Kevin Gilbride Needs To Stick to What the New York Giants Do Best

On the opening drive of Super Bowl XLII, Brandon Jacobs pushed a safety, 60 pounds lighter than him, three yards backwards, and Ahmad Bradshaw carried a defensive tackle, 80 pounds heavier than him, for seven extra yards.

I don’t care who your quarterback is, why would you avoid handing it off to these Giants backs?

For the first half of the opening game, Kevin Gilbride, the Giants' offensive coordinator, led a punishing assault on the Redskins, highlighted by Brandon Jacobs' ferocious running. Couple that with Plaxico Burress’s 98 receiving yards, and it was domination on the offense’s part.

In the second half, the playcalling got shaky. The Redskins were showing absolutely no signs of being able to stop Brandon Jacobs AND Derrick Ward, yet Gilbride still opted to have Eli Manning throw it downfield.

In the first drive of the second half, Manning threw three straight incompletions. Punt. On the second drive, he had Manning run a bootleg, rolling him to a spot where he had to throw across his body in order to make the throw. Interception.

On the third drive, seven of the 10 plays were passes, which included a sack and another near interception. Punt. On the fourth drive, Jacobs was running well, but Gilbride still had Eli taking five-step drops, and there was another sack and another near pick. Punt.

Catch my drift?

Displaying old habits from the middle of the 2007 season, Gilbride was ignorant of the fact that the Giants' offensive line was mauling a thin Redskins defensive line, and that Brandon Jacobs literally couldn’t be tackled. Instead, he turned to a quarterback that had clearly lost his rhythm and wide receivers who were completely exhausted.

All of this with a nine-point lead. It’s 87 degrees and humid. Run the ball down their throats! They can’t stop them, there’s little to no rotation on the line, and they are on the verge of dehydrating. Send your 260-pound gorilla down their throats and seal the game.

This Sunday, against the Rams, Gilbride is going to have to ignore what the tape showed—McNabb tearing up the Rams through the air—and stick to his strength. And that’s winning games by running the ball and complementing that with a solid passing game to keep the defense off balance.

Gilbride is the same guy that got mockingly called “Killdrive” a while back in part to his role in the Fun 'N Gun offense that was predicated on the pass. In the playoffs, Gilbride realized that running the ball was the key that opened the door to the Lombardi Trophy. If he wants the Giants to repeat that success, all he has to do is put in the same key.