So I sit at the bar and hear a few guys behind me cheering for the Giants. So I turn around and ask if I can join them. One dude’s Canadian so i don’t know why he was rooting for the Giants but the rest were Denver fans and since New England had just destroyed Denver in the playoffs, they were rooting for the Giants. Doesn’t matter why, they were rooting for the right team and they were good company.

The game itself? What more could you ask for? I couldn’t hear the announcers but half the time that’s a bonus anyway. I was hoping the Ginats would run the ball a bit more, especially at the end. But Manning showed why he’s the Giants highest paid player. The defense held the Patriots to 17 points.

Which brings me back a few years to Jan 30, 2008. “We’re only going to score 17 points?” Brady said chuckling. “OK. Is Plax playing defense?” The Giants won 17-14 in Super Bowl 42.

Well, in 2012 the Giants were all playing defense. Good tackling. Big games from Justin Tuck. Good game from Chase Blackburn (great story there), good games all around really.

Interestingly, luck was on the Giants side. Usually they have to overcome bad luck but today they could just focus on beating the other guys. Two fumbles they recovered. A big drop from Wes Welker. Or just a bad pass by Brady. Both really.

Anyhow, I’m on vacation. More on the game later.

Amazingly, the Giants won this game on special teams. I say amazingly because special teams have not always been special in recent years in New York. Today, though, the game winning field goal was set up by a special teams turnover. And the game reached overtime thanks in large part to a 49ers special teams turnover.

Playing for return specialist Ted Ginn Jr., Kyle Williams was the 49er who gave up both fumbles recovered by our NY Giants. The wide receiver out of Arizona State has mostly mental mistakes to blame. He was in poor position when a punt in the 4th quarter bounced into his knee. The on field ruling was that the ball never touched Williams but this was correctly overturned on instant replay. Huge huge credit to the Giants Devin Thomas for recovering both fumbles. Clearly the Giants best coverage guy on special teams. He deserves a bonus for his game today.

Of course you can’t blame the giants only. The officiating in the NFL is so ridiculously bad right now that you wonder. How could it be so bad? How could the NFL not fix this terrible problem that makes fans throw up in their mouths? I mean the Giants should have been winning 30-3 at halftime. The refs made it 20-10. That’s a lot of ref interference.

But the Giants, man. They laid some eggs this season. Now, they can beat the packers and the Zebras in Wisconsin. They started winning in the trenches, playing good defense, clicking on offense, and just became fun to watch again.

Well, fun except for the officials who miss holds on JPP, late hits on Eli, make ludicrously bad spots, mess up calls on the field, mess up replays, and look entirely corrupt because who could be that incompetent? 30-20 now. The NFL officials are a pretty tough opponent for Big Blue.

Meanwhile the Giants offense finally managed to go a game without turning the ball over. You win the turnover battle and it doesn’t matter if you got abused in the first half…

Who impressed today?

William Beatty had a strong game. Sure the Jags are a no-name defense but really the whole offensive line played better than I hoped considering the injuries & shuffled positions. And it’s nice that the Giants have 3 left tackles who can play well in Diehl, Andrews, and Beatty.

Jason Pierre-Paul and Joseph Linval. I don’t like giving the defensive line credit when they were abused in the running game for 30 minutes but both these guys were pushing people around. For JPP it was his first career sack, first career multiple-sack game, and 2 forced fumbles.

The Giants are now tied for first in the NFC East.

The only potential negative would be the injuries. Nicks’ ankle seems to be OK but Diehl is getting an MRI on a sprained hip tomorrow.

Or just good football?

Anyway, here Matt Millen says there are so many receivers in bad spots because receivers and QBs can’t read defenses. It’s also suggested that this is not the players’ fault – defenses are too complicated these days.

What I found interesting:

Osi is on fire with the sacks and forced fumbles and it is awesome.

Bear Poscoe should be the new Giants fullback and I don’t see where Madison Hedgecock belongs on Big Blue.

Ahmad Bradshaw is a very good NFL RB – today he had more help than usual in terms of good play from the FB (see above) and holes from the offensive line. 19 carries, 133 yards, 7 yards per rush average. Nice.

Still have to wonder about Matt Dodge – some good kicks but the fumble was rough…

See the recap and other stuff in the videos section on NFL.com.

The Giants secondary contained Andre Johnson as well as can be expected. Some speculated that the ankle slowed him but this indicates the ankle was not an issue and the Giants defense just did the job: “he felt no soreness in his ankle in the locker room after Sunday’s loss to the Giants. Johnson racked up 95 yards on five receptions and a team-high 13 targets against New York.”

The defense forced some turnovers, neutralized the Texans’ big threats, won in the trenches all day. Victory!