A New York Yankees Blog, a New York Giants Blog
Now that the Giants have won the Super Bowl and football season is officially over, do I switch the flags? Or, do I leave the Giants up for a few weeks in celebration of the victory? Do I put the Yankees flag up when pitchers and catchers report, when spring training games start, or on opening day? This isn’t a big problem, but I haven’t made up my mind just yet.
As The New England Patriots learned when they played the Baltimore Ravens, sometimes you win the game, but other times, your opponent loses the game. I’m not sure if Super Bowl 46 was one of these cases, but Tom Brady made two mistakes that ultimately made it very difficult for the Patriots to win the game. (Which worked out great for me!)
The Safety
There’s been some Intentional Grounding calls we’ve seen over the years that felt a bit like splitting hairs, and then there’s an Intentional Grounding penalty that’s so blatant it is called by seven year old kids throwing yellow napkins at their TVs. What on earth was Brady thinking? I guess he wasn’t – he just panicked, trying to get rid of the ball and avoid the safety, but got one anyway.
The Interception
This wasn’t nearly as bad as the safety, but still, not a great throw. Sure, you look at the match up between the defender and the receiver, but it’s The Super Bowl; you can’t throw the ball like that. Oh well.
Still, even if it wasn’t he best played game, it was fun to watch. Tom Brady still gave a pretty good performance, and as I’m sure Eli Manning can sympathize, you can throw a bunch of good balls, but you can’t catch them for your receivers.
And hey, I was pretty close on my prediction – I had the Giants winning the game 24-17, so not too bad.
As the New York Giants marched into camp, began the season and perhaps as recently as Thanksgiving, I was a naysayer. The Giants let important players like Kevin Boss leave after last season and didn’t replace them. Key players were hurt and others weren’t producing. When I watched them play, I just didn’t see a championship team, and often, I didn’t see a playoff team. Then something happened: players began performing to expectation or better (maybe not Brandon Jacobs, but he’s better than he was), still other players got healthy and Victor Cruz rode in on a white horse and saved the day. Suddenly, Eli Manning had a team around him that was firing on all cylinders at the best possible time.
Now, the Giants find themselves in the Super Bowl against the New England Patriots for the second time in just a few years, and conditions are looking right for Big Blue to repeat against the Pats. Why? As Mr. Spock would say, "Simple logic will suffice."
1. The Giants have a great defense
Defense wins championships in any sport, and the Giants have a great defense. Sure, the Patriots have a great offense, and Tom Brady is a great quarterback, but the Giants D can limit the damage more so than the Pats D can – hence, the Giants will allow fewer points.
2. The Patriots’ record is against them
Yeah, I know – the Patriots lost only 3 games all year. But the proof is in the numbers; look at who they beat and who they lost to. I’ll give the Patriots their due; they are a good team, but they aren’t great. They didn’t win that game to get to the Super Bowl, the Ravens lost it (bringing to mind the Giants win over the Buffalo Bills in the Super Bowl way back in the early nineties), and that’s a big difference. During this season, the Patriots didn’t beat a single team with a record better than .500 except the Ravens, and the Ravens blew that game. The Giants are just a better, more well rounded team, pure and simple. Also, it should be pointed out that the Giants have already beaten the Patriots this year. In New England. Sure, it was a close came, but the Giants were in bad shape and on the road… the Patriots should have found a way to win that game, but they couldn’t because they just don’t have what it takes to beat the better teams – not this year. (Oh, and the Giants beat the Pats in preseason, too, but I’ll let that slide. Preseason is BS.)
That’s all there is to it. Of course, it’s football, so anything can happen, but the smart money is on the Giants. Unlike the defense heavy Ravens, the Giants are, again, a well rounded team that simply has more weapons than the Patriots, and I’m looking forward to celebrating a Super Bowl victory Sunday evening.
FINAL SCORE PREDICTION:
New York Giants 24
New England Patriots 17
Yell all you want, but you're stol going to lose the Super Bowl.
I plan on backing my mouth running up on Friday with simple logic, but for now, let me just say this:
THE GIANTS ARE GOING TO WIN THE SUPER BOWL!
The sooner you accept that fact, the sooner you can begin reconciling that being a Patriots fan was a mistake.
Ya damn cheaters.
After all of my complaining, the New York Football Giants have peaked at the right time and are on a collision course with the San Francisco 49ers. Eli Manning is having an MVP type season. Victor Cruz has emerged from nowhere to become the Giants best receiver while making Mario Manningham, Hakeem Nicks, Jake Ballard and everyone else around him better. And when it comes to making the players around you better, you need look no further than Ahmad Bradshaw – Brandon Jacobs knows what I’m talking about. Osi Umenyiora and Justin Tuck continue to take care of business on the defensive end – last week, the Packers never held a lead during the entire game.
If the Giants can keep Manning, Cruz, Bradshaw and Umenyiora healthy, a season that I thought would barely merit a playoff birth could suddenly become a Super Bowl win! Dream big!
While I am willing to concede that Mario Manningham made some fine catches (including a well thrown ball for a touch down) in Sunday’s loss to the San Francisco Giants, I must also point out that the ball bounced off his chest at least once and his inability to complete his route directly caused an interception that was probably a game changing turnover. These kind of mental mistakes are the sort of things that continue to hold the New York Giants offense from climbing up to the next level. Eli Manning is not guiltless in the loss, but when he hits a receiver in the chest with the ball, they need to catch it. When you’re running your route, you need to finish it so the only person that’s anywhere near where the ball comes down isn’t the other team’s safety. Still, big kudos to Eli Manning and the offense for their 4th down conversions in the fourth quarter – that was some hardcore shiz. But taking this thing to the next level is not looking like a possibility right now, although a playoff birth is looking mighty obtainable at this moment. If Brandon Jacobs and the Giants wide receivers can elevate their game, we might really have something here. I was pleasantly surprised by the Giants rushing defense;I thought the 49ers would run all over the place, but it didn’t feel that way; I can’t remember now, but perhaps the Giants were able to bring in an extra safety due to the 49ers less than stellar passing attack.
This feels like a game the Giants should have won – they led in nearly all offensive categories, but that extra turnover really broke their back. Maybe next week, the Giants can take advantage (again) of a damaged Philadelphia Eagles team that is just waiting to be put out of it’s misery.
I couldn’t have been more pleased with the Giants defensive performance in the first half. Shutting out Tom Brady and the Patriots at home is something to be proud of. Yet, the Giants were also unable to score on a weak New England secondary, so while beating the Pats at home is an achievement, it hasn’t convinced me that the Giants are ready to go to the next level on offense.
Again (before I start complaining), great job by the defense. The 3rd down stops, the interceptions, the secondary (until late in the game) – GREAT JOB! (Although, 20 points in one half is pushing it.)
Of course, the ball had to bounce of somebody’s chest this week, so why not pick the biggest chest on the team? Still, I di think that despite that blooper, Brandon Jacobs looked pretty good. I’m still not convinced that Victor Cruz is the answer at wide receiver, but he’s pretty good. I was also impressed by Jake Ballard; key receptions combined with his huge 6 ft 6 in, 275 lbs frame is a recipe for limited success. D.J. Ware, however, might be getting too many touches.
The Giants brutal stretch of games continues next week at the San Francisco 49ers, then the game I’m most looking forward to: in East Rutherford against the Eagles!
Reggie Bush did his best to knock the Dolphins out of the Andrew Luck bowl, but in the end, mediocrity triumphed over the team with no quarterback. Barely.
In an effort to be positive, here are two things I like about the Giants: Eli Manning and the pass rush.
That is all.
I’m a huge fan of Corey Webster – not only is he an outstanding play maker (2 interceptions this week!), he’s also keenly aware of reality:
“We still have a long ways to go, but it is easily corrected off of a ‘W’ instead of a ‘L.’ We made some mistakes, but we get to correct them. We have two weeks to do that so hopefully we get started moving in the right direction now.”
This is the sort of comment he makes after a win – no wonder I admire his play so much. Webster must know that yesterday’s win was achieved not only due to some good play by the Giants, of course, but also some tremendous mistakes by the Buffalo Bills. Both teams committed 3 penalties, but the Bills pass interference and face mask penalties in the fourth quarter were back breakers for them and W makers for the Giants. If the Bills don’t commit those blatant fourth quarter penalties, we could be looking at a different outcome, and I think Corey Webster understands that.
Eli Manning had a stellar game – 21 of 32 for 292 yards and no interceptions! Coupling this with Ahmad Bradshaw’s 104 rushing yards and 3 touchdowns and that’s good offensive production. The defense also had a great second half by allowing the Bills to score only once.Still, the New York Giants problems are there for all to see. I don’t expect Bradshaw to rush for 100 yards every week and although it seems that Victor Cruz is quickly becoming a fan favorite, I don’t see him being the answer at wide receive any more than I do Hakeem Nicks or Mario Manningham. I have always believed that to win a Super Bowl, a team has to have an elite receive, and I just don’t see that guy on the Giants roster at this time.
Enjoy the bye week!
The good teams are supposed to beat up on the bad teams – but the 2011 New York Giants can’t even do that.
The Seattle Seahawks stink even worse than the Giants (supposedly), but the G-Men played like crap all game long, so they get saddled with another soul crushing loss at home. Against the Seahawks. I cannot emphasis enough that they lost to the Seahawks. With their backup quarterback at the helm for a good potion of the game.
I doubt the casual NFL fan knows who Seahawk starting quarterback Tarvaris Jackson, and as hard as it is to believe that there are starting quarterbacks in the NFL you never heard of, then Charlie Whitehurst came into the game and passed all of the Giants asses! It’s ridiculous. I’d like to point fingers, make recommendations and just kick ass in general, but it’s not going to happen – the Giants mediocre roster just doesn’t inspire the words.
Wait, just one: who on earth was Eli Manning throwing to at the end of the fourth quarter when the tip off of Victor Cruz (love those indirect interceptions!) was intercepted and run back for a touchdown? They literally had four defenders on Cruz, so naturally, Eli throws to Cruz.
It's like a mugging scene in an 80s crime drama.
As insane as the following fact is, I still have to say it: the Giants are still in contention to win the division and make the playoffs. Yeah, I know it’s still early and the NFC East is a joke (although it’s awesome the the Eagles are 1-4 as I hate Michael Vick), but the Giants, who are an affront to my very eyes, are not finished yet. In a way, it’s almost cruel – they’re good enough to hang around but not good enough to truly go anywhere.
Jamie Insalaco
