Rumblings of Sheridan's possible demise have circulated since week 8 of this 2009 NFL Season after poor performances versus tougher opposition like the Saints, Eagles and Cardinals.

New York lacked passion and seemed very unorganized on the defensive side. A team that  has always been known for their tough defense gave up a ton of points against several teams including two horrible performances versus NFC East rival the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Giants could not muster up any pressure all season long, Osi Umenyiora was a huge disappointment this year and was even benched towards the end of the season. Key injuries to Kenny Phillips, Alford and Pierce along with Canty and Aaron Ross being hurt most of the year did not help the cause but the team just never looked prepared.

It was an over all failure, you can't just blame the secondary for giving up huge plays, you also have to blame the defensive line who gave opposing quarterbacks all day to throw the ball and pick apart an already decimated, weak and confused secondary.

The departure of Steve Spagnuolo turned out to be bigger than most anticipated. Spags brought innovative schemes and alignments that confused offensive lines. He knew when to call a blitz and when to fake one, you can't pick up that type of intuition by reading a play book.

Bill Sheridan needs time to develop as a Defensive Coordinator, hopefully he will get a chance to learn and get a feel for the position with another team. The Giants have a good enough team to compete for a Superbowl next year, we need a coordinator who is ready now to take a talented defense to the level we got used to under Steve Spagnolo.

Carlos Caicedo
GiantsKickoff.com - Copyright 2009

GiantsKickoff.com

The New Orleans Saints dismantled the New York Giants defense. Defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan was truly clueless during the week 6 game played at the Superdome on 10/18/09 where Big Blue lost 48-27. Michael Strahan does not agree with my criticism, I had an exchange with him through Twitter which I will share with my readers within this article.

It almost seemed as if Brees and his wide receivers were playing catch during a practice session and not involved in an actual NFL game. Sheridan who is in his first year as our defensive guru was less then impressive with his game plan and play calling on Sunday.

Big Blue has yet to have a dominant game versus a good team, sure they can get 6 sacks and 3 fumble recoveries versus the Oakland Raiders but they have not been able to do much when playing tougher opposition. They did not play well versus the Cowboys, they did not record a sack in that game and versus Drew and his high powered offensive attack they were able to get just one sack on the only play where they actually pressured the Saints QB.

The way to beat New Orleans is to apply pressure on their talented quarterback so that he does not have all day to set his feet and pick apart the defense. By doing this you force him to make uncomfortable throws which can result in turnovers or just plain and simple lost of downs to give our offense back the ball. Our defensive coordinator kept a pass rush of only 4 most of the game and it was not working, why would he not go to plan B? Did he even have a secondary plan? Before the season started some people were calling the Giants defensive line one if not the most talented in NFL history! Are the players and their coordinator drinking too much of the Kool Aid and believing the hype?

There is no question that Justin Tuck, Osi Umenyiora and Mathia Kiwanuka are talented but they have not lit it up this year when it counts. They got manhandled by the Saints offensive line and instead of getting some help from Sheridan he just kept the same game plan. Why not blitz more often? I do not believe in having a blitz happy defense but if you cannot put pressure with your front four then you need to alter the plan a bit.

The secondary was picked apart and just toyed with by Drew Brees who went 23/30 for 369 yards and 4 touchdowns. New Orleans receivers were wide opened all game long and Sheridan's defensive squad looked dazed and confused out there. I cannot put a ton of blame on the secondary who is banged up and missing key players in Aaron Ross and Kenny Phillips. When a QB has so much time to throw it is very difficult for a corner to stay with a receiver for a long amount of time.

I was on Twitter (GiantsKickoff is my name on Twitter) and had a great exchange with one of my all time favorite NY Giants player, the great Michael Strahan. He does not agree with my comments on Bill Sheridan and I respect what he has to say being that he would know more than me when it comes to these things. Here is my exchange with Michael Strahan.

I wrote:
@michaelstrahan Where was the New York Giants pressure at on Brees? Horrible job by Sheridan!

He replied:
michaelstrahan @GiantsKickoff can't put it all on Sheridan. Rushers have to win their one on one battles to get to QB!! Didn't do that today

I wrote back:
@michaelstrahan You are 100% right but it wasn't working Michael, shouldn't Sheridan have changed things up a bit?

He replied:
michaelstrahan @GiantsKickoff when your getting your butt whipped man to man there's nothing Bill Sheridan can do. Defense just took a beating today

I agree with Michael Strahan regarding the beating our defense took and respect his point of view. Fans tend to look at losses from a different perspective and I am no different than any other fan. We can all be Monday Morning Quarterbacks and truly know nothing of what we think we know. I guess just maybe we were spoiled when Steve Spagnuolo was the Defensive Coordinator and would create schemes to disrupt the opposing offense in which Strahan was a huge part of. This game was truly frustrating, the inability of the New York front four to put pressure on Brees cost us the game. Bill Sheridan is the architect of the defense so he has to take some of the heat as well.

Carlos Caicedo
GiantsKickoff.com - Copyright 2009