Tag Archives: Dallas

Huge win Monday night over the Cowboys and here’s a few thoughts, and observations on the Giants game:

– Notice I didn’t say win.  It was yet another ugly win and the feeling hasn’t disappeared yet about this team.  Its a very odd season where no team has separated itself from the pack in the NFC and as much as I hated hearing that the Cowboys and Vikings were still in it (mathematically of course they were), it was accurate.  No one was so dominant where you could see them emerging to beat anyone of the top teams in the AFC.  If you HAD to pick a team today from among the NFC as the best, I suppose the Giants would be that team, but no one could say it with much conviction.

– The game played out in 3 parts:

1st Part- Cowboy Pride, 2nd part- Giants step up, 3rd part- Giants let up.

– Out of Manning’s first four passes in two drives 2 of his passes were picked off and before his first pass, it should’ve been picked off.  Even on his 3rd possession, the first completion to Hakeem Nicks was tipped but completed.  Manning has been guilty of high passes all season long and some of those tipped interceptions have been a result of those high passes.  Those have led to his 11 interceptions which at this point of the season is a very high number.  While it may not affect them early on in the season, later on those things catch up to a team that turns the ball over.

– Coming into this game it was the ballyhooed group in Dallas that got all the pub: Miles Austin, Roy Williams, Jason Witten, and Dez Bryant.  Here were there numbers:

Cowboys Receivers

Giants Receivers

Clearly the production shows you who was the better group on this night.  On Dallas’ side, only Dez Bryant was really a force and Witten was his usual dependable self.  Witten was more a safety valve in the second half where Kitna was just trying to dump the ball before he became another QB the Giants defense laid out.  I came out of this game truly impressed NOT by Dez Bryant’s athleticism which I didn’t find that tremendous, it was his constant motor and inability to stop on any play.  He just seemed to have a motor that kept going and even when he was wrapped up he tried to make extra yards happen.  He knew what this game meant for the Cowboys and despite only having 4 receptions his influence came on the return game where he returned one for a TD.  All is not lost here in Big D especially if Bryant begins to emerge here with Romo gone as a dependable option.  He’s a playmaker, plain and simple and deserves to wear that number.

– As for the Giants receivers, while Hakeem Nicks gets the stats, look at some of the catches Steve Smith made.  Look at the blocks he was making in the running game.  Make no mistake, while Nicks has the higher ceiling and many are predicting huge things for Nicks development wise, Smith IS the better receiver now and the more dependable option.  That’s what made the 07 team so good.  As good as Plaxico Burress was and his ability to take over games, Amani Toomer was the yard stick mover and the consummate professional and stalwart.  Steve Smith emerged later in the season and that’s the kind of development you want to see from Mario Manningham who I was excited about when the Giants initially drafted him.  He was the kind of athlete that fell due to emotional issues he had, but his talent was obvious.  He showed glimpses, but that’s all he’s shown.  Glimpses.  He’s never been a dependable option like Smith.  That third option has to emerge from the group of Manningham, Victor Cruz (who has yet to take the field) and Ramses Barden.

– It was written in yesterday’s Post, but its worth repeating: want to know what the difference is between this year’s running game and last year’s?  Bear Pascoe.  His shift from TE to full back has been a revelation and has made them so much better and he can remain on the field as a blocking TE or even a pass catching option as he emerges.  Fact is, the guy is a football player and one of the cuts from the Giants camp who decided to stay with the team despite having options on other teams but only as a practice squad player.  This game saw the Giants get back to the run.  Bradshaw with 126 yards on 24 carries and Jacobs with 75 yards on 12 carries and one touchdown (a touchdown I will get to).  I usually look at ypc (yards per carry) when I look at running stats and Bradshaw averaged 5.3 and Jacobs averaged 6.3.  Bradshaw didn’t have to bob and weave tonight, it was all downhill and making a cut.  He usually has to work for his yards but not tonight and that was telling about the Cowboys more than anything.

– Heres my thoughts on the Cowboys: they are poorly coached.  I hate to blame the coaches, but the culture in Big D is a relaxed atmosphere and for what?  They havent accomplished anything.  Ever.  You can count their playoff wins since 1996 on one hand.  This is a franchise living off the past that passed a while ago and it comes from the top.  Jerry Jones is an attention hog.  A guy who needs the credit and needs a coach who doesn’t need it.  Even when Bill Parcells came in and helped draft the core of the defense they have today (I’m not foolish enough to give him all the credit for the drafts), Jerry basically showed Bill the door (though I’m sure it wasn’t easy to work with Parcells either) and Bill returned the favor by stealing one of his better executives Jeff Ireland and a head coach as well, in Tony Sparano.  Jerry needs to relax and take a step back.  This team does not need to be rebuilt.  He needs to bring in a disciplinarian with some credibility.  You can take your chances with an unknown, but you’d be better off going with someone that you do know.  This was a game in which they were handed 2 possessions to open the game in Giants territory and a third in which they started at their own 40, and they got 13 points.  Even when Dez Bryant got that punt return TD, it wasn’t until the fourth quarter when the rust began to come off for Kitna that they even mustered some kind of effort.  That Brandon Jacobs run was a play that needs to be played over and over again in the defensive play room if only for the fact that the point needs to be made: you can’t be soft in this league.  Blown coverages get your quarterback taken out.  Blown tackles get running backs dancing on the star.  Bad coverage gets receivers open in the end zone.  That first TD by Eli Manning was one of the ugliest plays ever (on both sides) and Eli pumped to that side and that was just Nicks boxing out.  Touchdowns dont’ come that easy and they were coming pretty easy.

– Warning to the NFL: if Tom Coughlin throws the challenge flag, chances are, the Giants are winning it.

– Warning to the NFL: The Giants defense is coming for your QB.  I hope Matt Hasselback is getting prepared and that guy gets injured often.  Do I think the Giants defense is dirty?  No.  Look at all the hits, its classic blindside hits or in Romo’s case: a beautiful tackle.  Romo’s arm was wrapped up by Michael Boley when he came in which forced the injury more than anything.  Nothing dirty about this defense, they just hit you hard.  Interesting point made last night while driving by the Schmooz, Steve Somers on WFAN: Should the Giants be worried that teams are taking note of the 5 QB’s the Giants D have laid out and are putting a bounty on Eli?  It can get interesting when the Cowboys come to the new Meadowlands 3 weeks from now if they look for some revenge.

– Biggest difference this Giants team has: their run D has been exponentially better.  Canty is healthy, Cofield is healthy, Rocky Bernard is healthy and finally that depth on the defensive line is showing.

– This is why you’d much rather have Eli Manning than most QB’s in the league.  Two interceptions on his first four passes?  Who cares.  Comes back and on their next 7 possesions: 5 TD’s, and a FG.  The guy shakes off the bad as quickly as anyone I’ve ever seen.  I’d say this game was the mark of a champion but Eli is just built this way.  While we want to see an emotional QB, I think Monday’s game showed why we’d much rather have a calm cool guy who doesn’t get overly emotional.

– The Fourth quarter was as troubling as I’ve seen.  The long and short of it: Wade helped by going for it instead of going for a field goal and ended up giving the ball back on downs.  But the Giants let the Boys back in it when they threw when they clearly should’ve been passing.  Bad Eli emerged when he threw just a stupid INT (I really have no other words to describe it).  And the Boys came within a leg short of recovering an onside kick to make the last 44 seconds meaningful.  It should NEVER have came to this.

– Again, the Giants are lucky to have faced the Cowboys in their present condition.  Five turnovers (3 by INT, and 2 fumbles, one recovered by the Cowboys.) should’ve done them in but the Giants faced a team even dumber than them this night.  Tom Coughlin is just a much smarter coach but that fourth quarter was brutal and he seemingly dropped to Wade’s level.  But there is good news that came from this: they won and they made enough mistakes that the taskmaster can crack the whip.

Enjoy the bye week folks.  Be back later on with the Power Rankings and thoughts on the league.