New York Giants
Key Additions: LB Keith Bulluck, S Antrel Rolle, S Deon Grant, DE Jason Pierre-Paul, QB Jim Sorgi, DT Linval Joseph
Key Subtractions: LB Antonio Pierce, P Jeff Feagles, LB Danny Clark, QB David Carr, DT Fred Robbins, CB Kevin Dockery,
The Giants enter this season 2 years removed from a Super Bowl win and one of the worst collapses in franchise history last season. After starting 5-0 thanks in large part to a weak early schedule, the Giants collapsed to finish 8-8 in what owner John Mara felt "was more like 2-14." Tom Coughlin is entering the year before the final year of his contract, and the outcome of this year will likely determine his future with the team. Although I believe he deserves an extension baring anything disastrous, another year without the playoffs might mean his time may be over with the Giants. The Giants fired defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan one year after taking over for Steve Spagnuolo. Sheridan appeared to have not formed a bond with the players, even having one walk out during training camp. His schemes were questionable and down right odd at times. But Perry Fewell takes over who is known for being a hands-on aggressive coach whos system creates a lot of turnovers. The defense gave up 31 TD's through the air last season, second worst in the league. The Giants went out and addressed that problem by making Antrel Rolle the highest paid safety in the league and added depth with Deon Grant. Rolle is expected to start alongside S Kenny Phillips if he is ready. If not, Grant, who is a veteran player with plenty of experience, will slide in no problem. One of the problems last season were too many receivers getting behind safeties and making big plays in the passing game. That was partially due to injuries in the secondary and terrible play by the secondary. The Giants at corner have the personnel. Corey Webster played great the year they went to the Super Bowl. Opposite him will be either Aaron Ross, injured for most of last season, or Terrell Thomas. If Ross is healthy he should have the edge. Regardless the other will play in the nickle package and give the Giants a nice rotation. The Giants lost linebackers Danny Clark and signal caller Antonio Pierce. They signed Keith Bulluck from Tennessee and will look to replace Pierce both on and off the field. Michael Boley played great towards the end of last year, but was injured for some of the year and missed time. Clint Sintim is expected to move in and replace Danny Clark. Gerris Wilkinson is waiting and adds some good depth. The Giants last year struggled on the defensive line and failed to get the the quarterback with some consistency and stop the run. They gave up 21 TDs on the ground last year. Basically, they couldn't get off the field or hold opponents to field goals. Osi Umenyiora was visibly frustrated and was removed from his starting position last year, being replaced by Mathias Kiwanuka. One of Umenyiora's main problems was his inability to stop the run. He was used by Bill Sheridan mainly as a pass rush specialist and was put too many times in pass coverage against TE's and RB's where he, and other DE's, were consistently burned. Justin Tuck was bothered all year by a shoulder injury after he was kneed in a dirty play by Dallas OT Flozell Adams, who is now in Pittsburgh. Tuck and Umenyiora must get back to 2007 form and apply more pressure on the quarterback and get off the line of scrimmage better. Inside the Giants lost long time pro DT Fred Robbins, but still have plenty of depth. Chris Canty should start after converting from a 3-4 DE to a 4-3 DT alongside veteran Barry Cofield. Jay Alford missed all of last season but should be ready to go, they signed Rocky Bernard last season, and the Giants drafted Linval Joseph this year. With the personnel the Giants have this year and a fresh face in Perry Fewell that will not tolerate inconsistent play, the Giants will be a much improved defense this season.
Offensively, Eli Manning is coming off one of the best regular seasons of his career. He threw for over 4,00 yards and 27 Td's. Mannings high numbers are much to do with his much improved decision making and emergence of his wide receivers, but partially due to the fact the the Giants were playing from behind in a lot of games. Manning is a former Super Bowl MVP and will do even better this season. David Carr is gone, but Jim Sorgi is in. The Giants are hoping they don't see him on the field after preseason. The Giants last year however, did not run the ball well. This was due to Brandon Jacobs battling through injuries and the ineffectiveness of the offensive line. Jacobs numbers were way down, 835 yards averaging 3.7 yards per carry and only 5 TD's. The troubling number there is the yards per carry number. He averaged 5.0 yards per carry the previous two seasons. Hes not the home run hitter, hes the bruiser between the tackles runner. He needs to get back to that this year. Expect Ahmad Bradshaw and Danny Ware to see more time as well as the Giants will rotate more. The offensive line is where the Giants aren't really set as they head into camp. C Shaun Ohara and G Chris Snee will start. Rich Suebert should be the other starting guard and Karim Mackenzie should be the starting RT, but William Beatty will challenge David Diehl at LT. Bottom line is the best player out of camp will start, and if they don't play with consistency, they will be replaced. The line has been intact for a lot of years and is a stronghold of the team. They need to return to that this season. Steve Smith was second in the NFL in receptions last year and broke the Giants record for receptions in a season. He is Eli Mannings go to guy. Hackeem Nicks had a decent rookie season who has the explosiveness to be the deep threat the Giants need. Mario Manningham and Ramses Barden need to step up now that Domenik Hixon is out for the year with a torn ACL. Kevin Boss played well last year and is a very reliable tight end.
Schedule:
1 Sun, Sep 12 Carolina
2 Sun, Sep 19 at Indianapolis
3 Sun, Sep 26 Tennessee
4 Sun, Oct 3 Chicago
5 Sun, Oct 10 at Houston
6 Sun, Oct 17 Detroit
7 Mon, Oct 25 at Dallas
8 BYE
9 Sun, Nov 7 at Seattle
10 Sun, Nov 14 Dallas
11 Sun, Nov 21 at Philadelphia
12 Sun, Nov 28 Jacksonville
13 Sun, Dec 5 Washington
14 Sun, Dec 12 at Minnesota
15 Sun, Dec 19 Philadelphia
16 Sun, Dec 26 at Green Bay
17 Sun, Jan 2 at Washington
The Giants have the 7th hardest schedule in the league and opponents were 135-121 lase season. They catch the AFC South and NFC North this year, two divisions with three or more competitive teams. Manning Bowl II takes place Week two in Indianapolis. The Giants finish the season with 3 of their last 4 games on the road. The Giants played well in their division last season but lost both games to Philly by big numbers, and Washington is no longer a pushover. The Giants should contend for the division and a playoff spot this season.
Tennessee Titans
Key Additions: LB Will Witherspoon, CB Tye Hill, DE Jason Babin, DE Derrick Morgan, WR Damian Williams
Key Subtractions: TE Alge Crumpler, DE Kyle Vanden Bosch, C Kevin Mawae, RB LenDale White, LB Keith Bulluck
The Titans resurrected their season last year and saved Jeff Fishers job after starting out 0-6 and finishing 8-2. Chris Johnson and Vince Young had a lot to do with that. Johnson did not rush for under 100 yards in the final 10 games of the season and Vince Young threw 10 TD's. The Titans look forward to seeing what they can do with a full season with this duo. Chris Johnson is Mr. Everything for this offense, everything they do revolved around him. He has a lot of expectations this season and its unrealistic for him to live up to them all. If he can produce 75% of what he did last year, it will be good enough. Johnson no longer has a reliable backup behind him as Lendale White has moved on. Vince Young needs to play for a full season like he played the final 10 games of last season. Kenny Britt had an excellent rookie season last year with 701 receiving yards. He and Justin Gage will look to carry the load for Vince Young.
The Titans lost Pro-Bowler Kyle Vanden Bosh to free agency, but they hope that first round pick Derrick Morgan will replace him. The Titans run defense was in the top 10 in the league last season in total yards, and opponents rushed for 4.3 yards per carry. They lost Keith Bulluck but picked up Will Witherspoon in free agency. The Titans major concern is in their pass defense, which was 31st in the league last year only ahead of the Lions. They allowed 31 TD's through the air and opponents averaged 258.7 passing yards per game. Cortland Finnegan should play alongside Tye Hill, who signed as a free agent this year. Those two need to play a lot better and bring those numbers down and put their offense in a better position.
Schedule:
1 Sun, Sep 12 Oakland
2 Sun, Sep 19 Pittsburgh
3 Sun, Sep 26 at NY Giants
4 Sun, Oct 3 Denver
5 Sun, Oct 10 at Dallas
6 Mon, Oct 18 at Jacksonville
7 Sun, Oct 24 Philadelphia
8 Sun, Oct 31 at San Diego
9 BYE
10 Sun, Nov 14 at Miami
11 Sun, Nov 21 Washington
12 Sun, Nov 28 at Houston
13 Sun, Dec 5 Jacksonville
14 Thu, Dec 9 Indianapolis
15 Sun, Dec 19 Houston
16 Sun, Dec 26 at Kansas City
17 Sun, Jan 2 at Indianapolis
The Titans have 2nd hardest schedule in the league and opponents were 140-116 last season. They catch the NFC East and AFC West and play in the high powered AFC South that has two explosive offenses through the air. The pass defense can not play like they did a year ago or it will be a long season in Nashville. They do catch Pittsburgh before Ben Roesthlisburger will be eligible to return. They do have a lot of home games late and games on the road are in warm weather or indoors.
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Showing posts with label New York Giants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New York Giants. Show all posts
Friday, July 30, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
RIP Bob Sheppard (1910-2010)
Bob Sheppard, the voice of Yankee Stadium and Giants Stadium for over 50 years, died this morning at the age of 99. He will always be in the hearts and memories of all the Yankees and Giants players and fans who had the privileged to hear him call the names of so many great players through the years. He will be greatly missed.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Pulled from the Attic: Super Bowl XLII Write-Up
Dug this out from an old facebook note I wrote back in 2008 during the memorable Super Bowl run. Enjoy
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So I thought I would right down my daily thoughts I had daily up until Super Bowl Sunday. I will update every night.
Monday 1/21/2008
My thoughts today, the Monday after one of the most dramatic games I have ever seen, go back to last night and the resiliency of kicker Lawrence Tynes after missing 2 go-ahead field goals, one at the end of regulation, that could have sent the Giants to Super Bowl XLII. His resiliency is a huge understatement. No one in the world would have thought that Tynes would make that 47-yark field goal attempt in overtime after missing the first 2. And lets not forget how he got that opportunity. The Packers won the coin toss to start overtime and on the second play, Bret Favre was under enough pressure to where he had to get rid of the ball off a little quicker than what he may have wanted to which caused him to under throw an out pattern to Donald Driver that was read nicely by Corey Webster and picked off for a chance for Tynes to redeem himself. An all around great performance by a great football team yesterday, the New York Football Giants. I plan on watching the film of the game tomorrow, so expect some analysis then.
Tuesday 1/22/2008
When you look at the success of the New York Football Giants this postseason, you have to look at the consistency of quarterback Eli Manning. Lets look at some stats from his post-season:
Game: Comp-Att Pct. Yds. Avg. TD Int
18 01/06 @ TB W 24-14 20-27 74.1 185 6.9 2 0
19 01/13 @ DAL W 21-17 12-18 66.7 163 9.1 2 0
20 01/20 @ GB W 23-20 21-40 52.5 251 6.3 0 0
TOTAL 53-85 62.4 599 7.0 4 0
The number one stat that has the Giants where they are right now, 0 Interceptions. 0 Interceptions by a quarterback who was under scrutiny all year about the 20 Interceptions he threw in the regular season. Eli has shown poise, confidence, and much improved accuracy during these past 3 games than any span in his career. When you look at maybe where it all started for him, most people want to point to the Patriot game where he threw 4 TD’s, but I am going to look somewhere else. I’m gonna look at :53 seconds left to go in the first half of the NFC Divisional game @ Dallas. After Dallas goes 90 yards on 20 plays in a span of 10:28, Eli took over:
New York Giants at 00:53
6-N.Folk kicks 54 yards from DAL 30 to NYG 16. 44-A.Bradshaw to NYG 29 for 13 yards
1-10-NYG 29 (:47) (Shotgun) 10-E.Manning pass incomplete short right to 81-A.Toomer.
2-10-NYG 29 (:42) (Shotgun) 10-E.Manning pass deep right to 12-S.Smith to DAL 49 for 22 yards. Timeout #2 by NYG at 00:34.
1-10-DAL 49 (:34) (Shotgun) 10-E.Manning pass short right to 12-S.Smith pushed ob at DAL 38 for 11 yards. PENALTY on DAL-35-J.Reeves, Face Mask (15 Yards), 15 yards, enforced at DAL 38.
1-10-DAL 23 (:28) (Shotgun) 10-E.Manning pass incomplete deep middle to 17-P.Burress.
2-10-DAL 23 (:21) (Shotgun) 10-E.Manning pass incomplete short middle
3-10-DAL 23 (:17) (Shotgun) 10-E.Manning pass short right to 89-K.Boss to DAL 4 for 19 yards.
1-4-DAL 4 (:11) (Shotgun) 10-E.Manning pass short middle to 81-A.Toomer for 4 yards, TOUCHDOWN. 9-L.Tynes extra point is GOOD.
NYG 14 DAL 14 Plays: 7 Possession: 0:46
Eli Manning on the drive: 4-7 56 Yds, TD. What took Tony Romo and Dallas over 10 minutes to do, Eli and the Giants did it in :47 seconds (not including kickoff). That drive I believe was the start of Eli’s new found confidence and poise that he needed to take it to the next level. Ever since that drive, he’s been more accurate, more consistent, and much more confident that he has the ability to have what it takes to take a team to a Super Bowl and win it.
In -4 degree weather in Green Bay, he threw for more yards than a legend Brett Favre. He absolutely outplayed him on his own turf in the 3rd coldest game in NFL history. He and Plaxico Burress, who I will discuss later, tore apart Al Harris and the Green Bay secondary. They we no where near the level Eli and the Giants offense were in that game on Sunday. I will go more in depth about the game tomorrow because I haven’t watched the tape yet.
Wednesday 1/23/2008
With the injury to Giants cornerback Sam Madison in Week 17 against the Patriots, R.W. McQuarters has drastically improved his game, coming up with an interception in all 3 postseason games this year for the Giants. The first came late in the 4th against Tampa Bay where they were down by 2 scores, forcing Jeff Garcia to press a little bit with time dwindling down. The second came in Dallas on 4th and 11 with under a minute to go in the game. He intercepted Tony Romo’s intended pass in the end zone that gave the Giants a trip to Green Bay for the NFC Championship game, where he had a real up and down game.
With Green Bay driving near midfield in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter, McQuarters intercepted Brett Favre at the Giants 8 yard line, and then took off, a mistake that almost cost the Giants a trip to the Super Bowl. McQuarters was dancing around offensive lineman when Green Bay running back Ryan Grant forced McQuarters to fumble the ball right into the hands of Green Bay offensive lineman Matt Tauscher. Green Bay would later tie the game on that drive with a Mason Crosby 37-yard field goal. No, I’m not done. With 2:30 to go in the game, Green Bay punted from their own 17 yard line. McQuarters dropped back for the punt, fielded it cleanly, and then took off again, leaving Giants fans to hold their breath, fearing the worst. Well the worst did happen, sort of. Green Bay again forced McQuarters to fumble around the Green Bay 40 yard line. The ball was about to be picked up by the Packers before Michael Johnson made the play of the year by knocking the ball out, giving Anthony Hixon the opportunity to fall on it for the Giants.
Tom Coughlin’s first item on the agenda when he became head coach of the New York Giants was to fix the fumble-itis problem of Tiki Barber. Prior to Coughlin’s arrival in New York, Tiki fumbled the ball 43 times in a span of 7 years. Under Coughlin, 9 fumbles in 3 years. Tom Coughlin makes a living off of fundamentals of coaching football. He preaches discipline and character to his team. Coughlin needs to do a little more of this to McQuarters. High and tight is the way to carry the ball so it is not forced out. McQuarters has been careless with his ball-handling, and trying to do too much on his own. My philosophy on interception returning and kick returning is that when your coming near a player, that you wrap both hands around the ball and get low, putting the ball in your gut where it is very hard for someone to get their hands on it. My message to McQuarters is this, “Stay aggressive, but don’t be careless!” Watching the film tomorrow, today was a hectic day, so break down of the game will be then!
Thursday 1/24/2008
After watching the tape, I still can not believe that Lawrence Tynes missed that chip shot with :04 seconds left in the game. And don’t tell me the snap was bad, because Jeff Feagles handled it superbly and got it down no problem. But, it all worked out and I’m over it. As far as the game goes, it was pretty good as far as offense goes. The Giants had 2 drives that they staled on in the red zone and had to settle for field goals. One of those drives Tyree looked like he could have came down with a Touchdown but it was broken up. Those stalled drives wont do against the Patriots. Field Goals mean nothing when playing them. You need touchdowns, and you need a lot of them. Also just before the half Manning hit Plaxico Burress for 2 nice catches down the field. On the third one, Plaxico caught the pass and lost the ball as he hit the ground, and the pass was ruled incomplete. I know Burress had the best postseason game of his career, but that catch he has to hold onto next week if the Giants expect to win. Eli also had his problems too. He underthrew 2 big passes that were sure Touchdowns. One to Burress and one to Steve Smith in the 3rd quarter on a nice stop and go route that completely burned the Packer corner (I cant remember which one). Eli has got to make sure those passes are crisp and placed to where his receivers can catch it and run.
Defensively I thought the Giants played a stellar game. The one big 90-yard play was just a bad play by Corey Webster as he fell down leaving Driver wide open with no safety on that side. Webster would make up for it later, but on that play I saw something I did not like. Gibril Wilson was coming over from the far side and had an angle to push Driver out of bounds but he pulled-up for some odd reason and let Wilson walk into the endzone. Wilson absolutely can not give up on a play like that. You can not assume that if you make the play they will score anyway. Fumbles and Interceptions happen all the time, especially in Green Bay where it was -4 degrees. A horrible play that I hope Coughlin spoke to Wilson about. Also early in the game the Giants put 8 and 9 guys in the box assuming what everyone else in the world thought, which was that Green Bay would run the ball a lot. Once Steve Spagnuolo recognized that the Packers were leaning more to the pass than the run as the game wore on, he did a nice job utilizing some nice blitzes out of the nickel package. The coverage by the corners down the field was good all game accept on a few plays where the Packers had receivers on linebackers, which is a mismatch any day, but the Giants did a great job to prevent that mostly.
On the interception in overtime, they were in a nickel package, man coverage, and the Giants blitzed 7 guys (4 down and 2 linebackers) with the linebackers coming up the middle and it was picked up by the Packers but Favre just made a bad throw on an out route that was covered beautifully by Webster and he came up with the pick. More on what the team needs to do to beat the Pats next week.
Friday 1/25/2008
According to what only the media can see, Tom Brady has not practiced at all this week, leaving everyone wondering the health status of the number one quarterback in the league. When asked about it on Thursday, coach Bill Belichick would not say whether or not Brady practiced. Today, Belichick was asked a question and the VP of media said "last question." As soon he answered it, another question was asked, which was "can you tell us if Brady practiced yesterday?" Bill turns to the VP of media and asks "Was that the last question?" The guys sasy yes, and Bill walks out of the room. I do not get what the big secret is about his damn foot. Did he practice or not? Is he injured or not? Putting someone on the injury report every week for 3 years just to piss people off has really fucked him over because now when he really has an injury, he wont disclose it. Make the injury report legit and the NFL should fine teams that dont. ESPN had a good point also that medical people could sell injury information to sports betters who want insider info and will pay for it. The NFL is a serious business and Bill Belichick should treat it as if it weere one, not his own personal game to play with the media.
Saturday 1/26/2008
I have nothing really to say today, accept that the Patriots are 18-0, and that scares me.
Sunday 1/27/2008
As we are a week away from Super Sunday, my thoughts today were about the players and their families and how exciting it must be to be going to a Super Bowl. A lot of planning and time go into this humungous event, and people behind the scenes need to be recognized for that. The equipment people and the travel and communications department for both teams and the NFL do a fabulous job so that the players and coaches can have as little stress as possible in getting their loved ones to see them in the Super Bowl.
But any player for either team will tell you, getting there is not enough. And that attitude is what you need these 2 weeks with the circus that goes on surrounding the game. You have to remind yourself that going there is not your ultimate goal, even though it may feel like it right now. That’s why this week, practices must be tough and long as to not let the media think it’s a field day these 2 weeks. Players and coaches must be focused on winning just one more game for footballs ultimate glory.
Monday 1/28/2008
As we are less than one week away from Super Sunday, here is where we start to break down all 3 phases of the game coming up. Today will be offense, tomorrow will be defense, and Wednesday will be special teams. Offensively for the New York Football Giants, they just need to do what they have been doing these past 3 games, and that’s not turning the ball over. The Patriots are so good that even the slightest hick-up will lose you the game. Eli Manning needs to be accurate and make good decisions with his passes and not force anything into tight coverage. The receivers will be open, the Patriots defense is average at best, and the Giants have playmakers at the receiver position. Plaxico Burress, although not at 100%, is still a big time playmaker and he will be open down the field with the aging secondary of the Patriots. With that, it allows guys like Amani Toomer, Steve Smith, and Kevin Boss to be open across the middle and underneath. Basically the Giants need to do what the Patriots do. They need to scare the Patriots with the deep threat Burress, and look for the underneath wide open guy. Although they should not throw the ball as much as the Patriots do because they do not have Tom Brady, they have Eli Manning. He is efficient, but he can not handle throwing the ball 45+ times a game. They need to run the ball effectively to keep the Patriots on their toes. Brandon Jacobs needs to run and run hard at the linebackers too wear them down as the game goes on to open things for the passing game. And Ahmad Bradshaw could be effective in shotgun formation running the draw. I saw the Giants do this well in Chicago and in Buffalo.
The one thing the Giants need to do is do something they did not do in Week 17 and that is having the advantage in time of possession. The Patriots had 12 more minutes (36:18 Patriots-23:42 Giants) than the Giants did in time of possession and that is one reason why they lost that football game. If you dominate the time of possession, you keep Brady and the offense off the field and frustrated. You keep the ball in your hands and give them as little time as possible to score. Another thing the offense needs to do is not settling for field goals. The Chargers are the perfect example of this. They had the ball in the red zone 4 times in the AFC Championship game and kicked 4 field goals. End result, they lost the game. I read an article recently that had a study in it that found that statistically if you go for it, you have a high percentage chance of making it than if you punt. I think in this game the Giants have no choice because of the offense on the other side. I think they have to risk going for it instead of a field goal, and even if they miss one or two, it could pay off. I see them going for it five or more times in this game. I’ll put the over-under at five as far as going for it on fourth down goes. If they make four of five, I think they have a real shot at winning. But field goals do not beat the Patriots, touchdowns, and lots of them, do. Probably, 35 plus points are needed to win this football game because the firepower on the other side. Score points, and score them in bunches, and the Giants may pull it off.
Tuesday 1/29/2008
I know I said I would do defense tonight, but it is very late and I don’t have enough time to say all that I want to say about it, so special teams is the topic tonight. Basically, when it comes to special teams, I do not want to see a whole lot of them come Sunday. The only time I want to see Lawrence Tynes on the field is kicking extra points and kicking off. The only time I want to see Jeff Feagles on the field is holding extra point snaps. Punts and field goals will absolutely NOT win this football game on Sunday. Touchdowns, touchdowns, and more touchdowns win this ball game. Now, kickoff returns are a plus for the Giants this year. I love the pick-up of Anthony Hixon from Denver, he has been a tremendous threat and has given the Giants tremendous field position in the later part of this season. I think he needs to return and return balls out of the end zone. The Giants need every yard they can get, so I expect Hixon to take a few out of the end zone to hope to create something big for the Giants. Now if somehow the Giants have no choice but to punt, I would expect a lot of directional kicking by Jeff Feagles, who is one of the best. The Giants need to give the Patriots the longest field possible to score so that the defense can try and make a big play. And R.W. McQuarters MUST doa much better job of securing the football as I mentioned last week. Any special teams turnovers will result in disaster for the Giants, and they need to avoid that at all costs.
Wednesday 1/30/2008
Before I address the defense, I want to talk about Plaxico Burress and his “prediction” he made on Tuesday. What would you like him to say? Someone asked him a question…he answered it. The media would be all over him had he answered it either way. If he said we would lose, they would say that their defeated, if he said they would win, hes being too confident. If you ask me about any game and ask me to predict it about a team I like or play for, I tell you that I think we will win every time. You never go into a game thinking you are going to lose. You always think you can win, no matter how steep the challenge or how mighty the opponent. It all goes back to me to former New York Jets head coach and now Kansas City Chiefs coach Herman Edwards. He was asked a question on whether or not he thought his team would quit and not play hard after a 1-4 start to the 2001 season. This was his response:
"Hello, you play to win the game! You don't play to just play it. Thats the great thing about sports. You play to win. And I don't care if you don't have any wins...you go play to win. When you start telling me it doesn't matter, then retire...get out! Cause it matters!"
That’s basically it, you play to win the game. No matter what game, what time, what place, what setting, what the opponent. You go play, and you go play to win. When you find someone who goes and plays anything to lose (unless hes being bribed), than find me and I will give you a buck because I know no one, especially a professional football player, who would do such a thing, especially on a stage as big as the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is the most watched event every year, and one of the most cherished team accomplishments in all of sports. So when you ask any Giant player or fan and Patriot player or fan, guaranteed 100% will tell you they will win the game. Because that’s the reason we all play, to win.
Now as far as making a prediction and making the other team mad, that’s for them to decide. But as a Giant fan, I have no problem with him saying what he said, and neither did Michael Strahan. I absolutely love the fact that he is confident, in fact I prefer it because it means that he does not fear the opposing team. When you answer “Well, we are going to do our best,” that means to me that you know they are good and that you know you are probably going to lose. So be confident Giants fans and players, and leave it all out on the field. Since I went on a lot about this subject, ill save the defensive game plan for tomorrow.
Thursday 1/31/2008
Moving on to the third phase this week for Super Bowl XLII, the defense needs to be the stars of the game. We all know that Tom Brady has an ankle sprain, and if he has all day in the pocket to throw the football, he is going to eat up the Giants secondary. What must happen is the Giants must get pressure from the front four up the middle and in the face of Brady forcing him to flush out of the pocket. Now I’m not talking about little side steps back and forth, I’m talking serious rollouts to the sidelines, making him run on that bad ankle. The Giants need to do this early and often so they can get a feel for how bad Brady’s ankle really is.
Now if the front four can not get pressure early on Brady, the Giants should turn up the heat with corner blitzes and linebacker blitzes up the middle, making sure though they have enough people in coverage. Big problem with this though is that it leaves the screen pass to Welker and Faulk vulnerable. So I expect a corner to be assigned to each of them so they cant get loose in the open field. Also safeties Gibril Wilson and Michael Johnson MUST stay home and not come down in the box under any circumstances. I saw a play where the Steelers strong safety bit hard on a play action fake and the cornerback left Randy Moss to the safety that wasn’t there, for an easy touchdown connection from Brady to Moss. What this means for the Giants is that it puts added pressure on the linebackers to stop the run and not have any missed tackles. They have got to make the play because they won’t have any help. No mistakes, no missed tackles, and no dumb penalties (cough Sam Madison cough!). Also Giant cornerbacks need to get physical at the line of scrimmage with Patriot wide receivers. Aaron Ross, Sam Madison, and Corey Webster must get a push to knock the receivers off their timing and routes. This came back to bite Corey Webster in the butt in the NFC Championship game, but I think it balanced out as the Giants secondary did an excellent job in coverage. And Corey Webster certainly made up for it with the interception in overtime. A lot of it was Brett Favres’ fault, but he still made the catch and saved the day. Also turnovers are a necessity in this game, they are going to need one or two to come their way to help the offense out with field position throughout the game. If the Giants can do this, they have a good shot at pulling off the upset.
Friday 2/1/2008
I would just like to spend a little time talking about Tiki Barber today. Tiki Barber made an interesting decision last year by choosing early retirement. A little more than one year later, he’s seeing his old team one win a way from a Super Bowl victory, something that Barber did not accomplish during his short career. I wonder what he’s thinking now. We know what Michael Strahan would have been thinking as he was asked the same question this week, and Strahan said he would have been extremely frustrated had he chose to retire also at the end of last season. Tiki at the beginning of the year had a lot to say on NBC’s Football Night in America, saying that Eli’s leadership skills were “comical.” They couldn’t have been that comical Tiki if his teammates elected him into the leadership counsel of the New York Giants. They couldn’t have been comical Tiki if Eli has not thrown and interception in the entire 2008 postseason. They couldn’t have been comical Tiki if Eli has led his football team to 3 straight road playoff victories, done only 3 times in NFL history. I have nothing against Tiki Barber as a football player. On the field he was one of the most persistent running backs of the last few decades. But what I do not like about Tiki Barber is that once the going got tough, he folded. He bitched out on his team and himself. But he’s entitled to do what he wants. But when he starts saying the things he said about Eli Manning and Tom Coughlin, that’s where I have a problem. He would not shut up about how tough Coughlin’s practices were his first two seasons. He went to the G.M. Ernie Accorsi and he told him that he is the coach and you must go by his rules. Then he went to owners Wellington Mara and Steve Ticsh and they told him the exact same thing. So when no one told him what he wanted to hear, he quit. So if Tiki comes running back on Monday if the Giants win the Super Bowl and he stats saying “Yeah I knew all along Eli and this team could do it,” he is full of shit and I wouldn’t want to see him at the victory parade or ring ceremony or anywhere around this team, because Tiki doesn’t deserve this team.
Saturday 2/2/2008
Since its been talked about all day today on every sports channel imaginable, I will spend today talking about the New England Patriots and the “spygate” scandal. For those of you that don’t know what spygate is, it happened Week 1 of this season when a member of the Patriots coaching staff was caught filming the New York Jets defensive signals during their 38-14 win. The man was confronted by security, the camera was taken, sealed, and sent to the NFL. The NFL found what they did violated league rules, and they stripped the Pats of their first found draft pick in 2008, fined the team $750,000 and coach Bill Belichick $500,000. The league then destroyed the tapes, and according to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, they did this because they had no more use for them. Now, a Senator from Pennsylvania has asked Roger Goodell to testify before a Senate Judiciary committee and answer questions about why he destroyed those tapes. Some questions will be why they were destroyed, and if nothing was on there, and maybe what they were hiding if something else was on there. Lot of questions and I’m sure they will all be asked by the committee.
This week, a former Pats employee who worked with filming indicated that he had discriminating evidence against the NFL and the Pats. Today, a report came out in the Boston Herald that the Pats filmed the St. Louis Rams walkthrough before Super Bowl XXVI. A walkthrough is basically practice where you run plays at about half speed so you get your timing down and you know which people are going where and what they are supposed to do. The Rams have stated that during their walkthrough that year, they practiced plays that were going to take place in the red zone. All of this is pure speculation at this point, because no one has seen the videotape. But what I do know is the Patriots were caught CHEATING! Plain and simple. They cheated, they got caught, and punishment was given. In my opinion, the punishment didn’t fit the crime. The game should have been forfeited to the New York Jets. Point is when you cheat during the game, the game should be called off. Its basically like cheating in a card game in Casino’s. If they catch you, all your winnings are taken (Although I would like to think they do it like the movie Casino where they take you out back and ask “You can have the money and the hammer, or you can walk out of here, but you cant have both. What do you want? But it doesn’t happen that way.). So the Patriots win in Week won should be stricken from the records and they should be 17-1 right now. Now I will take nothing away from what they did after that, and they deserve to be in the Super Bowl, but that game should count as a forfeit. Now, as far as Super Bowl XXXVI is concerned, that is a much more complicated matter and I hope what they say the Pats did didn’t happen so we wont have to talk about whether or not that game was legitimate. But for now, we are less than 24 hours away from Super Bowl XLII, enjoy the game everyone. I will be back for analysis of the game probably next week. GO GIANTS!
Sunday 2/3/2008
The day has arrived, the game you have been working all year for has finally come. One game, one chance, to be crowned Super Bowl Champion. Who will it be? My prediction:
Giants 34
Patriots 31
Enjoy the game everyone, and GO GIANTS!
Monday 2/4/2008
New York Giants, Super Bowl XLII Champions, defeating the now 18-1 New England Patriots 17-14 in the most watched and probably most unbelievable Super Bowl ever played. So much to talk about, Tyree, Manning’s great escape, the defense, Steve Smith, it all really just has not sunk in. Tomorrow maybe it will be a little clearer.
Sunday 2/10/2008
One week ago, the New York Giants pulled off one of the biggest upsets in football history, and arguably the biggest, although Joe Namath’s famous guarantee in Super Bowl III might edge this one by a little bit since it was an important game for professional football. The game had everything you could ask for, drama, big plays, heartbreaking moments, and everything in between. It started off well for the Giants, they moved the ball effectively on their first drive, converted several key third downs, and put points on the board on what turned out to be the longest drive in Super Bowl History. The first series for the Patriots was very typical of what we have seen all year from them. Spread formation, lots of four wide receiver sets, and Welker had a few nice catches on the drive that was capped off by a Lawrence Maroney touchdown. The Giants did do something positive though on the drive, matter of fact on the very first play. The Pats lined up for a bootleg screen that the Giants blew up right in their face. They got pressure right up the middle forcing Brady to get rid of the ball too early and his pass to be off target. That would be a sign of things to come in this game. So the score remained 7-3 up until the fourth quarter, but in between there were several key things that happened.
The Giants had several chances to score points and missed. After the touchdown, Amani Toomer made another spectacular sideline catch, much like the one in Green Bay, down inside the Pats 20. Then with the ball at the Pats 14 yard line, Manning tried to hit Steve Smith on a route where he faked the outside and turned his body all the way around to the inside, a route that takes time to develop, but Eli had pressure in his face and had too let the ball go a tad too early. As Smith was just turning around to the inside, the ball was there and he tried to scoop the ball, but ultimately tipped it right into the hands of Ellis Hobbs for an easy interception. I don’t blame either Manning nor Smith for that interception, it was just a matter of the Pats pressure causing Eli to get rid of the ball too early and throw a ball that maybe if Smith isn’t a rookie, he may catch, and may not, who knows, but it was just good pressure by the Pats to cause that. Then with the ball at midfield and under 2 minutes left in the half, Brady was sacked and Justin Tuck forced Brady to fumble the ball that Osi Umenyora recovered and the half ended.
At the start of the second half, The Pats had the ball near midfield and were forced to punt when the Giants actually lined up with 14 guys on the field, one stepped off and the other one was almost to the sideline but he didn’t make it, and coach Belichick challenged that the Giants had 12 men on the field and won the challenge. The Patriots then had 3rd and 7 from the Giants 25 yard line. Brady went back to pass and was sacked by Michael Strahan setting up 4th and about 13. The Patriots decided to go for it rather than trying a field goal to go up by a touchdown. The attempt failed and the Giants took over on downs. The decision by Bellichick is an interesting one, leading people to believe he did not have confidence in his young kicker, Stephen Gostkowski, to make a 50 plus yarder. I think it was a bad move because the Pats had 4th and over 10 yards, and you should try and go up by a touchdown there. And even if you miss the field goal, your still giving them about the same field position as you would if you went for it on 4th down and missed, so a bad decision.
Then at the start of the fourth quarter, the Giants got the ball rolling. Manning hit Tight end Kevin Boss on a seem route up the middle of the field for 47 yards that set up Eli’s 5 yard touchdown pass to David Tyree that put the Giants ahead with a little over 11 minutes left in the game. After the touchdown, the Giants forced the Pats to punt after they converted only one first down. So the Giants took over with 9:20 left and the ball at their own 29 yard line. On 2nd and 9, Eli rolled left and had Plxico Burress wide open down the left sideline that would have went for big yardage, but Eli over threw the pass and the Giants had to punt. Later in Eli’s career, he has to realize that in order to be great and beat great teams, he has to put games away. That play had a chance to put the Pats away, and he blew that opportunity. On the Pats ensuing drive, the Patriots marched 80 yards on 12 plays in 5:12 to take the lead 14-10. On the touchdown play, Corey Webster slipped when he bit on the fade route on Randy Moss when he went in for a slant for an easy touchdown. On the drive, the Giants looked just plain tired. I saw Umenyiora stumble over to the sideline out of breath and gasping. A few other players in the secondary were doing the same. Basically the offensive line gave Brady protection and the Giants could not get to him. And when you give Brady time, he will find somebody. Also interesting was the play calling of Josh McDaniells in the red zone. On 1st and goal on the 6 yard line with a little under 3 minutes left, The Pats called 2 straight passing plays that both fell incomplete, which meant that little time came off the clock AND the Giants could keep all 3 timeouts. I believe if you give a team too much time on the clock after you score, you run the risk of giving them the opportunity to score again. I would run the ball one or two times, but at least one, to force the Giants to use those timeouts and to run as much time off as possible. They scored with over two minutes left, and the Giants had all 3 timeouts and the two minute warning.
So the Giants had to answer with a touchdown, down by 4 points, with 2:12 left in the game, and Eli Manning under center. This is the kind of drive that defines what kind of football player a man is, and Eli Manning responded. Eli found Toomer for a first down on the first play of the drive, which is very key because it gives you some momentum going forward. Later, they would have a 4th and 1 on their own 37 yard line, and in came Brandon Jacobs and he plucked his way for a first down. Then it came, 3rd and 5, from the Giants 44 yard line. Eli goes back to pass, and three Pats rushers bear down on him, and unbelievably, Eli escapes the sack roles right, and heaves the ball down the middle of the field towards David Tyree. Tyree jumps up, grips the ball with one hand, rests it on his helmet, and b rings his other hand over on the ball, all this while he was in mid-air and with Rodney Harrison on him with his hand on the ball trying to rip it loose from Tyree. Amazingly he falls to the ground and never lets the ball touch the ground for one of the most unbelievable catches you will ever see. Truly remarkable, but the job wasn’t finished. The play to Tyree went for 32 yards and set up the Giants with 1st and 10 from the Pats 24 yard line. On 3rd and 11 from the 25, Manning hit Smith on an out route out of bounds for 12 yards and a huge first down. The play set up with 3 wide receivers right, and one left. Smith was set up on the inside right of the formation, and the receiver to the right of him in the middle ran a slant route that caused 2 Pats cornerbacks to collide, leaving Smith open on the sideline for him to make the catch and extend forward to reach for the first down. A great play call, and great execution. So its now 1st down and 10 from the New England 13 yard line, the Giants have 3 receivers right, one left again. Burress is lined up left one on one with Ellis Hobbs. The Pats dialed up a blitz from the right side, and Burress fakes a slant and runs to the corner and absolutely fakes Hobbs out of his pants for an easy go ahead touchdown.
So the Pats had :40 seconds to try and tie or win the game, but rookie Jay Alford quickly closed that door when he sacked Brady on 2nd and 10. The Pats tried 2 Hail Maries, but failed and the Giants won the game. How did it happen? It happened because of two things. One, both the Giants offensive and defensive lines controlled the line of scrimmage and dictated play most of the game. Two, the Pats did not adjust in game. They stayed with their spread formation, stayed with the 4 wide receivers thinking that eventually they would break loose and the Giants secondary would break down, but they didn’t. The Pats absolutely should have done much more max protection, 2 tight end sets, run the ball more, wear down the Giants front seven, and cause them to be off-balance. But they didn’t, and that’s basically why they lost this football game.
*
So I thought I would right down my daily thoughts I had daily up until Super Bowl Sunday. I will update every night.
Monday 1/21/2008
My thoughts today, the Monday after one of the most dramatic games I have ever seen, go back to last night and the resiliency of kicker Lawrence Tynes after missing 2 go-ahead field goals, one at the end of regulation, that could have sent the Giants to Super Bowl XLII. His resiliency is a huge understatement. No one in the world would have thought that Tynes would make that 47-yark field goal attempt in overtime after missing the first 2. And lets not forget how he got that opportunity. The Packers won the coin toss to start overtime and on the second play, Bret Favre was under enough pressure to where he had to get rid of the ball off a little quicker than what he may have wanted to which caused him to under throw an out pattern to Donald Driver that was read nicely by Corey Webster and picked off for a chance for Tynes to redeem himself. An all around great performance by a great football team yesterday, the New York Football Giants. I plan on watching the film of the game tomorrow, so expect some analysis then.
Tuesday 1/22/2008
When you look at the success of the New York Football Giants this postseason, you have to look at the consistency of quarterback Eli Manning. Lets look at some stats from his post-season:
Game: Comp-Att Pct. Yds. Avg. TD Int
18 01/06 @ TB W 24-14 20-27 74.1 185 6.9 2 0
19 01/13 @ DAL W 21-17 12-18 66.7 163 9.1 2 0
20 01/20 @ GB W 23-20 21-40 52.5 251 6.3 0 0
TOTAL 53-85 62.4 599 7.0 4 0
The number one stat that has the Giants where they are right now, 0 Interceptions. 0 Interceptions by a quarterback who was under scrutiny all year about the 20 Interceptions he threw in the regular season. Eli has shown poise, confidence, and much improved accuracy during these past 3 games than any span in his career. When you look at maybe where it all started for him, most people want to point to the Patriot game where he threw 4 TD’s, but I am going to look somewhere else. I’m gonna look at :53 seconds left to go in the first half of the NFC Divisional game @ Dallas. After Dallas goes 90 yards on 20 plays in a span of 10:28, Eli took over:
New York Giants at 00:53
6-N.Folk kicks 54 yards from DAL 30 to NYG 16. 44-A.Bradshaw to NYG 29 for 13 yards
1-10-NYG 29 (:47) (Shotgun) 10-E.Manning pass incomplete short right to 81-A.Toomer.
2-10-NYG 29 (:42) (Shotgun) 10-E.Manning pass deep right to 12-S.Smith to DAL 49 for 22 yards. Timeout #2 by NYG at 00:34.
1-10-DAL 49 (:34) (Shotgun) 10-E.Manning pass short right to 12-S.Smith pushed ob at DAL 38 for 11 yards. PENALTY on DAL-35-J.Reeves, Face Mask (15 Yards), 15 yards, enforced at DAL 38.
1-10-DAL 23 (:28) (Shotgun) 10-E.Manning pass incomplete deep middle to 17-P.Burress.
2-10-DAL 23 (:21) (Shotgun) 10-E.Manning pass incomplete short middle
3-10-DAL 23 (:17) (Shotgun) 10-E.Manning pass short right to 89-K.Boss to DAL 4 for 19 yards.
1-4-DAL 4 (:11) (Shotgun) 10-E.Manning pass short middle to 81-A.Toomer for 4 yards, TOUCHDOWN. 9-L.Tynes extra point is GOOD.
NYG 14 DAL 14 Plays: 7 Possession: 0:46
Eli Manning on the drive: 4-7 56 Yds, TD. What took Tony Romo and Dallas over 10 minutes to do, Eli and the Giants did it in :47 seconds (not including kickoff). That drive I believe was the start of Eli’s new found confidence and poise that he needed to take it to the next level. Ever since that drive, he’s been more accurate, more consistent, and much more confident that he has the ability to have what it takes to take a team to a Super Bowl and win it.
In -4 degree weather in Green Bay, he threw for more yards than a legend Brett Favre. He absolutely outplayed him on his own turf in the 3rd coldest game in NFL history. He and Plaxico Burress, who I will discuss later, tore apart Al Harris and the Green Bay secondary. They we no where near the level Eli and the Giants offense were in that game on Sunday. I will go more in depth about the game tomorrow because I haven’t watched the tape yet.
Wednesday 1/23/2008
With the injury to Giants cornerback Sam Madison in Week 17 against the Patriots, R.W. McQuarters has drastically improved his game, coming up with an interception in all 3 postseason games this year for the Giants. The first came late in the 4th against Tampa Bay where they were down by 2 scores, forcing Jeff Garcia to press a little bit with time dwindling down. The second came in Dallas on 4th and 11 with under a minute to go in the game. He intercepted Tony Romo’s intended pass in the end zone that gave the Giants a trip to Green Bay for the NFC Championship game, where he had a real up and down game.
With Green Bay driving near midfield in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter, McQuarters intercepted Brett Favre at the Giants 8 yard line, and then took off, a mistake that almost cost the Giants a trip to the Super Bowl. McQuarters was dancing around offensive lineman when Green Bay running back Ryan Grant forced McQuarters to fumble the ball right into the hands of Green Bay offensive lineman Matt Tauscher. Green Bay would later tie the game on that drive with a Mason Crosby 37-yard field goal. No, I’m not done. With 2:30 to go in the game, Green Bay punted from their own 17 yard line. McQuarters dropped back for the punt, fielded it cleanly, and then took off again, leaving Giants fans to hold their breath, fearing the worst. Well the worst did happen, sort of. Green Bay again forced McQuarters to fumble around the Green Bay 40 yard line. The ball was about to be picked up by the Packers before Michael Johnson made the play of the year by knocking the ball out, giving Anthony Hixon the opportunity to fall on it for the Giants.
Tom Coughlin’s first item on the agenda when he became head coach of the New York Giants was to fix the fumble-itis problem of Tiki Barber. Prior to Coughlin’s arrival in New York, Tiki fumbled the ball 43 times in a span of 7 years. Under Coughlin, 9 fumbles in 3 years. Tom Coughlin makes a living off of fundamentals of coaching football. He preaches discipline and character to his team. Coughlin needs to do a little more of this to McQuarters. High and tight is the way to carry the ball so it is not forced out. McQuarters has been careless with his ball-handling, and trying to do too much on his own. My philosophy on interception returning and kick returning is that when your coming near a player, that you wrap both hands around the ball and get low, putting the ball in your gut where it is very hard for someone to get their hands on it. My message to McQuarters is this, “Stay aggressive, but don’t be careless!” Watching the film tomorrow, today was a hectic day, so break down of the game will be then!
Thursday 1/24/2008
After watching the tape, I still can not believe that Lawrence Tynes missed that chip shot with :04 seconds left in the game. And don’t tell me the snap was bad, because Jeff Feagles handled it superbly and got it down no problem. But, it all worked out and I’m over it. As far as the game goes, it was pretty good as far as offense goes. The Giants had 2 drives that they staled on in the red zone and had to settle for field goals. One of those drives Tyree looked like he could have came down with a Touchdown but it was broken up. Those stalled drives wont do against the Patriots. Field Goals mean nothing when playing them. You need touchdowns, and you need a lot of them. Also just before the half Manning hit Plaxico Burress for 2 nice catches down the field. On the third one, Plaxico caught the pass and lost the ball as he hit the ground, and the pass was ruled incomplete. I know Burress had the best postseason game of his career, but that catch he has to hold onto next week if the Giants expect to win. Eli also had his problems too. He underthrew 2 big passes that were sure Touchdowns. One to Burress and one to Steve Smith in the 3rd quarter on a nice stop and go route that completely burned the Packer corner (I cant remember which one). Eli has got to make sure those passes are crisp and placed to where his receivers can catch it and run.
Defensively I thought the Giants played a stellar game. The one big 90-yard play was just a bad play by Corey Webster as he fell down leaving Driver wide open with no safety on that side. Webster would make up for it later, but on that play I saw something I did not like. Gibril Wilson was coming over from the far side and had an angle to push Driver out of bounds but he pulled-up for some odd reason and let Wilson walk into the endzone. Wilson absolutely can not give up on a play like that. You can not assume that if you make the play they will score anyway. Fumbles and Interceptions happen all the time, especially in Green Bay where it was -4 degrees. A horrible play that I hope Coughlin spoke to Wilson about. Also early in the game the Giants put 8 and 9 guys in the box assuming what everyone else in the world thought, which was that Green Bay would run the ball a lot. Once Steve Spagnuolo recognized that the Packers were leaning more to the pass than the run as the game wore on, he did a nice job utilizing some nice blitzes out of the nickel package. The coverage by the corners down the field was good all game accept on a few plays where the Packers had receivers on linebackers, which is a mismatch any day, but the Giants did a great job to prevent that mostly.
On the interception in overtime, they were in a nickel package, man coverage, and the Giants blitzed 7 guys (4 down and 2 linebackers) with the linebackers coming up the middle and it was picked up by the Packers but Favre just made a bad throw on an out route that was covered beautifully by Webster and he came up with the pick. More on what the team needs to do to beat the Pats next week.
Friday 1/25/2008
According to what only the media can see, Tom Brady has not practiced at all this week, leaving everyone wondering the health status of the number one quarterback in the league. When asked about it on Thursday, coach Bill Belichick would not say whether or not Brady practiced. Today, Belichick was asked a question and the VP of media said "last question." As soon he answered it, another question was asked, which was "can you tell us if Brady practiced yesterday?" Bill turns to the VP of media and asks "Was that the last question?" The guys sasy yes, and Bill walks out of the room. I do not get what the big secret is about his damn foot. Did he practice or not? Is he injured or not? Putting someone on the injury report every week for 3 years just to piss people off has really fucked him over because now when he really has an injury, he wont disclose it. Make the injury report legit and the NFL should fine teams that dont. ESPN had a good point also that medical people could sell injury information to sports betters who want insider info and will pay for it. The NFL is a serious business and Bill Belichick should treat it as if it weere one, not his own personal game to play with the media.
Saturday 1/26/2008
I have nothing really to say today, accept that the Patriots are 18-0, and that scares me.
Sunday 1/27/2008
As we are a week away from Super Sunday, my thoughts today were about the players and their families and how exciting it must be to be going to a Super Bowl. A lot of planning and time go into this humungous event, and people behind the scenes need to be recognized for that. The equipment people and the travel and communications department for both teams and the NFL do a fabulous job so that the players and coaches can have as little stress as possible in getting their loved ones to see them in the Super Bowl.
But any player for either team will tell you, getting there is not enough. And that attitude is what you need these 2 weeks with the circus that goes on surrounding the game. You have to remind yourself that going there is not your ultimate goal, even though it may feel like it right now. That’s why this week, practices must be tough and long as to not let the media think it’s a field day these 2 weeks. Players and coaches must be focused on winning just one more game for footballs ultimate glory.
Monday 1/28/2008
As we are less than one week away from Super Sunday, here is where we start to break down all 3 phases of the game coming up. Today will be offense, tomorrow will be defense, and Wednesday will be special teams. Offensively for the New York Football Giants, they just need to do what they have been doing these past 3 games, and that’s not turning the ball over. The Patriots are so good that even the slightest hick-up will lose you the game. Eli Manning needs to be accurate and make good decisions with his passes and not force anything into tight coverage. The receivers will be open, the Patriots defense is average at best, and the Giants have playmakers at the receiver position. Plaxico Burress, although not at 100%, is still a big time playmaker and he will be open down the field with the aging secondary of the Patriots. With that, it allows guys like Amani Toomer, Steve Smith, and Kevin Boss to be open across the middle and underneath. Basically the Giants need to do what the Patriots do. They need to scare the Patriots with the deep threat Burress, and look for the underneath wide open guy. Although they should not throw the ball as much as the Patriots do because they do not have Tom Brady, they have Eli Manning. He is efficient, but he can not handle throwing the ball 45+ times a game. They need to run the ball effectively to keep the Patriots on their toes. Brandon Jacobs needs to run and run hard at the linebackers too wear them down as the game goes on to open things for the passing game. And Ahmad Bradshaw could be effective in shotgun formation running the draw. I saw the Giants do this well in Chicago and in Buffalo.
The one thing the Giants need to do is do something they did not do in Week 17 and that is having the advantage in time of possession. The Patriots had 12 more minutes (36:18 Patriots-23:42 Giants) than the Giants did in time of possession and that is one reason why they lost that football game. If you dominate the time of possession, you keep Brady and the offense off the field and frustrated. You keep the ball in your hands and give them as little time as possible to score. Another thing the offense needs to do is not settling for field goals. The Chargers are the perfect example of this. They had the ball in the red zone 4 times in the AFC Championship game and kicked 4 field goals. End result, they lost the game. I read an article recently that had a study in it that found that statistically if you go for it, you have a high percentage chance of making it than if you punt. I think in this game the Giants have no choice because of the offense on the other side. I think they have to risk going for it instead of a field goal, and even if they miss one or two, it could pay off. I see them going for it five or more times in this game. I’ll put the over-under at five as far as going for it on fourth down goes. If they make four of five, I think they have a real shot at winning. But field goals do not beat the Patriots, touchdowns, and lots of them, do. Probably, 35 plus points are needed to win this football game because the firepower on the other side. Score points, and score them in bunches, and the Giants may pull it off.
Tuesday 1/29/2008
I know I said I would do defense tonight, but it is very late and I don’t have enough time to say all that I want to say about it, so special teams is the topic tonight. Basically, when it comes to special teams, I do not want to see a whole lot of them come Sunday. The only time I want to see Lawrence Tynes on the field is kicking extra points and kicking off. The only time I want to see Jeff Feagles on the field is holding extra point snaps. Punts and field goals will absolutely NOT win this football game on Sunday. Touchdowns, touchdowns, and more touchdowns win this ball game. Now, kickoff returns are a plus for the Giants this year. I love the pick-up of Anthony Hixon from Denver, he has been a tremendous threat and has given the Giants tremendous field position in the later part of this season. I think he needs to return and return balls out of the end zone. The Giants need every yard they can get, so I expect Hixon to take a few out of the end zone to hope to create something big for the Giants. Now if somehow the Giants have no choice but to punt, I would expect a lot of directional kicking by Jeff Feagles, who is one of the best. The Giants need to give the Patriots the longest field possible to score so that the defense can try and make a big play. And R.W. McQuarters MUST doa much better job of securing the football as I mentioned last week. Any special teams turnovers will result in disaster for the Giants, and they need to avoid that at all costs.
Wednesday 1/30/2008
Before I address the defense, I want to talk about Plaxico Burress and his “prediction” he made on Tuesday. What would you like him to say? Someone asked him a question…he answered it. The media would be all over him had he answered it either way. If he said we would lose, they would say that their defeated, if he said they would win, hes being too confident. If you ask me about any game and ask me to predict it about a team I like or play for, I tell you that I think we will win every time. You never go into a game thinking you are going to lose. You always think you can win, no matter how steep the challenge or how mighty the opponent. It all goes back to me to former New York Jets head coach and now Kansas City Chiefs coach Herman Edwards. He was asked a question on whether or not he thought his team would quit and not play hard after a 1-4 start to the 2001 season. This was his response:
"Hello, you play to win the game! You don't play to just play it. Thats the great thing about sports. You play to win. And I don't care if you don't have any wins...you go play to win. When you start telling me it doesn't matter, then retire...get out! Cause it matters!"
That’s basically it, you play to win the game. No matter what game, what time, what place, what setting, what the opponent. You go play, and you go play to win. When you find someone who goes and plays anything to lose (unless hes being bribed), than find me and I will give you a buck because I know no one, especially a professional football player, who would do such a thing, especially on a stage as big as the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is the most watched event every year, and one of the most cherished team accomplishments in all of sports. So when you ask any Giant player or fan and Patriot player or fan, guaranteed 100% will tell you they will win the game. Because that’s the reason we all play, to win.
Now as far as making a prediction and making the other team mad, that’s for them to decide. But as a Giant fan, I have no problem with him saying what he said, and neither did Michael Strahan. I absolutely love the fact that he is confident, in fact I prefer it because it means that he does not fear the opposing team. When you answer “Well, we are going to do our best,” that means to me that you know they are good and that you know you are probably going to lose. So be confident Giants fans and players, and leave it all out on the field. Since I went on a lot about this subject, ill save the defensive game plan for tomorrow.
Thursday 1/31/2008
Moving on to the third phase this week for Super Bowl XLII, the defense needs to be the stars of the game. We all know that Tom Brady has an ankle sprain, and if he has all day in the pocket to throw the football, he is going to eat up the Giants secondary. What must happen is the Giants must get pressure from the front four up the middle and in the face of Brady forcing him to flush out of the pocket. Now I’m not talking about little side steps back and forth, I’m talking serious rollouts to the sidelines, making him run on that bad ankle. The Giants need to do this early and often so they can get a feel for how bad Brady’s ankle really is.
Now if the front four can not get pressure early on Brady, the Giants should turn up the heat with corner blitzes and linebacker blitzes up the middle, making sure though they have enough people in coverage. Big problem with this though is that it leaves the screen pass to Welker and Faulk vulnerable. So I expect a corner to be assigned to each of them so they cant get loose in the open field. Also safeties Gibril Wilson and Michael Johnson MUST stay home and not come down in the box under any circumstances. I saw a play where the Steelers strong safety bit hard on a play action fake and the cornerback left Randy Moss to the safety that wasn’t there, for an easy touchdown connection from Brady to Moss. What this means for the Giants is that it puts added pressure on the linebackers to stop the run and not have any missed tackles. They have got to make the play because they won’t have any help. No mistakes, no missed tackles, and no dumb penalties (cough Sam Madison cough!). Also Giant cornerbacks need to get physical at the line of scrimmage with Patriot wide receivers. Aaron Ross, Sam Madison, and Corey Webster must get a push to knock the receivers off their timing and routes. This came back to bite Corey Webster in the butt in the NFC Championship game, but I think it balanced out as the Giants secondary did an excellent job in coverage. And Corey Webster certainly made up for it with the interception in overtime. A lot of it was Brett Favres’ fault, but he still made the catch and saved the day. Also turnovers are a necessity in this game, they are going to need one or two to come their way to help the offense out with field position throughout the game. If the Giants can do this, they have a good shot at pulling off the upset.
Friday 2/1/2008
I would just like to spend a little time talking about Tiki Barber today. Tiki Barber made an interesting decision last year by choosing early retirement. A little more than one year later, he’s seeing his old team one win a way from a Super Bowl victory, something that Barber did not accomplish during his short career. I wonder what he’s thinking now. We know what Michael Strahan would have been thinking as he was asked the same question this week, and Strahan said he would have been extremely frustrated had he chose to retire also at the end of last season. Tiki at the beginning of the year had a lot to say on NBC’s Football Night in America, saying that Eli’s leadership skills were “comical.” They couldn’t have been that comical Tiki if his teammates elected him into the leadership counsel of the New York Giants. They couldn’t have been comical Tiki if Eli has not thrown and interception in the entire 2008 postseason. They couldn’t have been comical Tiki if Eli has led his football team to 3 straight road playoff victories, done only 3 times in NFL history. I have nothing against Tiki Barber as a football player. On the field he was one of the most persistent running backs of the last few decades. But what I do not like about Tiki Barber is that once the going got tough, he folded. He bitched out on his team and himself. But he’s entitled to do what he wants. But when he starts saying the things he said about Eli Manning and Tom Coughlin, that’s where I have a problem. He would not shut up about how tough Coughlin’s practices were his first two seasons. He went to the G.M. Ernie Accorsi and he told him that he is the coach and you must go by his rules. Then he went to owners Wellington Mara and Steve Ticsh and they told him the exact same thing. So when no one told him what he wanted to hear, he quit. So if Tiki comes running back on Monday if the Giants win the Super Bowl and he stats saying “Yeah I knew all along Eli and this team could do it,” he is full of shit and I wouldn’t want to see him at the victory parade or ring ceremony or anywhere around this team, because Tiki doesn’t deserve this team.
Saturday 2/2/2008
Since its been talked about all day today on every sports channel imaginable, I will spend today talking about the New England Patriots and the “spygate” scandal. For those of you that don’t know what spygate is, it happened Week 1 of this season when a member of the Patriots coaching staff was caught filming the New York Jets defensive signals during their 38-14 win. The man was confronted by security, the camera was taken, sealed, and sent to the NFL. The NFL found what they did violated league rules, and they stripped the Pats of their first found draft pick in 2008, fined the team $750,000 and coach Bill Belichick $500,000. The league then destroyed the tapes, and according to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, they did this because they had no more use for them. Now, a Senator from Pennsylvania has asked Roger Goodell to testify before a Senate Judiciary committee and answer questions about why he destroyed those tapes. Some questions will be why they were destroyed, and if nothing was on there, and maybe what they were hiding if something else was on there. Lot of questions and I’m sure they will all be asked by the committee.
This week, a former Pats employee who worked with filming indicated that he had discriminating evidence against the NFL and the Pats. Today, a report came out in the Boston Herald that the Pats filmed the St. Louis Rams walkthrough before Super Bowl XXVI. A walkthrough is basically practice where you run plays at about half speed so you get your timing down and you know which people are going where and what they are supposed to do. The Rams have stated that during their walkthrough that year, they practiced plays that were going to take place in the red zone. All of this is pure speculation at this point, because no one has seen the videotape. But what I do know is the Patriots were caught CHEATING! Plain and simple. They cheated, they got caught, and punishment was given. In my opinion, the punishment didn’t fit the crime. The game should have been forfeited to the New York Jets. Point is when you cheat during the game, the game should be called off. Its basically like cheating in a card game in Casino’s. If they catch you, all your winnings are taken (Although I would like to think they do it like the movie Casino where they take you out back and ask “You can have the money and the hammer, or you can walk out of here, but you cant have both. What do you want? But it doesn’t happen that way.). So the Patriots win in Week won should be stricken from the records and they should be 17-1 right now. Now I will take nothing away from what they did after that, and they deserve to be in the Super Bowl, but that game should count as a forfeit. Now, as far as Super Bowl XXXVI is concerned, that is a much more complicated matter and I hope what they say the Pats did didn’t happen so we wont have to talk about whether or not that game was legitimate. But for now, we are less than 24 hours away from Super Bowl XLII, enjoy the game everyone. I will be back for analysis of the game probably next week. GO GIANTS!
Sunday 2/3/2008
The day has arrived, the game you have been working all year for has finally come. One game, one chance, to be crowned Super Bowl Champion. Who will it be? My prediction:
Giants 34
Patriots 31
Enjoy the game everyone, and GO GIANTS!
Monday 2/4/2008
New York Giants, Super Bowl XLII Champions, defeating the now 18-1 New England Patriots 17-14 in the most watched and probably most unbelievable Super Bowl ever played. So much to talk about, Tyree, Manning’s great escape, the defense, Steve Smith, it all really just has not sunk in. Tomorrow maybe it will be a little clearer.
Sunday 2/10/2008
One week ago, the New York Giants pulled off one of the biggest upsets in football history, and arguably the biggest, although Joe Namath’s famous guarantee in Super Bowl III might edge this one by a little bit since it was an important game for professional football. The game had everything you could ask for, drama, big plays, heartbreaking moments, and everything in between. It started off well for the Giants, they moved the ball effectively on their first drive, converted several key third downs, and put points on the board on what turned out to be the longest drive in Super Bowl History. The first series for the Patriots was very typical of what we have seen all year from them. Spread formation, lots of four wide receiver sets, and Welker had a few nice catches on the drive that was capped off by a Lawrence Maroney touchdown. The Giants did do something positive though on the drive, matter of fact on the very first play. The Pats lined up for a bootleg screen that the Giants blew up right in their face. They got pressure right up the middle forcing Brady to get rid of the ball too early and his pass to be off target. That would be a sign of things to come in this game. So the score remained 7-3 up until the fourth quarter, but in between there were several key things that happened.
The Giants had several chances to score points and missed. After the touchdown, Amani Toomer made another spectacular sideline catch, much like the one in Green Bay, down inside the Pats 20. Then with the ball at the Pats 14 yard line, Manning tried to hit Steve Smith on a route where he faked the outside and turned his body all the way around to the inside, a route that takes time to develop, but Eli had pressure in his face and had too let the ball go a tad too early. As Smith was just turning around to the inside, the ball was there and he tried to scoop the ball, but ultimately tipped it right into the hands of Ellis Hobbs for an easy interception. I don’t blame either Manning nor Smith for that interception, it was just a matter of the Pats pressure causing Eli to get rid of the ball too early and throw a ball that maybe if Smith isn’t a rookie, he may catch, and may not, who knows, but it was just good pressure by the Pats to cause that. Then with the ball at midfield and under 2 minutes left in the half, Brady was sacked and Justin Tuck forced Brady to fumble the ball that Osi Umenyora recovered and the half ended.
At the start of the second half, The Pats had the ball near midfield and were forced to punt when the Giants actually lined up with 14 guys on the field, one stepped off and the other one was almost to the sideline but he didn’t make it, and coach Belichick challenged that the Giants had 12 men on the field and won the challenge. The Patriots then had 3rd and 7 from the Giants 25 yard line. Brady went back to pass and was sacked by Michael Strahan setting up 4th and about 13. The Patriots decided to go for it rather than trying a field goal to go up by a touchdown. The attempt failed and the Giants took over on downs. The decision by Bellichick is an interesting one, leading people to believe he did not have confidence in his young kicker, Stephen Gostkowski, to make a 50 plus yarder. I think it was a bad move because the Pats had 4th and over 10 yards, and you should try and go up by a touchdown there. And even if you miss the field goal, your still giving them about the same field position as you would if you went for it on 4th down and missed, so a bad decision.
Then at the start of the fourth quarter, the Giants got the ball rolling. Manning hit Tight end Kevin Boss on a seem route up the middle of the field for 47 yards that set up Eli’s 5 yard touchdown pass to David Tyree that put the Giants ahead with a little over 11 minutes left in the game. After the touchdown, the Giants forced the Pats to punt after they converted only one first down. So the Giants took over with 9:20 left and the ball at their own 29 yard line. On 2nd and 9, Eli rolled left and had Plxico Burress wide open down the left sideline that would have went for big yardage, but Eli over threw the pass and the Giants had to punt. Later in Eli’s career, he has to realize that in order to be great and beat great teams, he has to put games away. That play had a chance to put the Pats away, and he blew that opportunity. On the Pats ensuing drive, the Patriots marched 80 yards on 12 plays in 5:12 to take the lead 14-10. On the touchdown play, Corey Webster slipped when he bit on the fade route on Randy Moss when he went in for a slant for an easy touchdown. On the drive, the Giants looked just plain tired. I saw Umenyiora stumble over to the sideline out of breath and gasping. A few other players in the secondary were doing the same. Basically the offensive line gave Brady protection and the Giants could not get to him. And when you give Brady time, he will find somebody. Also interesting was the play calling of Josh McDaniells in the red zone. On 1st and goal on the 6 yard line with a little under 3 minutes left, The Pats called 2 straight passing plays that both fell incomplete, which meant that little time came off the clock AND the Giants could keep all 3 timeouts. I believe if you give a team too much time on the clock after you score, you run the risk of giving them the opportunity to score again. I would run the ball one or two times, but at least one, to force the Giants to use those timeouts and to run as much time off as possible. They scored with over two minutes left, and the Giants had all 3 timeouts and the two minute warning.
So the Giants had to answer with a touchdown, down by 4 points, with 2:12 left in the game, and Eli Manning under center. This is the kind of drive that defines what kind of football player a man is, and Eli Manning responded. Eli found Toomer for a first down on the first play of the drive, which is very key because it gives you some momentum going forward. Later, they would have a 4th and 1 on their own 37 yard line, and in came Brandon Jacobs and he plucked his way for a first down. Then it came, 3rd and 5, from the Giants 44 yard line. Eli goes back to pass, and three Pats rushers bear down on him, and unbelievably, Eli escapes the sack roles right, and heaves the ball down the middle of the field towards David Tyree. Tyree jumps up, grips the ball with one hand, rests it on his helmet, and b rings his other hand over on the ball, all this while he was in mid-air and with Rodney Harrison on him with his hand on the ball trying to rip it loose from Tyree. Amazingly he falls to the ground and never lets the ball touch the ground for one of the most unbelievable catches you will ever see. Truly remarkable, but the job wasn’t finished. The play to Tyree went for 32 yards and set up the Giants with 1st and 10 from the Pats 24 yard line. On 3rd and 11 from the 25, Manning hit Smith on an out route out of bounds for 12 yards and a huge first down. The play set up with 3 wide receivers right, and one left. Smith was set up on the inside right of the formation, and the receiver to the right of him in the middle ran a slant route that caused 2 Pats cornerbacks to collide, leaving Smith open on the sideline for him to make the catch and extend forward to reach for the first down. A great play call, and great execution. So its now 1st down and 10 from the New England 13 yard line, the Giants have 3 receivers right, one left again. Burress is lined up left one on one with Ellis Hobbs. The Pats dialed up a blitz from the right side, and Burress fakes a slant and runs to the corner and absolutely fakes Hobbs out of his pants for an easy go ahead touchdown.
So the Pats had :40 seconds to try and tie or win the game, but rookie Jay Alford quickly closed that door when he sacked Brady on 2nd and 10. The Pats tried 2 Hail Maries, but failed and the Giants won the game. How did it happen? It happened because of two things. One, both the Giants offensive and defensive lines controlled the line of scrimmage and dictated play most of the game. Two, the Pats did not adjust in game. They stayed with their spread formation, stayed with the 4 wide receivers thinking that eventually they would break loose and the Giants secondary would break down, but they didn’t. The Pats absolutely should have done much more max protection, 2 tight end sets, run the ball more, wear down the Giants front seven, and cause them to be off-balance. But they didn’t, and that’s basically why they lost this football game.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
New York Giants 2010 Schedule
Giants 2010 schedule according to Big Blue Interactive.
Sept. 12 CAROLINA 1:00 PM (FOX)
Sept. 19 at Indianapolis 8:20 PM (NBC)
Sept. 26 TENNESSEE 1:00 PM (CBS)
Oct. 3 CHICAGO 8:20 PM (NBC)
Oct. 10 at Houston 1:00 PM (FOX)
Oct. 17 DETROIT 1:00 PM (FOX)
Oct. 25 (Mon.) at Dallas 8:30 PM (ESPN)
Oct. 31 BYE
Nov. 7 at Seattle 4:05 PM (FOX)
Nov. 14 DALLAS 4:15PM (FOX)
Nov. 21 at Philadelphia 8:20PM* (NBC)
Nov. 28 JACKSONVILLE 1:00PM* (CBS)
Dec. 5 WASHINGTON 1:00PM* (FOX)
Dec. 12 at Minnesota 1:00 PM* (FOX)
Dec. 19 PHILADELPHIA 1:00 PM* (FOX)
Dec. 26 at Green Bay 4:15 PM* (FOX)
Jan. 2 at Washington 1:00PM* (FOX)
4 prime time games. Schedule starts off O.K. BYE is in a great spot, but finish 3 of the last 4 on the road.
UPDATED: The way I see the schedule, the Giants must get off to a fast start next season. The first 4 home games are all winnable games against weak opponents. All 4 did not make the playoffs last season. In the middle of that you have @ Indy where it will be Eli vs. Peyton II. Peyton got the better of Eli in the first meeting at Giants Stadium in 2006. You like to see the BYE as close to the middle of the schedule as possible, and the Giants have it at Week 8, can't get much better than that. The Giants do not play a divisional game until Week 7, and play 5 of their 6 divisional games in the second half of the season. Kolb will have adjusted to running the offense in Philly by then, and McNabb and Shanahan will be on the same page in Washington by the time the Giants see them the first week in December. The Giants schedule is rough, ranked 7th toughest according to NFL.com. With 3 of the last 4 on the road, including @ Green Bay the day after Christmas, the Giants can not do what they did last season and put it in cruise control mid way through the season.
Comments
Sept. 12 CAROLINA 1:00 PM (FOX)
Sept. 19 at Indianapolis 8:20 PM (NBC)
Sept. 26 TENNESSEE 1:00 PM (CBS)
Oct. 3 CHICAGO 8:20 PM (NBC)
Oct. 10 at Houston 1:00 PM (FOX)
Oct. 17 DETROIT 1:00 PM (FOX)
Oct. 25 (Mon.) at Dallas 8:30 PM (ESPN)
Oct. 31 BYE
Nov. 7 at Seattle 4:05 PM (FOX)
Nov. 14 DALLAS 4:15PM (FOX)
Nov. 21 at Philadelphia 8:20PM* (NBC)
Nov. 28 JACKSONVILLE 1:00PM* (CBS)
Dec. 5 WASHINGTON 1:00PM* (FOX)
Dec. 12 at Minnesota 1:00 PM* (FOX)
Dec. 19 PHILADELPHIA 1:00 PM* (FOX)
Dec. 26 at Green Bay 4:15 PM* (FOX)
Jan. 2 at Washington 1:00PM* (FOX)
4 prime time games. Schedule starts off O.K. BYE is in a great spot, but finish 3 of the last 4 on the road.
UPDATED: The way I see the schedule, the Giants must get off to a fast start next season. The first 4 home games are all winnable games against weak opponents. All 4 did not make the playoffs last season. In the middle of that you have @ Indy where it will be Eli vs. Peyton II. Peyton got the better of Eli in the first meeting at Giants Stadium in 2006. You like to see the BYE as close to the middle of the schedule as possible, and the Giants have it at Week 8, can't get much better than that. The Giants do not play a divisional game until Week 7, and play 5 of their 6 divisional games in the second half of the season. Kolb will have adjusted to running the offense in Philly by then, and McNabb and Shanahan will be on the same page in Washington by the time the Giants see them the first week in December. The Giants schedule is rough, ranked 7th toughest according to NFL.com. With 3 of the last 4 on the road, including @ Green Bay the day after Christmas, the Giants can not do what they did last season and put it in cruise control mid way through the season.
Comments
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
NFL News and Notes - April 13
Updated 4/14 11:50 A.M.: The Denver Broncos have traded WR Brandon Marshall to the Miami Dolphins for a second round pick in the 2010 draft and a second round pick in the 2011 draft. The Dolphins clearly had a need at the wide receiver position and with Marshall now on the team that need has been addressed. Davone Bess and Ted Ginn Jr. have not stepped up like the Dolphins would have liked, so Bill Parcells brings in a nice target for QB Chad Henne to throw to who will make big plays.
For the Broncos they have good receivers in Eddie Royal, Jabar Gaffney, and Brandon Stokley, but none of them are the caliber receiver Marshall is and probably never will be. Dez Bryant has the potential to be what Brandon Marhsall is. Will they take a shot at the receiver with the 11th pick? Or will they address a serious need on defense and draft LB Rolando McClain? That will be a highly debated topic in the next two weeks leading to the draft.
*
A lot has been brewing in the NFL this offseason so lets take a look at a few stories making headlines these past few weeks.
The Pittsburgh Steelers have traded Super Bowl XLIII MVP Santonio Holmes to the New York Jets for a 2010 fifth round draft pick on Sunday night. The following day the NFL suspended Holmes for the first four games of the 2010 season for abusing the leagues substance abuse policy. Holmes was cited for possession of marijuana in 2008. If you look at this trade from purely a football standpoint, the Jets clearly got the better of this deal. The Steelers however downplayed this the following day saying that they would have cut the Super Bowl MVP had they not found a trade partner. What this means for the Jets is, they are out to win at all costs. What this means to the Steelers is they are looking to clean up their organization. The Jets add Holmes to go along with Braylon Edwards and Jericho Cotchery to complete their receiving core. The Jets are going to be a lot of peoples favorites to win the AFC this year, but we'll discuss that after the Draft.
Brandon Marshal has signed his tender offer from the Denver Broncos, making it a lot easier for a team to trade for him knowing they do not have to negotiate a contract for him for the upcoming season. Their are several teams in need of a WR, the Miami Dolphins, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Seattle Seahawks included among others. Obviously his value drops below what was tendered for him, a first round pick, to probably a second to third round pick.
Ben Roethlisberger escaped charges on Monday when a DA in Georgia decided not to charge Ben with a crime for conduct with a 20 year old women in the bathroom of a nightclub several months ago. Conduct like this is unacceptable from any human being, but for a celebrity or professional athlete who carries responsibilities beyond themselves, is reprehensible. The league has taken a black eye from this incident and I believe the league must impose some sort of retribution on Ben for his conduct. The league has a strict personal conduct policy and can impose a suspension or fine regardless of whether or not a crime was committed. I also applaud the district attorney for coming out and explaining the events leading up to the incident and why he chose not to pursue charges in this case.
The Jacksonville Jaguars have reportedly taken WR Dez Bryant off their draft boards. This can mean several things to a lot of different teams. Originally I thought Bryant would go to Jacksonville and the Broncos would select Rolando McClain. With Bryant now off at 10, the Broncos may now be looking at Bryant in the 11 spot. Meaning Giants fans like me can take a deep breath if this is the case and would expect McClain to be there when the Giants pick at 15. A lot of scenarios that will play out that will probably change 100 different times between now and the draft.
Comments. I'll do a Mock Draft for the First Round next week
For the Broncos they have good receivers in Eddie Royal, Jabar Gaffney, and Brandon Stokley, but none of them are the caliber receiver Marshall is and probably never will be. Dez Bryant has the potential to be what Brandon Marhsall is. Will they take a shot at the receiver with the 11th pick? Or will they address a serious need on defense and draft LB Rolando McClain? That will be a highly debated topic in the next two weeks leading to the draft.
*
A lot has been brewing in the NFL this offseason so lets take a look at a few stories making headlines these past few weeks.
The Pittsburgh Steelers have traded Super Bowl XLIII MVP Santonio Holmes to the New York Jets for a 2010 fifth round draft pick on Sunday night. The following day the NFL suspended Holmes for the first four games of the 2010 season for abusing the leagues substance abuse policy. Holmes was cited for possession of marijuana in 2008. If you look at this trade from purely a football standpoint, the Jets clearly got the better of this deal. The Steelers however downplayed this the following day saying that they would have cut the Super Bowl MVP had they not found a trade partner. What this means for the Jets is, they are out to win at all costs. What this means to the Steelers is they are looking to clean up their organization. The Jets add Holmes to go along with Braylon Edwards and Jericho Cotchery to complete their receiving core. The Jets are going to be a lot of peoples favorites to win the AFC this year, but we'll discuss that after the Draft.
Brandon Marshal has signed his tender offer from the Denver Broncos, making it a lot easier for a team to trade for him knowing they do not have to negotiate a contract for him for the upcoming season. Their are several teams in need of a WR, the Miami Dolphins, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Seattle Seahawks included among others. Obviously his value drops below what was tendered for him, a first round pick, to probably a second to third round pick.
Ben Roethlisberger escaped charges on Monday when a DA in Georgia decided not to charge Ben with a crime for conduct with a 20 year old women in the bathroom of a nightclub several months ago. Conduct like this is unacceptable from any human being, but for a celebrity or professional athlete who carries responsibilities beyond themselves, is reprehensible. The league has taken a black eye from this incident and I believe the league must impose some sort of retribution on Ben for his conduct. The league has a strict personal conduct policy and can impose a suspension or fine regardless of whether or not a crime was committed. I also applaud the district attorney for coming out and explaining the events leading up to the incident and why he chose not to pursue charges in this case.
The Jacksonville Jaguars have reportedly taken WR Dez Bryant off their draft boards. This can mean several things to a lot of different teams. Originally I thought Bryant would go to Jacksonville and the Broncos would select Rolando McClain. With Bryant now off at 10, the Broncos may now be looking at Bryant in the 11 spot. Meaning Giants fans like me can take a deep breath if this is the case and would expect McClain to be there when the Giants pick at 15. A lot of scenarios that will play out that will probably change 100 different times between now and the draft.
Comments. I'll do a Mock Draft for the First Round next week
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Florida Pro Day
The Day Tim Tebow fans have been waiting for has finally come. Tebow today worked out in front of pro scouts and coaches for his final shot to prove he is NFL ready and fit to be a starting quarterback in the league. Will his new and improved motion on display in front of scouts elevate his draft status come April? Only time will tell. You can read my take on Tebow from an earlier blog here. For a complete breakdown of Tebow's day, be sure to check out the Fox Sports Blog.
CB Joe Haden was also looking at a shot to improve his draft status after a not so good showing at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis. Haden reportedly ran a 4.43 40, much better than the 4.57 he ran at the Combine. Need to be in that range to be able to run with wide receivers in the NFL. Haden will be a first round pick come April, and his showing today only solidified that.
TE Aaron Hernandez also had a nice showing today by reportedly running a 4.5. He is going to be a beast of a tight end in the NFL. At 6-2, 250 he is a big, physical tight end with great hands that will be an unstoppable weapon in the red zone come Sundays. He gets off blocks and his lack of ability in pass protection is overblown in my opinion. Behind Oklahoma's Jermain Gresham, he is the best TE available in the Draft.
New York Giants coach Tom Coughlin was on site to see the 15 or so University of Florida players workout at their Pro Day. The Giants are in desperate need of linebacking help after they released their middle linebacker and leader Antonio Pierce. Florida linebacker Brandon Spikes was an option for the Giants to replace him along with Alabama middle linebacker Rolando McClain. I say was because Spikes has been a concern for a lot of pro scouts because of his speed and is not projected as a top 15 pick by most. Most draft experts have Spikes going late first round, early second round. But his stock may drop even further after not breaking 5 seconds on his 40 time today, leaving me and many others shaking their heads. He ran a 5.02 and 5.08 in his two attempts, according to reports. The Giants might be looking in a direction other than Spikes for their middle linebacker, but regardless this issue must be cleared up prior to the start of the season if the Giants wish to return to their Super Bowl form from 3 years ago. If they do not sign or draft a middle linebacker by the start of the season, the competition in camp will be between Chase Blackburn and Jonathon Goff.
The Giants current starting linebackers are Danny Clark, who is 32 and his tackles have declined in recent years, and Michael Boley who, when healthy last year, was great in pass defense and productive in stopping the run. The Giants really could have settled this issue by pursuing LB Carlos Dansby, but Giants GM Jerry Reese decided to go in a different direction and build through the draft after a busy offseason last year in signing free agents on defense.
If the Giants want to use their #15 pick to get a middle linebacker, they will have to hold their breath between picks 9-14 to see if McClain falls to them. Denver plays a 3-4, a system McClain thrived in at Alabama under coach Nick Saban, and would fit perfect in their defense. A system the Giants do not play. If Denver loses WR Brandon Marshall prior to the draft, they will undoubtedly take WR Dez Bryant from Oklahoma State. If not, McClain could be their man. The Browns also need help on defense, although mainly in the secondary. McClain may be their guy. If hes gone, look for the Giants to trade down.
Comments. Happy St. Patrick's Day!
CB Joe Haden was also looking at a shot to improve his draft status after a not so good showing at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis. Haden reportedly ran a 4.43 40, much better than the 4.57 he ran at the Combine. Need to be in that range to be able to run with wide receivers in the NFL. Haden will be a first round pick come April, and his showing today only solidified that.
TE Aaron Hernandez also had a nice showing today by reportedly running a 4.5. He is going to be a beast of a tight end in the NFL. At 6-2, 250 he is a big, physical tight end with great hands that will be an unstoppable weapon in the red zone come Sundays. He gets off blocks and his lack of ability in pass protection is overblown in my opinion. Behind Oklahoma's Jermain Gresham, he is the best TE available in the Draft.
New York Giants coach Tom Coughlin was on site to see the 15 or so University of Florida players workout at their Pro Day. The Giants are in desperate need of linebacking help after they released their middle linebacker and leader Antonio Pierce. Florida linebacker Brandon Spikes was an option for the Giants to replace him along with Alabama middle linebacker Rolando McClain. I say was because Spikes has been a concern for a lot of pro scouts because of his speed and is not projected as a top 15 pick by most. Most draft experts have Spikes going late first round, early second round. But his stock may drop even further after not breaking 5 seconds on his 40 time today, leaving me and many others shaking their heads. He ran a 5.02 and 5.08 in his two attempts, according to reports. The Giants might be looking in a direction other than Spikes for their middle linebacker, but regardless this issue must be cleared up prior to the start of the season if the Giants wish to return to their Super Bowl form from 3 years ago. If they do not sign or draft a middle linebacker by the start of the season, the competition in camp will be between Chase Blackburn and Jonathon Goff.
The Giants current starting linebackers are Danny Clark, who is 32 and his tackles have declined in recent years, and Michael Boley who, when healthy last year, was great in pass defense and productive in stopping the run. The Giants really could have settled this issue by pursuing LB Carlos Dansby, but Giants GM Jerry Reese decided to go in a different direction and build through the draft after a busy offseason last year in signing free agents on defense.
If the Giants want to use their #15 pick to get a middle linebacker, they will have to hold their breath between picks 9-14 to see if McClain falls to them. Denver plays a 3-4, a system McClain thrived in at Alabama under coach Nick Saban, and would fit perfect in their defense. A system the Giants do not play. If Denver loses WR Brandon Marshall prior to the draft, they will undoubtedly take WR Dez Bryant from Oklahoma State. If not, McClain could be their man. The Browns also need help on defense, although mainly in the secondary. McClain may be their guy. If hes gone, look for the Giants to trade down.
Comments. Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Monday, March 15, 2010
Giants and Jets both to open new stadium Opening Weekend, but WHY?
The New York Giants have been planning for nearly 5 years the construction of the new Meadowlands Stadium set to open next month. The New York Jets originally planed to build their own stadium on the West Side of Manhattan before that was thwarted by politicians. Don't even get me started on trying to build ANYTHING in the state of New York, its just a joke.
After the West Side Stadium collapse, the Jets and Giants joined forces in a 50/50 partnership in the Meadowlands Stadium. Unlike the current stadium where the Jets are tenants, the new stadium will not be named after the Giants and even the colors will be interchangeable to reflect who is playing.
So when the question came up as to who would open the new Stadium, both teams demanded that it be them. One solution that made perfect sense for everyone and would please a lot of fans would be to let the 2 teams play each other Week 1. But that was quickly thwarted by the NFL. Since the 2 teams are not scheduled to play each other until next year, the NFL would not alter the schedule to solve the dispute. No problem. We all know how complex and particular the schedule is and how far in advance its planned. So the next thing was to just award it to the Giants, after all they started the process. The Jets quickly whined about that idea. So the NFL decided it would flip a coin to see who has the first game. When the NFL conducted the coin flip without representatives from either team present, the Jets whined again saying the flip was biased.
O.K. on to solution number three, have BOTH teams open the stadium on the same weekend, which the NFL has decided it will do. The Giants will be first and open on Sunday with the Jets hosting on Monday Night Football. The Jets will open the first preseason game, not that it matters because no one shows up to them anyway.
But how we got here was sketchy to say the least, with a lot of back and forth by both the Jets and the NFL. This solution makes total sense, but oh man wouldn't it have been fun if the two faced each other Week 1 in September? Try getting a ticket to that game!
Comments
After the West Side Stadium collapse, the Jets and Giants joined forces in a 50/50 partnership in the Meadowlands Stadium. Unlike the current stadium where the Jets are tenants, the new stadium will not be named after the Giants and even the colors will be interchangeable to reflect who is playing.
So when the question came up as to who would open the new Stadium, both teams demanded that it be them. One solution that made perfect sense for everyone and would please a lot of fans would be to let the 2 teams play each other Week 1. But that was quickly thwarted by the NFL. Since the 2 teams are not scheduled to play each other until next year, the NFL would not alter the schedule to solve the dispute. No problem. We all know how complex and particular the schedule is and how far in advance its planned. So the next thing was to just award it to the Giants, after all they started the process. The Jets quickly whined about that idea. So the NFL decided it would flip a coin to see who has the first game. When the NFL conducted the coin flip without representatives from either team present, the Jets whined again saying the flip was biased.
O.K. on to solution number three, have BOTH teams open the stadium on the same weekend, which the NFL has decided it will do. The Giants will be first and open on Sunday with the Jets hosting on Monday Night Football. The Jets will open the first preseason game, not that it matters because no one shows up to them anyway.
But how we got here was sketchy to say the least, with a lot of back and forth by both the Jets and the NFL. This solution makes total sense, but oh man wouldn't it have been fun if the two faced each other Week 1 in September? Try getting a ticket to that game!
Comments
Thursday, March 4, 2010
NFL Free Agency 2010
The bidding begins at midnight for several prominent NFL players who will become free agents.
Julius Peppers, Darren Sharper, Carlos Dansby, Garry Brackett, Kevin MaWae, Thomas Jones, and LaDainian Tomlinson are at the top of the wish list.
This year, unlike most in the past, any team who finished out of the top 8 last year will be able to throw any amount of money they want to lure in free agents. This is because 2010 will be an uncapped year in the NFL.
Rumors are circulating everywhere as to where these players, among many others, may land come midnight. It's anyone's guess, but Washington, Chicago, Arizona, Carolina, Giants, and Seattle are expected to be major players with holes to fill at big money positions. Just because teams have the ability to spend all the money they want does not mean they will. Several teams are not expected to reach the cap floor set last year. No ceiling, no floor. A lot of teams will take a year off and collect their TV money.
Jerry Reese, GM of the Giants, has publicly stated he is not pursuing free agent LB Carlos Dansby, a good move in my opinion. A better move would be to draft one with the #15 pick taking either McClain or Spikes. The Giants should go after Julius Peppers. The Giants pass rush was lacking significantly last year even with Osi Umenyiora's return. It has become clear that Osi is frustrated with the way he has been handled by the coaching staff and the organization. I think the Giants think of him as their #1 pass rusher, but Osi's actions off the field have to be concerning to the coaches and management. If the Giants have faith in Osi, come out and say it publicly. If not, make an offer to Peppers and trade Osi. Another gaping hole the Giants have is safety. I stated a few months ago that Bob Sanders would be a perfect fit if the Colts released him. I figured they would because of his injury's, but they have not. The next best thing is Darren Sharper. He has been a Giant killer over the years with New Orleans, Minnesota, and Green Bay. It would be nice to see him in Giant blue next season. If these needs are not addressed during free agency, the will be addressed at the draft in April.
The Jets are limited as to who they can sign because they reached the AFC Championship last year. In order to sign someone, they must lose someone of equal or lesser value. The Jets have cut Thomas Jones, but they are trying to turn around and resign him. If they could, they would love nothing more than to throw all the money in the world at Julius Peppers. That is a void that cost them a shot at the Super Bowl last year. But they can't. They must make do with what they have and add through the draft. This year more than other, the draft will be very very important for teams who are unable to spend money and are only a player or two away from being championship teams.
I'll have more on the Draft as we get closer. Comments on free agency here.
Julius Peppers, Darren Sharper, Carlos Dansby, Garry Brackett, Kevin MaWae, Thomas Jones, and LaDainian Tomlinson are at the top of the wish list.
This year, unlike most in the past, any team who finished out of the top 8 last year will be able to throw any amount of money they want to lure in free agents. This is because 2010 will be an uncapped year in the NFL.
Rumors are circulating everywhere as to where these players, among many others, may land come midnight. It's anyone's guess, but Washington, Chicago, Arizona, Carolina, Giants, and Seattle are expected to be major players with holes to fill at big money positions. Just because teams have the ability to spend all the money they want does not mean they will. Several teams are not expected to reach the cap floor set last year. No ceiling, no floor. A lot of teams will take a year off and collect their TV money.
Jerry Reese, GM of the Giants, has publicly stated he is not pursuing free agent LB Carlos Dansby, a good move in my opinion. A better move would be to draft one with the #15 pick taking either McClain or Spikes. The Giants should go after Julius Peppers. The Giants pass rush was lacking significantly last year even with Osi Umenyiora's return. It has become clear that Osi is frustrated with the way he has been handled by the coaching staff and the organization. I think the Giants think of him as their #1 pass rusher, but Osi's actions off the field have to be concerning to the coaches and management. If the Giants have faith in Osi, come out and say it publicly. If not, make an offer to Peppers and trade Osi. Another gaping hole the Giants have is safety. I stated a few months ago that Bob Sanders would be a perfect fit if the Colts released him. I figured they would because of his injury's, but they have not. The next best thing is Darren Sharper. He has been a Giant killer over the years with New Orleans, Minnesota, and Green Bay. It would be nice to see him in Giant blue next season. If these needs are not addressed during free agency, the will be addressed at the draft in April.
The Jets are limited as to who they can sign because they reached the AFC Championship last year. In order to sign someone, they must lose someone of equal or lesser value. The Jets have cut Thomas Jones, but they are trying to turn around and resign him. If they could, they would love nothing more than to throw all the money in the world at Julius Peppers. That is a void that cost them a shot at the Super Bowl last year. But they can't. They must make do with what they have and add through the draft. This year more than other, the draft will be very very important for teams who are unable to spend money and are only a player or two away from being championship teams.
I'll have more on the Draft as we get closer. Comments on free agency here.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Gaints making moves: Cut LB Antonio Pierce
It is being reported that the New York Giants will cut middle linebacker Antonio Pierce. Pierce was their on-field leader and signal caller for the past 5 seasons which include a Super Bowl win in Super Bowl XLII. I can't say that this is a move that shocks me. Pierce was starting to show his age the past two years playing in pass protection and tackling. His tackles dropped significantly since 2006. Running backs were starting to run by him as he began to slow this year prior to his season ending due to injury.
I will be forever grateful to Pierce for how he lead the defense to that memorable Super Bowl in 2007. I wish him well in his future in the NFL, someone will sign him.
But I think this move is the right one for the Giants to make taking into account the collective bargaining agreement. The Giants need to make a move to get younger, and this is a great start. I believe Jonathon Goff played well in the time he was given and would like to see more of him in the coming year. The Giants need another outside linebacker to play opposite of Michael Boley. Boley, when healthy, played well last season and was their best pass defender at the linebacker position. I believe the Giants will look in the draft to pick up some linebackers who can step up.
I have searched through many draft sites and found that most have the Giants selecting either Brandon Spikes from Florida or Rolando McClain from Alabama. Considering the big Gator fan I am I would love to see the Giants take Spikes, but I think the better fit would be McClain. Much faster and much more versatile, but not the tackler Spikes is. But tackling can be taught, speed can't.
The Giants should also look into terminating the contracts of Rocky Bernard and Fred Robbins. Both veterans who's contracts can be dumped to pursue younger players on the defensive line. Let Jay Alford and Barry Cofield, both very good young players, get the starting job next year and bring in some other players to compete with them.
While we are on the topic of the Giants, one guy I would love to see in a Giants uniform is Bob Sanders. Assuming the Colts terminate the final 2 years of his contract, I think he would be a PERFECT fit to play opposite Kenny Phillips at safety. Sanders can show the young Phillips the ropes of the position and, assuming he's healthy, still contribute as one of the best tackling safety's in the league. Michael Johnson is a good safety, but not yet ready to be a starter every week. I believe he will benefit from Sanders' presence as well.
Jerry Reese has some tough and interesting decisions to make in the coming weeks. We'll have to wait and see what he does and react to it as it happens.
Comments
I will be forever grateful to Pierce for how he lead the defense to that memorable Super Bowl in 2007. I wish him well in his future in the NFL, someone will sign him.
But I think this move is the right one for the Giants to make taking into account the collective bargaining agreement. The Giants need to make a move to get younger, and this is a great start. I believe Jonathon Goff played well in the time he was given and would like to see more of him in the coming year. The Giants need another outside linebacker to play opposite of Michael Boley. Boley, when healthy, played well last season and was their best pass defender at the linebacker position. I believe the Giants will look in the draft to pick up some linebackers who can step up.
I have searched through many draft sites and found that most have the Giants selecting either Brandon Spikes from Florida or Rolando McClain from Alabama. Considering the big Gator fan I am I would love to see the Giants take Spikes, but I think the better fit would be McClain. Much faster and much more versatile, but not the tackler Spikes is. But tackling can be taught, speed can't.
The Giants should also look into terminating the contracts of Rocky Bernard and Fred Robbins. Both veterans who's contracts can be dumped to pursue younger players on the defensive line. Let Jay Alford and Barry Cofield, both very good young players, get the starting job next year and bring in some other players to compete with them.
While we are on the topic of the Giants, one guy I would love to see in a Giants uniform is Bob Sanders. Assuming the Colts terminate the final 2 years of his contract, I think he would be a PERFECT fit to play opposite Kenny Phillips at safety. Sanders can show the young Phillips the ropes of the position and, assuming he's healthy, still contribute as one of the best tackling safety's in the league. Michael Johnson is a good safety, but not yet ready to be a starter every week. I believe he will benefit from Sanders' presence as well.
Jerry Reese has some tough and interesting decisions to make in the coming weeks. We'll have to wait and see what he does and react to it as it happens.
Comments
Monday, February 1, 2010
Giants name Perry Fewell as New DC
The New York Giants have announced that Perry Fewell will replace Bill Sheridan as the Giants signal caller on defense next season. The change was to be expected. Two days after the season ended, co-owner John Mara met with the media and said that the status quo was "unacceptable". Understandably so, because the Giants defense was awful this season. They gave up an average 26.7 points per game, 3rd worst in the NFL. They also gave up 40 points 5 times, one of which on a Sunday Night at home against Philadelphia which i witnessed in person (Yes, Desean Jackson is still running!)
A change was necessary after Sheridan struggled as a first year defensive coordinator. At the time I was not in favor of the move, but I trusted Tom Coughlin's judgment of the matter. I did not feel at the time that someone with no prior coordinator experience should be calling signals for a top NFL team. I also felt that job should have gone to defensive line coach Mike Waufle, who was also fired by the Giants after this past season. Coughlin comes from an offensive background, having won a Super Bowl with the Giants as a wide recievers coach with Bill Parcells. Coughlin's decision now on Fewell will be a big determination of his next few years with the Giants.
But I think Coughlin made the right choice in Fewell. He has coordinator experience, having been calling the plays with the Bills the past 4 seasons. The Bills have been effective at limiting their opponents in the passing game, something the Giants new nothing about in 2009. I believe that Fewell will bring some much needed enthusiasm to a team that seemed to lose their mojo after former coordinator Steve Spagnuolo left after the 2008 season to become the St. Louis Rams head coach.
The players did not seem to embrace what Bill Sheridan brought this past season, exemplified by the fact that Pro-Bowl defensive end Osi Umenyiora walked out during training camp. The blame can also be put on the players for their lack of discipline and their commitment to the game plan. Blame can also be on the fact that they lost star safety Kenny Phillips, who the Giants had huge hopes for this year.
Fewell takes over a team that Coughlin said "Needs to re-establish their identity". The team that won the Super Bowl 2 years ago was remembered for having a ferocious pass rush. Now they need to reestablish that next year. I believe Fewell will bring some much needed enthusiasm and teaching skills, something I saw none of from Sheridan last year. During offensive possessions, more often than not he was standing alone with his arms folded not talking to anyone. I believe Fewell will be in the face of his players, holding accountability and shouting encouragement and praise when needed.
The Giants also have some personnel decisions to make on defense. During the Super Bowl run in 2007, the Giants were deep at defensive back. They had players like Sam Madison and R.W. McQuarters who played a huge factor in helping the Giants win the Super Bowl. During the past 2 season, General Manager Jerry Reese slowly began transitioning his depth from secondary to defensive line. In doing so, the Giants thought they could keep their pass rushers fresh late in games. This turned out to backfire on them, with the loss of Kenny Phillips and Aaron Ross last year. I would expect the Giants in this offseason to add depth to the secondary and cut some waste that they spent up front on Chris Canty and Rocky Bernard. What they do might be limited based on the NFL collective bargaining agreement, but I expect them to do something.
I will have more on the Giants as we get closer to the NFL Draft in April. Comments...
A change was necessary after Sheridan struggled as a first year defensive coordinator. At the time I was not in favor of the move, but I trusted Tom Coughlin's judgment of the matter. I did not feel at the time that someone with no prior coordinator experience should be calling signals for a top NFL team. I also felt that job should have gone to defensive line coach Mike Waufle, who was also fired by the Giants after this past season. Coughlin comes from an offensive background, having won a Super Bowl with the Giants as a wide recievers coach with Bill Parcells. Coughlin's decision now on Fewell will be a big determination of his next few years with the Giants.
But I think Coughlin made the right choice in Fewell. He has coordinator experience, having been calling the plays with the Bills the past 4 seasons. The Bills have been effective at limiting their opponents in the passing game, something the Giants new nothing about in 2009. I believe that Fewell will bring some much needed enthusiasm to a team that seemed to lose their mojo after former coordinator Steve Spagnuolo left after the 2008 season to become the St. Louis Rams head coach.
The players did not seem to embrace what Bill Sheridan brought this past season, exemplified by the fact that Pro-Bowl defensive end Osi Umenyiora walked out during training camp. The blame can also be put on the players for their lack of discipline and their commitment to the game plan. Blame can also be on the fact that they lost star safety Kenny Phillips, who the Giants had huge hopes for this year.
Fewell takes over a team that Coughlin said "Needs to re-establish their identity". The team that won the Super Bowl 2 years ago was remembered for having a ferocious pass rush. Now they need to reestablish that next year. I believe Fewell will bring some much needed enthusiasm and teaching skills, something I saw none of from Sheridan last year. During offensive possessions, more often than not he was standing alone with his arms folded not talking to anyone. I believe Fewell will be in the face of his players, holding accountability and shouting encouragement and praise when needed.
The Giants also have some personnel decisions to make on defense. During the Super Bowl run in 2007, the Giants were deep at defensive back. They had players like Sam Madison and R.W. McQuarters who played a huge factor in helping the Giants win the Super Bowl. During the past 2 season, General Manager Jerry Reese slowly began transitioning his depth from secondary to defensive line. In doing so, the Giants thought they could keep their pass rushers fresh late in games. This turned out to backfire on them, with the loss of Kenny Phillips and Aaron Ross last year. I would expect the Giants in this offseason to add depth to the secondary and cut some waste that they spent up front on Chris Canty and Rocky Bernard. What they do might be limited based on the NFL collective bargaining agreement, but I expect them to do something.
I will have more on the Giants as we get closer to the NFL Draft in April. Comments...
Monday, January 11, 2010
Welcome
First of all let me start by introducing myself and stating my sports alliances.
My name is L.J. and I am a 21 year old college student. I attend the University of Central Florida, originally from Long Island, NY and moved to a small town called Niceville, FL. Love sports, love talking about, watching it, sometimes re-watching it.
We'll start with football because obviously that is the most popular sport in this country right now. I am a dedicated New York Giants fan since 2004. I have followed the team religiously since that time. During my pre-teen years I was never a football fan, in fact I HATED football for reasons I can not think of today. College football is the reason I started watching football in the first place. Moving from the northeast to the south, you can see a huge disparity in the following of college football. I am a huge fan of the Florida Gators.
Baseball I stand with the 27, YES 27 time World Series Champion New York Yankees. I went to my first game in 1995 and I haven't looked back since.
Hockey is a sport that I am most passionate about even though it does not get the publicity that the other 3 major sports get at least in the States. The New York Islanders are a team rich with history and unfortunately for me that history took place before I was born, but I am hoping in years to come I will be there when they write some new history. And I'm not talking about history that has them moving to Kansas City.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I was an intern/sales executive for the New York Islanders during the summer of 2008.
Basketball is a sport that is hard for me to watch, because I can't really get into it, so you will rarely see me write about it in this space unless its something major.
I am an avid golfer and my ups and downs live with Phil Mickelson. Ive been playing since I was 3 years old thanks to my father and grandfather.
Now that you know my teams, know that I am a knowledgeable sports fan. You may hear me rant about my struggles rooting for some of my teams, but you will never see me write something I can't back up. Yes I loath some teams, the Dallas Cowboys and New York Rangers among others, but I give credit where credit is due.
I welcome all comments from all sports fans, but please do not write anything that is not FACT, and keep comments on the topics I am talking about. Also I know we will disagree, probably often, on most topics, but personal and silly attacks will not be tolerated and will be deleted. "Are you stupid" and the like included. Please have respect for me and fellow readers.
I will update as often as I can with topics going around in the sports world, plus on some topics I sometimes have to vent about (Probably after Islanders loses after blowing 3 goal leads), but I hope you enjoy the blog and have some fun.
Please start by introducing yourself and your sports teams in Comments.
My name is L.J. and I am a 21 year old college student. I attend the University of Central Florida, originally from Long Island, NY and moved to a small town called Niceville, FL. Love sports, love talking about, watching it, sometimes re-watching it.
We'll start with football because obviously that is the most popular sport in this country right now. I am a dedicated New York Giants fan since 2004. I have followed the team religiously since that time. During my pre-teen years I was never a football fan, in fact I HATED football for reasons I can not think of today. College football is the reason I started watching football in the first place. Moving from the northeast to the south, you can see a huge disparity in the following of college football. I am a huge fan of the Florida Gators.
Baseball I stand with the 27, YES 27 time World Series Champion New York Yankees. I went to my first game in 1995 and I haven't looked back since.
Hockey is a sport that I am most passionate about even though it does not get the publicity that the other 3 major sports get at least in the States. The New York Islanders are a team rich with history and unfortunately for me that history took place before I was born, but I am hoping in years to come I will be there when they write some new history. And I'm not talking about history that has them moving to Kansas City.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I was an intern/sales executive for the New York Islanders during the summer of 2008.
Basketball is a sport that is hard for me to watch, because I can't really get into it, so you will rarely see me write about it in this space unless its something major.
I am an avid golfer and my ups and downs live with Phil Mickelson. Ive been playing since I was 3 years old thanks to my father and grandfather.
Now that you know my teams, know that I am a knowledgeable sports fan. You may hear me rant about my struggles rooting for some of my teams, but you will never see me write something I can't back up. Yes I loath some teams, the Dallas Cowboys and New York Rangers among others, but I give credit where credit is due.
I welcome all comments from all sports fans, but please do not write anything that is not FACT, and keep comments on the topics I am talking about. Also I know we will disagree, probably often, on most topics, but personal and silly attacks will not be tolerated and will be deleted. "Are you stupid" and the like included. Please have respect for me and fellow readers.
I will update as often as I can with topics going around in the sports world, plus on some topics I sometimes have to vent about (Probably after Islanders loses after blowing 3 goal leads), but I hope you enjoy the blog and have some fun.
Please start by introducing yourself and your sports teams in Comments.
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