Panthers/Giants game thread

Even if Rucker couldn't go for some reason, I'd still prefer to see McClover in only a situational pass rushing role. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

 

Who would rather see for rushing downs? Johnson? Lewis?

 

Ball, if he makes it. Johnson might be an option as well.

 

Second drive after the Smith TD -

left return after a left kick - Giants set up the wedge. 57 (Jamison?) runs fast downfield and then just takes a bad angle approaching the wedge. Instead of attacking the edge of it, he comes across the wedge and deflects off the left front of it. 48 (Jackson) is running down slower, and converges much deeper, and only takes on the outside wedge guy. Since the left half of the coverage is already bearing down on that half, there's just a huge hole. Gotta keep those lanes.

1st/10 - shit camera work and an extended look at Jake chewing ice while McCoy talks leaves you without knowing if Shockey started up lined up on the left, and when he settles in right Davis takes a step up from his spot equal to the other LBs to settle on Shockey in a 2 yards out/2yards up look. Broken I rt, Manning takes the 5-step for pass. Peppers and McClover get good upfield penetration. Jenkins was, again, first off the snap but gets doubled, and stopped about 3 yards upfield. In his rush, he slides left and absorbs a back releasing upfield. Kemoeatu against single blocking gets a shoulder outside and gets past the guard, flushing Manning toward McClover.

McClover has excellent body lean and can attack an OT against the chest while driving radially upward. He doesn't do it haphazardly, because when the QB starts to run, he reverses field and gets there just before Kemoeatu, who chases. Looked like man, everyone ran upfield but Anderson, who sat in either a very out of place zone, as a spy, or he had the RB in man coverage (the last I assume, since it looked like man).

2nd/13 - the reverse. Pretty standard - McClover got sucked into the run action like everyone else, Lucas beat Jennings and stuffed the play. Oddly enough, Davis is lined up right, Anderson left. Nothing else really interesting about it, don't know if it's a preseason man-coverage TE type thing or what. It'd make sense, because it'd give each S the ability to be put in a deep or shallow zone to be evaluated on that coverage interchangeably,or they just want to see Davis on the TE right now.

3rd/9 - 3 wide, plus Shockey left. The lineup includes Marshall in nickel, LBs are (l-r) Seward and Davis, Davis on Shockey lined up typical 5 yards deep. Panthers show a lot of conflicting looks and in slow motion you can see they show a lot of intent pre-snap. Marshall fakes blitz strongside, Lucas steps up on his man as if bumping, Marshall steps inside as if tending toward rushing inside Peppers, then Seward steps back a little in his zone as if pretending to lean toward the vacant zone. Lucas fades back about 5 yards, stops when Marshall steps back to his receiver. This all happens within 6 seconds, giving a young QB a number of fake reads.

Hard to tell what the coverage actually is - nobody ends up getting Moss, who cuts underneath - he was on Lucas, who was playing a deep zone; Davis was with Shockey, but Seward was upfield too. No one had Jacobs in the other flat, either; both Marshall and Gamble had their men intermediate and the safeties were both deep. It's like 3 deep nickel with the two under corners, but as if the other zones all just went deep. First down. They show the rush on the right side on replay, and McClover does get upfield and then just bullrushes, and does a decent job of getting near the QB.

1st down, again Shockey moves to right side of line, again camera crappiness keeps you from seeing whether he lined up right and came out/in, or lined up left and just came over. Davis moves from 5 yards out as before, DL shifts to that side. Flanker comes in motion toward line.
Stretch play turned trap, LG comes to trap the LDT. FB takes on contain on that side, Davis. The other two LB race to the LOS a bit quick for my tastes. Jenkins pushes his lineman toward the hole but not in time, nobody really gets there and Anderson/McClover get back. McClover did a decent job with backside contain there in that he didn't sell out until the back passed the line of scrimmage.
We can't let a back like Jacobs run downhill like this.

Base O and D on 2nd and short - broken I. Davis is lined up eagled, the SS is about 7 yards off, showing blitz. Carolina brings 7. Really the best D to play for this call, because it's playaction. Well sold, but no one blocks McClover because of the blitz. McClover sits at the LOS outside the tackle, notices the fake and gets to the QB. The other blitzers pull up and someone picks up Jacobs coming out of the backfield. Looks like Eli had plenty of time for a quick hitter, but the man coverage downfield and the blitz underneath are just a good call. Manning throws it haphazardly away while falling.

3rd - the tD to Shockey. good rush upfield, but moorehead gets pushed out of his lane and Lewis and the two ends get good push upfield. Not a lot to describe here - safeties 7 yards deep. Harris gets targeted by the camera as the guilty defender but Seward was behind Shockey, and Cooper was in front of him to the right. Harris had his man, #12, at the goal.


Robinson return - Shelton the other deep, doesn't block his man. King, Seward, and Gaines are the three second level guys. Rosario is in the middle, Deloatch is on the far end of the front line. Rosario does best when he just stays moving, and that's why he does well here and crappy on other returns. Nothing useful here.

1st down, 3 WR (Carter inside Smith left, Colbert outside King), with Foster. protection is slid right, King has the end, left side is left open to sucker in defenders for Foster to slide out left on short screen. King does an OK job blocking Joseph, but lets him get a little too far upfield too fast. Good enough, though. Middle 3 linemen trail down LOS carefully, look back to see the ball come out and head upfield. Hartwig does a good job setting Foster up as 99 trails the play, Hartwig sets up behind 99 and Foster cuts to other side of Hartwig's new block. Wahle gets good block upfield. To be fair, Bridges' guy changes direction for Foster changing direction, but Bridges doesn't engage, then has to change direction and lunges. His man holds Foster up to be gang tackled.

2nd down, two TE (King left, Gaines right), Smitty flanker right. Power sweep right, with Gross and Bridges pulling, Hoover leading. Looks like Gross falls, which brings down his man, Gaines, and Gaines' man. Creates pile, obviously, which stops pursuit. Bridges knocks Kiwanuka down and then slides off Joseph. Smitty gets pushed into Foster, who bounces off, and then a fallen DB upfield gets in the way. If Foster just turns that upfield without those two obstacles, he doesn't get caught, IMO. He did turn his body when the DB started to wrap him and was reaching for the ball, so he's cognisant of what's going on with the football.

1st down, I, TE left. Giants have Kiwanuka on the line, for a 5 man line look, which is a good counter to a zone blocking scheme. Gross blocks down with Bridges on the end, who's inside, then combos onto the MLB. Kiwanuka crashes inside, Hoover has to divert to block him outside, Goings gets 3 falling forward. Hartwig one on one was ridden outside for penetration by the DT, which kept the play from going to the strength where the right end and DT were both doubled. Since Kiwanuka was there, Goings couldn't bend it back far enough to effectively counter.

Delhomme comes out, 1st q ends.
2nd OL in, Butler/Hangartner/Kalil/Batiste/Mathis. Gaines at TE, Rosario at FB/2nd TE.

broken I strong, Giants have 8 in box. Carr sets up screen. Mathis' man lines up inside right before the snap and Mathis has to adjust, almost blocking him in the back. Pressure from that man pushes Carr outside, linemen set up right screen to Goings. Rosario has released upfield and gives other option. Doesn't look like upfield blockers got on anyone, and Carr throws ball while in air. play is lucky to be completed and nothing bad happened.

3 wide, TE left. 5 step, Rosario crossing, Goings releases from inside. Rosario runs simple flat route and turns it upfield for 8. Rosario has good body control. Protection is spotty. Easy conversion on a 3rd and long, and if Rosario was covered underneath, Goings still would've gotten most of it back.

Gaines left, broken I left, twins right turned balanced when Carter motions. Jackson is FB, run looks like it's supposed to be a counter. Giants are in 5 man line. Gaines takes on the contain man but looks surprised he's not coming upfield and doesn't press the issue. needs to maintain his blocks. Looks like Batiste gets beaten and Goings gets tripped up.

Giants go with 5 man look again, bring SS up weakside. I right, twins left, Carter in motion goes to flank Butler. Basic stretch play right, Goings tripped up by unaccounted SS. 2nd line lacks ability to push consistently, it's clear there's a difference in the talent between 1s and 2s. Mathis does push his end outside and then seals off, a good enough sign. Jackson doesn't look to get as much pop as you'd want. play could've been bounced back left if SS hadn't been there, carter didn't do a lot to seal the left side if it was supposed to be bounced back. Colbert blocks well enough on outside.

3 wide, plus Gaines. Protection breaks down fairly quickly, and Carr didn't have any receiver in mind. Butler loses his guy. Mathis gets on his end but engages late and end is half by him before good push thrown out there. Hangartner lacks awareness of where to help out. I see Kalil wall and then anchor, good work. SS and right end converge on Carr, who tries to throw the ball away awkwardly. Who knows what was going on downfield, Carr was too busy backing up. Giants brought more pressure 2nd string, and we didn't run or pass well against it. Gotta block better either way.