Of course, he's only referring to the Texans game itself. However, the national matchup to watch this weekend certainly is not Dallas/Washington, it's Indy/New England.
The Giants OL is better than the Texans - BUT please, it's not like the Giants offensive line is the 83 Redskins. Here is their starting lineup: LT-Luke Pettigout LG-David Diehl OC-Shaun OHara RG-Chris Snee RT-Kareem McKenzie I know for a fact that Luke Pettigout sucks, he always is jumping and getting false starts. McKenzie is good and the rest are decent but not exactly blue chip superstars. Eli Manning has been down 15 times this year (on 40 more attempts, in fairness), Carr has been down 20 times. That is a disparity, true, but not that huge. Manning also has a quick release and gets rid of the ball when he's in trouble. The following quarterbacks have been down 19 or more times, like Carr this year. Some of them it is because they had more passing attempts (likely), but some guys had even fewer attempts and went down more Andrew Walter 28 (fewer attempts) Charie Frye 24 Jon Kitna 23 Marc Bulger 22 Carson Palmer 21 JP Losman 21 Daunte Culpepper 21 (fewer attempts) Michael Vick 21 (fewer attempts) Donavan McNabb 20 David Carr 20 Matt Hasselbach 19 (fewer attempts) Chad Pennington 19 Ben Roethlisberger 19 (fewer attempts). The "My OL is the worst in history" excuse doesn't seem to carry as much weight this year as it did in years past. Carr is not the only quarterback in the NFL to face a pass rush this year.
Well if the OL excuse isn't valid then the next one is - X Teams defense is too good, or Its a new coaching staff and system. Next year can be the time it takes for new free agents to fit in, or the return of DD. Don't forget about the old injury standby
But having a fine defense and fine running game is a big factor. Teams that play the Giants play run 1st because the Giants have a good running game--they have been gutting some good defenses on the groun-- and they are usually ahead. Couple that with some big receiving targets that frequently get 1 on 1 coverage (safeties up) and running back great a getting yards from dumps and screens, Eli's QB job is about as easy as it gets for an NFL QB. Just like Big Ben's easy job until this year--who now after taking some physical hits, and just as important losing downfield threats (Ward less than 100%, losing their other WR to FA) and a stout running game has looked flat aweful. I am not close to saying either of these two are near elite QBs.
But having a fine defense and fine running game is a big factor. Teams that play the Giants play run 1st because the Giants have a good running game--they have been gutting some good defenses on the groun-- and they are usually ahead. Couple that with some big receiving targets that frequently get 1 on 1 coverage (safeties up) and running back great a getting yards from dumps and screens, Eli's QB job is about as easy as it gets in the NFL. Just like Big Ben's easy job until this year. I am not close to saying either of these two are near elite QBs, not that I am saying Carr is either.
I agree somewhat, I'm just saying that "it's always the OL" excuse is wearing thin and that he's no longer on the worst OL in history, which might have been the case in previous years, literally. The other thing that's hurtufl is Carr's propensity for fumbling a lot relative to the number of times he's been downed. He's got 10 fumbes in 20 sacks and leads the league - just ahead of a few others. Compare that with Mcnabb (3 in 20 sacks) or Hasselbach (1 in 19). Though in fairness he's not the worst (Kurt Warner with 9-10 is the far and away worst) and even some good QB's like Brady have a similar ratio - they jsut don't get sacked as much.
Off tanget, but people don't talk about him as much as the others but IMO Hasselbeck is the 4th member of the true elite QB club (Brady, McNabb, Peyton).
Carr looking poised so far, he had a nice drive going till the lundy drop....and then the missed FG to not even get points off that drive.
