AIR APPARENT: Kenny Phillips can only look on in disappointment after Kevin Ogletree’s touchdown catch in the Giants’ season-opening loss to the Cowboys, which featured glaring problems in pass defense that must be corrected for tomorrow’s game against the visiting Bucs. (
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It’s a simple slant, a basic pass play run from pee-wee football to the pros. But the Cowboys used it like a dagger, repeatedly piercing the Giants defense for key yardage in Dallas’ season-opening win at MetLife Stadium last week.
None was more damaging than the final connection when Tony Romo zipped a pass to unheralded Kevin Ogletree for a 13-yard gain on third-and-11 from the Dallas 26. The two-minute warning followed and with the Giants out of timeouts, the Cowboys ran out the clock to claim a 24-17 victory.
“It’s like we’ve never seen a slant before,” Giants coach Tom Coughlin groaned after Ogletree had caught eight passes for 114 yards and two touchdowns and Romo passed for 307 yards and three scores.
The NFL is a copycat league, so it doesn’t take Vince Lombardi to figure out the Bucs probably have implemented a few slant patterns into their offensive package for tomorrow’s game at MetLife. But the Giants have worked all week to make sure the Bucs don’t have the same kind of success with the slant pattern the Cowboys did.
The return of cornerback Prince Amukamara should help. He figures to be back in the lineup after sitting out the opener recovering from a high ankle sprain suffered during a preseason game against the Bears. He has been practicing all week and took reps with the first team yesterday.
“I think if you can practice, you can play,” he said.
Amukamara officially is listed as questionable but could get the start ahead of Michael Coe, who played 47 snaps against the Cowboys before leaving the game with a hamstring injury.
It would be easy to blame the Cowboys’ passing success on the injury-plagued cornerbacks. But it was more than that. Coughlin said it was a collective meltdown from the secondary to the defensive line, which didn’t do its part.
“It’s a combination of things,” the coach said. “We probably batted down 30 balls a day during training camp and we didn’t get one in that game. Yes, you don’t want to let them inside, but it’s also based on the coverage. It wasn’t always inside control by the corner. By the same token, there were some people that were to be in the right spots that weren’t and the throwing lane was pretty obvious.”
The Bucs rely heavily on a running game that produced 130 rushing yards in their 16-10 win over the Panthers last week. But they didn’t spend $55 million on wide receiver Vincent Jackson not to be an impact player. He caught just four passes for 47 yards against the Panthers as quarterback Josh Freeman threw for 138 yards and one score. But Jackson’s eyes probably lit up watching film of the Giants secondary against the Cowboys.
At least Freeman is no Romo. The Dallas quarterback seemed to have an answer for everything the Giants tried. He either threw the ball before the pass rush arrived or escaped it and made plays while moving away from the pocket.
“They were getting the ball out quick and we knew that,” defensive end Osi Umenyiora said. “We should have done a better job of getting our hands up. We knew we weren’t going to get to the quarterback in a lot of those situations, so we should have gotten our hands up and tried to knock the ball down. But a lot of times we were making inside moves and [Romo] was escaping the pocket and making plays on us that way.”
Amukamara is ready to come to the rescue. The 2011 first-round pick is eager to get back on the field after missing most of last season with a broken foot.
“I definitely do have a sense of urgency and pressure to get back on the field,” he said. “But I’ve always had that. I’ve always wanted to be on the field. But I can’t control the time it takes to heal, but I’ve been doing everything I can.”