Grading the Giants
David Diehl suffered a partially torn hamstring and another muscular injury in his hip on Sunday, sources said. (Sept. 12, 2010) Credit: David Pokress
OFFENSE: C
Eli Manning gets those three interceptions hung in his statistical column, but really they belong to the receivers who missed the passes and deflected them to the defenders. There were two others that went through Panthers' hands after caroming off Giants, so it could have been worse. The Giants had to adjust on the fly to life without Kevin Boss. It might have taken until midway through the third quarter for them to figure it out completely. Only eight rushing yards in the first half but both Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw rebounded in the second half. The Giants also lucked out on a pair of spots, one of them after a video review, on a fourth-and-inches quarterback sneak.
DEFENSE: B-PLUS
Holding the Panthers to 89 rushing yards in the game was a genuine achievement, considering they were dropping about 89 per drive when the teams met in December. That allowed them to gang up on Matt Moore in the fourth quarter and knock him out of the game. Three interceptions in the end zone and three field goals in the first half kept the score within reach while the offense struggled. There was probably a little more bending and not breaking than the Giants would have liked, though. The Panthers converted almost half of their third downs (8-for-17) and there were some missed tackles. Terrell Thomas in particular missed on a few of those.
SPECIAL TEAMS: D
We'll give Matt Dodge the benefit of the doubt and say that his poor first game was because of rookie jitters. Whether - or how long - Tom Coughlin extends him that courtesy, we'll see. The Giants' problems aren't just in kicking the ball, though, as tackling continues to be an issue in the open field. Bryan Kehl probably had the best stop on a kickoff that was waived off with an offside penalty. Darius Reynaud provided some spark returning both kickoffs and punts, but one short kick was muffed by upback D.J. Ware. Lawrence Tynes had one short kickoff to open the game but put the rest deep.
COACHING: B
The Giants seemed to use the anniversary of Sept. 11 as a rallying cry, and the team responded to that call to civic and national pride. Justin Tuck even had some encouraging words from Gen. Raymond Odierno while coming off the field. Perry Fewell's defense uses lots of players in lots of places and will be difficult for teams to game-plan against. The Giants didn't panic offensively when Boss was knocked out early and stuck to the playbook with Will Beatty taking plenty of snaps as an eligible receiver.
