MVN - Most Valuable Network

Giants-Redskins may come down to Special Teams, Preparedness

If you are one of those fans who has to follow the game on the six days that aren’t gameday, you’ve probably heard a common refrain from the talking heads:

“You have to love NFC East football.”

Well, what the heck does that mean? How is it any different than NFC South football? It may not be the different breed of football that the experts make it out to be, but this matchup between the Redskins and the Giants should typify everything we expect in a football game.

We’ve got bad blood. We’ve got players who defected from the other side. We’ve got major playoff implications. We’ve got brisk December weather in the New Jersey Meadowlands. And, for god sakes, we have an even match up, statistically at least.

The overall defenses seem to be about equal. The Giants are much better at defending the run than they are the pass. The Redskins are pretty balanced defensively, you can run or pass on them, but they are going to keep you in front of them.

Both offenses have been marred by inconsistency this year. The Giants are at their best when they put the game in the hands of Brandon Jacobs, a guy who is having one of the best seasons of any RB this season when he has been healthy. The Redskins are clearly at their best when they put the ball in the air. Clinton Portis has fallen off the map after a hot 3 game start, posting his worst production as a Redskin yet this season. Outside of a good half against Tampa Bay, Ladell Betts hasn’t really been any better.

One of the major keys to this game is how prepared the teams are going to be. The Redskins will need to find a way to attack the not-so-hot Giants pass defense. The Redskins have not played since last Thursday, so coming into this game on ten days rest gives no excuses to not be prepared for whatever the Giants D may throw at them to cover some holes in the secondary.

But the other key to the game is the under publicized special teams unit of the Giants. The Giants have struggled in the battle to create field position this year, especially in kickoff returns.

On the other side of the field, the Redskins have excelled at returning kicks as Rock Cartwright does an excellent job of getting up the field on kickoffs, usually finding his way out around the 30 yard line. Lawrence Tynes has struggled mightily at kickoff distance, which combined with the Cartwright return skills, should mean some big plays for the Redskins. The Redskins punt coverage team has also been great this year, covering Derrick Frost’s kicks.

Antwaan Randle El has had a difficult year as the punt returner. If Randle El can find a way to jump start the punt return game, the Redskins will hold a dominant and possible decisive edge in special teams.

Special teams are often critical factors in the outcome of games, and the Redskins invest a lot of scouting hours into improving their return and coverage teams. With both sides of the ball suffering critical injuries, it could be the forgotten side of the ball that gives the Redskins an advantage in a critical game on Sunday night.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 13th, 2007 at 9:26 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.