Judy Battista, who covers the N.F.L.for The Times, answers questions from readers.
Jacquian Williams who forced a fumble: “The thing is, we knew he had four concussions, so that was our biggest thing, was to take him outta the game.”
As a fan, I’d hate to see this possible be the determining factor in deciding a close game.Ideally, the advantage does not go to the team most successful in exploiting head injuries atlanta braves hats.
First, the Giants’ beat writers all wrote stories the next day in which the Giants denied that they had targeted Williams to be knocked out of the game.They definitely admitted that they wanted to make him feel uncomfortable back there, because he is Ted Ginn’s backup and obviously this was a pressure-packed game.Do I think the Giants said, “Hey, let’s go hit this guy in the head and try to give him another concussion?” Nope.
Yes! As soon as the Rams fired Spagnuolo as head coach, teams needing a defensive coordinator started calling.Spagnuolo was the defensive coordinator when the Giants won the Super Bowl in 2008 and he learned from the late Philadelphia coordinator Jim Johnson.With the Giants, Spagnuolo ran a defense predicated on an aggressive pass rush.He has been careful since getting to New Orleans to say that he hasn’t fully evaluated the roster and that he believes in flexibility, to take advantage of existing strengths.We’ll see.But Spagnuolo is deeply respected and liked by players and coaches alike.
Obviously events happen in sequence and change what comes next.Maybe the Packers get a real kick in the pants early enough if the first quarter fumble is called and they snap out of their funk and change the whole course of the game: Packers receivers don’t drop so many balls and Rodgers plays like he did all year, despite the excellent Giants pressure.Even with that, maybe the Giants respond and kill the Pack even more decisively.Who can know?
I don’t view it as an alternate universe.You can’t know if the Giants would have won by a larger margin, for instance, or if something else might have kept the score down.But you can say that those two bad calls almost certainly led to Green Bay points cheap 59fifty hats.I don’t think there is any question emotional reaction plays a role in performance, and there is no way to quantify it, or hope to end it.All you have to do is look at the Jets’ meltdown at the end of the season to know that even the emotional reaction to off-the-field issues can take a toll.
I haven’t seen Coughlin address this, but I have to guess that it’s because they believe that Jacobs’ style of running does not match up well with Green Bay and San Francisco defenses (San Francisco’s run defense was superb this season).It’s not like Jacobs has been a consistent producer, and Ahmad Bradshaw, now that he is back to health, gives the Giants a faster, change of direction option than Jacobs.
The Jets? Signing Peyton would mean the end of any future for Sanchez in that locker room.
Arizona? Maybe.Kevin Kolb has all the earmarks of a bust, they have a solid running game and a fantastic receiver in Larry Fitzgerald.
Thoughts?– O Coelho, New York
Of course, this is Manning we’re talking about – teams will make a run at him.Keep in mind that if he’s a free agent, he will be in control of where he goes.He will want a place with good defense and good receivers and NO dysfunction, which probably eliminates the Redskins, the Jets and maybe even the Dolphins, because does Peyton really want to go to a place where he’s going to have to get past Tom Brady twice every year just to win the division? Arizona has receivers and a running game, and they are in a winnable division (although the Niners will have something to say about that).Another option might be Seattle – also in the N.F.C.West.But again, we are a long, long way from having any real answers.
And if I can throw in one more about a Giants wide receiver, any chance we will ever see Ramses Barden make an impact in the regular season, or is the team prepared to cut ties?–Dan, New Jersey
On the topic of concussions: Has anyone to your knowledge compared the rate of concussions in football where they wear helmets to rugby where they don’t? I suspect helmets in football give players a false sense of security so they end up using their heads more as a weapon.Any thoughts?–SDE, Bow, N.H.
It is so irritating that these comparisons keep coming up.I’ll let Judy answer of course, but from my perspective the chief reason we don’t see concussions in rugby and the other sibling sports is because American football is the only variant that employs the forward pass.
The issue seems more the rules of each respective sport being different, more so than the equipment/lack thereof being worn.Of course poor tackling/improper technique also plays a part.–The Artist FKA Bakes, Philadelphia
Is the neck injury that kept Peyton Manning out of commission this past season, in any way similar to the neck injury that curtailed Bert Jones’s N baseball caps.F.L.career prematurely or are they two completely separate and distinct maladies? Could you contact orthoneurologists (if that’s even a word) and explicate the two star quarterbacks’ respective injuries? I recall Bert Jones being quoted in a wire report that he had been told by doctors “not that he shouldn’t, but that he couldn’t” continue to play pro football, a few games after his “Madam Ram Gets Her Man” Sports Illustrated cover story back when …–Norman Browning, Farmington, N.Y.
Is Osi Umenyiora coming back next year, or have his and the Giants’ feelings hardened to the point that he won’t stay and the Giants don’t want him?–Sledge, Worcester
The Giants are basically the same team as last year with the addition of Victor Cruz, Steve Weatherford and a few rookies.How does it feel trying to prognosticate a team’s year? There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason as to how teams play from year to year anymore, outside of the Pats or Steelers.Do teams need a core of 15 to 20 solid players and with a little bit of good coaching and pixie dust they’ll be successful? Or is it just that the league is so evenly matched?–SWarshawer, New York City
Not to bring up another bad call, but do you think Vernon Davis’s right foot was actually in bounds on that first touchdown? It seemed to me that half of his foot was on or over the line.–Vincent, New York City
Back in the day, when I had the time and money, I used to wager on N.F.L.games.
How do you, Judy, quantify the value of a head coach? Consider that, after all, most N.F.L.players, have been football stars since Pop Warner.Really, at the very least, they’re all excellent football players.
And you? [ also...please relate to the obvious: Darth vs.Tom]–JP, Jersey City, N.J.
If you exclude Tom Brady’s rookie year where he did not play hardly at all and the season he missed with his knee injury, he has played 10 N.F.L.seasons and led his team to the Super Bowl now five times.Does any other QB come close to this .500 batting average? To me, this is really incredible adjustable snapback hats.–psj567, Boston
In the Baltimore-New England Game, when Brady does the QB keeper on fourth down, all he needed to do was break the plane of the goal line for the touchdown.However, when Flacco threw to Evans for the potential go ahead score in the final minute, it looked like Evans had the ball, got both feet down, and then the ball was knocked out by Moore.There was no video review to see if he had possession of the ball.Apparently he had to keep possession even after both feet were down, but why should that matter?–Seatant, New York City
Judy, what do you know about how the Giants and Patriots evaluate players for the draft or sign free agents? Both teams seem to get a lot of mileage out of little-known players.Belichick is often portrayed as a evil genius who always shows up to the draft with a lot of high picks, and signs veterans for what appears to be peanuts.Jerry Reese doesn’t get as much ink on his evaluation prowess, but I’m sure he’s no slouch.I’m curious because all teams in the N.F.L.presumably pay the same amount for their entire roster, and certain teams seem to under-achieve and other teams always make the playoffs.What insights can you give us? –D Y Loh, New York
Anyway, both teams believe in building through the draft and developing their own players, rather than going on the occasionally big-ticket free agent spending spree.They place a lot of value in college scouting and will throw in the occasional free-agent signing that is not that big a deal.Did anyone even pay attention when David Baas signed with the Giants last year? Probably not, because we were all watching the Eagles sign every big-name player under the sun Cheap New Era Hats.The Patriots signed Chad Ochocinco and Albert Haynesworth – that seemed to be a radical departure for them – except they were team-friendly deals, so when Haynesworth turned out to still be Albert Haynesworth, Belichick had no trouble sending him off.
Why are some quarterbacks far more prone to throwing interceptions than others? Is it primarily an inability to effectively read defenses? Or is it caused more by trying to force the issue rather than play it safe?–Hagbard Celine
With the Giants in the Super Bowl, will the Jets be more aggressive in pursuing free agents?–Bruce Edwards, Rutland, Vermont
What do you think of Jerry Reese’s claim during spring training that the Giants would be in playoffs? Has he not done a great job as G.M.?
I think we all owe Jerry Reese an apology, because when he said that they would make the playoffs and make a run – at a time when the roster was decimated by injuries and the Giants had just lost Steve Smith and Kevin Boss – more than a few of us thought Jerry was sounding defensive.He has done a great job as G.M.What else do you want – wins a Super Bowl in his first year as the G.M., is in another one now.Picked Jason Pierre-Paul, who is some kind of pass-rushing freak.
You hear about some teams that run the famous West Coast Offense.Then you have teams like the Giants and Patriots which run — what, the “East Coast Offense”? Is there a name and system associated with what these teams do?–Stan Kaplan, Bethesda, Md.
If you had Jim Irsay’s ear – yes, I know we tried this with G.M.and Jim didn’t check with us – who would you tout for the Colts coach?–LM, Elgin, S.C.
Pagano is so loved by the defensive players in Baltimore that Terrell Suggs joked that he would tell other teams how lousy he was, just so they wouldn’t hire him.He’s a sharp defensive guy, but also brings some boldness and brashness to the job, which is obviously a changeup from the Dungy/Caldwell style.Irsay is obviously intent on changing things at his franchise, and he has accomplished that.Now I’ll be interested to see who Pagano hires as an offensive coordinator, because that guy gets to work with Andrew Luck (and maybe Peyton, who knows).
Hey! You’re suggesting we’re burned-out husks here, with no ideas? We’ll come up with something, but isn’t the annoying Boston/New York domination of the world fun – people love to hate us, if nothing else.The Patriots revenge thing is also delicious because I’m pretty certain that Brady and Belichick would sacrifice a vital organ to have that game back.But we’ll try to come up with something else to write about.I make no promises, though.
Yeah, we’ve done that, too.
I bet Brian and Bruce would like to answer this question.The coordinators, in most cases, draw up the game plan and call the plays.Not always, though.In Green Bay, for instance, Mike McCarthy calls the plays.In Indianapolis, Peyton Manning did pretty much everything, including having a huge hand in the game planning.As for how much credit or blame they deserve, that’s a fair point.Is the New England offense so awesome because of the coordinator or Tom Brady? No disrespect to Bill O’Brien or anyone else who has held that job, but I’m going with Brady because they have run through several coordinators and the offense never skips a beat.Schottenheimer got the boot in large part because Sanchez’s development seems to have hit a wall and his play calling also does not seem to line up with what Rex Ryan would prefer – a ground-heavy game.Also, maybe, he was just a scapegoat for failing to get to the playoffs.In Pittsburgh, there was concern even before the playoff loss that the offense had really slowed down, long before Ben Roethlisberger’s ankle injury.As Art Rooney II said: It was time for a change