NFL-Giants: NY Giants football news

It goes to court in a week or so but I think we can be the judge and jury here:

Certainly nothing too serious but Fireman Ed does push the Giants fan a few times in anger it seems. I count 4 pushes from the Jets fan but I don’t see the Giants fan initiating contact until the end where he tries to bump Anzalone as he recovers from a push – pretty passive aggressive if you ask me.

I’m no lawyer but assault seems like a serious label for a push. If I get in a guy’s face I accept that he might push me. By pushing me he accepts I might hit back. That’s just the way it is. If Fireman Ed opened with a kick in the balls instead of a push then we’d have a problem and an assault charge.

And why NJ state police arrested Christopher Black and why he got banned from the Meadowlands is beyond me. If I were taking anyone to court it would be the dudes who arrested me (not the guy who pushed me). I mean is it against the law to get pushed around?

You like winning the turnover battle but when the other guys have 5 and the Giants have 4 something is wrong…

We knew special teams were a problem thanks to horrible coverage in the preseason. Now we see some blocked punts added to the woes…

We knew going with Boss as our only tight end was a risk – he got hurt as did Chase Blackburn (special teams captain for whatever it’s worth). Both those injuries could be problematic but gotta hope these guys are better soon.

Dodge wasn’t great or even very good, but the blocked punt was probably out of his control. Didn’t stop Giants fans from chanting “Feagles” – seemed like a classless move to me.

The defensive line seemed to play real well. They stopped the run and got after the QB. The offensive line, on the other hand, seemed to play poorly.

Kenny Phillips seems to be back. Terrell Thomas looked good with 4 passes defensed and an interception.

1) TE-Jake Ballard
2) QB-Rhett Bomar
3) DT-Nate Collins
4) OC-Jim Cordle

Edit – the following was possibly misreported
5) HB-Shawbrey McNeal (3rd down back, possible return man who was in camp with Chargers)

6) TE-Bear Pascoe
7) S-Sha’reff Rashad CB-Seth Williams

Like Jay Alford – I’m sure none of us will forget his Super Bowl sack in 2007. Injured last year and maybe not back 100% yet? Or maybe we just had too many guys at DT.

Guy Whimper – when drafted they said he had all the physical tools to develop into an elite tackle and he seemed to play OK when he came in off the bench.

Derek Hagan – our special teams have sucked all preseason but I thought he was one of our better special teams guys. But hard to argue when TC says, “we didn’t get many plays made out of the gunner position in preseason.” Sounds like undrafted free agent WR Duke Calhoun will be our gunner.

Rhett Bomar who looked good in flashes in the preseason. “Bomar’s progress has been outstanding,” Coughlin said. “He’s worked very, very hard. He did receive a lot of attention, he did make progress and he did show us what he can do.”

Bear Poscoe. The Giants have one tight end (Kevin Boss) and one guy who can’t block and hasn’t done shit (Travis Beckum). Plus as an h-back Beckum can’t really step in if Boss gets hurt.

Why can’t we cover on special teams? I haven’t seen every team in the preseason or anything but it’s hard to imagine too many teams being worse than the Giants on special teams coverage.

With the negatives out of the way, gotta like what the offense did this week compared to last. Shawn Andrews continues to look like he will be a big contributor – nice to see a guy overcome some things and come back strong.

On defense, you’d really like to see backs and tight ends get covered once in a while. And you’d like some 3rd down stops. Hopefully Canty and C. Webster are ready to go next week and that gives us a nice boost. We could sure use something on defense.

This article talks about the seriousness of the Giants current injury situation. Like in many past seasons, Giants fans are left wondering why it’s so hard for Big Blue to field a healthy team.

It showed on the field against the Ravens (who were very pass-happy for some reason) as our “starters” (whoever they are) looked terrible as a unit. Individually there were some nice performances – Corey Webster for example looked very good at CB and the defensive line played well.

On offense, the receivers seemed to get some separation but Manning couldn’t seem to get the ball where it needed to be. Is this an issue of not enough practice reps? Brandon Jacobs looked good the few times he ran. Shawn Andrews was a bright spot on the offensive line – considering how long he has been away from football I was pleasantly surprised.

I guess I’ll be calling it Giants stadium. I just don’t like the Jets when their head coach say he isn’t going to game plan and then does with some serious blitz packages.

The Giants offensive line managed well enough against the blitz considering who we were missing (playing we had William Beatty at LT, David Diehl inside at LG, Shaun O’Hara at C, Guy Whimper at RG and Kareem McKenzie at RT). Still the running game was stuffed by the Jets defense. The Giants 1st team offense overall looked weak.

There was one bright spot on offense. WR Victor Cruz was targeted 7 times and caught 6 passes for 145 yards and 3 touchdowns. Can a rookie free agent make the Giants roster at a relatively deep position (deep in the sense that there are proven guys and high draft pick guys who have [proved nothing like Sinorice Moss)? He did get a chance to return one punt and if he shows something there (which he hasn’t yet) there has to be a chance.

Well that and the fullbacks seemed to play well (though it won’t do any good without better run blocking from the offensive line).

I’m not going to try to keep up with this story – there are already a million tweets and articles and blogs and whatnot about Chad Jones and his car accident in New Orleans. Just gotta hope he recovers – it’s serious.

Jeff Feagles, one of the greatest directional punters of all time and Super Bowl champion, is going to retire. 21 years, 2 pro bowls, a Super Bowl ring, 5 NFL records, and of course a Super Bowl with the Giants. And in addition to the punting, Feagles was an awesome holder on field goal attempts.

Interesting story here on Brandon Crawford. I can’t help but think of the Invincible Mark Wahlberg movie. Good luck!