T-Rock's Take on the Giants

Finally, some game action to talk about!

First off, the injury update: Tom Coughlin gave it about an hour ago. G Chris Snee has no fracture and no ligament damage in his left ankle, so that leaves... a sprain, I guess. Coughlin said we could "call it what you want. It's an ankle injury." And it's bad enough that Snee is about 99% out of Sunday's game with the Eagles already. Coughlin , who usually gives nothing away, sounded sure that Snee would be out at least a week.

But Rich Seubert was quite capable in Snee's place and should be good going forward.

That was the only big injury, but boy, was Coughlin unhappy. In the year I've covered him, he's usually better at keeping his emotions in, good or bad; today, he was clearly unhappy with so many aspects of his team's play last night, and who can blame him?

1. Dropped INTs. The ghost of Will Allen haunts the Giants secondary, it seems. Antonio Pierce would have had a spectacular pick of Peyton Manning had he not let a bullet pass go through his hands in the second quarter -- a play that an NFL linebacker can make, but maybe isn't expected to.

But James Butler and Corey Webster (the "ball hawk" the Giants drafted last season to show the Wills how to intercept passes) had game-changing plays in their grasp and neither held on. Amazing, and you can't do that against Peyton Manning. Heck, you can't do it against Archie Manning.

2. Penalties. Ten total, nine on the offense. Yes, I agree that some of the calls were horrible -- and I even agree that the NFL, with eight officials on the field, still gets more calls wrong than any other major sport -- but the Giants are not getting the breaks and they aren't coping well. OK, so the Colts D-linemen are yelling "hut" and the umpire won't listen; there's still no reason to jump (and yes, BB, there were five false starts, not three, good catch), considering how well the line was protecting Eli and busting open huge holes for Tiki Barber, Brandon Jacobs, Chad Morton, Rodney Hampton, Joe Morris, Bam Morris, Mercury Morris, Morris The Cat... You get the idea.

3. Special Teams. A total meltdown, from Jay Feely's missed field goal and poor kickoffs to bad coverage to bad blocking to Chad Morton running around like the end of a Benny Hill sketch. Think back to how much teams helped the Giants last season, especially in the opener (kickoff and punt returned for TDs), and then rewind last night's tape. Ugh.

Frankly, it is amazing in a psychoanalytical sort of way that this team, coached by a man who prides himself most on three things -- getting turnovers, keeping penalties to a minimum and utilizing great special teams -- has a team that would be 1-0 were it not for failures in those three areas. Freud, had he been born in the States and about 100 years later, would have loved football.

OK, now to some comments:

Yes, Chris, that is the scheme that Tim Lewis calls. "Bend but don't break" isn't really accurate, because the opposing QB isn't supposed to have enough time to deliver a pass on 3rd and 13, or 3rd and 12, or all the other "3rd ands" that Peyton completed last night. The Cover-2 as the Giants use it is designed to keep the defenders in zones of the field to be ready to jump routes and keep containment on receivers while the array of brilliant pass rushers makes the QB run around.

The Giants got some pressure, yes, but not enough. The fact that DT Fred Robbins had the lone sack was not a good sign; another fact, that Gibril Wilson was alone in Manning's face and didn't get to him, was also a bad sign. The blitzes have to work for the coverage schemes to work, and Peyton picked the Giants apart, bit by bit.

And BB, the Giants are in big trouble if they can't get their snap counts and cadences down in their own building, with the Eagles and Seahawks coming up on the road. Silent counts will be used in both places, but those silent counts didn't help Luke Petitgout much last year in Seattle, did they?

On the plus side, you will likely never see the Giants rush for 186 yards and lose again. That was reminiscent of some of last season's rushing performances, but it was even better because Brandon Jacobs got involved. The kid will be a star.

We'll have some more thoughts tomorrow and beyond.