Here is a great look at what the Giants' playoof opponents' coaches are saying about their losses to Big Blue.
This article provides a real interesting look at the day of an NFL scout. Aaron Ross gets a very brief mention, but this is not a Giants article - very interesting though.
And while I'm linking to non-Giants stuff, how about the Dolphins talking to Jake Long about possible contract numbers?
Here is a great look by a Pats fan of their offensive line breakdowns or our successful pass rush depending on how you look at it.
Especially hurtful to the Pats fans seems to have been Justin Tuck eating up Logan Mankins.
These 10 predictions on the next NFL season includes one certainty:
10. Giants will open the showIt's too early to worry about who we play, but it is pretty cool knowing that we are Super Bowl champs so next season begins with the whole country watching us.The only sure thing on this list is that the '08 season will start the same way the '07 season ended -- with the New York Giants on the field. One of the league's newest traditions is that the Super Bowl champion opens the new season with a Thursday night home game.
In '04, the Patriots played host to the Colts. The next year, the Raiders visited New England. In '06, the Steelers and Dolphins played in Pittsburgh. Last year, the Saints went to Indy.
Based on the '08 schedule formula, the Giants' possible opponents are the Cowboys, Redskins, Eagles, 49ers, Seahawks, Ravens, Bengals and Panthers. The obvious candidate would be the Cowboys, but the NFL has yet to arrange a divisional matchup for the season-opening game.
The most likely candidate from outside the NFC East is Seattle because the Seahawks are three years removed from an NFC title and made it to the divisional round in '07.
We are the champions:
We're only going to score 17 points? OK!
A lot is being made of how he ran off the field with one second left on the clock.
Personally I don't care where little Bill goes to cry. I'm a happy Giants fan. My dad's a happy Giants fan. My friends are happy Giants fans...
A few things are changing for Giants fans now. We are probably done criticsing Eli Manning who I must say took all the criticism New York could throw his way like a real man.
We can now make fun of Tiki Barber, probably the greatest Giants running back ever. Too bad he turned into an ass and had to go criticizing his former teammates and coaches. Guess he has to shut up now.
David Tyree should see the field more as a receiver. Sure he never made too much noise in the regular season but the guy is clutch. This story has a sweet picture of his amazing catch.
Other Giants came up huge as well. David Diehl is still playing awesome at left tackle and who thinks Justin Tuck could have been named MVP?
Of course, some people still don't give the Giants enough credit. Although they do mention the "Giants furious pass rush" they blame this loss on Tom Brady's below average performace. I don't like that. Tom Brady gave his best and our defense was often better.
And that's really the end of the story. We won a New York Giants style football game. Gotta love tough defense!
Well I wasn't going to post until half time but this is a real test of the Giants heart coming up. Eli Manning's pass (not a great one but still there) is deflected by Steve Smith and intercepted by the Patriots.
The Giants could easily let this ruin their day and give the Pats all the momentum. As I write this Maroney runs for 8 yards on first down. How will the Giants respond? Gut check time.
Here's an article on how the Giants defensive backs plan to play aggressively, hoping to push Patriots receivers off their routes and mess up Tom Brady's timing.
Personally, I'd much rather see the Giants play physical defense so this article has got my hopes up.
Pat Kirwan seems to have put some thought into this article on the Giants vs. Patriots Super Bowl. He ends up picking the wrong team, so his thoughts led him in the wrong direction though...
Here's an article comparing Spag's current situation with Bill Belechik's back in 1990. I guess I hope the Gints keep their defensive coordinator but my more immediate concern is the Giants defense controlling the Patriots offense.
I don't expect us tp shut them out but if we can slow them down some and force a turnover or two we should be in good shape.
This article does a nice job explaining some of the key maychups in the Super Bowl but concludes that the Giants have to win the game with special teams since the best our offense can do is play even with the pats defense and the best our defense can do is play even with the Pats offense.
I don't really like our chances if we have to win on special teams. I do like our chances if we win the turnover battle.
In a classic game that was frustrating at times for Giants fans (dropped passes, missed field goals, poor officiating), the Giants beat Green Bay and earned a trip to the Super Bowl.
Eli gets some credit and then more credit. No interceptions for starters and that's the entire post season. And were it not for all the drops his stats in the NFC championship game would have been pretty awesome, especially considering the temperature.
Burress was huge as he helped Manning out (though he also had a big drop at the end of the first half). He abused Al Harris.
One big concern is Seubert, who hurt his knee in the 4th quarter. Grey Ruegamer is capable of filling in, but if there's one Giant who fans want to see play in the Super Bowl it should be Seubert - we're all proud of him for coming back from a career threatening leg injury and I hope he sees the field.
And of course, you love to read articles coming out of Packer territory at a time like this. Here they cry over missed opportunities. Here they blame their defense for not coming through. Here they blame Favre.
And finally, let's give all the "experts" a very big middle finger. How many of these idiots picked the Giants? I swear these guys know less about football than many of us.
Like they were against the Cowboys last Sunday, the Giants are underdogs again. Green Bay did beat them once and go 14-3 but are they really a better team?
Can the Giants stop the run and pressure Farve is the real question. Ryan Grant was traded by the Giants and has proven to be a hrad runner but the Giants usually tackle better than the Seahawks did last week (when Grant ran for 201 yards). And Farve does take risks with the football. Pressure him and get some coverage and the Giants should win the turnover battle and the game.
So I wasn´t sure I´d get to see the Giants playoff game but I came across a sports bar in Madrid and after explaining how to make black russions was all set to watch the Giants beat Tampa Bay. It was pretty sweet.
The Giants passed, ran occasionally (though it would have been nice to get a couple of first downs running in the 4th), played well on specials, and played well on defense. What more can we ask for?
Despite this impressive performance I still have my doubts about beating Dallas but at least now I see that if we play as well as we did and win the turnover battle again there is a chance...
It was very nice to see the Giants play almost even with the Pats. I don't think anyone was expecting a win and we outperformed pretty much everyone's expectations. The injuries are a huge concern going into Tampa Bay - hopefully at least some turn out to be minor...
The Giants stick to the running game an beat thi Bills, securing a playoff spot in the process. Brandon Jacobs gained 145 yards and scored two touchdowns on 24 carries and Bradshaw gained 151 yards and scored 1 touchdown on 17 carries.
Merry Christmas!
I'm no fan of the Ravens, but I don't think their players deserved fines for criticizing the officials after they lost to the Pats in the closing minute sof the game.
Let's face it: officiating in the NFL sucks. Every week we see lots of not just bad calls but absolutely ridiculous calls. Until the NFL figures out how to provide quality officiating, they and their officials deserve all the criticism we can possibly offer.
This article talked about the importance of limiting Devin Hester's impact on the game. The author talks about the Giants special teams weapons and while Tyree and Feagles are good let's face facts - the Giants special teams have been nothing special this season.
How do you think they did against the Bears and will they be good enough to not lose us any games this season?
The Giants won, but it was at times a hard game to watch thanks to a couple of interceptions from Manning. Do we give him credit for playing well the last few minutes of the game or do we flame him for sucking before that?
Now you can argue that the wide receivers aren't all that great with Plax hurting, but the running game and offensive line are decent so I think we can expect better than average from our franchise QB, #1 draft pick that we traded a bundle for...
The defense played pretty well though had trouble closing the deal on the Bears last drive. Still all but 3 of the Bears 16 points were the result of turnovers. Nice to finally see some good D but not sure I enjoy watching Eli much these days...
Injury news: The Giants probably lost Ward for the season with a broken leg.
Jon Kitna said, "Yeah, it's more difficult because that is not a better football team than us. We gave them the football game."
Well, Strahan (3 sacks) was certainly better than the guy across from him. He didn't quite understand Kitna and said, "I honestly thought in the first half that was one of the worst teams we played that was 6-3. I don't quite understand why Jon would say that."
I'd say this could be the start of a rivalry, but the Lions have been a joke of a football team as long I can remember so I can't quite take them seriously. The defense did give up yards and the offense wasn't exactly prolific so you can't be thrilled with the Giants in this game but at least the D got some turnovers and at least they won on the road.
However, this victory was costly: Jacobs was went out with a left hamstring injury and linebacker Mathias Kiwanuka broke his left leg and is probably doen for the season.
Jon Kitna said, "Yeah, it's more difficult because that is not a better football team than us. We gave them the football game."
Well, Strahan (3 sacks) was certainly better than the guy across from him. He didn't quite understand Kitna and said, "I honestly thought in the first half that was one of the worst teams we played that was 6-3. I don't quite understand why Jon would say that."
I'd say this could be the start of a rivalry, but the Lions have been a joke of a football team as long I can remember so I can't quite take them seriously. The defense did give up yards and the offense wasn't exactly prolific so you can't be thrilled with the Giants in this game but at least the D got some turnovers and at least they won on the road.
However, this victory was costly: Jacobs was went out with a left hamstring injury and linebacker Mathias Kiwanuka broke his left leg and is probably doen for the season.
Here is a midseason all-pro team from Fox sports.
The Giants defense pretty much owned the 49ers offense on a day when our own offense clearly wasn't going to win the game on its own. This Yahoo sotry has the recap.
This article reminds us not to get too excited. The 49ers did a lot of things to beat themselves. And it shouldn't be surprising that our D was able to dominate the league's worst offense.
And the Giants still need to worry about special teams. Missed extra points and blocked punts for safeties are inexcusable.
The Giants should beat the falcons who rank 21st against the run and have an exploitable secondary. Our offense can beat their defense.
The Falcons offense is hurting at offensive tackle, so our ends should have a big day. Crumpler of course is still a threat.
And the Giants special teams will cost us a game eventually if they don't improve a lot.
Here's an interesting article comparing the Giants second half performances in the recent Jets game and the earlier Redskins game. Some scary similarites actually as Manning threw a bad intereception leading to points right before the half in both games.
The other similarities are better: strong play from Plax (who despite the ankle is kicking butt) and strong defense.
The Giants showed some heart in a mistake-filled game to get a come-from-behind win.
The Giants defensive line didn't get much pressure on Pennington but still shut down the Jets. They were helped tremendously by Pennington but still we give our boys in blue credit. The jets got their points off of turnovers and special teams mostly.
The offense went from looking pretty bad in the first half (you don't want your offense giving up points) but they scored in the second half (as did the defense) and got the job done.
Apparently my call for the defense not to suck fell on deaf ears because they sucked again. The Packers scored touchdowns on 4 out of 5 possessions. It's true that the offense and special teams put the defense in a couple of bad spots, but there's still no excuse.
The defense could help us win the turnover battle if they weren't so busy giving up embarassing plays. Obviously the offense is going to turn it over once in a while - I'm not really sure we can blame them for each and every turnover.
Not that the offense was great fun to watch either with all the penalties. Shockey and Toomer got especially bad penalties called on them (though Shockey's should still have been a first and Toomer's I'm not so sure about). Speaking of receivers, Steve Smith is hurt and will miss some time.
I honestly don't care too much if the Giants win or lose against the Packers. Well I want them to win, but mostly I just don't want to get sick watching the game. All that depends on the defense.
If the Giants continue to have the worst defense in the league, I don't what I'm going to do. All I know is it hurts to watch really terrible defense, especially the Giants really terrible defense.
At least Strahan has a sense of humor still:
Q: What's the difference in the feeling between sacks and sex?I just hope I'm still smiling when I see Strahan and the rest of the Giants defense on the field...A: After a sack, I get up and celebrate; after sex, I take a nap.
Q: Who haven't you sacked you'd like to sack?
A: I would like to sack the heck out of (Tony) Romo. I like him, he's a nice guy, he's a friend, but all the hoopla, I just want to bust him up and plus he's a Cowboy.
Newsday's Arthur Staple seems mostly positive on the Giants performance against the Jets.
I guess I'm encouraged to. Other than the first play from scrimmage our first team D played real well, totally shutting down the Jets. On offense, Manning wasn't asked to do too much and he was fairly consistent. Field goals could be a problem though...
So I'm not blogging as much as I normally would be because I'm in the Dominican Republic. Very busy sleeping on the beach here so I haven't had much time...
But I did want to comment on the Strahan craziness I've heard.
Seems that Strahan's agent has been talking to other teams without the Giants knowledge and this could be considered tampering. How great would it be to see a team like the Redskins penalized for tampering?
And why is it not surprising that no one wants to pay Strahan? You figure if you do pay him there's a good chance he'll miss a big chunk of time...
Here's an interview with Aaron Ross who likes shopping in Manhattan so much he has 34 new pairs of shoes. I wonder what other teams' fans will do with this info. I mean we made fun of Dhani Jones (when he was an Eagle) for those neckties...
In other news that doesn't seem quite right, Aaron Ross' girlfriend is pitching a reality show to MTV about their practices and lives and whatever. If it were a documentary I'd think it was a cool idea, but a reality show?
This article says the Giants are incriminating themselves by posting videos on their website that show illegal contact happening at practices. They cite Jim Finn's injury as further proof of illegal contact in Giants camp.
In other news, the NFL is being unusually careful to make sure that season ticket holders don't profit from the London game. It's kind of hypocritical that tickets to any game (Superbowl included) can be sold except for the London game.
And in other news, this article on teaching NFL players how to be broadcasters worries me. Not because things could get worse - I think we've hit rock bottom in terms of analyst quality - it's just that the guys responsible for the crap we get know are training the future of broadcasting. Tim Hasselback is one of the announcers.
Not too much Giants news available but this article on former NFL players is fairly interesting.
This article contends that the NFL needs to start ackowledging the health risks faced by its players. There may soon be a system for players to protect themselves from coaches who want them to play when it's not entirely safe to do so.
The Houston Texans re-signed fullback Vonta Leach.
The Eagles get Takeo Spikes and quarterback Kelly Holcomb from Buffalo for defensive tackle Darwin Walker and a conditional draft pick in 2008. Walker was a starter for the Eagles and had 6 sacks so they definitely gave something up.
I don't mean to brag, but I was totally right about the Superbowl. The Bears defense wasn't good enough while the Colts offense was. The Bears offense sucked miserably while the Colts defense played well enough.
Of course this Superbowl was going to be a historic one regardless of who won. Some white guys (I'm white if anyone cares) have told me that it doesn't really matter what color the coach is. I wish that were true but it is important because this was a first. When it starts happening regularly we can say it doesn't matter...
I was looking for intelligent articles discussing how the game was won but all I found were commercial things like people hating the Snickers ad I thought was funny.
If I find any decent articles on the gameplans or player performances I'll let you know. Then I'll start blogging about the draft.
I usually only preview Giants games, but I won't be doing that for a while yet. So here's some stuff to get you ready to watch the Superbowl.
1. Nick Harper might not play. He's the guy Roethlisberger tackled after a Bettis fumble...
2. Speaking of Steels Colts, Tony Dungy and Chuck Noll have a long history.
3. Here's a Steelers fan talking about how each team has shows both strength and weakness in the same areas this season.
4. Here's something on both teams' running games.
5. This guy says Peyton Manning's critics are idiots.
What I think
The Colts win this one. We all know that the NFC sucks compared to the AFC. We've seen the Colts shut down a good running game in kansas City. We've seen Rex Grossman look mediocre, and we've seen the Bears defense look beatable (and get beaten). I hope it will be close and entertaining, but I think the Colts pretty much handle the Bears.
Well here I am in New York after a good flight on JAL. Getting ready to watch some football with my dad for the first time in a while. And hoping the Giants beat up offensive line makes it a good game.
The Saints are still upset about their home game in New Jersey but I am tired of hearing about the Giants "extra home game". The real problem is that the Saints are a much better team now. Sean Payton has the Saints offense playing well, probably well enough to beat the Giants by taking advantage of a suspect secondary. Reggie Bush has 84 catches, so the Giants linebackers and safeties will have to handle him. That's a bad matchup for the Giants considering how these guys look in coverage sometimes.
Well there's certainly more to say, but with the holiday madness surrounding me I'm not sure if I can get it to you. I'll try.
First of all, fire Joe Buck. Listening to this guy talk about the Giants is worse than puking in your mouth and swallowing a little bit at a time for next three hours or whenever the game ends. Now a recap of the game itself:
The Giants passing game got off to a slower start than it should have. Manning threw a bad ball that was almost picked off. Moss made a nice catch here. Tyree dropped a pass that just should not be a problem. The timing was off between Eli and Carter plus Eli and Tiki. The Giants still got 3 but it was disheartening to see them unable to take advantage of a depleted Carolina secondary.
A bit later it was bad officiating as a Burress catch was ruled incomplete and the Giants challenge failed. At this point Manning was 3/9 for 22 yards. There was the Tyree drop, the Tiki poor effort, and the Burress catch with a BS call to consider though. Then there was also the poorly thrown ball that Carolina should have returned for a TD. Overall, Eli wasn’t having a good day in the first quarter. A long completion and then a TD pass to Plax sure made those stats look better. Plus the Giants were now up 10-0.
Then the Giants secondary gave up a lot of passing yards and Carolina scored a quick TD. 10-7. Dockery was trying to cover Steve Smith and failing as you’d expect. Demps was trying to play football and failing as we’ve also come to expect. Do we really have no one better than Demps? Man that guy is infuriating to watch. A little pass rush would be nice to watch too, but the Giants couldn’t pressure Weinke at all.
When the Giants got the ball back, Tiki broke 10,000 yards career rushing on a nice run. Congratulations Tiki! Carter was interfered with (and it was obvious) but the officials failed to make the correct call. This was just an unbelievably bad non-call. How these refs can completely suck and still keep their jobs is beyond me. If I performed like that I’d be unemployed. An errant (high of course) pass later and the Giants had to punt. The Panthers blitz was generating some serious pressure on Manning to be fair.
On the Panthers next possession the refs screwed us again when the Giants forced a fumble but the idiot ref blew his whistle. Moron. Then Will Demps dropped an interception. All in all, you start to wonder why you watch these games when incompetent officials and safeties make them a lot less fun than they should be.
Apparently Osi didn’t want to watch that crap either. He couldn’t berate the refs so he yelled at the Giants secondary some. Can’t say they didn’t earn it. Osi didn’t have much time to yell because the Giants offense went pass happy (and went nowhere).
So the Giants defense is back out and the officials screw us again, this time with a defensive holding call on Fred Robbins when all he did was cleanly beat his man and put him on the ground. I swear the BS officiating makes these games so much less fun. The NFL really needs to clean this crap up. Anyway, after some Montana-like passing and Steve Young-like scrambling from Weinke the Panthers tied the game up at 10.
The Giants got the ball back. After a couple of bad officiating errors, the Giants finally get a TD to go up 17-10 before halftime. That made me feel a bit better, but with these refs and our secondary, I certainly wasn’t very confident.
The 3rd quarter was a good one though. Gibril Wilson came up with two interceptions and the Giants scored twice to make it 27-10. The Giants running game with Brandon Jacobs kept getting stuffed in short yardage (all game really). Manning finally threw for the TD and it was nice to see Tyree get the reception. During this series there was a nasty hit on Eli Manning where the Panther led with his helmet. No doubt there will be a fine, but of course no call by the officials on this obvious personal foul…
The 4th quarter involved a lot of back and forth until Dockery changed things up a little with an interception. The guy played OK in the first half even though he was beaten on a few plays, that can happen when you’re in position but a QB makes a good throw or the receiver makes a good catch. But in the second half he really played well. The interception was just gravy.
The Giants went 3 and out again following the interception, but they didn’t need more points to win. Of course it still would have been nice to see the offense move the ball (and the chains) a little. Carolina did manage a field goal with a few minutes left in the 4th. But I’ll take the 27-13 win. Better than what we’ve been getting.
You don't usually see teams more beat up than the Giants, but Carolina qualifies. With a hurt QB and two hurt CBs, Carolina is in trouble if the Giants show up today.
This NC article still says that the game is Carolina's to lose and predicts the Panthers will get an early lead and blow it. The Giants aren't the only team that can blow a game they should win... And funnily enough the writer blames Julius Pepper's vanishing act last week on Runyan's constant holding. Will the refs ever make that Eagles tool play by the rules?
This article reminds us that in the past 3 years the Giants are 1-11 without Strahan. Ouch. The Panthers have given up 16 first quarter points but over 100 fourth quarter points this season. Ouch for them.
Anyway, the game is starting soon. Enjoy!
We're going to be thin at linebacker since Brandon Short didn't come to Nashville. Arthur Staple reports that DE Michael Strahan, DE Osi Umenyiora, CB Sam Madison and T Luke Petitgout are also absent from nashville.
The New York Times discusses the big question, which Manning is in Nashville?
His completion rate, a source of frustration for the Giants in 2005, was 65.3 percent in the first five games this season but 49.4 percent in the past five. Only one quarterback has thrown more intercepted passes.Let's hope we don't have to watch Manning get outplayed by another rookie - I don't think I can take that kind of torture. The Daily news asks if we should expect that kind of torture (Manning playing like crap) for the next few years.
The USA Today game preview has some quotes from Manning as they state the obvious (the Giants have to win this game). The Courier News lists a few of the game's key players including Pierce and Burress for the Giants. Burress' drop on that bomb for a TD was more torturous than most of Manning's throws last week. Mike Garafolo reminds us that when we should be thinking trap game we're now actually wondering if the Giants are good enough to beat the Titans. The Daily News has a Kiwanuka quote about how hard it can be to defend Vince Young.
Well that's it. I'm too scared to make my own prediction. If the Giants play hard they should ahve the talent to win. If they play like they don't care (like some seemed to against Jacksonville) who knows...
In a game against the Jaguars, there was only one Giant worth watching. Shockey seemed to be giving his best effort the whole game, but no one else put together a consistently good game. More analysis later, but I'm tired of Manningmaking poor throws on stupidly called pass plays. And I'm tired of the secondary not getting its job done, especially Corey Webster who makes a nice play to bat away a TD on one play and falls down to allow receivers to run aorund wide open on another. And I'm tired of missed tackles. Reggie Torbor losing the sack, Will Demps, just some ugly football.
The Giants got the ball first, and our MVP took over. Tiki Barber is just amazing and had some nice long runs. The Giants drive stalled when they started passing thanks to a couple of poor throws from Eli Manning. To make matters worse, Feeley missed a field goal. Blame the wind if you don’t want to blame our kicker.
The Giants defense stepped up, and not only did we stop Chicago on their first possession, Kiwanuka forced a turnover (he actually intercepted the ball) that led to a Brandon Jacobs touchdown run. There was a strange call on Jacobs for unsportsmanlike conduct after the TD run. Maybe it’s just me, but if the dude’s wife is pregnant and he wants to say hi to his wife by sticking the football under his shirt, then what’s the problem?
Of course Chicago had good field position after that. A weak Feeley kickoff didn’t help. The Giants defense held on Chicago had to punt. Manning was soon intercepted and while the defense held firm, Chichago still kicjed a 49 yard field goal to make it 7-3 Giants.
The Giants didn’t go anywhere with the football thanks to more poor passing from Manning. The Giants D stopped the Bears again. The Giants again got nowhere on offense (this is when Petigout went down and Whitfield came in). At this point in the game I was wondering why the banged up defense was playing lights out while the offense missing Toomer was playing pretty poorly. Mostly because they were calling passes and manning wasn’t delivering the ball.
Soon after Chicago got the ball back our D came up huge with a fumble that Gibril Wilson both forced and recovered. Sweet play that led to a Giants field goal. Feeley gets credit for making a 46 yarder in the wind – he had missed a 33 yard attempt earlier. Feeley made another field goal a bit later to make it 13-3 Giants.
However, right before halftime the Giants defense gave up a few 20+ yard plays and allowed a Chicago TD. That sucked. There was a 26 yard run up the gut, a couple of big pass plays that victimized Madison who looked hurt. I’m not sure what happened to the defense there. 13-10 at halftime made me a lot less confident than I had been a few minutes before at 13-3.
Unfortunately, it was a sign of things to come. The Giants played poorly on both side of the ball in the 3rd quarter and two Chicago TDs later it was 24-13. Giants fans everywhere were wondering what happened. The refs were making a lot of calls against the Giants (most but not all the Giants deserved) and the lines were both getting beaten. But the Giants offense came through with a quick TD to make it 24-20 with 3:30 left in the 3rd. This was thanks to a big run by Tiki who hadn’t looked good so far in the 3rd.
When Chicago got the ball back it looked like we had them stopped deep in their own territory, but they converted on 3rd and 13 (Corey Webster went for the big play instead of making the tackle). Their passing game continued to kill us. The third quarter ended with Chicago facing a 3rd and 4 at the Giants 35. The Giants D had another chance to stop them, the commercial break was pretty suspenseful. A penalty made it 3rd and 9. Fred Robbins came up with a huge sack to make it 4th and 18 with the Bears well out of field goal range.
Awesome start to the 4th quarter. The Giants looked good driving the ball. Tiki was running hard. Eli made a nice play to get the ball to Tyree who made an even nicer catch. Tyree was so close to going out of bounds that the Bears challenged. They lost their challenge. Everything was great until Whitfield let his man sack Eli who fumbled (luckily out of bounds). A Tiki run on 2nd and 24 made it 3rd and 15.
An insane 51 yard field goal attempt (into swirling wind) was of course missed. Devin hester of the Bears then returned it 108 yards for a touchdown. 31-20 Bears. That play was just infuriating. How can your head coach put his guys in that situation? I mean the Giants just stood there and watched it happen – the coaches had obviously not prepared them at all for the possibility of a missed field goal being returned. Just incredibly stupid considering that the field goal was 99% certain to be missed anyway.
Manning’s second interception killed any hope that was left of a Giants comeback. How can you win when your QB is credited wit 2 interceptions and 3 fumbles on 13/28 accuracy? With 11 minutes left in the 4th Eli had thrown for 111 yards. Rex Grossman had played much better and it showed in the stats: 3 TDs, 1 int., 18/30 for 246 yards.
Well soon it was 38-20 and with 8 minutes left the game was over. Eli, Coughlin, and Webster (in that order) cost the Giants dearly in this game, wasting some solid efforts from all the backups who were forced to start. Well not Whitfield who badly needed help he didn’t get, but on defense anyway, the backups played as well as we could expect.
Here's a weird article from Chicago that says if the Bears win they are the best team in the NFC. That kind of makes sense until you read the part about the Giants being an overrated team that is simply not very good. He says Eli Manning makes mistakes like Grossman (seriously which one would you rather have?) and the defense was awful even before losing Strahan and Umenyiora. I concede only that we do have serious questions on defense when we're missing our top 2 or 3 defensive ends but that goes without saying for any NFL team.
Personally I think Chicago is overrated. The Giants will be the Bears first real game. We amy see some changes besides the required ones thanks to injuries. Ward might be returning kickoffs. As long as he holds onto the ball he can't do less than Morton.
Another Chicago article has some criticism for Jacobs and Burress for talking too much. Burress says the Bears don't cover well (the reporter agrees that man to man is not their strong suit) and Jacobs says the Bears can't tackle him. What's said is said. Now we just have to see if these two can back it up. If they don't have special games then I'll have lots of criticism for them.
Steve Serby reminds us that while the Giants defense heals, the offense needs to score some points. That means Tiki Barber has to keep kicking ass. Mike Lupica reminds us that neither team looked particularly good last Sunday, but that the country will be watching anyway.
The Bears are hurting a bit too, though this Chicago paper thinks Urlacher will play. They also think he'll be less effective. Considering the Dolphins success running off tackle, and the Giants ability to run off tackle, if Urlacher is slowed the Bears might be in trouble.
For the Giants, Strahan is optimisitic but probably not playing. Ernie Palladino says Kiwanuka and Awasome are playing well enough. They are playing well for 4th and 5th string defensive ends, but is that good enough to play the Bears? I suppose that will depend on how often the Giants and Tiki score...
A Texans FanBlog lists a few things that the Texans did well and says the texans are just learning how to win. On the Giants side of things, Mike Garafolo says the Giants are continuing to win ugly.
What amazes me is that when the Giants running game looks so good, and the run defense plays well, the game is still real close. The Butler penalty can be blamed, some people will criticize the play calling. Sure 28 rushes and 29 pass attempts seems like good balance, but there are always some who say keep running it down their throats.
I would like to point out some positives besides the obvious one (we won): Gerris Wilkinson forcing a huge fumble (DeMeco Ryans got a lot of attention as he played well for Houston and he was one guy I wanted in the draft, but Wilkinson seems to have similar potential).
Tiki Barber (MVP as usual).
O'Hara had a great game. He gets to the second level and consistently makes blocks.
The Giants didn't look much better than Houston, but with 3/4 defensive ends out it's hard to look your best. Kiwi and Awasome didn't look bad - looked good against the run actually, but the Giants sure did miss Osi, Strahan, and Tuck. We really need some or all of those guys back for the Bears game. The secondary could use some healing as well...
But, ugly or not, the Giants get a win. The Cowboys (crazy game), the Bears (Miami was able to run on them), and Atlanta all lost. The Giants are in a good position.
In case you've forgotten about the Giants second round pick, here's an article on Moss and the infamous quad. A bigger Giants draft pick, Brandon Jacobs (2005 round 4), is being compared to Jim Brown. We'll see about that, but you have to appreciate the attitude:
If they give in one bit, I'm gonna beat 'em. In my mind, nobody out of those 11 people on the other side of the football can stop me." And, he added, "None of them ever want to tackle (him). I mean, they can hit you a few times, but if you keep bringing it and bringing it and bringing it, eventually they'll give up. I can see it in their eyes. I see it week in and week out.Jacobs isn't the only Giant playing well. Newsday reminds us that this team simply has it. Now they just have to bring it vs. the Texans. They say they are ready.
Gary Kubiak said he is going to start Carr next week against the Giants. If the Giants can get some pressure on him, he will fumble. He also has a bad habit of trying to force balls into tight coverage. If the Giants can manage tight coverage we may be able to get a few turnovers that way.
The Giants defense played strong early (Gibril Wilson had a couple of nice stops) and the Giants offense had good field position. The Giants were able to move the ball but 3rd and long situations were tough with the wind making the passing game pretty risky.
Eli overthrew Burress on one play but did manage to get some yardage with relatively low-risk passes. Thanks to the short field and the passing game, the Ginats scored a TD on their second position (Burress made an awesome catch on this play). That was big - because of the wind, both teams were able to put a bunch of guys in the box. The Bucs couldn't run at all and we could only run a little.
When the Bucs got the ball back the Giants D continued to look good. Strahan showed that he's the best DE in the NFL right now. A bit later Kiwanuka had a sack - that was sweet to see. He's going to be a player!
With about 12 minutes to go in the second quarter, Tamp Bay had to punt from their own 4 yard line (an awesome feagles punt stuck them down there and solid D made sure they stayed stuck - another Giants rookie, Dockery, made a nice play to knock down a pass). The Giants got the ball on the Tampa Bay 41.
The Giants didn't go very far, as Shockey dropped a 4th down pass. Luckily when the Bucs got the ball back they fumbled and the Giants recovered at the Bucs 30. A crazy pass (damn wind) to Buress, a Tiki run, and Jacobs slams it into the endzone from the 1. The Giants were up 14-0. A significant lead when passing is very risky.
Tampa Bay started to come alive after a squib gave them decent field position. Cadillac Williams had a first down run. Then Galloway helped us out with a pair of drops, including one when he burned Corey Webster and should ahve picked up big yards. On 3rd down it looked like Pierce was covering him (badly) but luckily Galloway dropped it again.
The Bucs did manage a field goal before half time. The Giants pass rush vanished and the Bucs should have had a TD when Webster got burned again (by Clayton this time). The pass didn't connect and Webster had a nice blitz to stall the Tamp bay drive. The Giants went into halftime up 14-3. The score was fine but was the momentum shifting?
Seems so, because the Bucs came out and played well in the 3rd quarter. Our offensive line couldn't handle their pressure and our defensive line couldn't bring it (thanks to short passes where Gradkowski got rid of the ball quickly). The defense held and di start getting some pressure. The Bucs defense was very aggressive and the Giants and Bucs played the field position game in the 3rd quarter. Short left the game so Wilkinson came in. He did make a big play stopping Tampa bay from getting a 1st down and looked pretty good overall.
When the 3rd qurter ended, the Giants defense needed to regroup as the Bucs were putting together a solid drive. Strahan got some good pressure to end that drive. Eventually the Giants did put together a decent drive. They had been running Barber left for no gain all day, but Brandon jacobs provided a spark with a very tough run. He's fun to watch. Not so fun when he gets called for taunting thoguh. Of course he had just taken a helmet to helmet hit but the refs didn't call that even though it looked dirty. The drive stalled at the Bucs 13 and Feeley was good from 31 for a 17-3 lead. More importantly, the Giants had taken some time off the clock.
With less than 4 minutes left in the game, the Bucs needed two TDs. Considering the wind, the game was pretty much over.
With Osi out, the Giants will need Kiwanuka and all the other defensive linmen to stp up. Of course Fred Robbins has already stepped up big time. I think his excellent play is one of the reasons Cofield looks so good so early.
Sam madison is another guy doing better than I expected. I didn't think he'd be as good as Will Allen because of his run support, but interceptions sure are nice. He said he'll play against Tampa Bay - but if there's a chance that playing might aggravate the injury he shouldn't. The Giants need him all season long.
Strahan is playing as well as we expect him to. He's getting some pass rushes and he's strong against the run. That's rare for 4-3 defensive ends these days. Most seem like little pass rush specialists who get pushed back on running plays.
The bottom line is that even without Arrington the Giants should be able to stop the Bucs weak offense.
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.
The Hartford Courant names a few keys of the game sfter reviewing how the Giants defense simplified things for the Redskins game:
1. The Giants have to contain the Falcons running game while still playing their own brand of football. In other words, dictate the game to the opponent - beat them at your game instead of playing their game.
2. Score a lot. Force the Falcons to pass more. Of course that requires a few things:
2a. Protect Manning.
2b. Overcome any noise issues.
I think we can do it. Now all the Giants players and coaches need to do is go prove me right.
We have a few articles on how Whitfield is mad at the Falcons GM. Here's one in the Star Ledger, here's one in Newsday, here's one in the Post (which adds that Feeley is also mad at "Bitch McKay"). It seems like every other paper has one too, but let's move on.
Eli Manning faced the Falcons in his first start. He'll need his extra experience because he might need to do a lot of damage for the Giants to won this game. The Falcons defensive line is real good and their linebackers are good too so running is going to be difficult (although New Orleans was able to do it so there's still hope for Tiki Barber and Brandon Jacobs).
The Falcons are hoping too, hoping that they can get into the endzone which they haven't been very good at lately. Despite that, you've got an Atlanta paper that worships the glory of the Falcons amazing running game or something like that. Hopefully, the bye week didn't give them time to find a solution to their red zone woes.
Injury wise, Gibril Wilson is questionable because someone stepped on his toe. Sounds crazy, but apparently they knocked the toenail out. I'm sure it'll hurt but that'd be a cool place for a tattoo.
It may not happen against the Falcons, but Bob Glauber reminds us that Strahan is close to breaking LT's franchise sack record. Steve Serby writes about the same thing.
Something else that may not happen against the Falcons, is Sinorice Moss getting on the field. However, he did say that he hoped to play Sunday... Jeremy Shockey is another health question mark for the Giants.
We know the Giants will have their hands full with Vick and Dunn. Still the Falcons haven't been an offensive juggernaut recently so the Giants defense might have another good day.
We should also find out if the Falcons defense is for real. They have been doing well so far and should be getting Abraham and Hartwell back. Still the guys they've been beating up on:
Granted, Atlanta hasn't faced the NFL's more high-octane offenses.Carolina without wide receiver Steve Smith is like a gun with no bullets.
Tampa Bay couldn't score in a harem.
And Arizona ... well, Kurt Warner might consider returning to his old job stocking grocery-store shelves.
With any luck, the Giants will soon be pounding on the Seahawks. The offense with the best tempo might be the offense that puts more points on the baord. Seattle always breaks the huddle in a hurry. The Giants weren't nearly as up-tempo until they started kicking ass in Philly last week.
Let's see if a more confident Eli can make the Giants offense more efficient.
Other than the ones I've linked to, good articles are in short supply today. If you need to pass the time, here's an article about Kate Mara that makes it hard not to like her.
In Shockey's New York Post blurb, he says he'll be healthy enough to get the Giants offense going against Seattle's tough defense early. Of course, maybe Toomer and Burress are more likely to get things started. Steve Serby thinks that the Giants offense can win the Seattle game for us. He also says that they have to because the defense isn't getting the job done. He's not wrong. At least the giants defense knows they need to improve.
Health on offense is becoming a concern. Moss can't get on the field. Plax missed a practice because of his back. Shockey's ankle hurts. Carter missed a practice. Obviously we don't need Moss (can't miss what you never had) but we do need Burress and Shockey. Carter too unless you want to see Jennings and Tyree out there. Of course, Seattle's defense thinks their short corners are up to the challenge.
I wonder how much noise the Giants will have to contend with in Seattle since last year we had so many false starts. The NFL also wants to know if the crowd noise is legit. Of course the lineman themselves don't blame the crowd noise; they blame encroaching defensive lineman. Hopefully the officials will call the game fairly.
Here's an interesting article from a Seattle perspective about how they'll need to pressure Eli Manning to help out their under-6-foot corners. To do that they want to take an early lead and force the Giants to pass. We have to establish the running game.
It won't be easy against the Seahawks because their defense has been playing real well. Julian Peterson has 2 sacks already, but he also has had way more chances to rush the QB than Arrington.
Here's a New York Times article on long snappers, Ryan Kuehl, and the new rule protecting them. Apparently, they needed it and Kuehl has had 5 concussions as a long snapper and is one away from retirement. Here's why:
On those plays, the long snapper is bent over the ball, peering through his legs for an upside-down view of the holder. An opposing player has traditionally lined up directly across from the snapper. At the first sign of a flicking wrist or the ball’s movement, the opponent would plow into the top of the snapper’s head. The snapper knew the hit was coming, but rarely saw it.
Here's a good overview of the game, starting with Feely's game winning field goal. However, the news isn't exactly good news:
The offense, led by quarterback Eli Manning (4-for-7, 74 yards), looked out of sync against the Ravens' first-team defense. And the defense looked awful against the Ravens' first-team offense and worse, according to Coughlin, it was "soft" up front.We expect the Ravens defense to an OK job even if we have high hopes for our offense. But we need our defense to make their offense look pathetic. Here's a description of the Ravens' first drive, which they call perfect.
While even Boller went 12 for 18, the real concern is the Giants not stopping the run. Jamal lewis and Musa Smith did just fine against the Giants.
Of course, we do have somthing to be happy about. Everyone who was healthy before the game was healthy after the game.
Chris Snee and Eli Manning got honorable mentions in Gil Brandt's under 25 ofense team. No Giants made it on defense though.
The QB who was chosen, ben Roethlisberger, is a guy many Giants fans say we should have drafted. You know the argument: We should have traded down, grabbed Big Ben, he's better than Eli, etc.
I'm sure you've heard by now that he's in the hospital and of course we all hope he is OK, but his recent 7 hour surgery after a motorcycle accident makes you wonder: how many NFL teams automatically drop bikers down their draft boards?
So the Giants will be playing the Colts:
Eli vs. Peyton didn't happen in the Super Bowl, but it will happen the first week of the 2006 season in the prime-time Sunday night opener on Sept. 10 at Giants Stadium.Should be a good test of the Giants new secondary, eh?
Will Allen has signed with Miami for 4 years, 12 million, 5 million guaranteed. It's interesting how Will Allen's contract is similar to Sam Madison's. Who got the better part of this "trade"? Well the Dolphins get someone who is young enough to perform for 4 years while one really has to wonder if Madison has 4 years left.
Of course, it got to the point where throwing at Will Allen basically involved no risk since he never came up with an interception. Madison should do better there, though he may be a bit slower and less able to play man coverage.
The NFL has pushed free agancy back a few days as they try to work out a new agreement with the Player's Association. The Giants are said to be around 3 million under the cap by most sources. Allowing about 1.5 million for the draft class, the Giants barely have money to tender their restricted free agents and resign a defensive tackle, much less play with all the free agents liekly to be cut...
Nathan Mallett, the fan who ran onto the field at Cleveland Browns Stadium during a Steelers-Browns game, was sentenced Tuesday to spend Super Bowl weekend in jail.
Nathan Mallett, 24, will begin his three-day sentence on Feb. 3 and won't be allowed to watch the Feb. 5 game on television or listen to it on radio.
Municipal Court Judge Joan Synenberg ordered Mallett not to attend Browns games in Cleveland or any other city for five years as a condition of his probation. He also most perform 150 hours of community service with Browns charities. He could have been sentenced to up to 30 days in jail.
The Giants won the NFC East by beating the Raiders. It’s great to go into the playoffs with some momentum and Chad Morton and Jay Feely must have pretty good confidence right now.
Speaking of special teams, the Giants coverage teams needed the Raiders to take a penalty on most of their returns. If not for the penalties, the Raiders would have had good field position; the Giants cover units need to improve.
Plaxico Burress is a great blocker. Call more outside running plays to his side. Giants fans say they want a bigger, badder, meaner center, but Shaun O’Hara is a solid player who can get blocks beyond the line of scrimmage.
The Giants linebackers played as well as I could have hoped for, but I was surprised to see the front four not getting a more consistent pass rush (they came up big on occasion however). The secondary didn’t look brilliant. What do you expect when a rookie who hasn’t started is covering Randy Moss?
I think we can celebrate 2006 with the Giants playing better than a lot of teams and look forward to better play soon, as in next week’s playoff games.
I've given up trying to figure when the Giants offense will come alive although Toomer said it would happen Saturday vs. the Raiders. Toomer is perhaps the best performing offensive player at the moment if you consider Tiki Barber's off game (which we can blame on play calling more than on Tiki).
Anyway, to the defense. Emmons is out. He's mad. Coughlin discussed the situation:
Q: We talked to Carlos Emmons yesterday. I'm sure as you saw, he was pretty upset and said he could've played this week and if necessary he would have definitely been back by the playoffs. Is that not the way you understood his injury to be?That sounds reasonable to me so moving on. Torbor is questionable and Coughlin's not saying whether he'll play or who will play if Torbor doesn't. So we speculate. I'd put Kevin Lewis in the middle where he has played an entire season, Nick Griesen stays on the wekside, and Pfifer or Alonzo Jackson on the strong side, perhaps rotating since Pfifer is better in coverage but may not be up to playing every down.According to the medical people, that was not the case. He was at high risk and was at risk of re-injuring. Carlos has been an outstanding player here and outstanding citizen. He's a guy who had an awful lot invested in this season. He's very disappointed, as I understand it. I didn't read any of the columns. All I did was hear he was very disappointed, as was I and anybody in this organization. The simple fact of the matter, as I tried to explain it to you yesterday, is the game has to be played. We needed to have some linebacker help. We needed to go in the direction of the players that were injured in taking the medical advice at hand. We did that. It was not an easy decision. We made the decision and we move on.
Lamont Jordan is out and the Raiders haven't been running much, but the front 7 of the Giants will still have their hands full with Zach Crockett's power running. We'll see what happens soon enough...
Wathcing the Giants have trouble bringing down Larry Johnson was frustrating, but Tiki Barber outplayed the KC running back (who had a great game) with yet another MVP type performance. After Tiki Barber ran 29 times for 220 yards and 2 touchdowns what could the Chiefs say?
"He is a complete player," said Chiefs' safety Sammy Knight. "I think it is his vision and he has gotten a lot stronger than in years past. His cutback ability is probably one of the best in the league. He showed why he is one of the top backs. He did a good job of breaking tackles today, what else can you say."
First, Shaun Powell from Newsday has a lot to say about Tiki. One of the key things to me is that the Giants stuck with the running game even though the Chiefs defense contained Barber early:
In the past, the Giants took this as a cue to start cranking up Manning's arm. Instead, offensive coordinator John Hufnagel, who calls the plays, pulled a mild surprise and kept calling Barber's number.Now, enjoy some great pictures on kansascity.com. A few show Tiki breaking tackles. Most are actually good for Giants fans. Then read the Mercury News which quotes Vermeil telling his KC players "Hey, you're going to have to tackle that son of a gun (Tiki Barber). "He's a great football player." Barber proved that he is a great one (in my mind the Giants' greatest running back ever) and broke numerous Chief tackles."We didn't give up," Barber said. "We could've gone pass-happy. But we found something that worked and stuck with it. I knew I would be in the open field at some point."
USA Today has one of the better articles on the game with bits of information about how Vermeil was so upset he was shaking after the game as he said "When someone sets an NFL or a career rushing record against what we thought was a very sound defense … we weren't worth a damn." And how Seubert came back after all this time and played well: "You kind of forget what it is like until you get out there and start playing again," Seubert said. "It is great to be back, and it is what you do."
An interesting article about how defensive players feel something when they get a good hit (or a disgusting cheap shot as Dawkins got on Ike Hilliard) on an offensive guy.
Dr. Z is arguing that crowd noise should not be as large a factor as it was in Seattle when the Giants had 11 false start penalties. He also got an answer about the exact NFL rules:
So I placed a call to Mike Pereira, the NFL's Supervisor of Officials."Well, no, it doesn't exactly exist," he said. "It was on the books, but I think that Boomer Esiason game did a lot to get it kind of phased out. First it was changed to a situation where the wide receivers had to be able to hear the quarterback, which was ridiculous, because they're farthest away. Then it became 'At the discretion of the referee,' and 99 times out of 100 he's going to say that the noise isn't loud enough to stop play. What we've got now is a rule that says that the home team can't use artificial means to incite the crowd or raise the volume, such as the scoreboard or a bugle."
I'm sure most of you saw the Giants lose to the Seahawks. Some of the Giants played well, like Osi Umenyiora who had a great day against the best left tackle in the NFL. There's no way I thought Osi could produce 2 sacks, 8 tackles, and several hits or hurries going against Walter Jones.
The problem on defense was with the secondary. Will Allen played well, but ex-Giant Joe Jerivicious had an awesome day picking on Corey Webster. I suppose we shouldn't be surprised that a veteran NFL receiver can school a rookie who hasn't played much, but I was surprised anyway.
And what hapened to Jay Feely? Seattle kicker Josh Brown has an excuse for him:
"The wind really swirls in here and stays high," said Seahawks kicker Josh Brown. "It is not necessarily right down the field. That's why the first couple of kicks were ground balls on kickoffs because if you get the ball caught up in the air, it is going to drop that way. I really feel bad for him."
And the offensive line thought things were a bit too loud (and they were loud) committing 11 false start penalties (2 of which came from Walker on a punt). Petigout (5) and Diehl (3) were especially bad.
So all in all, the Giants could clean a few things up and be an elite team. But until they do...
The Giants beat the 49ers. Yes, they were supposed to and no it wasn't pretty. Still they go the job done and they did it with defense which makes me a bit nostalgic...
The Giants haven't given up a TD in their last two games. Sure the 49ers and the Redskins aren't the best offenses in the league, but the Giants defense did dominate them and that's nice to see.
Something else which must have been nice to see: 2 Panthers cheerleaders in trouble for getting it on in the bathroom.
Once again, Green bay fans are doing the best job clicking for cans. We Giants fans are pathetic, almost in last place. It's sad, but it's not too late to start clicking once a day.
An interesting bit from an article by Dan Pompei says that the two best divisions are the NFC East and AFC West. He says that of those 8, only the Raiders couldn't be a contender.
But he also argues that these teams have such tough schedules playing division rivals and each oher that none will have enough gas left in the tank to make a superbowl run:
But teams from those divisions have the most difficult path to the Super Bowl because, in addition to having to deal with three formidable division opponents, each of the NFC East and AFC West teams has to play one another. The second half promises heightened urgency and performances from the Broncos, Chiefs, Chargers, Giants, Eagles, Redskins and Cowboys.
Charles Robinson has the Giants ranked #4 because:
The Eagles are tumbling, the Falcons are still one dimensional on offense and the Panthers are just starting to get into a groove.But right now, the Giants and Seahawks are the class of the NFC.
It was hard to believe that would be the case in the preseason, when we still didn't know what to expect from developing Eli Manning, nor the defensive additions by Seattle. But those have been two monumental factors in the rise of New York and Seattle, which both crack the top five for the first time this season.
Maybe no player has made bigger strides than Manning, whose play went from solid and encouraging late last season to downright clutch through most of this year.
I can't vouch for its authenticity, but it sounds like something Theisman would say:
"The word "genius" isn't applicable in football. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein." -
--Joe Theisman, NFL football quarterback & sports analyst.
After a dramatic come from behind victory over the Broncos...
Tom Coughlin: Well, that was some kind of finish. And I was kidding with Eli in (the locker room) that now I guess we have to wait until the middle of the fourth quarter before we mount a drive of some kind.
Amani Toomer: This was a great comeback, probably one of the best that I have been involved in.
Jim Finn: This is the most dramatic win at the end that I have been a part of.
Eli Maning: That Denver team was coming off some big wins and playing really well. To go in there and get a two-minute drive and score a game winning touchdown is definitely the biggest play so far of my career.
Tiki Barber: The offense was inept at times and we couldn't make some stops on defense. But in the end we made the plays that we had to, offensively and defensively.
Osi Umenyiora: It was the greatest victory I have ever been a part of.
Shaun O'Hara: That has to be the best come-from-behind victory that I have ever played in.
Jeremy Shockey: We did everything we could do at the end to win the game. It worked out our way this week, unlike last week.
Obviously the Broncos are playing well and the Giants are coming off an ugly loss. To beat a good team the Giants will hae to put together a more complete game.
The defense held Dallas to 16 points, which is reasonable. The offense scored 13 which is pathetic. Maybe Dallas really is that good since they clobbered the Eagles, but I don' think so. I think I saw two bad tems playing last week.
Anyway, the Giants will need to do better on offense. If we can go back to mistake free football or at least turnover free football, then we have a chance. Don't turn the ball over. There's the biggest change we need to make.
The next change is on defense. Get more aggressive in order to get the other team off the field on third down. At least once in a while. Blitz more effectively and play tighter coverage.
Finally, we need to commit to the running game. It works. Tiki was doing well against Dallas bu the Giants made him a non-factor. Why?
While the defense seemed soft against the pass, any game where the other team has to pass every play the Giants will get some turnovers as they did against the Rams. When you win the turnover battle 5-0 you win the game.
Plust the Giants offense was clicking thanks largely to Burress (10 catches, 204 yards, 2 TD) and Manning who was able to build on a solid performance in last week's loss:
"He's confident," said DE Michael Strahan of Manning. "You can see right now, every time he takes a snap and drops back it looks like he knows where to go with the ball and he isn't stuck on one receiver and he isn't giving the defense a chance to read him. He really looked good, especially for a second-year player with all the things the defenses are throwing at him. I think he is doing an incredible job. It's amazing; when he looks confident the whole offense looks more confident. The offensive line looks more confident, the running game is more confident, so I think everybody feeds off of the quarterback and right now everybody is feeding off him."Tiki also had a good day for the offense but he's not a one man show any longer.
All in all, the offense seems to be in a good place, special teams are doing well (though they gave up a ew nice returns), and defense is scary to watch but got the job done with the 5 turnovers.
I can give the Chargers credit for demolishing the Giants defense, but Ralph Vacchiano points out that the Chargers organization didn't handle itself quite profesionally:
The PA announcer told the fans Manning was the Giants' starting quarterback every time the Giants' offense came out.He must be happy that he decided not to work for an organization that is impossible to respect.The Chargers posted an "Eli's stats" graphic on the scoreboard several times listing the amount of times he was sacked, hurried or hit. The numbers were next to a photo that made Manning look somewhat drunk.
There were many anti-Manning signs and obscene signs are not supposed to be allowed.
Obscene T-shirts were available for sale in the parking lot.
Manning got hit with a shower of cups and paper as he left the field after the game.
We know the Giants stuffed the run all day against the cardinals. We know the Saints are better than the cardinals, Peter King predicts:
New Orleans 23, Giants 16If the Giants are smart, they'll force Brooks to beat them in the air by crowding the box. 8 in the box will also make it easier to spy on Brooks so he can't beat the Giants with his legs.Here's what you should know about the Saints last year. Aaron Brooks averaged 34 pass attempts per game (three more, by the way, than Peyton Manning). He had an alarmingly high 70 negative plays: 16 interceptions, 41 sacks, 13 fumbles (second in the NFL). He completed just 57 percent of his throws, with just 21 touchdowns. Too much bad. Not enough good. (For purposes of comparing, Peyton Manning had 28 negative plays last year, Brett Favre 33, Tom Brady 47, Daunte Culpepper 66. All had better completion percentages and more touchdown passes than Brooks.)
So when new offensive coordinator Mike Sheppard took over for the departed Mike McCarthy, the mandate, at least quietly, was to make this more of a running team. Smart move. Deuce McAllister and that beefy offensive line are more suited to control a game than Brooks is. Tonight in New Jersey, I expect the Saints to try to gash the Giants with a big dose of McAllister.
Interesting review of NFL TV announcers from Dr. Z. It's funny how most fans complain about the quality of the shows on ESPN and the announcing at games. I guess ratings are good though because guys don't usually get the axe...
It's great to see headlines like "Giants crush Cardinals" especially after a shaky first half. Here's a quick recap of a few aspects of the game starting with good things:
Tiki Barber - Looking to have another MVP type season. Led the Giants with 122 total yards on offense, 62 rushing and 60 receiving.
Strahan - 1.5 sacks and looked real strong.
Burress - It sure is nice to see a wide receiver catch a TD pass. How many times did we see that last year?
Ponder and Morton - A kickoff and a punt return for touchdowns. Nice!
Tackling - Not many missed tackles.
William Joseph - Along with the rest of the defensive tackles terrorized the Cardinals interior linemen. There will be harder tests in the coming weeks since the Cardinals have some issues at center
But it wasn't all good...
Play calling - Is it just me or did we know the Cardinals had a great pass rush? Did we know we should establish the run? Did we know we were putting Manning in a tough situation with 15 pass plays to 10 runs in the first half? Things were better in the second half, but I just don't understand.
Eli Manning - We can't blame only the play calling. Many of Manning's throws were off. The interceptions may not have been entirely Manning's fault (missed ball by Tyree, tipped ball at the line) but those throws weren't great ones.
Pass protection - We knew this would be a tough assignment for our offensive line and it was. Manning didn't help himself much. He needs to do a better job sensing pressure and then avoiding it.
Will Allen - Schooled by Fitzgerald. Allen wasn't the only one to blame for the Giants pass defense but he gets more blame than anyone else. Deloatch was filling in for Peterson so the Giants were missing their best corner.
The Saints will be playing at Giants stadium instead of New Orleans. No word yet on how to buy tickets, but some of the proceeds will go to help Katrina victims.
Yes, we can all be happy about the turnovers, the special teams, and the win. But Carolina's defensive line did get some serious pass rush against our new and improved offensive line. We can't go too hard on McKenzie for getting beat by the best defensive lineman in the NFL (Peppers) but overall Manning saw a lot more pressure than we'd like.
The defensive line was better, but not good enough as carolina was able to run. The linebackers need to take some of the blame here too but run defense is a concern until we see real improvement from last year.
Our running game seems to be in decent shape with Jacobs looking good and Tiki saving his strength. The passing game had a few touchdowns which is a nice change from last year but until we see better pass protection...
The NFL season is approaching and if you're like me, finding NFL game tickets is difficult for you. I am a Patriots fan and have wanted to go to a game every season I can remember, but there are never any tickets available. I finally went last year because a freind had an extra ticket. But I didn't know you could buy tickets online then. I assumed there weren't any because the Pats have been sold out for years. Season tickets has a very long list. But there are lots of places online that have NFL tickets to all games. I recommend going to a few, comparing prices, and buying them early. The longer you wait, the good-priced tickets are harder to come by and you have to pay a huge amount to get a ticket. But if you start looking now, a month and a half before the season starts, you're sure to find some good deals online. Here's one place to check out:
http://www.BestShowTicketsLasVegas.com/NFL.asp
I know that a lot of Giants fans are upset about the new no horse collar tackle rule but I think it's the right thing to do. It's not good for football when injuries are increasing the way they are now so removing one of the plays more likely to cause injury is a good move. Now if they would just get stricter with offensive line blocking...
Although I didn't expect to hear Shawn Springs called a borderline starting cornerback, Stephen Nover (who is a handicapper with Covers Experts) does have an interesting list from USA Today:
Going by production last season, these were the players who returned the least value compared with base salary and cap value, according to research compiled by USA Today:I have to wonder why Shaun Williams isn't on that list. Maybe players who go on IR don't count? I was surprised to see Luke petigout on the list because starting left tackles don't come all that cheap. And despite the penalties Petigout is an average or better left tackle.Quarterback: Brunell
Running backs: Eddie George and Ron Dayne.
Wide Receivers: Toomer and Peerless Price.
Tight end: Jay Riemersma.
Center: Cory Withrow.
Guards: Larry Allen and Ron Stone.
Tackles: L.J. Shelton and Luke Petigout.
Kicker: Martin Gramatica.
Defensive ends: Brown and Marcellus Wiley.
Defensive tackles: Warren and Sullivan.
Linebackers: Anthony Simmons, Derrick Rodgers and Nate Wayne.
Safeties: Robert Griffith and Tebucky Jones.
Cornerback: Duane Starks and Charles Woodson.
This article about referees has a bit of information about the Giants/Niners playoff debacle a few years back:
After a poor snap, holder Matt Allen threw a pass downfield for guard Rich Seubert, who was tackled by a 49er as the ball fell incomplete.It's also interesting that the get around 16,000 for officiating a playoff game. But when you think about the guys who screwed the Giants getting that kind of money you can't help but feel a bit angry...Two penalty flags were thrown on the play, but when the official who threw the flag for pass interference heard the other flag-thrower say illegal man downfield, he assumed it was on Seubert and that a man illegally down field couldn't be interfered with. As it turned out, the first flag was for another Giant linemen being downfield illegally.
So, instead of a lone penalty on the Giants, there should have been penalties on both teams, which would have canceled each other out and given the Giants another shot at the field goal and advancing.
"If it had been any other play but the last play of the game, they would have talked about it," Cashion said.
If being on the wrong end of all the invective that Giants' fans can muster is one of the pitfalls of the job, there are some perks.
A rookie NFL official, who must have at least 10 years of college experience, will make $2,200 per game this season, in addition to airfare, meals and a couple nights at plush hotels. A 20-year veteran will earn nearly $8,000 per game in the regular season and about double that for the playoffs.
I think the Chargers GM knows how to hold a grudge:
"We had been singled out," Smith recalls. "The most amazing thing was when he (Eli) said he wouldn't play for the San Diego Chargers. He shouldn't have said anything, but when he said that, it's a heavy thing to say, something he will have to carry throughout his career. He'll have to live with it. Maybe Steve Foley and Randall Godfrey (Chargers linebackers) will remember him."It's a good thing that the Giants offensive line should be much improved with the addition of McKenzie, the maturation of Snee, and Diehl (presuming he beats out Whittle) at left guard. Just hope Petigout's back is stronger...Now those would seem to be fighting words, and they probably are. Smith is a proven counterpuncher, and he can still feel the Mannings' slap on his cheek.
I'm glad Coughlin and the Giants have gotten guys like Snee and Mckenzie who push people backwards. The Broncos make me sick:Obviously getting defenders on the ground is one benefit of the cut block, but an intangible benefit is that defenders start worrying about their knees and ankles. They lose a bit of their aggression and speed since they’re paranoid that some lineman is going to creep up on them and take out their legs. This has the benefit of slowing down the entire defense.
Recently I wrote my free agent wishlist and it included Donovan Darius. However, the Jags have franchised him, and he's not worth two first round picks so I don't see the Giants going after him.