Super Bowl XLVI: New York Giants vs. New England Patriots Position-By-Position Breakdown

30 01 2012

There are about 155 hours left until the kickoff of Super Bowl XLVI, or three viewings of The Tree of Life if you want a rough comparison. The Patriots have already landed in Indianapolis and the Giants are due to arrive today, so in celebration of the official beginning of Super Bowl Week, I’m going to do a position-by-position breakdown of the big game. But before you read all the way through to the bottom expecting to find my prediction, I want to warn you that you’re not going to find it. If you think I’m going to be pressured into giving a prediction that I’ll regret all week, then you must be outside of your mind. It’s not happening.

Quarterback: Eli Manning vs. Tom Brady

If this breakdown was comparing how Eli Manning and Tom Brady played last week, then the outcome might be a little different. If it was comparing which quarterback was hottest at this very moment, then the outcome would definitely be different. But if we’re just comparing Eli Manning and Tom Brady straight-up, with no stipulations, then it’s hard not to tip the scales in Brady’s favor. I know Eli has won his last two games against Tom and I know he’s probably playing the best football of his life right now, but the fact is that Tom Brady is still Tom Brady, official UGG’s spokesman, until further notice. The fact that this is even as close as it is speaks volumes to how well Eli Manning is playing right now. I’ll leave it at that.

Slight Edge: Pats

Running Backs: Brandon Jacobs, Ahmad Bradshaw vs. BenJarvus Green-Ellis, Danny Woodhead

If this category was “Which running back tandem has the best names” then I’d have to give it to the Patriots. BenJarvus Green-Ellis almost has half as many names as he had rushing touchdowns during the regular season and Danny Woodhead sounds like a comic book character. But if we’re comparing them based on which tandem is more likely to swing the momentum of the game, it’s going to have to be Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw. Bradshaw is the heart of the Giants offense, even if his numbers may not always show it. He didn’t play the last time the Giants and Pats met back in Week 9 and the Giants still came out on top, so having him around this time should be a big plus for Big Blue. And if Brandon Jacobs can break a few big runs, the Patriots defense will have major problems.

Edge: Giants

Wide Receivers: Hakeem Nicks, Victor Cruz, Mario Manningham vs. Wes Welker, Deion Branch, Chad Ochocinco

Right now, the Giants have the best wide receiving corps in the NFL and it isn’t even close. Each and every one of those three have had a significant impact on the Giants’ postseason run and they are a major reason why the Giants are going to be playing for the Lombardi Trophy on Sunday night. Nicks had enormous games against Atlanta and Green Bay, and when he was locked down against San Francisco, it was Victor Cruz that stepped up with 10 catches for 142 yards. And what about Mario Manningham? Well, he has only quietly scored 3 touchdowns this postseason, one in each game so far. His 3rd-and-15 catch against San Fran to put the Giants up 17-14 was one of the biggest plays of the season.

As for the Patriots receivers, we all know that Welker has had a monster season. Although the New England receivers are the exact polar opposite of the Giants’ squad in that they are more prone to controlling the middle of the field and not known for their big-play tendencies the way Nicks, Cruz and Manningham are, they are still dangerous and equally hard to cover in the 10-20 yard range. Plus, Ochocinco just bought a pair of Beats by Dre headphones for every single player on the Patriots which is probably the most important thing he’s contributed all year.

Edge: Giants

Offensive Line: Chris Snee, David Diehl, Kareem McKenzie, David Baas vs. Matt Light, Logan Mankins, Nate Solder

These two units are going to play an extremely important role in Sunday’s game. If the Patriots offensive line can protect Brady and make sure he isn’t running scared and throwing darts into the ground like Alex Smith during the 4th quarter last week, then the Pats should be in good shape. We all know what can happen if the Giants get pressure on Brady. We saw it in Super Bowl XLII and we saw it in Week 9. This is no secret. For the Giants, their line was simply abused by the 49ers defensive front last week. Manning was hit so many times he could have legally changed his name to Tina Turner. Luckily for the Giants’ line, the Patriots pass rush isn’t nearly as ferocious as San Francisco’s. For now though, and since the play of the Patriots’ line is much more closely connected to their success than the Giants’ line is, I’m going to give the edge to New England.

Edge: Pats

Tight Ends: Jake Ballard, Travis Beckum vs. Rob Gronkowski, Aaron Hernandez

Much like the wide receiver match-up, this one isn’t even close. Only instead of being in the Giants’ favor, this one clearly goes to New England. Jake Ballard can hold his own with just about anyone in the league and has had a great season filling the shoes of the departed Kevin Boss, but he’s leagues away from Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez. Gronkowski shattered tight end records left and right this season and even on a bad ankle, he’s the player that the Giants defense needs to make its number one priority going into Sunday night. His high ankle sprain is going to be the big story leading up to the game and it’s not likely that Gronk will be 100%, but Rob Gronkowski at 75% is still more dangerous than 90% of the tight ends in the league playing at full health. Plus, Aaron Hernandez plays like a wide receiver and the Pats have even started using him as a running back too because apparently their offense is run by a 12-year-old playing Madden.

Edge: Pats

Defensive Line: Justin Tuck, Osi Umenyiora, Jason Pierre-Paul, Chris Canty, Linval Joseph vs. Shaun Ellis, Vince Wilfork, Mark Anderson

This unit is the Giants’ bread and butter. They will set the tone of this game and it’s up to the Patriots offensive line to keep them at bay, which will be easier said than done considering no offensive line has been able to successfully do that in over a month and a half. The Giants’ defensive line is a very close-knit group and they have big game experience too. Tuck and Umenyiora both played huge roles in the Super Bowl XLII victory and Tuck sacked Brady twice in that game. In fact, if it wasn’t for Eli Manning’s late game heroics, an argument could have been made to give Tuck the MVP of that game. Simply put, this game will be determined by how much pressure the Giants’ front four can put on Brady.

As for the Patriots, Wilfork had an enormous game against Baltimore last week, and it will be up to the Giants’ offensive line to keep him at bay on Sunday. If it was legal for defensive tackles to eat their way through the offensive line though, Wilfork would be absolutely unstoppable.

Edge: Giants

Linebackers: Michael Boley, Mathias Kiwanuka, Jacquian Williams, Chase Blackburn vs. Brandon Spikes, Rob Ninkovich, Tracy White

This is a tough category to call because the Giants linebackers have been really hit-or-miss all season. Only in the last five weeks have they begun to really gel and play some quality football. Jacquian Williams is finally making plays, Boley and Kiwanuka are finally both 100% healthy and Chase Blackburn went from eating Cheetos on his couch two months ago to playing a major role in another Giants Super Bowl run. It’s weird how football works. The linebackers are going to really be tested on Sunday with Gronk and Hernandez roaming the middle of the field. If they can cover and not let either tight end go all Vernon Davis on them, then they will severely limit the Patriots’ offensive options.

Slight Edge: Giants

Secondary: Kenny Phillips, Corey Webster, Aaron Ross, Deon Grant, Antrel Rolle vs. Devin McCourty, Kyle Arrington, Pat Chung, James Ihedigbo, Sterling Moore

I have to give the edge to the Giants here on principle. The Patriots owned the league’s worst passing defense all season, and even though they’ve looked a little better during the playoffs, you need to remember who they went up against the last two weeks: Tim Tebow and Joe Flacco. Two quarterbacks who aren’t exactly known for lighting it up. The most dangerous receiver they’ve had to cover was probably Demaryius Thomas. Let’s get real here for a second. They haven’t had to face a receiving corps like the one the Giants have since the last time they played the Giants. Plus, if they throw Julian Edelman out there on Cruz or Manningham it’s going to be a blood bath. The one thing the Patriots’ secondary has in its favor is that it’s opportunistic. They get a lot of takeaways, so as long as Eli can play mistake-free football and be careful with his throws like he was last week in San Francisco, then the Giants can avoid playing to the Patriots’ strengths.

Edge: Giants

Special Teams: Lawrence Tynes, Steve Weatherford, Will Blackmon, Devin Thomas vs. Stephen Gostkowski, Zoltan Mesko, Julian Edelman, Wes Welker

The Giants special teams play is probably what won the game for them against the 49ers. Weatherford punted the hell out of the ball all night, Thomas’s two fumble recoveries were responsible for 10 points and he might have singlehandedly put the Giants in the Super Bowl and of course Lawrence Tynes was the one who won it with his kick. But the truth is that Big Blue’s special teams have been shaky all season. Another game like last week’s is probably asking too much, but all they really need to do is play smart, mistake-free football. On the Pats’ side, Gostkowski is a model of efficiency and Edelman and Welker are always dangerous in the return game. We’ll call this one even.

Edge: Even

Head Coach: Coughlin vs. Belichick

For the second time in four years, Tom Coughlin has coached himself off of the hot seat and into the Super Bowl. He’s done a fantastic job of getting the team motivated and prepared down the stretch this season and especially in the playoffs and he’s converted guys like Antrel Rolle and Michael Boley and made them believers. In fact, he might be doing the best coaching job of his career right now. But so is Belichick. He’s taken a team with the 31st ranked defense in the league and brought them within one win of a Super Bowl title, which is amazing given the fact that he has based his entire career up until now on his defensive superiority. Basically this comes down to the fact that Belichick is Belichick — the slight edge here goes to the Pats, even though, much like the Manning-Brady comparison, this is much closer than it would have been a few years ago.

Slight Edge: Pats

 

Prediction: No way.


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The Man Who Saved Rutgers Football

27 01 2012

There used to be a time for Rutgers football when a 25-point loss at home was the highlight of the season. In fact, this time was not that long ago, and I remember it well. It was a blustery early November afternoon and we were sitting in the upper deck of an unusually packed Rutgers Stadium as the Scarlet Knights led the No. 1 ranked Miami Hurricanes 17-14.

I say unusually packed because in those days the stands were typically barren on most Saturdays, with the school desperately giving out tickets to anyone who would fill the seats, to anyone who would even pretend to be interested in a football program that was mightily struggling.

But on that afternoon, midway through the second season of coach Greg Schiano’s tenure, there was a brief glimpse of the hope that Rutgers saw when they hired him away from the very school they were beating that day. Although the Hurricanes would rattle off 28 unanswered points and win the game 42-17, and although Rutgers would finish the season a dismal 1-11, that game and that brief 3-point lead was enough to knock Miami out of their No. 1 ranking for at least one week, and it was certainly enough to restore just a glimmer of hope in a football program that had long been an afterthought in New Jersey sports.

During his 10 years as head coach of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, Greg Schiano restored pride in a school and a football program that desperately needed it. The “Birthplace of College Football” could once again proudly declare itself as such without receiving the harsh ridicule that had come to be associated with the scarlet “R” during the 1980′s and 1990′s. To put it plainly, he rebuilt Rutgers football from the ground up, turning it from a rusty and wind-beaten shack on the banks of the Raritan into the proud, gleaming behemoth that it is today (complete with 12,000 new seats and a shiny new jumbotron).

When I arrived at the university in 2005 as a student, I brought with me the hopes that I would one day get to sit in Rutgers Stadium with my fellow students and cheer for a winning football team, a team that I could be proud of, and a team that packed the seats with a sea of Scarlet red and regularly played games on ESPN. The team was coming off of a 4-7 season before I began my freshman year on the banks, and I figured my dream of watching a contender was possible, but still far off.

Boy, was I wrong.

That 2005 season saw Rutgers play in its first bowl game in over two decades, and although we lost, it was certainly a sign of things to come. Little did I know that less than 12 months later, I would be witnessing the game that would put Rutgers football on the map for good and become one of the most exciting moments in the history of the school and the state of New Jersey.

That warm November night in 2006 was when Rutgers football officially went from pretender to contender. No longer was a 25-point loss to a Top 5 team considered a high point. No, we wanted more than that. We wanted to taste victory, we wanted to rush the field, to soak in the beauty of college football relevance, to watch our team lead off that night’s edition of SportsCenter. By erasing a 25-7 deficit and knocking off No. 3 Louisville to remain unbeaten, we got just that.

That week, Rutgers would rise to the highest BCS ranking in school history, at No. 6, and it seemed surreal. In a span of only 5 years, Greg Schiano turned Rutgers football from the laughingstock of the Big East into a legitimate BCS contender, and he did it with a roster loaded with future NFL talent like Ray Rice, Brian Leonard, Kenny Britt, Devin McCourty, Tiquan Underwood and Anthony Davis. No longer was the school begging people to fill the seats of Rutgers Stadium — now they had to build more seats just to fit everyone who wanted to be there, who wanted to witness this transformation. In fact, in my 4 years at Rutgers, I went from easily being able to get free tickets to games to having to enter a lottery just for the chance to get tickets. By my senior year, students had to pay to get in. Crazy, huh?

After receiving five different Coach of the Year awards for his stellar 2006 season, the offers began rolling in for prestigious coaching jobs all over the nation. Miami, Notre Dame, Michigan, you name the vacant head coaching position and chances are that Schiano was offered the job — and turned it down. Born and raised in the state of New Jersey, Schiano was a Jersey boy all the way through. He had helped to resurrect this downtrodden football program and now he was going to stick around and watch it flourish. Or so we had thought.

Less than a month ago, Rutgers defeated Iowa State in the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium to pick up its school-record 5th consecutive bowl win, which is now the longest active streak in the nation. With 8 wins or more in five of the last six seasons and two second place finishes in the Big East, Rutgers is now a school that attracts top high school recruits, instead of scaring them away. Just last season, we landed Savon Huggins, one of the top running backs in the nation in high school. What state was he from? New Jersey. In the past, top New Jersey high school players would typically have shunned Rutgers to attend Penn State or Pittsburgh or West Virginia. Now, we had enough clout to snag this in-state talent we so sorely needed.

The 2011 Rutgers football team exceeded most preseason expectations by finishing 9-4. With a young, mostly inexperienced team filled with underclassmen, the fact that this year’s Scarlet Knight squad was able to scratch together 8 regular season wins and an impressive bowl victory over a Big XII school was a big accomplishment and a reason to have hope for the next few years, especially after a disappointing 2010 campaign. With letters of intent being signed next week, Rutgers was gearing up for another successful offseason of recruiting until a bomb was dropped around noon yesterday.

Nobody saw this coming, not even people closely connected to Schiano inside the Rutgers football organization. There had not been a single word uttered about Schiano being considered for an NFL head coaching position until the rumor slipped out yesterday morning and quickly evolved into a full-fledged story.

Schiano was out.

Just like that, after 10 years of building a program, a stadium, a community and salvaging a long-forgotten fanbase, the Greg Schiano era was over. He is headed to Tampa Bay, to the NFL, where many college coaches have tried and failed before him. Nick Saban, Steve Spurrier, Butch Davis, Bobby Petrino, Dennis Erickson, Lane Kiffin, and the list goes on. It’s not an easy adjustment to make, especially when the pressure is on you from a fanbase that won’t accept a period of rebuilding. The NFL is not like college football, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are not the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.

You see, here at Rutgers we were used to decades of losing. When Schiano came in before the 2001 season we weren’t expecting a quick turnaround, or even a turnaround at all. Things like that don’t happen overnight in college football. You need recruits, and you need time. In the NFL, things move much faster. The Buccaneers won their division just a few years ago and have a Super Bowl title. Their fans pay a lot of money for tickets and aren’t going to wait around 4 years for Schiano to rebuild. They want to win, and they want to win now.

Will Schiano be just another college coach who fails in the NFL? Will he long to be on the sidelines of High Point Solutions Stadium next October when the Bucs start the season 2-5 and the fans start getting antsy? Only time will tell.

Of course there are college coaches who have succeeded in the NFL too — Jim Harbaugh is a recent one that comes to mind, and Pete Carroll isn’t doing a bad job in Seattle right now, given the scarce amount of talent he was handed. So there’s hope for Schiano in South Florida.

But what about here at Rutgers? I’m not going to pretend that I’m okay with Schiano leaving the way he did, right before one of the biggest weeks of the year for recruitment. I’m not going to pretend I’m happy with his decision to leave after all he’s done for the program. But I won’t be bitter either. I recognize what he did for Rutgers football, and I thank him for that. Without him, we might still be celebrating 7-6 victories over the University of Richmond instead of scanning the weekly AP rankings to see if Rutgers has cracked the Top 25. The Top 25 was a distant and impossible dream when he arrived in Piscataway, and he made it a reality in only five years.

For that, we will thank him, and wish him the best of luck in Tampa Bay. Just as long as they aren’t playing the Giants.


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Just Enjoy the Ride, Right?

26 01 2012

I’ve spent quite a bit of time in the last few days trying to figure out why this Giants Super Bowl run feels so different from the 2007 Super Bowl run. Am I not recalling the last one correctly? Is my memory skewed and tainted, now that I know the outcome was a Super Bowl title? It was only four years ago, so it’s all still pretty fresh, or as fresh as four-year-old memories can be. So why does this run feel so different, and why does it seem so much more stressful when we weren’t even supposed to be here in the first place?

I’ve tried to go back and put myself in the state of mind I was in during the 2008 playoff run, but it’s a little difficult now in hindsight, especially with the knowledge that we did eventually end up winning the Super Bowl. From what I can piece together though, that run seems to have been, in hindsight at least, a lot less taxing and less stressful than this one does, even though both teams were virtually in the same place before the playoffs began — fringe playoff teams that nobody ever expected to compete for a title.

So what’s the deal?

Was it because I didn’t expect the 2008 team to make a run, so the pressure was off and I simply enjoyed each game for what it was? No, it couldn’t have been that because as recent as a month ago I didn’t expect the 2011 Giants to make a run either. In fact, I had already begun mourning the lost season before JPP dragged us out of the grave against Dallas on December 11th.

What about the playoff games themselves? Nope, it couldn’t be that either, because with the exception of Sunday’s game against San Francisco, we’ve won by double digit margins in every game we’ve won on our five-game winning streak. If you compare the margins of victory in the 2008 playoff run leading up to the Super Bowl (10, 4, 3) with this year’s (22, 17, 3) it’s not even close.

There it is though. There’s a key phrase in that last paragraph that might explain everything: five-game winning streak. This season, we have essentially played two more playoff games than we were supposed to play, and we’ve played three more playoff games than the Patriots. Beginning with our Christmas Eve game against the Jets, every single game we’ve played since Week 15 has essentially been a playoff game. We’ve obviously heard this repeated quite a few times throughout this playoff run so far from Tom Coughlin and a handful of others, but I hadn’t yet looked at it from this perspective yet — as the reason why this playoff run feels longer, harder and more draining.

Every single one of our last five games have been must-win, do-or-die situations, and each victory has been like reaching a new plateau and then looking up and seeing how much mountain there is still left to climb. To compound all of that, there is the issue of perspective that goes along with it as well. For example, since the memories of the 2008 playoff run are still fresh and the vivid memory of winning a Super Bowl is still lingering, it’s only natural that we want more of it. That’s another major factor in what has set this run apart from the last one. The feeling of knowing what it’s like to win it all and not being happy with anything less than that. If you could isolate that feeling and recognize it for what it is, things start making more sense.

There has been a tremendous amount of tension released after each victory on this run. Beating the Jets allowed us to breathe a little easier and push past all of the distracting “New York vs. New York/Rex Ryan” hoopla and focus on making the playoffs. Then, beating the Cowboys allowed us to exhale because we clinched the division and got into the playoffs. The Falcons game allowed us to push past the “first home playoff game at MetLife Stadium” milestone and the “haven’t won a home playoff game in 11 years” stigma that was hanging over our heads. Beating a 15-1 Green Bay team almost felt like winning the Super Bowl, but it wasn’t and we had to recognize that we still had to get past San Francisco. When we finally did though, it allowed for the biggest wave of relief yet when Tynes’ kick sailed through the uprights.

But now, there is one final hurdle, and the fact that we’ve been here once before and jumped this hurdle only makes it that much more important. If we lose to New England this time, will the Pats’ revenge taint our fond memories of the SB XLII victory?

There are two weeks for Giants fans to sit back and enjoy the ride and soak in the joy of being in the Super Bowl, but when Sunday, February 5th rolls around, you better believe that anxiety will return. Because even though we weren’t even supposed to be here a month ago, now we are and there is a lot for us to prove. If it seems like there’s more to prove this year than there was in 2008, it’s probably because there is.


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NFL Week 13: Things I Know*

5 12 2011

*I don’t actually know anything. This is all purely conjecture, and probably inaccurate conjecture at that.

It’s almost playoff time! Teams are getting ready to make that final push for those precious few playoff spots, Christmas trees are going up in living rooms all over the country and the Giants defensive coordinator is openly questioning the effort of his players!

In other words, it’s December. As you may or may not know, December is also my favorite time for pretending that I know A LOT about the NFL. It’s not too hard to imagine, after all I do watch close to 200 hours of NFL-related programming from the months of August to February. So yeah, I should know A LOT about the NFL. After watching a full day of football yesterday, here is what I learned:

*I’m only going to say a few things about yesterday’s Giants loss because, honestly, there isn’t too much to say. It was an interesting game, it was a competitive game, but at the end of the day it turned out exactly how I thought it would turn out: with a loss. This is the NFL, not the BCS. There are no “good losses” or “bad losses.” There are just losses. Yesterday’s game was a loss, no matter how you choose to look at it. And no matter how you choose to look at it, it all boils down to the fact that, for the second time in the last three weeks, we lost a game that was very winnable in the fourth quarter because our defense couldn’t come up with a stop when it needed to.

Once again, Eli Manning walked off the field late in the fourth quarter with the game tied and needed the defense to come up with just one big play, just as he did in the game against Philly. And once again, the defense folded. Fifty-eight seconds later it was Crosby’s kick sailing through the uprights, and the Packers are 12-0. No style points, no moral victories, no “nice try.” Just our fourth-straight loss and an ENORMOUS game against the Cowboys next Sunday night with first place and our season on the line. Oh and by the way, our defense has given up 87 points in the last two games. I know we played Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers, who could probably put up 40 points on the ’85 Bears, but I’m still not happy with our defensive play.

*The 2011 Better Late Than Never award goes to Titans running back Chris Johnson. CJ spent the first ten weeks of the NFL season Dexter-ing my fantasy football team, and I somehow was able to win despite his disappearing act. But in the last few weeks, with the fantasy playoffs drawing closer, he finally woke up and rejuvenated not only my fantasy team, but the Tennessee Titans playoff hopes as well. At 7-5, the Titans are still very much alive in the AFC South, despite the fact that I’m still not sure if Matt Hasselbeck has broken the 200-yard mark all season.

*At one point this season, the Buffalo Bills were 4-1. Remember that?

*My sincerest condolences go out to anyone who watched all 60 minutes of yesterday’s Bears-Chiefs game. I hope you make a full recovery.

*If the Dolphins’ season started on November 6th, they’d be 4-1 while outscoring their opponents 140-53 in the process. Let’s just say that nobody wants to be playing the Miami Dolphins right now with their playoff lives on the line. Luckily, we got them out of the way at the very beginning of their mini-hot streak, or else I could absolutely see Matt Moore throwing for 425 yards against us.

*I’m not even going to attempt to understand how Tim Tebow does what he does. The topic has been beaten into the ground already, and I think at this point we can all pretty much agree that he has something special. It’s something that regular football metrics can’t really quantify, but it’s there and it’s pretty obvious at this point. A 6-1 record, five comeback wins, and a nation of believers. If you don’t get it by now, you probably never will. Next week Denver gets a depleted Bears team at home, without Cutler or Forte? Can we be looking at an 8-5 Broncos team going into what will now be a HIGHLY anticipated Dec. 18 game against the Patriots? Possibly. Tebow vs. Brady? I can’t wait.

*Dan Orlovsky started 10 games for the 2008 Detroit Lions. This means that he has a chance to be the starting quarterback for the only two teams in NFL history to go 0-16. That is, if the Colts can finish off their impressive feat. I’m not sure that is a distinction that Dan Orlovsky wants to be recognized for.

*The Houston Texans are 9-3 despite the fact that they have lost their top two quarterbacks to season-ending injuries and were without Andre Johnson for six weeks (and maybe more after he re-injured his hamstring yesterday). The Titans are creeping up on them in the AFC South, but luckily they get a Bengals team that’s lost three out of its last four games next week, followed by the Panthers and Colts.

*The Cowboys are not as good as everyone seems to think they are. I’ve been saying this all season, and I’m going to stick with it after their 19-13 overtime loss to the Cardinals yesterday. There is not a single aspect of their overall game that impresses me. Of course, we still have to beat them twice in the next four games. But….

*….If you don’t think the Giants are going to run the table in the next four games, then face the 17-0 Packers in the NFC Championship game and beat them, you’re clearly out of your mind.


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Quick Hits: Saints 49, Giants 24

29 11 2011

They are who we thought they were. I’m talking about the Giants, of course. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, which means it’s also beginning to look a lot like yet another Giants second-half swoon. There’s no way around this. This is an underachieving team, decimated by injuries and lacking talent in too many key positions. Do you want me to name just a few of the problems with this Giants team?

Let’s start with the linebackers. Our linebacking corps was already paper thin before we lost Michael Boley to an injury last week. Now, with the exception of Mathias Kiwanuka, we’re trotting out a bevy of inexperienced, overmatched linebackers that couldn’t cover furniture. I like Mark Herzlich, he’s got a lot of potential and a ton of heart — but the guy is getting torched in the middle of the field. We are not going to get the job done with Herzlich, Spencer Paysinger and Greg Jones. That trio is not winning us a title. Sure we miss Jonathan Goff right now, but I’m not even convinced that he would be making that big of a difference at this point. The bottom line is that we need to go out and get linebackers that can make some plays.

Moving on, there’s another 270-pound problem I can think of off the top of my head, and his name is Brandon Jacobs. I’ve seriously had enough of Brandon Jacobs as a running back for the New York Giants. Listen Brandon, I’ve cheered for you for 7 years, I was there in Giants Stadium when you trucked your first helpless safety and scored your first career touchdown back in 2005, and we’ve had some special times together. But it’s over. I can’t sit by and watch you tip-toe into a pile of bodies anymore and routinely turn in 46-yard outings like everything’s okay.

And that touchdown dance you did last night with the scoreboard reading SAINTS 21, GIANTS 9? That was embarrassing buddy. I was literally sitting there watching you on TV, getting red-in-the-face embarrassed for you. How you can perform so poorly week after week, constantly run your mouth about everything from the fans to the offensive game plan, and then have the audacity to dance after a touchdown in a game in which your team got its doors blown off, just baffles the mind.

As far as I’m concerned, Brandon Jacobs is dead to me as a football player.

What’s next? How about the fact that this team continues to follow the same script year in and year out? Here’s how it goes: We’re coming off of a disappointing and deflating loss, we talk about how we’re “fired up” and “just focused on preparing for next week” in the media all week, we vow to overcome the disappointment and rise to the occasion, and then we get blown to smithereens on Sunday. It happened in 2009: a heartbreaking loss at home to Philadelphia, followed by momentary signs of life the next week in Washington, and then a complete and utter implosion in back-to-back weeks to end the season, giving up 41 and 44 points to Carolina and Minnesota. It happened again last year: a heartbreaking loss at home to Philadelphia, followed by a 45-17 whacking at the hands of Green Bay. And it’s happening right now: a heartbreaking (and god-awful) loss at home to Philadelphia, followed by Drew Brees putting up 49 points and carving us up like he was playing the scout team defense.

This team has no heart. That’s really all there is to it. Howard Cross put it perfectly last night during the radio broadcast when he said that the Giants are weak right now, and teams are coming in to play them knowing that all they have to do is hit them in the mouth a few times and they’ll just lay down. They just don’t have any fight in them. Perry Fewell is running up and down the damn sidelines last night after the hit on Hakeem Nicks, just trying to get this team fired up and there’s no response. We’re letting Drew Brees run amok, dunking the ball through goal posts when the guy probably needs a ladder to decorate his Christmas tree.

Even last week, our quarterback is clearly hit well after the play on an interception return, a dirty hit that was an obvious attempt to take out our franchise quarterback, and the only response we get is a miffed Antrel Rolle saying after the game that he wished he could have done something to retaliate. Are you kidding me? There’s no heartbeat on this team aside from Eli Manning, Victor Cruz and probably JPP.

Eli’s completing 21 consecutive passes in the second half with two receivers out there (Jernigan and Devin Thomas) who were strictly special teams players a few weeks ago. He’s turned a nobody like Victor Cruz into one of the top receivers in the league this season and we’re all content to just stand around and watch him.

Listen, I don’t want this to sound like another retread of last week’s rant, but frankly nothing has changed from last week to now. And the fact of the matter is that everything is unfolding exactly like I said it would. So am I surprised? No, not really. But that doesn’t mean I still can’t be disappointed. I’m disappointed that a team with so much potential can be bullied all over the field for 60 straight minutes in back-to-back games. It’s only going to get worse too.

I don’t care too much for Russ Salzberg, but what he said on the Giants postgame show last night was perfect: the Giants coming off of three straight losses and having to face Aaron Rodgers and the undefeated Packers is going to be like getting your teeth drilled by an auto mechanic. I’m not even entirely sure what that’s supposed to mean, but it pretty much sums up this entire Giants season. And last season too, for that matter. Maybe even 2009.


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Brace Yourselves, Giants Fans

31 10 2011

In the eight years that Tom Coughlin has been the head coach of the New York Giants since he arrived in 2004 along with Eli Manning, Giants fans have become pretty accustomed to the team’s quick starts. Of the eight seasons he has been at the helm, the Giants have started 5-2 in seven of them. The one season they didn’t start 5-2? It was 2008, and they started 6-1 instead.

But just as Giants fans have gotten used to fast starts in the Tom Coughlin Era, we have also grown just as accustomed to second-half collapses. In 2004, Coughlin’s first year on the job, the Giants jumped out to a 5-2 start behind veteran quarterback Kurt Warner. Midway through that season, Warner was replaced by Eli Manning (then just a rookie) and the Giants went 1-8 in their remaining nine games to finish 6-10. This collapse was excusable, mostly because we had just handed the keys to the offense over to our freshly minted rookie quarterback and growing pains were expected.

In 2005, a 5-2 record became an 11-5 finish and a first-round playoff game at home. The second half collapse was avoided. Then, in 2006, it returned again. This time, a 5-2 start was followed by a 3-6 second half and the Giants barely squeaked into the playoffs at 8-8.

A Super Bowl title in 2007 erased the memories of past late-season collapses, at least temporarily. The following season, an 11-1 start was negated when Plaxico Burress decided to tuck a gun into the waistband of his sweatpants in a NYC club. The Giants finished that season by losing four of their last five games, including an embarrassing home playoff loss to Philadelphia.

In 2009, the second half struggles continued. Another 5-2 start was tarnished by yet another 3-6 record in the remaining nine games, including two straight losses to end the season, in which the Giants were outscored 85-16. Last season, the Giants’ second half problems were less pronounced. They are typically attributed to the fourth quarter of the gut-wrenching Dec. 19th loss to Philadelphia, a game that served as a sort of poetic microcosm for all of the Giants’ late-season collapses of the past. Nevertheless, a 6-2 start gave way to a mostly mediocre 4-4 in the second half of the 2010 season and the Giants missed out on the postseason for the second straight year.

And that brings us to the present. On October 31st, the New York Giants sit at 5-2 for the third consecutive year and currently hold a two-game lead in the NFC East over the Cowboys, Eagles and Redskins, who are all 3-4. If there was ever a time for the Giants to perpetuate their habit of folding in the second half of the season, it’s now. Big Blue faces arguably one of the most arduous nine-game stretches in recent memory and are fresh off of a less-than-inspiring 20-17 win over the 0-7 Miami Dolphins at home.

The last nine games of this season will tell you everything you need to know about the 2011 New York Giants, and it will likely tell you everything you need to know about the Tom Coughlin Era, which will either live or die with this stretch of games. Beginning next week in New England, the Giants will face five 2010 playoff teams (New England, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Green Bay, NY Jets) and will also have to deal with four crucial divisional games thrown in for good measure. Although Dallas and Washington may not scare too many teams right now (especially after Dallas’ performance in Philly last night), divisional games are always tough and the Giants have already lost to Washington once this season.

The Giants can easily fold up once again, like they’ve done before, and blame their shortcomings on the brutal schedule and bad luck. But they also have the opportunity to exorcise their second-half demons and rise to the occasion. They can choose to thrive on the adversity and Eli can continue his stellar play and the scary-when-healthy defensive foursome of Tuck, Osi, Pierre-Paul and Kiwanuka can terrorize the likes of Brady, Rodgers and Brees. The fact is, anything is in play right now, and with most of Giants nation expecting another late-season swoon, this is finally Big Blue’s chance to rise above the expectations and surprise us all.

For better or for worse though, at the end of this season, we will know what kind of team these Giants are — whether or not we’re ready for it.


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Bored To Tears

13 09 2011

It’s okay, you can stop caring about the 2011 New York Giants season if you want. I won’t blame you. I mean, did you watch the game on Sunday? Did you see how effortlessly Rex Grossman — yes, you read that right, Rex Grossman — handled the Giants defense? Did you see the offense convert only one of its 10 third downs? I did.

Embarrassing. That’s what Chris Canty called it. He’s right though, it was embarrassing. Watching the Giants offense operate for much of the second half was painful. There is really no other way to describe it. I’m not sure what time warp Giants offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride is stuck in, but the offensive game plan that the Giants have been rolling out for the past few seasons is tired and simply unimaginative. There is nothing in the current offensive game plan that even attempts to utilize the few weapons that the Giants have on offense, and it creates an offense that seems like it’s stuck in the stone age.

Giants fans are left to wonder why, during the preseason, we can watch an endless number of drawn-up screen passes to speedy backs like Da’Rel Scott, D.J. Ware and Ahmad Bradshaw go for big gains, only to see them completely disappear once the regular season begins.

No, instead we get the same boring, and mostly unsuccessful, hand-offs to Bradshaw and Jacobs that see them both run directly into the line for gains of 3 and 4 yards.

With an offensive line that lacks continuity, missing two longstanding anchors from years past, O’Hara and Seubert, there was a lot of pressure on Eli throughout much of Sunday’s game. With not as much time to make decisions downfield, there were countless opportunities for him to check off underneath to a back like Scott or Ware.

What happened instead? Most of the time, Eli whipped a frantic pass towards the sidelines that fell six yards in front of Nicks or Manningham, or just took a sack.

Just to be fair, I’m not lumping all of the blame on Gilbride though. I’m passing it around to Manning and to the offensive line and to the special teams, which continues to haunt us in the most inopportune times possible.

This is a team-wide problem, and there has to be a little more urgency to solve it. The magical season of 2007 is beginning to grow smaller and smaller in our rear view mirror and this team is going to have to start showing some kind of life beyond the lethargic play-calling that now dominates every single game.

Third-and-shorts aren’t being converted on offense, while opposing wide receivers are seemingly left wide open on third and long situations. In one specific instance on Sunday, the secondary gave Santana Moss a six-yard cushion — on a 4th and 5.

Mistakes like that need to disappear, and disappear quickly. What instead needs to happen are more plays like that exciting 68-yard completion to Hakeem Nicks that led to the Giants first score. The Giants need to open up their offense a little bit more and stop being so conservative and so stuck in this offensive rut where it takes forever to get the team out of the huddle and the play clock grinds down to 1 on every single play before Eli takes the snap.

They need to execute more drives like the one we saw in the second quarter that featured a healthy mix of run and pass and in which Manning marched us down the field to take a 14-7 lead. Those offensive bright spots are now too few and far between.

What we’re left with is a stagnant offense with no imagination, and that is not exciting football. Perhaps more importantly, that’s not winning football.


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The Do’s and Don’t's of Fantasy Football

8 07 2011

It appears as if the NFL lockout is going to be coming to an end sooner rather than later, and just in time for one of my favorite times of the year: fantasy football draft season. Although we will have to wait out what will surely be a frenzied free-agent period immediately following the end of the lockout, all NFL rosters should hopefully be fully aligned by the beginning of August, giving us ample time to prepare for a new season.

While fantasy football is not yet recognized as an actual sport, as it exists solely in a virtual landscape, most avid fantasy football players would argue otherwise. And, just like any competitive sport, there are a handful of rules, both written and unwritten, that go along with it.

These following unwritten rules of fantasy football are rules that I have picked up over the years. I often break most of these rules myself, which is probably why I’ve never won anything, despite starting the 2008 season with a 7-0 record and then folding like an origami swan.

DON’T buy one of those fancy Fantasy Football Insider magazines. Seriously, there are better things for you to spend $8 on, like for example, eight McDoubles, eight lottery tickets, or practically anything else in the world you can get for $8. Why? Because you can find pretty much the exact same information on that thing called the INTERNET, for FREE. Also, anyone who watches football and is actually paying money to participate in a fantasy football league doesn’t need a magazine to tell them that Maurice Jones-Drew is ranked higher than Mewelde Moore or that drafting Donovan McNabb or Carson Palmer is like the fantasy football equivalent of filling your gas tank with bacon fat.  Of course, I break this rule every year because I like reading things and throwing my money in the garbage.

DO attend a live draft. I know that it’s difficult to work around everyone’s schedule to arrange a live, in-person draft, but if it’s possible, you should do it. Sitting on a computer watching a tiny digital clock tick as you wait for your next pick is not fun. On the other hand, getting together with friends, having some beers and mercilessly abusing that one guy for drafting Matt Leinart in the second round is a lot of fun.

No, not THAT kind of fantasy football.

 

DON’T talk about your fantasy football team to anyone that isn’t in your league, and especially anyone that doesn’t play fantasy football. This is an important rule that most people don’t follow. There is nothing worse than listening to someone else talk about his or her fantasy football team, yet it happens all the time because most people can’t seem to grasp the fact that no matter what, I DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOUR FANTASY FOOTBALL TEAM. I can’t find anything interesting about your group of 12 imaginary virtual entities that rack up points for your imaginary virtual team. Do I care about my team? Absolutely. But I don’t care about yours.

DO watch the waiver wires like a hawk. Here’s the thing that most fantasy football fanatics tend to overlook: championships are won through free agency and careful monitoring of the weekly waiver wire. When an undrafted free agent player suddenly heats up and goes on a streak like Brandon Lloyd did last year, or Miles Austin the year before that, being the first to snatch him up and profit from it is a huge advantage. Of course, even though I picked up both Lloyd and Austin as free agents in the last two years, I still have teams that show up for the playoffs about as often as LeBron James. It’s best to think of free agents like the stock market. Know when to pick up a player when he’s getting hot and know when to cut him when he stops producing. With the NFL being as unpredictable as it is, this is always easier said than done.

DON’T overanalyze your first round pick. Too many people tend to put too much stock in their first round pick and it ends up coming back to haunt them. Who you choose to be your first pick depends largely on where you land in the draft lineup, but don’t be afraid to think outside the box. A lot of fantasy football gurus will scare you into thinking you have to draft a running back in the first round, but this isn’t always true, especially if you’re drafting towards the middle or end of the round and all of the top running backs are taken already. Don’t go wasting your first round pick on Jonathan Stewart or Ahmad Bradshaw because you feel pressured to take a running back. Last season, I took Aaron Rodgers with the sixth overall pick in the first round and was lambasted for it. How dare I take a quarterback in the middle of the first round. That’s fantasy draft suicide, right? Well, Rodgers ended up leading the league in points, and oh yeah, he also won Super Bowl MVP. What did I win? Nothing.

DO try to draft multiple running backs from the same team to hedge your points. Ever since Mike Shanahan’s genius idea to feature no fewer than five running backs, teams all over the league are now turning the running back position into a nightmare for fantasy players. Gone are the days when a team would have one featured back that would handle most of the carries and goal line touches. Now, we get treated to Todd Haley giving millions of people, who could care less about the Kansas City Chiefs, massive coronaries because he’s giving the ball to Thomas Jones at the 1-yard line instead of Jamaal Charles. Try to avoid this by drafting both players, so that you never know which one to start and every goal line opportunity is like Russian Roulette.

DON’T forget that fantasy football is really a fancy name for “Why Do I Do This to Myself Every Year?” Basically, in a 12-team league, you have an 8.3% chance of ending the season happy. The other 91.7% of people are miserable and frustrated week in and week out, tortured by bad decisions and questions like, “Why would I ever start Alex Smith at quarterback in a playoff game, do I hate myself?”

Have fun!


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Where Is Plaxico Going to Play?

8 06 2011

As of Monday, Plaxico Burress is a free man. Much like most criminals freshly-released from a state correctional facility, there is some debate over who is going to pay him his next multi-million dollar contract. Because of the current lockout, teams are forbidden from contacting Plaxico, but for the time being, we can have fun with a little guessing game.

Of course, if the lockout isn’t lifted in time for the coming 2011 NFL season, he will most likely be employed at a North Jersey Toyota dealership, but let’s just assume that the lockout is lifted soon and Plaxico is being vigorously pursued for his talents, charisma and ability to safely carry a firearm in the waistband of his sweatpants.

Of all the teams that might give the former Pro Bowl receiver a shot, the New York Giants seem like the most sensible spot for him to wind up (and I’m not just saying that because I’m a Giants fan, trust me). First of all, he knows the system already. Since Burress departed at the end of the 2008 season, leaving the then-10-1 team in shambles and most likely shattering the Giants’ dreams of repeating as Super Bowl champions, the true structure of the team has not changed too dramatically. Of course, the addition of wide receivers such as Hakeem Nicks and Mario Manningham and the emergence of Steve Smith as a offensive threat, has helped to fill the hole at the wideout position, but no one has truly been able to replace the intangibles that Burress provided to the Giants offense while he was there.

For the most part, the offensive gameplan and the coaching staff has remained the same since 2008 and there would not be a lot of readjustment needed on the part of Burress should he return to the Meadowlands. This factor is extremely vital given the fact that the lockout has prevented teams from beginning their normal summer workout schedule and just might eliminate training camp altogether, depending on how long it lasts. This means that teams with new players will not have enough time to get their new additions properly adjusted to the team’s offensive schemes by the time the season begins. If Burress were to return to the Giants, he wouldn’t need as much time to adjust, given his familiarity with the Giants’ system.

Add this to the fact that Burress is already familiar with, and widely liked by, a majority of the Giants players, and returning to New York would be a sensible option for Burress. That is, of course, if the Giants even want him back.

Judging by the hat Burress was donning upon his release (a Philadelphia Phillies cap), another possible option for Burress, and one that Giants fans are certainly dreading, is the division rival Philadelphia Eagles. Burress’ relationship with quarterback Michael Vick and their obvious similarities (Vick’s re-emergence as a star following his prison sentence and the fact that he is also from Virginia) might make it easier for Burress to readjust to life in the NFL with a companion in Vick that he can both relate to and trust. Plus, we already know that Burress has been known for shredding the Eagles’ secondary in his time with the Giants, so Philadelphia may be thinking, “if we can’t beat him, we might as well sign him.”

Of course, Burress joining the Eagles would be the worst possible scenario for Giants fans because having to go up against him and DeSean Jackson twice a year is something I’m looking forward to about as much as a root canal. Giants fans like myself are hoping this does not happen. Because of this, it probably will.

So what about some other possible teams? How about the Dallas Cowboys? We already know that owner Jerry Jones has an affinity for jaded wide receivers who have been beaten down by the media and are looking for redemption (see: Terrell Owens, Roy Williams, Dez Bryant). Will Plaxico Burress be the latest Cowboys salvage project that is destined to fail? Hopefully not, not because I like the Cowboys, but because I like Plaxico Burress and I wouldn’t want to openly root for his inevitable failure.

This brings us to our next possibility — the New York Jets. Rex Ryan LOVES stealing headlines from the New York Giants, and what better way to do that than to steal the player that helped secure them a Super Bowl ring in 2008? The Jets have already been rumored to have an interest in signing Randy Moss, and Plaxico Burress is a wide receiver with very similar athletic attributes to Randy Moss. The signing also would gain a fairly large amount of press for the Jets, something we all know Rex Ryan loves just as much as the seeing the words “free” and “buffet” in the same sentence.

How about the Pittsburgh Steelers? Burress left the Steelers in a less-than-amicable fashion before joining New York and there was rumored to be some animosity between him and Steelers owner Dan Rooney for some on- and off-the-field troubles during his last few seasons in the Steel City. But…Pittsburgh can use the help at the wide receiver position. They fell just short of securing their 7th Super Bowl title back in February, and one can only wonder if they would have been able to out-perform Green Bay’s explosive offensive attack if they had just a few more offensive weapons. They already have a weapon in speedster Mike Wallace, but other than that, they are fairly thin. Hines Ward is getting up there in years, and might not be effective for too much longer. Honestly, I don’t see Burress returning to Pittsburgh, but we all know that in the NFL, anything is possible, even Ben Roethlisberger turning into Seth Rogen and serving as his body double for The Green Hornet sequel.

At the end of the day, there is no way of knowing where Plaxico Burress will choose to go, or even which teams will pursue him, and with Drew Rosenhaus as his agent, there’s no way of even knowing if he’ll end up giving a press conference in his driveway while he does sit-ups without a shirt on. What we do know, however, is that Plaxico will end up having an impact wherever he does end up, let’s just hope that it’s in 2011 and not next year.


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A Year Without the NFL

24 05 2011

It’s a bleak future that nobody wants to envision. Kickoff Weekend arrives in early September without the usual fanfare, because there’s not a single NFL game to be found. Stadiums around the country lay barren and desolate, like empty cathedrals. Fans wander aimlessly through the streets wearing old, tattered NFL jerseys, walking memorials of their favorite stars.

It’s a bleak future, but it’s also one that is very likely to happen if the lockout is not lifted by the end of this summer. We don’t want to imagine what life would be like without the NFL on the field and in our homes every Sunday, so we go on with our lives, half-wishing and half-expecting that one day soon we will hear the news of the lockout being lifted and everything returning to normal.

But what if it doesn’t?

The following is a look at how my life, and the life of many other diehard NFL fans, might look on Sundays in the fall, if the NFL does not return to play in 2011. I should warn you that the next few paragraphs might contain some disturbing images that might not be suitable for some, and reader discretion is advised.

September

September arrives and the lockout has not yet been lifted. Fantasy football leagues all around the country go ahead and hold their drafts anyway, still filled with the wide-eyed optimism of a young child, hoping that the season will return and the $11 they just spent on their NFL Fantasy Prospectus 2011 magazine will not have been in vain. However, most drafts take a somber turn when halfway through, the league members are reduced to sobbing wrecks, taking turns loudly sharing their favorite memories of the NFL like mothers whose children have just gone off to college.

Some NFL fans, like myself, decide that in the absence of professional football, they will just invest twice as much energy into their favorite college football team, in the hopes of filling the deep void left in their souls. I choose to pour all the anticipation I had built up for a new Giants season, into the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. Even so, the games are played on Saturdays and Sundays only serve as a stark reminder of better times.

October

Rutgers takes their first loss of the season, dropping them to 4-1. I quickly realize that the season is pretty much over, because college football is stupid. Now, the harsh reality begins to hit me and I feel lost and scared. I still put on my Giants jersey every Sunday, sitting on the couch in front of a blank TV, quietly mumbling things like, “Nice pass Eli, you should try always throwing off your back foot into triple coverage,” and “OH ANOTHER MISSED TACKLE!” My friends and family become increasingly worried about my erratic behavior. On Sunday nights, I can be found alone in my room making fun of a nonexistent Cris Collinsworth.

November

Things start to take a turn for the worst after baseball season ends and there are no longer any professional sports to watch (the NBA is locked out too). I go weeks without shaving and begin reciting the Giants roster in numerical order, over and over again, sometimes in my sleep. I replace all the songs on my iPod with the voice of Giants’ radio play-by-play man Bob Papa. Every Sunday I order two dozen buffalo wings and, instead of eating them, I stack them in the corner of my room, “saving them for when football comes back.” I don’t respond to my name anymore, choosing only to answer to “Prince Amukamara” and alienate all those close to me.

December

Sundays, and pretty much every other day of the week, are filled with repeated viewings of the Giants 2007-08 Super Bowl DVD. By the middle of December, I have watched all three 2008 playoff games a total of 2,100 times, and Super Bowl XLII plays on a constant loop on a second TV I bought for the sole purpose of playing Super Bowl XLII on a constant loop.

Once a week, usually on Sundays (at this point I will have lost track of the days) I can be found sitting in my car in the parking lot of the New Meadowlands Stadium, waiting for a game that will never start. On the final Sunday of December, my car is towed from the parking lot while I am still inside of it. I refuse to leave.

January

The lockout is finally lifted in the first week of 2012. The NFL plays a shortened one-week season and the Giants finish 1-0, making the Super Bowl and defeating the New York Jets 45-0. Everything returns to normal.


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