NFL-Giants: NY Giants football news

The score was 24-17. Time of posession was about the same. Number of first downs was the same. The Giants gained more yards. Each team lost a fumble.

Yet the game wasn’t that close, probably because of the Giants 3 interceptions. Our franchise QB only managed a 47.5 passer rating. Now I’m not saying it’s all on Eli, but come on dude. If you’re a franchise QB taking up a huge chunk of your team’s salary cap you gotta play well every game.

I still appreciate the Super Bowl win, but today’s performance reminded me more of the egg Eli laid against Philly last year in our early exit from the playoffs.

We play Philly next week and it would be nice if Eli contributes something…

But like I said it’s not all on Eli. You’ve got Jacobs averaging almost 6 yards per carry and you only give him the ball 13 times? WTF? And on 3rd and short you go for the bomb? This is becoming pretty predictable actually. Doesn’t it seem like we always throw a hail-mary like pass on 3rd and short?

Manningham hurt with the drops, true. Receivers didn’t get open like they should have, sure. Lots of things went wrong besides Manning but Manning is the one who makes the big bucks, not Manningham. I don’t expect equal contributions from both those guys.

The Giants outplayed the Raiders to the point where it’s hard to comment on individual players. Everyone seemed to beat their guy. Most Giants starters got to rest in the second half so their stats aren’t going to shock anyone (with the possible exception of Manning’s perfect QB rating).

Hakeem Nicks got involved and that was great to see. Bradshaw looked all-world. Jacobs ran for a much smaller average – you have to wonder if he’s going to break out and start seeing the results he had last year or what.

Here’s the confirmation. Jacobs signed for 4 years, 25 million, 13 guaranteed. Fair deal if you ask me.

Interesting article here on Giants’ scouts and how they find guys like Brandon Jacobs and Osi Umenyiora.

Mike Garafolo has the story and Jacobs is OK wioth it for now:

“They don’t want to let me go and it just buys more time to get a deal done,” Jacobs said. “A deal is going to be done and I am confident in that fact that a deal is going to be done. They just didn’t want to let me hit the market to see what else is out there. They want me in and it is fine with me, because I would rather be here. It is another reason why I don’t really have a problem with it. Now if I didn’t want to be here I would be going off the deep end now, but that is not the fact because I want to be here. My family likes it here. This is where I started and this is kind of where I want to finish. It is really just to franchise me to try to get a deal done.

Here’s Pat Kirwan’s take on free agency. He mentions how veteran running backs (like Ward and Jacobs) may not get big bucks.

Also, though most of you must have heard, the Giants resigned Carr (2 million), and said good bye to Sam Madison, Sammy Knight, and Reuben Droughns. This, of course, leaves us pretty thin in the secondary – especially at safety.

Interesting article that tries to rank free agent running backs according to category. Ward is listed as the #1 3 down back. Jacobs as the #1 2 down back.

No argument with Jacobs, but has Ward shown an ability to be a full time back? I think it’s a valid question given his injury history.

They also have categories like nickel back (3rd down back?) and zone runner.

Warner saw a lot of pressure so I’m not blaming the guy but Manning certainly outperformed. The Cardinals put up an awful lot of offense – I’d much rather watch the Giants defense dominate than an offensive shootout – but I’ll take a win on the road any way I can get it. And remember, since they used to suck every year, Arizona is a solid team, now 7-4.

Jacobs was out, Plax was in. Plax hurt his hamstring – hopefully not too much worse than before.

Domenik Hixon had a huge game returning and was solid receiving.

The referees had a horrible game. Is this really the best the NFL can do? I don’t understand how the officiating can be so bad for so long.

The #1 rushing defense in the NFL sucked pretty bad – or the #1 rushing offense in the NFL played the game of their lives – as the Giants ran successfully most of the game. Here’s an article on Earth, Wind & Fire from before the game in case you missed it.

During the game the Giants rushed for over 200 yards. They made Ray Lewis look obsolete. Ahmad Bradshaw made him look silly on his 77 yard run. Jacobs left the game after landing on his knee but says he’ll be OK.

The offensive line, of course, deserves its share of the credit. The Giants runners are happy to give it as Bradshaw even talked about how good the blocking was on his 77 yarder (that run was mostly Bradshaw making guys miss).

I hated the refs for giving Dallas that second TD. But whatever. You have to love a game where we destroy Dallas with great defense and a very sold running game. Brandon Jacoba are both amazing. They can move the pile, break off a big run, etc. Gotta credit the offensive line as well.

Not sure what to say about matthews – you don’t want your blocking tightend to get called for holding too much. But I don’t want to start complaining. Great blocking, great running, great defense = great game.

It’s hard to pick just a few guys on defense to praise but how about Danny Clark? Nice game. Corey Webster? Justin Tuck? Gotta love the Giants defense.

Some people might be complaining about Eli’s interception, fumble, bad passes. Just remember you don’t get perfect games. QBs don’t go 40/40. Turnovers happen. I’m just excited we have a QB who can pass for a TD. It wasn’t that long ago when we had to root for Kent Grahm and Danny Kannell. There’s just no getting around the fact that Eli’s a good QB and even if today wasn’t his best game he still helped us win. 16/27 and 3 TDs? I’ll take it.

Did Plax help us win? He had some nice blocks. He couldn’t come up with that TD catch where Eli threw it behind him. He dropped one that was thrown real well with aout 3 minutes left that could have helped the Giants run out the clock. I really want to give him the benefit of the doubt though. He was amazingly clutch last season. I wonder if he ran the wrong route and caused the interception – that could make me stop sticking up fpr him…