And thereby hangs a tale...

[stuckincincy]

The score is NYG 16, BUF 3.

At 8:19 of the 3rd, they get the ball at their own 10. BUF advances to the NYG and gets an interference call to put the ball on the NYG 26. TD nullified by an Urbik hold puts the ball on NYG 36. BUF drives to the NYG 7...and misses a FG. A 13-play, 5:59 minute drive for naught.

At 0:21 of the 3rd quarter, Clay catches for 22 to bring the ball to the NYG 33. Six plays later, BUF tries for it on a 4th and goal from the 1. A FG would have made the score 16 - 6.
NYG couldn't get out of the hole, punted, and BUF scored a TD on their subsequent possession to make the score 16 -10. Which is good, but almost 5 minutes of the 4th has been consumed.
NYG strikes back in 1:59 to make the score 24 - 10 with the 2 -point conversion.

BUF gets the ball at 7:42 and NYG gets the ball back at 6:22 on the BUF 40.

Now the real idiocy begins - the rash of BUF personal fouls, interrupted by a NYG offensive hold, ending with NYG dumbly calling a pass on 3rd and goal from the BUF 8 which gets intercepted...dumb move by Coughlin there. But away ticks the clock.

So BUF gets it back at 3:41 - down by 14. Inconito holds, then gets called for a chop block - debatable if that's the right call - but if a player is being engaged and you come on offense and take a hit, the flag is thrown. Things are out of control, precious minutes - again get chewed up.

The coaching was poor. They allowed (some may say fomented) players to commit personal fouls. The concept of a close game and clock management escaped them. The concept of incrementally gaining points in a close contest was not managed.

[gebobs]

The time management at the end of the first half was ridiculous. It was like Jauron all over again. Saving timeouts for the second half.

[The Jokeman]

The time management at the end of the first half was ridiculous. It was like Jauron all over again. Saving timeouts for the second half.

Tyrod's play in the first half was bad. He couldn't sustain drives or move the field whatsoever to get is close to getting in scoring position. I know people want to fault the defense/penalties for the loss but the offense came up empty in the first half and that, more than anything, is why we lost.

[casdhf]

Bradham makes that tackle and we are talking different today. It's a shame.

[stuckincincy]

The time management at the end of the first half was ridiculous. It was like Jauron all over again. Saving timeouts for the second half.


I'm constantly amazed, what with years and years of staff up in the rafters looking down, and with today's telemetry, that such happens, that while I realize that play is situational, there isn't some entity on a team's staff that isn't monitoring the overall game time picture. Perhaps there is, but I can see their input being given short shrift vs. egos.

[gebobs]

Tyrod's play in the first half was bad. He couldn't sustain drives or move the field whatsoever to get is close to getting in scoring position. I know people want to fault the defense/penalties for the loss but the offense came up empty in the first half and that, more than anything, is why we lost.

His passes were all over the place. So far, he's been inconsistent: very good, awful, very good, awful. I suppose we should expect a first-time starter to be like that.

[YardRat]

The missed FG really was a killer, as was Bradham's missed tackle later in the game.

[Mace]

Tyrod's play in the first half was bad. He couldn't sustain drives or move the field whatsoever to get is close to getting in scoring position. I know people want to fault the defense/penalties for the loss but the offense came up empty in the first half and that, more than anything, is why we lost.

Yeah, but it was 16-3, and they had 1:48 on the clock. They bumbled it down to a punt at 00:24 with 2 runs and a 4 yard pass. Good teams just don't do that.

Leads you to believe if they used their series like most teams would, with short passes against a prevent, they were escared it would fail and the Giants might score again with 1 minute on the clock against their defense of awesomeness.

So you either admire the "fight" in your offense and let them try, and you count on your defense, or you have no clue and waste time. They sure weren't hurrying in a 2 minute drill. It looked no-clue to me.

[Pinkerton Security]

Bradham makes that tackle and we are talking different today. It's a shame.

Totally. 3 missed tackles on that play but if Bradham makes that tackle, we have the ball back down by 6 and a little momentum. As soon as Bradham missed that tackle I said the game was over.

[Victor7]

Lots of big "moments" in the game

The Bradham tackle was huge. Like some of you have said we would've gotten the ball back down by 6 with all the momentum and crowd on our side. Huge miss.

The Woods fumble was pretty bad too. We had just converted a 3rd and long to gain some momentum and dude should've just gone out of bounds. No need for the extra yard or two vs stopping the clock.

The pathetic goal line sequence with roll outs and swing passes and not a single try up the middle that ended up with the missed 4th down was also huge

The time management at the end of the half was vintage Dick Jauron JP Losman Trent Edwards stupid. Unreal

Add to that the iffy calls on Urbik and Incognito and you just can't win a ball game like that.

Just a bad game overall.

[IlluminatusUIUC]

At 0:21 of the 3rd quarter, Clay catches for 22 to bring the ball to the NYG 33. Six plays later, BUF tries for it on a 4th and goal from the 1. A FG would have made the score 16 - 6.
NYG couldn't get out of the hole, punted, and BUF scored a TD on their subsequent possession to make the score 16 -10. Which is good, but almost 5 minutes of the 4th has been consumed.
NYG strikes back in 1:59 to make the score 24 - 10 with the 2 -point conversion.

...

The coaching was poor. They allowed (some may say fomented) players to commit personal fouls. The concept of a close game and clock management escaped them. The concept of incrementally gaining points in a close contest was not managed.

I agree with everything you said about the personal fouls, but IMO going for it on 4th and goal from the 1 was the right decision by far. A Field Goal still leaves you down two possessions, and that's assuming you even make the field goal. Given Carpenter recently, that is not a gimme. Meanwhile, even failing the 4th down pins New York against their goalline which opens up the possibility of a safety or a short field on your next possession (the latter of which happened). My issue with that was the play selection. 2nd and goal from the 5 IMO is not a time to be running slow-developing sideways plays. What we would need in that situation is a tall dude to run to the end line and give Taylor a run/throw jump ball option. Instead we wound up with all three guys in the same area so it was easily defended.

The game was decided when Woods fumbled. At the time, we had a slim chance to drive down for a score and enough time to kick it back and play defense. After he fumbled it took that desperate pick just to give us a chance at a garbage time TD.