Week 1: Giants @ Lions Game Thread

[epheisey]

I know this forum is usually pretty slow, but I figured I'd toss a thread up just in case!



What I'm hoping to see:

Stafford shows something. He's supposed to have more control of the offense pre-play this year. He also spent a lot of time with Cooter, the QB coach, and appears to have made some progress improving his accuracy, throwing motions, and footwork. Let's see if that carries over into the regular season.

Ebron must be involved. Being our #1 pick this year, we need immediate returns. This offense has tons of weapons. Calvin, Tate, Ebron, Fauria, Pettigrew, Reggie, Joique, and Theo Riddick are all options. I'm intrigued to see how he fits with his obvious lack of blocking ability.

The secondary. This was our weakest unit last season, and it forced the defense to forego any blitzing packages almost entirely. The defense managed to bend without breaking most of the season, but didn't cause many turnovers, and lack of coverage ability prevented our line from making it to the QB at all. It was a vicious cycle of problems that all correlated. Unfortunately, this week at least, we're starting with a secondary worse off than last year. Delmas is gone, but his replacement, Ihedigbo is injured. Houston was injured and is gone, so we're left with Mathis and Slay as our starting corners. Neither are a #1 corner, and their ability as even a second corner is still unclear. Can the new scheme that Austin has brought in, create turnovers, give the line time to create pressure?



Luckily, we're starting out against the Giants, who have some serious problems on offense. This could be a great week one opponent for our defense to get warmed up with. Unfortunately, their defense is quite stout, especially in the secondary, with 4 or 5 corners that could all be starters here in Detroit (not saying too much though haha) as well as a solid d-line even though they have lost a couple studs there recently.

Prediction: Lions 27 - Giants 20

Lions offense under-performs, but shows some potential, but the defense comes out with a few turnovers courtesy of Eli Manning, while still very susceptible to the big play.

[BlackMaple]

Stafford looking so damn good, shaking off defenders like they're nothing.

[epheisey]

Started out fantastically. The only giants score followed a bad call in my opinion. Couplin got blocked into the punter. Which changed the momentum unfortunately.

Penalties still hurting though aside from the one I think was a bad call. Stafford has looked phenomenal. And the heat behind some of his passes to Tate was impressive haha.

Running game is getting stuffed. On both sides of the ball. Our pass defense has at times looked impressive with a few good plays from Slay. But the TD and a few other plays show the issues we still have.

[Blkbrd671]

My thoughts:


Taking this game with a Grain of salt, the GIANTS had no real game tape to prepare their team for detroit being that both our DC and OC are new to coaching. So preparation wise GIants were at a disadvantage from the start. Additionally Giants also have a new offensive system and it was obvious that miscue's led them to make mistakes.


Now as far as our boys


MAtty Staff:
Looked really good,so good infact he actually looked like a dual threat QB. His feet were set on almost all his throws, he made good decisions when flushed outside the pocket, and spread the ball around. His 2nd TD is really underrated by the media, he was going left, set his feet and pretty much lobbed a ball over 2 giants defenders to CJ who made a fantastic catch. i am pretty sure that is not a throw any coach ever wants a QB to make, however Matty put the ball right where he needed to be under pressure.


WR: CJ of course did his thing, Tate got us yards when we needed it, the TE didn't do much in terms of receiving but the blocks were nice, and Fauria had a nice run and catch that i think suprised everyone, i didn't think he was that fast. He has long strides. Also Matt Stafford is surrounded by weapons, and we still have more inactive.

RB: Didn't do a great job of making the D pay for mistakes, though NY Run defense was stout. One thing i noted though is that we were able to burn a lot of clock and did move the chains. They also caught a ton of passes out the back field.

OL: Did a decent job, had a couple miscue's but overall i think they did well. Hope Waddles' okay as hillard replaced him


DL: Ziggy was disruptive, G. Johnson had 1.5 sacks, Suh and Fairley made plays, i think overall we did pretty well, though there were a couple runs we let get away, which was more on the LB's. i think when Reid comes back, we'll have a lot more pressure towards the end of the game. There was one clip where fairley looked exhausted. One thing i did like is that we didn't let sacks get away form us, normally when 1 player got a touch on the QB or RB, it normally resulted in a loss. In recent years, there have been at least 10-20 plays where it should have been a Sac or TFL, and we didn't complete the tackle leading to a first down or even TD. This game we did a lot better job of tackling on the first touch

Back 7: Levy interception, Quin interception, Abudul almost interception. I like the fact that we are aggressive however its still obviously a weakness. SLay must improve, he's pretty much chris houston 2.0. good but not great. i thin khe will improve Our LB's need to hold gap intergrity, as i said earlier we let too many runs get away from us. overall i'd give them a B. as i think it was mostly Giants new system as oppose to our secondary reading the qb. I don't think our back 7 has earned the bneenfit of the doubt. Our blitzing could use some work.


ST: the roughing the kicker penalty was big, however Couplin got pushed into the kicker, i don't know the rule on that, but i think that's a pretty crappy call considering couplin was forced into the kicker. Martin had a nice day, Freese missed a 48yarder, and ross got some yards when there weren't any. Overall we didn't let up any TD's, and we scored when we needed too.


Penalties killed us this game, but we were able to hold the lead. We were able to capitalize on NY mistakes and TO's. and that's something that was more a fluke in past years as more so the norm. I think this time our game plan and personnel were jsut better. When we play Carolina next week, that'll be a better litmus

[epheisey]

I think the game went very good. They beat a team they were supposed to beat, and did so handily, instead of playing down to their opponent, which past Lions teams have been so prone to do. It's important to remember, that while the Giants were witnessing completely new coordinators, the Lions were seeing a new Giants offense as well. Additionally, the Giants defense, despite some clear mistakes in the game, is a decent group.

QB play was fantastic. Beyond the obvious that Stafford appears to have great command of the offense, and some new found scrambling abilities, he didn't make mistakes. He had one bad throw to Ebron in the end zone, but that's the only one I can think of. He threw the ball away a bunch. And while that's not always a good thing, it just shows that he's no longer relying completely on his arm, and he realizes that he can't make every throw. That's huge. He also had the highest QBR rating of any player this week, posting a 97.5. I don't love ESPNs QBR, but I think the fact that he was clear and away the best QB this week, it means something.

WR/TE play was solid. Calvin and Tate did their thing. Fauria impressed with his run after he caught the one pass. I think the one thing that was disappointing for this unit was the usage. I'm hoping it was to keep some of the offense hidden considering how easily they handled the Giants. For once, there wasn't a single DROP! And Stafford was ripping some of those passes around!

The O-line was a little confusing. The difference between Hilliard and Waddle appeared minuscule during the preseason, so I can't really attribute their early performance to that change. Early in the game they struggled to make holes for the running game, but they turned it around when it really mattered late. They looked fine in the passing game, but I'm not sure how much of that is to attributed to Stafford moving around so effectively.

The one thing offensively that concerns me is the red zone. We shouldn't have a problem putting the ball in the end zone with the options we have offensively. But the two that ended with field goals did not look good. Granted going 3-5 and getting 3 on the other two isn't the end of the world. But with our defense, scoring 7 every time could become a huge deal against a quality opponent.

Defensively, the D-line is solid. As expected. They shut down the run, and pressured Manning. Likewise, the LBs performed well, and Levy keeps proving he is the key to this Lions defense. He is the best player on the field for us defensively. I don't think there really are any issues in the run game. They gave up one 14 yard run, but that was it. The Giants finished with around 50 yards rushing, and an average below 3 ypc.

The secondary actually impressed me. Clearly there is a lot of room for improvement, and they were playing an awful QB (honestly, he has to be the worst QB to ever win multiple rings). But they were constantly in on the play, and I don't remember them getting clearly beat in any situation, aside from maybe the passing TD that I believe Quddus gave up. Slay needs to work on avoiding the penalties, but I like his aggressiveness, and that he's not passive when there's a play to be made. I'm really worried about the depth here though. Bentley might be gone for a while, and when Quin went out, we were down to Mathis as the only veteran on the field. Lawson and the safetys stood in well against the Giants, but against a good passing team the youngsters will get picked on. If we have everyone in and healthy, it should be Slay getting targeted, it's scary when he's moved down that list.

I'm still not sure why Freese is on the team. I get that he was a draft pick, but he's shown nothing special. He doesn't handle kick offs, and has missed some gimme field goals. Missing your first ever is a bad start. Especially dead on at 43 yards. In the NFL that should be automatic. Martin looks good as usual. The partial block was fun to see, and the penalty on Couplin seemed garbage to me. I believe that when you're blocked into the kicker, it's supposed to be a no call. That single call changed the momentum of the game there temporarily, and led to the Giants first score.


I think Caldwell showed what a good coach is capable of in the second half. The team came out after having an undisciplined first half, and didn't commit another the rest of the way. The O-line seemed to make the right adjustments to finish out the game. Those simple things go unnoticed for good teams. For the Lions, they would have remained unchanged. Good to see even if the opponent isn't top notch.

Next week will be a real test. I hope they get the rest of the receiving weapons involved. We only had 4 WRs active, so I expected them to lean heavily on some combination of Ebron/Fauria/Riddick in the passing game. Those three combined for 1 catch on 5 targets.

Overall, I'm impressed. I anticipated a bit of the "old lions" showing up. But the only thing that resembled those lions was the first half penalties, which disappeared after half time.

[MotownMadness]

Awesome game, Hopefully Stafford and the offense play this smooth for the rest of the season.

[Blkbrd671]

Couple more notes:


-Tate made some amazing catches yesterday, he does have great hands

-Matthew Stafford did a excellent job stepping up in the pocket and i not throwing off the back heel.

- I did not realize we held the Giants run game to that few of yards, i think the big yards came though at key moments.

-Bill Bentley's out for the season, so we have Lawson as our starting SLot, we either bring up Seisay, or go and sign Champ Bailey or another FA. Lawson held his own against cruz, i say he gets another week, we bring up seisay and see how we fair.

[Blkbrd671]

From Matt Staffy Staffy

On his first two touchdown passes: "The first one they did a pretty decent job of covering us up, so I tried to buy a little bit of time, was able to make a guy miss and truthfully was looking for Joique (Bell) in the flat just to pick up the first down. The defender did a great job of reacting and covering him. I looked up and Calvin (Johnson) did a great job of uncovering from the sideline and took the middle of the field. I had enough time to peak out there and make sure nothing bad was going to happen, threw him a ball and he did the rest. The second one the offensive line did a great job. The defense had a blitz on, popped out and gave me a step-up lane and I was able to move. I was trying to get Calvin to move out there a little quicker. I could see that no one was back there, so I just tried to put a ball in a good spot and a spot for him to go make a play. It'll be fun to watch it on TV to get a better view of it. I heard it was a pretty sweet catch."

On his rushing touchdown: "They did a great job of covering us up on that. They had a population issue over there to the left where we were trying to get the ball and Calvin (Johnson) was doubled as well. Our offensive line, again, did a great job of giving me some lanes to step up in, so I decided to take off and saw the one little opening to the right, knew I probably didn't have the jets to get there, but if I sold him enough that I could maybe cut back. I cut back, got in, saw (Jon) Beason coming and I wasn't just going to let him hit me in the chest, so I tried to give him a little something and turn around. I was just fired up. I thought our guys played great and played tough. It was fun to get back out there, for sure."

[epheisey]

-Bill Bentley's out for the season, so we have Lawson as our starting SLot, we either bring up Seisay, or go and sign Champ Bailey or another FA. Lawson held his own against cruz, i say he gets another week, we bring up seisay and see how we fair.

I have mixed feelings on this situation. On the one hand, Lawson filled in nicely, and Victor Cruz was limited to less than 30 yards. That's quite an accomplishment for a 5th round rookie. But it was also the Giants offense.

Bailey is probably done contributing as a #1 or #2 corner and he's never played as a nickel corner if I remember correctly. But he has to be better than what we have right? I'd rather bring him in and let the youngsters learn from and play behind him. If one more guy goes down we're left with Seisay stepping in, and that's scary. I'd feel a lot better knowing Lawson was next up, with Bailey available to step in for Slay or Mathis if necessary.

[Blkbrd671]

-Bill Bentley's out for the season, so we have Lawson as our starting SLot, we either bring up Seisay, or go and sign Champ Bailey or another FA. Lawson held his own against cruz, i say he gets another week, we bring up seisay and see how we fair.

I have mixed feelings on this situation. On the one hand, Lawson filled in nicely, and Victor Cruz was limited to less than 30 yards. That's quite an accomplishment for a 5th round rookie. But it was also the Giants offense.

Bailey is probably done contributing as a #1 or #2 corner and he's never played as a nickel corner if I remember correctly. But he has to be better than what we have right? I'd rather bring him in and let the youngsters learn from and play behind him. If one more guy goes down we're left with Seisay stepping in, and that's scary. I'd feel a lot better knowing Lawson was next up, with Bailey available to step in for Slay or Mathis if necessary.

we are extremely thin at the secondary, and Depending on if Carey can recover from the hamstring would provide additional insurance. Another option , though not ideal, is Quin. I believe he played in the nickel in college and can adjust. Lawson i think has earned a t shot to start next week, but our secondary is very thin. We still sign a corner.