after the SB, another reminder Defense wins championships

[btcutter]

Every yr most people (myself included) get infatuated with explosive offense and scoring. Both the Pats and us lead the league in scoring but neither has a ring. When the games get tight and the playoffs comes around, the DEFENSE wins games. Great offense becomes good or average because of the quality of opponents but defense jumps out at you in every game.

Giants have a decent offense but a VERY good defense (not dominating) but played to their potential. They win the SB.

With that, I think while it's very sexy to to go after WR, RB etc I think we need to shore up our secondary and linbacking core. Our offense is plenty good to win a SB but our D??? We already know how we get toasted in the secondary, but does anyone remember the last time our LB actually intercepted a pass??? or dropped deep enough to break up a completion to a TE or WR?

I am not saying don't draft a RB or WR but besides the obvious need at CB. We need more athletic MIDDLE LBs!!!!!

A LB in the 1st 4 picks is needed! I hope Burnett takes over Akins spot next yr and either have Carp step up or draft someone to back up.

 

[Billy Bullocks]

I remember people were flaming the Giants for drafting so many DE's over the last few years. Seems to have paid off today.

 

[btcutter]

I remember people were flaming the Giants for drafting so many DE's over the last few years. Seems to have paid off today.

yeah, see what good pressure can make average DBs look good. Sure tackling by LBs and DBs make West Coast offense look.......well, very average.

We need better defensive coaching and get DB and upgrade inside backers!!!

 

[windward]

yeah, see what good pressure can make average DBs look good. Sure tackling by LBs and DBs make West Coast offense look.......well, very average.

We need better defensive coaching and get DB and upgrade inside backers!!!

I think we've upgraded our defensive coaches and we look to address DB and possibly ILB in FA/Draft.

 

[kojak]

That was one of the best defensive game plans I have seen used against the Pats. They rattled the golden boy completely out of his game. Congrats to the Giant fans in the house.

 

[Clove]

I pray that Spencer is the answer at OLB.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

Some of us have always loved defense far more than offense.

 

[NextGenBoys]

Was just thinking the same thing.

I think our LB's are very good, and hope Burnett can replace Akin. Dont get me wrong Akin is solid, but thats it. Burnett can be a playmaker.

Other than that I like our Dline rotation, the rest of our LB's, and our starting secondary. We need a nickel corner, but other than that I like our defense.

I expect players like Watkins, Burnett, Hatcher, Spencer, to have expanded roles as they hopefully continue to improve.

This defense is so young and full of potential. And defense still wins championships. I dont see us beating our 13-3 record this past year, but I sure think that with an improved defense we can hopefully make some noise in the playoffs where it counts. Where DEFENSE counts.

 

[burmafrd]

All those points the Pats piled up during the season did them no good last night.

For all the idiots that said its all about offense in the NFL now, EAT CROW!!!

 

[Redball Express]

The defense didn't lose to the Jints.

The offense failed to get it done in the pressure game. In both the Seattle game in 2006 and the Jints game in 2007, they had us in position to win.

I think this SB has got to be sticking in this team's throat right now.

It's either going to send us forward to get better or it's going to set us back and nobody knows how far.

Aikman has already come out and said this team is going backwards.

At first I dismissed that idea but there maybe something to that.

This team certainly may have a hangover going for awhile after seeing the Jints take the ring now.

This makes the Dallas loss sting even more. First the Seattle loss , now this one...

..two big opportunities lost.

On the bright side..you look at what the Jints have gone thru the last 3-4 years and they have found the magic.

At least for now.

Congrats to them for doing the nearly impossible.

You just have to respect what they and their coaches have done.

And congrats to Eli. He must feel like a lead anvil has been taken off his shoulders.

:starspin

ReDBaLL ExPreSS

 

[Apollo Creed]

Our defense looks good on paper, and on stat sheets you can dig up all the info you want about how we're in the top so and so percentage in the league. But our guys fail to make plays when it matters.

The Seattle game wasn't over after Romo's bobble, we had a chance to get the ball back with a minute and some change. Too bad we couldn't stop Alexander on 3rd down, a certain player in our secondary had a shot at him in the backfield but failed to make a play again.

The Giants game was painful to watch, they basically played flag football on the outside against Reeves - dinking and dunking us to death.

Point being, our offense has won us far more games than our defense has. And you're only as good as your weakest link, so if we don't upgrade the CB and ILB position we're going to see the same painful gameplan beat us year in and year out when it matters.

 

[YosemiteSam]

I remember people were flaming the Giants for drafting so many DE's over the last few years. Seems to have paid off today.

Justin Tuck was the key. He is a DE, but is big enough to play DT an does so when Strahan and Umenyiora are in the game giving them three very capable pass rushers. This allows them to get a substantial pass rush with only four rushers. That gives them the ability to drop more players into coverage and with that kind of a four man rush, it also compounds it when they do actually blitz.

I've been a Spears supporter because of his solid play and I'm still against trading him, but I think with Ferguson coming back. Ratliff should return to DE and start in place of Spears. I think Tank should be the third and long NT because he is a better pass rusher than Ferguson.

 

[khiladi]

And note to the NFL:

Defensive football is pretty damn exciting... Get off the league should be catered to the offense bandwagon...

 

[khiladi]

Was just thinking the same thing.

I think our LB's are very good, and hope Burnett can replace Akin. Dont get me wrong Akin is solid, but thats it. Burnett can be a playmaker.

Other than that I like our Dline rotation, the rest of our LB's, and our starting secondary. We need a nickel corner, but other than that I like our defense.

I expect players like Watkins, Burnett, Hatcher, Spencer, to have expanded roles as they hopefully continue to improve.

This defense is so young and full of potential. And defense still wins championships. I dont see us beating our 13-3 record this past year, but I sure think that with an improved defense we can hopefully make some noise in the playoffs where it counts. Where DEFENSE counts.

AKin is horrible and he was one of the reasons teams ate us alive when we went soft-zone. Are LBs couldn't get far enough in the zone...

 

[Chocolate Lab]

And note to the NFL:

Defensive football is pretty damn exciting... Get off the NFL should be catered to the offense...

Thank you.

I never understood why the league seems to think that more scoring = better games. You can't get better than that game last night.

 

[btcutter]

Our defense looks good on paper, and on stat sheets you can dig up all the info you want about how we're in the top so and so percentage in the league. But our guys fail to make plays when it matters.

The Seattle game wasn't over after Romo's bobble, we had a chance to get the ball back with a minute and some change. Too bad we couldn't stop Alexander on 3rd down, a certain player in our secondary had a shot at him in the backfield but failed to make a play again.

The Giants game was painful to watch, they basically played flag football on the outside against Reeves - dinking and dunking us to death.

Point being, our offense has won us far more games than our defense has. And you're only as good as your weakest link, so if we don't upgrade the CB and ILB position we're going to see the same painful gameplan beat us year in and year out when it matters.

I agree.

Our Defense can't get off the field on numerous 3rd downs WHEN it counted way too often. I have no confidence in our D when critical plays needs to be made. Yes, we remember our offense let us down because they didn't play upto par against the G men but it was the D that let the G man score a touchdown with <50 seconds in the half. If that's not poor defense, I don't know what is.

Jerry, pick up either a CB or ILB in the off season, draft another DB to shore up our D. Sure, pick a change of pace back and a young WR to develop. Just remember what you saw during the playoffs............DEFENSE wins championships!

 

[BourbonBalz]

Every yr most people (myself included) get infatuated with explosive offense and scoring. Both the Pats and us lead the league in scoring but neither has a ring. When the games get tight and the playoffs comes around, the DEFENSE wins games. Great offense becomes good or average because of the quality of opponents but defense jumps out at you in every game.

Giants have a decent offense but a VERY good defense (not dominating) but played to their potential. They win the SB.

With that, I think while it's very sexy to to go after WR, RB etc I think we need to shore up our secondary and linbacking core. Our offense is plenty good to win a SB but our D??? We already know how we get toasted in the secondary, but does anyone remember the last time our LB actually intercepted a pass??? or dropped deep enough to break up a completion to a TE or WR?

I am not saying don't draft a RB or WR but besides the obvious need at CB. We need more athletic MIDDLE LBs!!!!!

A LB in the 1st 4 picks is needed! I hope Burnett takes over Akins spot next yr and either have Carp step up or draft someone to back up.

This is getting really old. Do we need to make some defensive improvements? Absolutely. However, we did not lose the playoff game to the Giants because of our defense. Our defense actually carried us in that game, especially in the second half. IMO the defense only had two bad moments in the entire game, and one was more of a coaching lapse. The Giant's first TD was allowed due to very poor tackling. That's on the defense. However, that TD doesn't even happen if the refs didn't blow the offsides call against Ware. The Giants would have been punting rather than scoring on a 51 yard TD. The other poor defensive moment was allowing the Giants to march down the field and score a tying TD right before the half. However, the coaching staff had the DBs playing way too far off the receivers, essentially playing a prevent defense because they didn't think the Giants had enough time to march down the field in smaller chunks of yardage and score. Poor calculation on the coaching staff. Our defense only gave up a total of 57 yards and one score in the second half and that score wasn't their fault. Crayton dropped a pass that would have gotten a first down and big chunk of yardage that forced us to punt deep in our own territory. Then, the special teams punt coverage was horrible, allowing the Giants to start at our 36 yard line. The defense came up with huge stops in the fourth quarter to get the ball back to the offense. What lost that game? The offense kept shooting itself in the foot with dropped passes and stupid penalties. The poor OL blocking and poor offensive play-calling in the second half didn't help. The bottom line is you're not going to win many playoff games scoring only 17 points. While our defense isn't perfect, this year's final loss can't be blamed on it. Look to the offense for the blame, and I don't mean Tony Romo.

 

[btcutter]

This is getting really old. Do we need to make some defensive improvements? Absolutely. However, we did not lose the playoff game to the Giants because of our defense. Our defense actually carried us in that game, especially in the second half. IMO the defense only had two bad moments in the entire game, and one was more of a coaching lapse. The Giant's first TD was allowed due to very poor tackling. That's on the defense. However, that TD doesn't even happen if the refs didn't blow the offsides call against Ware. The Giants would have been punting rather than scoring on a 51 yard TD. The other poor defensive moment was allowing the Giants to march down the field and score a tying TD right before the half. However, the coaching staff had the DBs playing way too far off the receivers, essentially playing a prevent defense because they didn't think the Giants had enough time to march down the field in smaller chunks of yardage and score. Poor calculation on the coaching staff. Our defense only gave up a total of 57 yards and one score in the second half and that score wasn't their fault. Crayton dropped a pass that would have gotten a first down and big chunk of yardage that forced us to punt deep in our own territory. Then, the special teams punt coverage was horrible, allowing the Giants to start at our 36 yard line. The defense came up with huge stops in the fourth quarter to get the ball back to the offense. What lost that game? The offense kept shooting itself in the foot with dropped passes and stupid penalties. The poor OL blocking and poor offensive play-calling in the second half didn't help. The bottom line is you're not going to win many playoff games scoring only 17 points. While our defense isn't perfect, this year's final loss can't be blamed on it. Look to the offense for the blame, and I don't mean Tony Romo.

Ask yourself something, do you trust this D to get off the field on 3 and 5 against any good team???? yes, our D has it's moments. But the D is far too inconsistent to win a championship.

Yes, our O didn't play up to it's potential but give some credit to the G men D. Just in case you didn't notice. They held Pats to 14 points. They put Romo, Farve and Brady on their backs constantly. Their D dominated when they need to. I can't say that about our D. Yea, we could, should have beat the G men but I don't think our D can beat the Pats.

 

[BourbonBalz]

Our defense did a very good job of getting the Giants off the field the entire game with one exception and that was only 47 seconds before halftime, again, when we were in a prevent. Am I completely happy with the defense? No, we need to get better. My point was, our defense was not the reason we went home early this year. The played more than well enough to win. As for the Giant's defense, they're good, but we handled them easily twice this year. Our offense had their heads up their collective ***** in the playoff game.

 

[CF74]

That and your receivers catching the ball at clutch times...