NFL-Giants: NY Giants football news

So all the articles I’ve been reading say the same thing I was going to write anyway. The Giants played tough on both lines of scrimmage but they also played dumb so they lost.

My first thought after the game winning touchdown reception was to blame the coaches. I mean when the game is on the line do you want your rookie corner on the other team’s best receiver?

And then you can blame the players who should know better. Like Luke Petigout’s penalty that basically forced the Giants to settle for another field goal when they could have put the game away with a TD.

But what really killed the Giants all game were their cover teams. Missed tackles and bad positioning meant big returns all day against the Giants. Do we blame the coaches for that?

There were also missed tackles on defense. Will Allen had one early that allowed a big gain. Speaking of Will Allen, he was closer to Chad Johnson than Deloatch was on the final touchdown, but he couldn’t do anything but let Johnson make the catches and then go for the tackle. At least he didn’t miss those tackles.

All in all what should have been an encouraging game wasn’t. Watching your team play sloppy football just isn’t that fun.

As you might imagine, I’ve invested some money and a lot of time into this Giants blog so I’d like to say an extra thank you to my newest sponsors:

Buy Giants Tickets
Buy NFL Tickets
Buy NFL Playoff Tickets
Buy Steelers Tickets
Please visit these pages to support the people who support this Giants blog.

So a few days ago I wrote about how playing the Bengals defense should be easier going that the Redskins, Steelers, and Eagles defenses. We’ll see.

I’m having second thoughts because Luke Petigout may be out and Snee is still out, making the Giants offensive line a mess. There may just be a practice squad player starting at left tackle! If Petigout does play (Dan Martin writes it will be a game-time decision), both he and O’Hara will be playing hurt.

Neil Best points out that Eli is getting better at dealing with pressure, but how much will he get? Will Shockey be a high priced blocker?

Now that he’s faced the ebst defenses in the league, Eli gets to play against some of the worst. I’d like to see the Giants finsih the season with a few inspiring wins, starting Sunday vs. the Bengals. I’d prefer to be an optimistic Giants blogger during the long offseason…

Neil Best is certain Dayne will be playing for another team next year. Giants fans have been calling him a bust for a while, and while he has been inconsistent I believe it’s because he never did get a chance. Sure he had a chance in short yardage situations, but that was never his specialty and Coughlin should have known better.

While I blame Coughlin for miscasting Dayne, I don’t blame him for leaving Tiki on the field instead. Tiki is going to the probowl because he was a one man show most weeks:

Barber, 29, has proved his worth and then some this season, accounting for an astonishing 44.6% of the Giants’ yards – by far the highest percentage in the league. His 1,314 rushing yards are 73 short of his career high and rank second in the NFC, and his 1,857 total yards rank second in the NFL.

The article also reminds us that Collins has been playing well for the Raiders and the irony regarding the Chargers unexpected success this year and the Eli draft drama…

Here’s an intersting 10 page article on Eli Manning from New York Times magazine. I learned a few things including a bit about Eli torturing his dad and Warner holding onto the ball too long (an average of 3.8 seconds per play). Oh wait a minute. I already knoew Warner held onto the ball too long…

Just a little expansion on my questions about the Giants coaching staff and why Manning had to tell them which plays he could handle. This is from the post game press conference:

Q – To what degree was the playbook condensed?

A – It’s not that we took plays out, we just put in plays that I felt comfortable with and plays that I have been running. Plays that I ran during training camp or the preseason and plays that I’ve seen against live action, that I’ve seen in games. I knew how to make my reads quickly. My feet and my mind were all working together and you get in that rhythm where if the first thing is not open, your feet are already getting set to go to your next progression and I knew when to run when things weren’t open and I could take off and get some yards. They were plays that I felt comfortable with, so obviously you have to have your base plays where you can run it and you know what to do and then you can add some new things for special occasions. Hopefully we will continue improve and put some new things in and get comfortable with them.

Q – Was that your suggestion?

A – Yes. I went and talked to Coach Coughlin on Tuesday of last week and talked to him about why I was struggling and what we could do to change things. I just said that we have put in so many new plays from week to week that I don’t feel comfortable if we see it against a new defense or a new blitz, I’m not exactly sure where to go. I think we need to run plays that I know what we’re doing that I am familiar with and I can get the ball out of my hands and make quick decisions.

Eli Manning went 16-23, 182 yards, 2 TDs, 1 Int (which looked like a pass interference to me but wasn’t called) and a long of 49. Light years ahead of what we had been seeing. While Giants fans should be very happy with what we saw from Eli, we have to wonder about our coaches.

Why is it that Eli had to tell the coaches what plays he’s comfortable running? Why weren’t the coaches calling plays he could handle all along? If we can almost beat the Steelers while our defense is depleted, why do we get embarassed by 4 weeks in a row? I’m not real impressed with the Giants coaches this year.

There may not be many Giants fans who can laugh at how badly Eli ahs been playing, but if you can (you know holidays and jolly feelings and all), Reuben Frank has a humorous comparison of Eli and Peyton. Eli also comes up short against Feagles and Bettis, but at least Peyton is sticking up for Eli: “I think the Giants will be a tough team real soon,” he said. “I really do. When the time is right, Eli’s going to wreak havoc on this league. I can just tell.”

I can’t find one. The Pittsburgh Steelers site has an intersting look at some important matchups. Maybe I’m just being pessimistic now that the season is over, but they all seem to favor the Steelers. Even Tiki Barber might be in trouble going up against Farrior.