I know what you’re going to tell me. Don’t buy into just one victory. Its still early. Only half the season has been played. I get all that. And yet. I want to yell and scream at everyone and everything. I want to just yell out profanities and mumbo jumbo that has no clear meaning. That’s the feeling you get when you see your team pull out a victory like that.
Its that kind of victory that shifts the attention from a negative to a positive.
Unfortunately THIS is the kind of victory that can help a team lose its perspective as they enter into the league’s most unforgiving second half schedule.
The Giants still haven’t played the Cowboys. They go up to San Fran this week against the 7-1 49ers. Then its back home for the Eagles against a team who embarassed them at home last year and may come in very angry and worse, VERY dangerous. Then comes the Saints who play like the Dow Jones. One week scoring 62 then the next not being able to score against a winless Rams team. Then the week after they face the Packers. Yep, the for now 8-0 Packers who will be coming off a very emotional Thanksgiving Day game and given a few extra days to rest to prepare for the Giants at the new Meadowlands.
Exactly WHO did the Giants piss off in the league office that they were given this schedule? Either way, this is the kind of game that can bring the team up and help propel them to something special and help them realize the potential in themselves OR its the kind of game that can have them head into Candlestick overconfident and have their asses handed to them. THEN start a spiral downwards that could cost them the division.
Either of those scenarios are still in play BUT for now, let’s just revel in this instant classic game that once again gave us the kind of goosebump highlights that made Giant and Patriot fans reminisce over Super Bowl 42. So let’s delve into the big plays and the small things that may come back to haunt us:
– Eli IS elite. Let’s put that argument to rest. He’s a Super Bowl winner. Clutch as they come. And judging by Philip Rivers’ last few games we can end the talk that he’s better than Eli despite the fact that the argument, when one really breaks it down, is ludicrous considering what Eli has accomplished when compared to Rivers. But that’s it for now. Let’s remember that his number one receiver, running back and starting center were ALL out due to injuries. The Giants have always been conservative when it comes to injuries and preventing further damage so there Eli was playing with Mario Manningham, Victor Cruz, Ramses Barden and Jake Ballard. So if you take out Mario Manningham, a fifth round draft pick, we’re talking about two undrafted free agents and a guy who hadn’t played in over a year thanks to an injury. That was Eli’s Sunday afternoon. By Monday morning each had made atleast one play to put the Giants in position to score OR scored a touchdown. Amazing. That’s what great quarterbacks do. That’s what elite quarterbacks do. Plain and simple.
– Welcome back to Brandon Jacobs who played like the guy we all saw in 2006 and 2007. The fear inducing runner who loves contact with smaller DB’s. I think Tom Coughlin said it best, he wasn’t going east and west, he was going north and south and when Brandon Jacobs does that he’s a great runner because not many want to deal with his physicality. His stats won’t say it, but if this is the Brandon Jacobs we’re going to get moving forward, teams had better worry; there aren’t two more angrier runners in the game than him and Ahmad Bradshaw.
– Once again, the coverage units did their job. This time, it was Deon Grant who seemed to be everywhere that Tom Brady did NOT expect. Forget the fact that Grant had one INT and two almost INT’s off Brady who never seemed to account for him, it was his coverage of the TE’s that helped win this game. If the Giants allowed Hernandez and Gronkowski to get open, it would’ve been a long afternoon but the Giants knew that in order to beat Brady you had to occupy the TE’s long enough for the pass rush to be effective.
But the better coverage job was done by Mathias Kiawanuka who had the dubious honor of covering the slot guy in Wes Welker OR his kid brother Danny Woodhead. No two slot receivers give defenses more fits than those two and Kiwi, the fruit Ninja, had to mix in coverage along with blitzing responsibilities and played a phenomenal game. The kind of game that makes you realize why the Giants took from a position of strength (DE) to apply into a position of weakness (LB). Kiwi had one INT of Brady thanks to a tip by Michael Boley (who we’ll laud too) which landed in his arms.
– Speaking of which, Michael Boley has been a God-send for the Giants since he signed with them in 2009. The Giants were thin at the position and needed some youth badly. Thanks to Boley’s emergence and his ability to call the signals on defense, they got more than they bargained for and have been rewarded since trusting him with the signal calling. He’s been the defacto Mike despite playing mostly strong side LB on most downs.
– Back to Eli. Bad Eli showed up on that one INT play in which he threw off his back foot and basically gave the Patriots all the momentum back but it eventually didn’t come back to haunt them, but those backfoot throws are the kind of things that drive you crazy as an Eli fan and give the haters plenty of ammunition against him.
– So after waiting for a year, we saw Ramses Barden make the kind of catch where you realized having a 6’6 and 240 pound receiver can be crucial. On a 2nd and 10 on the final drive, he snatched a surefire INT and muscled his way into a first down which kept the drive going. Amazing stuff and the physicality we had hoped to see. Reminded me of Plaxico. No lie.
– For the last few weeks, I told you how much I was impressed by Jake Ballard and well, what can you say about his Sunday afternoon? Made the most clutch catch on a play that I’ve seen Eli throw plenty of times before. Its his patented throw tight into double coverage and hope his receiver makes a play on the ball. He did that throw twice, the second being the one that drew the pass interference call which set the Giants up at the Patriots one with less than a minute to go to win the game. Ballard has been such a great find for the Giants that you’re now seeing what all the talent evaluators saw when they let Kevin Boss leave for the Raiders. Look, I’m not going to say that that decision wasn’t with its inherent question marks but that’s why you trust the system and trust the development crew. Want to know another Giants tight end who has been enjoying success? Scott Chandler. Chandler was on the Giants practice squad and today stars as the Bills TE. You trust the system and you allow the development to happen.
– Which naturally leads me to the guy in charge of all that and that’s Jerry Reese. During his first year as GM he engineered a draft that saw all 7 picks see the field and play prominent roles on a championship team. Now, five years later with Reese’ job pretty much on the line, Reese did nothing but stand pat. He let Boss leave for the Raiders. He worked out a compromise on the Osi Umeniyora situation and he did an amazing job retooling the roster with some good draft picks. Basically he got back to what made him a good GM and didn’t go out and spend money frivolously like he had done the last two seasons. I’m not saying that he’s the GM of the year, but he’s in the running and we’re going to see more of that put to the test. Prince Amukamara still hasnt played a down so that position of dearth may become one of strength if the Prince comes and plays to the talent the Giants expect. Not bad for a guy who was going to enter a lame duck year eh?
– How poetic that the music being played on the loudspeakers as Eli and co were coming in was Victory by Biggie?
– The Giants played excellently on both sides of the ball and managed to be effective in both areas especially on limiting yards after catch which is a very tough thing to do with these Patriots and also an essential thing to do. Everytime the Pats would catch a pass, they took a hit and were immediately dropped. Only until the second half when Brady finally got a chance to hit receivers in stride (make that one, only Wes Welker did any damage) did the Pats have any YAC. The Giants finally played an almost completely good game from top to bottom. 106 rushing yards on 24 carries which is still a 4.5 ypc average but after the first run for 18 yards by Ben Jarvis Green Ellis, the Patriots never had a high of more than 13 which was on an end around. The fact is, the Giants played tough, motivated and within the game plan that was given to them. Give them credit for keeping the Pats scoreless through 2.5 quarters and forcing Brady into uncharacteristic mistakes. Brady never really had a clear lane of vision and never looked comfortable.
The Pats were considered by most a Top 5 team in the league prior to Sunday’s game and the Giants certainly will play the cream of the crop but they were up against the 32n’d rank pass defense. The 31st? That would be the league’s best team, the Green Bay Packers. Much of that is due to the Packers usually being ahead comfortably and teams racking up yardage after they have put the game out of reach but Aaron Rodgers had to play a near perfect game in San Diego to escape with a W. He also had to put up monster performances to escape a 2-6 team in Minnesota to also come away with a victory. The Saints looked lifeless and completely lost against the Rams and never really looked dominant against the Bucs. The Eagles are a complete mess and basically 2 losses away from their season being over. What i’m trying to say is this: NO TEAM does NOT come away looking like an unbeatable team. For the first time in years, there is an actual question mark each week. I can see the Giants winning the next 4 or losing the next four. Its either the ceiling or the basement. Its unreal how open it is. Betting this season has been fun and i’ve been moderately successful but its a complete crapshoot.
I’m saying this to Giants fans: Don’t worry about the schedule. Let the schedule worry about itself. Let’s play this one game at a time and I think we may end up having a few more of these postgame moments in our future:
http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-locker-room-mvps/09000d5d823a982e/Locker-room-lingo?continuous=true
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The Lazy Eye of Sports 