Tommy Boy 1 And A Half Percent

[Ellington Walford]

TheSaints won up front on both sides of the ball, and when that happens, it is hard to win a football game. The Giants were unable to protect their quarterback or get their traditional run game going, and the Saints were able to do both.

The Giants allowed pressure on 36 percent of their passing snaps, while the Saints were at a league-best 15.6 percent in Week 15, according to Pro Football Focus. The Saints' run game was not explosive, but it balanced their offense. The Giants played mostly zone defense through the first three quarters, and their lack of pass pressure allowed Derek Carr to work the ball down the field. The Giants did blitz on 59 percent of their pass snaps (second-highest in the league this week) but failed to sustain any consistent pressure with those rushes. The Saints' defensive line created some opportunities for rushers to come free in the middle of the defense. They were also able to prevent Tommy DeVito from escaping in the face of that pressure.

For all the accolades Tommy DeVito rightfully received, the Giants likely wouldn't have won three consecutive games without forcing 12 turnovers during that run. The streak ended on Sunday. The Giants were unable to get the ball away from Derek Carr and company as the quarterback turned in his highest passer rating (134.8) since 2018, when he was with the Raiders.

"Defensively we [had] been talking all week about embracing the challenge, and really if we want to put our team in position to win, it's got to be on us," linebacker Bobby Okereke said after the game. "Executing, creating turnovers, really just getting that momentum swinging coming out in the second half. And having them go down and drive and score, that's not what we need. We've just got to do better from that standpoint."

New Orleans Saints' Taysom Hill (7) runs with the ball as New York Giants linebacker Azeez Ojulari defends during the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 17, 2023, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)

Lance Medow: Last week, my major takeaway from the win over the Packers was the Giants' ability to avoid negative plays. Tommy DeVito wasn't sacked, and the team faced only one third down of 10 yards or more, so it's no coincidence the offense produced 24 points and orchestrated a pair of lengthy touchdown drives. Move the calendar forward a few days and the Giants failed to score a touchdown for the fourth time this season.

The Giants had nine possessions against the Saints and were plagued by at least one negative play on eight of them. A sack, penalty or loss of yardage on the ground was a recurring theme. On the lone drive they avoided those circumstances, they ended up with a field goal. A big reason they posted a second field goal was thanks to an unnecessary roughness penalty against New Orleans that helped overcome an intentional grounding call against DeVito. Most offenses can't survive seven sacks, but the Giants aren't built to play behind the chains at that rate, especially when you don't have balance with the rushing attach. Both DeVito and Tyrod Taylor combined for 45 drop-backs, and even if you didn't watch one play from the game, based on that stat, you would know it's not a recipe for victory.

Matt Citak: While the negative plays and lack of takeaways certainly hurt, the team's performance on third down, both on offense and defense, contributed significantly to the team's struggles in New Orleans. Let's start on offense, where the Giants had one of their worst outings converting on third downs. Faced with 16 third down situations against the Saints, the offense was able to convert for a first down on just two attempts, or 12.5 percent. The Saints came into this game with the league's ninth-best third down defense, allowing a first down on 36.9 percent of attempts. Of the team's 16 attempts on Sunday, the Giants faced a third-and-long situation (seven yards or more) on 12 of them. Less than a week after not taking a single sack against the Packers, Tommy DeVito was sacked seven times by the Saints, which led to the offense playing behind the chains for most of the game. For a team that has struggled to put points on the board for most of the season, this is not a recipe for success.

Moving over to the other side of the ball, this matchup on paper seemed like an advantage in the Giants' favor. The Saints' offense was converting on just 37.5 percent of their third downs, the 19th-best mark in the NFL, heading into Week 15. New Orleans converted on six of their 12 third down attempts, with half of them coming on a third-and-short situation (five yards or less). After a quick three-and-out on their first drive of the game, the Saints converted both third-down attempts on their second drive, including one that went for a touchdown, which set the tone for the remainder of the game. While the defense did hold the Saints to under 300 yards of total offense, the unit could not force any takeaways, snapping their streak of multiple takeaways in four consecutive games. After playing well on third down throughout the team's three-game winning streak, the Giants' struggles in key situations Sunday led to their ninth loss of the season.

With 'Hard Knocks: Offseason with the New York Giants' in mind, we each chose one Giants team we would have wanted to see a documentary made about at that time, with bonus points for choosing a narrator.

With the Olympics coming up later this month, we had some fun and discussed which current Giants player would have the best shot at winning a gold medal. There's also bonus points for picking the event.

Doctors told him he needed Tommy John surgery, which typically has a recovery time of 12-18 months. His parents researched a ligament repair instead of a reconstruction, which could cut his recovery time in half.

They wound up at the famous Andrews Sports Medicine & Orthopaedic Center in Birmingham, where Roger Clemens, Michael Jordan, Drew Brees, and John Cena, among other top athletes, have been treated. Tommy John surgeries were performed here on pitchers John Smoltz, David Wells, and Kerry Wood.

But an orthopedic surgeon for his new baseball team, the New England Ruffnecks, a college development program, discovered a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament during a physical and asked for a second opinion.

Dugas performed his first UCL repair in August 2013 on a local high school pitcher who went on to pitch successfully at the college level. Dugas has performed an estimated 150 of the 400 done nationwide.

The bigger issue is the alarming number of elbow injuries in baseball. One in four major league pitchers has already had Tommy John surgery, according to the American Journal of Sports Medicine. The number of Tommy John surgeries increased 343 percent between 2003 and 2014, with the highest rise in the 15- to 19-year age group, according to a study published in the Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery.

The operation on April 6 lasts just 29 minutes. Within 10 minutes, Dugas has inspected the ligament and found it to be in good shape. A minute fleck of bone had broken off the elbow and with it a small piece of the ligament. Dugas drills two small holes, taps a surgical hammer a dozen times so that two plastic anchors are set in the bone, and then reattaches the ligament with collagen-dipped tape, a suture material.

Tommy Lauderdale says being a real estate agent is a lot like being a matchmaker. He loves gaining an understanding the needs of his customers and matching those needs with a luxury property for a long-term relationship.

With his 20 years of experience in pharma and biotech, Tommy was able to transfer the skills of specialty sales, marketing, training, and leadership and lifelong love of real estate into his dream job. He loves meeting amazing people on vacation, in a good mood, wearing a bathing suit and flip-flops looking for the perfect beach home for their family.

When he made the switch to real estate, Tommy was fortunate enough to get immediate results and was named Rookie Of The Year. And, he was blessed to be a member of Chairman's Circle and President's Club each year since. His ability to quickly build trust and relationships has helped him be in the top half of one percent of agents worldwide.

Concentrating on the 30A market, Tommy is a luxury market specialist, honing in on what he knows best. Because he and his family have been vacationing in the area since the early 1990s, he knows the area well. And, he prides himself in being laser-focused on helping his clients, adding that most of his clients end up being clients for life.

He enjoys spending time with his wife and children at the beach and boating. Since moving to the Emerald Coast in 2011, Tommy has been involved with several charities including Children's Volunteer Health Network, Food for Thought Outreach and Point Washington United Methodist Church.

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Researchers suggest that throwing fastballs nearly half of the time puts pitchers at risk of injury to their elbow. MLB pitchers who have undergone Tommy John surgery threw on average 7 percent more fastballs than pitchers who had no surgery.

"Our findings suggest that throwing a high percentage of fastballs rather than off-speed pitches puts more stress on the elbow," says Robert Keller, M.D., chief resident in Henry Ford's Department of Orthopedic Surgery and the study's lead author. "This leads to elbow fatigue, overuse and, subsequently, injury."

Tommy John surgery, named after the former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher who underwent the pioneering surgery more than 40 years ago, has since been performed on legions of pitchers at the professional and collegiate levels. In medicine it is known as ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) reconstruction. During the two-hour outpatient procedures, the UCL in the medial elbow is replaced with a tendon from the same arm or from the hamstring area.

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