Bob Papa disagrees with Ron Jaworski
On Friday, ESPN NFL Analyst Ron Jaworski joined Mike & Mike and was asked about the abysmal performance from the New York Giants offensive line against Carolina in Week 3.
“I thought offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride should’ve made some changes early in that game,” said Jaws. “I looked at the stat sheet and the end of that first half and it was embarrassing if you’re a New York Giants fan.
“I would’ve said, ‘Hey coach, let’s spread this out. Let’s go get them in the shotgun and let’s change things up. Let’s go to an up-tempo offense. Let’s not just keep doing the same thing, banging our head against the wall with these power runs - It’s not working! I’m going to change things up.”
The Giants allowed quarterback Eli Manning to get sacked seven times in Carolina on route to a 38-0 beating. On six of those seven occasions, the Panthers only brought their front four without any extra blitz pressure.
Friday afternoon, longtime voice of the New York Giants Bob Papa joined midday host Armen Williams and reacted to Jaworski’s opinion.
“I think that’s unfair of Jaws to put that on Gilbride,” said Papa. “Did they make some adjustments? Yeah, they tried to make some adjustments.
“He obviously is a great student of watching the coaches tape and I have all the respect in the world for Jaws but there were certain situations in that game where Eli was on a three-step drop and he was getting pressured and there were people all over him. It’s the fact that they could not run the football at all - not in any way, shape or form until the game was way out of reach.
“There were hand-offs to David Wilson and Brandon Jacobs where they were getting hit by two guys as they were taking the hand-off. I don’t know what David Gilbride is supposed to do in that situation. They went two tight ends and that didn’t work. They went with max protect and that didn’t work. They tried to run their bread and butter plays and that didn’t work.
“I don’t know what Gilbride was supposed to do when you can’t run a simple hand-off and your back has to do what he does just to get no yardage on the play.”
AUDIO: Bob Papa on 104-5 The Team with reaction to Jaworski's analysis
New York’s offensive issues began before the season started when back-up Andre Brown broke his ankle. In week one, future star hopeful David Wilson fumbled two times against the Cowboys and lost playing time and trust with the staff. The Giants signed Brandon Jacobs two weeks ago but he has yet to make any kind of impact on the stat sheet.
If the Giants thought their o-line struggled in Carolina, this week is going to be scary. The G-Men take on the undefeated Chiefs in Kansas City on Sunday without starting center David Baas and starting guard Chris Snee. David Diehl, who has yet to play this year, will most likely be unavailable as well.
And oh yeah, three weeks into the season, the Chiefs have posted an NFL-best 15 sacks. Good luck, Giants!