00:00Is the Giants defense leaving some plays on the field?
00:03We're going to watch the tape and figure out what's going on with that side of the football
00:06that Joe Shane paid a lot of money and free agency to fix.
00:11And of course, we got our former Super Bowl champ and former Giants linebacker,
00:16John Thin Casillas, so we can talk football.
00:18You can break this thing down for us, man.
00:20JC, appreciate you hopping on with this.
00:24Anytime you're in a shootout, over 478 yards total offense for the Cowboys, 40 points.
00:29But anytime, that's kind of expected in a shootout.
00:32So, so far, you're watching the game or games.
00:36What's the biggest issue you've seen so far with the Giants defense?
00:39And what's that conversation like between players, the position coaches,
00:45and the coordinator to get things fixed?
00:49Well, I think one thing, you know, they're not establishing presence, you know.
00:54And when you say physical presence, what does that look like?
00:56It's really when you come down to the numbers, right?
00:58The number one responsibility for all defenses going into every week is stop the run, right?
01:04The Giants gave up 135 yards on the ground to the Cowboys this past week,
01:08and then over 200 yards last week against the commanders.
01:11That's not being a physically dominant defense.
01:14They're hitting the quarterback.
01:15They're getting to the quarterback.
01:16They're frustrating the quarterback.
01:18You know, they're doing things in that regard.
01:21But when it comes down to making stops at crucial situations, they did a couple times, you know,
01:28but they didn't do it when they really needed to do it.
01:31They've been making stops.
01:32They've been getting helped by sloppy play from both the commanders and the Cowboys.
01:37But the amount of penalties that the Giants had, the amount of penalties and mistakes that they had the first two weeks,
01:43I mean, it's really hard.
01:45And as a defense, the conversation should be between, let's say, Bobby O'Carriquet, Brian Burns, Dexter Lawrence,
01:51the three leaders of the defense is like, hey, guys, we got to step up.
01:56Our offense scored 37 points.
01:58This game, this last game, the Cowboys game, that's on us.
02:01You know, we had several opportunities throughout the end of the game in the fourth quarter and in overtime
02:05to get off the field, to stop them, to keep them away from their big-leg kicker,
02:10to keep them out of the distance, and they just couldn't do it.
02:12But we got to figure out a way to do it because they're going to be in situations like that again.
02:17You talk about crucial stops.
02:18The most crucial play in terms of defensively, they weren't able to get a stop on,
02:25was that Dak Prescott to Jake Ferguson completion.
02:29Second and 10, 14 seconds left on the Dallas 33.
02:33Dallas had all three timeouts.
02:35It was Dak to Ferguson for 18 yards, and that pretty much put them in field goal range
02:41with a kicker that can kick it from Jersey City all the way to Dallas if you wanted to.
02:46So we're going to bring this play up, JC, and you being a leader on that Giants defense,
02:52a Super Bowl champ, break this down for us because it's making its rounds on social media.
02:58Where could the Giants defense have been better on this play?
03:01Well, I think when you think about the context of a defense, right,
03:07this is the basic cover two with the middle linebacker covering the number three vertical.
03:13I don't know why he's covering the number three vertical.
03:15I thought he should push past to get to number two in that backside wheel linebacker,
03:20weak side linebacker, or nickel.
03:22Who's in there?
03:23Is that the wheel?
03:24That's Dane Bell.
03:25So if we pause it here.
03:27Okay, so he's playing wheel, though.
03:28He's playing wheel.
03:29Yep, yep, yep.
03:31So he could have been a better position for that.
03:35But this is the mindset before that play, because this is after Kayvon Thibodeau hit the ball
03:40out of Dak's hand, right, on first and 10?
03:43Yep, yep.
03:43This is the next play, if I'm not mistaken.
03:45So that first and 10 play, I was sitting there watching it.
03:49The Giants were basically lined up in the same type of formation defensively,
03:53and I was like, why are they playing so soft?
03:55Why are they playing so soft?
03:56This is not where the Cowboys got to get all the way down to the 20-yard line.
04:01They only needed a few yards, you know, a few yards, 15, 20 yards,
04:04and they're in field goal range for Brandon Aubrey.
04:07When I played with Spagnuolo, Spagnuolo had, at the end of the game,
04:11you had two different situations you're going to be in.
04:14You're going to be in a chunk situation, or you're going to be in a competitive situation.
04:18That chunk situation is what they were playing for.
04:21They were playing for the big, deep 40, 30, 40 yards down the field,
04:25when, in fact, they didn't, that wasn't even the Cowboys' intent at all
04:29to get all the way down there.
04:30They only needed 15, 20 yards.
04:32So that's a challenge situation where you're basically playing regular,
04:36straight-up defense, whether it's cover two, cover four,
04:40when you want to roll it up to CD, whatever you want to do.
04:42But this is not a prevent-situation type defense.
04:46The Cowboys didn't have to go down all the way down to the end zone
04:50to score a touchdown.
04:51They only need 15 and 20 yards.
04:53So their defense strategically was too soft going into both of those plays.
04:58Real quick, because we got to wrap, J.C.,
05:00are you in panic mode if you were this defense?
05:04No, definitely not.
05:05It's only two games.
05:06And when you're a defense and you know you got a guy that can win you games,
05:12Russell proved that.
05:13And I'm so glad he did, not just for the New York Giants, but for himself.
05:18He's a badger.
05:19I'm a badger.
05:20I think the way he conducts himself as a true professional,
05:25I think that shows a lot.
05:26And now he's reaping the benefits.
05:28Look, they didn't get the win.
05:29But this was even better than vintage Russell Wilson.
05:34He had an all-star type of game, an all-star type of performance.
05:38He showed the New York Giants faithful what this offense is capable of,
05:42what Malik Nabors is capable of, what Wondell Robinson is capable of.
05:46He got out of different situations with his feet.
05:49And, of course, he threw that moon ball better than we've seen.
05:52So I think as a defensive guy, say, hey, we got an offense that can score points.
05:57You know, it wasn't the same a week ago, kids.
06:00The commanders had only six points.
06:01But our offense can put up points.
06:03It's up to us.
06:04And as a defender, bro, like, I always wanted to be on us.
06:08You know, forget the offense.
06:09Forget Eli Manning.
06:10Forget what they're doing over there.
06:12It's on us.
06:12And that's the way we like it.
06:14The Giants defense has to embrace it because they got the guys that do it.
06:17But they just got to be a little bit more, I would say, physical
06:21and be better in situational defenses like that prevent defense
06:25that was playing at the end of the game.
06:26All right.
06:27They'll get a chance to right that wrong Sunday night,
06:30primetime football against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.
06:32So hopefully they're up for that task.
06:34JC, appreciate you breaking that down for us, man.
06:38Thanks for having me, bro.
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