I should be happier really. My fantasy team romped behind Drew Brees again and even CJ Spiller went a little crazy. But the Giants failed miserably, starting with the usually reliable Hakeem Nicks, and the Jets were even worse, starting with Santonio Holmes and ending with a defense that just started badly and looked even more horrible as the game went on. Where can I dump all my sweatshirts and tees?
The Giants lack talent, especially on the defensive end, and could probably use a good defensive coach, something that has eluded them since the departure of Spagnola. The Jets have plenty of talent but have absolutely no character, starting with Santonio Holmes. Anybody who can do a stupid endzone routine when his team is down by a few touchdowns deserves to sit for a long, long time.
Not that it matters. Neither of these teams is going anywhere. Neither team deserves to go anywhere.
The Jets defensive performance defies description. They couldn’t stop LeSean McCoy. They couldn’t hold on to the football. They couldn’t rush the passer. They couldn’t contain Vick. They did nothing. It’s impossible to root for a team that not only quits but quits with a smile, as did Santonio.
The Giants are at least a bunch of high-character people. They just don’t have a lot of experienced people on the defense. Oh, and sometimes the offensive people decide to take a week off. Other than that, not being able to play offense or defense, they’re great. At least they have character. They looked genuinely disappointed to have lost a second time to one of the worst teams in the league.
So where does that leave New York sports fans? Well, basketball starts pretty soon. The Knicks will be better, much better in fact, on paper anyway. They’ll have the best front line in basketball with Carmelo Anthony, Amare Stoudemire and now Tyson Chandler. I like some of their support people too. Landry Fields and Mike Bibby are unselfish contributors and, while Baron Davis is totally full of himself nearly all the time, at least he has some talent, when he cares to play.
But, until then, the start of the NBA season, it’ll be tough for us fans. Since both local contingents play each other next week and both can’t possibly lose, we’ll have to wait a little longer to finally turn out the lights on pro football. For two more weeks, we’ll have to listen to the drivel surrounding the playoff hopes of at least one of these sorry teams.
I guess it’ll be interesting to see which one of these local teams will prevail. While I’d like to see the Giants beat the Jets next week and take their sorry inconsistent brand of football to Dallas in the final week, I just don’t think that sorry defense could possibly put together two good weeks in a row.
But at least I can root for them. Except for Brandon Jacobs and that miserable fellow playing safety, the Giants are a bunch of nice guys. The Jets’ only high-character individual is now hurt and Leonhard’s absence from the field no doubt contributed in large measure to that totally uninspiring performance they mailed in on Sunday.
The Jets though have been the luckiest team in the NFL for two years running, having made it to the AFC Championship Game both years, once because an undefeated team sat every player that was any good in the last week of the year and once because nobody else seemed to want it.
I believe in luck. Some people have it. Some teams have it. And the Jets certainly have been one of those teams. When they choose to do so, even without Leonhard, they can play pretty good defense. The Giants can’t play defense under any circumstances. At least not so far.
The Giants ground game won’t beat the Jets. The Jets will stop power backs better than speedy guys. The Jets can score against that ridiculous Giants secondary. The Giants will score too but not every possession. And that won’t be enough the way the Giants defense has been playing.
So, to me anyway, the bad guys will win (that’d be the Jets for those of you not paying attention). That’s if all things are equal, heh-heh. But then the Jets are the lucky team too. I see lots of wide receivers in green doing their airplane thing. Darrelle Revis could make an appearance or two.
The rest of the NFL action, outside of New York, was fantastic. Green Bay finally loses and Indianapolis finally wins. Drew Brees throws for a zillion yards. Detroit nips the Raiders. Ndamokung Suh blocks a field goal attempt, a la Jason Pierre-Paul… the Broncos cough it up to the Pats…..what more could you ask?
The Chiefs beat the Packers under Romeo Crennel and they sure looked happy on the sidelines. The Pack lost two offensive tackles, and the Chiefs hit those Pack receivers off the line. The Packers may be quite beatable now. The Chiefs showed everybody how it could be done.
You’ll hear that Brady beat Tebow. But the result really had nothing to do with either of them except to show that both qb’s can really play the game in their own way. The turnovers were just too hard to overcome for Denver.
And it was great to see NJ’s own Donald Brown change direction and race through the Titans defense for about 80 yards and a touchdown. It was even nice to see Peyton Manning smile again. That Lions-Raiders game was great to watch and who knows that Janikowski wouldn’t have made that 65-yard field goal if that giant arm of Ndamokung Suh hadn’t got in the way.
I’ll enjoy the rest of these shootouts for sure, even the Christmas Eve games, and probably this big Giants-Jets matchup most of all, even if it won’t be a battle of titans. Before you know it, it’ll be time for Santa.
Showing posts with label Giants Jets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Giants Jets. Show all posts
Monday, December 19, 2011
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Musings of the Fall
Okay, the Week 2 NFL action is over and now we have additional perspective, but, if we had absolutely no perspective after Week 1, does one more game played qualify as an event worthy of contributing true perspective? I would say NOT!
Take the Giants, for example, please. They looked awful in their Week 1 loss vs. the Skins, a team I had termed “low so many years”. Then the Rams came to town after having had a fairly successful (for them) opener against the Eagles. (Well, it had been close for most of three quarters anyway). It wouldn’t have been surprising under those circumstances if the Rams had managed to beat the Giants.
Of course they didn’t. The Rams fielded what was perhaps the worst set of receivers I had ever seen on any field anywhere. In fact, I could expand my meaning somewhat to say that kids in the street playing “association” football have better hands. They played some of the worst football I’ve ever seen.
So, in the face of such great incompetence, you could have expected the G-Men to have looked pretty good. But they really didn’t. They just managed to survive against an incredibly inept team, one riddled with injuries and woefully short on talent seemingly everywhere.
So what does that tell us? Well, it tells me that the Giants still can stink out the joint, against anybody. They did manage to run the ball a bit. That was somewhat heartening, I guess. In truth though, the only truly good thing was their pass rush. Their secondary still seems clueless and their passing game was only just good enough to enable them to run the ball.
The Jints probably won’t face Michael Vick next week, a very good thing, but it hardly matters. The Eagles can beat the Giants with Vince Young or Mike Kafka at QB. The Eagles are chomping at the bit. The Giants spit the bit in Week 1 and haven’t grabbed hold of it since. That’s what happens to a team that doesn’t sign its best players.
As good as GM Reese had been in his first season, that’s as bad as he did this year. Losing Kevin Boss and Steve Smith to free agency was just unconscionable. Losing Eli’s center (and friend) was almost as bad. Their replacements just haven’t got it. Those guys couldn’t really be replaced. Talk about penny-wise and pound foolish.
But why belabor a point. The Giants stink. Coughlin stinks. Reese really stinks and even good ol’ Eli stinks. Who woulda thunk it?
Now the Jets are a much happier story. They signed everybody they needed. When the Giants abandoned Plaxico, the Jets came up with a contract for him. The Jets worst receiver is better than the Giants best, at least this past Sunday. The Jets have already won a game they should have lost. The Giants can only relax when that clock strikes zero.
But no team I’ve seen so far can say they have all their bases covered. The Eagles, for example, managed to lose to the Falcons Sunday despite their 10-point lead when Vick went to the sidelines. They’re supposed to be a dream team. If that’s true, it’s a bad dream indeed.
Ok, so I forgot about the Pats. Actually, I’d love to forget about the Pats. They may have some weak spots too but, if so, they’re not so immediately obvious. Unless you can call a two tight end offense a weakness, the Pats seem awesome.
But all of the above is based on two weeks performance. The only things I’m really sure of are that the Jets will be happy as clams and the Giants will look like the smiley face upside down.
Baseball fans can be happy that the wildcard races in both leagues have become true races. As this is written, our Mets are trying to put a damper on the Cardinals post-season hopes. And not only that but Cohen and Darling are interviewing GM Sandy Alderson as to the future of the franchise. Most notable from that talk was that October will be dedicated towards keeping Jose Reyes.
But the Cards and Giants are catching the Braves and the Rays are doing likewise with the Red Sox. With just about 8 or 9 games to go, these wildcard races will be going to the wire. The Rays, however, have much the worst of the schedule (and are now losing to the Yankees 5-0), but the Red Sox’s decline seems to just keep going of its own momentum despite the opponent.
If pitching truly does determine pennant winners, the Rays have a real shot but the Braves can pitch with the best of them, albeit not lately. The Cards may be the toughest of the National League bunch with Pujols and Berkman in the lineup and the best fans anywhere. The Cards just pulled ahead of the Mets in tonight’s game in their bid to remain just 3 games back of Atlanta who won tonight.
It always makes me a little sad when the baseball season winds down. It may be because it’s a harbinger of worse things to come, colder weather, the end of summer, barbecues and the Jersey shore. But it also marks the end of daily games in a sport that is played out day after day for 162 games. The NFL plays 16 games in 17 weeks and that’s all she wrote. We look forward to hype only for 6 days out of every 7.
All that inactivity would be broken up in normal years by NBA basketball. This year of course will be anything but normal as the owners and players dig in their heels. So it’ll be college basketball only and, if you’re a Seton Hall or Rutgers fan, there just won’t be much to think about. That’s assuming the Big East remains unchanged, a highly unlikely prospect right now.
Oh well, at least Curtis Granderson may still get MVP.
Take the Giants, for example, please. They looked awful in their Week 1 loss vs. the Skins, a team I had termed “low so many years”. Then the Rams came to town after having had a fairly successful (for them) opener against the Eagles. (Well, it had been close for most of three quarters anyway). It wouldn’t have been surprising under those circumstances if the Rams had managed to beat the Giants.
Of course they didn’t. The Rams fielded what was perhaps the worst set of receivers I had ever seen on any field anywhere. In fact, I could expand my meaning somewhat to say that kids in the street playing “association” football have better hands. They played some of the worst football I’ve ever seen.
So, in the face of such great incompetence, you could have expected the G-Men to have looked pretty good. But they really didn’t. They just managed to survive against an incredibly inept team, one riddled with injuries and woefully short on talent seemingly everywhere.
So what does that tell us? Well, it tells me that the Giants still can stink out the joint, against anybody. They did manage to run the ball a bit. That was somewhat heartening, I guess. In truth though, the only truly good thing was their pass rush. Their secondary still seems clueless and their passing game was only just good enough to enable them to run the ball.
The Jints probably won’t face Michael Vick next week, a very good thing, but it hardly matters. The Eagles can beat the Giants with Vince Young or Mike Kafka at QB. The Eagles are chomping at the bit. The Giants spit the bit in Week 1 and haven’t grabbed hold of it since. That’s what happens to a team that doesn’t sign its best players.
As good as GM Reese had been in his first season, that’s as bad as he did this year. Losing Kevin Boss and Steve Smith to free agency was just unconscionable. Losing Eli’s center (and friend) was almost as bad. Their replacements just haven’t got it. Those guys couldn’t really be replaced. Talk about penny-wise and pound foolish.
But why belabor a point. The Giants stink. Coughlin stinks. Reese really stinks and even good ol’ Eli stinks. Who woulda thunk it?
Now the Jets are a much happier story. They signed everybody they needed. When the Giants abandoned Plaxico, the Jets came up with a contract for him. The Jets worst receiver is better than the Giants best, at least this past Sunday. The Jets have already won a game they should have lost. The Giants can only relax when that clock strikes zero.
But no team I’ve seen so far can say they have all their bases covered. The Eagles, for example, managed to lose to the Falcons Sunday despite their 10-point lead when Vick went to the sidelines. They’re supposed to be a dream team. If that’s true, it’s a bad dream indeed.
Ok, so I forgot about the Pats. Actually, I’d love to forget about the Pats. They may have some weak spots too but, if so, they’re not so immediately obvious. Unless you can call a two tight end offense a weakness, the Pats seem awesome.
But all of the above is based on two weeks performance. The only things I’m really sure of are that the Jets will be happy as clams and the Giants will look like the smiley face upside down.
Baseball fans can be happy that the wildcard races in both leagues have become true races. As this is written, our Mets are trying to put a damper on the Cardinals post-season hopes. And not only that but Cohen and Darling are interviewing GM Sandy Alderson as to the future of the franchise. Most notable from that talk was that October will be dedicated towards keeping Jose Reyes.
But the Cards and Giants are catching the Braves and the Rays are doing likewise with the Red Sox. With just about 8 or 9 games to go, these wildcard races will be going to the wire. The Rays, however, have much the worst of the schedule (and are now losing to the Yankees 5-0), but the Red Sox’s decline seems to just keep going of its own momentum despite the opponent.
If pitching truly does determine pennant winners, the Rays have a real shot but the Braves can pitch with the best of them, albeit not lately. The Cards may be the toughest of the National League bunch with Pujols and Berkman in the lineup and the best fans anywhere. The Cards just pulled ahead of the Mets in tonight’s game in their bid to remain just 3 games back of Atlanta who won tonight.
It always makes me a little sad when the baseball season winds down. It may be because it’s a harbinger of worse things to come, colder weather, the end of summer, barbecues and the Jersey shore. But it also marks the end of daily games in a sport that is played out day after day for 162 games. The NFL plays 16 games in 17 weeks and that’s all she wrote. We look forward to hype only for 6 days out of every 7.
All that inactivity would be broken up in normal years by NBA basketball. This year of course will be anything but normal as the owners and players dig in their heels. So it’ll be college basketball only and, if you’re a Seton Hall or Rutgers fan, there just won’t be much to think about. That’s assuming the Big East remains unchanged, a highly unlikely prospect right now.
Oh well, at least Curtis Granderson may still get MVP.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
We Need Some Perspective
Perspective, it’s a hard thing to find and even harder to keep. That’s what I’ve been thinking in the wake of Sunday’s NFL openers. I know the NFL is perennially hard to figure but this year could be more ridiculous than most seasons. Maybe it’s the shortened pre-season….but I don’t really think so.
The most strikingly surprising game to me, I suppose, was Sunday night’s Jets-Cowboys game. I had expected the Jets to cover whatever deep routes the Boyz would run and do a pretty fair job of stopping their running game too. I had expected a low-scoring game, one that the Jets would squeeze out in the end using their running game behind that terrific offensive line.
Wrong, wrong, wrong, on just about every count, except that the Jets did manage to win. But, winning the way they won is almost inconceivable. Could the Jets repeat that late-game performance on any other Sunday?
No way. Gimme a break, a blocked punt for a touchdown followed almost immediately by a “gimme” interception ? And then a long, long field goal, given the circumstances, to win the game in regulation. In what other game will that Jets safety Leonhard stop Jason Witten on the 2-yard line only to have the opposing quarterback then fumble the ball away on the one?
Everything I thought was so was not. The Jet offensive line was, all in all, non-existent in the first half. It was the old “weakest link in the chain” ploy used by the Cowboys to put a big rush on Mark Sanchez. But the Jets couldn’t “ground and pound”. It was LaDainian Tomlinson and pray for rain for the better part of the second half. Thank God for “LT”. (We all know he’s not LT but WTF)?
I must throw a bone here for Mark Sanchez. Except for that unfortunate fumble that put seven on the board for the Boyz, Sanchez was great. Who can throw on the run as accurately as he does? Who can avoid the rush as he did and find all those different receivers downfield, both throwing from the pocket and, once again, on the run.
While I’m giving out bones, how about Plaxico? He didn’t do anything spectacular, I guess, but just Plax being Plax was plenty good enough. The same could be said for Santonio Holmes being himself. That’s some receiving corps the Jets possess, especially when you add Derek Mason into the mix. But will that kind of game put Rex into the grave before his time?
Primary running back Shonn Green was not Shonn Green, or maybe he was just Shonn Green with no blocking. Look out, Shonn! Here comes another big hit. If the run game doesn’t improve in a hurry, this season could really get strange.
Think “Cardiac Cards”, if anybody but me can remember that far back. When you think about it, the Jets do have the personnel to be that kind of a team. And that kind of game can be really entertaining. But “ground and pound” it’s not.
One game is a poor indicator of future performance in the NFL though, especially in a season with an abbreviated pre-season. Did any running backs have a big day? Not really. Four backs exceeded 20 fantasy points for the week (which is, after all, pretty analogous to real live performance). They were the Chargers’ Mike Tolbert, the Eagles’ LeSean McCoy, the Bengals’ Cedric Benson and the Bears’ Matt Forte. All those teams won.
There were several other 100-yard rushers though, most notably Darren McFadden’s 150-yard tally for the Raiders. So, all in all, the teams that truly wanted to run the ball were pretty successful at it. Those teams showing less commitment in that regard were correspondingly less successful. Our New York Giants could very well be put in that category.
And the Giants could be put in another category as well. If there were an award for “most uninspired”, the Giants could have been right at the top of the list. I couldn’t even watch them. I didn’t expect them to stop the Redskins and they didn’t disappoint me. That they would do so little on offense was a surprise. That their offensive line would be dominated was shocking.
The Giants show every sign of being an unhappy team, a team that’s not having a good time, so much so that they really don’t care much whether they win or lose. And you can put this year’s version of Eli Manning on the top of the list of the truly uninspired. Ahmad Bradshaw carried 13 times for 44 yards. Manning was 18-32 for 268 yards and just one INT but it was a huge one to put it mildly.
But are the Redskins much better than we thought? Were the Bills much better too? How about the Carolina Panthers?
The Bills were really bad at stopping the run last year. The Chiefs, their opponents, had a bigtime rushing game featuring Jamaal Charles, another fantasy wunderkind. Of course it was the Bills and Fred Jackson who piled up the rushing yards. The Chiefs did almost nothing in any phase of the game. Ryan Fitzpatrick, the Bills quarterback, was phenomenal . Are the Chiefs as bad as they looked? They were a playoffs team last year. Are the Bills that good?
Another vastly disappointing team was the Atlanta Falcons. Their QB, Matt Ryan, ballyhooed last year as “Matty Ice” and armed this year with the addition of a supposedly Superman wide receiver, Julio Jones, did nothing through the air, relatively speaking. He certainly didn’t target his rookie much.
But worse than that, the Falcons coaching staff didn’t seem to understand their predicament. They played a very conservative game when the situation demanded some verve. They showed nothing. Matty Ice was the most timid player on the field.
I know one thing. Drew Brees was himself. Was Cam Newton himself? Can we expect that terrific performance to continue?
We need some perspective.
The most strikingly surprising game to me, I suppose, was Sunday night’s Jets-Cowboys game. I had expected the Jets to cover whatever deep routes the Boyz would run and do a pretty fair job of stopping their running game too. I had expected a low-scoring game, one that the Jets would squeeze out in the end using their running game behind that terrific offensive line.
Wrong, wrong, wrong, on just about every count, except that the Jets did manage to win. But, winning the way they won is almost inconceivable. Could the Jets repeat that late-game performance on any other Sunday?
No way. Gimme a break, a blocked punt for a touchdown followed almost immediately by a “gimme” interception ? And then a long, long field goal, given the circumstances, to win the game in regulation. In what other game will that Jets safety Leonhard stop Jason Witten on the 2-yard line only to have the opposing quarterback then fumble the ball away on the one?
Everything I thought was so was not. The Jet offensive line was, all in all, non-existent in the first half. It was the old “weakest link in the chain” ploy used by the Cowboys to put a big rush on Mark Sanchez. But the Jets couldn’t “ground and pound”. It was LaDainian Tomlinson and pray for rain for the better part of the second half. Thank God for “LT”. (We all know he’s not LT but WTF)?
I must throw a bone here for Mark Sanchez. Except for that unfortunate fumble that put seven on the board for the Boyz, Sanchez was great. Who can throw on the run as accurately as he does? Who can avoid the rush as he did and find all those different receivers downfield, both throwing from the pocket and, once again, on the run.
While I’m giving out bones, how about Plaxico? He didn’t do anything spectacular, I guess, but just Plax being Plax was plenty good enough. The same could be said for Santonio Holmes being himself. That’s some receiving corps the Jets possess, especially when you add Derek Mason into the mix. But will that kind of game put Rex into the grave before his time?
Primary running back Shonn Green was not Shonn Green, or maybe he was just Shonn Green with no blocking. Look out, Shonn! Here comes another big hit. If the run game doesn’t improve in a hurry, this season could really get strange.
Think “Cardiac Cards”, if anybody but me can remember that far back. When you think about it, the Jets do have the personnel to be that kind of a team. And that kind of game can be really entertaining. But “ground and pound” it’s not.
One game is a poor indicator of future performance in the NFL though, especially in a season with an abbreviated pre-season. Did any running backs have a big day? Not really. Four backs exceeded 20 fantasy points for the week (which is, after all, pretty analogous to real live performance). They were the Chargers’ Mike Tolbert, the Eagles’ LeSean McCoy, the Bengals’ Cedric Benson and the Bears’ Matt Forte. All those teams won.
There were several other 100-yard rushers though, most notably Darren McFadden’s 150-yard tally for the Raiders. So, all in all, the teams that truly wanted to run the ball were pretty successful at it. Those teams showing less commitment in that regard were correspondingly less successful. Our New York Giants could very well be put in that category.
And the Giants could be put in another category as well. If there were an award for “most uninspired”, the Giants could have been right at the top of the list. I couldn’t even watch them. I didn’t expect them to stop the Redskins and they didn’t disappoint me. That they would do so little on offense was a surprise. That their offensive line would be dominated was shocking.
The Giants show every sign of being an unhappy team, a team that’s not having a good time, so much so that they really don’t care much whether they win or lose. And you can put this year’s version of Eli Manning on the top of the list of the truly uninspired. Ahmad Bradshaw carried 13 times for 44 yards. Manning was 18-32 for 268 yards and just one INT but it was a huge one to put it mildly.
But are the Redskins much better than we thought? Were the Bills much better too? How about the Carolina Panthers?
The Bills were really bad at stopping the run last year. The Chiefs, their opponents, had a bigtime rushing game featuring Jamaal Charles, another fantasy wunderkind. Of course it was the Bills and Fred Jackson who piled up the rushing yards. The Chiefs did almost nothing in any phase of the game. Ryan Fitzpatrick, the Bills quarterback, was phenomenal . Are the Chiefs as bad as they looked? They were a playoffs team last year. Are the Bills that good?
Another vastly disappointing team was the Atlanta Falcons. Their QB, Matt Ryan, ballyhooed last year as “Matty Ice” and armed this year with the addition of a supposedly Superman wide receiver, Julio Jones, did nothing through the air, relatively speaking. He certainly didn’t target his rookie much.
But worse than that, the Falcons coaching staff didn’t seem to understand their predicament. They played a very conservative game when the situation demanded some verve. They showed nothing. Matty Ice was the most timid player on the field.
I know one thing. Drew Brees was himself. Was Cam Newton himself? Can we expect that terrific performance to continue?
We need some perspective.
Monday, December 20, 2010
What A Difference A Week Makes
Never in the pro football annals of New York has there ever been such a clear reversal of fortunes as there was yesterday. One week ago, the Jets were awful and the Giants were great. Prospects for the Jets to beat Pittsburgh were horrible while the Giants were picked by several NFL analysts to do away with those Eagles, no matter that they had Michael Vick and all those speedsters.
And, of course, as head coaches share their team’s failure or success, Rex Ryan looked like a complete dummy while Tom Coughlin was lauded right here in this column for his stability, especially in comparison to the nut down the road.
What a difference a week makes!
The Jets played 60 grueling minutes of what seemed to be Steeler football. The Giants played 52 minutes of great Giants football and then quit. The coaches quit, the players quit and even the fates seemed to quit. For the final 8 minutes of the game, the Giants were a who’s who of stupidity and maybe fatigue. Whatever they were, they really stunk.
As bad as the Jets have ever played, the Giants were five times as bad as the Jets ever were for those final 8 minutes. Rex Ryan had his guys ready to play for the whole game; Coughlin had his guys ready for 52 minutes. What a shame.
Just to recap, the Giants were up 21 with 8 minutes left. They then let Brent Celek, the Eagles tight end, catch a pass for about 70 yards. Immediately after that, they didn’t cover an onsides kick and watched Michael Vick work his wonders for another easy score. Then they did absolutely nothing on offense. Then they watched Vick destroy them again for the tying touchdown. Then they punted the ball on a line to the best damned punt returner in the game for the loss.
Everybody’s likening yesterday’s game to the Miracle of the Meadowlands in which the Eagles Herman Edwards grabbed a Joe Pisarcik fumble and ran for the winning TD on a play that should have been a kneel-down, a play that lives in infamy as the Giants coaching staff was summarily fired in almost that very instant.
But yesterday’s collapse, or I should say “Cough-lapse” was much worse than that game. It wasn’t just one play that killed them. It was a series of events that was caused by coaches who had stopped coaching and players who had stopped playing. And who can we blame for that?
Complacency can be a terrible thing. Or maybe it could be called “Cough-mplacency”. The Giants acted in every way as if the game was in hand. The 67-yard Celek TD because of a missed tackle wasn’t enough to rattle them. The failure of their return team to be aware of the possibility of an onsides kick is inexcusable. To this reviewer, it was the absolutely worst failure of the entire series of failures.
That their “hands” return team was not on the field was bad but not the most critical mistake. What was much worse was the up-front players’ total obliviousness to the ball. Even the “return” team’s up-front players should have been coached to first look for the ball. The Giants on that field were not prepared at all for that eventuality.
Two egregious failures in a row was, in retrospect, too much for the Giants defense to handle. From then on, they seemed to just watch as Eagles ran over, around and through them to tie the score. And of course the Giants offense did nothing but take time off the clock. As things turned out, it wasn’t enough.
Then there was the final Giants punt. The rookie punter did in fact try to kick the ball out-of-bounds but failed to do so. The replay showed that the rookie was aiming for the sidelines but the ball seemed to drop on the inside of his foot and the punt became a liner to the most dangerous man on the field. Those things happen, especially to rookies in tight spots. (Why a serious contender for the Super Bowl has a rookie in that spot has been a puzzler for me all season).
I won’t chastise Coughlin too much for berating his punter on the field after his ridiculously poor effort put the final nail into the Giants coffin, or “Cough-in”, but I thought it showed a lack of composure. For Coughlin, it was exercising restraint, or his own idea of “Cough-mposure”.
Gee, I hope I’m being fair to Coughlin. He did after all coach one hell of a game for 52 minutes. And it’s a damned shame that the game goes for 60. And I should say that it’s not typical of a Coughlin-coached team to quit in the final minutes. Maybe he’s just getting a little old for this game.
The bright side of yesterday’s action was that the Giants are still in the hunt, the Jets were terrific and my fantasy team won again, this despite Knowshon Moreno hurting his side, Austin Collie suffering another concussion and Vernon Davis having the misfortune to be coached by Mike Singletary, who has become the new Herman Edwards. (Not in the sense of the Meadowlands Miracle but in the sense of the player who went on to coach 10-6 teams into 6-10 teams).
Okay, enough Giants-bashing. The Jets were terrific from the opening kickoff to the final gun, much to the credit of Rex and the entire Jets team. Brad Smith’s taking of the opening kickoff for a touchdown set the tone for the game while the secondary’s sticky coverage of every Steeler receiver down-field in the closing seconds sealed the victory and staved off what could easily have been a dual New York disaster yesterday.
And, between those remarkable opening and closing plays, the play-calling was brilliant, Sanchez executed those plays to perfection and still another Edwards, one Braylon, made brilliant catches all day.
What a difference a week makes.
And, of course, as head coaches share their team’s failure or success, Rex Ryan looked like a complete dummy while Tom Coughlin was lauded right here in this column for his stability, especially in comparison to the nut down the road.
What a difference a week makes!
The Jets played 60 grueling minutes of what seemed to be Steeler football. The Giants played 52 minutes of great Giants football and then quit. The coaches quit, the players quit and even the fates seemed to quit. For the final 8 minutes of the game, the Giants were a who’s who of stupidity and maybe fatigue. Whatever they were, they really stunk.
As bad as the Jets have ever played, the Giants were five times as bad as the Jets ever were for those final 8 minutes. Rex Ryan had his guys ready to play for the whole game; Coughlin had his guys ready for 52 minutes. What a shame.
Just to recap, the Giants were up 21 with 8 minutes left. They then let Brent Celek, the Eagles tight end, catch a pass for about 70 yards. Immediately after that, they didn’t cover an onsides kick and watched Michael Vick work his wonders for another easy score. Then they did absolutely nothing on offense. Then they watched Vick destroy them again for the tying touchdown. Then they punted the ball on a line to the best damned punt returner in the game for the loss.
Everybody’s likening yesterday’s game to the Miracle of the Meadowlands in which the Eagles Herman Edwards grabbed a Joe Pisarcik fumble and ran for the winning TD on a play that should have been a kneel-down, a play that lives in infamy as the Giants coaching staff was summarily fired in almost that very instant.
But yesterday’s collapse, or I should say “Cough-lapse” was much worse than that game. It wasn’t just one play that killed them. It was a series of events that was caused by coaches who had stopped coaching and players who had stopped playing. And who can we blame for that?
Complacency can be a terrible thing. Or maybe it could be called “Cough-mplacency”. The Giants acted in every way as if the game was in hand. The 67-yard Celek TD because of a missed tackle wasn’t enough to rattle them. The failure of their return team to be aware of the possibility of an onsides kick is inexcusable. To this reviewer, it was the absolutely worst failure of the entire series of failures.
That their “hands” return team was not on the field was bad but not the most critical mistake. What was much worse was the up-front players’ total obliviousness to the ball. Even the “return” team’s up-front players should have been coached to first look for the ball. The Giants on that field were not prepared at all for that eventuality.
Two egregious failures in a row was, in retrospect, too much for the Giants defense to handle. From then on, they seemed to just watch as Eagles ran over, around and through them to tie the score. And of course the Giants offense did nothing but take time off the clock. As things turned out, it wasn’t enough.
Then there was the final Giants punt. The rookie punter did in fact try to kick the ball out-of-bounds but failed to do so. The replay showed that the rookie was aiming for the sidelines but the ball seemed to drop on the inside of his foot and the punt became a liner to the most dangerous man on the field. Those things happen, especially to rookies in tight spots. (Why a serious contender for the Super Bowl has a rookie in that spot has been a puzzler for me all season).
I won’t chastise Coughlin too much for berating his punter on the field after his ridiculously poor effort put the final nail into the Giants coffin, or “Cough-in”, but I thought it showed a lack of composure. For Coughlin, it was exercising restraint, or his own idea of “Cough-mposure”.
Gee, I hope I’m being fair to Coughlin. He did after all coach one hell of a game for 52 minutes. And it’s a damned shame that the game goes for 60. And I should say that it’s not typical of a Coughlin-coached team to quit in the final minutes. Maybe he’s just getting a little old for this game.
The bright side of yesterday’s action was that the Giants are still in the hunt, the Jets were terrific and my fantasy team won again, this despite Knowshon Moreno hurting his side, Austin Collie suffering another concussion and Vernon Davis having the misfortune to be coached by Mike Singletary, who has become the new Herman Edwards. (Not in the sense of the Meadowlands Miracle but in the sense of the player who went on to coach 10-6 teams into 6-10 teams).
Okay, enough Giants-bashing. The Jets were terrific from the opening kickoff to the final gun, much to the credit of Rex and the entire Jets team. Brad Smith’s taking of the opening kickoff for a touchdown set the tone for the game while the secondary’s sticky coverage of every Steeler receiver down-field in the closing seconds sealed the victory and staved off what could easily have been a dual New York disaster yesterday.
And, between those remarkable opening and closing plays, the play-calling was brilliant, Sanchez executed those plays to perfection and still another Edwards, one Braylon, made brilliant catches all day.
What a difference a week makes.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
On Football and Stability
There’s so much to say since last week that I can’t quite focus on any one thing. There’s the ascendancy of the Giants, the bumbling of the Jets in just about every way, the end of Brett Favre’s starting streak and, for many of us, there are the fantasy football playoffs.
I should first say that I’m not a Jets fan anymore. Everybody seems to think I am. It bugs me. Brett Favre and Eric Mangini pretty much killed any feeling I may have had for them. When they rid themselves of those two clowns, they still had Tannenbaum running things and Woody Johnson at the helm so the Jets are just a team that I can’t root for.
I do like Rex Ryan, of course, and how could I not like Mark Sanchez and LaDainian Tomlinson and even Santonio Holmes? The rest of that bunch you can have, from Braylon Edwards and Jason Taylor to Shonn Greene and Jericho Cotchery.
Contrast them with the Giants. They’re a lot easier on my psyche. I mean, what’s not to like about the Maras? They’ve owned the team forever, they treat everybody with respect and they didn’t even make the taxpayers fund their new stadium.
Of course, sometimes I take issue with how slow they are to react to obvious bad things. That horrible defensive coordinator of last year, for example, should have been dumped around the middle of the season along with some of the horrible non-coverage people in their secondary.
But giving people an entire year to prove or disprove their competence is all wrapped up with showing consideration and respect. You have to take the good with the bad. It’s part and parcel of stability.
I hate to say it but stability is exactly what the Jets seem to be missing right now. It was understandable that they would lose to the Patriots, especially playing without their defensive stalwart Leonhard, but one could have expected them to bounce back against the Dolphins, even a Dolphins team playing for their playoffs lives.
They did not come remotely close to bouncing back, not unless you take only the narrowest possible definition of bouncing back. Their defense wasn’t bad at all. It was just everything else about their game that was lacking. Their running game was non-existent, that ballyhooed offensive line seemed lacking, their receivers stunk out the joint and the game plan in general seemed discordant. I defy anyone to tell me what their plan was.
Then there are the other disturbing signs, the behavioral issues of not just their players but the management as well. More and more it seems that, as a head coach, Rex makes one hell of a defensive coordinator. He still seems to accept overall responsibility for the whole team only grudgingly.
Don’t expect the Jets to beat the Steelers this Sunday. I certainly don’t. I’ll bet the Steelers don’t either, which, come to think of it, might be the only thing working in the Jets favor. The Steelers aren’t impervious to problems either. They have their own offensive problems. The Jets chances will hinge on their ability to run the ball and Santonio Holmes, the discarded Steeler who may just love to stick it to his old team.
As for the G-Men, they really have their work cut out for them with Mike Vick and the high-flying Eagles on tap. It wasn’t a good sign that the Cowboys couldn’t run against what had been a suspect run defense before their game. If the Giants can’t get impressive numbers from the Bradshaw-Jacobs duo, it could be all over but the shouting. But if they can run, they’ll keep Vick off the field, not to mention DeSean Jackson and LeSean McCoy.
It always comes down to those two things, running and stopping the run, especially in December. Not even the great ones at quarterback can overcome those deficiencies consistently. And the fact that the G-Men just shut down Adrian Peterson bodes well for their chances on Sunday. But the Eagles have an offensive line that the Vikings did not.
But, and this is significant, one can expect the Giants to overcome their problems, whatever they may be. They have already dealt with the secondary, the pass rush, defending the run, and changed their offensive tactics to incorporate more running and the heavy use of the tight end.
But their resiliency has never included coaches tripping up opponents on the sidelines. You get the feeling they are rock solid in every way.
Of course, there’s more than one way to skin a cat. And Ryan may be able to salvage his situation, much as he did last year when he used red and green colors to easily direct his rookie QB in avoiding turnovers. I’m rooting for him to do it too.
But there may be only so many rabbits in his hat. And his other problem players may not be as responsive as was Mark Sanchez. You get the feeling they’ll break if you press them.
I might be firmly in the Giants corner but my heart lies with my fantasy team this weekend. My Crabs have an up-hill battle too as Drew Brees will be facing the tough Ravens, Ahmad Bradshaw has a hurt wrist, Knowshon Moreno has a new coach and Miles Austin can’t seem to get on Jon Kitna’s good side. Vernon Davis, my tight end, should continue getting good numbers. Those are my definite starters. It gets tougher after that.
Sidney Rice and Percy Harvin are really talented receivers but, with Tarvaris Jackson on the other end, things are really iffy. But Austin Collie may not play, Jahvid Best seems to never get the ball, and Tashard Choice may still be starry-eyed over Michael Vick. The usually reliable Brandon Lloyd has been decidedly less so as defenses have adapted to the Broncos long passing game.
Things will clear up by Sunday morning though. They always do. As a team, these Crabs are solid.
I should first say that I’m not a Jets fan anymore. Everybody seems to think I am. It bugs me. Brett Favre and Eric Mangini pretty much killed any feeling I may have had for them. When they rid themselves of those two clowns, they still had Tannenbaum running things and Woody Johnson at the helm so the Jets are just a team that I can’t root for.
I do like Rex Ryan, of course, and how could I not like Mark Sanchez and LaDainian Tomlinson and even Santonio Holmes? The rest of that bunch you can have, from Braylon Edwards and Jason Taylor to Shonn Greene and Jericho Cotchery.
Contrast them with the Giants. They’re a lot easier on my psyche. I mean, what’s not to like about the Maras? They’ve owned the team forever, they treat everybody with respect and they didn’t even make the taxpayers fund their new stadium.
Of course, sometimes I take issue with how slow they are to react to obvious bad things. That horrible defensive coordinator of last year, for example, should have been dumped around the middle of the season along with some of the horrible non-coverage people in their secondary.
But giving people an entire year to prove or disprove their competence is all wrapped up with showing consideration and respect. You have to take the good with the bad. It’s part and parcel of stability.
I hate to say it but stability is exactly what the Jets seem to be missing right now. It was understandable that they would lose to the Patriots, especially playing without their defensive stalwart Leonhard, but one could have expected them to bounce back against the Dolphins, even a Dolphins team playing for their playoffs lives.
They did not come remotely close to bouncing back, not unless you take only the narrowest possible definition of bouncing back. Their defense wasn’t bad at all. It was just everything else about their game that was lacking. Their running game was non-existent, that ballyhooed offensive line seemed lacking, their receivers stunk out the joint and the game plan in general seemed discordant. I defy anyone to tell me what their plan was.
Then there are the other disturbing signs, the behavioral issues of not just their players but the management as well. More and more it seems that, as a head coach, Rex makes one hell of a defensive coordinator. He still seems to accept overall responsibility for the whole team only grudgingly.
Don’t expect the Jets to beat the Steelers this Sunday. I certainly don’t. I’ll bet the Steelers don’t either, which, come to think of it, might be the only thing working in the Jets favor. The Steelers aren’t impervious to problems either. They have their own offensive problems. The Jets chances will hinge on their ability to run the ball and Santonio Holmes, the discarded Steeler who may just love to stick it to his old team.
As for the G-Men, they really have their work cut out for them with Mike Vick and the high-flying Eagles on tap. It wasn’t a good sign that the Cowboys couldn’t run against what had been a suspect run defense before their game. If the Giants can’t get impressive numbers from the Bradshaw-Jacobs duo, it could be all over but the shouting. But if they can run, they’ll keep Vick off the field, not to mention DeSean Jackson and LeSean McCoy.
It always comes down to those two things, running and stopping the run, especially in December. Not even the great ones at quarterback can overcome those deficiencies consistently. And the fact that the G-Men just shut down Adrian Peterson bodes well for their chances on Sunday. But the Eagles have an offensive line that the Vikings did not.
But, and this is significant, one can expect the Giants to overcome their problems, whatever they may be. They have already dealt with the secondary, the pass rush, defending the run, and changed their offensive tactics to incorporate more running and the heavy use of the tight end.
But their resiliency has never included coaches tripping up opponents on the sidelines. You get the feeling they are rock solid in every way.
Of course, there’s more than one way to skin a cat. And Ryan may be able to salvage his situation, much as he did last year when he used red and green colors to easily direct his rookie QB in avoiding turnovers. I’m rooting for him to do it too.
But there may be only so many rabbits in his hat. And his other problem players may not be as responsive as was Mark Sanchez. You get the feeling they’ll break if you press them.
I might be firmly in the Giants corner but my heart lies with my fantasy team this weekend. My Crabs have an up-hill battle too as Drew Brees will be facing the tough Ravens, Ahmad Bradshaw has a hurt wrist, Knowshon Moreno has a new coach and Miles Austin can’t seem to get on Jon Kitna’s good side. Vernon Davis, my tight end, should continue getting good numbers. Those are my definite starters. It gets tougher after that.
Sidney Rice and Percy Harvin are really talented receivers but, with Tarvaris Jackson on the other end, things are really iffy. But Austin Collie may not play, Jahvid Best seems to never get the ball, and Tashard Choice may still be starry-eyed over Michael Vick. The usually reliable Brandon Lloyd has been decidedly less so as defenses have adapted to the Broncos long passing game.
Things will clear up by Sunday morning though. They always do. As a team, these Crabs are solid.
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