Did the Giants misuse Tiki?

Dr. Giganto

Sports Moderator

So, Tiki Barber only had 10 carries on Monday night, despite goinginto the game as the MFL's leading rusher. So, I decided to look up the play-by-play and see what really happened. Here's a look.

Drive 1: Garrard fumbles on 3rd down and the Jags recover on the 1. Jags punt out of their end zone. (Note: I was so drunk I don't remember this whatsoever)

1st and 10: Tiki Barber rushes for 2 yards, followed by 5-yard Jax penalty. 2nd and 3. Incomplete, incomplete, field goal.

Why not give it to Tiki once or twice to try to pick up the 3 yards?

Drive 2: Holding penalty on 1st down. On 1st and 20, 13 yard pass to Barber. 2nd and 7. 6-yard run by Tiki. Brandon JAcobs stopped on 3rd and 1.

Stuck with the run and got stuffed. Nothing you can really do

Drive 3: Incomplete pass on 1st down. 2-yard run by Tiki on 2nd down. Incomplete on 3rd down.

The two incompletions hurt any chance this drive had of building momentum

Drive 4: Incomplete pass on first down. Jacobs runs for -1 yard. 9-yard pass by Jacobs on 3rd and 11.

Another three-and-out. Troubling trend is that they threw on first down in 3 of first 4 drives

Drive 5: False start on first down. Tiki runs for -3 yards on 1st and 15. Pass incomplete on 2nd down, then 30-yard pass to Jacobs for a first down. On 1st and 10, Eli makes a terrible throw when Burress was open and gets intercepted.

Started the drive with a run that got stuffed, but then 3 straight passes.

Drive 6: 1st and 10, ANOTHER pass on first down, this time a completion for 7 yards. Tiki then picks up the first down on a 9-yard pass. After an uneccesary roughness penalty on JAX and a false start, Giants have 1st and 15 near midfield. Incomplete pass, 10-yard pass, incomplete pass, delay of game, punt.

1 run, 4 passes. The big mistake was throwing on 3rd and 5 from thr JAX 44. You run, and if you pick up the first down, great. If not, you're probably close to the 40, facing like 4th and 1 or 2 on the JAX 40. You go for it there too, because it's too close to punt.

Halftime

Drive 7: Sack, incomplete, incomplete

Another 1st down pass attempt. Not good. 3 incompletions: Not good

Drive 8: Tiki runs for 4 yards (YAY!), incomplete pass, defensive penalty gives the Giants first down. Incomplete pass on first down (GRR!), 9-yard pass on 2nd 10, Jacobs picks up the 1st down on 3rd and 1. Another 1st down incompletion, then a 14-yard pass to Burress. 8 yard pass on first down, Tiki runs for 3 and a first down on 2nd and 2. Incomplete on first down, 25 yard TD pass to Burress, only made two possible by two awesome open-field moves by Burress.

So, if you're scoring at home, on that drive, they threw 3 times on 1st down and ran once on first down.

Drive 9: Incomplete pass on first down (GRRRRRRRR!!!!!), 3-yard run by Tiki, incomplete pass.

ANOTHER first-down pass. What the fuck??? Also note that this is the end of the third quarter, and the Giants are only down by 6. No reason to go pass-crazy.

Drive 10: Eli sacked on 1st down, Tiki runs for 2 on 2nd and 18, long catch by Shockey earns a first down. First down pass again, negated by a holding penalty, followed by a defensive offside. On 1st and 15, 5-yard pass to Shockey, Tiki stufed at the line, and Eli forces it into triple coverage and is intercepted.

Drive 11: Incomplete, 9-yard reception, 17-yard reception, 18-yard reception followed by a fumble by Tim Fucking Carter

It's getting late and the G-Men are down 16. They can't run now. Tim Carter sucks. Really bad.

Drive 12: 8 passes and the drive stalls 18 yards from the end zone. Game over

Dr. Giganto

Sports Moderator

so, if you're scoring at home, on the first play of the drive, they ran 3 times and passed 9 times.

Overall on 1st down, they ran 3 times and passed 14 times. That's terrible play-calling in a game that was close most of the way through

Blitzkrieg

Administrator

Why the hell are they passing so much? No wonder Tiki was pissed off. Not only is Toomer out, which means less weapons available, but Eli has been playing shitty the last coupel weeks.

here's an example. The Niners have won their last three games. They know their strengths and their weaknesses. Gore has been an animal. So they play it smart and pound the ball with him, Smith only has to make short little passes which makes his job easier and mistake free, and then they play solid defense.. Boom! They are right back in the playoff hunt. Don't get me wrong, Smith has gotten better, and I could give many examples of this, but he still isn't being asked to do more then he's capable of.

I understand that Manning is the future, but I look at the Giants the same way as the Niners and closer to the Chargers and what they do with LT. Tiki has been a monster and like LT with San Diego, he needs to pound it.. This should open up the passing game and you can see how much LT is helping a young Rivers now.

It's not Manning's fault that Rivers is playing better then him, there's a reason for it. Neither one of them is ready to takeover a game like Eli's big brother, and they have GREAT running backs so you need to use it.

It's almost like the Giants think Manning is laready there and they want to shoot it out with people. It's not going to work. Pound Tiki, control the ball and the clock, and play capitalisitc defense along with mistake free O.

Dr. Giganto

Sports Moderator

EXACTLY. They are not playing tot he strengths of their team. Also, with a girnd-it-out, ball-control offense, the Giants can keep their injury-depleted defense off the field for longer stetcehs of time.

I give plenty of blame to Eli and the rest of the team for the recent struggles, but I think some blame has to be laid on the play-calling as well

Freak

Oh my.