A Dink, a Dunk and a Funk

Dink, 5-yard completion, Brady to Welker….dunk, completion for 8 yards to Hernandez, just short of a first down….whoa….16 yard completion to a wide receiver for a first down. Seriously, they ain’t so baaaad. The longest Pats reception was for 21 yards to, of all people, Ochocinco. The Pats didn’t really stretch the field. They really couldn’t scare anybody with that popgun offense.

Eli and the rest of the red, white and blue didn’t really have to do too much. If they had to do more, they probably could have done more. And yes, the Pats receivers dropped a few passes and Gronk was playing hurt, but still, Brady and the Pats ain’t scaring anybody.

The Pats couldn’t really run the ball either nor show me an inspiring runner on that team. Woodhead was their biggest running threat and he did pretty well but he scored when Brady had just oodles of time for some reason, probably just that Fewell out-thunk himself. Why they dropped their best pass rushers into coverage makes no sense to me.

I’m happy the Giants won but, aside from the Manning to Manningham connection, there weren’t really any scintillating plays, or calls for that matter. The game was played like a championship game by two coaches who knew each other better than anyone else on the field. It was a game for football aficionados.

Not that it wasn’t an interesting game if you like that kind of thing but, really, I would’ve welcomed a few chances taken somewhere along the line. Surely one or two shots down the field wouldn’t have hurt anything. But that’s not who the Giants are these days, nor Eli either.

Eli’s great at that QB position. He’s all grown up. But he had just enough pizzazz when he needed it in that fourth quarter with time winding down. That pass to Manningham was perfect. That’s all you can say. And he wasn’t about to give anything away. Eli did a pretty good job of dinking and dunking himself.

But there was no pass rush as there had been in early ’08. I kept wondering how many sacks Rex Ryan would’ve got out of that group of the G-Men. It was a very conservatively-played defensive game too. The Giants played it as if they knew they were the better team and, if they just didn’t give anything away, they would win the game.

But they really shouldn’t have been so sure of themselves. Once again, I thought the Giants got lucky. How many Giants fumbles didn’t amount to anything? There were at least two, one by Cruz on which New England had too many men on the field and one by Nicks that got covered up by Hynoski.

But it all counts. Hynoski got there first by paying attention and running like hell after the ball. And procedural-type penalties happen to even the best of coaching staffs. All in all though, when you consider the New England drops, the meaningless fumbles and the Brady safety on the Pats first play, the Giants had good fortune lined up on their sidelines that Super day.

The 49ers game was scarier than the Super Bowl. But brain farts and fumbles won it for the Giants that day as well. It wasn’t just Eli and that defensive line that won this championship. It was truly everybody and yes, it was everybody just doing their job, as every Giants player seemed to mention in the aftermath of things.

And, speaking of aftermath, was there ever a more gracious winner than these Giants? Eli, Justin Tuck and just about every Giant was classy in their commentary about the game, about the season, and about their opponents. One notable exception was Brandon Jacobs’ harangue after the game but I’ll forgive him for now. After all, it was the “best of all time” Tom Brady and the brainiac Belichick that the G-Men beat on Sunday.

It’s unfortunate that so much time was devoted to whether Eli is truly an elite quarterback or not. Happily, Eli backed himself up by winning this game. God knows what things could’ve been like around here if the Patriots beat him.

For now, everybody’s happy, even me, but it wasn’t long after this game was in the books that all the prognosticators came out with all their prognostications. Who’ll be dropped next year, whose contracts are expiring, which teams will the Giants have to look out for next year?

I know two guys who’ll be coming back. They’d be Jason Pierre-Paul and Victor Cruz. Would the G-Men be here today without either of them? I don’t think so. They were both great, not just great for a rookie but truly among the best in the league. And they came out of nowhere, just like these Giants.

I hated that the Giants let Steve Smith and the tight end Boss go. I hated that they couldn’t have given in to Osi a little bit. But, in the final analysis, Jerry Reese, the GM, is the man, once again, maybe even more so than he was in 2007.

It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken. Despite all the injuries these Giants suffered through this year, Reese’s players emerged as the best. Look around the roster, there’s that punter Weatherford and that Ballard tight end and that center wasn’t too shabby either. How about Devin Thomas? Oncce again, the man seems as if he knows something the rest of us just don’t.

I guess, like the rest of his team, Jerry Reese was just doing his job. But he really did one hell of a job….twice. This Super Bowl is as much his as anybody’s. Coughlin doesn’t have very many bad alternatives on that bench, or on specials, or anywhere.

But now it’s all over for 2011-2012. Now this amazing season and Giants run-the-table finish has run its course. Soon it’ll be just a memory, even if it will be one of the best ones ever.

Yes, the Best Defense in the League!

Since Saturday night, all I’ve been hearing is that Aaron Rodgers had an uncharacteristically bad day. Otherwise, they seem to say, the Giants could’ve lost their battle with the #1 seed and 15-1 Green Bay Packers. They outline each and every time Rodgers missed a pass or one of his receivers dropped a ball.

I say “bullshit.”

Rodgers missed the passes because he was out-of-synch all game long. The best passer in the world was only normal when he had pass-rushers up his butt all afternoon. His receivers got a little jumpy when they had defensive backs and linebackers growing out of their backs. Packer running backs found a lot of tough going and every Packer had to make sure they held onto that football.

Pressure. That’s what stopped the Packers. Relentless all-day-long hits and eleven guys paying attention, an offense the Packers kind of knew they couldn’t stop, a quarterback named Manning making all the throws and making all the right calls. The combination of all that was just too much for the green and gold, even at home.

There would be very few leaps into the stands that day.

I had called it exactly right. I had said that it would take the best defense in the league to stop Aaron Rodgers and all those nifty receivers, Finley and Jennings and Jordy Nelson and Donald Driver. And it did take some really great defense to do it. I think the Giants have the best defense in the league. Who’s better….the Ravens?

I don’t think so.

Not the guys from Baltimore, not the 49ers and certainly not the New England Patriots. The Giants are the best defense in the league. The 49ers will have something to say about that this weekend but it wasn’t the Niners defense that won their game against Drew Brees and the Saints, although for almost 3 quarters, they showed they were awfully tough.

In the final quarter, the Niners were getting picked apart. It was an almost miraculous performance by the Niners offense that saved the Niners day. Alex Smith and Vernon Davis saved the Niners. The Saints defense couldn’t stop a perfectly-thrown goal line pass to Vernon Davis. They couldn’t stop Alex Smith running with the ball. The Saints dared Alex Smith to beat them and so he did.

The Niners may beat the Giants but it won’t be their defense stifling Manning and those wide-outs. They may stop the run pretty well but the Giants should get their points. Hell, they may even be able to run the ball, though the wise would be wise to not count on such a happening.

Even Eli and all his weapons will have trouble penetrating that sure to be pumped-up Niners defense in San Francisco. But I think they eventually will. It’ll probably come late in the game, after having pressured that Niners secondary all day long.

The G-Men will eventually take the lead and hold it. Alex Smith and Vernon Davis won’t beat these Giants. The home field of that City by the Bay won’t beat them. After all, they’ve already come through that gigantic structure in Dallas and that frozen tundra in Green Bay. Those la-la Niners fans won’t shake them. It’s not likely anyway.

What might be likely is a bit of a Giants letdown. They’ve been through a lot of pressure themselves. This will be their umpty-ump must-win game in a row. And it’ll be the first time in these playoffs that they won’t be facing an acknowledged defense-killer at quarterback, no Romo, no Rodgers, just a guy named Smith.

And they’ve faced these Niners before. To a man, they think they should have won that game. That previous experience can do two things. It can build up confidence or it can lead to a little bit of complacency on the field. After all, it won’t be Rodgers guiding those Niners….just Alex Smith.

Our heroes will also be facing arguably the best head coach in the league. Jim Harbaugh doesn’t make mistakes. He’s no Mike Smith, the Falcons head coach, the 4th and 1 wonder. He’s no Jason Garrett either. He’s probably on a par with that Green Bay head coach who won 15 games this season.

Harbaugh will keep that team motivated. He’ll probably figure a way of getting to Eli. Harbaugh will likely find some chink in that Giants armor. It’ll probably be centered around the Niners running game and that horse Frank Gore.

But the Falcons had a horse of a runner in Michael Turner. He didn’t do much. And the Falcons had a great receiving corps…Julio Jones and Roddy White and that venerable Tony Gonzalez at tight end. That contingent scored zero versus the Giants. Sure, Mike Smith was a handicap but even the best head coach would’ve had trouble with the Giants that day.

The Niners though have some Smiths of their own, some formidable Smiths, not just Alex but also Aldon and Justin in that steely Niners front seven. Justin is especially scary. Anybody who witnessed him charging through that Saints offensive line won’t take anything for granted this weekend. The Harbaugh Niners are really tough and play really hard.

Unlikely as it seems to me, the Giants are currently the underdog in this matchup by 2 ½ points, no doubt due primarily to hosting the game in San Fran. The over-under is currently 42. That means the rest of the world thinks the Niners will come out on top by a score of 22 ¼ to 19 ¾.

I don’t think so. Yeah, I know all about the brilliant Niners coaching and their terrific kicking game and their stingy defense but the Giants ain’t chopped liver either. Harbaugh acknowledged as much the other day. He seemed to be of the same mind as Green Bay when they decided to on-sides kick in a tie game, that they would need an extra possession to win.

If the better team prevails, it’ll be the Giants game.

On Heroes and Goats

NFL fans and owners are a tough audience. The Cowboys lose, it’s Tony Romo’s fault; the Bears lose, it’s Marion Barber’s fault (twice); the Chiefs lose, it’s the head coach’s (Todd Haley) fault.

At the same time, Denver’s success is all due to Tebow (Tebow, Tebow, Tebow), the Giants success to Eli Manning and Jason Pierre-Paul. Our predisposition to have heroes, I guess, is the reason there are still monarchies in the world today.

Not that I even mind the hero worship that much, especially in the cases of Eli and Pierre-Paul. Eli was great last night, making all the throws and all the right decisions. Pierre-Paul was all over the field all game long and finally blocked the kick that would have tied the game for the Cowboys. But Mr. Tebow (Tebow, Tebow, Tebow) had a lot of help in that Bears game, even if he very well might be the reason every Bronco player thinks he can be great too.

But poor Marion Barber; his first error was allegedly running out of bounds to stop the clock, thereby giving the Broncos time to tie the game. But he didn’t really run out of bounds. He took a tremendous blow from the side that knocked him out of bounds. His late fumble was actually a strip, something that shouldn’t happen but does sometimes for a guy who gained over a hundred yards for the Bears yesterday and scored their only touchdown on a very nifty run and side-step that left his defender on the ground.

Poor Todd Haley; his team lost Jamaal Charles, one of the league’s top running backs, Matt Cassell, their quarterback, Tony Moeaki, their tight end, Eric Berry, a Pro-Bowl safety and a pretty good linebacker too named Brandon Siler. The real story is that the GM in KC hates the head coach, always has hated him, and was only too happy to finally pull the trigger.

Romo threw for 400 yards and zero interceptions. His “overthrown” pass to Miles Austin is what detractors say lost the game. But as Mom used to say, “it takes two to Tango”, and there’s no better example of that than the curious chemistry between a QB and his receiver. Austin had been out with a bad hammy for weeks and who knows whether he was running full speed or not.

Now everybody’s saying the Giants will be the NFC East Champions. And, while I’d love to agree, it’d certainly help me lean in that direction if I thought for one minute that their defense could stop anybody. They certainly didn’t stop the Cowboys.

But the Giants defense is practically the worst defense in the league. They’ve given up 349 points in 13 games, by far the worst statistic among playoff-caliber teams and exceeded in futility by only Minnesota, Carolina, Tampa Bay, Indianapolis and Oakland.

I keep hearing how bad the Patriots defense is but they’ve surrendered only 274 points, 75 less than the Giants. That equates to a TD per game at least. The Pats have scored a whopping 396 compared to the Giants 324. The Packers, last year’s Super Bowl winner, have given up 278 and scored a league-leading 466. Face it, Giants fans, the pass defense is a sieve. If they manage to cover everybody, it’s an accident.

The Giants still have a long road ahead too. They should dispatch the Redskins at home next week but then they’ll be facing the Jets and, in their last regular season game, they’ll face the Cowboys once again, a team that will have had the taste of revenge on their tongues for three full weeks. Just as a benchmark, the Cowboys defense has given up just 281 points.

What saves the G-Men are their defensive line, even without Osi Umenyiora, Eli Manning and those terrific receivers, Nicks and Cruz and Manningham, and now, the tight end too, a fellow named Jake Ballard who already has 589 yards and 4 touchdowns, pretty incredible for a rookie tight end. Hakeem has gained over a thousand yards already, with 6 touchdowns, but he’s an All-Pro.

Yeah, yeah, I know, matchups are everything. The Giants proved that against those very same Packers last week, forcing them into overtime to finally eke out their 13th victory without a loss. But the very best teams have secondaries who can cover people more often than not. Defensive lines are great but the best QB’s will find somebody, even given just a little bit of time.

Eli has been matching up with the best of those quarterbacks too. Eli can make all the throws and out-think opponents most of the time too. In fact, Eli is one of those guys, like Aaron Rodgers, like Tom Brady and like even Tim Tebow, who make everybody play better. It’s a special gift and doesn’t happen for just anybody.

So what are the Giants missing? Until last night, I would have said it was the offensive line. Until last night, I would have said it was the running backs. But last night I changed my mind. Brandon Jacobs, that big goof usually, was everything I could have ever wanted in a running back last night. The offensive line surrendered no sacks.

But even after last night, I still have to question that secondary. George Allen hated having rookies anywhere on his team. He couldn’t deal with the mistakes. He’d have put a gun to his head last night (perfectly okay in Dallas and much of the country). Those corners and safeties were just clueless last night. They’re only fooled when the opponent decides to pass. And, oh yeah, those linebackers are a little suspect as well.

Of course, nobody stops quarterbacks these days. It’s against the rules. If anybody was watching as Skins linebacker London Fletcher dealt Tom Brady a perfectly legal hit and got called for unnecessary roughness, they’d have been as sick as I was.

The only sure thing though is that, whatever losses are found down the road, it’ll be somebody’s fault.

On NFL Week 12 and a Monday Night Shootout

Week 12 was a dud for me. Yeah, the Jets won, Plax was a hero and Sanchez had some time to throw. Even Shonn Green garnered some yards. But my fantasy team, one that has been slumping for quite a while now while still managing to win, could put together only one decent effort, that coming from our own Dustin Keller at tight end.

I had expected tough going this week as my premier running back, Fred Jackson was injured, only to be replaced by CJ Spiller in Buffalo. Other players I counted on earlier in the season, such as Miles Austin and Julio Jones, have been likewise hurt, but not badly enough to hit the injured reserve list; just badly enough to take up room on my roster.

My two remaining big guns play tonight, Drew Brees and Hakeem Nicks. But they’ll need a heap of production, even for them. No, it’s not a good day for Crabs. One thing I’ve had all season long though is luck. The one-point wins, the 3-point wins, the remarkable performances put up by the most unlikely players (or team defenses) in the least likely situations.

If tonight’s battle between the Giants and Saints unfolds the way I think it might, which is to say, a shootout between Eli and Mr. Brees, my chances become pretty good. In that kind of battle, Drew could put up 300 yards easily and 3 or 4 TD’s while Hakeem Nicks could see a 100-yard day and a touchdown. Maybe the Saints D will double on Victor Cruz. That would be a welcome change.

While I wait for all that to unfold, I can only try not to tear my hair out thinking about the ridiculously conservative approaches that teams take with their best players. Julio Jones for example has been out for weeks with a hammy but his status was changed to probable for Week 12. Julio must’ve been down by the school yard because he didn’t see even one friggin’ minute on the field. He and I got to watch as his replacement, one Harry Douglas, got his catches and a touchdown. Meanwhile, Sidney Rice, ordinarily Seattle’s first receiving option, hurt his “widdle” head quite early and that was the end of his day on the field.

Football can be an infuriating game. Just ask the Chicago Bears who saw an injury to their QB, Jay Cutler, seriously hurt their chances at a playoff spot. Ask the Houston Texans. They lost Matt Schaub the starter and Matt Leinart the backup in successive weeks. They managed to win though. The Bears were not so lucky.

In last night’s game we had to watch the Chiefs and their backup QB, one Tyler Palko, try to compete with the Steelers and Ben Roethlisberger. They did acquire Kyle Orton, a serviceable or better QB who had the misfortune of preceding Tim Tebow in the early-season depth chart. Tebow won again yesterday in what has come to be the Broncos trademark fashion, lots of defense and lots of Tebow.

Compare and contrast Tebow to Ndamokung Suh or Stevie Johnson, the thug and the dipstick. It’s amazing to me how pleased with themselves some of these players are. Then they’re sorry afterwards. Suh especially deserves everything he might get in terms of penalties or suspensions. What irked me totally was his denial at first that he had done anything wrong (after stomping on an exposed leg). The next thing you know he’s apologizing. Stevie Johnson demonstrated his lack of brains and any class whatsoever by doing his Plaxico Burress impersonation in the end zone. He was later sorry too.

Even though I really don’t anyone who wears his religion on his sleeve (and tries to rub a little on your sleeve too), coming from Tebow, he seems so sincere that his continual religious references don’t really have any negative effect on me. He’s a big, strong, fast gentleman, maybe the only one in the NFL. I’ll take his behavior over some of these other meatballs anytime.

Meanwhile, the NBA lockout is over (or soon will be). Thank God this Holiday season that we won’t have to hear about the legal wranglings that would have been part and parcel of a continuation of the lockout.

I’m looking forward too to a reduced season as I had always thought that 82 games were too many. When the NFL season starts winding down and the playoff participants become all too clear, a little Knicks and Nets action will be just what the doctor ordered.

Rutgers failed to win the game they needed to advance to a BCS Bowl. Color me sad.

In my favorite sport, baseball (by an increasingly large margin) hot stove action has been really slow. We don’t know where Reyes is going if anywhere and the same goes for Pujols. The biggest signing though was sadly the Phillies signing of Papelbon, Boston’s terrific closer. Now the Phils seem to really have everything. And I wouldn’t be surprised if they go after Reyes too. Their shortstop is getting (and playing) a little long in the tooth.

The Philadelphia Eagles, erstwhile dream team, looked pretty dreadful against the Patriots Sunday. But it wasn’t Vince Young’s fault. He threw for 400 yards with just the one pick and yet the Birds weren’t really in the game after the first quarter. They didn’t play defense that you’d notice. Apparently the Pats are better than the Giants, who only managed to score ten points against them in their latest outing.

In any event Eagles head coach Andy Reid might be in a little trouble. All those weapons they acquired in free agency aren’t having much of an effect. Michael Vick, Vince Young, and all those offensive weapons couldn’t do much against the Pats, at least from a scoring standpoint, and the whole team seems to be playing lifeless ball.

Let’s hope the Giants fare better tonight against the Saints. Let’s have a good old-fashioned shootout.