On Sunday I’ll be making my third trip up to Giants Stadium this season to see a Giants-Falcons game that at the beginning of the season looked like it would be a late-November battle for NFC supremacy. After all, both the Giants and Atlanta were coming off playoff berths last season and looked poised to get even better. Now this game, while still important, is important for an entirely different reason. Both the Giants and Falcons are 5-4 and locked in a downward spiral. On Sunday, one team will win and improve to 6-4, possibly providing the momentum necessary to save the season and turn things around. On Sunday, one team will lose and drop to 5-5, making it very difficult to make a late-season playoff push. You can call it a do-or-die game, or a building block to bigger things or a hundred other euphemisms, the fact still remains: the Giants absolutely need to win this game. There’s no way around it. Coughlin called the Giants’ last game against San Diego a “one-game playoff”; if that were true, the Giants have been knocked out already. But then something happened last week. With the Giants resting up on their bye week, both the Eagles and Cowboys, the two teams ahead of Big Blue in the NFC East, both lost. And suddenly this thing is far from over.
Sunday’s game also has me thinking about something else. It has me thinking about the last time the Falcons visited the Meadowlands, 5 years ago tomorrow. On November 21, 2004, I sat in Section 121 and watched Eli Manning, our prized number one draft pick make the first start of his NFL career. Even though I had absolutely no part in Eli Manning’s conception or subsequent birth, part of me felt like I was watching my son take the field for his first pop warner game, or something along those lines. I was still in high school at the time though, and these were still the days where Michael Vick was only 45% hype and 55% talent, as opposed to 95% hype and 5% talent like he has been post-prison stint. Unfortunately, the 55% of talent prevailed on that day and Vick rushed for something like 900 yards against us, in route to a 14-10 win. We did have a chance to win the game, but our last gasp drive was stalled when Eli was picked off by Keith Brooking. On that day in 2004, Eli was hesitant, he was a little unsure, and the impossibly high expectations that he carried with him from Oxford, Mississippi for the rest of that season, and the season after that and the season after that, made it extremely difficult for anyone to see past his shortcomings.
Did that all change when his playoff heroics helped us win the Super Bowl two years ago? I wish I could say it did, but in New York, there is no such thing as a championship grace period, as relentless and unforgiving as that may sound. Now, 5 years after that game against Atlanta, there is no question that Eli has emerged as one of the top quarterbacks in the league. On Sunday, I’d like to see that Eli. The Eli that’s a leader and a cool assassin in the clutch, and not the Eli from 2004 who looked like his lunch was on the way up after every bad pass he threw. I would like to win another Super Bowl (honestly, who wouldn’t?) and I think this team has about as good a shot as any other Giants team I’ve ever watched, even last year’s team. So it starts on Sunday, at home against Atlanta. Back to where it all began.
On to this week’s quick picks, sponsored by nobody. Home teams in all caps.
DETROIT (-3.5) over Cleveland
Mangini wasn’t the first coach to be fired this season? I guess cameos in The Sopranos do go a long way. You should have thought about that before you turned down the part, Dick Jauron.
Buffalo (+9) over JACKSONVILLE
And the countdown to T.O.’s first sideline temper tantrum begins….(checking watch)….NOW!
Pittsburgh (-10) over KANSAS CITY
Nothing allows you to heal the wounds of getting swept by the Bengals quite like a game against the Chiefs.
Indianapolis (-1) over BALTIMORE
This game has “37-3 Colts” written all over it.
NY GIANTS (-6.5) over Atlanta
I don’t know why I’m doing this. Please, someone tell me why I’m doing this. Oops, too late.
GREEN BAY (-6.5) over San Francisco
Brett Favre against Steve Young, should be a great game (2000).
MINNESOTA (-11) over Seattle
Brett Favre against Matt Hasselbeck, should be a boring game (2009).
Washington (+11) over DALLAS
Only because I know there’s no way that three different teams are going to cover 11+ point spreads this week.
New Orleans (-11.5) over TAMPA BAY
10-0 is when the people start talking. Can you handle that, Saints? Although the Pats 16-0 regular season a few years ago has taken some of that edge off.
Arizona (-9) over ST. LOUIS
Just a few more wins for the Cardinals before they go back to looking like they don’t really care. Just in time for the playoffs! Hey, it worked for them last year.
NY Jets (+10.5) over NEW ENGLAND
No I will not take the Patriots! Rex Ryan cried during a team meeting this week. HE CRIED. Do you know what that means?
Cincinnati (-9.5) over OAKLAND
Part of me is hoping for this game to be close so that a few people will vacate the Bengals bandwagon. I’m in Standing Room Only right now. My legs are getting tired and I’d like to have a seat.
San Diego (-3) over DENVER
Broncos should have stuck with wearing their mustard and brown Denver Omelettes uniforms. Ugly uniforms help teams win, just ask the Jets and Bucs.
Philadelphia (-3) over CHICAGO
-3 is the spread, and also what Jay Cutler fantasy owners see every time he throws another INT. I’m just kidding, I know that there aren’t any Jay Cutler fantasy owners….right?
Tennessee (+4.5) over HOUSTON
VINCE YOUNG WINS FOOTBALL GAMES.
Last Week: 7-8
Season Total: 81-63
