No Tears for the Giants

Oh well, the Giants are gone. I’ll have to take my Giants stuff and turn the label down. But things went pretty much as I expected today at Giants Stadium. The offense is gone. Oh, there’s a big running back and a nice offensive line. But geez, the receivers aren’t open that much. Maybe that’s why the Eagles had all those guys stacked up at the line.

I can’t really get that upset about this. The Giants decided they really didn’t need Plaxico that badly. They saw their chance to save some money and took it, a calculated risk. So they lost on that one, but, what the heck, the Stadium’s still selling out (without cheerleaders) and they did get the number 1 seed. So they probably feel pretty good all in all. So why should I get upset.

I’ve been hearing already that the Eagles wanted it more, that from one of the Giants. So maybe it’s true. But I don’t think so. It was just the Eagles and the Giants before they had Plaxico, and before they had Strahan and Umenyiora. A nice little defense and a nice quarterback and some possession-type receivers to complement a massive ground attack.

But it’s not like the Eagles had to guess what was coming that often. It’s not like they had to worry that some really big guy with long arms who could catch a lot of passes with just one hand would streak down the sideline or across the middle. Those Eagles have some nice secondary people too, don’t they?

One of them, a fella named Samuel, (you remember Asante, he used to be with the Pats and then went to the Eagles, he intercepted one on the Vikings last week for a touchdown?) intercepted a Manning fling in the first quarter and took it a very long way. Eli raced about five feet and waited for Samuel around the goal line. Not that I blame him, but that didn’t show that much intensity.

Intensity, just a hair short on intensity yesterday. The defense played great, all things considered, even without any vestige of the pass rush they had last year. But they couldn’t stop everything and it seemed as if they were on the field a lot. (Upon checking, the Eagles ran 68 plays to the Giants 61, the time of possession was about even).

I know most people probably support the Giants decision on Burress. A lot of people don’t like endzone celebrations either, or a guy making a snow angel in the endzone. They like discipline and respect for the game, and showing up ten minutes early all the time. All that stuff.

Of course it wasn’t all about the lack of a Plaxico. The Giants could’ve played better, and smarter, and made it closer at the end. If they did everything right, they may have pulled out the win, but I don’t think so. Derrick Ward could’ve caught a couple of passes and made me happy. There were a couple of misses in the field goal department, and I thought a little lack of intensity on those fourth down plays. Those were really killers.

The Giants were beautiful last year though, when they had all those guys, before Osi got hurt and Strahan retired and Plax shot himself in the butt. This year’s version couldn’t have played New England so tightly in the last week of the season, or beaten Tampa so easily. They never would have got by Dallas as that team did, which sent them off to frigid Green Bay and then on to beautiful Arizona.

So maybe it’s better that this team exited early. Why prolong the agony? Philly’s a better team right now, and I have to think they’ll beat Arizona next week. Whether they can beat either Pittsburgh or Baltimore is problematical, but they certainly show a lot of potential.

The Eagles passing game sure seems to have come a long way in a short period of time. Curtis and DeSean Jackson and Avant and Celek, and then Westbrook too. Lots of targets, much as the Giants seemed to have had last year. The Eagles did everything just right yesterday.

They have the secondary to match up with those Arizona receivers, the offensive line to deal with those tough defenses of whatever team emerges from the AFC, either Pittsburgh or Baltimore. They do all right against the run too. If they can handle that big horse, Jacobs, they might be able to handle Willie Parker or Willis McGahee, even if those two are a lot shiftier.

True fans will wonder about next year. Receivers just don’t grow on trees, and it takes a long time, usually, before they can become really effective in the passing game. Maybe they’ll trade for an established star as they did with Burress years ago. Or maybe Burress will remain with the club, who knows?

Of course the Giants have done quite well in the draft. Look for them to draft another defensive lineman or maybe a linebacker as a number 1. That’s if they don’t decide they need another running back. After all, earth, wind and fire didn’t exactly demolish the Eagles….just some earth and a little bit of wind.

The Giants were very respectable yesterday. That’s more that can be said about the Panthers, the #2 seed that lost to Arizona so easily, with a mad quarterback and two great running backs who never got used.

They looked better than San Diego did as well. The Chargers held the Steelers even for a while before the Steelers turned up the pressure. Of course, the Chargers had their excuse, too; no LaDainian was an awfully big handicap, even though little Darren Sproles did get into the endzone until after the issue had already been decided.

As for those people and radio voices who kept saying “The Giants are the better team so they should win”, what games have you been watching the last few weeks?