I watched yet another Giant loss yesterday and found myself screaming at the TV on several occasions. Not so much because of the last second touchdown pass, but more because of what allowed that to happen. So many of those plays came because of the fact that new Giants defensive co-ordinator Bill Sheridan has insisted on overusing the defensive scheme that has driven me crazy since The Bucs invented it, The Cover two.

The Giants are supposed to be an agressive defense that uses a lot of man-to-man coverage. They are supposed to be physical at the line of scrimmage, not a team that plays soft zone. I had to be seeing things. So, I went to an expert. Newsday’s Bob Glauber confirmed my theory via Twitter.

More Cover 2, yes. RT @3stringsafety @BobGlauber Does Sheridan call a lot more cover-2 than Spags did? It never seems to work

So, I wasn’t crazy. More than anything, I’ve been trying to think what the plan was when Sheridan decided to start using a system that is such a mismatch for the Giants personnel. Michael Johnson, Aaron Rouse and C.C. Brown are all far too limited in terms of range to be covering half the field at anytime. The only Giants safety that I can see doing that is Kenny Phillips, and he’s out for the season. The other concern I have is that middle linebacker Antonio Pierce was never the most athletic guy in the word to begin with. Now you are going to have him in open space as often as Sheridan does? That doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Sheridan should go back and watch some highlights of the Super Bowl team. That team relied on pressure and man coverage for the most part. Did they give up big plays? Sure. However, they also made a ton of big plays too. That’s what missing from this version of the Giants defense.

The other thing that drives me nuts is something the broadcast team actually complimented yesterday. Phil Simms said that he like the fact that the Giants were only rushing four. I hate that. This team is designed to blitz, so they should be blitzing. It’s not a question. Spags sent pressure on almost 75 percent of all plays, this year, I don’t know the number, but it’s definitely way down from that that.

In all sports, defense is that act of making the other team make a play. That’s not what the cover two does. Rather it just prevents them from making big plays, allowing them to exploit holes in the zone to keep them in front of the defense.

We’ve all seen how well it’s worked so far.