OK, so the Giants and Jets are both winless in 2017 and generally appear to be non-competitive with glaring weaknesses everywhere. On paper, not a good situation. But SU says this is the chance for NY football fans to free up their Sundays and get outside. Clearly, there is no need to set aside 3 hours to watch any of this. It’s totally unwatchable and life is too short. A few options for you:
- go for a walk or a run. Get in shape, build up your cardio fitness
- go shopping (OK, that’s not for everyone)
- go for a bike ride or kayaking (SU knows there are some dedicated kayakers in the intergalactic subscriber base)
- sit outside and read a book
If you are a Knick fan, these tips will come in handy by say early November when the Knicks are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. If you are a Yankee fan, well we still have a few weeks left. A rare 1-run win last night over the Twins despite another meltdown inning by Betances. SU says he is terrified of killing someone with his fastball which he cannot control. A typical inning for him now is a hit batter, walk, strikeout, walk, wild pitch. Girardi can no longer trust him for the 8th inning which is fine. You can slot in Robertson and Green has emerged as a big time guy in the bullpen. But they do need to straighten him out before the wild card game.
Boston continues to pull out some late inning wins and their schedule is easy so a division championship is highly unlikely. It would be nice if Greg Bird took advantage of his opportunities but he seems to be like Rob Refsnyder and does his best to fall short. SU does believe their best line up has him at first and Headley at 3rd with Todd Frazier on the bench but highly unlikely that will happen come post-season.
Does anyone see the Giants being able to figure this season out? The offensive line can’t run block and can’t pass protect. Otherwise, no worries.
Sports Update Intergalactic 
With Eli looking like a deer in headlights coming at him every time he drops back he will end up with his worst offensive production of his career. It won’t be the interceptions that he will surpass from a few years ago. It will be his yards per throw which will clearly be near the bottom of the league. With no time to throw, no clear lines to see down field, no holes opened for the running game and one of the slowest players in the entire league the effect he will have on the entire team will eventually take hold. More and more people will be looking for McAdoo’s head as well as his offensive coordinator.
When you pay a QB that kind of money somewhere in the era of salary caps there will be a deficiency somewhere. For us its obviously the offensive line. What makes our line look even worse than many others in the same predicament is the lack of athkletic ability that Eli shows you. He is horrible when it comes to anything but very good pass protection. You can almost say how good any QB can be with solid pass protection. However the down side is worse in Eli’s case.
Interesting the way that McAdoo was quoted as throwing Eli under the bus. Only caught a few snippets of it, but didn’t seem to come across as one of those “motivating” moments. Radio guys this morning were suggesting that McAdoo got the job on the strength of being a QB coach – but that he doesn’t have the ability to manage it from the Head Coach slot. I know it is early, but Eli looks really out of it out there.
Eli has looked like this before. If you look around the NFL, he is still a top tier QB – as in the top third of QBs in the League. McAdoo needs to figure it out. Perhaps this is where Urban Meyer will end up next season? Many say I am crazy on that but I believe he would consider the right NFL position and who wouldn’t want to coach in NY?
Betances has hit 10 batters this year, compared to 9 in his entire career prior to this season. It’s such a contrast to Mariano, who had pinpoint control and worked both sides of the plate- you get the feeling that Betances has no idea where any of his pitches are going, which makes it difficult to cut down on the incredible number of walks.
I think Betances is actually afraid of killing someone with his fastball. That is why he throws so many curve balls. True, he can’t control his fastball but at 100 mph, he definitely is afraid of seriously hurting a batter.
The offensive line is bad, and Andy is correct that Eli’s lack of mobility makes a bad situation even worse. But what struck me most about last night’s loss were the multiple dumb and inexcusable gaffs: Engram’s stupid taunting after touchdown, followed by the ensuing kick off going out of bounds, putting the Lions at midfield; the delay of game call when Giants are knocking at the door; a holding penalty, on a lineman not named Flowers, in similar situation; more dropped passes, including Marshall’s awful and extremely costly blunder; the terrible coverage on the punt returned for a touchdown; repeatedly running pass patterns on third and fourth downs which are a couple of yards short of the yardage needed for first down. The team is careless and undisciplined, and the coaching staff has to take most of the blame for that.
Good points. Totally agree on running routes that are short of the first down marker. The corner backs smell blood and know that every pass will be short. The inability to run has a cascading effect on everything else offensively.