September 29, 2006
Where is the Big Blue defense?
Mike Garafolo writes that the secondary looks confused because Brent Alexander is no longer telling people what to do. This supposedly came from a few Giants players who didn't want their names used. My firs reaction was to dismiss this as pure craziness, but Will Demps, who replaced, Brent Alexander, is trying to take full responsibility for not getting communication in the secondary down. I still don't get it. Why don't the players know where to go without the free safety telling them what to do? Either the defense is too complicated or the players are too stupid. Or am I missing something?
Emmons will miss some time (anyone think he'll be back next year?) so we'll either see Brandon Short or Gerris Wilkinson at WILL. Maybe we'll see some beginner's luck with Wilkonson, similar to what Gibril Wilson experienced when he came on for an injured Shaun Williams his rookie season.
Onto the defensive line, Strahan is making little sense these days. He says Osi played well against Walter Jones, even better than last year when he had 8 tackles and 2 sacks. Strange. Anyway, the defensive line knows what to do: "Michael and Osi Umenyiora hurry the quarterback and you have several quarterback hits, so it's like getting singles and doubles instead of the home run," defensive line coach Mike Waufle said Tuesday. "That's what we're trying to solve. It's not brain surgery."
If the defensive line does their job, and if the secondary figures out their job, and if the linebackers start showing up (including whoever replaces Emmons) we'll be in good shape. That's 3 too many "if"s if you ask me.
Posted by James Trotta at September 29, 2006 2:40 PM