A Housewarming Gift

16 09 2010

These were my seats. Great view, right?

There was a distinct new stadium smell on Sunday afternoon as I walked in through the Verizon gate at the New Meadowlands Stadium. The place may not have a real name yet, but it has a unique identity all its own, and although it was the first time I was walking in to the building for a regular season game, it already felt like home. Flags marking the Giants three Super Bowl titles flew proudly out front and a 100 ft. long mural capturing the most influential players in the team’s illustrious history hung over one of the four main entrances to the stadium, a welcoming sign showing that although this is not the Giants Stadium we had become so familiar with over the past 34 years, it is our new home, a place where many memorable games are yet to be played.

I wouldn’t say that Sunday’s season-opener against the Carolina Panthers is one of those memorable games, save for the fact that it was the first ever regular season game to be played at the new Giants Stadium (I’m calling it Giants Stadium because it’s shorter and easier, so sue me). The game, for the most part, was sloppy and played in a light mist that sprayed the sell-out crowd of 77,825 like a garden hose with a hole in it for most of the third quarter. Coincidentally, the third quarter was the best out of all of them. It was the point in the game when the Giants suddenly decided to turn things around and step on the gas, blowing past the clearly over-matched and fresh-faced Carolina Panthers and leaving them behind in a cloud of dust by the time the fourth quarter began.

Coming out of halftime trailing Matt Moore and the Panthers by a score of 16-14, the Giants were looking to avenge a dismal final :33 seconds of the first half where, after grabbing a 14-9 lead, their special teams (dreadful all day) allowed Carolina to return the kick-off all the way into Giants territory. A few plays later, Moore would make them pay with a quick 19-yard touchdown strike to Steve Smith to put the Panthers on top. It was one of the low points of the day, as instead of heading into halftime with a semi-comfortable 5 point lead on the heels of the second touchdown connection of the day between Eli Manning and Hakeem Nicks, we were suddenly trailing again.

The third quarter was where it all changed though. The momentum began to swing on the second play of the half as Manning pitched the ball to The Ghost of Brandon Jacobs who blew by several Panthers linebackers, stiff-armed a few defensive backs and rumbled down the sideline for 22 yards. It was the longest run of the day for the Giants, and frankly I think it was the first run of positive yardage, as it seemed like every time we ran the ball in the first half we lost 6-8 yards. The run set up the Giants in Panthers territory, and although the drive later stalled inside the 20, a Lawrence Tynes field goal gave the Giants a 17-16 lead they would never relinquish.

The third quarter was also a coming out party for the defense. After an entire first half where it seemed as if the defensive line was getting little penetration and putting minimal pressure on Matt Moore, the whole defensive unit came out with a fire lit under their behinds in the second half. Key sacks by Kiwanuka, Chris Canty and Barry Cofield helped stall Carolina drives and heads-up plays in the secondary by the new and improved Kenny Phillips and just plain new Deon Grant helped to fluster Matt Moore (I mean, it doesn’t really take much to fluster Matt Moore because after all, he’s Matt Moore). All in all, the Giants just looked like a completely different team in the second half, and maybe it took a half for Perry Fewell’s new defensive schemes to really start clicking, but whatever it was, it worked and it worked well.

The Panthers could muster only 6 yards of offense in the third quarter and after a third touchdown pass from Eli Manning to Hakeem Nicks, the Giants extended their lead to 24-16 with 1:42 to play in the quarter. The fourth quarter was where things started to get a little sloppy. I don’t know if it was because of the slick new FieldTurf with a fresh coat of September rain and little bits of chopped up tire flying left and right and landing in everyone’s eyes, but things just got out of hand.

On Big Blue’s first possession of the fourth, Ahmad Bradshaw broke off a 34-yard run in Panthers territory that initially seemed like it ended in a touchdown to just about everyone in the stadium, including Tom Coughlin, who challenged the call on the field that Bradshaw was down at the Carolina 1. It turns out that he was down, and after two plays of negative yards, Bradshaw ended up punching it in from the 4 to give the Giants a comfortable 31-16 lead. This is where things started to get weird. At this point, for some strange reason, neither team wanted to keep possession of the football. After driving 76 yards on the ensuing possession, down to the Giants’ 4-yard line with just over 8 minutes to play, Matt Moore was picked off in the end zone by Terrell Thomas. It was the second time he was picked off in the end zone, which is bad enough but as you know, things only got worse for poor Matt. I mean, getting picked off in the end zone three times in one game never happens to professional starting quarterbacks, right? You have to be pretty bad to be picked off in the end zone not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES. It never even happened to Kerry Collins, at least not that I can remember. And that guy was intercepted in the end zone a lot. A LOT.

Anyway, as I was saying before, nobody really wanted the football, and about two minutes after the Giants took over following the Thomas interception, Eli was picked off the for third time, turning the ball back over to Carolina with 6 minutes to play. Now, the Panthers were looking to really cut into the Giants lead and get back in the game. And they threatened to. They really did. With a 2nd and 9 from the Giants 11, Moore once again looked to the end zone, and again, he completed the pass to a New York Giant. This time, it was Kenny Phillips. Another touchback, and another blown opportunity for the Panthers, who at this point should have just given up.

The Giants would pick up one first down on the next drive before stalling and sending out Matt Dodge to punt with 4 minutes left. Now Matt Dodge had been struggling all day, shooting off line drive punts that looked like they barely made it over the heads of the guys at the line of scrimmage. We all knew that eventually this would turn sour, and this time it did, as Dodge’s punt was blocked (more like swatted) and thankfully rolled out of the back of the end zone resulting in a safety. 31-18 Giants.

On the first play of the next drive, Moore was sacked by Kiwanuka, the ball came loose and Tuck fell on it. At this point, it almost seemed as if both teams were suddenly allergic to the football. And I say this because three plays into the ensuing Giants possession, from the Panthers’ 14 yard line, Ahmad Bradshaw FUMBLED THE FOOTBALL. If you’re scoring at home, that was 6 consecutive possessions ending in turnovers. SIX. Looking to set a new NFL record, Matt Moore fumbled once again on the very next play following a sack by Osi Umenyiora, but the Panthers recovered it. Taking this as a sign that maybe he wasn’t cut out for the NFL, or maybe caused by the ringing in his head from the hit that Osi put on him, Moore left the game, leaving poor rookie Jimmy Clausen to be traumatized.

The Panthers punted, Eli took a few knees and that was that. Giants 31, Panthers 18 in the opener of the New Meadowlands Stadium With No Name. It was a great way to welcome the fans to our new home, and although the new stadium smell would be gone by the next night thanks to the stink that the Jets left on the field, it was still a game I will never forget. Hey, it wasn’t pretty but it was a win, and at the end of the day as Eli and the rest of the Giants walked into the tunnel, that 31-18 score on the flashy, bright new LED scoreboards meant only one thing: that we are 1-0.

MVP of the Game: Hakeem Nicks. Watching him explode onto the scene as a rookie last season, I knew that he would be a special player to watch in a Giants uniform. I didn’t exactly realize how quickly he was going to become that “special player”. Week 1 of his sophomore season sounds like a good time. 4 catches for 75 yards and 3 touchdowns is a pretty damn good start. We’ll see how it goes from here. I’m excited.

Honorable Mentions: Eli Manning. He just keeps getting better and better with age. Kind of like…his brother. (YES!) Also, Justin Tuck has arrived, Kenny Phillips is back, and Tom Coughlin can still throw that red challenge flag almost 20 yards further than any coach in the league.


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I’m Still Calling It Giants Stadium

17 06 2010

On Tuesday I went down to the New Giants Meadowlands Stadium to watch the Giants Open Minicamp Practice with my dad and my brother (who is an Eagles fan) and to also take my first real tour of our new state-of-the-art facilities. It was the first time I had been inside the new stadium, and let me tell you, it’s MAGNIFICENT.

Listen, I was one of the only people whining about how the old Giants Stadium was fine and that there was nothing really wrong with it. I was just reluctant to see the place I had come to love after so many years get destroyed and it’s no surprise that I’m not really the best at adapting to change. However, when I pulled into the parking lot on Tuesday and saw the pile of rubble that is the old Giants Stadium, I didn’t get dusty-eyed for nearly as long as I thought I would. Instead, I couldn’t take my eyes off of our shiny new stadium, its sleek silver exterior making it look like the spaceship from District 9 just landed on the side of the New Jersey Turnpike.

The stadium is big. It’s huge. That we already know. In fact, it’s nearly twice the size of the old stadium, and you could easily tell when both of them stood intact, side by side. So, what else do I love about the new stadium? I’ll make a list for you, because people love reading lists.

1) The wider concourses. This has to be #1 because it was pretty much my #1 problem at the old stadium. I never went to the bathroom during Giants games at the old stadium. I don’t care how badly I had to relieve myself, I just never went because I knew that going would cost me 20-25 minutes, depending on where my section was situated, and that I would likely miss a valuable chunk of game time — yes, even if I went during halftime. Trying to maneuver your way through the crowds in the old stadium was a test of endurance and patience — and constantly looking over your shoulder to make sure the people you’re walking with haven’t been swallowed by the masses. Getting a hot dog was a task and even just trying to get out of the stadium after an overtime win (when there’s likely to be the most people still left in the building) was an experience.

Not anymore though. The concourses are so wide that you can land a — well, maybe not a plane, but you can definitely drive multiple cars through it now. No more claustrophobia from simply trying to buy a knish. We can all breathe again. So I’m excited about that.

2) Concessions. I love the concessions at the new stadium. The old stadium’s concessions were extremely boring. Hot dogs, chicken fingers, sausage and peppers, cheesesteaks and nachos. That was pretty much it. Blah. Unimaginative and repetitive if you came to the stadium a lot. Now what do we have? Well I walked around the stadium for a few hours and I found: Fried hot dogs, fried clams, cheesesteaks (which were unbelievably good), pepper and egg sandwiches, pizza, gyros, chili, and tons more. This is owed to the fact that the concessions were switched over from Aramark, which ran the concessions at the old stadium, to a new company called Delaware North Companies. And make fun of flavored beer all you want, but the new stadium has Bud Light Lime on tap, and it’s pretty good. I also spotted Guinness, Landshark Lager, Brooklyn Lager, and Yuengling, in addition to all the usual suspects. Bottom line: concessions were upgraded from basically a C- at the old stadium to an A+ now. Which counts for a lot if you love food and beer as much as I do.

3) Sight lines. The visual sight lines in this stadium are stunning. For one, it seems like the seats are a tad closer to the field, which I’m assuming is going to be good for our home field advantage, because I can imagine that it will feel like the fans are right on top of the opposing team. The lower level is beautiful and spacious with what seems like a tiny bit more leg room and I don’t think there is a single bad seat in the whole house. There is a solid view of the field from every section. I even went upstairs to section 319, row 4 (considering I’ll probably be in the upper level for most of the games I go to) and from up there, it felt a lot like the old stadium. Sitting there in the sun on the Giants sideline, I thought I was back in the old Giants Stadium for a second. That is until I looked to my left where one of the four enormous video screens was situated. When I say enormous, I mean it. These babies are more than twice the size of the old jumbotrons and now there are FOUR of them. One in each corner. It’s going to make watching replays and highlights of the Cowboys getting hammered a lot easier.

Hixon: Moments before he tore his ACL.

4) Getting closer to the action. We walked down to the field level area on the main concourse, right inside the main entrance and below section 139 to an area that was gated off from the field. In this small standing room only area, we were able to stand just on the edge of the turf and watch as the Giants practiced no more than 50 feet away. Eli threw passes to Domenik Hixon (before he tore his ACL returning a practice punt) and Steve Smith and we were standing right there. Now I’m not sure if this little standing room area will be open on game day, but if it is, then it will be awesome. It is directly across the field from the Coach’s Club, which features luxury suites that are actually on the field, right behind the Giants bench. Although I can’t imagine this standing room area having much of a view that isn’t obstructed by the opponent’s bench, it will be still pretty cool if they keep it open.

5) Outdoor concourse. Much like the new Citi Field, where the Mets play, there is now a much bigger and wider outdoor concourse, which is the area just inside the gates, but before you actually enter the stadium. Out here they have beer vendors and food stands and there is a ton of space to walk around and enjoy the blistering cold 50 mph winds in December before heading into the game. I do like this idea.

6) It’s loud. On Tuesday, there were a reported 7,000 fans in the stadium to watch the minicamp practice. Since it was the middle of the afternoon and they were serving alcohol, those 7,000 fans got pretty loud at a few points. One of the those points happened to be when rookie defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul and guard Rich Seubert got into a little tussle. After the practice, Pierre-Paul remarked that it got surprisingly loud for 7,000 people and that he can’t wait to hear what it sounds like when there are 85,000 filling the seats. ME TOO! That was also the first thing I thought of, and whether it has something to do with how much closer the seats are to the field, or whatever else it is, all I know is that this stadium is going to be LOUD. I can’t wait.

7) Cupholders on every seat. This is self-explanatory. It’s about time.

8) SUPER BOWL 48. Probably the biggest reason I’m excited for the new stadium is February 2014, when the NY/NJ area will finally get to host a Super Bowl. As sad as I was to see the old stadium go, there was no way that building was EVER getting a Super Bowl. Now, with this new stadium, in less than 4 years I will have my best opportunity yet to attend the Super Bowl, and you have to believe that I will do everything in my power, including selling one of my organs, to get a ticket. And if the Giants are playing, then I’ll probably sell my soul.


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One For the Ages

30 12 2009
Carolina Panthers v New York Giants

Last week was a busy week for two reasons: Christmas. Shopping. For those reasons, I couldn’t turn out a column after last Monday night’s 45-12 throttling of the Washington Redskins on Monday Night Football. Had I written something, I likely would have gushed about how good the offense and the defense looked and how I could see this season turning around. I may have even written about how I thought this team might make a pretty surprising run in the playoffs and how I thought that there were a lot of similarities to the 2007 team that won the Super Bowl. I probably would have written all of those things, and a lot more. Then, after Sunday’s game, I would have looked back at last week’s column and been very embarrassed. I would have been almost as embarrassed as the Giants were by the Carolina Panthers Sunday afternoon in the last game they will ever play at Giants Stadium, their home for the last 34 years and 283 games.

A few weeks ago, after the wild Sunday night shootout against the Eagles, I wrote that I would not be disappointed if that was the last game I would ever watch in Giants Stadium. Then I got greedy. I knew I just had to be there on Sunday, I had to be there for the last hurrah, when the curtain came down on the place that I have grown to love over the last 15 years. Now, my final memory of Giants Stadium is going to be the Giants getting spanked by a team that had absolutely nothing to play for, on a day that we had everything to play for. It’s going to be a memory of our defense getting torched for 206 yards by a second-string running back (mind you, I know Stewart can be a starter on just about any other team in the league) and for 3 touchdowns by a second-string quarterback. It’s going to be a memory of Brandon Jacobs getting mercilessly booed as he walked off the field and towards the locker room with about 8 minutes to go and the Giants down 41-9. Were the boo’s warranted? Certainly. Jacobs racked up a whopping 1 yard on 6 carries. The workhorse who helped carry the Giants to a Super Bowl title 2 years ago, now looks like he has suddenly aged a decade. His explosiveness has all but disappeared, he no longer puts his shoulder down and runs over defenders and for the most part, he looks like he is running with ankle weights on. He has not crossed the 100-yard mark once all season, he only has 5 touchdowns (one-third of his total from last season) and unless he has a monster game against Minnesota next week, he will fall short of 1,000 yards for the first time since 2006, when he was Tiki Barber’s backup.

Needless to say, the lackluster running game has been the root of several of the Giants problems this season, but not all of them. Not in the least. It certainly hasn’t affected the passing game. Manning has had no problems finding the open receiver this season (you know, when they actually decide to catch the ball) and he is having, by far, the best statistical season of his career. His 27 touchdown passes are a career high and he will likely pass the 4,000 yard mark next week, making him only the third Giants quarterback to do so in franchise history. He needs a little over 200 yards to set the Giants all-time single season mark currently held by Kerry Collins who set it in 2002.

What the lack of a run game has done to the Giants this season is fail to establish a rhythm that has been so vital to our offense in the past few seasons. Being able to balance a successful passing game with a steady running game is the key to success in the National Football League, and the Giants just couldn’t find that balance for most of this season. Not enough big runs from Jacobs and Bradshaw to jump start a scoring drive and not enough big plays to galvanize the team and give the offense some momentum when the team sorely needs it.

I’m not going to say much about Sunday’s game, mostly because there really isn’t anything to say about it. It was the epitome of all that has gone wrong for the Giants this season. The defense failed to make big plays when they needed to. It seemed like last week’s defensive game plan, which worked so well against Jason Campbell and the Redskins, was not replicated on Sunday, as the Giants only sacked Matt Moore once, on the Panthers first offensive play from scrimmage. If you take a few steps back, Sunday’s game was quite simple to understand, mostly because it happened so quickly. The Giants opening drive, which ate up almost 8 minutes of the clock, looked almost exactly like their opening drive in Washington last week. When Manningham fumbled on the Carolina 17 yard line after converting a huge 3rd down, the momentum that the Giants had seemingly tried to build up with that march slipped away, and from that point on it looked as if the Giants were going through the motions. One of the amazing things about football is that entire outcome of a single game can be changed by a single play. It is often the littlest things that can swing the momentum and which can either bury a team or give them a second life. On Sunday, the Giants were buried early. Perhaps even before the fans knew it, and certainly before the players knew it, proving that anything is possible on any given Sunday.

Carolina Panthers v New York Giants

Was it tough to head out to Giants Stadium for one final Sunday, hoping for a heroic, season-saving effort from the Giants and a final push for the playoffs, only to see one of the worst performances in the stadium’s history? Yes, it was admittedly difficult. However, there was a sort of poetic beauty in being able to witness Sunday’s game. Everything served as a type of closure, from the boo’s, to the guy over in section 319 who threw all of his food at the field when the Giants fell behind 24-0 at halftime. I’ll be the first to admit that with all the games I’ve seen at Giants Stadium over the years, I’ve been pretty lucky. I’ve seen a lot of good games, and even a handful of great games, but I haven’t witnessed to many stinkers like the one I saw on Sunday. Actually, it’s safe to say that Sunday’s game was the worst I have ever attended at Giants Stadium, or anywhere else for that matter. So bad that I probably will have to amend the column that I wrote a few months ago detailing the top 5 worst games of the Eli Manning Era to include it. When you look at it that way, it even begins to make some kind of sense. Maybe not fully, and not yet, but in time I’m sure I’ll see it for what it is.

On Sunday, Big Blue will travel to Minnesota to take on Brett Favre and the Vikings. The Vikes have already clinched a playoff spot, which is lucky for them considering the nosedive they’ve been locked in since the beginning of the month. They’ve dropped 3 of their last 4 games, including a gut-wrenching 36-30 overtime loss to the Bears on Monday night. The 11-4 Vikings suddenly have something to play for, as a loss by them and an Eagles win over Dallas would drop Minnesota down to the 3rd seed in the NFC, giving the Eagles the coveted first-round bye. As for the Giants, it’s a much different story. By Week 5, many Giants fans looked at this game on the schedule anticipating that it wouldn’t mean anything, much like last year’s Week 17 matchup against the Vikings. After all, we were 5-0, and most of us thought that we would have our playoff position readily secured by now. Well, it turns out that we were half-right, as Heatmiser would say. The game means about as much as an exhibition game to the Giants, but not for reasons that we had anticipated back when we were 5-0. The Giants will miss the playoffs this year for the first time since I was a senior in high school and I still believed that prom would be just like American Pie, only in real life. Instead, we will try to play spoiler and help out the Eagles, because after all,  they’ve helped us out so much this season (outscoring us 85-55 in two games). It’s the least we could do. To be perfectly honest with you, I’d much rather see the Eagles win the NFC than the Cowboys, a team we beat twice. It would hurt much less to know that the team that caused us the most torment this season turned out to be the second best team in the NFC.

With The Minnesota game being played on January 3rd, this past Sunday’s game against Carolina served not only as the last game at Giants Stadium, but also the last game of the decade. Although the decade ended on a bitter note for Big Blue, nobody can deny that it was one hell of a decade to be a Giants fan. With two Super Bowl appearances, one Super Bowl title, 3 division titles and 6 playoff appearances, it was arguably one of the most successful decades in Giants history, and I’m proud to have been a part of it. As we say goodbye to another decade and welcome in 2010 in just a few days, here’s to hoping that 2010-2019 will be even better for the New York Football Giants. Who knows, maybe it will even start with a win on Sunday.


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They Might Be Giants

7 12 2009

Well, I’m back. I was out of commission this past week, battling a particularly ornery case of the swine flu. Apparently, the Giants are back too. Yes that’s right, that football team from New York that’s been locked in a nosedive since early October (no, not that New York football team) wants to play with the big boys again.

Yesterday, the Giants improved to 3-1 in the NFC East with a somewhat-convincing 31-24 win over the hated Dallas Cowboys. With the win, the Giants captured their first season sweep of the Cowboys since 2004 and most importantly, capture a little bit of the momentum that has eluded them as of late. The win pushes the 7-5 Giants to within one game of the division lead, behind the Cowboys and Eagles, both 8-4.

Looking at the box score from yesterday’s game, you would most likely find it hard to believe that the Giants won the game rather decisively. But as we all know, in football more than any other sport, who wins and who loses goes far beyond what you read in the stat sheet. After all, the Giants were topped in every single statistical category except for rushing yards yesterday (they outgained Dallas 100-45 on the ground). The 31-24 final score doesn’t even tell the entire story; with less than 5 minutes to go in the game, the Giants held a 31-17 lead. The Cowboys cut the lead to 7 with under a minute to play when Romo connected with Miles Austin for a touchdown. The Cowboys soundly beat the Giants in the time of possession battle, holding the ball for more than 38 minutes, to the Giants’ 21:10. They also managed to top us in total yards (424-337), first downs (27-15), total plays (80-49), and they turned the ball over fewer times.

So how did the Giants do it yesterday? Magic. Mostly smoke and mirrors, actually. You see, they were able to suspend an entire second team, just slightly above field level, while keeping them completely invisible to the naked eye– I’m just kidding. The Giants got help yesterday from a little something I like to call The Big Play. We haven’t seen too much of The Big Play this season, mostly because Plaxico Burress and Tiki Barber were our two biggest Big Play contributors in the past, and neither wear blue anymore. And Ahmad Bradshaw, who can typically be counted on to break a Big Play every now and then, is playing on not one, but two sprained ankles. In case you’re keeping score at home, he doesn’t have any more ankles to sprain. He has sprained just about every ankle he has. That’s two. In fact, the Giants number Big Play guy so far this season has been the rookie Hakeem Nicks. The first touchdown of his NFL career was a nifty 54-yard catch and run against Kansas City and his highlight reel 62 yard touchdown catch against Arizona were two of the biggest Big Plays the Giants have seen all year. Until yesterday.

Yesterday the Giants used The Big Play, and they used it well. I mean, how else do you score 31 points when your starting quarterback completes only 11 passes the entire game (11/25, 241 yards, 2 TD)? That’s right, The Big Play. One of these big plays came late in the third quarter, immediately after the Cowboys had just recaptured the lead at 17-14 on Romo’s second touchdown pass of the game to one of their Roy Williamses. The one that catches passes (or doesn’t, if you’re going by his stats from the last two years). Anyway, on the Giants’ first play following that touchdown, Manning swung the ball out into the flat for Brandon Jacobs, who proceeded to make a few defenders miss and then tightroped his way down the near-sideline for 74 yards and a Giants touchdown. I was going to follow that with an analogy about the last time I saw Brandon Jacobs run that fast, until I realized that I have never seen Brandon Jacobs run that fast. Ever. All of a sudden, it was 21-17 Giants, and the momentum was priority-shipped right back to us, and we would never relinquish it.

After a 25-yard pass to Steve Smith (6 rec., 110 yards) and a 29-yard scamper by Bradshaw set up another Tynes field goal to extend the Giants’ lead to 24-17, the rejuvenated Big Blue defense forced Dallas to punt and the Big Play that came next, would serve as the proverbial nail in the coffin. Domenik Hixon returned Mat McBriar’s punt 79 yards for the touchdown, electrifying the Giants Stadium crowd and most importantly, letting Giants fans breathe a little bit easier on the way to victory. The punt return was the Giants first since Chad Morton brought one back against Arizona in the 2005 season opener and it was Hixon’s first return touchdown since he brought back a kick-off against New England in the 2007 finale.

As for the defense…they still allowed a ton of yards. Although they succeeded in shutting down the run game and neutralizing Dallas’ three-headed monster of Marion Barber, Felix Jones and Tashard Choice (they allowed 251 yards rushing at Dallas in Week 2), the pass defense still left a lot to be desired. Tony Romo completed 41 of 55 passes for 392 yards with 3 touchdowns and no interceptions. Jason Witten had a field day, and continued the pattern of tight ends absolutely torching the Giants secondary. His 14 catches for 156 yards were both career highs and I swear that if he converted one more 3rd and 16 with a sliding catch over the middle I was going to chug Windex and light myself on fire. The changes that the coaching staff made to the defense yesterday, starting Kiwanuka over Umenyiora, Chris Canty over Fred Robbins and Johnathan Goff over Chase Blackburn at middle linebacker, seemed to spark the defense where it mattered; Umenyiora ended up recovering a huge Marion Barber fumble at the end of the first half and returning it deep into Dallas territory which led to Brandon Jacobs’ one-yard touchdown run and the Giants 14-10 halftime lead. However, the same weaknesses that we’ve been seeing all season were still exposed yesterday, namely the middle of the field, where Romo picked apart the Giants linebackers by hitting Witten and Austin over and over again on slant routes.

The big difference though, was that the Giants defense stepped up and make stops when they had to, and because of that, Big Blue lives to fight another week. Not only is a win over the Cowboys important in the race for the NFC East, but it’s always sweeter to beat the hated division rivals, not once but twice in one season. Their schedule gets tough over the next few weeks (San Diego and New Orleans) which means that the Giants need to take advantage of this door that has suddenly been re-opened for them. A win at home next week against Philly and the week after that in Washington could put the Giants back in first place. As we all know however, winning in the NFC East is always easier said than done.


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Falcon Punch

23 11 2009

As I descended down the escalator by Gate B yesterday after the game, I overheard a Giants fan behind me say, “That was probably the most depressing win I’ve ever seen.” Now, I don’t entirely agree with him. I don’t think there is such a thing as a depressing win in the NFL. With a short 16-game season, any kind of win, whether it be a pretty win, an ugly win or even an accidental win, is a good win. Having said that (anyone who has seen the latest episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm knows why I had to throw that in), I could see where that fan was coming from. I wouldn’t call yesterday’s win a depressing one, or even an ugly one for that matter. Maybe “discouraging”. Perhaps even a little “unconvincing”. When the game-winning field goal sailed off Lawrence Tynes’ foot and through the uprights with 11:06 to go in overtime, I celebrated loudly along with whoever else had decided not to leave the stadium when the Giants took a 31-17 lead.

The truth is, the game shouldn’t even have come down to Lawrence Tynes and it definitely should not have come down to an overtime period because like I said earlier, the Giants had a 31-17 lead. How did a two touchdown lead turn into an overtime coin toss in the span of 12 minutes? Well, it happened in very similar fashion to how we lost the game against San Diego. Instead of stepping up and making a big defensive stop or two in the fourth quarter, the defense instead folded like an origami swan. Matt Ryan took the Falcons down the field for two consecutive touchdown drives that looked about as difficult for Atlanta as heating up a Pop-Tart.

I don’t typically use phrases like “dinking and dunking” because I’m not Ron Jaworski, but that’s exactly what the Falcons did on their back-to-back 12 play drives in the fourth quarter. They played it safe and kept everything in the middle of the field, which is ironically exactly what the Giants defense did. By guarding against the big play (a 70-yard touchdown pass to Roddy White or something along those lines) and trying to keep the clock running, they ultimately ignored the short to medium 10-15 yard passes over the middle and stayed away from Atlanta tight end Tony Gonzalez like he was a leper, even when he scored the game-tying touchdown with 28 seconds left.

Call me psychic if you want, but I knew that this game was going into overtime when the Falcons scored to cut the Big Blue lead to 31-24. It’s not that I’m a cynic or that my Gatorade cooler is half-empty, it’s just that if I’ve seen this once, I’ve seen it a hundred times. The Giants are just about the only team that can make a two touchdown lead feel like they’re losing. Giants fans shouldn’t have to sit on the edge of their La-Z-Boys or uncomfortable plastic stadium seats when the score is 31-17 with 12:08 to play in the fourth quarter, yet that’s exactly what I was doing yesterday. Luckily, yesterday’s overtime drama didn’t last too long, but it was just long enough for my Overtime Anxiety Syndrome to kick in. I seem to be a magnet for overtime games lately, as yesterday was the third one I’ve been to in the past two seasons, but before I could start chewing on my hat like it was a 14 oz. NY Strip, Eli Manning stepped up just like he had been doing all day and completed a 29-yard strike down the far sideline to Mario Manningham to set up the Giants on the Falcons’ 23-yard line. A few plays later, as we held our collective breath, Tynes tucked one inside the right upright and the Giants had snapped their 4-game losing streak. The first win in 42 days.

The performances that stood out the most to me yesterday were the ones turned in by Eli Manning (25/39, 384 yards, 3 TDs), Mario Manningham (6 rec., 126 yards) and Kevin Boss (5 rec., 76 yards, 2 TDs). Our fearless leader put forth his second thoroughly impressive game in a row, and aside from an interception on the opening drive of the game, he was nearly perfect. His 384 yards marked a career-high total and the first time he had ever thrown for over 300 yards at Giants Stadium, a pretty odd statistic, considering he’s in his 5th full season and has started almost 50 games there. He stepped up and made big throws in big situations, including huge 51-yard pass to Steve Smith (4 rec., 79 yards) that led to the Brandon Jacobs touchdown run early in the 3rd quarter which gave the Giants a 24-14 lead and answered the Falcons previous touchdown drive to start the second half. As for Mario Manningham, my love affair with his athleticism grows by the week and he made some catches yesterday that made me forget all about Amani Toomer’s sideline acrobatics and Plaxico Burress’s one-handed grabs. He is going to be a phenomenal wide receiver one day, and I feel like we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg right now, as far as his potential in the NFL.

All in all, the Giants picked up a sorely needed win yesterday that may have been the spark that they need to rejuvenate their season. Having said that, there are still several kinks that still need to be smoothed out on the defensive side of the ball. We’ll be able to tell for sure on Thanksgiving night in Denver, but for now, a nice overtime victory works well to help me forget the fact that I picked up Jason Snelling for my fantasy team to replace Michael Turner and then left him on the bench and watched as he scored two touchdowns yesterday. That’s life.

Read more: http://giants.gearupforsports.com/blog/#ixzz0XjCcoIHj


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