The play calling in the second half was no less innovative/outstanding than in the first. All that changed was the execution and/or the Giants making a timely good play.

Advice: ignore the announcers and generalized talking head idiocy AND WATCH THE GAME.

Generalizations make for the short posts that are so fancied by our sound-bite world. But, each McCarthy play is a complicated and fascinating situation and those require complicated explanations. Reducing numerous complicated situations to sound bites will lead to erroneous conclusions. Each McCarthy play is a snow flake and each game a blizzard. It is fascinating!!!

Here’s the first 6 plays that resulted in two 3 and outs:

• 2 WR split, 2TEs stacked right. Lacy runs weakside for 2
• 2 TE formation; Perillo in slot. Dump off to Lacy for 3
• Back to 11 personal, TE inline. R.Rod runs a deep in, he’s open, A.Rod double clutches on throw, giving the LB a chance to recover. Still R.Rod is open, A.Rod makes great throw hitting R.Rod in stride; but LB makes a great play on ball. Not sure if the double clutch was from R.Rod doing something A.Rod wasn’t expecting or if it was just lack of trust in R.Rod to make the right cut.

• 2WR stacked right [Janis-Nelson], Rip, R.Rod [inline left] and lacey. Giants stuck in base personal and one CB on GB left. WE GOT ‘EM [There’s only 1 CB to cover both Nelson and Janis]! Play action sucks up 8, now we really got em! Janis runs a go and Jordy does a deep-in behind Janis and is wide open, it’s an automatic 30 yard gain and a TD if Jordy eludes the last safety. Rodgers, who has the entire weekend to throw delivers a ball slightly behind Nelson who cant hold on. A perfect, aggressive, innovative play! Just a lack of execution by both Jordy and Rodgers. So much of what causes the Giants reactions that lead to an enormous play like this occurs ONLY because of GB self-scouting with eye to what Giants are scouting and how it was set up by other plays in the first half. The sound-biters just doesn’t take the time to understand WTF is going on.
• Back to 11 personal, but TE is playing FB. They run right for 2.
• 11 personal again, in 4 WR look. Cobb motions to other side so 4WR set is 3x1. Adams was open again on right as third read. Not sure why A.Rod didn’t throw. Adams may have made his cut too early or A.Rod was staring down too long the seam route to R.Rod and slant to Cobb, both were HELD after they crossed on left as reads #1 and 2! I think Rodgers was so convinced the play to Cobb would work unless both LB and Slot CB covered him, which would leave R.Rod wide open, that he didn’t get to 3rd read on time. He also may not have thrown to Adams because Bulaga’s DE got a hand on Rodgers before he could get to his third read.

Mixing up the lineups every play was pretty good and kept people (myself included) out of sync. I've been pretty solid in predicting 3rd down plays by the field position and distance. On that drive McCarthy got me every time.

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I may be showing my ignorance here but I have never hear the term 11 personnel until this year. (I actually had to look it up) and now its everywhere. It seems like every year a new buzzword or phrase is latched onto by everyone. Last year it was catch radius and I don't think I've heard it once yet this season. It really makes no sense to me since we are talking about 3 positions (RB, TE, WR) but I guess since are talking about 5 total we only need to know the first two to figure out the third. I just wonder who decided the first number was the RBS the second was TE' and the third WR and not some other order.

These terms are varied between teams and evolve overtime. There is always pressure to reduce syllables and make what things are called easier for players to know. A story to show just how varied language can be: Ty Detmer tells a story of how in '93 in the middle of a film session Favre whispered asking, "what does Nickel mean?" This term was not used at his HS, S. Miss., or Atlanta. He then played an entire year in GB not knowing what it meant, he was afraid to ask.

3 WR, 1TE, 1RB for decades was called “posse” by most; some called them "trips." 4 WR and 1 back was called “Jet.” “Pro” = 2 WR, 1 TE, 1FB, RB. “Ace” = 2 WR, 2TE, 1 RB; etc. And many teams have their own specialized vocabulary. I first heard of the 2 number chart 5-6 years ago and now I think most have adopted it because its easier. Now that everything has gone computer, computers work much better with numbers and the description of 3 WR, 2 TE 1RB is reduced to 2 characters instead of Posse, which is 5. Also, terms like ace or posse have to be memorized. With the 2 number chart a player only needs to memorize the concept and then can figure out any of the groupings.

The next evolution will come when the first teams from England come in. The “nickel” of course is 5 DBs. With the evolution of having to defend a favored passing game “dime” will mean 10 DBs; 6 DBs will be called “six-pence.”😂 😂