May 6, 2007
Can we have the old Gibril Wilson back please? A new Will Demps would be nice too...
When Gibril Wilson first saw real playing time with the giants hw became a fan favorite. His play was agreesive and exciting. Now he's about as exciting as a trip to the backyard.
Can he get the old aggressiveness back? There is a plan in the works:
"Don't worry about making mistakes," Merritt said. "Go out there and play ball. That was one of the things I think he thought of the past few years: 'I don't want to be wrong, I want to be right every step.' You need to let it go. Go out there and play. If you are out there concerned about making a mistake, you are bound to make a mistake."I'm actually not so worried about Will Demps. I thought he started playing much better at the end of last season. It would take a lot to make Giants fans forgive all his bad play in 2006 but I think he'll be at least decent in 2007, maybe even good. I've read a few things about how his knee was an issue last season. Posted by James Trotta at May 6, 2007 11:34 AM
this is a wait and see game now , you have a new defensive coach so we have to see how the old players react.
Posted by: james kostyk at May 6, 2007 6:36 PMI feel that Gibril is the kind of db we need even though he has looked bad now and then. I'm with you on Demps as well. A more consistant pass rush this year would make all our dbs look a lot better.
There is no way a guy like Garcia should be able to avoid our rush as well as he did last year. Not getting to him was the real reason we did not beat the Eagles in last year's playoff game. I don't know if he was just lucky or played the game of his life but we should have had him about four times in critical situations.
The Giants seem to be sitting on their hands. Afraid to do this - afraid to do that. While other teams, like the Jets, are making smart and aggressive decisions to help their football team. If the new ideology of offense in the NFL were to become using two running backs in at a time to confuse the defense, it would take the Giants 4 years to realize this and start using it and by that time it would be out of mode and defended efficiently. Jerry Reese, their new GM seems to be a delegator rather than a leader.. You even get whiffs that the new young owners want to cut costs of player personnel. Kevin Gilbride seems to be a Jim Hufnagel clone. If Eli Manning was like a deer in the headlights with the Giants best running back of all time in the backfield (Tiki Barber), what's he going to be like without him? Brandon Jacobs is a big, fast, strong, talented running back, but he's a little slow upstairs, is brittle (has he gone a game without getting nicked up?), can't block and fumbles way too much. And to put icing on the cake, they have a patchwork offensive line, who, in between ostentatious gesturing and ball slamming, you don't know if he'll catch the ball or not. I like the Mathias Kiwanuka idea at linebacker, but listening to their new defensive coordinator, STEVE SPAGNUOLO, their going to incorporate only a little of the Eagles aggressive style defense and combine that with all the good things the Giants defense did last year. What good things!!!? They ranked nearly last in all categories!
I'm 54 years old and have been a Giant's fan since I was 4, thanks to my father. As I get older I get more cranky, or maybe it's wiser, but I'm really afraid of the 2007 season with the Giants. I hope I'm wrong and I have to eat crow, but I don't think so. I'll be watching games intently even if they're 3-11 in December. And how 'bout their schedule? Brutal!
Goooooooooooo Giants! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!
Best Regards,
Romeorose.
could this all have the defensive coordinator's fault? Probably not but Gibril's first season was undoubtedly his best. The entire secondary was awful last year.
Posted by: jim at May 8, 2007 6:06 AMI feel good about this defense this year, for all the anticipated benefits from a change in direction and approach thanks to a new coach, the new rookie talent (both drafted and signed undrafted), good FA OLB acquisition, the maturing of last year's very good rookies, and the announced position change to keep Kiwi on the field... to say nothing of the softer schedule compared to last year. Still, Eli has to keep his offense on the field for this defense to be there late in the 4th quarter, and to do that Coughlin and Gilbride must abandon all that "balanced attack" mantra from last year that placed so much pressure on Eli in favor of the old school smash mouth run The Beast so you can play action pass to keep 'em honest football. It ain't pretty, and it ain't exciting if you're a fan of arena football, but it's a step back to the culture of Giants football, and I for one am all for that.
Posted by: Joe in San Diego at May 10, 2007 2:14 AMLooking at some of the comments above I have to add my own 2 cents. It seems to me what the giants are doing is that they're starting to adopt the New England approach personell, they cut a lot of the high priced tallent. Instead of having 70% of your defensive budget being spent on your starters, they're cutting back on the super stars and trying to bring in the journeymen. this should let them have a higher quality depth in the long run, so WHEN someone goes down (and given the spate of injuries the last 2 years, that's weekly) you have someone capable of replacing him at near the same level.
I figure with moving in that direction, this is going to be a building year, and we'll have to start looking forward to next year when the plan can really start to come to fruition under a new head coach.