RUN THE DARN PLAY!
Simms wants Giants’ offense to just line up and ...
If you scroll way down on the list of the NFL’s total offense leaders last season, you’ll find the Giants at 25 and the Jets right behind them at 26.
A repeat is expected by the Jets, and might be even celebrated, while a similar result for the Giants would be catastrophic and spoil any chance of the team winning a Super Bowl. That’s the expectation for a team with a dominant defense and an offense determined to improve after adding Brandon Marshall and drafting explosive tight end Evan Engram.
“It’s going to be a shock if the Giants’ offense isn’t as good as last year’s,” CBS studio analyst and two-time Giants Super Bowl champ Phil Simms said.
What about that mediocre offensive line that returns the same five starters?
“People are talking about the offensive line and this and that. You can’t have the best guy at every damn position on the field,” Simms said. “When you have Odell Beckham, Brandon Marshall, Sterling Shepard, a good tight end and a good quarterback in Eli [Manning] they can overcome an offensive line that performs average.”
Simms insisted the issues were more complex than just that one group, saying “it was everything.” One thing that bothered him was the team’s approach at the line of scrimmage. Simms argued that Ben McAdoo’s offense kept its many talented skill players stuck in neutral too often.
“I wish they’d just line up and run a play. I don’t want to hear 40 checks — just run some plays,” said Simms, who was moved from CBS’ top booth team to the studio this season.
“There are some plays that are good no matter what’s out there. The pace is off, and I know sometimes they don’t even huddle, but damn they stand around a lot. Even in preseason with their backup quarterbacks, I feel like they are working so hard. Just run some plays. That would be my only criticism.” There are far easier criticisms to levy at the Jets, who appear to be in full tank mode after releasing Marshall, Eric Decker and David Harris and finishing the preseason by trading Sheldon Richardson to the Seahawks. Adding to the depression was secondyear Christian Hackenberg doing nothing to inspire confidence as the quarterback of the future in the preseason, handing the job to veteran Josh McCown.
“We all know where they are at,” Simms said of the Jets’ plans likely revolving around drafting a quarterback before next season. “They have to play a game like this: careful on offense, hang in there, hopefully the defense can dominate at times and win some games and play that style.
“When you have a unit when one side is much stronger than the other’s, you play to that unit. If it’s third-and-10 the Jets have to run a draw a lot of times, punt the ball and let their defense work. Don’t take a chance of turning it over. I did it with the Giants. Our defense was great, and we played around them many, many times over many, many years. Our offense was better than what theirs will be, but it makes it even more important to play that way. It can work, it can be salvaged”