Communication problems plague Giants' defense
SURRENDER 88 points in two losses and everyone recognizes there's a problem.
"I ain't gonna lie," Giants cornerback Corey Webster said. "It's a concern. You can't play 50 snaps, and play focused on 40 of them and not be focused on the other 10."
MICHAEL S. WIRTZ / Staff photographer
LeSean McCoy breaks free for 66-yard touchdown run, escaping Aaron Rouse's towel tackle.
For 2 of the past 3 weeks, he said, that has been the case. It is how 5-0 and a cruise back to the top of the NFC East becomes 5-3. Those three straight losses aren't all by inches. Two were by miles.
The Giants allowed New Orleans 48 points, hung tight with explosive Arizona in a loss last week, then got waxed, 40-17, yesterday by the Eagles. Still, they entered the game ranked first in fewest total yards allowed and 14th in points allowed.
They gave up 391 yards. They gave up all 40 points.
They surrendered three touchdowns from outside of the 41-yard line.
"You can look at all the stats you want," coach Tom Coughlin said. "The story of the game is fundamentals. We didn't tackle well. Our secondary didn't tackle well."
The secondary didn't talk well, either. Or, at least, they didn't understand.
"We've got to get our defensive communication corrected," Webster said. "It's about all 11 guys being on the same page. All the time."
Yes, the Giants' defense ranked last in red-zone efficiency, but the Eagles didn't really need to get inside the Giants' 20 to do damage. In fact, they scored just one of their five touchdowns from the red zone.
The secondary might have looked worst, but plays don't start in the secondary.
A dominant line populated by three ends and a tackle any team would covet - Osi Umenyiora, Justin Tuck and Mathias Kiwanuka, who bookend Fred Robbins - is the core of the unit expected to be dominant all season. It got to Donovan McNabb twice, forced no interceptions and watched him - inaccurate for a fortnight - complete 17 of 23 passes.
Webster, signed late last season to a 5-year contract extension worth more than $43 million, was supposed to be the back-end ace.
Yesterday, Webster was in the middle of much of the mess. He wasn't the worst player on the field. He was just the one in the picture most often.
Webster missed the tackle on Jason Avant's 28-yard, blitz-burner in the first quarter. Avant was the hot read. McNabb hit him. It fell to Webster to limit the damage.
Avant shed Webster without as much as a missed step. That play went 28 yards, on third-and-6. It was the keystone play in a drive that lasted nearly 7 minutes and gave the Eagles three more points for a 16-0 lead 6 seconds into the second quarter.
It was not the killing play. It wasn't the play that changed the game.
But Webster was around for that one, too.
The Giants had cut the lead to 16-7 just after the 2-minute warning in the second quarter. Even after a big runback, hope sprang . . . fleetingly.
DeSean Jackson lined up across from Webster. Webster pounded his fists together, one on top of the other, yelling to the secondary that he was going to release Jackson if Jackson went deep.
