Dal 31 NYG 20... EXPOSED.

The Giants were exposed. They were beaten by a better team. The Giants lost this game at the line of scrimmage. Not badly. But enough. The Giants made mistakes that a better opponent forces you to make, and they made fewer plays because the better opponent gave us fewer opportunities. The Giants also made mistakes which are more glaring in a loss than in a win. Costly penalties, some shoddy tackling. When Manning gets the ball at his own 42 with a 14-10 lead and Q2 winding down, it is a travesty what took place. He takes not one but two sacks, and enables the Cowboys to escape the first half in which we were actually looking pretty good. If not for a gift Dallas penalty it would have been 17-14 Dallas.

And then came the Manning second half. The inconsistent/disappearing act. Tell me how it is possible for a QB to get that many delay of games? How is it possible to get a delay of game in the hurry up? That is a metaphor for Manning. He has poise yet he does not. He plays well and he does not. We needed 4 quarters out of him, and we get 2. Sometimes the OL or the DL is not going to be aces, and we need help. Manning is in a position to help and does not. No, to be fair, it was not Manning that was called for a hold which negates a TD. But this is the same QB as last year that comes up empty. The QB always seems to get more of the credit in a win and more of the blame in a loss, but since the QB is the one with his hands on the ball half of the game it is up to him to make things happen. Like it or not, the Giants cannot go to the next level until Manning goes to the next level.

getting ready for Dallas

1) The starters at CB in week 1 vs Dallas were McQuarters and Webster. Now they are a healthy Madison and Ross.
2) The Giants are last in the NFL in red zone defense. The coaching staff analyzed this during the bye week to determine what tendencies can be changed to get better there.
3) A win on Sunday extends the winning streak to 7, which would be the longest since 1990, when that team won 10 straight. Get it? Long winning streaks are the hallmark of consistent teams that WIN CHAMPIONSHIPS.
4) Those Red Jerseys the Giants will be wearing on Sunday are a crock of s**t.
5) Speaking about crocks of s**t, Flex Scheduling has moved the Giants-Lions game to 1PM next week to bump the Dallas-Skins game to 4PM. People who buy tickets and actually attend these games are pawns. Ridiculous! Like the Lions-Giants game had to be moved? Two potentially 7-2 teams in the FOX national slot? Insane, all of it.
6) 6 out of the 10 geniuses take the Boys on Sunday. This is a good thing for us. And Blezow does NOT have the Giants as his (Sch)lock of the week. Thank you thank you!
7) Manning has a 79 QB rating, but he has a 99 rating in the red zone. WHY? Because the playcalling by Gilbride in the red zone has been (unlike last year) unpredictable. I also think that down in the red zone (where speed is so critical) Manning thinks less and throws to a certain spot, thereby avoiding the telegraph and INT.
8) The Giants have 30 sacks through 8 games. They had 32 all of last year.
9) Yah, so the Gmen are 6-0 vs teams with a combined record of 13-36. But let's give credit to the Giants for getting their business done... do you think that the Giants are going to be slightly more up for the Dallas game than they were for the 49ers or the Dolphins? The Giants are a confident team that has a lot to prove tomorrow.
10) Pierce says the Giants were flying to the ball in practice this week, and have not practiced this well (fast) since the Giants beat the Skins 36-0 after Mara died.
11) Bradshaw looks to get more action this weekend... as long as he protects the ball, he IS a HUGE help on pass catching out of the backfield.
12) I am very disappointed in our third receiver option. Moss sucks, he does not finish runs, and does not get first downs. And Smith is out again... is durability going to be a problem here?

Dallas at NYG

The stakes are huge for the Giants. If they lose there is realistically no bye this year. How do they win this game?

1) Manning plays 4 quarters. See prev blog.
2) No romo-ing right. The Dallas QB is as lethal rolling out of the pocket RIGHT as Manning has been lethal on play action.
3) The battle of the line of scrimmage is (as usual) critical. When the Giants have the ball, they must create that surge to get the run yards and make the play action more effective. Dallas has been effective against the run, and the Giants need to establish the run. A war.
3a) On the other side, the Giants dline needs to stop Dallas on first down so that it can get the 4 DE's on the field to make plays. Romo needs as much pressure as possible, and the Giants will give him a lot more than they did last game, when Strahan was not in season's form and Umenyiora was hurt. (Dallas did NOT see the 4DL rush in the first game.)
4) The Tight Ends. We need Shockey to get a lot of touches. He always gets the better of Williams, and that is the mismatch we have to leverage. Likewise, with Witten the bad news is he is always trouble for us. The good news is that we cannot do any worse against him than we did in the first game.
5) Beat the cr*p out of them! This game will be won by the team that is more physical. Control the line, beat up their WRs, pound Romo, bring the game to them or else they will bring the game to us.

If the Giants play their 'A' game they are a better team than the Cowboys and will win.

Manning at Midseason

From QB Coach Palmer:

Q: Tom Coughlin mentioned that a lot of times what you don’t see is Eli audibling to the right play in the run game…

A: Outstanding. Outstanding.

Q: That is something that probably nobody realizes?

A: No one realizes it. He gives our team numerous chances to be successful, not just in the passing game, but also in the running game.

From Off. Coord. Gilbride:

"We certainly didn’t throw the ball as well as we would have liked and we are disappointed in that despite the conditions. the last game and a half we have not thrown the ball as well. Last week there were extenuating circumstances but the second half of the San Francisco game we didn’t throw the ball particularly well and this week I don’t think we threw the ball as well as we could have even though the conditions were difficult."

Q: What are some of the things you are going to look to improve upon for the second half of the season?

A: I think consistency in throwing the ball. I think that is a fairly obvious area that needs to be looked into. We have had some games where we have been outstanding, we have had some halves where we have been exceptional, but in terms of game-in and game-out for the entirety of the game, I think if there is an area that needs to be scrutinized and hopefully investigated to the point where we could come up with some reasons why and get those things corrected, that would be the area.

ultimatenyg comment- Manning's play controls the fate of this team. Inconsistent? We get another wild card and another playoff loss. Consistent? IF MANNING PLAYS 4 QUARTERS WE CAN BEAT ANYONE IN THE LEAGUE, INCLUDING THE PATRIOTS. Why? Because we have an excellent offensive and defensive line. It is not unreasonable to ask a 4th year QB to play for 4 quarters. Historically speaking, the odds do NOT favor such an outcome. His track record indicates declining production. Maybe that can change this year if Burress can get healthier and Manning gets some religion. All I am saying is that the leverage is HUGE. With the exception of specials, the team is there to go very far if Manning can deliver.

British Bums

We s***ed. Put this in the dictionary under U for Ugly. Madison shoulder (non) tackles. Tynes (I HATE HIM) misses a 29 yarder. Manning was awful, passing for 58 yards. His receivers were worse, w MANY drops, including Toomer TD gift-wrapped. The Brits don't have a monopoly on rain-soaked conditions, so I do not want to hear about that as an excuse. And btw, MANNING STILL TELEGRAPHS HIS THROWS. Just ask Safety Darren Sharper of the Minnesota Vikings, who picked off Manning three times from centerfield. Well, the INT was YET ANOTHER tipped ball at the line of scrimmage (deja Blue?!) because the DL watches his eyes all the way. KUDOS to the offensive line for once again controlling the game. They are easily the most consistent unit on the team. SHAME to Pierce for yet another unnecessary roughness call with another late hit. If I am the coach I tell him plain and simple, I will lose with someone else, I will bench you if I see it again. Why mention these items after a win? Because if we execute like this against most other teams in the league today we lose, and because there are so many correctable mistakes that (if eliminated) can enable this team to be truly special.

Btw, (1) thank you Jay Feely for all of your mistakes. Not mentioned on the telecast was the minor fact that Feely was offsides on his OWN onside kick! Yep, his left foot planted above the 30 yard line before his right foot made the kick. It was not even called. (2) U think I am not going to mention how the all the geniuses who piled on the Giants -9.5 got their comeuppance? NO FREE MONEY AFTER ALL. And let that be a warning to anyone allied with the Blezow lock of the week. All I can say is that I am glad the Gmen came out alive with a win.

respect for the fan

In 1981 the avg baseball game took 2:33 mins. In 2007, it took 2:51 mins, actually 6 mins less than it did in 1995. But World Series games for the last 10 years last 37 mins longer than reg season games. And in this year's World Series the 3 games have taken an average of 3:50 mins to complete (have not watched one minute, kiss my arse!). The game ends at 12:20AM AVERAGE!

I bring this up because Larry Stern of the NBA is thinking about something radical- no timeouts in the last 3 minutes of a basketball game. Stern is waking up and other professional sports leagues better pay attention- when you continue to water down the product the fan eventually figures out that 100% of something is better than 0% of everything.

Goodell- are you paying attention? Do not sell the product to the devil- expanding playoffs for more than 12 teams, longer games, flex schedules, they are all gimmicks which harm the greatness of the game.

They are giving money away!

The Giants have won (and COVERED) 5 straight. The geniuses are predictably lining up at the cashier's window ready to collect before the race even goes off...

resident genius Blezow: "THIS one's easy, so let's just say it in the Queen's English: The Giants are going to kick the Dolphins' bums all over Wembley Stadium."

second in command Hondo: "Even the blokes in London know that Big Blue is going to kick the Dolphins' bloody arse."

Would it shock you to know that each of them have the Giants as "best bets," that Blezow makes the Giants his (anything but the) "Lock of the Week," that 9 out of 10 of the NYPost crew have the Gmen and 6 total have the Giants as best bets?

To be fair, this NYPost crew lined up to get down on the Giants vs Atlanta and collected.

THEY ARE GIVING MONEY AWAY! Oh brother. Scary is more like the word. And we heard yesterday that Zach Thomas won't play either, adding to the injury decimation of the Dolphins. The Giants SHOULD kick their "arse" but since I do not endorse such thinking I warn everyone that there is no such thing as a sure thing.

Go Giants! Win by 9 or win by 90, but just win.

the play-calling

The playcalling is not predictable. Amen. Give credit where it is due... Gilbride is mixing it up. Could he have the offense run through Shockey a lot more? Well, in a word, YES! But you cannot argue with the success he has had spreading it out, pounding other teams with the run (because our O-line is so dominant) and getting the ball to Burress and Toomer. So Shockey has to get less touches if that is happening. As long as it is working and we are winning, you cannot complain about that.

With Hufnagel I would groan because I knew what was coming and (worse) knew that that also meant that the assasins playing defense knew too. We would be in the red zone and first down would be the (stacked up) predictable run for 1 yard. Then we would get the predictable pass for 4 yds (complete or incomplete, no matter). Then on third down he would wake tfu and throw to Shockey, but at that point it was too late because now everyone and their mother knew that that was coming too. With Gilbride, I have not seen the tendency yet on any down at any place on the field, so that is good. The moment u r safe and predictable u r dead.

It does not hurt that our O-line is controlling the line of scrimmage. That makes play action work, and boy has Manning been deadly with play action. As long as Gilbride keeps the defense off-balance, we are in good shape. We won't likely get tested in London, but when we play Dallas and Chicago those defenses will test Gilbride a lot more and then we will see what we really have. So far it is UNPREDICTABLE!

feast or famine

At the beginning of the season, whatever could go wrong usually did. Now, whatever team we seem to face crumbles before we arrive. Brian Westbrook, the offensive line of the Falcons, Alex Smith and now this week: Chambers traded a week ago and Ronnie Brown (their entire offense) out for the rest of the year with an ACL. Trap trap trap. It gets hard to have a trap game when these teams are simply not fielding competitive units. The Dolphins have the 27th ranked defense, and the only reason the offense gets ranked decently (top ten) is because they are busy racking up yards in scrub time. Now that their two best weapons on the offense are gone, all the Giants need to do is show a modicum of respect for the fact the Dolphins are in the NFL, and then beat their brains in. This game is very simlar to the 49er game. Execute, win the game, and get the hell out of there. (Btw, did I mention that the Dolphins are w/o their starting QB and Safety ...)

NYG 33 49ers 15

Business-like win again. We all want this team to accomplish BIG things. While the effort was impressive, some things really bothered me. Do not mistake the message, that the Giants are becoming a very good football team because their offensive and defensive lines of scrimmage are dominating. IF YOU WANT TO SEE BIG THINGS, YOU NEED TO CLEAN UP SOME PROBLEMS:

1) TWO personal fouls on PIERCE?! That is not leadership by example. Two costly and stupid penalties that WILL cost you when it counts vs better competition.
2) A drop for a sure TD by Ward, bailed out by Toomer TD reception 2 plays later. Still, u have to make that catch. Our backfield RBs are not very good in the passing game. If they can hold onto the pass, they can really make this offense go from potent to lethal.
3) If Lawrence Tynes shows up dead somewhere, send the police to my address because I am probably guilty. This guy is killing us with his missed extra points and awful specials.
4) Speaking of awfuls, the blocked punt for a safety was ugly.
5) Eli Manning was not impressive today. Sure he lead the team to a nice victory, but (amongst other things) he missed a wide open Toomer, he threw behind Shockey, and he telegraphed a play from the start of the snap which was deflected and intercepted (killing an otherwise beautiful drive, and subsequently letting the 49ers back in the game).

24 of the 33 points scored today were off of turnovers. The offense deserves a lot of credit for converting them, but if the Giants want to make that jump from a middle tier team to a top tier team it must clean up these loose ends.

Championships

Was just listening to Russo on WFAN rip the Yankees for letting go of Torre. Look, Russo is a phony and fraud, and creates noise and controversy to generate ratings. He is in the advertising business, not the sports business. So he gets on his high horse (allow me to get on mine!) and says that Levine knows nothing about the Yankees and that Torre has brought this franchise to the playoffs 12 years in a row.

WRONG!

The Yankees are the single most successful sports franchise in the world. They have won 26 CHAMPIONSHIPS. NOBODY knows, cares, quotes, or gets paid to go to the playoffs except losers like Marty Schottenheimer. Parcells did not leave the Cowboys exultant about getting his team to the playoffs last season! He was miserable because he understands... it is about the ring...winning CHAMPIONSHIPS. Torre has not given the Yankees a championship in SEVEN years and that is not enough.

Every move a franchise makes must be for one purpose--- to win a championship. The Giants have not won a championship since Jan 1991. Unacceptable. I do not care if the odds are that you should win it once every 32 years because there are 32 teams. With that attitude the Jets are right on schedule if they win one sometime in the next ~15 years or so. NOT. And neither are the Giants. The schedule is that if you are not competing for a championship you are not worth anyone's time. So we discuss moves here on the blog with the understanding that the mission is a championship. That not getting a LB with the first pick in the draft since 1984 and that not even getting a LB #2 since 1991 is not the way you pursue a championship. And that making your #1 go from impact player at his natural position to ordinary in someone elses is madness.

Some people say it is a successful season if the Giants beat Dallas, or if they beat the Skins. I say it is successful if we win a championship.

to Plaxico or not to Plaxico

Burress will be going on 6 days rest for the ankle vs. 8 days for the prev contest. By his own admission, every day he is off the ankle is very helpful for recuperation. I think that between getting only 6 days and also getting Clements at corner, this will be Burress's first game getting shut out, a remarkable streak coming to an end. But if he can draw the assignment of one of the league's better corners, that will make the job of everyone else easier. So be it. Where it gets interesting is the following week (yep, not supposed to do that, that is how traps are created)... with the Dolphin trip to London. Do not send Burress across the pond. Inactivate him and give him 21 days of rest for DALLAS. Leverage the bye and the fact that Steve Smith will be back for that game. Let Smith take Burress's place on the roster. If we cannot beat the Dolphins w/o Burress, we are not going anywhere anyway, so give our star WR a chance to get that ankle some rest.

7 questions, Part II

Before the beginning of the season, I asked 7 questions. Let's look at them one at a time.

Will Kiwanuka play well at LB?

NO. But we get a YES because the Giants have stopped the failed experiment.

Will Diehl play well at LT?

YES.

Will our shoddy secondary hold it together?

With the ascendency of Aaron Ross, the answer is yes. It is too early to pronounce the rookie as savior but not too early to think it is possible. So we answer this question as YES until we can play a competent team/QB that can really test these guys.

Will Manning be accurate?

I have been trying to figure this one out for almost 4 years. YES NO MAYBE, you tell me. The past few games we have gotten back on the Eli rollercoaster. Even this past week's solid Monday performance was marred by telegraphed passes which were batted down, and two INTs. He is improved but we wait for four consecutive quarters of consistency.

Will our RBs handle the pass-catching out of the backfield?

Thus far, NO.

Will our (now) thin OL stay healthy?

Thus far, YES. There was an article in today's NYPost lauding them. What scares me is what is behind these guys on the depth chart.... schtick dreck. If we had Seubert on the bench coming in I would feel a helluva lot better.

Will we find a kicker?

NO.

The tally: Counting the failed Kiwanuka experiment as a YES, we have 4 YES 2 NO 1 MAYBE. That we are 4-2 does speak to the congruency of the questions.

Manning is an enigma. I believe in Ross. I do believe that Ward and Jacobs (Bradshaw?) can improve and get more fluid out of the backfield on receptions. I do not believe in the kicker. That implies a final tally (barring items like injuries) of 5 YES 1 NO and 1 MAYBE.

You can see here that it points to the TWO issues which hold the Giants back from being a very good team... Manning's inconsistency and our special teams adventures. (Tynes' lack of distance/hang time was as much a culprit on the Leon Washington TD as anything else.)

ROSS MANNING SPECIALS. These are the variables left in determining the answer to our season. There is a very fine line here between mediocrity and greatness. Yes, this team can be formidible if a few things fall into place. And no, a little Manning inconsistency, specials nightmares and some injuries to our O-line and we go right back in the ash can. A few ifs and we are in excellent shape. Tiki Barber remarked today that we can be 12-4. Considering the garbage we play against, it is possible if the above items can fall into place.

4-2... so now what?!?!

2/3rds full or 1/3rd empty. There are reasons aplenty to be optimistic and enough problems to keep our feet on the ground. Draw your own conclusions from the following observations:

Ongoing problems
1) We got the Eagles when Westbrook was out, the Falcons can drop passes galore, but what happens when we play the teams that can execute?
2) Manning still has trouble playing 4 quarters
3) Our special teams are abominable
4) Our RBs cannot catch balls well out of backfield

Reasons for optimism
1) We lead the league in sacks
2) We have the 6th ranked offense, with second most # of first downs
3) Only ~4 penalties per game
4) 9th ranked defense after horrendous start
5) The AARON ROSS FACTOR- when Ross has been in the game (over 12 Quarters in 4 games), the Giants defense has given up a NET total of 6 points!
6) The Feagles punting game is as good as ever
7) When Manning is on, we are difficult to handle
8) Our offensive line has been controlling the line of scrimmage all season

NYG 31 Falcons 10

Business-like game. Manning showed up, the Giants showed up, the Giants won a game they should have won. Early on we all know it was not so simple. But it was the offense which kept the pressure on, and the defense sealed it. Can anyone tell me what happened to Aaron Ross? Injured? Taken off field?