If you're the Giants, how do you win this game?

[Greg C.]

Okay, put yourself in the place of the Giants coaching staff and players. You are heavy underdogs playing on the road in frigid conditions against a team that is in better health and better rested than you are. Not only that, but your opponent is the sentimental favorite because their QB is a national sports icon. What's your strategy for winning this game?

I say you go all-out. On defense, you blitz and mix up your coverages. On offense, you throw the ball deep early in the game. Maybe a fake punt. Your running game is what's going to carry you in this game, for the most part, but you throw in some surprises and hope to hit on one or two of them for big plays. You're not supposed to be in this game and nobody expects you to win anyway, so why not go for it? Play loose. You've got nothing to lose.

I noticed that in press conferences the Giants are being very coy, not saying very much. Strahan even said that he would be sticking up for Favre if he wasn't playing against him. I think the Giants have a few things up their sleeves, and the Packers had better be prepared for them.

 

[Pack93z]

To beat the Packers... interesting concept for a thread... here would be my game plan so to speak.
To stop the Packer on offense, first I would get my hands on our receivers; play a lot of press coverage and knock the snot out of the short slants and curls. Play inside coverage and make the receivers release to the outside. Make Favre hold the ball for a couple of extra beats; making him throw over the coverage. They are going to get some yards in the passing game, but make them earn it... limit the short throws and get them on the ground ASAP. I would roll a safety over Jennings as he seems to be the biggest threat in the passing game, picking your poison type decision.

In the running game, the Giants have a huge issue; they are very fast up front but on the smallish side. To compensate for that, we would need to shoot the gaps hard and disrupt the scheme, we will probably get gashed at times, but I think if they try to play straight up it is going to be a long game. The Giants have to play on the Packers side of line of scrimmage, if they start to hit screens on this concept, the Giants are in trouble. Linebackers are going to be the key, if Pierce and company start playing on their heals it is going to be a long day.

To expose the Packers defense, I would utilize a ton of motion pre-snap, try to get some of the youth thinking more so than playing and also try to get off the line of scrimmage a little cleaner. In the passing game I would target the safeties, although it would rely on pass protection, I would run some 10 to 15 yard crosses behind the backers. Run multiple routes in that area and make those safeties react and commit, they are younger and hopefully we get them in a couple of slower reactions. Make them read and decide.

In the Running game, we have to get to the outside on the Packers D early, make them pursue especially the DE. The Packers are deep on the interior of the Dline, however they are not as deep on the edges. Attack the edges with Bradshaw, make him the featured back early then mix in Jacobs. Overall on offense I want to run the ball 60 % of the time, move the chains and limit the touches Favre and company get. The Giants have to keep that defense fresh, they were on the field a lot last weekend, they had to travel again this week.

Keep the game close and hopefully make something happen late.

 

[Danreb]

On offense:
NYG has to expose the GB secondary. Al Harris pretty much covers the left side exclusively. Every play should have Burress motion to the left slot, right next to Toomer. That pretty much leaves Harris to playing zone coverage because there's no chance in hell that Brady Poppinga and Atari Bigby can play safe coverage on their own. This should leave Burress and Kevin Boss (their rookie TE) open for a lot of underneath, ****-n-dunk routes.

The same strategy can be used with the run, especially if Harris shows his cards and follows Burress all the way. Manning can audible into a HB draw and have FB Madison Hedgecock block the strong side while HB Brandon Jacobs cuts off to the right. The play might even be more shifty if Ahmad Bradshaw is the tailback for the down.

With the pass, the Giants have to be really careful. Even if Manning throws some pretty balls in the snow, Bigby will most likely be right there to smash the mothereffer.

On defense:
NYG has to stay in their base 4-3 scheme most of the game or else they run the risk of Favre noticing their defense and picking it apart. If the front four can get pressure early, Ryan Grant should have nowhere to run. They can't stack the box with more than 5 guys, either... they run the risk of Favre torching them with sort passes.

If the Giants have more than 3 CB's on the field, they better work hard because none of GB's receivers suck. The best way to stop them is to play our style of defense with the bump and run coverage. None of our receivers are extraordinarily big... the strongest player is probably James Jones and while Ruvell Martin is tall, he's pretty lanky. If NYG can bump them off their routes, Favre will get heated and start throwing balls while avoiding pressure, and most of those could get picked as long as NYG keps their hands on the ball.

On special teams they can't let anyone make a big play. It's that simple.

BIGGEST THREATS ON OFFENSE -- TE Kevin Boss, RB Brandon Jacobs.
Green Bay struggles against TE's who get involved early (Gates, Gonzalez, Cooley, Witten) as well as RB's who are strong as well as quick (Steven Jackson).

BIGGEST THREATS ON DEFENSE -- DE Osi Umenyiora, DE Michael Strahan, DE Justin Tuck, S Gibril Wilson
With big defensive lines, Favre can struggle. Their's is very much like ours because they even have their own situational passrusher. Gibril Wilson came away with a pick last time.

 

[Greg C.]

Wow, thanks for the great posts, guys. I do think the Packers will be able to handle the Giants, and you guys probably do too, but I like to think about what opponents might try to do against us, so I'm not so surprised if it happens.

 

[Packnic]

good topic greg.

my advice on how the Giants can beat the Packers.


pray for a miracle.

 

[Mortfini]

Ask the lord to heat it up green bay for about 4 hours

 

[tromadz]

good topic greg.

my advice on how the Giants can beat the Packers.


pray for a miracle.

That's about it, and I doubt it happens since Greg Jennings is God's 2nd child. But seeing how God treated his 1st child....hmmmm...

Uhoh!

It's a good thing we have the Devil's Child, Atari Bigby too. It cancels out the prayers.

Every time Atari hits someone I think "that child has the devil in him!"

 

[farfam1]

If the Gnats play a straight vanilla d the Pack will kil them. I hope they do just that. If i were them I would bring everything I had up the middle on a semi-regular basis. They'd maybe disrupt a few running plays and get in Favre's face. On the other side, hopefully Brett would get some quick slants over the middle for big yards and if it was a running play Grant or Jackson would get through the initial penetration and break a big one. Either way I think the Pack win the battle on offense. I just don't think they'll have a hard time scoring points unless the weather is really funky.>

 

[bozz_2006]

If I were the Giants, I'd take two weeks off, then quit.

 

[Obi1]

Simple!

They show up to the game, stay in their locker room and refuse to come out until the Packers have warmed up, cooled down, re-warmed up and re-cooled down...

Then declare the Giants are ready to play when the weather warms up... Thursday or so.

This will frustrate the Packer players who will likely catch colds and can't perform vs the AFC opponent in the Superbowl... The Packers will be short 22 starters who will all be down with colds, frostbite, and chronic hypothermia and lose miserably to the AFC champs.

Then the Giants will declare a MORAL victory over the Packers.

 

[Danreb]

If I were the Giants, I'd take two weeks off, then quit.

ROFL!!!

Five stars for you.

 

[cheesey]

I'm not gonna say ANYTHING!
The Packer opponents follow my every move, trying to get insider info out of me!!!!! :shock: :lol:

 

[PackinSteel]

Only way the Giants are could win is if they pump sleeping gas into the Packer locker room before the game. I personally think it's going to be a rout. They won't be pressuring Eli but he won't have a lot of options either. Grant will have a few big runs but otherwise it's going to be a field day for the WR corps.

 

[PappyVanWinkle]

I am reminded of the Simpsons episode when Homer is going to fight Drederick Tatum, and Moe tells him to "visualize" himself winning the fight; Homer has a vision of the ref holding his hand up and the announcer saying that Tatum died suddenly of a congenital heart condition before the fight even started.

 

[Raider Pride]

The first thing I would do if I was coaching the Giants tomorrow is have my "D" run a Zebra XL-43 blitz package and rotate it from left to right.

The Giants have the physical talent to make it work.

In the secondary I would have my corners sit back in a hummer soft side formation with a quarter slot shift when Brett calls an audible and empties the backfield.

When Eli is in the red zone on 3rd and long it would be critical for the Giants O-Line to run a double sixty seven slide move after the snap to prevent the rush from getting to Manning before he rolled out.

I agree.... I would have the Giants change things up, and run a few trick plays. Perhaps a Paper Shell kick off formation to mess up the Packers special team coverage.

I could go on and on here.....

But I am sure all of you do not have a clue what I am talking about as it is very complex.

The reason it is complex is because I am making this crap up as I go along.... just to impress Greg, pack93z and Danreb.

Great posts guys... Very insightful. I can not keep up to the factual insight you three posted.

I am going to bed.... I hope I can sleep. I will be waking up every hour looking at the clock and figuring out how long it is until kick off.

RP

 

[all about da packers]

To stop the Packer on offense, first I would get my hands on our receivers; play a lot of press coverage and knock the snot out of the short slants and curls.

Pack93z, I have to disagree with this one. I think asking the Giants CBs to play man and press our WRs at the line is suicide.

The only Giants CB that would have some success with it is Cory Webster, but even then I think it'd be limited since I think Driver could overcome it with ease.

The other CBs for the Giants are Ross and Madison. Both are questionable, less than 100 percent. Ross' shoulder is in bad shape, so I think making him press Jennings is less than wise. Ross talked about wearing a brace to protect that shoulder, and how that brace limited his shoulder movement. That being the case, I think Ross would get run over trying to press any of our WRs.

Same can be said for Madison, although he doesn't have a shoulder injury. Madison too is hurting and less than 100%, so I think making him play man would be disastrous.


I just don't think it'd be a very smart move on the Giants part to even attempt man to man on anyone besides Driver.

 

[Greg C.]

To stop the Packer on offense, first I would get my hands on our receivers; play a lot of press coverage and knock the snot out of the short slants and curls.

Pack93z, I have to disagree with this one. I think asking the Giants CBs to play man and press our WRs at the line is suicide.

The only Giants CB that would have some success with it is Cory Webster, but even then I think it'd be limited since I think Driver could overcome it with ease.

The other CBs for the Giants are Ross and Madison. Both are questionable, less than 100 percent. Ross' shoulder is in bad shape, so I think making him press Jennings is less than wise. Ross talked about wearing a brace to protect that shoulder, and how that brace limited his shoulder movement. That being the case, I think Ross would get run over trying to press any of our WRs.

Same can be said for Madison, although he doesn't have a shoulder injury. Madison too is hurting and less than 100%, so I think making him play man would be disastrous.


I just don't think it'd be a very smart move on the Giants part to even attempt man to man on anyone besides Driver.

Good point, AADP. The Giants CB's would likely get burned in press coverage. That's why I was thinking they might try to mix up their zone coverages a lot in hopes of getting some picks. They probably need to do something risky and different, because they appear to be outmanned. Also, they could run a lot of stunts in hopes of getting a good pass rush up the middle and either bringing pressure or at least obstructing the throwing lanes. If that works, the Packers could counter it by rolling Favre out, which they did a few times against Seattle.

 

[packedhouse01]

The only way the Giants can win this game is if the Packers turn the ball over. If we take care of the ball and play great defense, we'll win the game going away no matter what the Giants do.

 

[Pack93z]

To stop the Packer on offense, first I would get my hands on our receivers; play a lot of press coverage and knock the snot out of the short slants and curls.

Pack93z, I have to disagree with this one. I think asking the Giants CBs to play man and press our WRs at the line is suicide.

The only Giants CB that would have some success with it is Cory Webster, but even then I think it'd be limited since I think Driver could overcome it with ease.

The other CBs for the Giants are Ross and Madison. Both are questionable, less than 100 percent. Ross' shoulder is in bad shape, so I think making him press Jennings is less than wise. Ross talked about wearing a brace to protect that shoulder, and how that brace limited his shoulder movement. That being the case, I think Ross would get run over trying to press any of our WRs.

Same can be said for Madison, although he doesn't have a shoulder injury. Madison too is hurting and less than 100%, so I think making him play man would be disastrous.


I just don't think it'd be a very smart move on the Giants part to even attempt man to man on anyone besides Driver.

Good point, AADP. The Giants CB's would likely get burned in press coverage. That's why I was thinking they might try to mix up their zone coverages a lot in hopes of getting some picks. They probably need to do something risky and different, because they appear to be outmanned. Also, they could run a lot of stunts in hopes of getting a good pass rush up the middle and either bringing pressure or at least obstructing the throwing lanes. If that works, the Packers could counter it by rolling Favre out, which they did a few times against Seattle.

If the sit in zone, Brett should pick them apart, and being alot of our quick passing game is all about timing, somehow you have to knock that timing off. Did you see Ross last week, he isn't going to play very long today.. he crumpled when Barber hit him, imagine hitting the frozen turf.

Anyway, comming up and pressing them at the LOS doesn't mean that you can't release into a high low or cover zone. The real purpose of my idea is to both throw off the quick timing and make those receivers release outside, making Favre throw over the coverage in this cold.

My opinion, if Favre has time, he is going to shred this defense, my hope would be make him hold that ball as long as possible so the front pressure has a chance to get home. Otherwise with the quick passes, I have no chance to get home with the blitzes and pressure. IMO.

Pick your poison type situation, but with the cold even if the corners get beat off the line with the jams, make the throws deep and hope for the best.

 

[Obi1]

The only way the Giants can win this game is if the Packers turn the ball over. If we take care of the ball and play great defense, we'll win the game going away no matter what the Giants do.

Giants COULD bribe the referees... Like the Cowboys did against us in week 13.

 

[NDPackerFan]

The only way the Giants can win this game is if the Packers turn the ball over. If we take care of the ball and play great defense, we'll win the game going away no matter what the Giants do.

Giants COULD bribe the referees... Like the Cowboys did against us in week 13.

Good point. I'm still pissed at that call when Al Harris stripped the ball from T.O. on the sidelines. I know, I should get over it already but it was a blatantly bad call. They even reviewed the sucker.

 

[cheesey]

The only way the Giants can win this game is if the Packers turn the ball over. If we take care of the ball and play great defense, we'll win the game going away no matter what the Giants do.

Giants COULD bribe the referees... Like the Cowboys did against us in week 13.

LOL!
I don't think the Giants can afford what Jerry Jones paid!

 

[Dan115]

Greg, I do NOT CARE HOW---- JUST WIN BABY!!! GO PACK GO