Crazyrebel(l)s ist umgezogen! » www.authenticsnewyorkgiants.com

Believe it or not Youth Saquon Barkley Jersey , the 1-7 New York Giants are only halfway through their 2018 nightmare season. While it’s not exactly a therapy session, let’s plop down on the Big Blue View couch, open up the mail and answer some questions.Ed says: Adam, you’re asking about Austin Pazstor. Listen, the 27-year-old has played in 65 NFL games (43 starts). He can play both guards as well as right tackle. He started 16 games for the Cleveland Browns in 2016. Before the 2017 season I thought going after him as a free agent made sense. Now, I’m not so sure.Pazstor didn’t play an offensive snap for the Atlanta Falcons in either of the past two seasons. The Browns didn’t want to keep him after they came off a winless season. It’s nice to have versatility, but NFL teams are telling you by their actions they don’t think this guy is very good.Ed says: Oh, boy! This is the question around which the Giants’ world revolves. In all honesty, I think it’s tough to answer right now. I really believe the final eight games of this season will have something to do with how it plays out.I know there is a contingent that believes the Giants have to draft Justin Herbert. I think the Giants draft a quarterback, but this far out I don’t think it’s going to be Herbert. I think it’s going to be one of the guys (Daniel Jones, Will Grier, Trace McSorley) looked at right now as a Day 2 guy. That’s my gut feeling right now and, of course, that could change.If the Giants follow that path they need a placeholder/mentor for next season while that player develops. Whether that player is Kyle Lauletta, Eli Manning or someone on another roster I don’t know. That’s the path I see, though. A placeholder in 2019 while they develop a young quarterback for the future.Bruce Frazer asks: What are your thoughts on how long it will take before the Giants return to respectability? I remember the futility of the 1970s, before George Young http://www.authenticsnewyorkgiants.com/cheap-rhett-ellison-jersey , and the thought of another lost decade is depressing. At least for a while they had a QB (Fran the Scram) who could move and generate some excitement. I know that was a different era when money, (before free agency) could keep a team together. Also, my thoughts would be to draft and fix the O- line before looking for the next QB.What is the point of putting a potential franchise QB behind the type of line the Giants currently have, only to have his career destroyed before it starts. Get the line fixed first, and then find a QB. Even Eli would be able to win a few more games if he had time to throw. There are always QBs available that are more upside than down. Kurt Warner and Kerry Collins did okay by the Giants. Would you build from the foundation up, or the roof down? I remember when the O and D line took priority, when teams were built to last.Ed says: Bruce, that’s hard to say. I think we all got fooled heading into 2018. It was really unrealistic to look at the Giants as a playoff team. They were coming off a 3-13 year with a barren roster crippled by years of bad drafts and free agent mistakes.This really comes down to two things. Can they get the quarterback question right and can they fix the offensive line? And how long will those things take?As for how you build, you have to get the quarterback right. If your guy is in the 2019 draft, make it happen. If he isn’t, keep adding pieces until you find your guy.You build a team from the inside out. The Giants have the play makers, but they don’t have the guys on the inside who can allow them to use the play makers. They need to build the offensive line, they need to build the defensive front seven with more dynamic players who can get after the pass and make game-changing plays. That’s where they need to build.Ed says: Yes. Probably multiple times. For those who want them to tank for the top pick, sorry about that.Ed says: Now this is a question that interests me. I don’t know how many readers are actually interested in the “how Ed got here” story, but here goes.I probably decided to make sports writing a career before I graduated high school. We had an elderly journalism teacher, Mrs. Hartigan, who was unlike any teacher I’ve ever had. Ancient http://www.authenticsnewyorkgiants.com/cheap-connor-barwin-jersey , frail, probably got laughed at by a lot of stupid teen-agers who didn’t get it, but she was all class. Educated, worldly, brilliant. She saw my passion for it and encouraged it.I don’t know that I have ever had a “mentor,” but the first person to ever hire me full time (for the Southern Maryland Independent), Rick Snider, has been a lifelong friend. I do owe some thanks to Pat Traina. She had been covering the Giants for about 10 years when I started showing up for training camps, and she helped me feel like I belonged.I guess as a kid I always thought I was destined to be a big-time columnist for some place like the New York Times, Washington Post or Boston Globe. I love work that’s well-researched, well informed and offers opinion/analysis without being some half-crazed hot take that’s simply aimed at shredding or making fun of someone. That’s what I try to do. I’m not always successful, but I try.I’ve borrowed from the style of Peter King, which I think anyone who has read me for a while knows. In all honesty, the older I get the more I’m interested in the stories about the people who play the games more than I am in telling you about the games themselves. I wish I was around the Giants on a daily basis so I could bring you more of those stories.Anyway, that’s my story.Ed says: Seth, I’m not assuming anything when it comes to the Giants and Justin Herbert. They just passed on quarterbacks in a year when four were taken in the top 10. I know that the Giants need a quarterback of the future and that fans are fixated on Herbert, but I have no idea if the Giants are. Herbert might not even declare for the draft. If he does http://www.authenticsnewyorkgiants.com/cheap-ray-ray-armstrong-jersey , I’m almost certain the Oakland Raiders will grab him before the Giants have a chance should they be higher in the draft order.I just wouldn’t go into this draft thinking it’s Herbert or bust — you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. See some of my comments above in reference to quarterbacks in the draft class. The Divisional Round is usually one of the most exciting weekends of the NFL season, but what we got instead was three games that were never really in doubt and one close game to round out the weekend. Still, there are a few takeaways we can find from these games as we turn toward crowning a conference champion this weekend.The pass set up the runAll of the winning teams this weekend did a great job running the ball, but not all of them ran the ball to win. There’s going to be a lot of looking at the final rushing numbers with some concluding the ground game was the reason these teams won, but like many instances, these teams got to run because they were winning and so much of that running was set up by the passing game.The Kansas City Chiefs took a 7-0 lead on their first drive with gains of 11, 16, and 34 through the air. Kansas City also had the biggest pass-to-run ratio of the weekend on 1st and 10 in the first half — 12 passes against just four rushes — and they averaged 9.25 yards per play on those. 16 of Damien Williams’s 24 rushing attempts and 87 of his 129 rushing yards came in the second half of the game when the Chiefs started with a 24-7 lead.In Los Angeles, the Rams have been using the passing game to open up lanes on the ground throughout the Sean McVay era. With a consistent look of 11 personnel (three wide receivers) and tight splits (receivers inside the numbers), the Rams use the threat of the pass to create advantageous running opportunities with their offensive line against light boxes. Even as the Rams were successful on the ground, C.J. Anderson faced a box of eight defenders or more on just 17.4 percent of his attempts Saturday night, per Next Gen Stats. Todd Gurley saw a stacked box on just 6.3 percent of his attempts. Those splits are really all you should need to see what defenses focus on to stop the run — and it’s not the back.New England jumped out to a 35-7 halftime lead with 31 drop backs and 18 rushing attempts. That lead was gained through the air. The Patriots barely topped a 50-50 run-pass split in the second half with 13 pass attempts against 14 non-Brady kneels rushing attempts.Chargers kept it lightAgainst the Baltimore Ravens last week, the Chargers played almost exclusively with seven defensive backs on the field to match the speed of Lamar Jackson and the rest of the Baltimore offense. They stuck with that defense to start against the Patriots, but the problem there is New England doesn’t have the same athletes and the offense is a little more traditional. There doesn’t need to be an extra defensive back to account for the quarterback on runs because — I’m not sure if you’ve ever seen Tom Brady — that quarterback isn’t going anywhere. The strategy hit a bump early when safety Adrian Phillips got injured, though he returned to play 72 percent of the defensive snaps.During the regular season, the Patriots faced just 14 plays against seven defensive backs on the field per Sports Info Solutions — three rushes for 32 yards, eight passes for 38 yards http://www.authenticsnewyorkgiants.com/cheap-b.j.-goodson-jersey , and three sacks. But New England went into this game prepared for an all-DB defense and the Chargers had no counter once things didn’t go their way.Ghosts of Monday nights pastNow deep into the playoffs, we have moved away from the ESPN Monday Night Football crew and any inane commentary that goes along with it and, oh no.(breathes deeply)The Rams thing is just, wow. How anyone could think that offensive line was a liability heading into the weekend is amazing and there’s no possible way to think that after the Dallas game. The Rams were first in Adjusted Line Yards during the regular season — by a fair amount — and first in ESPN’s Pass Block Win Rate as a whole with the No. 1 tackle, No. 3 guard, and No. 5 center, individually. Even the LA run defense, which was 28th in DVOA, hasn’t been that much of a liability because the pass defense was good (ninth in DVOA) and rarely did rushing attempts matter against the Rams because they were always ahead (see the game against Dallas).Kansas City’s secondary has also been the better part of the Chiefs’ defense. The Chiefs were 12th against the pass by DVOA, but 32nd against the run, so if there was a run defense that could be a liability it was in Kansas City.The Eagles’ secondary has been patched together, but they finished the season 15th in pass defense DVOA. Their struggles against the Saints on Sunday had more to do with static zone coverage on long third downs and not adjusting for things like Michael Thomas sitting wide open in the hole in coverage rather than being completely outmatched.Get ready for pointsThe playoffs have been pretty chalky this season — both Conference Championship Games feature the No. 1 and No. 2 seed — but there could not be a better set of games than what we’re going to get this coming weekend. The four teams left were first, second, fourth, and fifth in offensive DVOA this season. Week 9 gave us a 45-35 Saints win over the Rams in New Orleans and Week 6 gave us a 43-40 Patriots win over the Chiefs in New England. These offenses are going to light up the scoreboard and we’re in for a Super Bowl shootout no matter who plays — though we should all rooting for Chiefs-Rams Part 2.