Poor showing against Titans Leaves sour taste in Giants’ fans mouths
By Dr. Bill Chachkes-Managing Partner/Executive Editor-Football Reporters Online
It was reminiscent of many trips back from the Meadowlands I remembered as a Teenager in the late 1970’s when my father was still with us. Back then we would wait for the busses outside of Gate D. Now we stand, however painfully, and wait for the train. We had all just watched the Titans throttle the NY Giants, if only on the scoreboard. I wanted to get some fan reaction. Two ladies behind me were in their jerseys and had polish under their eyes. It, and their make-up, was already running.
“Nooo…it was not a very good game” one told profootballnyc.com’s John Fennelly and I.” On seeing our press passes around our necks, another said. “No, this isn’t what I paid for, but I understand that anybody can have a bad day. At least they had more emotion then last week, but maybe too much,” said another. Two young men in front of me recognized my Military lapel pins and told me “we’re in the U.S. Air Force sir. I’m a Medic and He’s a Fireman. We are home on leave, and our Girlfriends’ got us the tickets for today. This was supposed to be the highlight of our trip home from our duty station in Japan.”
A young father with his two boys aged 5 and 8 had brought his children to their first Giants game. “I had hoped they would see a win today, that it would be something they’d carry with them for life. Maybe next time.”
More spoke up as we boarded the train, but no one spoke of 1978 and the plane with the banner that said 15 Years…., or of burning tickets in protest. A day I remember well. As well as the Giants 1986 NFC title game victory over the Washington Redskins by the score of 17-0. Most fans that remember that success, or the 1990 NFC title game against the Vikings, might feel very far away and detached from those teams and times. My Dad would simply say “Peaks and Valley’s, just like life kid, so get used to it.”
I felt for them all today, each and every one of them on line with us at the railhead, at the transfer in Secaucus, and getting off the train in Penn Station. I lived it from 1965 in Yankee Stadium as a 5 year old going to my first game by taking the third avenue “El” from Gun Hill Road , as a young teen going to the Yale Bowl and Shea Stadium, and in the early days of Giants Stadium. I knew the feeling of discomfort and dread these fans were feeling after a loss. I also knew the Emotional “high” of winning. From 1984 through 1990 the NY Giants were the team with the highest winning percentage in professional football. I sat in section 311 for most of those years with my Dad, until his passing in 1987, and with other friends and family after that until I went to the “professional’ side of all things football. I know exactly how he would have described this game’s outcome, in his no nonsense way akin to many professional veteran law enforcers/ex-soldiers like himself. “Plenty of emotion all right, but no focus for it to go to. On the football field it just gets you a loss, but on the battlefield it gets you shot up dead.” I remember going to California with Him for Super Bowl 21. I remember him telling me on the flight home afterwards” now I can Die in peace. Eleven months later we would bury him in His Army Dress Uniform with two tickets to the next game in his pocket, and his cherished 1962 NFL eastern division title football with it’s 12 autographs.
My Dad was also our local Housing development’s “official-unofficial football coach and expert all things Pigskin.” He would have spoken very little on this ride home if he where still with us today. But he would have quickly penned another of his famous letters to Mr. George Young, NY Giants General Manager at that time. Letters that always seemed to gain a hand-written reply by mail, because that was Mr. Young’s style.
He would calmly begin “Mr. Young, Penalties, turnovers, sloppy play, this doesn’t win ball games. I don’t teach it to my son and his teammates and your coaches shouldn’t either” I’m also sure Mr. Young, Mr. Accorsi, or Mr. Reese would all reply in a very similar manner: “ It was a bad day, but it was one bad day.” So tomorrow we move on.
Showing posts with label ny giants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ny giants. Show all posts
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Giants Rolle and Cruz to Victory in New Meadowlands Opener
Giants Rolle and Cruz to Victory in New Meadowlands Opener-By Jon Wagner-Sr. Writer At Large-Football Reporters Online
It won’t begin to make up for the awful way in which the New York Giants closed the Giants Stadium chapter of their storied history last season, but two newcomers helped Big Blue open its New Meadowlands Stadium era with a 31-16 preseason comeback victory over their co-tenants, the New York Jets, in the first NFL game ever played in the brand new $1.6 billion stadium on Monday night.
The names were fitting as free safety Antrel Rolle (expected to play a big role this year) got the Giants rolling with a big pick before Victor Cruz, an undrafted free agent rookie from small school Massachusetts, rallied his new team with three second-half touchdowns to send the Giants cruising to an easy win.
Rolle made a huge early impression in his first game as a Giant after spending five years in Arizona. The former first-round draft pick had a team-leading three tackles in the opening quarter and set up the first score of the game by intercepting Jets’ quarterback Mark Sanchez and returning the ball 59 yards to the Jets’ 1 yard-line.
That set up running back Brandon Jacobs’ 1-yard touchdown plunge on a third straight attempt, to give the Giants a 7-0 lead just 3:11 into the game.
The errant pass returned by Rolle was a continuation of last year’s problem for the right-handed Sanchez, who often wasn’t right when he went left, throwing across his body. A season ago, the majority of Sanchez’s picks came throwing to the left side of the field. Sure enough, Rolle caught a deflected pass that was intended in the left flat for new Jets’ running back LaDanian Tomlinson.
Sanchez and Tomlinson each rebounded very nicely after that, however.
Although Tomlinson amassed only 17 yards on 8 carries, the 31-year-old, new Jet showed that he might still have some gas left in the tank after playing nine years as a San Diego Charger. Tomlinson showed some explosiveness at times and had one nice reception for 14 yards which set up the Jets’ first touchdown on the next play, to tie the game, 7-7.
That score angered Giants’ head coach Tom Coughlin as occasional quarterback/wide receiver/wildcat specialty, sort of utility offensive threat Brad Smith literally walked into the end zone as a completely confused Giants’ defense left Smith wide open on a quick screen pass from Sanchez.
Tomlinson’s contributions were a welcome sign for Jet fans to see. They suggested that the former superstar and first-round pick might have plenty left after his production declined significantly each of the past three seasons.
Smith’s touchdown concluded a 68-yard, 14-play drive in 8:34 during which Tomlinson was a key factor. ESPN’s Mike Tirico joked during the drive that after having just one carry in the 2005 preseason and missing each of the next three preseasons before getting just twelve preseason carries last year, Tomlinson “Played more on [that] drive than he played in the past five preseasons [combined].”
Sanchez meanwhile, was sharp overall, avoiding any further turnovers and finishing a very accurate 13 of 17 for 119 yards while spreading the ball around to several different receivers.
Comparatively, the Giants were just happy that their own starting quarterback, Eli Manning, left the field well enough to play another preseason game after getting injured during his last play of the game, about four minutes into the second quarter.
Manning was supposed to hand off to Jacobs on short yardage in the red zone, but decided at the last moment to throw a fade route to the right corner. The result was Jacobs running into Manning, causing a fumble before Jets’ linebacker Calvin Pace delivered a vicious hit into Manning’s back which made Manning lose his helmet and lunge forward. Manning ended up smacking his forehead squarely against the facemask of Jets’ safety Jim Leonhard and heading to the locker room with a gushing three-inch gash that needed twelve stitches to close.
Fortunately, Manning will be fine, but he may miss some practice time depending on how long it might be before he’s able to again wear a helmet.
The play concluded a fairly tough night for Manning who was just 4 of 8 for 77 yards, 51 of which came on a very nice scamper up the right side by running back Ahmad Bradshaw after Manning avoided a sack and on a broken play, dumped a short “hot potato” type of shovel pass to Bradshaw.
One play after Manning’s injury, the Giants tied the game, 10-10, on a Lawrence Tynes field goal before the Jets grabbed a 13-10 halftime lead on a field goal by newly acquired kicker Nick Folk, who true to his earlier form in Dallas, made three short field goals, but missed when challenged from 46 yards away.
While the Giants’ first string offense failed to run the ball much or get anything going on a consistent basis with the passing game, their reserves stepped things up thereafter.
The second half show was stolen by Cruz, whose name suddenly became synonymous on national television with Terrell Owens. The Patterson, NJ native from the FCS had the final three scores of the game to become the first NFL rookie with three touchdowns in a preseason game since Owens accomplished the feat in 1998.
Although he got away with an offensive facemask, Cruz made a great one-handed grab of a pass by quarterback Jim Sorgi during a 64-yard sprint up the left sideline to put the Giants ahead to stay, 17-16, in the third quarter.
In the fourth quarter, Cruz added a 34-yard touchdown catch from Sorgi and then a 5-yard touchdown reception from fellow FCS product, quarterback Rhett Bomar, from Sam Houston State.
Cruz finished with game highs of 6 catches and 145 yards and after losing David Carr in the offseason, the Giants might have at least discovered some competency (though it was hard to tell against the Jets’ reserves) with which to back up Manning.
Sorgi, who was brought in to help coach Manning after four years of tutoring under Manning’s brother Peyton, was 8 of 15 for 146 yards and no turnovers to go with his two touchdown passes. And, Bomar, in limited action, was a solid 6 of 7 for 67 yards, with no turnovers to go along with the touchdown throw to Cruz, who is now making a strong push to make the final cut for the 53-man roster to be announced by September 4th.
Defensively for the Giants, fifth-year linebacker Gerris Wilkinson led all players with seven tackles and Big Blue got something out of three of this year’s draft picks. Second-round pick, defensive tackle Linval Joseph and fourth-round pick, middle linebacker Phillip Dillard, each had four tackles, while first-round selection, defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul, despite looking bad while getting thrown to the ground on an earlier pass rush, later recorded the game’s only sack.
Don’t expect the outspoken, cocky Jets of head coach Rex Ryan to tone anything down in the trash talk department over a preseason loss. But, for the time being, score one in the New York bragging rights column for the more quiet, sticking to going-about-their-business Giants.
It won’t begin to make up for the awful way in which the New York Giants closed the Giants Stadium chapter of their storied history last season, but two newcomers helped Big Blue open its New Meadowlands Stadium era with a 31-16 preseason comeback victory over their co-tenants, the New York Jets, in the first NFL game ever played in the brand new $1.6 billion stadium on Monday night.
The names were fitting as free safety Antrel Rolle (expected to play a big role this year) got the Giants rolling with a big pick before Victor Cruz, an undrafted free agent rookie from small school Massachusetts, rallied his new team with three second-half touchdowns to send the Giants cruising to an easy win.
Rolle made a huge early impression in his first game as a Giant after spending five years in Arizona. The former first-round draft pick had a team-leading three tackles in the opening quarter and set up the first score of the game by intercepting Jets’ quarterback Mark Sanchez and returning the ball 59 yards to the Jets’ 1 yard-line.
That set up running back Brandon Jacobs’ 1-yard touchdown plunge on a third straight attempt, to give the Giants a 7-0 lead just 3:11 into the game.
The errant pass returned by Rolle was a continuation of last year’s problem for the right-handed Sanchez, who often wasn’t right when he went left, throwing across his body. A season ago, the majority of Sanchez’s picks came throwing to the left side of the field. Sure enough, Rolle caught a deflected pass that was intended in the left flat for new Jets’ running back LaDanian Tomlinson.
Sanchez and Tomlinson each rebounded very nicely after that, however.
Although Tomlinson amassed only 17 yards on 8 carries, the 31-year-old, new Jet showed that he might still have some gas left in the tank after playing nine years as a San Diego Charger. Tomlinson showed some explosiveness at times and had one nice reception for 14 yards which set up the Jets’ first touchdown on the next play, to tie the game, 7-7.
That score angered Giants’ head coach Tom Coughlin as occasional quarterback/wide receiver/wildcat specialty, sort of utility offensive threat Brad Smith literally walked into the end zone as a completely confused Giants’ defense left Smith wide open on a quick screen pass from Sanchez.
Tomlinson’s contributions were a welcome sign for Jet fans to see. They suggested that the former superstar and first-round pick might have plenty left after his production declined significantly each of the past three seasons.
Smith’s touchdown concluded a 68-yard, 14-play drive in 8:34 during which Tomlinson was a key factor. ESPN’s Mike Tirico joked during the drive that after having just one carry in the 2005 preseason and missing each of the next three preseasons before getting just twelve preseason carries last year, Tomlinson “Played more on [that] drive than he played in the past five preseasons [combined].”
Sanchez meanwhile, was sharp overall, avoiding any further turnovers and finishing a very accurate 13 of 17 for 119 yards while spreading the ball around to several different receivers.
Comparatively, the Giants were just happy that their own starting quarterback, Eli Manning, left the field well enough to play another preseason game after getting injured during his last play of the game, about four minutes into the second quarter.
Manning was supposed to hand off to Jacobs on short yardage in the red zone, but decided at the last moment to throw a fade route to the right corner. The result was Jacobs running into Manning, causing a fumble before Jets’ linebacker Calvin Pace delivered a vicious hit into Manning’s back which made Manning lose his helmet and lunge forward. Manning ended up smacking his forehead squarely against the facemask of Jets’ safety Jim Leonhard and heading to the locker room with a gushing three-inch gash that needed twelve stitches to close.
Fortunately, Manning will be fine, but he may miss some practice time depending on how long it might be before he’s able to again wear a helmet.
The play concluded a fairly tough night for Manning who was just 4 of 8 for 77 yards, 51 of which came on a very nice scamper up the right side by running back Ahmad Bradshaw after Manning avoided a sack and on a broken play, dumped a short “hot potato” type of shovel pass to Bradshaw.
One play after Manning’s injury, the Giants tied the game, 10-10, on a Lawrence Tynes field goal before the Jets grabbed a 13-10 halftime lead on a field goal by newly acquired kicker Nick Folk, who true to his earlier form in Dallas, made three short field goals, but missed when challenged from 46 yards away.
While the Giants’ first string offense failed to run the ball much or get anything going on a consistent basis with the passing game, their reserves stepped things up thereafter.
The second half show was stolen by Cruz, whose name suddenly became synonymous on national television with Terrell Owens. The Patterson, NJ native from the FCS had the final three scores of the game to become the first NFL rookie with three touchdowns in a preseason game since Owens accomplished the feat in 1998.
Although he got away with an offensive facemask, Cruz made a great one-handed grab of a pass by quarterback Jim Sorgi during a 64-yard sprint up the left sideline to put the Giants ahead to stay, 17-16, in the third quarter.
In the fourth quarter, Cruz added a 34-yard touchdown catch from Sorgi and then a 5-yard touchdown reception from fellow FCS product, quarterback Rhett Bomar, from Sam Houston State.
Cruz finished with game highs of 6 catches and 145 yards and after losing David Carr in the offseason, the Giants might have at least discovered some competency (though it was hard to tell against the Jets’ reserves) with which to back up Manning.
Sorgi, who was brought in to help coach Manning after four years of tutoring under Manning’s brother Peyton, was 8 of 15 for 146 yards and no turnovers to go with his two touchdown passes. And, Bomar, in limited action, was a solid 6 of 7 for 67 yards, with no turnovers to go along with the touchdown throw to Cruz, who is now making a strong push to make the final cut for the 53-man roster to be announced by September 4th.
Defensively for the Giants, fifth-year linebacker Gerris Wilkinson led all players with seven tackles and Big Blue got something out of three of this year’s draft picks. Second-round pick, defensive tackle Linval Joseph and fourth-round pick, middle linebacker Phillip Dillard, each had four tackles, while first-round selection, defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul, despite looking bad while getting thrown to the ground on an earlier pass rush, later recorded the game’s only sack.
Don’t expect the outspoken, cocky Jets of head coach Rex Ryan to tone anything down in the trash talk department over a preseason loss. But, for the time being, score one in the New York bragging rights column for the more quiet, sticking to going-about-their-business Giants.
Saturday, January 09, 2010
Giants End Season With One Last Embarrassing Loss
Giants End Season With One Last Embarrassing Loss
By Jon Wagner-Sr. Writer at Large-Football Reporters Online
A long season that once started with much promise is finally, mercifully, over for the 2009 New York Giants.
Following a 5-0 start which had the Giants pointing toward the playoffs and contending for Super Bowl XLIV, New York (8-8) ended its season with its eighth loss in eleven games on Sunday.
Like most of the previous seven defeats, the final one wasn’t pretty.
New York saved perhaps its worst for last, as the Minnesota Vikings (12-4) tuned up for the playoffs with a 44-7 manhandling of the Giants, who showed almost no fight for the second straight week after dominating Washington 45-12, only two weeks ago.
After leading the Redskins 24-0 at the half, the Giants trailed by the same score at halftime to Carolina last week, en route to a 41-9 home loss which ended Big Blue’s playoff hopes.
Though Giants’ head coach Tom Coughlin stressed professional pride with his team reduced to a spoiler role in the regular season’s final week, the first half in Minnesota was even worse than last week.
The Vikings took the opening kickoff, and needed just 2:03 to go 60 yards on five plays, for a 7-0 lead on a 10-yard touchdown pass to former Giant, tight end Visanthe Shiancoe, from quarterback Brett Favre, who had numbers that would have been good for a whole game, all in the opening half.
Favre completed 19 of 23 passes for 271 yards and three touchdowns, while avoiding a turnover, to lead Minnesota to a 31-0 halftime advantage.
By then, the Vikings, controlling the ball for 18:59 to the Giants’ 11:01, had scored on five of six possessions, had outgained the Giants 343-82 (271-66 through the air, 72-16 on the ground), had 18 first downs to the Giants’ four, and made seven plays of at least 15 yards (New York made just one of those in the first half).
Favre finished with a passer rating of 148.7, going 25 of 31, for 316 yards, with 4 TD’s and no INT’s before being lifted after his fourth touchdown pass, which gave Minnesota a 41-0 lead with 6:13 left in the third quarter.
After kicker Ryan Longwell’s third field goal in as many attempts, the Vikings took a 44-0 lead into the final quarter, having scored on seven straight possessions, and eight of nine.
The season finale was obviously a team effort that was one to forget, as the Giants allowed at least 40 points for the fifth time this season, the most times they’ve done that since 1966. They also missed the postseason for the first time in five years and became the fifth NFL team since 1970 to miss the playoffs after a 5-0 start.
Still, a few Giants reached individual milestones or had some career firsts:
- On his 29th birthday, Giants’ quarterback Eli Manning (17-23, 141 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT, 1 lost fumble) became the third quarterback in team history to throw for 4,000 yards in a season, finishing 2009 with 4,021 yards (although even that was overshadowed by the Vikings, as Favre received an ovation for becoming the fourth Viking in history to pass for 4,000 yards in a season, finishing the day with 4,202 yards for his sixth 4,000-yard season; Favre, who now has 33 touchdowns and just 7 interceptions this year, also extended his record NFL record for seasons with at least 30 touchdown passes to nine seasons).
- Wide receiver Steve Smith, on the first play of the Giants’ second possession, caught a ball over the middle, making him the first Giant ever to catch 100 passes in a season. He finished with a game-high 10 catches (for 57 yards), giving him 107 receptions for the year.
- The Giants avoided a shutout on, a one-yard run, the first career touchdown, by third-year running back Danny Ware.
- Rookie wide receiver, Ramses Barden, a 6-foot-6 third-round draft pick in April, out of Cal-Poly, who holds an NCAA record with touchdown catches in 32 consecutive college games, played in his third NFL game and began the Giants’ only scoring drive of the day with his first career reception, a 16-yard grab from Manning.
Giants head coach Tom Coughlin didn’t believe that another poor performance was from a lack of trying. “I do think we tried,” he said. “Where the effort and the purpose wasn’t there last week, I thought we had that this week. I do [think we had pride]. They all came to the stadium wanting to play. I really don’t think for one minute as we went to the field, that anyone was not giving effort.”
Coughlin felt instead, it was simply mistakes that helped let the game get away. The Giants committed 13 penalties for 95 yards.
“I am disappointed in the penalties in this game,” Coughlin said after noting that the Giants had recently done a better job of cutting down on such miscues.
And, in the first half, Coughlin said, “Two turnovers, two scores” turned the game early.
“You can never ever, ever accept what happened on the field [today],” he added.
Manning commented on the disappointed ending to the season after being eliminated from playoff contention last week. “We wanted to finish the season strong, at least,” he said. “And really, just poor play on our part. [I’m] just frustrated and kind of confused and I don’t know what went wrong [since the win in Washington].”
He’s certainly not the only one, as the Giants head into the offseason trying to figure out who to keep, who to let go, and how to get back to where they were as Super Bowl champions only two seasons ago, as NFC East champions last year, and the team they were through five weeks this season.
By Jon Wagner-Sr. Writer at Large-Football Reporters Online
A long season that once started with much promise is finally, mercifully, over for the 2009 New York Giants.
Following a 5-0 start which had the Giants pointing toward the playoffs and contending for Super Bowl XLIV, New York (8-8) ended its season with its eighth loss in eleven games on Sunday.
Like most of the previous seven defeats, the final one wasn’t pretty.
New York saved perhaps its worst for last, as the Minnesota Vikings (12-4) tuned up for the playoffs with a 44-7 manhandling of the Giants, who showed almost no fight for the second straight week after dominating Washington 45-12, only two weeks ago.
After leading the Redskins 24-0 at the half, the Giants trailed by the same score at halftime to Carolina last week, en route to a 41-9 home loss which ended Big Blue’s playoff hopes.
Though Giants’ head coach Tom Coughlin stressed professional pride with his team reduced to a spoiler role in the regular season’s final week, the first half in Minnesota was even worse than last week.
The Vikings took the opening kickoff, and needed just 2:03 to go 60 yards on five plays, for a 7-0 lead on a 10-yard touchdown pass to former Giant, tight end Visanthe Shiancoe, from quarterback Brett Favre, who had numbers that would have been good for a whole game, all in the opening half.
Favre completed 19 of 23 passes for 271 yards and three touchdowns, while avoiding a turnover, to lead Minnesota to a 31-0 halftime advantage.
By then, the Vikings, controlling the ball for 18:59 to the Giants’ 11:01, had scored on five of six possessions, had outgained the Giants 343-82 (271-66 through the air, 72-16 on the ground), had 18 first downs to the Giants’ four, and made seven plays of at least 15 yards (New York made just one of those in the first half).
Favre finished with a passer rating of 148.7, going 25 of 31, for 316 yards, with 4 TD’s and no INT’s before being lifted after his fourth touchdown pass, which gave Minnesota a 41-0 lead with 6:13 left in the third quarter.
After kicker Ryan Longwell’s third field goal in as many attempts, the Vikings took a 44-0 lead into the final quarter, having scored on seven straight possessions, and eight of nine.
The season finale was obviously a team effort that was one to forget, as the Giants allowed at least 40 points for the fifth time this season, the most times they’ve done that since 1966. They also missed the postseason for the first time in five years and became the fifth NFL team since 1970 to miss the playoffs after a 5-0 start.
Still, a few Giants reached individual milestones or had some career firsts:
- On his 29th birthday, Giants’ quarterback Eli Manning (17-23, 141 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT, 1 lost fumble) became the third quarterback in team history to throw for 4,000 yards in a season, finishing 2009 with 4,021 yards (although even that was overshadowed by the Vikings, as Favre received an ovation for becoming the fourth Viking in history to pass for 4,000 yards in a season, finishing the day with 4,202 yards for his sixth 4,000-yard season; Favre, who now has 33 touchdowns and just 7 interceptions this year, also extended his record NFL record for seasons with at least 30 touchdown passes to nine seasons).
- Wide receiver Steve Smith, on the first play of the Giants’ second possession, caught a ball over the middle, making him the first Giant ever to catch 100 passes in a season. He finished with a game-high 10 catches (for 57 yards), giving him 107 receptions for the year.
- The Giants avoided a shutout on, a one-yard run, the first career touchdown, by third-year running back Danny Ware.
- Rookie wide receiver, Ramses Barden, a 6-foot-6 third-round draft pick in April, out of Cal-Poly, who holds an NCAA record with touchdown catches in 32 consecutive college games, played in his third NFL game and began the Giants’ only scoring drive of the day with his first career reception, a 16-yard grab from Manning.
Giants head coach Tom Coughlin didn’t believe that another poor performance was from a lack of trying. “I do think we tried,” he said. “Where the effort and the purpose wasn’t there last week, I thought we had that this week. I do [think we had pride]. They all came to the stadium wanting to play. I really don’t think for one minute as we went to the field, that anyone was not giving effort.”
Coughlin felt instead, it was simply mistakes that helped let the game get away. The Giants committed 13 penalties for 95 yards.
“I am disappointed in the penalties in this game,” Coughlin said after noting that the Giants had recently done a better job of cutting down on such miscues.
And, in the first half, Coughlin said, “Two turnovers, two scores” turned the game early.
“You can never ever, ever accept what happened on the field [today],” he added.
Manning commented on the disappointed ending to the season after being eliminated from playoff contention last week. “We wanted to finish the season strong, at least,” he said. “And really, just poor play on our part. [I’m] just frustrated and kind of confused and I don’t know what went wrong [since the win in Washington].”
He’s certainly not the only one, as the Giants head into the offseason trying to figure out who to keep, who to let go, and how to get back to where they were as Super Bowl champions only two seasons ago, as NFC East champions last year, and the team they were through five weeks this season.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
A Giant Statement
A Giant Statement
By Jon Wagner-Sr. Writer at Large-Football Reporters Online
With their 2009 season teetering on the brink of finishing without playoff football, the New York Giants (8-6) couldn’t afford yet another slip-up.
They ensured that wouldn’t happen, and then some.
Not only did Big Blue come away with the road victory they so desperately needed to remain a factor in the NFC playoff race, but the Giants served notice that if other conference contenders allow New York to crash the NFC postseason party, the Giants might still be dangerous enough to make the most of such an opportunity.
The G-Men made that type of statement with a thorough 45-12 thrashing of the Washington Redskins (4-10) before a national television audience in the nation’s capital on Monday Night Football.
It was the type of effort that was a lot more reminiscent of the Giants’ 5-0 start to the season while making the Giants temporarily forget their subsequent 2-6 mark leading into Monday night’s contest.
A day after the Redskins’ stadium crew had to remove an estimated 25 million pounds of snow from the stadium and their parking lots just so the game could be played after a big northeast snowstorm, it was the Giants who took the Redskins by storm.
The Giants sent an early message that they would return to their former dominating selves right from the outset, as they took the opening drive 80 yards in 16 plays, consuming 9:13, to lead 7-0 on a three-yard touchdown run by running back Ahmad Bradshaw (9 carries, 61 yards, 2 TD).
And, there was no looking back from there.
“We felt we can play at that caliber that we were playing at the beginning of the year. We came out fired up,” Bradshaw said. “This was a must-win. I told everybody before we went out, I need the whole team to come with us. And that’s how we played… together.”
The Giants scored on their first four possessions, and on six of nine times overall, punting just twice and simply running out the clock the final time they had the ball.
Meanwhile, the Redskins couldn’t get anything going offensively in that half while the Giants continued to move the ball and put points on the board.
The one saving grace for Washington might have been its defense, but even the Redskins’ biggest strength failed them against a determined Giants team.
Coming into the game, New York ranked 26th in red zone offense and was going against the NFL's top red zone defense. Yet, the Giants scored on all four trips into the red zone, getting touchdowns on three occasions.
The Giants forced a three and out on Washington’s first possession, which included a third-down sack by defensive end Justin Tuck, the first of five different New York sacks which were recorded by five different Giants.
Big Blue then drove right down the field again, going 63 yards on 11 plays in 5 minutes, for 14-0 lead, as Bradshaw scored again, on a four-yard touchdown run 39 seconds into the second quarter.
The Giants then went 27 yards, settling for a 38-yard Lawrence Tynes field goal, and on their next possession, they struck quickly, going 56 yards on just four plays in 2:05, scoring on a six-yard touchdown pass from Eli Manning (19-26, 268 yards, 3 TD, 0 INT) to wide receiver Steve Smith, to take a commanding 24-0 lead with 4:36 left in the first half.
With 1:55 left in the half and each team having had for possessions, the Giants had run 40 plays to the Redskins’ 15, and New York had outgained Washington 226-6.
Though he certainly did his own part, Manning gave credit to the Giants’ defense for contributing to the Giants’ offensive success. “They came out ready, and played awesome,” he said. “They kept giving us the ball and we kept going down and scoring. We just set the mood for the night very early.”
Washington finally looked good at the start of the third quarter, taking the opening possession of the period 86 yards on eight plays, in 4:20, scoring on an 11-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Jason Campbell (15-28, 192 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT) to tight end Fred Davis 4½ minutes into the quarter.
The extra point was missed however, the Redskins still trailed 24-6, and the Giants weren’t through lighting up the scoreboard themselves.
New York answered Washington’s first score of the game with a seven-play, 77-yard drive in 4:08, capped by a 23-yard touchdown pass from Eli Manning to wide receiver Derek Hagan, to lead 31-6, with 6:21 left in the third quarter.
Just fourteen seconds later, it started to get embarrassingly bad for the Redskins.
Cornerback Terrell Thomas intercepted Campbell and scored on a 14-yard return to make the score 38-6, and made Giants fans think back to the first five weeks of the season when Big Blue was considered a legitimate Super Bowl contender prior to its mid-season swoon.
Redskins’ running back Quentin Ganther scored on a one-yard touchdown run with nine seconds left in the third quarter to at least get Washington to double digits, but an ensuing two-point try failed, and the Giants maintained a healthy 38-12 lead heading into the final quarter.
Before taking the bench later in the fourth quarter, Manning led one more scoring drive, taking the Giants 64 yards on five plays, in 2:14, finding wide receiver Mario Manningham on a 25-yard touchdown pass to close out the scoring with 12:48 left in the game.
Most importantly, the win keeps New York one game behind Dallas and Green Bay -- who are each 9-5 overall -- in the race for the two NFC wild-card playoff spots, with two weeks remaining in the regular season. The Cowboys and Packers are each 7-3 in NFC games, while the Giants improved to 6-4 within the conference. However, based on their season sweep over Dallas, the Giants need only to tie (not pass) the Cowboys in a potential two-team tie involving New York and Dallas. The Giants and Packers have not met this season, and do not play each other over the final two weeks of the regular season.
Secondarily, should the Giants find their way into the playoffs, and do so by playing in the next two weeks they way they played in Washington, they may look back to their victory over the Redskins as another crucial turning point in their season, and something on which to build a successful playoff run the way the 2007 Giants rode a 10-6 regular season to a Super Bowl title.
Thus, as Giants head coach Tom Coughlin pointed out, a greater sense of urgency such as the one on display in D.C., will be needed henceforth from the Giants this season.
“We were the team that had more at stake, obviously, and [we] played that way,” Coughlin said. “We always talk about being the team that demonstrates greater purpose. And we did… we ascended tonight, and we have to continue to do that.”
By Jon Wagner-Sr. Writer at Large-Football Reporters Online
With their 2009 season teetering on the brink of finishing without playoff football, the New York Giants (8-6) couldn’t afford yet another slip-up.
They ensured that wouldn’t happen, and then some.
Not only did Big Blue come away with the road victory they so desperately needed to remain a factor in the NFC playoff race, but the Giants served notice that if other conference contenders allow New York to crash the NFC postseason party, the Giants might still be dangerous enough to make the most of such an opportunity.
The G-Men made that type of statement with a thorough 45-12 thrashing of the Washington Redskins (4-10) before a national television audience in the nation’s capital on Monday Night Football.
It was the type of effort that was a lot more reminiscent of the Giants’ 5-0 start to the season while making the Giants temporarily forget their subsequent 2-6 mark leading into Monday night’s contest.
A day after the Redskins’ stadium crew had to remove an estimated 25 million pounds of snow from the stadium and their parking lots just so the game could be played after a big northeast snowstorm, it was the Giants who took the Redskins by storm.
The Giants sent an early message that they would return to their former dominating selves right from the outset, as they took the opening drive 80 yards in 16 plays, consuming 9:13, to lead 7-0 on a three-yard touchdown run by running back Ahmad Bradshaw (9 carries, 61 yards, 2 TD).
And, there was no looking back from there.
“We felt we can play at that caliber that we were playing at the beginning of the year. We came out fired up,” Bradshaw said. “This was a must-win. I told everybody before we went out, I need the whole team to come with us. And that’s how we played… together.”
The Giants scored on their first four possessions, and on six of nine times overall, punting just twice and simply running out the clock the final time they had the ball.
Meanwhile, the Redskins couldn’t get anything going offensively in that half while the Giants continued to move the ball and put points on the board.
The one saving grace for Washington might have been its defense, but even the Redskins’ biggest strength failed them against a determined Giants team.
Coming into the game, New York ranked 26th in red zone offense and was going against the NFL's top red zone defense. Yet, the Giants scored on all four trips into the red zone, getting touchdowns on three occasions.
The Giants forced a three and out on Washington’s first possession, which included a third-down sack by defensive end Justin Tuck, the first of five different New York sacks which were recorded by five different Giants.
Big Blue then drove right down the field again, going 63 yards on 11 plays in 5 minutes, for 14-0 lead, as Bradshaw scored again, on a four-yard touchdown run 39 seconds into the second quarter.
The Giants then went 27 yards, settling for a 38-yard Lawrence Tynes field goal, and on their next possession, they struck quickly, going 56 yards on just four plays in 2:05, scoring on a six-yard touchdown pass from Eli Manning (19-26, 268 yards, 3 TD, 0 INT) to wide receiver Steve Smith, to take a commanding 24-0 lead with 4:36 left in the first half.
With 1:55 left in the half and each team having had for possessions, the Giants had run 40 plays to the Redskins’ 15, and New York had outgained Washington 226-6.
Though he certainly did his own part, Manning gave credit to the Giants’ defense for contributing to the Giants’ offensive success. “They came out ready, and played awesome,” he said. “They kept giving us the ball and we kept going down and scoring. We just set the mood for the night very early.”
Washington finally looked good at the start of the third quarter, taking the opening possession of the period 86 yards on eight plays, in 4:20, scoring on an 11-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Jason Campbell (15-28, 192 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT) to tight end Fred Davis 4½ minutes into the quarter.
The extra point was missed however, the Redskins still trailed 24-6, and the Giants weren’t through lighting up the scoreboard themselves.
New York answered Washington’s first score of the game with a seven-play, 77-yard drive in 4:08, capped by a 23-yard touchdown pass from Eli Manning to wide receiver Derek Hagan, to lead 31-6, with 6:21 left in the third quarter.
Just fourteen seconds later, it started to get embarrassingly bad for the Redskins.
Cornerback Terrell Thomas intercepted Campbell and scored on a 14-yard return to make the score 38-6, and made Giants fans think back to the first five weeks of the season when Big Blue was considered a legitimate Super Bowl contender prior to its mid-season swoon.
Redskins’ running back Quentin Ganther scored on a one-yard touchdown run with nine seconds left in the third quarter to at least get Washington to double digits, but an ensuing two-point try failed, and the Giants maintained a healthy 38-12 lead heading into the final quarter.
Before taking the bench later in the fourth quarter, Manning led one more scoring drive, taking the Giants 64 yards on five plays, in 2:14, finding wide receiver Mario Manningham on a 25-yard touchdown pass to close out the scoring with 12:48 left in the game.
Most importantly, the win keeps New York one game behind Dallas and Green Bay -- who are each 9-5 overall -- in the race for the two NFC wild-card playoff spots, with two weeks remaining in the regular season. The Cowboys and Packers are each 7-3 in NFC games, while the Giants improved to 6-4 within the conference. However, based on their season sweep over Dallas, the Giants need only to tie (not pass) the Cowboys in a potential two-team tie involving New York and Dallas. The Giants and Packers have not met this season, and do not play each other over the final two weeks of the regular season.
Secondarily, should the Giants find their way into the playoffs, and do so by playing in the next two weeks they way they played in Washington, they may look back to their victory over the Redskins as another crucial turning point in their season, and something on which to build a successful playoff run the way the 2007 Giants rode a 10-6 regular season to a Super Bowl title.
Thus, as Giants head coach Tom Coughlin pointed out, a greater sense of urgency such as the one on display in D.C., will be needed henceforth from the Giants this season.
“We were the team that had more at stake, obviously, and [we] played that way,” Coughlin said. “We always talk about being the team that demonstrates greater purpose. And we did… we ascended tonight, and we have to continue to do that.”
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Giants Drop a Tough One to the Hated Eagles
Giants Drop a Tough One to the Hated Eagles
The NY Giants came into this game tonight needing a win over the Eagles in the worst way. They couldn't come up with one, and so goes their season. In dropping the second game of the year to the birds, NY has no chance to win the NFC eastern Division, and must now win the final three games against the Redskins, Panthers, and Vikings just to win 10 games and get into post season play. We will have a full recap, but three players who had tough days for NY on Offense were Brandon Jacobs, Eli Manning, and Mario Manningham. This was their last game against the Eagles in Giants Stadium, with all the motivation in the world, and while they never gave up, they made plenty of mistakes in the loss. Including a sack and fumble on the very last play on offense. the Giants allowed 4 turnovers and several big plays, including a defensive touchdown, a punt return for a touchdown, and a fumble recovery returned for a touchdown. The Giants drop to a 7-6 record and are once again hanging by a thread in the playoff race. No joy in "wetville" tonight folks.
The NY Giants came into this game tonight needing a win over the Eagles in the worst way. They couldn't come up with one, and so goes their season. In dropping the second game of the year to the birds, NY has no chance to win the NFC eastern Division, and must now win the final three games against the Redskins, Panthers, and Vikings just to win 10 games and get into post season play. We will have a full recap, but three players who had tough days for NY on Offense were Brandon Jacobs, Eli Manning, and Mario Manningham. This was their last game against the Eagles in Giants Stadium, with all the motivation in the world, and while they never gave up, they made plenty of mistakes in the loss. Including a sack and fumble on the very last play on offense. the Giants allowed 4 turnovers and several big plays, including a defensive touchdown, a punt return for a touchdown, and a fumble recovery returned for a touchdown. The Giants drop to a 7-6 record and are once again hanging by a thread in the playoff race. No joy in "wetville" tonight folks.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Giants Play Like Turkeys In Thanksgiving Night Loss In Denver
Giants Play Like Turkeys In Thanksgiving Night Loss In Denver
By Jon Wagner-Sr. Writer at Large Football Reporters Online
The New York Giants traveled to Denver feeling appropriately thankful on Thanksgiving.
How could they not, after finally ending a four-game losing streak with an overtime win over Atlanta last week and licking their chops, thinking of feasting on a Denver Broncos team that was on a bad four-game slide of its own?
After an embarrassing 26-6 loss in Denver however, the Giants (6-5) will be most grateful if they can simply remain a legitimate contender in the NFC playoff race by the time the December holidays arrive.
If that happens, Giants’ head coach Tom Coughlin might be thanking any player on his team who could help prevent another performance as dreadful as the one he witnessed at Invesco Field at Mile High on Thursday night.
“We didn’t have any tempo and we didn’t make any plays,” Coughlin said. “We keep talking about winning the physical battle and controlling the line of scrimmage. We thought this would be the night and it wasn’t.
That was the understatement of the evening for Giants fans who probably wished Big Blue could have at least swapped places with one of the NFL teams which played its game earlier in the day. Seeing their team get physically dominated in the trenches the way it did in a Thanksgiving nightcap must have made it tough for Giants supporters to keep down their turkey and all of the trimmings.
The Giants managed just a pair of Lawrence Tynes field goals against a Broncos squad that allowed between 27 and 32 points in each of its previous four games.
New York tight end Kevin Boss (two receptions for 22 yards), who caught two key touchdown passes last week, said “We really wanted this one. We needed this one. We felt like we were starting to play our type of ball again [after last week] and for whatever reason we just came out here and laid an egg. We never got into a rhythm and we were just flat.”
Offensively, that was true right from the start, as the Giants stumbled out of the gate, with their six first-half possessions resulting in five punts and a fumble, going an anemic three-and-out on four occasions.
Giants’ quarterback Eli Manning (24-40, 230 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT), who threw for a career-high 384 yards and three touchdowns only four days prior, was routinely pressured as the Giants’ ineffective offensive line let the floodgates open on its often unprotected quarterback.
Although New York made the final statistics respectable -- the Broncos outgained the Giants 373-267 and finished with just six more first downs (21-15) -- the first half numbers, which set the tone for the rest of the game, told the real story, as the Giants could get very little going offensively and didn’t make enough defensive stops early on, to stay in the game.
Denver (7-4) held a huge advantage (213-38) in total yards (including 149-9 net yards through the air), had twelve first downs to New York’s three, and limited Manning to just six completions in thirteen attempts, for 28 yards in the opening two quarters.
A frustrated Osi Umenyiora was seen scolding his teammates on the sideline during the first as the defensive end seemed to be, like many Giants this season, left without answers as to why his team can often look so good at some points, and during others, as bad as it showed against the Broncos, this season.
After punting on its first possession of the game, Denver drove deep into New York territory on its next two trips, but settled for field goals each time. The first, a 26-yarder from Matt Prater, gave the Broncos a 3-0 lead with 2:28 left in the first quarter. Prater then made it 6-0, Denver, from 32 yards out, with 10:46 remaining in the opening half.
The Broncos would score on their next two possessions though, to take control of the game. A fumble by Giants’ running back Danny Ware was recovered at the New York 38-yard line by safety Brian Dawkins (who used to plague the Giants for years as a member of the Philadelphia Eagles before coming to Denver this season).
The Broncos took advantage quickly, needing just four plays to find the end zone, as Denver wide receiver Brandon Marshall (team-high 6 catches for a game-high 86 yards) made a nice leaping, one-hand grab on a pass from quarterback Kyle Orton (18-28, 245 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT) for a 28-yard gain. Three plays later, rookie running back Knowshon Moreno (Ware‘s fellow Georgia alum, who racked up a game-high 88 yards on 19 carries), scored on a one-yard touchdown plunge to put the Broncos comfortably ahead, 13-0, with 7:17 left in the half.
A 15-yard facemask penalty on Giants’ cornerback Corey Webster put Denver in field goal range on the Broncos next possession, allowing Prater to connect again, on a 47-yard field goal, 3:28 before halftime, to give Denver 16-0 lead, a margin the Broncos would take into the locker room.
The Giants showed signs of getting back in the game on both sides of the ball in the third quarter. They held Denver scoreless in the period and mounted scoring drives the first two times they touched the ball in the quarter.
But, each of those possessions ended in field goals (third-quarter kicks of 39 and 52 yards from Tynes) rather than touchdowns, something that Coughlin pointed to as the last blown chances for the Giants to come away victorious. “We came away with field goals rather than touchdowns.” he said, “Which could have given us some gas un our tank… and a chance to win.”
The Giants went quietly in the final quarter after Tynes’ second field goal trimmed the Broncos’ lead to 16-6 with 31 second remaining in the third period.
Denver took the ensuing possession 64 yards, finishing a nine-play drive in 5:16 on a 17-yard touchdown pass from Orton to wide receiver Brandon Stokley, who caught a pass wide open over the middle and scored untouched, to put the Broncos up 23-6, with 10:15 left in the game.
Prater closed the scoring, finishing his perfect night with his fourth field goal, a 24-yarder, with 5:02 remaining.
History has been traditionally unkind to NFL road teams traveling on a short week, distances of at least as long as the Giants’ trip to Denver. However, Coughlin didn’t blame the schedule makers. He said his team’s meetings, preparation, and organization during the week were all fine. He simply concluded, “We played very poorly tonight, there was no excuse for it… no short week, none of that stuff... We just did not play well.”
Coughlin came back to losing the battle at the line of scrimmage, particularly losing the battle with the running game on each side of the ball. “That’s where football starts,’ he said. “Stopping the run and running the ball.”
That issue for the Giants was evident by the play calling. Although New York had a slightly higher yards per carry average (3.6 to 3.5), the Broncos, who were in control, were able to rush the ball 40 times (for 138 yards) out of 68 offensive plays. In sharp contrast, the Giants, playing catchup, were forced to abandon their running game earlier than they had originally planned, rushing just 16 times in 56 offensive plays.
The loss was a big missed opportunity for New York, which could have been playing Dallas (8-3, Thanksgiving Day winners over Oakland) for first place in the NFC East at home next week.
Giants’ running back Brandon Jacobs said of his team’s overall effort, “We didn’t want it bad enough.” He remains optimistic though, despite the Giants’ fifth loss in six games, saying, “We’ve got a lot of talent and we know at some point it’s going to pick up. We’ve got to really get our engine going for the next couple of weeks.”
They still may, but as Coughlin alluded to, the Giants must now hope there’s enough gas in the tank for that engine to get them where they’d still like to go.
By Jon Wagner-Sr. Writer at Large Football Reporters Online
The New York Giants traveled to Denver feeling appropriately thankful on Thanksgiving.
How could they not, after finally ending a four-game losing streak with an overtime win over Atlanta last week and licking their chops, thinking of feasting on a Denver Broncos team that was on a bad four-game slide of its own?
After an embarrassing 26-6 loss in Denver however, the Giants (6-5) will be most grateful if they can simply remain a legitimate contender in the NFC playoff race by the time the December holidays arrive.
If that happens, Giants’ head coach Tom Coughlin might be thanking any player on his team who could help prevent another performance as dreadful as the one he witnessed at Invesco Field at Mile High on Thursday night.
“We didn’t have any tempo and we didn’t make any plays,” Coughlin said. “We keep talking about winning the physical battle and controlling the line of scrimmage. We thought this would be the night and it wasn’t.
That was the understatement of the evening for Giants fans who probably wished Big Blue could have at least swapped places with one of the NFL teams which played its game earlier in the day. Seeing their team get physically dominated in the trenches the way it did in a Thanksgiving nightcap must have made it tough for Giants supporters to keep down their turkey and all of the trimmings.
The Giants managed just a pair of Lawrence Tynes field goals against a Broncos squad that allowed between 27 and 32 points in each of its previous four games.
New York tight end Kevin Boss (two receptions for 22 yards), who caught two key touchdown passes last week, said “We really wanted this one. We needed this one. We felt like we were starting to play our type of ball again [after last week] and for whatever reason we just came out here and laid an egg. We never got into a rhythm and we were just flat.”
Offensively, that was true right from the start, as the Giants stumbled out of the gate, with their six first-half possessions resulting in five punts and a fumble, going an anemic three-and-out on four occasions.
Giants’ quarterback Eli Manning (24-40, 230 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT), who threw for a career-high 384 yards and three touchdowns only four days prior, was routinely pressured as the Giants’ ineffective offensive line let the floodgates open on its often unprotected quarterback.
Although New York made the final statistics respectable -- the Broncos outgained the Giants 373-267 and finished with just six more first downs (21-15) -- the first half numbers, which set the tone for the rest of the game, told the real story, as the Giants could get very little going offensively and didn’t make enough defensive stops early on, to stay in the game.
Denver (7-4) held a huge advantage (213-38) in total yards (including 149-9 net yards through the air), had twelve first downs to New York’s three, and limited Manning to just six completions in thirteen attempts, for 28 yards in the opening two quarters.
A frustrated Osi Umenyiora was seen scolding his teammates on the sideline during the first as the defensive end seemed to be, like many Giants this season, left without answers as to why his team can often look so good at some points, and during others, as bad as it showed against the Broncos, this season.
After punting on its first possession of the game, Denver drove deep into New York territory on its next two trips, but settled for field goals each time. The first, a 26-yarder from Matt Prater, gave the Broncos a 3-0 lead with 2:28 left in the first quarter. Prater then made it 6-0, Denver, from 32 yards out, with 10:46 remaining in the opening half.
The Broncos would score on their next two possessions though, to take control of the game. A fumble by Giants’ running back Danny Ware was recovered at the New York 38-yard line by safety Brian Dawkins (who used to plague the Giants for years as a member of the Philadelphia Eagles before coming to Denver this season).
The Broncos took advantage quickly, needing just four plays to find the end zone, as Denver wide receiver Brandon Marshall (team-high 6 catches for a game-high 86 yards) made a nice leaping, one-hand grab on a pass from quarterback Kyle Orton (18-28, 245 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT) for a 28-yard gain. Three plays later, rookie running back Knowshon Moreno (Ware‘s fellow Georgia alum, who racked up a game-high 88 yards on 19 carries), scored on a one-yard touchdown plunge to put the Broncos comfortably ahead, 13-0, with 7:17 left in the half.
A 15-yard facemask penalty on Giants’ cornerback Corey Webster put Denver in field goal range on the Broncos next possession, allowing Prater to connect again, on a 47-yard field goal, 3:28 before halftime, to give Denver 16-0 lead, a margin the Broncos would take into the locker room.
The Giants showed signs of getting back in the game on both sides of the ball in the third quarter. They held Denver scoreless in the period and mounted scoring drives the first two times they touched the ball in the quarter.
But, each of those possessions ended in field goals (third-quarter kicks of 39 and 52 yards from Tynes) rather than touchdowns, something that Coughlin pointed to as the last blown chances for the Giants to come away victorious. “We came away with field goals rather than touchdowns.” he said, “Which could have given us some gas un our tank… and a chance to win.”
The Giants went quietly in the final quarter after Tynes’ second field goal trimmed the Broncos’ lead to 16-6 with 31 second remaining in the third period.
Denver took the ensuing possession 64 yards, finishing a nine-play drive in 5:16 on a 17-yard touchdown pass from Orton to wide receiver Brandon Stokley, who caught a pass wide open over the middle and scored untouched, to put the Broncos up 23-6, with 10:15 left in the game.
Prater closed the scoring, finishing his perfect night with his fourth field goal, a 24-yarder, with 5:02 remaining.
History has been traditionally unkind to NFL road teams traveling on a short week, distances of at least as long as the Giants’ trip to Denver. However, Coughlin didn’t blame the schedule makers. He said his team’s meetings, preparation, and organization during the week were all fine. He simply concluded, “We played very poorly tonight, there was no excuse for it… no short week, none of that stuff... We just did not play well.”
Coughlin came back to losing the battle at the line of scrimmage, particularly losing the battle with the running game on each side of the ball. “That’s where football starts,’ he said. “Stopping the run and running the ball.”
That issue for the Giants was evident by the play calling. Although New York had a slightly higher yards per carry average (3.6 to 3.5), the Broncos, who were in control, were able to rush the ball 40 times (for 138 yards) out of 68 offensive plays. In sharp contrast, the Giants, playing catchup, were forced to abandon their running game earlier than they had originally planned, rushing just 16 times in 56 offensive plays.
The loss was a big missed opportunity for New York, which could have been playing Dallas (8-3, Thanksgiving Day winners over Oakland) for first place in the NFC East at home next week.
Giants’ running back Brandon Jacobs said of his team’s overall effort, “We didn’t want it bad enough.” He remains optimistic though, despite the Giants’ fifth loss in six games, saying, “We’ve got a lot of talent and we know at some point it’s going to pick up. We’ve got to really get our engine going for the next couple of weeks.”
They still may, but as Coughlin alluded to, the Giants must now hope there’s enough gas in the tank for that engine to get them where they’d still like to go.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Mediocre NFC Yields Giant Strides For Big Blue During Bye Week
Mediocre NFC Yields Giant Strides For Big Blue During Bye Week
BY Jon Wagner-Sr. Writer at Large Football Reporters Online
New York Giant fans can now calm down a little this week. Rest assured, at this point, there’s still very much of a season left for Big Blue.
It wouldn’t be New York if its fans and media didn’t often overreact to each game that any professional team plays in New York. That response just comes with the territory when rooting for or discussing teams in the New York City area.
Sure enough, to the degree that the Giants were being discussed as part of the National Football League elite after a dominant 5-0 start, was the extent to which many in the New York area were asking what was wrong with the Giants and how New York could let its entire season slip away after a subsequent four-game slide.
No doubt, the questions surrounding the problems that the Giants still need to fix this season were, and still are, legitimate. And, if the Giants don’t soon rectify a lot of the issues that were exposed during their aforementioned four-game losing streak, it’s true, Big Blue’s goal of reaching the playoffs could be in serious jeopardy.
But, for those who were spewing all of the doom and gloom talk about the Giants’ playoff possibilities, many going so far as to say that the Giants’ fourth straight loss ended their season, take a look at the current NFC standings after what happened on Sunday, as the Giants tried to regroup during their bye week.
Sure, New York had slipped from 5-0 to 5-4, and from first place to third place in the NFC East.
Yet, simply by not playing, the Giants moved back into a tie for second place with the 5-4 Philadelphia Eagles (who were beaten in San Diego on Sunday), and are now just one game behind the 6-3 Dallas Cowboys, the NFC East leaders, who lost at Green Bay this week.
As for the NFC wild-card race, the Giants and Eagles are not only tied for the wild-card lead with each other, but also with the 5-4 Atlanta Falcons (losers at Carolina on Sunday) and the 5-4 Green Bay Packers. Carolina, San Francisco, and Chicago are each a game back, at 4-5.
For all of this past week’s chatter about the Giants’ season being over, New York still very much controls its own destiny as long as it can pull everything together and play better.
The Giants host Atlanta next week, while having other home dates with Dallas, Philadelphia, and Carolina in December. And, the Giants are done with both the Cowboys and Eagles on the road.
The bottom line is that while the Giants have to correct a lot of what plagued them while losing four games in a row, and they still have much work to do in order to reach the playoffs this year, they’re very far from the fate many had prematurely predicted for them (if any Giants are Mark Twain fans, they can certainly relate).
As evidenced while the Giants rested this week, no one else in the NFC East seems to be running away with their division, and even less so in the NFC wild-card picture.
So, at least for now Giant fans, view the remaining Giant games in this season the same way your team plans on approaching them. It may sound clichéd, but forget about the recent past and take the rest of the season one game at a time.
Because it doesn’t appear that anything regarding where the Giants are headed this season, one way or the other, will be determined any time soon.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Good Behavior Starts At Home
Good Behavior Starts At Home
By Jon Wagner Sr. Writer at Large Football Reporters Online
Recently, the New York Giants have been bad.
No, they haven’t been well-behaved at all over the past four weeks.
They’ve been undisciplined and careless, mistake-prone and unfocused.
They’ve been so bad, that in the span of just one month, they’ve gone from a 5-0 member of the NFL elite to a mediocre, middle-of-the-pack, 5-4.
And, now they’re being punished for their actions.
A very tough schedule lies ahead for them, and they’ll have to work extra hard and do nearly everything the right way, just to get back to being what most had previously expected of them.
But, they’re on their bye week, so they have plenty of time to think about what they’ve done, and how to do much better going forward.
When you’re away from home, sometimes you forget certain lessons, and it’s easy to go astray.
That’s why, if you’re a Giants fan, you’ll have to excuse the two bad road losses, by 21 points to the Saints, and by 23 points to the Eagles.
After all, the Giants weren’t going to win those games anyway. So, why fret about them? It’s the NFL, it happens, especially in tough places to play, like New Orleans and Philadelphia.
Even with those two defeats, New York still has a winning 3-2 road record, which included at one point, three straight road wins and a victory over now first-place Dallas.
However, at home, we should all know better. At home, it’s easier to remember and follow valuable lessons of how we’re supposed to act.
Yes, at home, we should all definitely be on our best behavior.
And, so should the Giants.
But, during their current four-game losing streak, they certainly haven’t.
It’s the home losses aided by some very sloppy play, and misguided moves by the Giants’ coaching staff, which have really hurt the Giants more than anything so far this season.
The Giants let two very winnable games, each very much there for the taking in the fourth quarter, against teams visiting all the way from the west, slip away all because they acted poorly at home.
Against Arizona, the Giants outgained the Cardinals at home by 39 yards. Okay, not much, but they did win the battle both through the air (albeit by just four yards) and a little more significantly on the ground (by 35 yards). And, they controlled the time of possession, again not by a lot (by a mere 32 seconds), but it was still in their favor. When a football team does those things at home, it should win.
But, not when they’re not careful. Not sticking with the running game when they should have at times, and at others, poor execution early in several different series which repeatedly set up third-and-longs. Add seven penalties, two fumbles (one lost), and three interceptions, including a final one fairly deep in Arizona territory, trailing by just a touchdown with 68 seconds left, and it all cost the Giants a home win they should have had.
In their latest loss, the Giants outgained San Diego 304-226 yards (116-34 rushing), while holding the ball for over fifteen minutes more (37:47 to 22:13) than the Chargers. And, the Giants were even a little more disciplined at least when it came to hanging on to the ball, winning the turnover battle, 2-1. Again, when you accomplish all of those things in a game, particularly on your home field, you should come away with a victory.
Again though, a lack of focus and attention to detail led to another heartbreaking home loss. Nine penalties totaling 104 yards, 84 more yards than the 20 yards the Chargers (who committed only three penalties) were penalized more than wiped out the 82-yard rushing advantage the Giants held. And, no penalty was worse than the 10-yard holding call on right guard Chris Snee immediately after the Giants took over after an interception at the San Diego 4-yard line with a three-point lead and just 3:14 left in the game. Include the coaching staff in the blame for the bonehead miscues as well, for not going for the win and playing things much too conservatively, settling for a field goal after Snee drew the flag, only to lose on a Charger touchdown in the final half-minute.
If the Giants would have taken care of business in those two home games, their whole season would look drastically different today.
In lieu of their current four-game slide, the Giants would have simply split their past four games.
Rather than an uninspiring 2-2 home record in 2009, the Giants would be a perfect 4-0 at the Meadowlands.
Instead of third place in the NFC East, the Giants would be in first place.
And, in place of a 5-4 record and great playoff uncertainty, the Giants would be 7-2 and thinking about making a push for a home playoff game.
Perhaps it was to be expected given the Giants’ recent history. This is nevertheless, virtually the same team that went only 3-5 at home while winning eleven straight games away from Giants Stadium during their Super Bowl winning year just two seasons ago, and it’s the same team that earned the top seed and home field throughout last year’s playoffs, only to lose their lone postseason game -- where else -- at home last year.
As bleak as things seem right now for the Giants, knowing that no team which has gone through a four-game losing streak in a season has ever made a Super Bowl, it could be much worse.
The current wild-card picture reveals that Atlanta and Philadelphia, each 5-3 and just one-half game ahead of the Giants, are the only other non-division leaders besides New York with winning records in the NFC. And, the Giants play both of those teams at home, in addition to getting a home date with Dallas, which the Giants trail by 1½ games for the NFC East division lead.
Righting themselves at home can still solve a lot of problems for the Giants’ season even if they falter badly once or twice more on the road.
As tough as the overall remaining schedule is for New York in its final seven regular season games of 2009, even if the Giants have a road game or two as bad they had in New Orleans and Philadelphia, they can still achieve the goals they set out with when they were 5-0.
If the Giants can finally play a lot more crisp and sound football at home, as they should, with a bad Washington team left on the road, Big Blue could still realistically achieve a 10-6, or perhaps an 11-5 record, if they could also steal just one of the tougher games left on the road. There’s also the possibility that a normally tough road game at Minnesota may mean nothing to the Vikings in the final week of the season, which would make that road game a lot more winnable than it looks today. Those types of scenarios could very much have the Giants acting as the dangerous playoff team in January which most expected to see a lot more before New York’s current four-game losing streak.
To do that though, the Giants have to refrain from the types of costly mistakes which they should never make on a consistent basis, especially at Giants Stadium.
Thus, for the rest of their season, the Giants must remember that good behavior always starts at home.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Chargers Shock Conservative Giants In Final Minute
Chargers Shock Conservative Giants In Final Minute
By Jon Wagner Sr. Writer at Large Football Reporters online
On a day when he moved into third place on the all-time New York Giants’ list for completions, Giants’ quarterback Eli Manning was ironically beaten by the quarterback who was involved in the trade that brought Manning to New York in the first place.
More than five years after being traded for Manning, San Diego quarterback Phillip Rivers, who was a Giant for all of about 45 minutes on Draft Day in 2004, directed a final minute, game-winning, 80-yard touchdown drive to beat the Giants, 21-20, at the Meadowlands on Sunday, in the first meeting between Manning and Rivers since their trade.
In their first trip back to the Meadowlands to play the Giants since December 23, 1995 (a 27-17 San Diego victory), the Chargers brought the nice San Diego weather with them on an uncharacteristically warm November day in New Jersey, and their recent stretch of hot play as well.
For at least one day, San Diego could definitely feel like they got the better of the deal, even though most football followers, even among those who either cover or root for the Giants, have ranked Rivers as slightly better than Manning to this point in their careers.
Entering Sunday’s showdown, Rivers’ had a better quarterback rating (93.4 to 77.1), completion percentage (61.9 percent to 56.1 percent), yards-per-game average (215.8 ypg to 203.4 ypg), and touchdowns-to-interceptions ratio (89:40 to 111:82).
However, most who feel that Rivers has been the more accomplished of the two passers, also agree that the Giants have had the biggest leg -- or with a quarterback comparison, the biggest arm –- up on the trade since Manning leads in the one statistical category which matters most: one Super Bowl victory (including a Super Bowl MVP) to no Super Bowls reached yet for Rivers.
On Sunday, the results were remarkably similar between the two quarterbacks who will always be associated with each other throughout the rest of their careers and whatever future legacies they leave behind.
Throwing for 215 yards on 33 attempts, Manning completed 25 passes, increasing his career total to 1,441, moving him past one former Giant (Charlie Conerly, 1,418 completions) and just six completions behind another -- Kerry Collins, who ranks second on the Giants' career completion list.
Rivers meanwhile, was about the same, going 24 for 36, for 209 yards.
Where they differed was that Manning did not turn the ball over, while Rivers threw two interceptions, but while Manning tossed a pair of touchdowns, Rivers threw touchdown passes on all three of San Diego’s scores.
In terms of just one game on Sunday, Rivers ultimately had the last laugh, and more importantly for both teams, the Chargers (5-3) and Giants are now going in opposite directions, with San Diego winning their past three games after a mediocre and inconsistent 2-3 start, while New York lost its fourth consecutive game after looking like an elite NFL team at 5-0. The Giants have already matched the total number of losses they had in 2008.
Perhaps expecting a Manning-Rivers back-and-forth shootout, the 78,774 fans in attendance witnessed a scoreless game after one quarter.
The Giants had a chance to strike early, but came away with no points after driving 68 yards on eleven plays, in 7:23, on the game’s opening possession, after holder Jeff Feagles couldn’t get a snap down on a 38-yard field goal attempt.
That play would come back to haunt the Giants in the one-point loss, and appropriately, Feagles’ fumble on the play was recovered by Chargers’ linebacker Shawne Merriman, who despite being suspended by the NFL for abusing steroids in 2006, is a three-time pro bowl selection after being selected by San Diego in the first round of the 2005 NFL draft using a draft pick that the Chargers acquired when they traded Rivers for Manning.
On the final play of the first quarter, Rivers threw just before pressure from the back side, from Giants’ linebacker Michael Boley (who returned from injury), and from defensive end Osi Umenyiora and linebacker Antonio Pierce, both up the middle, got to him, to complete a key 3rd-and-10 pass to tight end Antonio Gates (game-high 67 yards on 5 receptions) for a 19-yard play to the Giants’ 10-yard line.
That set up a Rivers 10-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Vincent Jackson, who caused Giants starting left cornerback Corey Webster problems on several occasions during the game. Jackson’s catch gave the Chargers a 7-0 lead on the first play of the second quarter.
But, Manning went a perfect 9-for-9 to march the Giants right back on their longest drive (in terms of time) in over sixteen years, taking New York 79 yards on 16 plays in 10:35, to tie the game, 7-7, on a 6-yard touchdown pass with 4:20 left in the first half, to wide receiver Steve Smith, who led the Giants with eight catches for 57 yards.
The game remained tied until late in the third quarter, when Rivers took advantage of another short punt by Feagles, something which has seriously plagued the Giants while facing good opposing quarterbacks during their current losing streak.
After a 31-yard punt by Feagles, Rivers drove the Chargers 51 yards in on six plays in 3:03, to give his team a 14-7 lead on a 2-yard touchdown toss to tight end Kris Wilson, with 3:51 left in the third quarter. Webster helped set up the score, being called for pass interference in the end zone against Jackson, on a 29-yard heave by Rivers, who was hit as he threw.
Manning again responded though, taking the Giants 70 yards on 10 plays in 4:42, to set up a 38-yard field goal by kicker Lawrence Tynes, to cut the Chargers’ lead to 14-10 with 14:09 left in the game.
Then, after the Giants’ defense forced its only three-and-out of the game, New York got great field position at the San Diego 39-yard line after a 13-yard punt return by Domenik Hixon.
The Giants needed only six plays from there, to take a 17-14 lead with 8:58 remaining in the game, on an 8-yard Manning touchdown pass into the far left corner of the end zone to tight end Kevin Boss.
The defining moment of the game -- and depending on how things plays out over the next several weeks, maybe of the season -- then came for the Giants after both teams traded punts.
Taking over at the San Diego 21-yard line after a Feagles’ 46-yard punt out of bounds, Rivers, on first down, threw over the middle and was intercepted by cornerback Terrell Thomas at the Chargers’ 37-yard line. Thomas returned the ball 33 yards to the San Diego four-yard line, with just 3:14 left in the game.
If the Giants score there, as they should have, they likely win the game and have a much different outlook on their season right now.
Instead, New York went into ultra conservative mode, rather than attacking to try to win the game, partly because of a holding penalty on right guard Chris Snee which immediately pushed the ball back to the 14-yard line.
Manning then completed to wide receiver Hakeem Nicks for no gain. On second down, running back Brandon Jacobs ran up the middle for five yards to the Chargers’ 9-yard line. And, on 3rd-and-goal, the Giants again ran the same play, Jacobs for five yards up the middle, to the San Diego four-yard line.
All that did was set up a Tynes 22-yard field goal to put the Giants ahead 20-14, with 2:07 left in the game, giving a good quarterback like Rivers plenty of time to send New York to yet another defeat.
And that’s exactly what Rivers did, completing six of eight passes, taking the Chargers 80 yards to win the game. The game-winning drive was capped on the second touchdown catch by Jackson, this time on an 18-yard pass from Rivers with just 21 seconds left in the game.
On the play, Webster was again beaten by Jackson, but mostly because he never received help that should have been there. Cornerback Bruce Johnson was locked in on Gates, who running an inside route, and he never made a break to his left in time to give help to Webster who was watching Jackson run the outside fade route toward the far right corner of the end zone.
Rivers is simply too good for that without enough pressure on him, nor the help from Johnson on Jackson, Rivers easily went over the top of Webster leading Jackson for the game-winning score.
Ultimately, the Giants never got enough pressure on Rivers for most of the game, hitting him only five times, and because of that, their whole season is now under pressure.
Fittingly, it was Merriman who sacked Manning to end the game, preventing the Giants from getting off one last play from their own 29-yard line.
After the game, Rivers described his long-awaited initial meeting with Manning and the Giants, who are less than two years removed from a Super Bowl title as “A big emotional win.”
He added, “The link between me and Eli Is always going to be there. So yeah, it’s a little special. Any time you play against a team that won the Super Bowl, it’s fun. [The trade] didn’t weigh into my mind and my thinking, but I bet it was there.”
The same can be said for Manning and the Giants, who heading into their bye week on a four-game losing streak, have much greater concerns on their own minds, with their season slipping away.
Saturday, November 07, 2009
What’s wrong with the Giants
What’s wrong with the Giants?
By Dr. Bill Chachkes-Managing Partner/Executive Editor-Football Reporters Online.
Photo Credits: NY Giants Helmet from Wikimedia Commons
Kevin Boss vs. Tampa By Tomasso DeRosa
Because there is something wrong at the Timex performance center, but It’s not something that people should be surprised about. The Giants have some key Injuries most notably on the defense, that are keeping them form gaining the upper hand and beating the teams they play.
Why, you ask? They should be 8-0 or 7-1? I think some people have really missed the boat here. I had said over the summer that the Giants were poised to make another strong run this year. Then I saw three of the 4 pre-season games, and the way they played in the first two regular season games, even though they were wins. There are just too many key injuries on defense, especially in the secondary with the extended absences of Kenny Phillips and Aaron Ross. In the linebacking corps, Aaron Pierce is playing hurt and Michael Boley is out as well as defensive tackle Chris Canty who has a calf injury.
Not that the offense is without It’s share of the injury bug. First, rookie first round draft choice Hakeem Nicks sprains an ankle, then left tackle Kareem MacKenzie gets injured, plus running back Ahmad Bradshaw has developed a “nagging” ankle injury, and now Mario Manningham, the second year receiver who was finally “breaking out” is injured as well (shoulder). Plus Sinorice Moss has a foot injury and Dominik Hixon has a hip pointer. So you see where I’m going with this right?
More importantly, this week against the Eagles was the first time there were real breakdowns in all 3 phases of the game. Eli Manning contributed two picks, which led directly to Eagles TD’s, The defense tackled like a bunch of 4th graders, and the special teams has their first bad game of the season as well. Big Blue has been a big bust so far. Last year they gave up the ball a total of 13 times with just three fumbles. This year it’s already up to 15 turnovers with 9 fumbles already.
The Giants receivers are down to Hakeem Nicks, Derek Hagan, Steve Smith, Hixon if his hip pointer is better by the end of the week, and Ramses Barden who has yet to be given a chance to play except for two games where he was active and played special teams. Not to mention that the players on both lines are getting banged up with each game. Nicks had his first career start as a Giant, and caught 4 passes for 53 yards, including the Giants best effort of the game, a 35 yard catch.
It doesn’t matter how good a coaching staff you have, or how much talent your team has, when the Injury bug bites (like the flu), all you can do is take your medication and wait for it to heal. The big question now is do the Giants have to time to wait for every player who is hurt to get healthy again? I doubt it and you shouldn’t count on it either.
The Giants won their first five games on the backs of weaker opponents. Now that their own weaknesses due to injuries have been exposed, first by New Orleans, then Arizona, and now the Eagles who aren’t really that good, The Giants are living proof that It doesn’t matter how good you are in the NFL, It matters how healthy you are over the course of a sixteen game seventeen week season.
The players are still quite confidant in themselves and their coaches, which is a good thing, but that doesn’t matter all that much in the total picture.
What matters now is weather or not the Giants, just two years removed from an incredible post season run to a super bowl XLII win, can even make the post season, much less win the NFC Eastern Division again.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Giants Zone Out In The Big Breesey
Giants Zone Out In The Big Breesey
By Jon Wagner-Sr. Writer at Large Football Reporters Online
New Orleans is known as “The Big Easy,” but the football game played at The Superdome on Sunday was anything but trouble-free for the New York Giants, who were unable to stop one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks and the league’s most prolific offense, which scored touchdowns on its first four possessions and never looked back.
After three straight effortless weeks shutting down some of the league’s worst offenses (winning consecutive games against 0-6 Tampa Bay, 1-5 Kansas City, and 2-4 Oakland), the Giants’ two-deep zone defense was picked apart by New Orleans Saints’ quarterback Drew Brees in a demoralizing 48-27 loss, ending the New York’s five game winning streak to begin the 2009 season.
The Saints, who are 5-0 for the first time since 1993, set the tone early with a game-opening 15-play, 70-yard drive, which consumed 7:41 off the clock. The drive ended with a 4th-and-1, over-the-top dive for a touchdown by running back Mike Bell, giving New Orleans a 7-0 lead before Giants’ quarterback Eli Manning, who was making his homecoming, could touch the ball for the first time. The 28-year-old Manning, who was born and raised for the first 18 years of his life in New Orleans, played for the first time in the building where is father Archie Manning quarterbacked the Saints from 1971-1982.
On that first drive, Brees was just getting started, completing 5 of 7 passes for 43 yards against the Giants’ very soft zone with its injury-depleted secondary, while also running for six yards and a first down on 3rd-and-3 from the Saints’ 37 on the game’s first series.
The Bell touchdown marked the fifth time in as many games that New Orleans scored on its first possession this season. The score also gave the Saints 31 points (most in the NFL) on opening drives this year, which surpassed the Giants’ 27 points on such drives. On the game’s next possession, New York’s streak of scoring on its first possession in its first five games came to an end when it managed just one first down before punting.
The next time Brees touched the ball, he threw six straight passes, completing all of them, leading the Saints 80 yards in just 2:48, finding ex-Giant tight end Jeremy Shockey on a one-yard touchdown pass, putting New Orleans up, 14-0, with 2:11 left in the first quarter.
In less than 12 minutes, the Giants had already just about given up their average of 14.2 points per game (second only to Denver) coming into the contest.
At that point, Brees, who finished the game going 23-30 for 369 yards (his 32nd career 300-yard game), with four touchdowns and no turnovers, had already completed 11 of his first 13 passes for 123 yards against a Giants’ defense which entered the game ranked first in the league both overall (allowing 210.6 total yards per game) and against the pass (giving up just 104.8 passing yards per game).
The Saints led by double digits the rest of the way, in what was supposed to be a Bayou showdown between arguably the top two teams in the NFL entering Week 6, although the Giants briefly showed signs in the first half of getting back in the game.
After the Saints’ second touchdown, Domenic Hixon returned the ensuing kickoff 45 yards to midfield, but New York could only move 19 yards to the New Orleans 31 yard-line, for a Lawrence Tynes 49-yard field goal, to pull to within 14-3 with three seconds left in the first quarter.
The second quarter featured a scoring explosion. The Giants scored a pair of touchdowns, but allowed another three, and trailed 34-17 by halftime.
After Tynes’ field goal, it took the Saints just four plays and 2:20 to go 57 yards and take a 20-3 lead (the PAT was missed) on a 36-yard toss from Brees to wide receiver Robert Meacham.
The Giants responded though, taking the next possession 9 plays and 73 yards in 4:59, closing to within 20-10 on running back Ahmad Bradshaw’s 10-yard touchdown run with 7:41 left in the first half. The game nearly got away earlier on that drive when Saints’ safety Darren Sharper returned the ball for an apparent touchdown, but it was called back for a personal foul call on New Orleans linebackers Jonathan Vilma’s late hit on Manning.
The Saints struck right back on the next possession, however, going 5 plays and 61 yards in only 2:37, taking a 27-10 lead on a Brees 12-yard touchdown throw to Lance Moore. That scoring drive was aided by a very questionable 35-yard pass interference penalty on Giants’ cornerback Corey Webster who got his feet tangled with Saints’ receiver, former Hofstra star Marques Colston (games highs of 8 receptions and 166 yards), setting New Orleans up with a first down at the New York 12 yard-line.
Hixon again responded, returning the kickoff that followed, 68 yards to the Saints’ 37 yard-line. The Giants used the short field to score in just four plays, as Manning, who was held to just 14 of 31 for 178 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT on the day, threw his only touchdown pass of the game, a 15-yard strike to wide receiver Mario Manningham, who ripped the ball away from Sharper. The Giants were in the game, down 27-17, with 3:19 remaining in the half.
On the next possession, Brees and Colston again had their way with the Giants’ pass defense, connecting on consecutive hookups of 40 yards and then another 20 yards, to the New York 8 yard-line.
The Giants defense finally had what looked to be a momentum-changing moment though, stopping the Saints on a goal-line stand, as New Orleans running back Pierre Thomas (game-high 72 yards on 15 carries) was stopped on 4th-and-1, on a surge led by Giants’ defensive end Osi Umenyiora.
After Manning completed an 18-yard pass to Manningham, he was sacked and fumbled. The Saints recovered at the Giants 8-yard line. Two plays later, running back Reggie Bush scored on an easy 7-yard touchdown run with just 9 seconds left in the half, to lead 34-17.
The Giants entered the locker room at halftime stunned, having allowed three more points in a single half than they had in any of their previous five games this season (they gave up 31 in a win at Dallas) and eight more points than they gave up in their previous three games, combined.
Brees completed the first half with a 157.7 passer rating, going a near-perfect 17 of 20 for 247 yards, 3 TD, and 0 INT. A huge part of the Giants’ inability to cover receivers downfield was their severe lack of pressure up front on the Saints’ quarterback. Brees wasn’t sacked and was hit just twice in the opening half, while New Orleans rolled up 315 yards of offense and scored touchdowns on five of 6 first-half possessions.
“I don’t know that we ever hit him,” Giants head coach Tom Coughlin said of Brees. “At this level, if you’re going to stop the pass, you’ve got to get pressure. You’ve got to force the quarterback not to throw it on his tempo.”
Which is exactly what Brees thought was the key to his success, saying “We wanted to really dictate the tempo of the game the whole way through. “Seven different guys scored touchdowns. That’s big. That’s the type of rhythm that, when you get in, you feel like you can call anything and it’s going to work.” It was the first time that seven different Saints scored in a game since November 2, 1969, at St. Louis.
After each team traded punts to start the third quarter, Manning was intercepted at the New Orleans 40 yard-line, prompting a frustrated Manning to slap Bradshaw on the shoulder pad and berate him for Bradshaw’s breakdown in pass blocking.
Brees and the Saints took advantage of the turnover, going 9 plays and 71 yards in 5:11, for Brees’ final touchdown of the day, a 12-yard touchdown pass to Colston with 4:10 left in the third quarter, giving New Orleans a 41-17 lead, effectively ending the Giants’ hopes.
The Giants had an early fourth-quarter touchdown pass after a great scrambling job by Manning nullified by a mysterious holding call. New York then settled for a 38-yard Tynes field goal, to trail 41-20.
New Orleans running back Heath Evans added a 2-yard touchdown run with 7:04 left and backup quarterback David Carr, in for Manning with the game out of reach, closed the scoring with a 37-yard throw to rookie wide receiver Hakeem Nicks (5 catches for 114 yards), who caught a touchdown pass for the third straight game.
New York will need to return to form defensively when it returns home next week to face another good quarterback, Arizona’s Kurt Warner, when the Giants host the Cardinals (3-2) at 8:20pm EST, on Sunday night, at Giants Stadium.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
SB XLII Lessons Versus Saints Could Pave Giants’ Road To SB XLIV
SB XLII Lessons Versus Saints Could Pave Giants’ Road To SB XLIV
By Jon Wagner Sr. Writer at Large Football Reporters Online
(photos: Former Giant Jeremy Shockey shown here in 2007 at Giants camp, has found a home with the Saints-By A.F. Chachkes)
Twenty months ago, when the New York Giants shocked the football world by beating the heavily favored, undefeated New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII, a certain recipe made such a stunning upset possible.
There were plenty of significant, contributing factors in that historic victory, like a key 45-yard reception by tight end Kevin Boss (setting up the Giants’ first touchdown), New York limiting their mistakes (committing just one turnover and only four penalties), and the Giants stopping the run (allowing just 45 yards on only 16 carries).
More than anything though, three specific things were primarily responsible for making the Giants unexpected champions on that February day in 2008: The Giants used a long game-opening drive, a relentless pass rush, and the continued great play of quarterback Eli Manning, the Most Valuable Player of Super Bowl XLII.
Prior to the game, the questions abounded of how the Giants could possibly stop a team which just concluded the most productive regular season in Super Bowl history. How could New York keep the record-setting Patriots off the scoreboard enough to win? The Giants provided the answer on the game’s first drive, by winning the opening coin toss and not letting New England’s offense touch the ball until 5:01 remained in the first quarter. Even though that drive ended with only a field goal and a modest 3-0 Giants’ lead, New York went 63 yards on 16 plays, in a Super Bowl record 9:59, setting a tone for the rest of the game that the 14-point favorite was in for a battle, and there would be no cakewalk in the Arizona desert.
Although New England answered with a touchdown on the game’s next possession, the Giants wouldn’t allow another score until late in the fourth quarter, hitting and pressuring Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady all game, introducing him, and very often reintroducing him, to the University Of Phoenix Stadium turf. The Giants hit Brady nine times, sacked him five times for total losses of 37 yards, deflected four passes, forced a fumble, and recovered another.
And, the third key ingredient to the upset of all football upsets was Manning remaining hot after a terrific four-game playoff run to help the Giants reach Super Bowl XLII. Manning making plays, and allowing his wide receivers to do the same (like the famous and incredible ball-pinned-to-the-helmet catch by wide receiver David Tyree) was the final main component of the Giants achieving the previously unthinkable.
So, why relive all of this now, as the 5-0, 2009 version of the Giants prepare to battle the 4-0 Saints on Sunday? Well, because the Superdome showdown at 1pm EST features arguably the two best teams in the NFL right now, and the winner of Sunday’s contest could be in the driver’s seat toward getting the top seed in the NFC playoffs -- even though Minnesota (5-0), Atlanta (3-1), Chicago (3-1), or even a surprise team like last year’s 9-7 Arizona Cardinals might still have something to say about that.
A strong argument could be made that the Giants would be better served playing as a lower seed and on the road in the playoffs, given Manning’s playoff success two seasons ago (away from Giants Stadium for three straight playoff games plus Super Bowl XLII, as the Giants won a championship as a five seed) contrasted with his awful performance in the Giants’ playoff loss to Philadelphia as a one seed, playing in the very windy conditions of The Meadowlands last January.
Still, any NFL player or coach would likely say that there are three main goals in a season: 1) Win the division, 2) Try to get the one seed, even if Manning is your quarterback and swirling winds in your home stadium wreak havoc with your playoff passing game, and 3) Try to ride the top seed to a Super Bowl title.
The second reason the Giants’ aforementioned win over the Patriots is relevant on Sunday is because as in Super Bowl XLII, the Giants have a great defense and a hot Eli Manning again facing the NFL’s best offense. The Saints lead the league with 36.0 points per game, and rank third with 414.3 total yards per game, but New York, thanks in large part to Manning, is right behind New Orleans, ranking second, with 417.4 total yards per game. Defensively, the Giants have given up just 14.2 points per game (second only to Denver’s 8.6 ppg), and by a wide margin, have allowed both the NFL’s fewest total yards (210.6 per game; Denver is second with 252.8 ypg) and the least passing yards (104.8 per game; Carolina is second with 165.8 ypg) in the league. If the Giants can pressure Saints’ superstar quarterback Drew Brees the same way they got to Brady in Super Bowl XLII, it should spell success for New York.
Now, back to that long drive against New England for a moment… the Giants did the same as recently as last week, imposing their will, albeit against a far inferior opponent, going on a game-opening touchdown drive which consumed 8:03, en route to a 44-7 rout of Oakland. If the Giants’ offensive line can similarly help control the clock and keep Brees and his dangerous receiving and rushing compliments off the field, that would be another huge step toward a victory on Sunday.
And, to finish it off, again, the play of Manning, who is playing his best football so far this season since that magical four-game run through the 2007 playoffs and Super Bowl XLII. Manning has a 111.2 passer rating, completing over 64 percent of his passes, while throwing 10 touchdown passes and just two interceptions so far this season. But, most of all, he’s winning: 5-0 so far in 2009. Continuing that success on Sunday would be the final piece needed to produce yet another Giants’ win.
The possibility of gaining an eventual number one seed in the NFC playoffs by beating the Saints will certainly be enough motivation for the Giants’ offensive leader. However, there might be additional inspiration on a personal level for Manning, who holds a special fondness for the city in which he was raised during the first 18 years of his life. His father, Archie Manning, played in the Superdome for 12 seasons, from 1971-1982 (son Eli, was born just after the 1981 season), but Eli has never played a game there, though he attended many at the Superdome while growing up in New Orleans. Manning and the Giants were supposed to play in the Superdome in 2005, but the game was moved to Giants Stadium due to Hurricane Katrina, after which Manning visited shelters and the homes of his family in the area.
Since there’s still a lot of football left in 2009, Sunday’s tilt between the Giants and Saints could prove to mean little in the 2009 NFC playoff picture. But, if a New York win in New Orleans indeed decides the NFC’s number one seed a little more than two months from now, the lessons learned from the Giants’ Super Bowl XLII victory might just pave the Giants’ road to Super Bowl XLIV.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Healthy Manning & Giants Rout Raiders, Head To New Orleans 5-0
Healthy Manning & Giants Rout Raiders, Head To New Orleans 5-0
By Jon Wagner
Sr. Writer at Large Football Reporters Online
(photo: Steve Smith had another big day, while only catching 3 passes, one was his carer long of 43 yds. By Tomasso DeRosa
At a perfect 5-0, the New York Giants have begun 2009 on the right foot.
However, it was a certain right foot -- or more specifically, a right heel -- which concerned the Giants most on Sunday.
That is, the sore right heel of Giants’ star quarterback Eli Manning, who made his 83rd consecutive start.
As if following a script that Giants’ head coach Tom Coughlin couldn’t have written better himself, Manning tossed two touchdown passes while leading New York to touchdowns on each of its first four offensive possessions.
The fast start allowed Coughlin to pull and rest Manning for precautionary reasons before halftime, with the Giants very comfortably ahead of the woeful Oakland Raiders at The Meadowlands on Sunday.
Manning said, “It was just a… team domination from the start, and it gave us a big lead, and that’s what we wanted to do.”
Big Blue wasted no time in sending a clear message to the rest of the National Football League that with their offensive leader of sound health, the Giants intend to remain a legitimate Super Bowl contender this season.
On the first play from scrimmage in the Giants’ 44-7 rout of Oakland, Manning took a normal drop from under center, made a routine plant on the right heel that he injured in the Giants’ win in Kansas City last week, and off a play-action fake, completed a solid pass to tight end Darcy Johnson for a 9-yard gain.
As Johnson was tackled, 79,012 fans in attendance plus millions of other Giants’ fans watching on television or listening on the radio, breathed a collective sigh of relief.
With Manning’s plantar fasciitis question apparently answered on the game’s initial play, the Giants used more than half of the first quarter during a 14-play, 77-yard game-opening drive which took 8:03, to grab a 7-0 lead. Manning completed four passes to four different receivers in five attempts, for 36 yards on the drive, immediately quelling any doubts about the condition of his heel.
Manning later confirmed that he felt fine, saying “It felt great during the game, it felt like I could do everything, run the offense… I could do everything we had to do.”
New York capped the possession with a 4th-and-1 touchdown plunge by running back Ahmad Bradshaw, who led the Giants’ rushing attack with a game-high 110 yards on just 11 carries. Coughlin evaluated Bradshaw’s performance with high praise, saying, “He’s run the ball very tough, very physical, he makes a lot of people miss. He had a very, very good game.”
For further convincing, after an Oakland three-and-out, Manning began the Giants’ next possession placing the ball over the shoulder of Raiders’ cornerback, seven-year pro Chris Johnson, hitting wide receiver Steve Smith, who led all receivers with 70 yards on three catches, for a 43-yard pass to the Oakland 36 yard-line. Bradshaw then finished the three-play, 79-yard drive, which took only 1:37, with a rush of 17 yards, before going untouched on a 19-yard touchdown run, putting the Giants up 14-0 with 3:15 left in the first quarter.
After another Raider three-and-out, Bradshaw turned a Manning screen pass on third-and-24 into a 55-yard romp to the Oakland 30 yard-line on the final play of the opening quarter, a period in which the New York outgained Oakland 219-18 while controlling the ball for 11:07 to the Raiders’ 3:53.
On the next play, Manning threw a nice 30-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Mario Manningham in the far right corner of the end zone, giving the Giants a 21-0 lead just seven seconds into the second quarter.
Only three plays later, the Giants got the ball back on the first of three Oakland fumbles, all by quarterback Jamarcus Russell, who was just 8 of 13 for 100 yards. Cornerback Terrell Thomas sacked Russell, the first of six New York sacks, forcing the ball loose. Defensive end Justin Tuck recovered at the Raiders’ 13 yard-line. After two rushes, Manning threw a 3rd-and-6, nine-yard bullet in the end zone to wide receiver Hakeem Nicks (4 receptions, 49 yards) for the rookie’s second career touchdown (Nicks made his first career touchdown reception last week). The Giants led 28-0 with 12:37 remaining in the half, and the rout was on.
The Raiders’ only points came on only their fourth touchdown of the season -- as many touchdowns as the Giants had in Sunday’s game alone, to that point –- after Sinorice Moss fumbled a punt which Oakland recovered at the New York 15 yard-line. Running back Michael Bush cut the Giants’ lead to 28-7 on a 5-yard touchdown run with 2:19 to go in the first half after it appeared that the Raiders got a break when a Giants’ fumble recovery was negated on a questionable forward progress ruling on the previous play.
At that point, having completed 8 of his 10 passes for 173 yards (49 more than the total yards Oakland managed for the game), Manning was lifted for the remainder of the day in favor of backup David Carr.
Russell’s second fumble set up a Lawrence Tynes 25-yard field goal with two seconds left in the half, as the Giants took a 31-7 lead into the break.
On the Giants’ opening possession of the third quarter, Carr capped a six-play, 53 yard drive with a 12-yard run into the near left corner of the end zone, for a 38-7 Giants’ advantage with 10:01 left in the third quarter.
Tynes added a 33-yard field goal with 6:52 left in the third, and closed the scoring with 11:38 remaining in the game on a 37-yard kick.
The Giants’ dominance of the Raiders was of an equal opportunity variety for both the running and passing games. New York, which outgained Oakland 483-124 yards overall, held advantages of 220-64 on the ground and 263-64 through the air.
The win marks the third time the Giants have started a season 5-0. The previous times, they lost in the 1941 NFL championship game, and the 1990 Giants won Super Bowl XXV.
In a showdown of arguably the top two teams in the NFL right now, the Giants, who have beaten up on a soft schedule of Tampa Bay (0-5), Kansas City (0-5) and Oakland (1-4) over the past three weeks, will travel to New Orleans to face the 4-0 Saints on Sunday, at 1:00pm EST.
Though Sunday’s game will foremost be a big regular season matchup with possible big playoff seeding implications, it will also be an emotional homecoming for Manning, who was born in New Orleans. For the first time ever, Manning will be playing in The Superdome, where his father, Archie Manning, a former two-time pro-bowl selection who still makes his home in New Orleans, played for the Saints from 1971-1982.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Giants Should Rest Eli because this could be a “Jungle Ambush”
Giants Should Rest Eli because this could be a “Jungle Ambush” By Dr. Bill Chachkes-Executive Editor-Football Reporters Online
Why risk it? That is what I would think If I were Coach Coughlin. So the guy started 82 strait games. It’s not like he has Brett Farve’s ego. New York Is 4-0(again), and can’t afford to loose Eli now that he’s probably playing his best football, at least since the championship run, to date.
In case anyone hasn’t noticed, they play Oakland this weekend. They have been one of the worst teams in the NFL since they lost to Tampa Bay in the Superbowl. In the official media speak coming out of Giants land, Eli is “questionable” for Sunday’s contest. “A Game time decision, if the medical staff think he can play he will play” said Coach Coughlin on Friday. The coach also said he was “encouraged” by the way manning looked in practiced. But there are other considerations. This would be the one regular season opportunity to let David Carr show how much he has learned from “Real” NFL offensive coaches, and having the benefit of playing behind a real NFL offensive line. It would also be a good time to get rookie Rhett Bomar into the game if the Giants are at least 2 scores ahead in the 4th quarter.
It’s true that Raiders QB JaMarcus Russell is making progress towards being the Quarterback everyone expected him to be coming out of the NFL Draft From LSU in 2007. It’s also true that the Raiders are actually trying to build a team around him. What we have yet to see is Oakland put it all together in one game this season. If the Giants come Into this game thinking that Oakland is an easy win, If they play as unfocused, with as many miscues as they did last week at times against Kansas City, then this could become the mother of all trap games for New York. A Real Nightmare of the kind you would have the night before you proposed marriage to your Girlfriend (what if she says no?).
The Raiders are a team in turmoil, as most people would expect of any recent Al Davis led effort. Head coach Tom Cable is facing arrest for punching out one of his assistant coaches, and the team isn’t sure who would take over in that event. I know I’m going to be on the Flatbush Avenue hit list here (the street in Brooklyn NY where Davis is from), but it’s really time for Mr. Davis to go play some shuffle board at the retirement home, and leave the day to day operations of the franchise to his Children and whomever they hire to run things. I’d be glad to serve on a search team to find a real “Football man”, a manager to run things. I’m not the first person who feels that way either. At least one person I know very well is still the object of harassment by Raiders’ front office personnel to this day.
Football, like Soldiering, Is a young man’s game or at least for the young of heart and mind. You can’t tell me at 83 that Davis isn’t driving himself into the ground watching 4-5 hours of tape a day, as some report he still does. Yes, even until as far back as 15 years ago he was still one of the sharpest minds in all of Pro sports, not just football. But everyone looses the edge with age. Even though the Raiders won’t regain theirs until some changes are made, a dull knife can still kill someone.
Why risk it? That is what I would think If I were Coach Coughlin. So the guy started 82 strait games. It’s not like he has Brett Farve’s ego. New York Is 4-0(again), and can’t afford to loose Eli now that he’s probably playing his best football, at least since the championship run, to date.
In case anyone hasn’t noticed, they play Oakland this weekend. They have been one of the worst teams in the NFL since they lost to Tampa Bay in the Superbowl. In the official media speak coming out of Giants land, Eli is “questionable” for Sunday’s contest. “A Game time decision, if the medical staff think he can play he will play” said Coach Coughlin on Friday. The coach also said he was “encouraged” by the way manning looked in practiced. But there are other considerations. This would be the one regular season opportunity to let David Carr show how much he has learned from “Real” NFL offensive coaches, and having the benefit of playing behind a real NFL offensive line. It would also be a good time to get rookie Rhett Bomar into the game if the Giants are at least 2 scores ahead in the 4th quarter.
It’s true that Raiders QB JaMarcus Russell is making progress towards being the Quarterback everyone expected him to be coming out of the NFL Draft From LSU in 2007. It’s also true that the Raiders are actually trying to build a team around him. What we have yet to see is Oakland put it all together in one game this season. If the Giants come Into this game thinking that Oakland is an easy win, If they play as unfocused, with as many miscues as they did last week at times against Kansas City, then this could become the mother of all trap games for New York. A Real Nightmare of the kind you would have the night before you proposed marriage to your Girlfriend (what if she says no?).
The Raiders are a team in turmoil, as most people would expect of any recent Al Davis led effort. Head coach Tom Cable is facing arrest for punching out one of his assistant coaches, and the team isn’t sure who would take over in that event. I know I’m going to be on the Flatbush Avenue hit list here (the street in Brooklyn NY where Davis is from), but it’s really time for Mr. Davis to go play some shuffle board at the retirement home, and leave the day to day operations of the franchise to his Children and whomever they hire to run things. I’d be glad to serve on a search team to find a real “Football man”, a manager to run things. I’m not the first person who feels that way either. At least one person I know very well is still the object of harassment by Raiders’ front office personnel to this day.
Football, like Soldiering, Is a young man’s game or at least for the young of heart and mind. You can’t tell me at 83 that Davis isn’t driving himself into the ground watching 4-5 hours of tape a day, as some report he still does. Yes, even until as far back as 15 years ago he was still one of the sharpest minds in all of Pro sports, not just football. But everyone looses the edge with age. Even though the Raiders won’t regain theirs until some changes are made, a dull knife can still kill someone.
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Quick Start Propels Giants To Another Easy Road Win
Quick Start Propels Giants To Another Easy Road Win
By Jon Wagner
Sr, Writer at large Football Reporters Online
It’s been a successful formula so far for the 2009 New York Giants: Four times New York has scored on its first possession, and four times the Giants have won.
Another (Big Blue)print that’s worked: Points off turnovers, a category in which the Giants rank at the top of the National Football League, with 45 points scored off of opponents’ miscues.
The saying goes (albeit in poor English), “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” After three weeks of success in previous victories, why change what’s worked?
It didn’t take the Giants (4-0) long to start riding a familiar road to another easy victory when the they recovered a fumble by the hapless Kansas City Chiefs (0-4) on the game’s opening kickoff. New York took an early 7-0 lead just five plays later, on a three-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Eli Manning to wide receiver Steve Smith just 2:16 into the game, en route to a 27-16 win in Kansas City on Sunday, completing a sweep of the Giants’ three-game road trip.
Although, the fumble was the Chiefs’ only turnover of the game, the tone was already set, and the Giants led from wire to wire, despite Manning committing a turnover himself, on the each of New York’s next two possessions in the first quarter.
Kansas City sacked Manning and recovered his fumble on the New York 36 yard-line, which led to the Chiefs’ first score of the game, a Ryan Succop 34-yard field goal, with 5:02 left in the opening quarter, cutting the Giants’ lead to 7-3. On the Giants’ next possession, Manning was
intercepted at the Chefs’ 15 yard-line, throwing a little behind wide receiver Mario Manningham, wasting a nice, juggling 43-yard reception along the right sideline by Manningham three plays earlier, during the same drive.
Manning though, responded the next time the Giants touched the ball. A questionable personal foul penalty on Kansas City’s Jarrad Page for a hit on Smith which appeared to be clean, set New York up with a first down at the Chiefs’ 25 yard-line. Manning capitalized on the next play, capping a four-play, 71 yard drive in just 1:39, with a 25-yard touchdown pass to Smith, 1:27 into the second quarter.
Smith has stepped up nicely as the go-to receiver the Giants sought coming into the season. The 2007 second-round pick out of USC leads New York with 34 receptions this season. His two touchdowns and 11 receptions on Sunday were both career-highs, and the most ever by a Giant wide receiver in a non-overtime game (Amani Toomer had 12 in an overtime win at Philadelphia in 2006). Smith’s 134 yards on Sunday also matched a career-high that he set just two weeks prior, with ten catches at Dallas.
On the final drive of the first half, Manning continued to maintain his reputation as one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks during the two-minute drill. After a Kansas City punt to the New York 13-yard line with 1:49 left in the half, the Giants’ signal caller directed a nine-play, 80-yard drive, resulting in a Lawrence Tynes 25-yard field goal, putting the Giants up 17-3 as the first half concluded. Two plays before Tynes’ kick, tight end Kevin Boss caught a 3rd-and-3 pass from Manning for 24 yards to the Chiefs’ 7-yard line. Boss was injured (he’d later return okay) on the play, but he had the courage and the presence of mind to get up, and limp into formation, so the Giants, without any timeouts left, could avoid the automatic ten-second runoff, line up quickly, and spike the ball in time for Tynes’ field goal attempt.
Meanwhile, the Giants’ defense which was dominant through the first three quarters, allowing just four first downs, 91 total yards, and only 23 passing yards before the fourth quarter, forcing Kansas City to punt on six straight possessions spanning the first three quarters, after the Chiefs’ first-quarter field goal.
The second half started with some trickery on both sides. Kansas City opened the half with an onside kick, but an alert Bryan Kehl, who also pounced on the Chiefs’ game-opening fumble, recovered the ball again for the Giants, at the Chiefs’ 42 yard-line. That led to another Tynes field goal, this time from 40 yards away, putting the Giants up 20-3, with 10:22 remaining in the third quarter. Tynes received that opportunity after the Giants kept the eight-play drive alive by running a direct snap on the fourth play of the drive to running back Ahmad Bradshaw, who ran for nine yards and a first down on a 4th-and-3 play that Manning did a good job of selling by faking a high snap over his head.
In the fourth quarter, rookie wide receiver Hakeem Nicks, who sat out the past two games with a foot injury, showed why the Giants drafted him with the first pick in the 2009 draft, with a couple of nice stutter-step moves to free himself for a 54–yard touchdown –- the first of his career –- on a sprint up the left sideline, giving the Giants a commanding 27-3 lead with 13:28 left in the game.
That was Manning’s last play of the game after suffering a bruised heel while planting his right foot, attempting a pass on the previous play. Manning, who completed 20 of 34 passes for 292 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception, doesn’t believe the injury should keep him from starting next week’s game at home, against Oakland (1-3). “I don’t think it’s awful, I think I’ve been injured worse before,” he said. “We’ll see how it feels throughout the week. I could stand up, I could still walk around and put pressure on it. I always assume I’m going to play, that I’m going to be out there. I’ve always been a pretty quick healer. I’ll be doing everything I can possibly do this week to get healthy and prepared to play Oakland.”
After not allowing a touchdown through seven quarters over the past two weeks, the Giants let the Chiefs make what should have been a blowout, become respectable, as Kansas City found the end zone for two harmless scores in the final quarter. Jamaal Charles, the culprit who fumbled the opening kickoff, somewhat redeemed himself after Nicks’ touchdown with a 53-yard kickoff return to the Giants’ 48-yard line. The Chiefs then converted two fourth downs during an 11-play touchdown drive, but they failed on an ensuing two-point conversion attempt, to pull only to within 27-9, with 9:26 left in the game.
New York then went three-and-out on its next two possessions with backup quarterback David Carr replacing Manning. Sandwiched in between those two possessions, was the Chiefs’ final scoring drive of 12 plays, 59 yards, to make the final margin 27-16, on a touchdown with 4:54 remaining.
The Giants held big advantages in both total yards (429-193) and passing yards (273-88), as Brandon Jacobs (92 yards on 21 carries) helped New York outgain Kansas City on the ground, 156-105.
New York, which has started 4-0 for the second straight year, has won its first three road games of a season for the first time since 1990. The Giants also became only the eighth of 107 teams since 1990 to play in three straight road games while navigating through such a trip without a defeat. The Chiefs meanwhile, are just 6-30 since their last winning season, a 9-7 campaign in 2006.
Saturday, October 03, 2009
Giants Need a Cure for the Blahs over The Chiefs –By Dr. Bill Chachkes for Football Reporters Online
Giants Need a Cure for the Blahs over The Chiefs –By Dr. Bill Chachkes for Football Reporters Online
(Photo: Giants Running Back Brandon Jacobs and Dr. Bill Chachkes at the EA Sports Draft event on April 24th 2009-By A.F. Chachkes)
New York finally got off the launching pad last week with a few “Green Zone” scores against the horrible Tampa Bay defense. The Issue still exists with leaving scoring on the field however, as it should have been 34-0 instead of 24-0 Giants.
So where does NY go from here? Hopefully with this week’s opponent, the Kansas City Chiefs, we will finally begin to see more of the abilities of the offense and it’s play calling. Receivers Steve Smith, Mario Manningham, Sinorice Moss, and the returning Hakeem Nicks must make their presence felt against the K.C. defensive backs. Will they also get Travis Beckum, Ramses Barden, and Derek Hagan involved as well? I was hoping for more touches per game from Beckum and Barden, who were two of FRO’s “undiscovered sleepers of the 2009 draft.
The Giants rushing attack also needs a boost big time. Brandon Jacobs told me in April at an NFL draft event (see Photo) that he was good to go for his best season ever at any level. Does that mean 1,350+ yards and at least ten touchdowns? Could Giant fans hope to be so lucky? This week Jacobs issued another ultimatum for himself. I keep hearing echoes of former Giants head coach Jim Fassel (now coaching in the UFL with the Las Vegas Locomotives) “putting all his chips into the middle of the table.”
This scares me as someone who has watched the Giants for all of my nearly 50 years on this planet as a fan and now reporter/writer. The Giants only have one ball on the field at any one time on offense, and it’s for the coaches and quarterback Eli Manning to decide who gets it and when. Six receivers, three tight ends, four running backs, you see where I’m going with this don’t you?
The Idea of fully spreading the ball around is not new, but the Giants have so many offensive weapons on the roster that teams will hover around general manager Jerry Reese at the trading deadline dangling draft picks for current players. New York has too many players who need the football and not enough football to go around, even if they held that ball for 40 plus minutes a game.
The short term cure for New York for at least this week is 35 pass attempts and 20 to 25 rushing attempts, with as many as possible for positive yardage.
