
(15:25):
sorts of issues at wide receiver this this year, and
of course, their their franchise quarterback has played exactly two games.
So they've had, you know, probably the worst injury luck
of any team so far, and they're still, you know,
in the thick of it in the playoff hunt.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
All right, I'll get to the offense in a second.
I want to stick on the defense here, Matt, because
you mentioned the defensive line, and just this is gonna
air on Friday, so just so fans understand, we're recording
this at eleven thirty am Thursday mornings, so we still
have full clarity on what the injury report is gonna
look like. But Bryce Huff and some of these other
guys on the front line on defense, Matt, what are
your thoughts for this week? You think there's a chance
(16:04):
they might be up. What do you think they're going
to miss another game?
Speaker 2 (16:07):
I think Huff will miss another game. I'm not sure
about Ucher Gross Mottos. There was talk that he could
come back this week. He didn't take part in that
Wednesday practice. He's sort of a special case. He's been
dealing with a knee injury and then more recently a
hamstring injury, so he hasn't practiced much even in the
(16:30):
games that he's played. So my point is that he
doesn't need necessarily to practice a whole lot to you know,
do the the twelve to fifteen snaps that they're looking
for from him. But beyond that, Alfred Collins is also hurt.
He's their second round pick, sam Ukuano, who's a starter
for them now that Nick Bosa is out. He didn't practice.
(16:53):
He's got an ankle injury, and I believe that's it.
That's That's a lot of guys. So that's why I
think that Keon White, newcomer, Cleland Ferrell newcomer will probably
be in the lineup. And this is the team that
really could not get antony pressure on CJ. Stroud and
the Houston Texans on Sunday, So that's a big question
(17:17):
coming in. They weren't good against the run either. You know,
they controlled the clock the forty nine ers did for
something like I forget exactly what the total was, eighteen
minutes and six seconds, which is a low in the
Kyle Shanahan era and the second lowest since two thousand
for the forty nine ers. So there was a lot
(17:39):
wrong on defense in Houston, and.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
That against the Texans team that, by the way, I
struggled to run the football this year.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
So yeah, probably a lot of them saw a lot
of your listeners saw the Texans play in Seattle and
they were horrible. So it was it was sort of
a bounce back game for them. You know. You see
sort of middling teams do that. Sometimes they'll lose badly
and then they'll rally the troops and play really well
(18:06):
the next week. And the forty nine ers are kind
of in that group, And so I think it's an
interesting matchup from that perspective. The Giants with the Camp
Scataboo injury, how do they react to that? The forty
nine Ers, how do they react to their really dismal loss.
It'll probably expose a lot of things for both teams.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
What is Robert Sala trying to do? Matt to make
up for this lack of you know, explosive pass rushers
up front? Right, you lose? Nick Bosa now huffs out,
Is he blitzing more. Is he twisting and stunting more?
How is he trying to generate pass pressure since he
doesn't have the guys that can necessarily win one on one.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Yeah, all the above. They blitz more against the Texans,
and they had all season. I those blitzes just didn't
hit home. No shacks against Stroud. They hit him twice,
they knocked him down once. And this is with you know,
the Texans running a huge number of plays. So yeah,
that was a problem and that's what kind of prompted
(19:09):
this Keon White move. They may not be done as
far as the trade market too. I mean they could.
They could still stand to use one more guy. Bryce
huff has been really good for them. If you have
any overlap with your with your Jets listeners. But you know,
and I don't think he's going to be out for long.
(19:29):
But I do think he's going to be out for
this game. It might be back after that. But you know,
edge edge rusher, a pure edge rusher, someone who can
rush on third downs. That's been problematic without huff in there.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
How's Michael Williams been your first round pick?
Speaker 2 (19:46):
He's been good. He's been good. He hasn't been lights out,
and a lot of people are noting, a, Wow, this
guy went eleven overall, you expect more output from him.
He's having to play a lot of snaps. He played
fifty seven snaps against the Texans. That's a lot for
any defensive end, much less a rookie. So there's that
(20:07):
there's sort of an exhaustion level that he's reaching. He's
not a he's not a Brian Burns. He's not a
sort of bendy outside you know, burst guy. A power player, right,
he's a power player. So they like to they like
to move him inside on obvious passing downs. But he's
(20:27):
not the guy that's gonna breeze by the left tackle
for a quick sack. And he only has one sack
so far this year. I think the forty nine ers
are fine with that, but you need to have the
other guys. You need to have Bosa and and huff
In there for him to really kind of maximize his skill.
And without both of those guys, it sort of kind
(20:48):
of sticks out. Okay, h fans say, okay, who's their
best defensive lineman left? Well, they've got the eleventh round
pick or the eleventh overall pick in there, let's see
what he does, and he wasn't doing much. That's not
really his game at this point. I mean it's a
fair question. I mean, you would expect a guy taking
(21:08):
eleventh overall would be able to be able to generate
more pass rush on his own. That just hasn't happened
at this point.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
All right, how has life been without Fred Warner? Someone
who is irreplaceable, Like, you can't find somebody to do
what Fred Warner does? So how have they tried to
adjust with him not being in the lineup?
Speaker 2 (21:28):
They had a really good outing the first full game
that he was out against the Falcons, where his replacement,
Tatum Bethune, who's the second year player, twenty four years old,
young guy, really you know, had a lot of electricity
and you could kind of feel it in Levi's Stadium
that the defense was hitting on all cylinders, basically the
same defense that played against the Texans. And there were
(21:52):
lights out against the Falcons. And then you know, the
following week just lots of lots of issues. There was
an energy shoot right off the bat. It's a ten
o'clock start for the forty nine ers, So will you
know the Giants game will be a ten o'clock start
as well, so that's always a bit of an issue
for a West Coast team. And then there were just
(22:13):
sort of the bus that you would expect from a
young player, you know, the bus that you wouldn't see
with Fred Warner in the game. And frankly, there were
a couple in the Tampa Bay game, which is the
game that Fred Warner left, and after he left, there
were some busts. That was a lot better versus the Falcons,
(22:34):
but then against the Texans on Sunday there were quite
a few. And that goes back to a young, inexperienced
middle linebacker who's calling the plays, who's getting everybody lined up,
just kind of slipping up every now and then, and
when you slip up in the NFL, the opponent takes advantage.
So the forty nine ers are working through that. And
(22:56):
the question is, you know, how quickly can this very
very young They've got, like, you know, five or six
guys who are twenty four or younger in that defensive lineup.
How quickly can it get up to speed and start
playing the stake free football?
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Yeah, you know, man, I think before the year and
this is the last one. The defense. I think you
knew going into the season you're gonna have a young secondary, right,
but you were expecting your stars up front to kind
of mitigate that a little bit. Now, all of a sudden,
the secondary is the only group of guys that are healthy,
and those guys are still young. Denomdor Leonor is the
only guy that hasn't been drafted in the last three
years in your secondary. How is that group looked up
(23:33):
in SAD? I know it's got a pretty nice job
as the nickelback. What is Jacksonville looking at in terms
of that giant secondary. We've seen a lot of zone.
How are they using the guys?
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Yeah, they're a zone team, mostly play zone. I think
they'll see that on Sunday. You know, they started the
season with a different safety duo than they have now.
It's sort of a question mark out here. They've got
Jay R. Brown and Malik Mustafa playing safety. They're both
really good players. To me, they're more in the box
(24:04):
type of guys. They're both really good around the line
of scrimmage, really good tacklers, bigger guys. And then but
when you combine that with a defensive line that really
isn't hitting home I think that it exposes them in
coverage a little bit, and you definitely saw that in
the Texans game. So that's, you know, that's that's my
(24:25):
personal critique of something that went wrong in Houston. I
don't think that the forty nine ers is going to
change things up. They really like Mustafa. They think that
he's going to be, you know, a team leader, potential
pro bowler in coming years. So I think that they're
dedicated to him. The question is whether they're going to
(24:45):
remain dedicated to the other guy, Jyra Brown. He's number
twenty seven, But yeah, that would be a potential weak
spot for Jackson Dart and that receiving group.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Well, Lynch should know his safeties better than anyone. So
if exactly, yeah, if John Lynch believes in him, I'm
not gonna argue with him. All right, let's shive to
the offensive side of the ball here, Matt. Is it
hyperbog for me to say this is the best job
Kyle Shannon? I understand how Greedy's been, but has this
been the best job Kyle Shanahan's done. Given all the
injuries at wide receiver, tight end and the quarterback the
(25:17):
Niners have had yet their offense continues to hum at
a pretty high level.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Yeah for sure. I mean I I this happened in
twenty twenty, and maybe Giants fans don't remember this quite
as starkly as forty nine Ers fans do. But early
in twenty twenty they played the Jets and they lost
Nick Bosha and Jimmy Garoppolo and Raheem Mostert and a
whole slew of forty nine ers on the MetLife turf.
(25:44):
And so now MetLife Turf is like the devil to
the forty nine ers, and it is new turf.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
There is new turf. I will say that they replaced
the turf last offseason.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
All right, Well, that'll assuage them a little bit. But
my point is that they had a big space if
any injuries like they're having now back in twenty twenty,
and the team just went off a cliff and they
were terrible. The rest of the year, this team has
remained good, and I think that's largely due to Mac Jones,
you know, just coming in and doing a really good
job at quarterback, but also to Kyle Shanahan. The offense.
(26:17):
Excuse me, I had to sneeze there. The offense hasn't
skipped a beat with Jones playing quarterback, and you know
that's a tribute to him, but it's also a tribute
to Kyle Shanahan because it hasn't just been quarterback. They're
playing guys, you know, Kendrick Bourne came off the street
(26:38):
in week two, and they're playing DeMarcus Robinson who missed
the first four games, and all sorts of guys that
are just not familiar to the forty nine ers and
that offense, and it's been a hodgepodge and Shanahan is
still dialed up a pretty good team. They're not scoring
a lot of points, however, so you know, they've won
(27:00):
squeakers early on in this season and they have a
trouble getting over twenty one points. So my point is
that I think by nature of this season, it's going
to be a tight contest no matter what, So you know,
may come down to field goal kickers at the end
of the game.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Has the offense looked exactly the same with with Mac Jones,
Worths Purty or has Shanahan made any changes to try to,
you know, adjust it to fit the skills of Jones.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
He hasn't made any changes Defenses have made changes against them,
given that Brandon Ayuk hasn't been out there, Ricky Pearsall
hasn't been out there, you know, Juwan Jennings missed two games,
et cetera, et cetera. They just haven't had a really
a dynamic wide receiving duo. So everything's been concentrated on
(27:52):
stopping Christian McCaffrey and the running game, which has kind
of allowed Christian McCaffrey in the passing game to take off.
That that's really what's propped up this team over the
first few weeks is kind of throwing the short ball
to maccafery. I should I should add that George Kittle
was out for five weeks as well, So, you know,
(28:15):
kind of a funny stat from Sunday's loss to the Texans.
You know how next Gen stats charts your fastest ball carrier.
The forty nine ers fastest ball carrier was Mac Jones,
who's dealing with not one but two knee injuries. He's
got a big, bulky brace on one of the knees
and just kind of underscores that there's not a lot
(28:38):
of speed and pop to that offense, especially the passing attack.
So you know, they've had to rely on the short game.
They've had to rely on mac Jones being accurate in
the short game and sort of matriculating the ball down
the field. And that's that's part of the reason why,
you know, the they haven't scored very much. Take them
(29:00):
a long time to get down the field, and they
didn't have a lot of success early on in the
red zone. That's gotten a little bit better lately. But
like I said, when you only control the ball for
eighteen minutes, hard to score a lot of points quickly.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Ricky Piersoll still no. I feel like it's been a
while for him.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
It's been a while. PCL injuries have been one of
the injuries du jour for the forty nine ers, and
pcls can be stubborn. Mac Jones, for example, had one
in August. He's still dealing with that there. Right guard
Dominic Pooney had a PCL in August. He's still dealing
with that. So Pierce all has occurred in Week three,
(29:44):
still hasn't practiced yet, So that kind of tells you
that he's probably not gonna play in this game. I
guess he has a chance to play in it. The
sort of the bigger news on wide receiver is that
I think Juwan Jennings is starting to kind of feel better.
He was dealing with multiple broken ribs for the past
few weeks. That starts to go away, you start to
(30:05):
feel better, and he's starting to play a little bit
more like Juwan Jennings, which is a very physical receiver
that ought to help the running game as well.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
Giants have a really good pass rusher. The nineer is
gonna chip a lot. They obviously they don't want to
hold McCaffrey in the block right. He thought you be
part of their passing and they want them ountain routes,
so they're gonna chip with their tight ends. How are
they gonna try to slow down that Giants pass rush?
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Yeah, they tried to chip Will Anderson last week or
on Sunday, and that just didn't work. Even even with
the ship he was, he was hitting home. So they
just have to be better. Colton mckivitz, the right tackle
was picked on a lot. I don't know whether the
Giants will kind of alternate the guys to get the
best matchups, but if they did, I think that you're
(30:49):
putting your best pass rusher against mckivts on that side
because he didn't do a great job against the Texans.
And on the other side, you've got Trent Williams, who's
not quite the Trent Williams of old, but he's still
better than most at that left tackle spot.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Finally, have the Niners done anything. I know they have
a bunch of East Coast games this year in terms of,
you know, special preparations. I know there's kind of a
old wives tale about West Coast teams playing at one
o'clock on the East Coast. I've looked at the numbers
on that. It isn't exactly what people think they are,
but what is Kyle Shanan said about trying to make
sure his guys are ready to go at these early
East Coast times.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Yeah, and nothing different with the practice schedule. You know,
sometimes they if they have back to back games eastward,
they'll spend the week out there. So they had the
game in Houston, and so that was a question mark
early on, but they decided that they were going to
get back from Houston in time. That was a ten
o'clock start, so they were back in their beds by
(31:46):
midnight on Sunday or Sunday and Monday morning, so I
think that that was the decision. And so the basic
answer to your question is no, they're not doing anything
special with it. You know, he always has very very
loud music playing no matter what. For these practices. I
(32:07):
would I would hate to be a neighbor of the
forty nine ers or some some residential homes around that area.
But yeah, that's that's basically the preparation that they've had.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Matt good stuff. Anything I missed that that that's a
big story that you've kind of been focusing on that
that Giant fan should know about any into this game.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Their weak side linebacker de Winters, who's basically an every
down linebacker. So they're already already playing without Fred Warner.
The weak side linebacker is de Winters. He's dealing with
a knee injury. So it could be that they're without
their top two linebackers in that game, which I would
imagine would be something that the Giants running game would
(32:52):
be very very interested in.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Shall we say, Matt good stuff, my friend see out
here in a few days, look forward to see and
we'll talk.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
So all right, thanks.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
If you want to know how to manage two minutes
of crunch time football, I'm your man, But if you're
wondering about a long term financial plan, you should talk
to citizens. Hey, I can also talk long care.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
I'd like to learn about an Molli routine.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Yes, I knew I could help makes sense of your
money with citizens. Good job for Matt, great information, a man.
The Niners are banged up. The Giants should have an
opportunity here to make some noise against a really injured
forty nine Ers team. All right, let's turn our attention
to the head coach of the Giants, Brian Dable. He
is spoken to and interviewed by the voice of the Giants,
Bob Papa.
Speaker 5 (33:34):
As always were joined by the head coach of the
New York Giants, Brian Dable. And coach, you got a
San Francisco team coming in here. They're coming off of
loss last week against the Houston Texans, but they have
one of the best backs in the National Football League,
and Christian McCaffrey leads the league in touches. It looks
like they're using them every which way but Sunday, and
(33:54):
it looks like he hasn't lost a step or anything. Coach,
when you look at him on film and you study
him and get ready for this game today. What are
some of the things that really stand out when you
watch the tape.
Speaker 6 (34:09):
Well, there's not much he can't do. So he's he's
got quickness and explosiveness, he's got power, he's got speed.
The unique thing about him is that he really can
line up anywhere and play that position. So you have
running backs that time that you can use out of
the backfield or spread out, and they really run running
back type routes. This guy can run receiver routes and
(34:33):
you know he can do it against really any defenders
that are covering him. So they want to get him
the ball. They want him get him the ball early,
they want to get him the ball in situations. He's
a go to player for them, and you know half
the time he's touching the ball.
Speaker 5 (34:48):
Coachum obviously brock Perty has been dealing with an injury
and mac Jones has been starting for them. He's a
little bit banged up as well. You know as of
this recording, not sure yet who's going to start in
the football game.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
Does that cause.
Speaker 5 (35:04):
Tremendous problems when you're trying to prepare for them, or
do they have a lot of similar traits that it's
not like they have two different completely style offenses. Yeah,
they're able to operate Coach Sahan's office at a high level,
both of them. Again, it's it's not two completely different players.
They're different, but I wouldn't say it's like, you know,
(35:26):
you're dealing with, you know, a quarterback that runs and
can move out of the pocket and do all those quarterback.
Speaker 6 (35:32):
Runs and things like that, not that they can't. And
then you have a guy that's just a drop back
passer that sits in a pocket. You know, those two
guys can do a little bit of both. They're both
athletic enough, they both have a good grasp of the system.
They're both good with their footwork, their timing their throws,
which is a premium in that system. So you watch
the games that they've played. But you know, coach system
(35:53):
is pretty expansive. He does a good job with with
both those quarterbacks, and both those quarterbacks can operate a
system at a high level.
Speaker 5 (36:00):
Coach obviously, every team deals with it. Your team is
dealing with it right now with you know, injuries. It
happens in the National Football League, especially on the defensive
side of the ball, with the backfield the defensive you
know secondary, how hard is it or how has it
been trying to just get a lot of different guys
up to speed here so that you know you have
(36:22):
continuity when you get out there and the communication lines
are good.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Yeah, I've got another lot of new guys back there.
Speaker 6 (36:30):
Again, they come in, they spend extra time with the
coaching staff, their position coaches after the meetings, watch an
extra tape. You know, get them as many reps as
you can on the practice field. A lot of new
faces back there. But you know that's the job of
the coaches is to try to do whatever we can
do to get them to understand the things we need
to do. They got to put the time and effort in.
(36:52):
And you know, again, every team deals with it. You know,
we deal with it, whether it's the defensive backfield, whether
it was Andrew Thomas or or in the year, whether
it's Elik Neighbors, whether it's Cam Scataboo. You know, you
just deal with deal with the.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
Hand your delt the coach.
Speaker 5 (37:07):
Maybe people don't under don't give it enough credit, but
it really ties into special teams though, too, doesn't it,
Because you have people that are playing backup roles that
now are starting for you playing more snaps than either
defense or offense, and that that rotation as far as
fits on special teams comes into play, doesn't it.
Speaker 6 (37:28):
Yeah, that's that's a great point, Bob. It's uh, you know,
special teams is critical you get a punt blocked or
give up a long one. That's a that's an explosive
playing the game. That usually changes the game, you know,
for either side. So you know you're talking about the
punt team. There's a lot of things that go into
protecting the kicker, the punter when he's punting the ball,
(37:49):
and the communication that needs to take place with the
variety of looks that you get, you know, whether it's
eight guys up, seven guys up, five guys on one side,
guys walking around and that commune munication, it's you know,
it's almost like an offensive line. Those guys have to
be in sync along with the personal protector. And you
know we've had a you know, not like most teams
and be if you had to get to move guys
(38:10):
around and those guys got as much work as they can.
Speaker 5 (38:14):
Let's talk about offense here. Obviously, Scataboo was a very
important figure to what you guys were doing and you know,
a shame what happened to him last year last week,
but you know it's it's next man up mentality. Uh,
you know, running the football obviously, Tyrone Tracy had a
really good year for you last year. And you know
(38:35):
Singletary when he got an opportunity last week he made
above and ex'es and O's play on that wheel route
down the left side. Is that kind of what it
takes when you're down bodies, is to guys to make
some plays that you know, just a off schedule a
little bit.
Speaker 6 (38:50):
Yeah, And I think that that room is you know,
that's a room that we've had a lot of confidence in.
You know, since we started this year, there's say three
capable play And I'm not saying you have that in
every room like that because you're auting new players and
teaching you guys, but we've had some guys that have
been here that have played football in this league that
(39:10):
have been productive in this league. And you know that's
whether it's Trace or whether it's Motor, have a lot
of confidence in both of those guys to go ahead
and fill whatever roles we need him to fill. Coach,
I want to ask you about Jackson Dart here, because
he's going through this journey right as a rookie quarterback
and you see things, maybe for the first time or whatever.
(39:33):
He's he's done a really good job here of leading
this football team. What are some of the things that
have impressed you the most about him as he goes
through this process of weekend and week out being a
starter in the league. I think he learns from things
that happened the week before. Again, we've we've had a
couple of rookies over the past few years that you
(39:56):
know have done a pretty good job, whether it was Tommy,
whether it's Josh Back and Buffalo, and you know, you
learn from those experience as a coach. And this guy
is a unique player and the fact that you know
he's he's extremely smart for a young guy. He's a
great listener, he's very very humble, and he's got high
expectations of himself and that's why you know he puts
(40:18):
so much time and effort into it. And then when
he gets out on the field, you know he's been
productive and the things that he's done and then the
things that you know, maybe we can you know, help
him be a little bit better at or he's like, man,
this I wish I had this one back. We can
learn from that. And you know, he puts he puts
an unbelievable amount of time into it is very important
to him. He's committed to, you know, helping this team,
(40:41):
helping this offense be the best leader in quarterback he
can be. And you know, I just think the thing
I'm most proud of is each week we learn, you know,
and he learns a few different things that you know,
maybe we can do a little bit better and maybe
we can tweak some things to help him.
Speaker 3 (40:56):
It's it's.
Speaker 6 (40:58):
You know, it's been good with him, and you know
we got to continue to keep criming and learning from
our mistakes and getting better. But certainly happy we have them.
Speaker 5 (41:09):
Coach, we appreciate a couple of minutes. Best of luck
this afternoon, and we'll do it again next week.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
Thanks Bob, great stuff from Brian Dable, Bob Papa, Matt
Barrows and Andrew Thomas for joining us right here on
The Giants Total Podcast, brought to you by Citizens, the
Official Bank of the Giants. Giants and forty nine ers
come your way on Sunday eight one o'clock pregame on
WFN begins at eleven am. He'd also check out a
Big Blue Kickoff Live, our special Saturday edition on WFN
at seven am with Mark Melusis and I thank you
(41:36):
for being with us, everybody, We'll see you next time
on The Giant Total podcast
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