The New York Giants made waves early on the third Sunday of the 2018 season when it was announced that they were benching right tackle Ereck Flowers in favor of second-year UDFAChad Wheeler.There was much rejoicing among the fan base Sunday morning when the news hit. And at first blush the victory over the Houston Texans
Color Rush Landon Collins Jersey , weighed against losses to the Jacksonville Jaguars and Dallas Cowboys, gives credence to the Giants’ decision.But it still bears asking whether the Giants’ choice was the right one going forward. To answer the question, let’s look at the tape.Pass protectionFirst quarter, 5:37, first-and-10, Houston 29 The Giants start the play in the shotgun with their 11-personnel set. Odell Beckham is the lone receiver to the offensive right, with Evan Engram inline next to Wheeler, while Sterling Shepard is in the slot and Cody Latimer is out wide at the X position. The play is supposed to be a quick screen pass to Wayne Gallman, but it is sniffed out and blown up almost immediately Tyrann Mathieu, but that isn’t what we are here for. The Texans are in their 4-2-5 nickel set, with J.J. Watt lined up at left defensive end, at the 7-technique outside of the right tackle. Watt takes an outside route to the quarterback right from the start, and Wheeler quickly gets into his kick slide to meet and usher him around the pocket. However, just as the two are about to make contact, Wheeler lunges, opens his hips away from Watt, and lets his hands go wide. The wide hands and open hips give Watt an opening to use a rip move, gaining leverage and turning Wheeler’s back to the line of scrimmage.Manning is just able to get the pass off before the diving Watt can bat it down, but he still takes the big defensive end’s leg to the back of the knee. The play went nowhere, but thankfully Manning got up quickly.Play 2 Third quarter, 8:35, first-and-10, Giants’ 9-yard lineOnce again the Giants are in their 11-personnel, shotgun set. This time, Rhett Ellison is the tight end and he is attached on the left side of the line, while the two receivers are on the offensive right.The Giants use play-action to fake a run to the right. The play-action is sold well, sucking in the linebackers and moving the defense away from Sterling Shepard in the slot. Unfortunately, safety Kareem Jackson is drawn in to the passing lane and deflects the ball. Once again Watt is lined up on the defensive right, outside of Wheeler’s outside shoulder. Unlike the previous play, the Giants’ run-action fake freezes Watt slightly, forcing him to play the run instead of rushing the passer all-out. Watt is still easily able to win Wheeler’s chest plate and establish leverage, and would have discarded the block to make a play on Barkley if he had the ball. However, Wheeler does a good enough job of staying in Watt’s way and selling the run block that he isn’t able to impact the play. It’s part scheme and part player, and except for a good play to knock the ball down by Jackson, the would be a win.Run blocking Building off of a play-action pass, let’s take a look at Wheeler’s run blocking.First quarter, 7:42, first-and-10, Giants 39-yard lineThis is the fifth play of the game for the Giants’ offense. The team comes out in their 12 personnel package (two tight ends), with Evan Engram attached to the left side of the line while Rhett Ellison attached on the right side of the line. “Smash mouth football” and “spread offense” aren’t usually spoken together, but that’s what this is. The Giants have their wide receivers both lined up out wide, and with Ellison, Engram, and Barkley on the field, the threat of the pass is definitely present. That keeps the Texans from crowding the line of scrimmage. And this isn’t true “power” football, with Ellison and Engram both releasing into routes. However, the alignment and routes combine to keep Texans’ defense from keying on the run completely and ignoring the pass. As a result, what looks to be an 8-man box is effectively a six-man box and a favorable run look.The play is made by a good block from John Greco at center and a straight mauling by Will Hernandez at left guard. Wheeler isn’t a huge factor in the play at all, but given Watt’s speed into the back field
Youth Sterling Shepard Jersey , sealing the back-side is important none the less. Wheeler does a good job of getting in Watt’s way, actually winning the hand battle for a moment — plenty long enough for Barkley to run through the gaping hole to the left. Watt is eventually able to discard Wheeler’s block and rallies to the ball, but not before Barkley is down for a 13-yard gain.A quick look at FlowersThis is an attempt to convert a third-and-13 on the Giants’ second drive in their week 2 match-up against the Dallas Cowboys. Flowers was far from perfect in this game, but he showed significant improvement in his second start at right tackle since 2012. Dallas runs a slot blitz under a Cover 2 shell, meaning that not only does Manning not have much time to get the pass off, nothing comes open down the field until he decides to take the check-down to Wayne Gallman. Demarcus Lawrence rushes the right B-gap, but Flowers easily passes him off to Omameh and Greco after the linebacker threatening to blitz that gap drops in to coverage. Flowers actually does a great job to go from defending the B-gap to getting out to pick up the blizting slot corner. Between the block of Lawrence and picking up the blitzer, Manning has a pocket to step up in to and gets the ball to Gallman. The running back isn’t able to pick up the first down and the Giants have to punt.Final thoughtsI don’t say this to dump on Wheeler, but it was difficult to find positives in his game this past Sunday. Granted, he was lined up against one of the best defensive linemen in the NFL, but even Whitney Mercilus gave him problems. His best reps, and the second play featured was among them, came when the rusher used an outside move. On those plays he was generally able to force them around the pocket.But he proved consistently unable to deal with inside moves. Any time a rusher rushed through the right B gap between Wheeler and Omameh, he barely slowed them down. Each time, the lunge, open hips, and wide hands he showed in the first play proved to be his undoing. By turning perpendicular to the line of scrimmage too early, Wheeler was essentially opening a door for the rushers and making it almost impossible to for him to gain leverage on the rusher. A tendency for his hips to rise into contact only compounded the problem.The Giants won Sunday because were able to scheme around the weaknesses on their of offensive line. By using quick passes, misdirection, and getting Eli Manning out of the pocket — not to mention Manning playing much, much better than the previous week — the team was largely able to function in spite of the Texans’ talented front seven.It doesn’t get easier for Wheeler, however. This coming week the team will host the New Orleans Saints and defensive lineman Cameron Jordan. Like Watt, Jordan is a big, long, powerful, and athletic defensive lineman who lines up predominantly on the right side.The win likely means that the right tackle job is Wheeler’s to lose, and the Giants have to hope that he will improve in the role. Things won’t really get easier from here on out, from Jordan next week to Ryan Kerrigan in Washington to the Philadelphia Eagles’ defensive front, to Khalil Mack and the Bears. The line has its work cut out for it, and the scheme that the Giants used in Houston is on tape for their opponents to study.Why the Giants will, or won’t, win the Super Bowl Can someone possibly project which teams will, or won’t, win the Super Bowl? Sure, by using a process commonly referred to as “guessing.” The New York Giants themselves have proven the folly of ruling a team out of contention in August or September. In 2007, they were perceived as a mediocre team with a head coach who should be fired. In 2011 they were perceived as a mediocre team with a franchise quarterback who caused belly laughs among the punditry when he said that he thought he was in Tom Brady’s class of quarterback. It might be slightly more accurate to assess which teams the chance a team has of making a run at the Super Bowl. That’s what Bill Barnwell did for ESPN, assessing how likely each of the 32 teams were to play in the Super Bowl, and how they could win it. He lists the Giants as one of the least-likely teams to play in, and win, the last game of the season, ranking them at 26th with a miniscule 0.3 percent chance at the Super Bowl. Ouch. What path does Barnwell lay down for the Giants to win the Super Bowl? Well, it’s fairly obvious: They could surprise us all and be good if their best players — Odell Beckham Jr., Landon Collins, Janoris Jenkins, and Damon Harrison — and their second tier of players — Evan Engram, Eli Apple, Will Hernandez, Nate Solder — play well. As well, he says that they’ll need Olivier Vernon and Alec Ogletree to fix the problems at linebacker
Alec Ogletree Jersey , and for Eli Manning to play like a franchise quarterback. If the majority of the Giants’ starting offense and defense plays well, according to Barnwell, they might just have a chance. If not? Well...It’s interesting that Barnwell doesn’t mention players like WRs Sterling Shepard and Cody Latimer, DT Dalvin Tomlinson, LB B.J. Goodson, EDGE Lorenzo Carter, or FS Curtis Riley as players who could be major role players in a Giants run, despite the importance of their roles. The Giants should reasonably expect their best players to play their best. Any team will miss the play-offs, or have an early exit, if their best players don’t perform up to expectations. The difference between the teams that make it and the ones who fall short are often the players nobody knows who step up and provide answers where none were expected.Sterling Shepard, or Latimer, could be the offense’s X-factor as teams concentrate on dealing with Beckham, Engram, and Barkley. Tomlinson will likely play more snaps, in more situations, than Harrison. He might not (yet) be the dominant player that Harrison is, but stout defensive tackle play is needed on every defensive snap. Goodson is a force against the run, and looks surprisingly comfortable playing in space. He might not be a “big name” but the more the Giants can do from their base packages, the better for the defense. I have lost count of the number of times I have said this over the years, but good free safety play is transformative for a defense — especially a blitz-heavy defense. The defense absolutely needs a reliable last line of defense for a DC to feel comfortable sending pressure. If Riley is able to convert from corner to free safety, that is a tremendous advantage. The Giants have the talent at the top of their depth chart to compete with any team in the NFL. Beckham, Janoris Jenkins, Harrison, and Collins are each among the best in the league at their positions when healthy. Sterling Shepard was a top-5 slot receiver in 2017 despite playing just 11 games and playing through injury when he was on the field. And in the ultra-small sample size that was the first half of the third preseason game, Eli Manning looked better — more crisp, confident, and aggressive — than he has in years. And that is all well and good, but why wouldn’t the Giants’ make the post-season (let alone the Super Bowl)?For a team that went 3-13, got a new general manager, head coach (and coaching staff), and had so much roster turnover that even veterans of multiple teams describe it as “wild,” that certainly isn’t easy.The biggest pitfall for the 2018 Giants is their depth chart. It is simply riddled with question marks. Much of their secondary was brought on after final cuts, which raises questions for a blitz-heavy defense which relies on players to go from disguising coverage to being in position and keeping the ball in the quarterback’s hand. There is also the issue of the offensive line, particularly the interior. Eli Manning, and pretty much every other “pocket passer” (read: “quarterbacks who can’t run good”), depend more on a stout interior line than stout offensive tackles. While athletic quarterbacks can escape interior pressure by scrambling — which is facilitated by good tackle play to help them break contain — pocket passers need a pocket which they can climb to avoid pressure off the edge. The Giants have upgraded their tackle positions with Nate Solder pushing Ereck Flowers to the right side, but the interior of their line is a question mark. Will Hernandez is a highly drafted and talented rookie, but he is a rookie — he will have “rookie moments” as he adjusts to the speed, power, and gamesmenship of the NFL. Jon Halapio has only recently moved to center, and Patrick Omameh has had his struggles at right guard. Pat Shurmur said that the Giants will only go as far as the offensive line blocks for them, and it’s fair to wonder if the revamped offensive line is actually an improvement over the 2017 line, or just different. If it is the latter, the Giants will have a tough time making it to Atlanta on Feb. 3, 2019 unless they buy tickets. Which will it be? There is a much greater chance that any team will not play in the Super Bowl (let alone win it) than there is that they will. Winning the Super Bowl is HARD and even great teams will fall short and miss it. If the Giants get what they need from their best players, and get some surprise contributions from their depth, they should surprise those who are dismissing them in September.
gửi bởi linhui95 » Thứ 2 26/11/18 14:58 
