I didn’t watch the Cowboys-Giants game closely on Sunday. Andy had those teams. Now that we’re in the Wednesday-Thursday window, I’ve had the chance to re-watch that game carefully in its entirety. It’s a game I had flagged because the running games for both teams are in the process of change.
Eli Manning. I have been a little worried about him. He passed for only 170 yards in this game, and only 189 in the debacle at Philadelphia. If not for that fluky long touchdown that Rashad Jennings scored late against the Bills, Manning would have been under 190 yards in three of his last four games. He also passed for only 193 yards back in Week 1. For the year, he’s averaging only 254, which is well short of the 280 or so I had him pegged for. This is why I downgrade him on Tuesday in the revised version of the Redrafter. (I downgraded the entire passing game, causing all of them to fall.)
But after watching this game, that was probably a little harsh. Manning looks fine. He looks like Eli Manning. The Giants got killed in time of possession in this game, hurting his workload. There was a drop of a pass that went for 30-plus. With the kickoff and interception return touchdowns in the second half, Manning had only three meaningful second-half possessions. I expect his projection will be moved back upwards some on Monday.
Giants running game. When I watched New York closely in the Thursday game against Washington, I noticed that Rashad Jennings and Andre Williams were alternating series (with Shane Vereen handling third downs). This time around, they added Orleans Darkwa into the rotation. Supposedly the assistant coaches were telling Tom Coughlin that they liked Darkwa and wanted to see what he could do in a game. So it was Jennings for the first series, and he came out running hard. He went for 8, 0 and 6 yards on his three carries, and I thought it looked like they’d have a good day running the ball. Williams came in for the second possession, and he looked pretty similar. Williams went for 5 and 3 yards on his carries, and he was delivering a blow on those runs. Then they went to Darkwa on the third possession, and was probably even a little better. Also hitting the holes hard, he picked up 41 yards on 4 carries, capped by a 15-yard touchdown. On the fourth series, I’m figuring they were probably most impressed by Darkwa, so they left him in there for that series. He carried for 4 and 2 yards on his two attempts (more in line with how the other two guys ran early in the game). They had one final meaningful series in the half. They had a long way to go on that one and limited time, so Vereen handled all of it.
Re-starting in the second half, they went with Jennings on their first series. He picked up 5 and 0 yards on his two carries, with Vereen actually on the field for more of the possession. Second possession they went with not Williams but Darkwa. He got only one carry and lost a yard on it. Their third possession, believe it or not, didn’t begin until there was less than 2 minutes left in the game. Williams took that one, picking up 2 and 3 yards before the Giants tried to catch them off guard by putting in Darkwa for a draw on third and 5. Darkwa picked up only 2 yards (so after his initial series, Darkwa picked up 17 yards on 4 carries in this game).
Going forward, I expect it will be more of the same. The Giants will use multiple backs and try to use playing time to motivate everyone to stay hungry and run hard. Vereen is the most stable of these backs; he’ll play in passing situations. I would guess that Darkwa played well enough in this game that he’s now ahead of Williams on the depth chart. Four backs is a lot to juggle, so it wouldn’t surprise me if Williams wasn’t even active this week. I would guess Jennings is probably still the starter, and that he and Darkwa will alternate series this week.
Odell Beckham Jr. I didn’t see anything too notable in this game. It seems like defenses are making him more of a priority, and it’s been a little harder for them to get him the ball. Beckham is just a young guy, and I don’t think he’s up in the same class as Julio Jones and Antonio Brown, where he’ll be cranking off game after game with big numbers. I wonder if Beckham in the back of his head is preoccupied with trying to make spectacular one-handed catches? It’s OK to just catch the ball conventionally, with two hands, even if it doesn’t land you on the Sportscenter highlights.
Rueben Randle. He had one great one-handed catch for 44 yards. He dropped an easy one that would have gone for over 30. Seems like they should use him more.
Larry Donnell. I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. Mid-range tight end. Decent size but lacks speed.
Dwayne Harris. A dream game against his former team. Scored the game-winning touchdown on a kickoff return, and turned a slant pass into a 38-yard gain. The Cowboys replaced Harris with Cole Beasley on punt returns, and he sealed the loss by muffing one with a minute left. Victor Cruz (calf) is out indefinitely, so Harris will remain the slot guy in this offense, probably putting up better numbers than about half or two thirds of the other No. 3 receivers around the league.
Matt Cassel. For most plays, Cassel is fine. But it’s a lost opportunity here and there, and it becomes clear the offense isn’t nearly as good without Romo. On the first series, it’s third-and-3 inside the red zone. With the Giants blitzing, Cassel sees it and identifies that the ball needs to go to Jason Witten, who’s open inside the 5. But the pass is off target, and a 7-0 lead becomes a 3-0 lead. Then in the second half, the wheels fall off, with 3 interceptions in 5 pass attempts. The second two are both on him. A late floater into the end zone that looks like one of these ducks being thrown by Peyton Manning. It’s 10 yards behind where it should be, and Terrance Williams is unable to come back and stop the pick. On the next possession, Cassel doesn’t see Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie undercutting the route. Dallas has a late chance at the end, but on fourth-and-2 Cassel doesn’t see Darren McFadden wide open on the left. Cassel is good enough to be on an NFL roster, but he’s definitely not one of the top 40 quarterbacks on the planet right now.
Dallas running backs. Darren McFadden ran for 152 yards in this game, but I wasn’t overly impressed. I thought it was more about the offensive line and the mindset. The Cowboys came in like a team that was determined to start getting some dividends out of that great offensive line. Joseph Randle ran for 11 and 13 yards on his two carries, before a guy landed on him hard at the end of that second run. If not for the injury, I imagine he would have run for about 150. If neither Randle nor McFadden had showed up for this game, I imagine Christine Michael probably would have run for something like 120. He had one real nice 13-yard burst in the fourth quarter.
But it was McFadden’s day, and he ran hard. He runs a little bit differently than Michael, and his style seems to fit this offense better. McFadden seems to be at his best on the stretch plays that go wide. He can build up a head of steam, then hit the holes at top speed when they are there. Michael seems like he’s more interested in darting and cutting. Note that a couple of weeks back, there was some talk about Dallas starting to utilize Michael as their short-yardage back. He came in for one of those plays against the Saints. McFadden isn’t a pile-pusher back (and neither is Randle). But all those ideas were shelved in this game. When the Cowboys got the ball first-and-goal at the 2, they left McFadden in and hammered it up the gut twice, ending in a 1-yard touchdown. Late in the game they had a third-and-inches and went the same route, again with McFadden.
Randle won’t play this week. The injury he suffered in this game (an oblique, they say) didn’t seem particularly serious at the time. He was on the side, loosening up and seemingly lobbying to get in the game. But he’s been ruled out for this week and Jason Garrett says he’s been excused from practice to attend to a personal matter. There are reports going around that Randle could be suspended by the league for violating the personal conduct policy. So it will be McFadden as their main back this week, with Michael probably picking up 5-10 touches and his old team.
McFadden is a very good pass catcher, and let’s keep that in min. There was that game earlier this year where Lance Dunbar caught 10 passes. In this one, McFadden scored a 31-yard touchdown on a pass that was nullified by a dubious penalty.
Final thought in this area: what happened to New York’s run defense? They were ranked No. 1 against the run after the first four-five games. They held Atlanta and Buffalo under 60 yards, and held Dallas and Washington under 90. But they gave up 155 yards at Philadelphia, then got clobbered for 233 in this one. They have a couple of linebacker injuries that could be playing a big role.
Terrance Williams. We’ve gotten a nice look at him with Dez Bryant out. Definitely not a No. 1 receiver. He’s an Alvin Harper guy – a speedy No. 2 who’ll make some long catches. He had one nice catch in this game, but also appeared to play a big role in the pivotal interception return for a touchdown. It seemed like he didn’t break his route outside properly, allowing Rodgers-Cromartie to jump the route for the touchdown.
Brice Butler. Devin Streets caught a late touchdown, but Butler got all of the playing time in two-receiver sets. Had a couple of nice catches but was underused. If Dez Bryant misses any more games, I expect Butler will be their 2nd-best wide receiver in those games.
Cole Beasley. At times he’s been one of the league’s best slot receivers. At the end of last year, he was catching more passes than Terrance Williams. But Cassel doesn’t seem to wind up settling for Beasley the way the team’s other quarterbacks have. Beasley was the intended target on only 2 passes in this game, and they were both incomplete, including one that bounced off his head. He capped one of his worst days as a pro by muffing a punt with a minute left.
Jason Witten. Security blanket guy, and he’s apparently going to be just as good with Cassel as he’s been with Tony Romo. He finished with 6 catches for 73 yards, and might have had a touchdown early if the throw had been more accurate.
Lucky Whitehead. He carried the ball 4 times for 35 yards on end-arounds, helping to open up the running game. He also returned kickoffs. Mostly I’m just including him because I like the name.
—Ian Allan