NFL-Giants: NY Giants football news

Giants beat Vikings convincingly

Lynn Zinser from the New York Times has a good story about the Giants success Sunday. She rightly credits the Giants defense. As I wrote the other day, the Giants would need their best defense, not the one that was pushed around by Detroit, to beat the Vikings. They got the exciting defense.

I suppose I also have to raise Coughlin's grade. 5-2 is good. As Shockey says:

"Coach Coughlin gave a great speech last night, talking about the team and about the core and how you'll do anything for your teammates," said Shockey, who caught 3 passes for 60 yards. "I saw a lot of that today from teammates. They made extra blocks on the field. They'd hold a guy up so another one could come in and make the play. Everybody is starting to get the picture here.

"Coach Coughlin is the main thing in this. No one really would imagine outside this locker room that we were going to be in the position we are now."

John Clayton, writing for ESPN credits Coughlin's attention to detail for Lewis's early fumble recovery. He also credits the Giants for toughening up after a bad loss. Credit must also go to Kevin Lewis of course:

"Only Kevin Lewis knew it was a (live) ball because I sure didn't," defensive end Michael Strahan said. "I was walking away and he was running the ball. It was heads-up and a great way to start the game."

Vikings coach Mike Tice fired his red hanky to challenge the play, but it only wasted a timeout.

Personally, I give Coughlin credit for using Mike Cloud instead of Ron Dayne. With two touchdowns and an excellent relief performance (even if the Vikings were worn down in the second half) I hope he's healthy and active the rest of the season. As a result, the Giants seem to have found some answers in the red zone. 4 rushing touchdowns is pretty good, but we still need to see wide receivers getting open down there and giving us more options.

Posted by James Trotta at November 1, 2004 1:41 PM