I was swamped this past week and it hasn’t diminished the need to discuss the ugly implosion from Sunday night.
Were the Giants a complete dismal failure on all accounts? Yes.
Was Dallas’s defense that good? Possibly.
Were both players and coaches equally culpable on Sunday night? Yes.
Will opposing Defenses mimic what Dallas did (loaded box) and once again dare the Giants to go downfield at risk of killing Daniel Jones due to lack of protection? Yes.
Were Evan Neal and Mark Glowinski horrible? Yes.
Neal and Glowinski collectively allowed 4 sacks and 17 pressures. Neal was our worst nightmare, the risk case, as bad or possibly worse than last year. It’s Week 1 of his second season and he will be a bust if he cannot get better.
I can’t believe there isn’t anyone better than Glowinski, because I could pass protect and give up 8-9 pressures and 3 sacks just as easily.
Yes, it’s a long season. I just don’t see a way to fixing the OL in 2023 if Neal spent all offseason and this is what he is.
We have been talking about the OL since freaking 2010. And here we are. I assumed that Daboll and Schoen had made decent progress, ie that the only offseason move of Schmitz was all they felt necessary for good reason- that Neal was going to be better. Just think about selecting Banks and Hyatt. Everyone is positive about them, including myself. But would I have drafted OL in Round 1 AND R2 (Schmitz) AND Round 3? YOU KNOW I WOULD HAVE. Why? Because it isn’t fixed until it’s fixed. And even if you somehow overshot, what a crime! Depth at OL! Thomas has a backup swing tackle! It’s 14 seasons. To be fair to Schoen, he’s taken a R1 R2 and R3 pick over two seasons (he had NINE picks there in Day 1 and Day 2), the rest went to Thib, Robinson, Flott, Banks, Hyatt, Waller). There’s no depth at OL either. Good look finding these guys elsewhere.
If you haven’t figured this out yet, the second most important and scarce commodity in football, next to QB, is OL.
There are 16 teams who are 0-1. There is plenty of opportunity to turn this around. Yes, September is the new preseason. Fix it. I doubt the OL can be fixed unless Neal makes a major turnaround. He was one of the two keys to the season and that was a catastrophic week 1.