NFL-Giants: NY Giants football news

Giants make a statement in beating Falcons

Before the game, I mentioned that the Giants needed to score first to force the Falcons into passing more. Well the Giants did score first, but 3 points with about 7 minutes to go in the 2nd quarter wasn’t going to scare the Falcons. It probably should have been a touchdown on that drive, but the Giants inexplicably put Jacobs in the slot leaving an empty backfield. Then McKenzie and Shockey let John Abraham smack Eli who was totally helpless on the play. It was ugly, but the Giants got their three.

The defense played real well in the first half. Sam Madison came up with a couple of big turnovers. Osi Umenyiora and Fred Robbins were both blatantly held but nothing was called. I give them credit for beating their guys and blame the officials for calling a crappy game. What else do you expect?

Anyway, Vick was put in some 3rd and longs. A couple good blitzes did that for us. The Falcons had trouble here until late in the second quarter, on the drive after the Giants field goal. After the 2:00 warning, Vick broke a big run up the middle for a touchdown to put the Falcons ahead. That was set up by a Dunn run where Strahan was very badly and obviously held. Again, no call. On the Vick TD, Osi was clearly held. No call.

Losing by 7-3 score was certainly not what we had in mind when we said the Giants needed to get a lead and force Atlanta to abandon the run. Going into halftime I was worried. The officials were killing us. Right before halftime they even called a hold on Snee that wasn’t as bad as one of the 4 very blatant ones they let Atlanta get away with. Our offense hadn’t gotten many points on the board and Eli didn’t throw a lot of good passes in the fist half. On the bright side, Tiki was in his usual MVP form and the defense was playing well despite our defensive linemen getting held (it was like the Falcons offensive linemen were middle school girls on their first date and watching their first scary R rated movie – they were hanging onto the Giant defenders with fists full of jersey). Brandon Short was having himself a game. Vick was getting hit and fumbling. It hadn’t burned Atlanta yet, but I had reason to hope.

Not as much reason to hope after Warrick Dunn’s 90 yard TD run. Looked like Arrington was tripped on that play but no flag. Will Demps has no excuse though. A lot more hope after the Giants answered with a TD of their own. I will admit that the refs finally made a decent call on the pass interference that gave us the ball at the 1.

Then the Giants got the ball back deep in their own territory. The Giants did a great job spreading the ball around to everyone but the receivers: Tiki (MVP), Jacobs, Shockey, Jacobs some more, Shockey with a huge 3rd down catch, Tiki with a big run down to the 2 (originally ruled a TD but the Falcons won their challenge), Shockey with a TD catch! That was an exciting drive.

Then we had some exciting defense as Cofield and Robbins got a sack. That’s just sweet when your two defensive tackles get to the QB. Cofield looks like a player, very nice 4th round pick. Robbins is obviously playing well, but is it because he needs another contract? He didn’t seem to be working this hard last year…

The giants put together a nice little field goal drive. A TD might have sealed the game by putting Falcons in pass only mode. We couldn’t quite get that kill shot (Eli overthrew Plax) but we kept adding pressure.

The defense came up big again, with Osi sealing the deal by sacking Vick (who fumbled and was slow getting up). Atlanta recovered the fumble, but the Giants got the ball back after a punt. Shockey had a big catch on 3rd and 4 on this drive. Tiki did some more MVP type stuff. Brandon Jacobs had a real nice run too. Shockey came up with the game sealing TD. The game was never really in doubt after the point after put the Giants up 27-13.

Great game overall. Eli certainly made his share of bad throws, and the 90 yard TD run was annoying but we outplayed them on offense and defense. Not really on special teams which were decent (Feeley had a good game, Feagles started off weak but got better – his last punt was sweet and downed at the 6, Morton didn’t do much of anything), but we definitely outplayed the Falcons on offense and defense.