Lack of execution on offense, defense end up hurting Giants in loss to Jets

The Giants dominated the Jets last night in just about every offensive category but came up short on the one category that really matters–points.  They lost 27-25, in a game that should really not have been that close.  The G-men had 20 first downs to the Jets’ 11, outgained them 379-314 and held the ball for 32:53.  But they also had an Eli Manning interception, a Brandon Jacobs fumble and a wealth of dropped passes that have Tom Coughlin very concerned heading into the final preseason game on Thursday in New England.  But the defense, which is somewhat decimated by injuries, didn’t look all that sharp either, and at times made rookie QB Mark Sanchez look like Joe Namath. 

Here were the good and the bad from last night’s game:

The good….rookie WR Hakeem Nicks, despite one of the critical drops, caught 6 passes for 144 yards and 2 TDs.  The man has great hands and quickness, and he looked like, dare we say it, Plaxico Burress, on the first TD play when he kept both feet in bounds and held on to the ball; and looked like Randy Moss on the second play, a 71-yard outstretched-arm catch from David Carr in which he blew past the safety……Brandon Jacobs only rushed for 24 yards, but caught one pass for an 8 yard TD from Manning…Ahmad Bradshaw rushed 8 times for 47 yards and looked explosive at times, sort of like the 2007 version of himself…Mario Manningham caught four passes for 41 yards but also dropped one…Mathias Kiwanuka had a beautiful sack play in which Sanchez could not find a receiver due to excellent coverage downfield…..rookie Derek Hagan also made a nice catch and run and had 2 catches overall for 25 yards.

The bad….the drops were all bad, but none as bad as Steve Smith dropping a sure touchdown bomb when he got past a defender and Manning put the ball right into his hands.  The Giants have been making these plays in practice, so Coughlin was obviously disturbed by the dropsies.  Domenik Hixon also had a bad drop, and this lack of execution is troubling because Smith and Hixon are currently the starters at WR….Manning, as usual, looked great at times but made some awful plays too.  He overthrew Kevin Boss in the end zone early, and before that made a really bad decision throwing an incompletion to Mario Manningham in which you, me and the whole world knew what he was doing.  Did the guy forget how to use the pump-fake?  The interception Manning threw was on a deflection off of Hixon’s hands–a high throw but one he could have and should have caught….there was a breakdown on defense on the Sanchez TD throw in which the Giants’ secondary was marveling at their pass rush and forgot to cover WR Chansi Stuckey.  Kevin Dockery and CC Brown were both sleeping on that one…after the Giants pulled within one midway through the fourth quarter, Erik Ainge threw a 70 yard TD to Aundrae Allison in which rookie CB DeAndre Wright lost the ball in the lights and overplayed it….and finally, and I heard no one else ask this…why in the world was Coughlin going for two after Nicks’ first touchdown made it 20-19?  If this was a regular season game, I can’t imagine he would have done that, but the Giants did not execute on the pass play for the 2 points, and on the second 2-point conversion play to tie the game, they handed off to Allen Patrick, who came nowhere near the goal line….bad decision, but even worse play-calling and lack of execution.

So there you have it.  There are lots of things to feel good about.  The offensive line looked good, both the starters and backups, and the Giants put decent pressure on the QB and really should have won this game.  But the drops and the breakdowns in coverage are very troubling, especially when you consider that teams in our division will make us pay for those mistakes during the season.  Some things definitely need to be ironed out before the regular season kicks off two weeks from today against Washington. 

Did you see the game?  I’m curious what you all think…..please share your comments with the rest of the class below, and thanks for reading….

Tags: Ahmad Bradshaw, Allen Patrick, Aundrae Allison, Brandon Jacobs, CC Brown, Chansi Stuckey, David Carr, DeAndre Wright, Domenik Hixon, Eli Manning, Erik Ainge, Giants, Hakeem Nicks, Jets, Joe Namath, Kevin Boss, Kevin Dockery, Mario Manningham, Mark Sanchez, Mathias Kiwanuka, New England, NFC East, Plaxico Burress, Randy Moss, Steve Smith, Tom Coughlin, Washington Redskins