I wanted to watch the rookies and a few returning players who need to step it up. I ended up focusing most of my time on Offense watching every snap of Marcus Mbow on Offense and Darius Alexander on Defense. I was very pleased with what I saw from Mbow.
The players who looked solid were Carter, Dart, Mbow, Washington, Miller and Fidone.
According to NextGenStats, Carter was in a total of 6 plays. He registered 3 pressures on a total of 3 pass plays, and 2 of them were against were against 4x Pro Bowler Dion Dawkins.
Dart showed poise and ran the Offense smoothly. Was he perfect? No. He had a couple of batted passes and he missed some receivers. That was it for the bad. The rest was really good. There was one play where a pass rusher tried to sack him. Dart calmly sidestepped him and made a play. Other plays he stepped up in the pocket to buy himself a split second and he then used the time to move the ball either through the air or with his feet. He threw a 29 yd TD pass to Jordan Humphrey. 12/19 for 154 yds. The raw stats do not really mean anything to me. He looked fine. As long as he keeps improving from practice to practice and game to game, that is right on schedule.
Marcus Mbow was very good. He was played as a LT and as a RT. He handled his assignment each time. Falato says he has “feather feet.” He gets his feet in position with each opposing move and blocks up his man. I am very encouraged. So is Schoen, who remarked at halftime how quiet it was wherever Mbow was playing.
Darius Alexander, the R3 DT, was a non-factor. Yes, he was doubled a few times, but even when he was singled he was unable to do much. I did not see him involved in a RB running into his area, so there was not much of an opportunity to grade him there. Hopefully he can progress as camp/preseason move on.
Offensive weapons in Fidone (Round 7), RB Dante Miller (aka Turbo), and WR Montrell Washington played well. Each made significant contributions.
The secondary and run defense did not inspire confidence. Tae Banks, as noted by Nick Falato, is sticky in coverage but he still cannot find the ball. This was evident in a large successful pass play which was initially ruled a completion except the receiver could not get his second foot inbounds.
Neal and Hyatt did not suit up.
Overall this was a very good outing for the Gmen. I am not aware of any injuries, and the Giants draft picks look mostly very solid. One stat I liked- on Third Down, the Giants were 9-19 while Buffalo was 1-9.
Note: I posted 3x now in the past day. While I am not posting with that kind of regular frequency, please do check out recent posts and comment as you see fit. Any comments on JMS/film appreciated. I did not see his snaps today. Thanks.