0:04 It's time for a big blue kickoff live. 0:06 Nobody can ever tell you that you couldn't do it 0:09 because you're dead. 0:10 On Giants.com. You know what I saw? New York Giant pride. 0:14 And the Giants mobile app. 17-14 is the final. One touchdown, 0:17 we are world champions. Believe it, and it will happen. 0:21 Part of the Giants podcast network. Let's go out there 0:24 like a bunch of crazy dogs. Hello, everybody. 0:27 Welcome to Thursday's edition of Big Blue Kickoff Live right 0:30 here on the Giants YouTube channel, GiantsAppGiants.com. John Schmoke, Lance 0:34 Metal with you. Getting you ready for the Giants. 0:37 And the Saints. It's all brought to you by Cadillac, 0:39 the official luxury vehicle of the Giants. 0:41 Coming to you from the Giants podcast studio, presented by 0:44 Hackensack Meridian Health. 0:45 Keep getting better. Lance, good to see you, man. How 0:48 are you? I'm doing well. How about yourself? Doing great. 0:51 You were just out there for the coach's press conference. 0:53 I had an interview I had to record, so I 0:54 got out there for literally the last question to Denard Wilson, 0:56 and I missed everything else. Give me some of the 0:59 highlights from Matt Nagy and Denard Wilson and Chris Horton. 1:02 Well, let's start with Denard Wilson. 1:04 He basically called everybody on his team a blitzer when 1:07 it comes to who he's going to send, where he's 1:09 going to send it from. He said the players have 1:12 a mindset that they're in attacking mode pretty much all 1:15 the time. They like to go forward. He complimented specifically 1:18 Drew Phillips. He's been very pleased with his play as 1:21 of late in terms of getting after the quarterback. We 1:23 saw in the last game he was involved in some 1:25 blitz packages as well as aiding the in stopping the run, 1:29 and he mentioned the two big Jaden Daniels runs were 1:32 pretty much a product of miscommunication. Guys not covering their gaps, 1:37 which obviously we hear all the time when it comes 1:39 to big breakdowns down the field with respect to the run. 1:43 Did he put it mostly on the defensive line or 1:44 mostly on the linebackers? 1:45 Well, he mentioned that when guys get behind on the 1:49 play a little bit, it's important for the second layer 1:53 to have better eyes and sight in terms of filling that, 1:57 and there was just a lack of communication from that 2:00 front on the second layer and the second level. So 2:02 I think those were really the main takeaways from Denard Wilson. Actually, 2:06 the other thing that was pretty much a lighthearted moment, 2:09 he was asked a question about Arvel Reese being matched 2:11 up with running backs a lot this season in terms 2:14 of pass protection and how Reese just claws his way 2:17 through them, and I'm putting that politely. It was described, 2:21 I believe it was maybe a high school player against 2:25 a middle school player in terms of the matchup and 2:29 how Denard Wilson enjoys going back and watching the film 2:32 and how that usually happens. goes well in favor of 2:35 the Giants and that he sort of sets himself up, Reese, 2:39 by overpowering running backs early in the game. Then they 2:42 have to make adjustments, and Reese then knows, okay, if 2:45 this is how they're going to counter me, this is 2:47 what I could do to win the battle. So a 2:49 little interesting in terms of his feedback there in terms 2:52 of the game of chess that's going on, at least 2:54 up front. As far as Matt Nagy is concerned, he 2:57 was asked about J.J. McCarthy and the packages of the 3:00 plays that we saw Over the last two weeks. But, 3:02 you know, he made a key point of emphasis that 3:05 and you and I were talking about this right after 3:07 the acquisition for J.J. 3:09 McCarthy. J.J. 3:10 Still needs to fully learn and digest the entire system 3:14 as a quarterback. His role is not just to come 3:18 in for a few packages of plays during the course 3:21 of the game. They're working him in slowly, John, to 3:24 get to the point where they can try to take 3:26 advantage of him on the roster. And that goes back to, 3:29 if you recall, John Harbaugh during his presser the other 3:31 day had mentioned the reason why they are playing McCarthy 3:34 is he wants to maximize the full roster. If you're 3:37 going to put a uniform on a guy, well, let's 3:39 find ways that we can tap into his skill set, 3:42 which I completely get. But then what Matt Nagy was emphasizing, 3:45 the second component of this is, well, we're not just 3:48 content with throwing McCarthy in and And it being predictable 3:53 where we have a run play with a quarterback or 3:55 whatever it may be, we want him to get to 3:56 the point where he has total command of the scheme 3:59 so that we can feel comfortable. God forbid anything happens 4:03 to Jameis, then we could turn to him. But the 4:06 other element that he talked about was we also need 4:09 to be careful about. with how much we take Jameis 4:12 out of the game because you don't want to disrupt 4:14 the rhythm of the starting quarterback. And once again, the 4:16 reason why I'm throwing this to the forefront is you 4:20 and I were talking about this immediately after the acquisition 4:22 when there were a number of people that were campaigning, oh, 4:25 McCarthy the following week, he should be on the field, 4:27 this and that. It's not easy going through that process. 4:31 So that was certainly a big part of the conversation. 4:35 And then he was asked, of course, about the disparity 4:38 in production in the second half in the Commander's game. 4:41 versus the first half. So it goes without saying they 4:43 want to get off to a faster start. Matt Nagy 4:46 was asked about whether or not picking up the tempo 4:49 is something they're going to adopt moving forward for the 4:52 whole game. 4:52 And you still need to pick your spots. 4:55 So he wasn't necessarily going to sign up for, they're 4:57 going to adopt what worked for them because part of 5:00 it was also John playing from behind, right? So of course, 5:02 you're going to have to pick up the pace just 5:04 by default. And then the other thing that came up 5:08 was Malik Nabors previously calling for the desire to get 5:11 the football and 20 targets. Matt Nagy joked, I think 5:15 he's content at this point, but he did point out 5:17 Puka Nakua in the Rams-Bills game got 27. So maybe 5:21 there's some room for negotiation, a lighthearted moment that he 5:25 brought up. 5:26 From that standpoint. 5:27 So that was, I think, to me, the main takeaways 5:30 for the offensive and defensive coordinators. As far as Chris 5:34 Horton is concerned, And I would say all the coaches 5:37 actually brought this up. There is a big topic of discussion, 5:41 as you well know, across the league right now. Everybody 5:44 seems to be the latest installment of Peanut Tillman, the 5:48 former Bears cornerback who just had a knack for punching 5:51 out the ball. 5:52 We're seeing it everywhere now. I'm really, I'm even impressed. 5:55 Normally it was one or two teams or a few 5:57 players that adopted that. Now it's everybody across the board. 6:00 So offense, defense, special teams everywhere. they all need to 6:05 hone in on that during practice. And they're running drills. 6:08 They're not just talking about it to death. They're making 6:11 sure that everybody is aware that when you are the 6:14 ball carrier, no matter what phase of the game you 6:16 play in, you may have a ball that is going 6:20 to be punched at. 6:21 And I thought one of. 6:22 The things that Chris Horton brought up, John, interestingly, just 6:26 a teaching point. If you're running up the left sideline 6:28 and This is, to me, going back to old school 6:31 when I was a kid playing basketball. Guide hand always 6:34 needs to protect, and then you want the ball right 6:36 in the hand of where the defender can't reach in. 6:39 Similar philosophy that he said, special teams return man running 6:43 up the left sideline. Ball needs to be in your 6:44 left hand. Last thing you want to do is keep 6:46 it in the right hand so that the peanut punch 6:48 can actually happen more easily with the defender sealed off 6:52 on your side. 6:53 And the ball also stays in bounds that way, too. 100%. 6:56 So I thought, once again, basic nugget maybe in terms 6:59 of the peripheral. But still, you've got to make sure 7:02 that you're telling your players on a weekly basis those 7:04 are the fundamentals that need to. 7:07 refer back to over and over again on every play. 7:10 And he also said the misses from Zvada, his plant 7:12 leg got a little too close. Well, Harbaugh even talked 7:15 about that yesterday. Yes, that was it. Harbaugh didn't quite 7:17 go into the same amount of detail about it. 7:19 Correct. 7:19 But Harbaugh at least gave that when the question came up. 7:22 He goes, wait, are we going to break down kicking here? 7:25 He lightheartedly said, but yes, Horton definitely emphasized it was 7:28 about the plant leg that contributed to the three misses. 7:30 All right, let's open up the phones here, folks. 7:32 201-939-4513. 7:33 Give us a call. Talk Giants football with us at 201-939-4513. But, Lance, 7:38 let's go through the Saints-Giants matchup first here because, to me... 7:43 I mean, this is another bad defense the Giants are 7:45 going to play. I mean, they've played the 32nd-ranked defense, 7:48 the 31st-ranked defense, the 30th-ranked defense, the 26th-ranked defense, now 7:52 the Saints are the 27th-ranked defense. So it's literally, not 7:55 including the Rams, five of the seven worst defenses in 7:59 the National Football League that the Giants have had the 8:00 pleasure of facing so far this season. And look, when 8:05 you take a look at the Saints' defense, they have 8:07 a couple pass rushers, right? Chase Young and Carl Grant 8:09 are sort of good players. They haven't given up a 8:12 ton of explosive plays. They're right in the middle of 8:14 the league, so that hasn't been the problem. But stopping 8:16 the run, a lot of bad penalties, and they just 8:20 have not been able to get off the field. I mean, 8:21 I don't want to make it too simple, because obviously 8:25 what the offense and special teams does can impact points 8:28 allowed as well. 8:29 But so far this year, they've given up. 8:30 31, 17, 35, 45, 23. So they haven't allowed fewer 8:37 than 17 points in any game this year. Somehow they 8:40 did against the Ravens in Week 2 in Baltimore. Not 8:42 sure how that happened, but they did. So this should 8:45 be another opportunity for the Giants to run the ball. 8:48 Their run defense has not been very good. To throw 8:50 the ball down the field. They don't have a shutdown corner. 8:53 Kluge McKintry is a good player, but he's not a 8:55 guy that's going to lock down a great receiver like 8:58 Malik Nabors. Jonas Sanker's made some good plays in the 9:01 secondary for them. But overall, there should be another opportunity 9:04 for the Giants offense to make some plays. 9:06 Yeah, and specifically the last two games have not been 9:08 pretty for the Saints. That's why they lost by double digits. 9:11 The first three games, John, and I know this is 9:14 the three components of the team, not necessarily just the defense, 9:16 but they were one possession games. They were there for 9:19 the taking. Baltimore was the lone win. They have not 9:22 been as disruptive of a defense, I think, as they 9:25 had hoped. And part of it is they have not 9:28 taken the ball away. They're also with the worst turnover 9:32 differential in the NFL tied with the Colts at minus six. 9:35 11 giveaways, just five takeaways. And you do the math. 9:39 They've played five games. 9:40 So one takeaway per game may be nice, but you 9:43 need to make up for the yardage, to your point, 9:46 that you're giving up. And Chase Young is responsible for 9:48 four of their 10 sacks. So I think they're looking 9:50 for somebody else beyond Chase Young to help penetrate and 9:55 maybe improve the volume of takeaways and shorten the field. Plus, 9:59 you've got a quarterback that, at least according to reports, 10:02 is playing with a broken bone in his guide hand, 10:06 his non-throwing hand. 10:07 You know, you take all of these things into consideration. 10:09 Yeah, they need the defense to help alleviate an offense 10:13 that can't operate in a shootout mentality every single game. 10:18 That's essentially what they've been put in the last two games. 10:20 You go back to, I mean, I watched a good 10:21 part of that Monday night game against the Falcons. Atlanta 10:24 ran the ball down the throat of their defense, which 10:27 is what you were laying out. And then you're putting 10:29 your offense in a spot where you got to play 10:31 catch up all night and you can't be balanced. Because 10:34 you can't run the football at that point, given you're 10:36 down by two touchdowns. So they have not put themselves 10:40 in very favorable positions, I would say, early in the game, 10:44 which has then taken them completely out of what may 10:47 have worked effectively for them early in the season when 10:50 they were playing those closer affairs. 10:52 Yeah, and we'll see if the Giants can take advantage 10:54 of that. 10:54 As for the Saints' offense, I think there's a lot 10:57 to like here, Lance, and I think there's things to 10:59 be excited about, and we'll start with that before we 11:01 get to some of the weaknesses that the Giants can 11:03 take advantage of. But Tyler Shook, I think, has done 11:06 a good job of getting the ball downfield, throwing the ball, 11:09 making some big plays. Chris Olave has been a top 11:12 five wide receiver this year. He's done a really nice job. 11:17 Devon Bailey, I think, has been a good number two. 11:19 Yeah, he's emerged. 11:19 Juwan Johnson is a solid tight end. So I think 11:23 when they've had to throw the ball, they've been able to. 11:25 They've had to come back in a lot of these 11:27 games that they've won with Tyler Shook. 11:28 And even in the games this year, they've gone behind. 11:30 They've had to come back. 11:32 So I think they do have some playmakers and the 11:35 ability to make some plays down the field. 11:37 Yeah, I'm with you. 11:38 I actually, the more and more I've been looking over 11:40 the Saints offense, John, it's the tight ends that I 11:43 think have been actually a bit of an X factor. 11:46 Juwan Johnson certainly has length and is a big red 11:48 zone target, but Noah Fant also has three touchdowns. When 11:51 you break down the numbers, and Shook loves to look 11:54 at these guys when they get down inside the 20, 11:56 they're responsible for six of his nine touchdown passes. So, 12:00 If the Saints do move the ball successfully, they get 12:03 into that... red zone area, you know, that has to 12:05 be a point of emphasis for the Giants. You want 12:07 to take away the tight ends. You want to see 12:09 if Chuck is actually going to target somebody else. The 12:13 one thing that they've struggled with is running the football. Now, 12:16 of course, HN got hurt and he's out because of 12:19 a hamstring injury. 12:20 And just so fans know, that is not Devon HN. 12:22 This is Trevor HN, which used to be ATN, but 12:25 he just changed the pronunciation of the name. But some 12:27 Giant fans might not know that. No, that's fair. 12:28 You know, I guess I take things for granted in 12:30 terms of When I have conversations on air about NFL personnel. Yes, 12:34 he made that clear in the offseason. And, you know, 12:36 one of my pet peeves is pronunciation. So if you 12:39 are a player and you make it a point, this 12:41 is what you want to be called. I am going 12:43 to follow your command without any hesitation. But the point 12:46 is they have struggled immensely. And while they do have 12:50 Alvin Kamara still on the roster and Kendrick Miller has 12:53 now given himself more of an opportunity on the depth chart. 12:56 There's no explosiveness, I would argue, out of that ground game. 13:00 And that's really what is holding back the potential of 13:04 the scheme overall. Because, I mean, Tyler Shuck is still 13:07 a young quarterback, John. He's only in year two. And 13:10 he had a nice surge, if you remember, at the 13:12 tail end of his rookie year last year. 13:14 But like anything else. 13:15 The more film, the more defenses see what you could do, 13:18 they're going to catch up with you. And if you 13:20 take away now the ground game, you're putting that quarterback 13:23 in a tougher spot, even though, as we just laid out, 13:26 he's got attractive weapons in the passing game. I just 13:29 think there's not enough balance right now. The Saints are 13:32 a bit one-dimensional, and part of that, of course, is 13:35 game flow issues. given the defense not necessarily helping them out. 13:39 And look, I think the biggest issue with the offense, Lance, 13:41 and this reflects on both the run game like you 13:43 just talked about, and then I think what's really been 13:46 holding back the pass game, their offensive line has not 13:48 been good. I mean, if anybody watched that national game 13:52 in primetime between the Saints and the Falcons, the Falcons 13:55 lived in the backfield in that game. And this is 13:58 a group that the Saints have put a lot of 14:00 resources in, right? Taliesi Fuanga at right tackle, first-round pick. 14:04 Cesar Ruiz, first-round pick. Eric McCoy at center, first-round pick. 14:06 David Edwards was a big, high, big money. I think 14:09 he was the highest-paid guard in free agency this past year. 14:11 From the Bills. 14:11 And now they've lost Kelvin Banks, their second-year left tackle. 14:17 Asim Richards has stepped in, former backup for the Cowboys, 14:19 as now they're starting left tackle. So that's obviously, you 14:22 understand why you would have some issues there. But this 14:24 offensive linelands, a group that they've put a lot of 14:26 resources in, simply have not played up to what they 14:30 thought this group could be. 14:32 And that's why, obviously, they've struggled to run the football. 14:35 The other thing, and this to me could play right 14:38 into the hands of the Giants, he has been pressured, 14:42 Tyler Shook, on about 50% John of his dropbacks with 14:47 the blitz that they have faced. Now, this is timing 14:50 is everything here. just in life, but specifically in the NFL. Interestingly, 14:54 the Saints just played the Vikings. Now, we know Brian 14:56 Flores is one of the most heavily blitzed defensive schemes 14:59 that you're going to find in this league. Now you're 15:01 going up against Denard Wilson's scheme, and they're blitzing a 15:04 lot more, right, over the last two weeks. Not nearly 15:07 as much as we saw in the first few games. 15:10 Now Denard Wilson is sending just about everybody, which is 15:12 what I was talking about coming out of his presser. 15:14 So I don't know if that may help. the Saints 15:18 offense because of what they were exposed against Minnesota the 15:21 previous week. But I'm sure they're saying to themselves, defenses 15:25 are coming after them because the offensive line is a 15:28 little bit beat up, not playing at a high level. 15:30 Why would Denard Wilson not want to at least test 15:32 that range of the scheme? That is going to be, 15:35 if I'm the Giants defense, I want to come at 15:38 them early. I want to see how the offensive line 15:40 holds up. I want to see how Tyler Shook holds 15:42 up and see whether or not He can make good 15:44 decisions with the football, especially if they can't get the 15:47 ground game going. And that could very well make or 15:50 break the trajectory of where this game goes, at least 15:53 in the first half. 15:54 Yeah, the Saints have been blitzed the second most of 15:56 any other NFL team this year. 43% blitz rates against 15:59 the Saints. So that's something teams have tried to do. And, 16:01 you know, you mentioned it. The biggest issue with Schuch 16:04 this year has been turnovers, right? He has five interceptions 16:06 on the year. I know he's had at least two 16:09 or three fumbles. Five fumbles, three lost this year. So 16:14 that's eight turnovers just from Schuch alone from the five 16:17 interceptions and three fumbles lost. 16:21 He can sling it. He can throw it down the field. 16:23 You see some of these passes he makes, and they're like, wow, 16:25 that is like an NFL-level throw. 16:27 But, again, they've been in a lot of comeback situations. 16:30 Defense has given up a lot of points. 16:32 Offensive line has not given you good protection. Put all 16:34 those into a cauldron, you stir them up, usually a 16:38 lot of turnovers will come out of that cauldron. 16:39 Yeah, and the other thing is, again, I'll go back 16:41 to if it is indeed a broken bone in his 16:44 non-throwing hand that he's been wearing a glove. 16:47 You want to make him feel it. Not that you 16:49 want to harm and hurt a player. That's not what 16:51 I'm campaigning for. 16:52 But you want to see, correct, whether or not ball 16:54 security is going to be a priority. The other thing, 16:57 and he even acknowledged this. I was listening to his 16:59 press conference the other day. He was criticizing himself in 17:02 the Minnesota game. 17:03 He felt. 17:04 in order to avoid the blitz and help neutralize that, 17:07 he needs to run more. 17:08 So look out for that this week. And he can run, 17:10 by the way. 17:10 He can. 17:10 Well, that's exactly why I'm bringing that up. He's fast 17:12 in a straight line, for sure. 17:13 I mean, he's averaging about four and a half yards 17:15 per run when he takes off. It's not a high 17:17 volume of runs. He's only run 16 times. He's a 17:19 good athlete, though. He is a good athlete. 17:21 But that's a dimension, John, right? 17:22 That can help them counter some of the pressure and 17:25 the blitzes that the Giants show. 17:26 And especially after. 17:27 The weaknesses last week that we saw with Jaden Daniels 17:30 and the Giants slowing him down as a scrambler. I'm 17:33 sure that's something the Saints have seen on tape, and 17:34 they'll see if they can lean into that a little bit. 17:37 With Tyler Shook this week. So those are the things 17:40 I'm looking at. 17:41 It should be another opportunity for the Giants to win 17:43 the game, another team in their weight class. They should 17:45 be able to move the ball. They should be able 17:46 to score the ball, throw the ball downfield a little bit. 17:49 They should be able to run it on the Saints' defense. 17:51 And I really, Lance, like to see the Giants run the. 17:54 Ball a little bit better this year. They have to. 17:57 In this particular game. They only have six explosive runs, 18:02 and that's only 10 yards or more from running backs 18:04 this year. It's not enough. Their first down rushing is 18:08 fourth or fifth worst in the league. They just have 18:11 not been able to run the ball on early downs. Now, 18:13 they've been fortunate that Jameis has actually done a really 18:15 nice job converting some third and longs for them over 18:17 the course of the last couple of weeks. 18:19 But you don't want to live that way. You can't 18:20 expect that to continue, too. Exactly right. 18:22 And especially, you don't want to be in third and longs, Lance, 18:24 when your right tackle, Jermaine Illuminor, might not be playing. 18:27 He did not practice yesterday for the Giants. We'll get 18:29 to the rest of the injury report in a second. 18:31 Andrew Thomas does not look like himself at left tackle. 18:33 He's given up a bunch of pressure the last two weeks, 18:35 which is not normal. You don't want to put your 18:37 quarterback against a team with two good edge rushers. As 18:40 many issues as the Saints defense has had, their edge 18:43 rushers have been good. Chase Young and Carl Granderson are 18:45 good players. You don't want to put yourself in the 18:47 third and longs in those situations. So you've got to 18:49 run the ball better on early downs if you're the 18:51 Giants in this game to me. 18:52 And that was one of the things actually that I 18:54 didn't mention off the top. Matt Nagy said, the second 18:57 and eights and second and sevens need to stop. 18:59 And those turn into thirds and nines and thirds and tens. 19:02 Yeah, and as much as Jameis is willing to take 19:04 risks and throw the ball down the field, you do 19:07 the basic math, the more that happens, the more likely 19:10 turnovers are going to increase. 19:11 They threw 50 times last week. 19:13 I know it was a comeback situation, so you kind 19:14 of had to, but you don't want to throw the 19:16 ball 50 times. 19:16 No, that's not a blueprint to win, no matter who 19:19 the opponent is, because once again, you're putting the ball 19:22 in places and angles where the defense can be opportunistic 19:27 and take full advantage of that. So it goes without saying, 19:30 I'm with you, the Giants, they need to be more 19:33 efficient in running the football on early downs to set 19:37 them up better on third downs potentially, and also start 19:41 to more effectively. And I think this is what we 19:44 saw in week one and haven't necessarily seen it since. 19:47 And maybe that's a product of, again, teams getting their 19:50 legs back under them it's early season football they didn't 19:53 play much of the preseason the starters wearing teams down 19:57 when have we seen John since week one where the 20:01 Giants have positioned themselves when it gets to the second 20:03 half and this goes back to game flow that they 20:05 could pound the football and They're forcing now the opposition 20:09 to have to embrace tackling the physicality of the game. 20:12 We have not seen that. 20:13 Why? 20:14 Because it's been more of a highly contested. 20:16 They've been trailing. They've needed comebacks. Their defense needed to 20:20 make a goal line stand. I mean, think about what's transpired, right, 20:23 over the last few games. The Dallas game, that was 20:26 a competitive game. Don't get me wrong. 20:28 But the Giants were. 20:28 Playing ahead for the bulk of the contest. And that 20:32 enabled them to pound the football. Game flow has taken 20:36 that away, but that doesn't mean that you should be 20:38 getting away from the running game just because maybe the 20:42 way that you had scripted it early on did not 20:45 come to fruition. 20:46 Yeah, you also just can't keep running the ball into 20:48 a brick wall on first down if you're only getting 20:49 two yards a carry either. That too, yeah. All those 20:52 things go into it when you figure out exactly what's 20:54 going to go down. All right, as for the injury report, 20:56 very quickly, I want to get to that before we 20:57 get to the calls real quick. The surprise name that 20:59 popped up on the report, and no one else was 21:01 really a huge surprise, was Abdul Carter, who mispracticed yesterday 21:04 with a calf injury. We'll see whether or not he 21:05 practices today. Obviously, calf injuries are something you don't want 21:08 to mess around with. We've seen calf injuries turn into 21:11 torn Achilles with other players. 21:13 In years past. 21:14 Now, that's going to be dependent on where the calf 21:16 strain is and that will impact what the risk is 21:18 to other parts of the lower leg. 21:20 We have no idea the answer to that question. 21:22 So I'm not trying to guess and figure out what 21:24 the exact details are. But generally speaking, calves you want 21:27 to be cautious with and calves can also take a 21:29 certain amount of time here. So I don't know what 21:32 we're looking at in terms of Abdul Carter. He didn't 21:34 seem to indicate any issues coming out of the game. 21:36 He never had to leave the game. He looked okay 21:38 in the game. Jermaine Illuminor is someone that could not 21:40 finish the game with the calf. So My guess is 21:42 that that's probably a little more questionable and iffier than 21:46 the Carter injury. But some very important guys for the Giants. 21:50 They're going to try to manage Andrew Thomas' injury, as 21:52 John Harbaugh has talked about. Jason Pinnock has not had 21:55 a concussion protocol yet. He was finally limited in practice yesterday, 21:59 so he's probably on his way in that regard. 22:02 Tyler Newbin with the neck. Something to keep an eye on. 22:04 Chauncey Golston did not travel to that game. He has 22:07 a neck injury from a couple weeks ago. So, There 22:09 are a number of injuries worth keeping an eye on 22:11 for the Giants before this matchup. Well, Golston is now 22:14 on IR, right? Correct, yep. 22:14 Okay, so he would not be available at least for 22:17 the next four weeks. Harbaugh, I believe, had even indicated 22:19 this could be a season-long or season-ending potentially injury for Golston. 22:24 He's still going through testing. and so forth, at least 22:26 prior to him being put on IR. But yeah, you 22:29 just listed a lot of notable injuries. You have Marcus Bowe, 22:33 of course, to fill in for Illuminor. We talked about 22:35 him this offseason and some of the flashes he showed 22:38 last year with Andrew Thomas sidelined. As far as Abdul-Kadir, 22:42 you know, I'll go back to what you were talking about. 22:45 Calf injuries can turn into potentially more serious injuries. Brian Burns, John, 22:49 comes to mind, right? Remember, there was other injuries that 22:52 were lingering. And once again, I'm not. 22:55 a doctor. 22:55 I though try to play one at times on streaming 22:58 shows and hosting shows. So I will admit that and 23:01 acknowledge that, but connecting the dots to what you said, 23:04 maybe the giants are saying to themselves, given what happened 23:06 to Burns, does that maybe force them to be a 23:11 little bit more protective of Abdul Carter? I'm just throwing 23:14 that out in terms of my pure opinion that, given 23:17 what happened earlier this season. That's something to keep in mind. 23:20 And we keep turning back to the name of Kayvon Thibodeau, right? 23:23 How big of a year this is in a contract year. 23:26 Harbaugh even brought up on that last Jane and Daniels 23:29 play in overtime, Thibodeau was responsible for why Daniels had 23:33 to run out and extend that play a little bit 23:35 more to the left and cost them a. 23:37 Few extra seconds. 23:38 So this could be now even more of an opportunity 23:42 for him to take the brunt of the load in 23:44 the attacking the quarterback, getting after the quarterback, and really 23:47 starting to tee off if potentially they are without Abdul 23:51 Carter this week. 23:52 Yeah, or maybe he's really minor. He practiced today and 23:54 he's fine. Yeah, anything's possible. We'll have to wait and see. 23:56 Well, you know what I was going to react to, John, 23:57 is you well know, you mentioned he got through the game, 23:59 but sometimes you don't feel the effects of these things 24:02 right until Tuesday or Wednesday. And they pop up. That's 24:05 the nature of the beast when it comes to football. 24:08 So it's not alarming and we're not trying to hit 24:12 the panic button. But just because a player does get 24:15 through a game doesn't necessarily always mean, OK, everything's great. 24:19 The MRI machine from our years covering this team has 24:22 a mind of its own not to make light of 24:24 the situation. And then, of course, sometimes because of adrenaline, right? 24:29 It's a physical game. Your brain is going in a 24:31 hundred different directions. You don't necessarily feel things. And then 24:35 you wake up two days later and all of a 24:37 sudden you have some obstacles. 24:38 All right, let's get to it. 201-939-4513. 24:41 But just a quick reminder, John Soto podcast, our first podcast. 24:44 Her playbook went up a couple days ago. 24:46 Check that out. Mark Malusa with Chris Carino will be 24:48 going up today. 24:49 And we're going to have Brian Hudson, the Giants' new 24:50 starting center. Huddy will be joining us on the player. 24:53 Interview show tomorrow. 24:54 And by the way, if you do like our postgame 24:57 show on the radio, but you don't have a chance 24:58 to listen to it a lot, we're starting to post 25:00 that full audio up on the Giants' little podcast feed 25:02 as well. 25:03 But that's only the audio. So if you want to 25:04 listen to it, make sure you subscribe on your favorite 25:06 podcast platform. 25:07 It goes up a couple hours after the game. A 25:09 good two hours of full-to-post game coverage, phone calls, all 25:12 that good stuff. So make sure you go subscribe on 25:14 your favorite podcast platform. Just search for Giants Huddle or 25:17 Giants Podcast Network. All right, 201-939-4513. Let's go to Alex 25:21 in Philadelphia first. Alex, what's going on, man? 25:24 Hey, what's going on, guys? What's up, dude? 25:27 Not much. I just wanted to mention something about Jameis, right? Because, 25:32 you know, once Dart went down, you know, the whole 25:35 Jamis experience and things like that. And I don't know 25:38 if you guys, obviously you were there, but at his 25:40 press conference today, explaining what the Jamis experience was to him. 25:45 And honestly, yeah, you know, with Jamis, we don't get 25:49 the running aspect of the quarterback, but you know what. 25:51 We do get that Dart has as well? Leadership. Leadership. 25:56 And I feel like Jamis is a leader. These guys 25:58 are following him, you know, and they're kind of taking 26:02 the same mindset as him, getting. 26:03 Better every week. 26:04 And, And I'm glad to have. 26:06 Jameis on the team, man. 26:07 Listen, two weeks with a backup quarterback, six touchdowns. I mean, 26:13 I don't see how it gets better than that with 26:14 a backup quarterback. I just don't. But, yeah, man, I 26:18 just want to give Jameis his flowers, man, because, you know, 26:22 it can't be easy watching, you know, McCarthy coming in 26:25 and the media beating him up and the Jameis experience, 26:28 that negative connotation and everything. I just wanted to put 26:32 that out there. Hey, man, listen, Jameis, I think he's 26:34 doing amazing for us. You know what I mean? You know, 26:38 we'll see what happens. 26:39 You know, we'll see what happens. 26:41 We'll see where the chips fall. 26:42 Look, appreciate the call. And I really agree with you. 26:45 I'd much rather have the backup quarterback that can go 26:48 out there and win you a game than the backup 26:50 quarterback that you have to game plan around and hope 26:53 you have to play great in every aspect just to 26:55 give him a chance to win. Like, Jameis will go 26:57 out there and win games. They were down 14 points 27:00 last week with eight minutes to go. They came back 27:01 and won the game. Most backup quarterbacks are not able to. 27:05 Mount that sort of comeback and create the yards as 27:08 he can. 27:08 Now, you get negatives with that, right? And the Giants 27:11 were fortunate last week. You had one interception, was called 27:13 back from a defensive pass interference penalty that really didn't 27:16 have much to do with the interception. And then he 27:18 had another pass in the second drive of overtime that 27:22 hit Jeremy Reeves like in the chest and dropped down 27:25 and was an incomplete pass. 27:26 That could have been a pick. 27:27 But, man, I mean, I think Jameis the last two 27:29 weeks has been good. I know a lot of people 27:31 were killing his first half last week. 27:33 I thought it was fine. It was okay. It wasn't, 27:36 I don't think, brutal. 27:37 Malik Nabors catches that deep ball down the right side, 27:39 and all of a sudden it's 120 yards and a 27:41 touchdown in the half. 27:42 So people, I think, are a little bit more relaxed 27:44 about that. 27:45 The first week wasn't good. Then you had the rainstorm game. 27:48 I thought he was better versus the Cardinals. I thought 27:49 he was even better against Washington. 27:51 So, to me, Lance... he's giving you everything you want. 27:55 I think to his point about leadership, the fact that 27:57 he was a captain on this team and a part 27:59 of the leadership council when he was the backup. 28:02 Before Dart even got hurt, tells you all you need 28:04 to know. 28:04 Well, and I'll go back to the show that we 28:06 did coincidentally, just as they acquired JJ McCarthy. One of 28:10 the things that I had brought up was remember backup quarterbacks. 28:14 Yes. 28:14 You want them to be productive, but you also want 28:17 it to be a healthy quarterback room. And that's a 28:19 big reason why having Winston in the mix was appealing 28:22 because the fact that he has worked with a wide 28:24 variety of schemes as well as QBs, his presence is 28:28 means something, that carries some weight. So there's a financial 28:32 connection to that. As far as the whole Winston experience, 28:35 and I heard his response that the caller was referencing, 28:38 I would say, I think he pretty much avoided it 28:41 and took it his own interpretation. 28:43 But I always say this. Which is, by the way, 28:45 the perfect way to answer that question. Of course. 28:47 But it's very similar to, you know, and not to 28:50 get off topic, when Odell was here, we had mentioned, 28:53 I thought, you know, he's changed as an individual. You grow, 28:56 you mature. Life in the NFL, I think, you know, 28:59 puts you on that track. Remember, Jameis is 12 years, John, 29:03 into his NFL career. He was a rookie in 2015. So, 29:08 you know, the idea of, oh, the Giants, they go out, 29:10 they acquire J.J. 29:11 McCarthy. I can only imagine what Winston is thinking. 29:14 This is a guy that was the number one overall 29:16 pick who then had a 30 for 30 season. Tampa Bay, 29:21 you know, didn't invest in him long time. He winds 29:25 up as a journeyman. He goes from team to team 29:28 and he starts, he backs up. I guess my point is, 29:32 I really don't think at this stage in his career, 29:35 anything is going to fluster Jameis because he has seen 29:38 it and done it at this point. 29:39 Yeah, I think when you say Jameis experience, I think 29:41 people just talk about his play style. He's a volatile quarterback. 29:46 And look, there have been other quarterbacks like that, too. 29:47 I think, to an extent, Tony Romo was. 29:49 A very volatile quarterback. 29:50 With all the crazy stuff he would do sometimes, put 29:52 the ball into danger. You know, one week he'd give 29:54 you six touchdowns, and then the next week he'd give 29:56 you three picks. Now, that obviously was a little bit 29:59 more consistently on the good side compared to Jameis in 30:01 terms of just their career success over the course of 30:03 the career. But look, different guys just play different ways, 30:06 and Jameis is a guy that's going to throw the 30:08 ball down the field. I know a lot of the 30:10 talk this week, and I mentioned this briefly on Tuesday, 30:12 has been, oh, now you've got to shotgun spread it out, 30:15 no more play-action pass, and that's what Jameis is good at. Guys, 30:18 Jameis is a good play-action on the center passer. I 30:21 said on Tuesday's show that, you know, he's done it 30:22 before and his strong arm, his body type fits that 30:25 type of play structure. 30:27 And I looked up historically, his numbers as a play-action 30:30 passer under center are good. Like, they're fine. 30:32 Like, there's nothing wrong with them. So you can run 30:34 that sort of stuff with Jameis Winston as well. And 30:36 the idea that Jackson Dartwood's some established play-action under center 30:39 quarterback when he had really never done it since high school... 30:42 until last year in the NFL. I don't know where 30:43 people get that from. But I think the only thing 30:47 Jameis can't do, to your point, is be a designed 30:49 run game guy as a quarterback. I actually think he's 30:52 moved in the pocket and evaded the rush pretty well. Yeah, 30:55 it was a pleasant surprise even last week at times. 30:56 Really nice job. You look at his numbers on their 30:59 pressure against the commanders, they're actually pretty good. 31:01 I can pull them. I don't have them in front 31:02 of me. But he actually was really good on the 31:05 pressure against the commanders. He did a nice job in 31:07 that game. And he's bought time with his legs when 31:09 guys have gotten pressure. So I think even the mobility 31:12 as a passer, as a quarterback, he had a big 31:15 run for a first down on a third down on 31:17 one of those final drives in that game. So I 31:19 think I know some fans were very frustrated with it. 31:22 And there are still fans out there that are cheering 31:24 for J.J. McCarthy to come in and be the starter. 31:26 I think the last two weeks, just look at the 31:28 points they've scored, Lance. 31:30 Remember the last couple of years before Darkard here? 31:32 I'm like, can the Giants get to 23? Can they 31:36 score 20? 31:37 Yeah. 31:38 I mean, look what they've scored the last couple of weeks. 31:40 And they should have scored more if Skadaboo doesn't have 31:42 to fumble in overtime. You know what I mean? 31:43 They could have gotten to 30. So just things to 31:46 keep in mind as you move forward. We've got a 31:47 couple more Jameis calls, so let's get to them. Let's 31:48 go to Mookie in New Jersey. Mookie, what's going on? 31:55 Mookie going once. 31:56 Am I on? 31:56 Yeah, we got you, Mookie. What do you got? 31:59 Hey, sorry, it's Lucas. Guys, just a couple of points. 32:03 I'll try to keep it fresh. Just want to give 32:05 kudos to our defense. I think our defense is playing 32:08 awesome ball, right? The turnovers, as a fan, you always 32:11 want to see turnovers. You want to see things tight. 32:13 The takeaways have been huge. The takeaways have been huge, Lucas. 32:17 No question about it. 32:19 Just huge, right? 32:20 There was a quarterback stat like that. Newsom and Flott are, like, 32:24 you know, near top 12. And even Banks, who most 32:27 fans before the year would have just, you know, would 32:29 rather him not be on the team. He's, like, top 20, 32:32 let's say. 32:33 You mean Newsom and Phillips? 32:33 That's all good. 32:34 You mean Newsom and Phillips? You said Flott. You mean Phillips? 32:38 Yeah, I mean Flott. 32:38 That's okay. You mean Phillips? Yes. That's okay. You're good. 32:41 You're good. You're good. 32:44 And then, like, I want to talk long-term. Like, I 32:46 like the J.J. McCarthy signing just because it's good to have, like, 32:50 a backup behind Winston who's young, who, like, you know, 32:53 we got Winston. 32:53 Booked up for a couple years. 32:54 Do you guys know how long we got McCarthy for? 32:57 This would be McCarthy's third year, so he has one 33:01 more year on his rookie deal after this, and I 33:03 don't think that's a deal where you're going. 33:04 To pick up the fifth-year option. Highly unlikely, yeah. They 33:06 have him under contract for one more year. Lucas, you're right, though. 33:09 Okay, so you got him under contract. 33:12 Lucas, I just wanted to build on your points. I 33:13 think you're right. I think the ideal quarterback room is starter. 33:16 Veteran backup you can trust to go in and win 33:18 a game, and then developmental guy in that third spot 33:21 is a young guy that you're trying to turn into 33:23 a long-term backup or a long-term answer or quarterback. 33:25 So I'm with you. 33:26 I think, as Lance has pointed out before, I think 33:28 the structure of the room, I think, makes a lot 33:31 of sense right now. 33:32 Incredible. 33:33 Yeah, because, you know, one of the developmental quarterbacks, right, 33:36 he did great stuff in Michigan. Now back to, like, 33:39 one of my original points was, like, hey, you guys 33:42 know who's got the most interceptions in NFL history, right? 33:45 Brett Favre? 33:47 There you go, right? 33:48 I was going to bring him up when John said 33:50 he was a gunslinger. Of course. Well, Brett also played 33:53 a boatload of games. That helps. It's similar, not to 33:56 get off topic, I'll let you continue, Lucas. 33:58 It's similar to in the NBA, Lenny Wilkins at one 34:01 point was the all-time winningest coach and also the all-time 34:04 losing coach. 34:04 Why? 34:05 Because he coached so many games. So the numbers tend 34:08 to balance out. 34:08 It's true. 34:11 When you're a player, I think you get, like, you know, 34:14 maybe a little bit less leeway at quarterback position if 34:16 you're throwing that many picks. But, like, what did Brett 34:18 Favre do that was really good? 34:20 Right? 34:20 Remember, you know, he won. He would win. People liked him. 34:24 He had that, like, likability factor. When I see Jamison there, 34:28 you know, I think that there was a costly drop. 34:33 What's that new guy we picked up that had the 34:34 drop issue that he dropped that big pass and Jamison 34:36 was kind of, like, giving him motivation. 34:38 On the side. 34:38 Mooney? Yeah, Mooney. 34:39 Yeah. 34:42 So he, like, uplifted Mooney. 34:43 Mooney let us down. 34:44 But, like, I've been watching the Giants my whole life. Like, 34:47 the last couple years, a play like that would have 34:49 just destroyed us. Where this year, like, I thought the 34:53 game was lost. First half, we could have kicked a 34:55 couple kicks more. It would have been tighter. Second half, 34:58 I'm watching it. Jamison had really good reaction time. He 35:01 felt like really a lot more comfortable in the pocket, 35:04 and his vision was pretty improved. He had a quick 35:06 release to it. He was doing some really good stuff. 35:09 So I think that the Jamison Winston who got the, 35:11 you know, re-signed contract and, you know, got a confidence 35:15 from people in the room. We have a coach. 35:17 Like, I don't want to say. 35:17 Anything about Dable, but his offense, we saw how Tennessee's doing. 35:20 We saw they couldn't even put points up on us. Like, 35:23 he has a complicated system that just hasn't worked in 35:26 recent times. So I'm glad we have Bernard Wilson, I'm 35:29 glad we have great coaching staff through and through. I 35:32 like Matt Nagy up in the box with a good 35:35 vision of it and whatnot. 35:37 Go Giants. 35:38 I'm going to be at the Saints game. Nice. Yeah, 35:41 that's pretty much all I have, guys. 35:42 Thank you. 35:42 All right, Lucas. Appreciate the call, man. That's a shame. 35:44 I was also going to have to talk to somebody 35:45 named Mookie. I love Lucas. Lucas, no offense to you. 35:48 Mookie Wilson. I know. 35:49 I mean, come on. 35:50 How many times have you had the chance? No, you 35:51 don't speak to many Mookies. I don't think I've ever 35:53 had a conversation with a Mookie before. 35:55 It's a great name. Yeah, Mookie Wilson comes to mind. 35:57 Of course, that's it. Oh, Mookie Norris? 35:59 No, no, no. 36:00 No. 36:01 NBA, right? Yeah, NBA. 36:02 No, no, no. 36:03 That was Mucinor. Sorry. Mucinor. We'll see. You want to 36:06 take one more guess? One of my favorite players. 36:08 NBA? Yeah. 36:10 Atlanta Hawks from the 90s. Oh, Mookie Blaylock. There we go. Yes. 36:14 Point guard. 36:15 Yep. 36:15 The original name of Pearl Jam. 36:18 Okay. 36:18 That I can't say that I was. 36:20 Yes, because they were like really big Mookie Blaylock fans. 36:23 Oh, I did not realize that. 36:25 Because he played for Seattle right before he went to 36:27 the Hawks. Does that sound right? 36:29 He's always synonymous with me, with the Hawks. 36:32 Right, with like Steve Smith and that team, right? You're 36:35 going to say his rights? He was drafted by Seattle? 36:38 Let me see. I can't picture him in a Sonics uniform. 36:41 I'm trying to put together. No, I guess he didn't. 36:44 I was trying to put together why Pearl Jam was 36:46 a big Mookie Blaylock. 36:47 No, and I get you, Pacific Northwest. Yeah, I get it. 36:49 For some reason, they liked Mookie Blaylock. Yeah, he was 36:51 with the Nets before the Hawks. 36:52 So I think at some point, Pearl Jam, when they 36:55 were just like a garage band, they considered naming themselves 36:58 Mookie Blaylock. 37:00 I'm a huge fan of that regardless of what the 37:02 rationale is, but it doesn't seem like there's a Seattle 37:04 connection unless, hold on, I got his bio. 37:06 Is he a Seattle native? 37:07 No, he was born in Texas and then he went 37:10 to college in Oklahoma. 37:12 So that's not even... a connection there. Yeah, see, look, 37:14 the first thing. 37:15 Mookie Blaylock soon signed to Epic Repres and they renamed 37:18 themselves Pearl Jam. 37:19 There we go. See how? Okay. No, I did not. 37:23 That is a very interesting nugget. 37:24 Are you not a bigger Pearl Jam fan because they 37:27 were originally named Mookie Blaylock? 37:28 No, I have no issues with Nirvana at all or 37:31 anything like that. 37:32 No, you're a bigger fan of Pearl Jam because they 37:34 originally named themselves Mookie Blaylock. 37:36 No, I can't say that. It doesn't impact you at all? No, 37:40 I don't think it's going to really influence... my desire 37:43 to head to that music style. 37:45 I got nothing against it. I'm just, I got one 37:47 for you. 37:47 Yes. 37:48 Name the, um, before Mutombo got there, who was the 37:53 Hawk center with that Mookie Blaylock, Steve Smith group in 37:57 like the early nineties. 37:58 John Kong. 37:59 Yeah. 37:59 Very good. Lance Meadow. He got a huge, big deal. 38:03 Come on. 38:03 I mean, that's, that's my time. I know. 38:06 Well done. I'm glad you set me up for that nicely. 38:11 Kevin Willis, to me, could have been an acceptable one, too. 38:13 He was more of a power. They threw him in 38:16 the frontcourt. 38:17 Yeah. 38:17 So never know what you're going to get on a 38:19 big blue kickoff live. 38:20 King of the jump hook that Kevin was. It wasn't 38:22 the cream sky hook, but it was the jump hook. 38:25 No, he was a smooth guy in the front court. 38:27 Yeah. 38:28 Good post player. Absolutely. 38:29 All right, let's go to Steve in New Jersey now. 38:30 Another Jameis Winston call. Steve, what's going on, man? 38:32 How are you? 38:33 Oh, what's going on, guys? 38:35 How you been doing? 38:35 Awesome. 38:36 Doing well. 38:38 Yeah, this Jameis experience, you know, I'm glad to have 38:40 Jameis on the team, you know. The first three weeks 38:43 have been a little rough watching him. 38:45 He's not a scrambler. 38:46 And with the injuries that we got, we're trying to 38:49 ground him. The blitzes are coming in. He's getting hit. 38:54 He's in disarray. But what they did in the last 38:57 game against the Commanders, that hurry-up offense, when James is 39:01 up in that hurry-up offense, he's slinging that ball, and 39:04 he's on target. He's throwing that ball, and he's landing 39:08 it where asked to be. You know, so I'm thinking, like, 39:11 you know, they've got to keep them in shotgun. They've 39:12 got to keep that offense moving. They've got to put 39:14 points on the board and then start that ground and pound. 39:17 You know what I mean? 39:18 Okay, so you want to start throwing, basically throw to score, 39:23 get the lead, and then go to the run game. 39:25 Right, right, right. You know, and then with all the 39:28 injuries on the offensive line, you know, these blitzes are 39:31 coming in. And, you know, Andy Thomas is hurt. You know, 39:36 Luminor ain't playing that well. You know, so my thing is, 39:39 you know, let's get that hurry-up offense to start with, 39:43 you know. Let's get these points on the board. Like 39:45 I said, when Winston's on that hurry-up offense, man, he's 39:48 a ghost. and he's putting points on the board. You 39:52 see what he did in the last eight minutes last week, 39:54 you know? 39:55 I guess the counter to that is how much is 39:58 that also the commander saying, hey, we're up by two touchdowns. 40:02 We don't necessarily need to be as aggressive. We're going 40:05 to keep everything in front of us, and it was 40:07 a product of that. I guess what I'm getting at, 40:09 I'd want to see more before I'm convinced, to your point. 40:13 I mean, they did run a lot of covers zero late, though, 40:15 and that is an aggressive defense. 40:17 No, and I'm not saying that they took their foot 40:20 off the pedal completely, but I also feel as if 40:23 there was a comfort level there where they had the luxury. 40:26 Well, you're up 14 with eight minutes to go. You 40:27 feel pretty good. 40:28 So I'm just wondering how much that contributed to the 40:31 success and the flow of the Giants passing attack with Jameis. 40:36 Right. 40:37 Well, that's what I'm saying. Like I said, in the 40:40 first couple games, Winston wasn't, you know, the first game 40:43 he came in when Dar got hurt, it wasn't pretty. 40:46 But like I said, he's a leader. He's there. Everybody 40:48 respects him. And I heard before you guys saying, you know, 40:51 he's been through everything. So, you know, that outside noise, 40:54 he's not really worried about. I'm worried about getting points 40:58 on the board. You know what I mean? We've got 41:00 to get points on the board and start fast. 41:03 We've got to start fast. 41:04 And, you know, that's how we'll stay, you know. in 41:08 first place. You know, that's how I feel. Those are 41:10 my feelings on that. 41:12 And Steve, especially when you're playing another defense, like I 41:15 started the show that's ranked in the bottom six or 41:17 seven in the NFL, go out there, be aggressive, and 41:20 try to score points. Now, the Saints have taken the 41:22 ball away a little bit. Again, Jonas Sanker, I think 41:25 he plays nickel for them. He's a safety by trade. 41:27 He's a really good player, but look, go out there, 41:30 score some points, man. Put the pressure on the Saints. 41:33 Their offensive line has struggled. You get the lead, then 41:35 you can unleash the pass rush a little bit, blitz 41:37 a bit, put the pressure on them. So yeah, I 41:39 don't necessarily disagree with you. I do want to try 41:43 to test the Saints run defense early though. But if 41:47 you get through the first possession or first two possessions 41:50 and you're like four carries for seven yards or something 41:54 like that, and you feel it's not working, I understand 41:58 your want to try to take advantage of some of 42:00 their weaknesses, get out there, pass the ball, score some points, 42:04 get a lead, and then you can put a little 42:05 bit more pressure on that Saints offensive line. 42:08 Exactly. Grounded pound, grounded puck. Because Scadaboo, he's a monster. 42:12 You give him that ball, he wants to hit, you know, and... 42:20 And another thing, that's that Arvin Ulrich kid. That kid's special. 42:24 That kid is special. Reminds me of a kid that's running. 42:29 Around out there. 42:29 Ray Lewis incarnation. The kid is phenomenal. And, you know, 42:37 he's been a huge part of our defense. And even 42:40 our secondary, you know. They've been playing great. Deontay Banks 42:44 has been playing phenomenal, phenomenal football. So, you know, I'm 42:47 glad these last past 10 years with, you know, Daniel 42:51 Jones and the Dable experience has been horrible. But now 42:54 this new coaching staff and how things are playing along, 42:59 you know, I'm excited to keep watching what's happening. 43:03 I'm just going to say one thing to you, and 43:05 this is not me putting a wet blanket on. This 43:07 is not me raining on the parade. 43:10 Just remember. 43:12 The combined record of the teams the Giants have faced 43:14 this year are 4-15-1. 43:16 Okay? 43:17 Right. 43:18 And it took literally to the final play of the 43:20 game all three weeks to win or tie those games. 43:24 NFL Network sent out their notes this week. And one 43:27 stat in there, which I thought was... I'll throw interesting. 43:31 So, the Giants.... 43:34 Opponent winning percentage this year is 26%. It's the lowest 43:38 in the NFL through week five. It's the third easiest 43:42 through five games of any team in the last 10 seasons. 43:46 So the schedule early has been easy, but this week, 43:50 guess what? 43:50 Saints are 1-4. Next week, guess what? Texans 1-4. 43:54 So all you can do is play the teams that 43:57 are on your schedule, win those games, win the games 44:00 you're supposed to win, and then who knows what it 44:02 looks like when you play, you know, Philadelphia after the bye. 44:05 They're struggling too, by the way. 44:07 When you play the Seahawks after the bye, the Jaguars 44:09 after the bye, the Niners after the bye, the Lions 44:11 after the bye, when the schedule gets a little bit tougher, 44:14 who knows what's going to happen? All you can do 44:15 is win the games on your schedule. Just keep in 44:18 mind the teams that the Giants have beat and understand 44:23 what that might mean moving forward. It doesn't matter. You 44:26 don't give wins back. You're 3-1-1. You're in first place. 44:29 And that, in the end, is all that matters. 44:31 Matters. 44:32 But when you're. 44:32 Predicting the future... Just remember exactly what the past was 44:37 when you're trying. And that's why I think what John 44:38 Harbaugh spoke after the game on Sunday, you know, he 44:42 talked about being excited about the win. And then he 44:44 also said, well, the other thing I'm really excited about 44:46 is all the stuff we still need to improve on. 44:48 And John Runyon said it when he spoke to the media. 44:50 On Tuesday as well, he goes, look, we got a 44:52 long way to go. Like, there's a lot of stuff 44:54 we're not doing well enough yet. And I think that's 44:57 the stuff you look at. All right, what are the 44:58 things you need to continue to get better at so 45:01 that you're just not a team that needs the final 45:04 play to beat the winless Titans, right? Maybe next time 45:07 you play a team like that, when you play, let's say, 45:10 the Browns in Week 15, and I don't want to 45:11 take a shot at the Browns. 45:12 They're 3-2. They've done a good job this year. They have. 45:14 But when you play a team that maybe you think 45:16 you should beat later in the year, Beat him by 45:18 17 points. Beat him by two touchdowns. 45:20 You know what I mean? 45:20 So that's the stuff you want to look at. All right, 45:23 here's what we need to get better. If you remember, 45:24 this feels to me a lot like just in terms 45:28 of how you're winning these games, like the start of 45:30 the 2022 season, right? And then go back and look 45:33 at what the second half of the 2022 season looked like. 45:36 So. 45:37 It's just a matter of keeping this up, continuing to 45:39 improve and get better. I do think this is a 45:41 better coach team. I think the staff is better. I 45:42 think the talent on the team is better too. So 45:45 I think the end results are going to be improved. 45:47 But you just have to remember what you need to 45:49 do to keep this going. And that's the key now. 45:52 Keep winning games. Keep getting better. So when you start 45:54 playing better teams, you have a better chance to win 45:56 those more difficult games. 45:58 Interestingly, 2022 was also a tie with the Commanders that season. 46:02 That was at MetLife Stadium, but after going 7-2, they 46:06 went on a four-game winless streak. in terms of the Lions, 46:10 the Cowboys, the Commanders, and the Eagles, and then wound 46:13 up finishing 2-2 in the Final Four. 46:15 So they were. 46:16 Walking that very, very fine line even early in the season. 46:21 When they were 7-2. And if you remember, they beat 46:22 the Ravens earlier that year, right? That was a game 46:24 that went down to, like, the final play where Lamar 46:27 fumbles it and the Giants recover. 46:29 That seals that game. 46:29 Well, he threw. 46:30 I still don't understand. He was going backwards, if you remember. Yeah, 46:33 Julian Love, I believe, picked him off. 46:35 I remember that. It was at MetLife Stadium. And he 46:37 had been stripping. 46:38 Yeah, and then he tried to salvage the play, and 46:40 it was like one of those, what are you doing 46:41 type of things. 46:42 And then was the win against the Packers, was that 46:44 a goal line stand against Jordan Love? 46:46 It was, right? No, that wasn't Aaron Rodgers was still 46:50 the quarterback. Oh, that was Rodgers. Yeah, that was a 46:51 goal line stand with Aaron Rodgers. 46:53 Correct. 46:53 Dexter Lawrence got a piece of the ball if memory 46:55 serves me correct. 46:55 And then you had the Titan game where it literally 46:57 went down to the two-point conversion at the end. 46:59 Or the missed field goal, actually. actually, at the end. 47:00 Tennessee had a chance to win that game. I forgot 47:02 about the missed field goal. The field goal. I remember 47:04 the two-point conversion. I forgot about the missed field goal. 47:06 That's right. 47:06 So you understand my point, Steve, how a lot of 47:09 the type of wins you're getting this year feels a 47:11 lot like the type of wins you were getting. 47:13 At the start of the 2022 season. I think John 47:15 just brought that up to test my memory like John Konkak. 47:17 That's the truth. As to why... You remember better than 47:20 me all the grimy details. No, no. I'm just saying, 47:22 we're going down memory lane here. 47:24 But I think the 22 season is a very valid 47:27 comparison and a reminder that things can change. 47:30 Now, some better teams are like... The Packers are good 47:32 that year. The Ravens are good that year. 47:34 So I think you did beat some better teams that 47:36 year in terms of overall talent. 47:38 I mean. 47:38 That's Lamar Jackson and Aaron Rodgers. Sure, yeah. 47:40 And then, oh, by the way, the Jaguars game involved 47:43 a goal line stand, too. There was a tackle. It 47:44 was a gang tackle at the one-yard line. 47:47 Oh, that's right. 47:48 Yeah, he threw the pass down the field. And there 47:51 were three different guys that were having to embrace. 47:53 Him to bring him back. Who was the receiver that 47:55 caught that ball? I'd have to look that up. But 47:56 there was definitely a goal line play. I'll look it up. 47:58 I'll bring up the box score here because I remember 48:00 that vividly. 48:01 It was a little slot receiver, and he caught it 48:03 in the middle of the field, and he tried to 48:04 back up into the end zone. 48:05 Yep. 48:06 Christian Kirk. Christian Kirk, thank you. 48:08 And the Giants slot corner that year, who I don't 48:13 remember who it is. 48:14 Well, let's see. They gave credit. They destroyed my memory. 48:17 They gave credit to McKinney and Love on the play. Oh, 48:20 McKinney and Love stepped up. 48:20 Okay, that's right. Those are the two in the box. 48:23 It was Julian Love because I think he played the 48:26 slot a lot in that game, and that's who I 48:27 was thinking of. Anyway, Steve, I didn't mean to totally 48:29 hijack your call, man. I appreciate it. 48:31 Anything else? 48:33 No, and, you know, another thing we're going to pick 48:36 up with J.J. McCarthy, you know, the Giants wanted to 48:39 draft him before Dart, you know, and with Maggie, you know, 48:44 this team was built for a run QB also, you know, 48:50 and Jameis is not that. So I'm glad that J.J. 48:53 's out there. 48:53 He's in the new building. 48:55 I've seen him come in a couple times for some plays. Nothing, 48:58 you know, nothing major. 49:00 Should he start? 49:02 I don't know. James is doing good. But, you know, 49:07 it's good to see what JJ has, too, you know, 49:10 in a different building, you know? 49:12 Yeah, 100%. And they're going to take their time. 49:15 But, you know, I think that kid has talent. He's 49:19 a scrambler. And he's built for what, you know, what 49:23 Maggie wants to do, too. So keep that in mind. 49:25 But as of right now, it wouldn't change nothing. Winston 49:28 is doing his thing. He has confidence. You know, he's 49:31 a leader. And, you know, just keep our fingers crossed. 49:34 Thanks, Steve. 49:35 And continue.... 49:37 Yeah, appreciate the call. I mean, McCarthy clearly is more 49:40 mobile than Jameis Winston. I wouldn't go so far to 49:42 say that this system was built for a running quarterback. 49:45 I think that may be taking a little too far. 49:47 They've lost certain facets of their scheme, and Matt Nagy 49:50 acknowledged that once Dart went down. But the idea that 49:54 a guy like Winston can't come in and run this offense, 49:57 I think would be a little misleading. McCarthy, though, more resembles, 50:01 which I think the last caller's point was, Dart, which 50:04 I would agree. 50:04 There's no doubt about it. He's got a. 50:06 Skill set in terms of he can stretch plays, you 50:09 can run things with him. But I wouldn't go so 50:11 far to say that they came in and they said, 50:13 all right, we're going to be a run quarterback-esque system. No, 50:17 they wanted Dart to be a pocket passer just as much. 50:20 It's just there were things that Dart can do within 50:22 the scheme that that Jameis can't do simply because of 50:25 the physical stature and the build of both of those quarterbacks. 50:28 One other thing that I just wanted to piggyback off of, 50:30 you mentioned John Runyon. John Runyon, I think, actually put 50:33 things beautifully, John, in perspective. He said he was asked 50:37 about the beginning of the season. He said, and I'm. 50:39 Paraphrasing, We're about probably two to three plays away from 50:43 being one and four. Did he say that? A thousand percent. 50:47 When I heard that, I said. 50:49 I honestly forgot about that part of the quote, but 50:51 you're a thousand percent right. 50:52 Yeah. 50:53 So when he said that, it registered in my mind because, 50:56 you know, once again, we don't need to revisit every game, 50:58 but you're talking about two goal line stands, you know, 51:01 a ball bounces here, a ball bounces there. And again, 51:03 it does resemble 22 where if things don't go right, 51:07 one or two plays here, the Giants are not seven 51:09 and two. They could be three and four or, you know, 51:12 whatever it is. I know that math doesn't match up, 51:15 but that's my point. They understand that the players know 51:19 that fine, thin line that they have been walking this season. 51:23 And the level of execution in crunch time is the 51:26 difference maker as to why they have a winning mark 51:28 right now. That is a more succinct way of saying 51:31 what I said in my rambling two-minute statement. 51:33 No, all good. I was following you. I'm with you. 51:35 All right, let's go to Lennon, Columbia, Maryland. What's going on, man? 51:38 How are you? 51:39 Hey, guys. Well, John, your rambling last two minutes kind 51:46 of summed up what I was going to start with, 51:48 and that is, to me, that was a disappointing loss. 51:54 I see it as a loss for many of the 51:57 reasons that you just pointed out. That's a winnable game. 52:01 It was there for us to win a division game 52:04 on the road against Therefore, our taking in the easy 52:09 part of the schedule, four would look better in the 52:13 standings in the win column than three looks today. You've 52:16 got to win that game. You've got to win the game. 52:19 I mean, that was just very, very disappointing. And we 52:22 had chances. 52:23 Now, in fairness, I think the commanders are probably saying 52:25 the exact same thing. Oh, without a doubt. 52:27 Yeah, I mean, they were the team that was up 52:29 two touchdowns in the fourth quarter. I would say the 52:32 fact that the Giants ended in a tie. See, I 52:35 guess I look at it a little bit different. I 52:37 think they're fortunate that they salvaged it to that degree. 52:40 I think both of you are right. I think, yes, correct. 52:43 But I think also you have the ball in your 52:45 hand ready to line up a game when you feel 52:46 well and you fumble the football. That's going to drive 52:48 you nuts, too. 52:49 Yeah. Let me respond to what Lance just said. Lance, 52:54 I understand your position. I could care less what the 52:57 commanders are thinking. 52:58 That's fair, too. I get that, but I guess I'm 53:01 trying to bring a little bit more balance to the conversation. 53:03 We had to get that right. Since everybody's talking about Winston, 53:06 let me put my two cents in. I think he's fine. 53:10 I don't have any problems. He's a backup quarterback. It's 53:13 not like he's playing ahead of Dart. I mean, Dart's hurt. 53:16 This guy can play in the NFL. He's a good quarterback. 53:20 We're lucky to have him. We're lucky to have him 53:22 in this particular situation. I'm not a big McCarthy fan 53:25 at this point. He's going to have to prove it 53:27 to me. If you've got a couple of trick plays 53:29 like you did on Sunday, you know, you try to 53:32 slip him out of the field and do a couple 53:33 of things. All right, go ahead and do that. To me, 53:37 Seamus is the guy. He's going to take us through 53:40 the season, and it's going to be whatever it's going 53:42 to be. I'm not experimenting with another quarterback. I just 53:47 don't want to do that. He went into the season, 53:49 Dart Winston, Dart's gone. I'm behind Jameis. 53:55 Well, Len, I would say this. 53:56 He's doing fine. 53:57 Yeah, Len, I would say this very simply. 54:00 This will be Jameis' job as long as he plays 54:02 well enough to keep it. 54:02 Oh, yeah. Yeah, he has to give them a reason 54:04 to make a change. 54:05 Exactly right. You know what? I think he will. I 54:07 think he will. I don't think he's going to give 54:09 us any reason. Even if we lose some games, I 54:13 don't think he's going to give us any reason to 54:16 yank him. as we move through the season. One other 54:21 thing that's bothering me a little bit about Sunday's game, 54:24 by the way, I don't know if you guys alluded 54:26 to it. I didn't hear you. Well, I did hear 54:29 some replays of the shows earlier, but, man, it was wet. Gee, 54:34 I tell you, the rain was coming down. There were 54:37 points in that game where the rain was hitting me. 54:38 It was actually stinging my face. 54:41 I mean, that was a wonderful condition. 54:43 You're finally going to get a dry game for the Giants. 54:46 It's literally the first one since they played in a 54:49 dome in L.A. 54:49 It looks like Saturday rain, Monday rain, but Sunday's going 54:52 to be beautiful. Yeah, yeah, that'll be fun. It'll be 54:55 good to see what Jameis can do under those kinds 54:57 of conditions. 54:57 For sure. 54:58 One other thing that bothered me about Sunday's game– You know, 55:03 this thing about the peanut punch. I mean, a lot 55:08 of people are acting like there's no cure for it. 55:13 Like the world is coming to an end. There's a 55:16 peanut punch. Hold the ball. Hold the ball. 55:20 Come on. 55:21 I mean, the fumbles are ridiculous. I mean, we talked 55:26 about the scatterball fumble. People talked about the scatterball fumble, 55:30 and they kind of passed through it by saying, well, 55:34 he got the ball punched out. Yeah, okay, you got. 55:37 The ball punched out. No, but that's why you put 55:40 two hands on the ball. You high and tight, you 55:42 put the other hand over it, and guess what? If 55:44 you do that, you can't punch the ball out because 55:46 you have the four points of pressure on the football. 55:48 No, you're right. 55:48 Let's quit talking about this punch out. It's the greatest 55:52 invention in the history of pro football, and that there's 55:55 no cure for it. 55:56 No, you're right. 55:57 I mean, come on. 55:57 You're right. Sure, it's just sometimes, I guess. 56:00 if I at least put myself in the eyes and 56:03 the mind of the player, it's easy for us to 56:06 talk about it right now. 56:06 It's easy to drill it. 56:07 Sometimes in a game, you know, you don't necessarily go 56:11 through the checklist in the moment when you got three 56:13 defensive linemen coming at you. 56:15 And I'm not making an excuse for the player. 56:17 I'm just saying, you know, I can understand where maybe, 56:20 you know, in the moment, you don't necessarily put two 56:23 hands on it. And as a result, the punch goes in. 56:26 I think I'm in agreement with you. I don't think that, 56:29 it's impossible to protect yourself from it. I just think 56:31 that more and more defensive players, Leonard, are being taught 56:35 to punch it and go after that as a means 56:38 to maybe get a takeaway here or there. Not to 56:40 say that they're not supposed to tackle and wrap up, 56:42 but it's just becoming more of an emphasis from a 56:45 coaching standpoint. I don't think it was ever taught this 56:48 wide scale as we're seeing it now. 56:51 Well, the best defensive play is create a turnover. So, Lance, 56:56 you're probably right about that. But I just think these guys, 57:00 you know, particularly in situations where we were, you know, 57:03 another six inches isn't going to make a whole lot 57:05 of difference. Another half yard isn't, you know, another yard 57:09 isn't going to make a, you know, a difference in 57:11 that situation. We were playing for the field goal down there. 57:14 Don't just, come on, come on, hold on to the ball. 57:15 Yeah, Len, the bottom line, and Tiki says this on 57:17 the pre- and post-game show all the time, when you're 57:19 a running back or anybody carrying the football, for that matter, quarterback, receiver, anyone, 57:22 and you see contact is imminent. 57:25 You get your points of pressure on the football and 57:27 you hold it. 57:27 Now, there might be a situation where somebody gets you 57:29 from behind and you don't see them coming. And then 57:32 maybe you don't have the ball secured properly and that's 57:34 just a really good play by the defense. That's going 57:36 to happen sometimes. But when you're going into like a– 57:39 and we saw this with James Cook. Anybody that watched 57:41 the game on Monday night, he's running into the line. 57:44 you've got to get two hands on that football because 57:47 that's the. 57:47 Easy time to punch it. 57:48 When there's other defenders around that you feel good about 57:51 making the tackle and you're just free like Landman was 57:53 in that game to just come in and start swinging, 57:57 that's where it's dangerous. So when you know there's going 57:59 to be imminent content and you're going to run into 58:01 a team meeting or a crowd, that's when you've got 58:03 to get those two hands on the football. 58:05 You have to. 58:06 Now, let me finish with one comment about the upcoming game. 58:11 Yeah. 58:12 Got to win this game. I mean, you've got a 58:15 team coming into your house where you're 3-0. This is 58:20 not a very good team we're playing. This is the 58:24 easy part of the schedule. 58:26 This is a game. 58:27 You've got to go out there and you've got to 58:28 win it. If we're going to talk about ourselves as 58:31 an improving team, as getting better, just like Sunday, you 58:37 know what I feel about the commander, Sean. I don't 58:39 know if Lance is– if there's one thing we've got 58:42 to do this year– to prove that we have improved, 58:46 we've got to get out of last place. We've got 58:49 to jump over the Commanders. We've got to beat the Commanders. 58:53 Maybe twice to get the 3-3 in the division, to 58:55 get the 4-2. This is not a 10-1 team. John, 58:58 I think that's– maybe you were alluding to that. 59:00 I don't know. 59:01 I don't want to put words in your mouth. But, look, 59:05 there are some games that we can win, like the 59:08 Commanders game, and now with. 59:09 The Saints game. 59:10 This is a no excuses, we got to win this game, 59:14 we got to get the four, and maybe get the 59:17 five with the Houston game, but one game at a time, 59:20 and then get the bye, you know, maybe Thomas heals 59:24 up a little bit, a little bit of his calf 59:26 gets straightened out, we get some people back, you know, maybe... 59:30 Maybe you get to a point in a couple of weeks, 59:32 maybe that first week, you know, going into Philadelphia, you 59:36 begin to think about, you know, maybe there's something here. 59:40 We can get to eight. Maybe we can get to nine. 59:43 You know where I'd like to be? Guys, here's where 59:45 I'd like to be. I'd like to be seven. I'd 59:51 like to be eight and eight going into that last 59:53 game of the season. I don't know if we can 59:55 get it. 59:56 That's impossible. 59:57 They got the tie, but I get your point. 59:59 Thank you, Lenny. We appreciate the call. Thank you. 1:00:02 I mean, it's just, listen, you can lay it out. 1:00:05 I hear this all the time from fans. It's a 1:00:06 winnable game. You got to get it. NFL does not 1:00:10 operate like that, Len. I mean, that's just the truth. 1:00:13 I mean, there are some games that are easier than others. 1:00:15 No, but listen, look at the scores across the board 1:00:18 week to week. And you talked about this with the Giants, 1:00:21 you know, even maybe the easier part of the schedule. 1:00:24 Look at how tough these W's have been. Yeah, right. 1:00:27 By the very last play, an interception, four PBUs hit 1:00:32 the line. And these are not dominant teams that they're playing. So, 1:00:36 I mean, I get the mindset. I understand that. But 1:00:40 even though the Saints have struggled the last two weeks, 1:00:43 this is still not, well, let's just throw them out 1:00:46 here and take care of business. And maybe that does happen. 1:00:49 Maybe the Giants will have one of those dominant performances 1:00:52 that we have yet to see. But I never operate 1:00:55 where a team is one of four. I would argue 1:00:57 I think the Texans are much better than their record. 1:00:59 Yeah, I agree with that. 1:00:59 Okay, right? 1:01:00 I agree with that. 1:01:02 I don't read too much in. I also, I like 1:01:05 to look at why they lost and how they lost. 1:01:07 And I go back to, you know, the Saints did 1:01:09 have three games decided by one possession before these two 1:01:14 more lopsided affairs. So that tells me something as well, 1:01:17 that I think they're far more competitive than perhaps the 1:01:22 one and four record shows, but certainly on the surface, 1:01:25 absolutely winnable game. The Saints have issues that I do 1:01:28 think play into the hands of the Giants and It's 1:01:31 just a matter of them taking advantage of that and 1:01:33 capitalizing on that. 1:01:34 Okay, the Giants are a plus three point differential this year. 1:01:37 They're 3-1-1. Dallas is a plus two point differential. 1:01:39 They're 2-3. 1:01:39 You know what I mean? This is how you win 1:01:42 at close games. All right, we got a couple YouTube 1:01:44 comments before. I have one question for you before we 1:01:46 get out of here. 1:01:47 Jameis, in the last two games, stats is in line 1:01:49 for an MVP trajectory. 1:01:52 Relax. Aloha2627Q. That's why it's a YouTube comment. 1:01:56 Need to pass out of 13 personnel or run out 1:01:59 of spread defenses. Yeah, look, I think we've talked about 1:02:02 that before. You get big people on the field, then 1:02:04 you throw it. And that's kind of what the Giants 1:02:05 did in the second half against the Commander. It was 1:02:07 a lot of 12 personnel. Then they threw out of 1:02:08 that and it worked. So, yeah, I don't disagree with that. 1:02:11 M.T. Cranium, Jack Kelly needs playing time. I just think 1:02:13 he can ball. Well, you're not playing over him, Tremaine 1:02:15 Edmonds or Arval Reese, so I'm not sure how that's 1:02:17 going to happen, not to mention Mike McFadden. 1:02:19 Scott Young, 1669. Jack Kelly came so close to blocking 1:02:22 that punt last Sunday. He did, and I think that's 1:02:24 where you're going to see his impact on special teams. Well, 1:02:26 it goes back to when he was drafted. 1:02:28 I mean, that's where we envisioned he would have his 1:02:31 biggest contribution, especially if you're talking about the third or 1:02:34 fourth linebacker on the depth chart. You have to earn 1:02:37 your stripes in special teams. That's the best way to 1:02:39 get on the field. So I don't think that should 1:02:41 stun anybody. 1:02:42 All right. 1:02:42 I'm not going to talk to you, Lance, on a 1:02:44 show until after the NBA season starts. So give me 1:02:46 your NBA finals prediction today before the season starts. 1:02:50 Wow. 1:02:51 Hmm. 1:02:52 NBA Finals prediction. 1:02:54 This is a predicament for you because you're never going 1:02:56 to predict the Knicks to go because you can't stand 1:02:57 the Knicks. 1:02:58 You hate the. 1:02:59 Well, first of all, there's been eight different champions in 1:03:02 the last eight years. So I would say history is 1:03:05 on my side. 1:03:05 They could go but not win. You also have. 1:03:08 You hate LeBron James, so you're not going to pick 1:03:10 the Sixers to go. So I'm curious to see, Johnny Mac, 1:03:12 where Lance goes in the East here to overcome your biases. 1:03:17 Wow. 1:03:18 You know, I've been such in football mode, in fairness, 1:03:20 not to build an excuse... I would say in the 1:03:24 Eastern Conference, you know, Miami's an intriguing team. I think 1:03:31 Riley has done a nice job. 1:03:32 You think they have enough in the backcourt? I do. 1:03:35 I think they have enough because I like their veteran presence. 1:03:38 So I could see them being a team. that emerges 1:03:42 in the conversation. Remember, there was a few years back, 1:03:45 I know it was COVID, you know, Jimmy put that 1:03:47 team on his shoulders and they didn't have a wealth 1:03:49 of talent. So once again, track record is definitely behind. 1:03:52 I could see Miami sneaking up. I was certainly higher 1:03:56 on the Pistons last year. I'm not going to go 1:03:59 down that road. 1:03:59 Toronto? Toronto, yeah. Cleveland? 1:04:04 Cleveland is another team last year that looked good on paper, 1:04:08 but I'm never a guy that subscribes. There are two players, 1:04:12 not to get off topic, Harden and Carmelo Anthony, that 1:04:14 I don't think improve the caliber of the players around them. 1:04:17 So I would never sell you on Harden's team going 1:04:20 to the championship. Pacers, this is a back-to-health type of season. 1:04:25 So Indiana, I think, has the capabilities. I would say 1:04:29 Indiana and Miami... are two intriguing teams to me. 1:04:33 Which one do you want? I'll lean towards the Heat. 1:04:35 Oh, boy. 1:04:35 I'll lean towards the Heat. Eric Spolscher's a great coach. 1:04:37 How about that? Also, I mean, listen, Giannis has to 1:04:39 stay healthy, of course. 1:04:41 100%, yes. 1:04:41 That's a big one. 1:04:42 You're talking about a really nice one-two punch between him 1:04:45 and Ben. 1:04:46 Are you a Spurs or Thunder guy in the West, 1:04:48 or are you going to throw an upset at me? No, 1:04:51 I think an upset is... Potential. 1:04:55 And the team that I'm very high on, I've thought 1:04:57 this through much more on the West. I like Minnesota 1:04:59 going to the NBA Finals. 1:05:00 Really? 1:05:01 I'm very high on the Mellow. Flying in LaMelo, huh? 1:05:05 Yeah. 1:05:05 I think that's got a very high ceiling and high potential. 1:05:08 So I'm going to go with the T-Wolves representing the 1:05:11 West and give me Miami in the East. 1:05:12 The double M. Heat and Timberwolves. All right. 1:05:15 Yeah. 1:05:15 All right. That was unique. That's what I'm going to 1:05:17 go with. All right, guys. Thanks for being with us 1:05:19 right here on Big Blue Kickoff Live. 1:05:20 You can find us all week, every weekday at 12 1:05:23 noon on the Giants app, Giants YouTube channel. And, of course, 1:05:26 the archives can be found on Giants.com and all those 1:05:29 other platforms as well. 1:05:31 For Lance Mendel, I'm John Schmelke. We'll see you next time. 1:05:33 It's all brought to you by Cadillac, the official luxury 1:05:35 vehicle of the Giants. Takes mentioned in this episode New Orleans Saints team · neutral
“Yeah, the Saints have been blitzed the second most of any other NFL team this year. 43% blitz rates against the Saints.” New York Giants team · neutral
“So, the Giants.... Opponent winning percentage this year is 26%.” New York Giants team · negative
“He did not practice yesterday for the Giants. We'll get to the rest of the injury report in a second. Andrew Thomas does not look like himself at left tackle.” Atlanta Falcons team · negative
“line has not been good. I mean, if anybody watched that national game in primetime between the Saints and the Falcons, the Falcons lived in the backfield in that game.” New Orleans Saints team · negative
“The Saints are a bit one-dimensional, and part of that, of course, is game flow issues. given the defense not necessarily helping them out. And look, I think the biggest issue with the offense, Lance, and this reflects on both the run game like you just talked about, and then I” New Orleans Saints team · negative
“Saints are 1-4.” Indianapolis Colts team · negative
“And part of it is they have not taken the ball away. They're also with the worst turnover differential in the NFL tied with the Colts at minus six. 11 giveaways, just five takeaways.” Tony Romo player · negative
“And look, there have been other quarterbacks like that, too. I think, to an extent, Tony Romo was.” 