Stupid Is As Stupid Does

9/21/07

By Jimmy Russotto

How could Giants fans not be at least a little amused by Michael Strahan’s and Antonio Pierce’s comments yesterday regarding the media and fan’s attacks on the Giants defense. Expressing outright anger, in the case = of Strahan, and utter disdain on Pierce’s part, they made it quite clear that = they don’t particularly care what we think of them.

I think they showed something else as well, though; they don’t = think they have a chance in hell of beating the Washington Redskins this Sunday.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> They don’t like their coaches much eith= er and maybe Pierce DOES think the fans could help.

Pierce at least has the right to talk, judging by his performance this season. He’s had = 20 tackles in two games against some tough opponents. Strahan has six. He stayed out of camp, made some noises= about retiring, and the Giants made him Captain. What does THAT say about the team’s psyche? It’s like an “us against us” mentality.=

Let’s face it though. The Giants defense stinks. = By any measure, they just show nothing. T= hey rank last among all NFL teams in Total Defense. But, to give you an idea of how bad that really is, the Steelers have given up 5 points per game, the Jets have yielded a whopping 29 pts per game and the Giants weigh in at 40 ! The Steelers have given up 148 passing = yards per game, the Jets, 241 and the Giants, 310 !! I must say that they haven’t been so b= ad against the rush, giving up an average of 112.5 yards to the Jets 126 and t= he Steelers 79. Of course, with that laughable pass defense, why go to the bother of trying to RUN against the <= span class=3DGramE>Giants ? It’s= much easier to just throw the ball down the field.

You can sense Tom Coughlin’s frustration with the whole situation. He actually seems to ha= ve allowed Steve Spagnuolo, the defensive coordinator, to speak to the media t= his week. Spagnuolo didn’t offer much,= I wonder if he’s capable of it. He d= idn’t “rule out” the possibility of changing his lineup or moving the woefully lo= st Mathias Kiwanuka back to the defensive line. Kiwanuka has 7 total tackles i= n 2 games. AND, a big “AND” he can’t d= efense the pass at all. And he was a damn= ed good defensive lineman.

This is what Spagnuolo had to say, according to today’s Star-Ledger – “ I believe in the guys, I believe= in the coaches, I believe in what we are doing…how we are doing it and I belie= ve in sticking with it.” It’s a crying shame, a “circle the wagons” approach that can’t really disguise how TRULY = bad the linebackers and secondary are.

Here’s a partial list of defenses I’d rather use again= st the Redskins this Sunday:

The Maginot Line

A horde of angry bees

An angry mother swan

The Browns Defense

The Bengals Defense

Well, you get the idea.

Are there any POSSIBLE reasons for optimism? Well, let’s see. The offense isn’t bad at all. Eli’s been very good, Plaxico’s been ve= ry passable, Shockey’s been good but stupid, same f= or Amani Toomer. Ward’s been passable= as the Brandon Jacobs replacement. So= maybe they could control the clock for a while, keep the Skins off the field. And, even though the Skins young QB Jas= on Campbell has looked really fine this year, who knows, he may have a relapse. He’s got Santana Moss and Cooley to throw to, and he can hand the ball off to Clinton Portis and Lade= ll Betts, both way better than Derek Ward. But the Skins have some injuries on their offensive line and the Gia= nts haven’t really been THAT BAD in defending the run, not colossally horrible = as has been their pass defense.

So, maybe, just maybe, they could load up against the = pass, and either rush the hell out of the young QB, or actually try to cover some= of their receivers. Maybe GET RID of = RW Mcquarters and start Aaron Ross? (Please, God, make them get him off the field). If they can do that, they could maybe h= old the Skins under 40, say 3 TD’s and 2 FG’s, 27 would be reasonable. Then our JINTS would just need 4 TD’s to win. I could see them doing that.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'>

But they probably won’t. They’ll probably fold up like one of those nifty moving boxes. It’s a character check is what it is an= d the Giants will come up short, with guys like Coughlin, Spagnuolo, Strahan and Pierce leading the way. Tiki was r= ight, these guys are having no fun, and you need to be having fun out there to pl= ay good defense. Or offense, for that matter, special teams…(let’s not go there either= , this guy Ahmad Bradshaw makes me verrrrrry nervous).

Besides character, however, and why beat the drum any = louder at this point, they have no really strong defensive tackles. Fred Robbins, Manuel Wright and Barry Cofield have COMBINED for seven tackles in two games. Look for Betts up the middle quite a lot. And look for some nice play-action pass= es to just about anyone who wants the ball twenty yards down the field. The Giants are THAT bad.

During the course of Strahan’s comments, his voice low= ered a couple of octaves when he said they just had to “get a win” – I don’t think= he thinks it’s a distinct possibility. If you put him on a lie-detector, the graph would have jumped off the page. He’s the captain.

Well, maybe the anger alone will be enough to pull them through, or at least keep me from changing the channel AGAIN. After all, that Strahan divorce settlem= ent had to be one of the WORST I’ve ever seen, that alone is enough to be angry about, let alone reporters asking about the defense. Maybe we could refer to it as something= else, like the not-offense or the time- killers, maybe “defense” implies a little more responsibility than these guys are capable of shouldering.