Justin Tryon plays larger roll vs Buffalo

I traded emails with Mike Garafolo of the Star Ledger concerning Justin Tryon. Mike told me that the play Tryon was credited with a tackle was a blown coverage by Antrel Rolle in corner roll, Rolle had the inside receiver, Tryon had the outside receiver. Tryon saw the throw going to the inside receiver, left his man and moved in to tackle the receiver right after making the catch, for a 14 yard gain. Justin saved some run after the catch, a heads up play by Tryon.

From Mike Garafolo.....Final 30 seconds of the first quarter:

As for the 60-yard TD pass from Fitzpatrick to WR Naaman Roosevelt, the Giants were trying to show man coverage and then rotate into a reverse Cover-2 look. By reverse, I mean Rolle jumped down to the cornerback spot in the flat and CB Justin Tryon became the safety. 

I missed seeing that Tryon was in the game this early, and as Mike Garafolo points out Perry Fewell was moving him around, this might be more responsibility than Brians WIlliams was given before being let go. This may speak to a higher level of trust, that Tryon is a smart guy and generated some trust right away with Perry Fewell.

The defense found trouble early on when they tried to mix up the looks. On one play, they showed Cover-2 and then rolled into Cover-3. It didn’t work. Later, they showed man and converted into a reverse Cover-2. It was a disaster. (See below.) Finally, Fewell trusted his DBs and allowed them to play tight, aggressive man coverage, even on the final drive when teams often drop back and play soft zones.

Theres a few things going on here, in the past we've gone into the nickel by having Antrel Rolle leave his deep safety spot and move to corner, lining up on the line of scrimmage. A linebacker goes out, and safety Deon Grant comes in.

Thats whats on film, teams know we do this, so we to try to confuse the opposing offense. This is what I thikn Garafolo is describing. Rolle comes to the line of scrimmage, but no LB comes in, Justin Tryon is in and plays deep. Rolling from a cover 2, to a cover 3 means somebody rolls out to deep cover so there are 3 deep safeties instead of 2.

Cover 3 in a nickle situation leaves 2 players up front and 3 deep, so the underneath throw might be a better choice for the QB. Unlike the standard Cover 2 nickle where you would see 3 corners up close and 2 safeties deep.

Hopefully what happens is you bait the quarterback to throw to an area he thinks has coverage he can take advantage of. And instead the quarterback throws into the strength of the secondary, possibly for a pick. Well it didn't work, so Perry Fewell went to man coverage.

And so early in the 3rd quarter, Rolle playing out of position, just like against Seattle when Aaron Ross and Antrel Rolle had a miscommunication, Rolle lets the receiver past him, the quarterback saw it and threw for a completion but Justin Tryon saw the throw and moved over to make the tackle, preventing some serious run after the catch.

I think Perry Fewell is liking what we've seen from Tryon, that 1) we can trust Tryon to perform to confuse coverages, and 2) maybe Tryon should be the standard nickle back, not Rolle. This keeps Rolle at his natural position safety, and allows the Giants to line up 3 competent cornerbacks at the line and bump and run in man coverage while keeping the Kenny Phillips Antrel Rolle tandam over the top, where both are excelling. The 4-2-5 cover 2 might, for some defenses, leave a vulnerability deep. But Kenny Phillips and Antrel Rolle are fast and make good reads. Having these 2 guys deep for the Giants might be as good as a cover 3 for other teams that dont have 2 quality safeties, because our 2 guys can cover a lot ground.

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Not the Prettiest Win, but we'll take it

What can I say about Cory Webster? Webster had what is probably his best game as a 7 year pro. 3 batted balls, 4 solo tackles and 2 picks. Aaron Ross had a quite day, 1 pass defense and 2 solo tackles. I saw Justin Tryon play early in the second half, he was covering the outside receiver, saw the ball being thrown to the inside receiver and moved over to make the tackle. IIRC I saw him play in at least 2 more plays.

And what can I say about Jake Ballard? Ballard has 15 catches for 273 yards, on track for over 800 yards and 6 touchdowns. Ballard has averaged a stunning 18.2 yards per catch, and has started to draw comparisons to Mark Bavaro as far as Ballards ability to carry 1-2-3 defensive players for extra yards.


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Giants vs Bills

I haven't felt like writing after last weeks loss to Seattle.

The Giants actually match up quite well with the Bills, except for our running game, the Bills have rushed for 691 yards while Giants have rushed for 419 yards. The Giants linebackers have to fill gaps stopping the RB near the line. They cannot wait for the RB to come to them, Seattle ran up the middle on us and ran wide, and our containment was often not present.

On Paper the Giants passing offense is better than the Bills, we have 3 fine receivers and a better quarterback.

The Giants pass defense is ranked 20th, the Bills 30th so we should be able to shred their secondary. Our rush defense is ranked 21st the Bills 29th. There is no reason the giants cannot beat the Bills, on paper.

Look fors:

Look for a defense that bends, but doesn't break. If we win, you'll see our secondary performing well, our cornerbacks overacheiving. At times our secondary has looked great, I thought Aaron Ross's pick in the Seattle game was great, in the sense he earned it. Ross was behind the receivers right shoulder, got an early look at the throw,  read it, and just flat out beat his man to the ball. Ross's 2 picks against the Eagles were nice but particularly his was Ross's best overall pick in a  long time. Against Arizona Cory Webster had 2 really great batted balls, his first against Larry Fitzgerald to kill a drive. Antrell Rolle had a pick and a fine batted ball.

Look for the Giants to use both DJ Ware and Da'rell Scott. 160 yrds rushing if we win.

Starting LT for the BIlls Demetrius Bell will not play. Chris Hairston will face Osi.
Mike Garafolo wrote:

But the one thing I noticed, and I'm sure Giants DE Osi Umenyiora noticed as well, is Hairston's feet looked awfully slow out there. He had problems dealing with DE Darryl Tapp's speed moves.....So this weekend, Umenyiora could create massive problems for the Bills. And I mean big-time problems. The way he's been moving and getting off the line, he figures to give Hairston fits.

How the Bills deal with this remains to be seen, as they did last week they can run the screen pass, and give the LT help, maybe with a TE. If Osi gets off to fast start it can only be good for the Giants.

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Arizona Review and then on to Seattle next week

Before the game I had these thoughts.

Look fors:Look for TE Jake Ballard to see continued time as a run blocker, Eli will probably throw to Ballard at least twice, as he's been a reliable target so far this year with 4 catches for 87 yards. If Gilbride has anything extra in store for Ballard, that there's something he thinks the TE can take advantage of, then that increases the odds of the big man (275 lbs.) rumbling thru the Arizona secondary. If Ballard continues to catch the ball he's on track to gain about 450 yards for the season.

If you didn't know, we have a tight end, his name is Jake Ballard. The fact that Ballard was used in the red zone offense means the staff has confidence in Ballard, and Jake was only a foot or so from having 2 touch downs. We'll see number 85 gain, no doubt.

Look for Victor Cruz to not be the star, 75 yards and one touchdown.

Well I was off a little bit, 98 yards no touchdown and an incredibly lucky break with the "player gave himself up" call. We'll take it. Cruz won't make that mistake gain.

Look for Osi, Tuck and JPP to crush Kevin Kolb, as long as they're healthy. Good pressure on the QB can lead to an interception, but it wont be Aaron Ross.

Osi Umenyiora and David Tollefson had 2 sacks each, and I was right Ross didn't have a pick.

Look for Aaron Ross to try and show he can be consistent, no picks but a defended ball on 3rd down to end a drive.

I'm guilty of wishful thinking. :~ )

Look for Mario Manningham to try and make Giants fans forget about the Salsa dancing of Victor Cruz, he'll lead all Giants receivers with a big day. But Cruz will laydown a downfield block for MM.

The Cardinals busted up a play with Bradshaw running right (1st half), Cruz was lined up on the right side, at the snap of the ball he ran to his left and was poised to run block for Bradshaw, except for the Cardinals reading it and stopping it. Manningham only had one catch and it was Hakeem Nicks who lit the night up.

Rotoworld: 
Nicks was a beast, dominating.... blew by.... monster fantasy day....on pace for 96 receptions, 1,388 yards and 12 touchdowns.... is locked-and-loaded as a WR1.


The Huddle said:
...had a blazing hot end of the game.


Yeah, we like him too......


Corey Webster had 2 real nice batted balls, one on Larry Fitz who was wide open, (was). And Antrel Rolle had an off game, only 6 tackles (and a pick :~ )). I was a little skeptical about seeing Rolle used to cover in the nickel. Rolle started his NFL career as a corner, and moved to safety, I wondered how good of a corner he was. Well Rolle has continued his overall good play and that includes his more recent efforts in the nickel.


At this point in the season Eli does have some stats that are better than Tom Brady, again, I'll take it.



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