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 Nicks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nicks. Show all posts
Monday, December 19, 2011
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Good But Boring-Bad But Funny
You can’t say it hasn’t been entertaining. The Jets are a bad soap opera. The Giants are just, well, I don’t really know what they are. They beat the Falcons. That’s definitely a good thing. But, beyond that, it’s really hard to say anything more.
But you know I will.
Even a casual observer would have to agree that, at the very least, the Jets are a very entertaining team. The quarterback is a nut job, the head coach is even funnier and everybody else just tries to keep their heads up. And that’s okay. Anybody who really expected playoffs this year was just dreaming.
The Giants’ defense stinks. That’s really all you can say. But, with Eli firing bullets and lobs and showing a magnificent touch, and with his bevy of receivers seemingly open all the time, we could really see some shootouts in our future, and that’s not a bad thing either.
I guess that’s the biggest difference between these two teams. The Giants play a great football game, on one side of the ball at least, but they’re a bore off the field. The Jets turn in stinker after stinker on the field, but they’re a barrel of laughs off of it.
Did anybody expect the Jets to beat the Patriots again? I know I didn’t. I did think they’d beat the spread, which was 10 ½, a ridiculous spread, given that the Jets beat them the first time they played.
My mistake was that I thought they’d attempt to cover Wes Welker. At the very least, I figured they’d harass him coming off the line, or knock the bejeezus out of him when he caught the ball, thus discouraging him from perpetrating any further aerial offenses against them.
But that didn’t happen. Welker ran here and there unmolested. When he caught the ball, which was quite often, he either ran for big yardage or hit the ground before he could be pummeled.
And, last but certainly not least, the rookie quarterback started bad, came back a little, and then totally came undone.
But that’s what Bill Belichick teams do to rookie quarterbacks. That Sanchez somehow escaped that fate in the season’s first matchup with New England was nothing short of miraculous. Sanchez tried to win the game, though, and along the way, he threw a perfect long pass to Cotchery in the end zone that brought the Jets back to within 10.
But he started the game very badly by throwing that INT that went for a touchdown. That’s a killer for a team to start the game in a 7-point hole right off the bat. But he brought the team back before imploding and, all in all, I’d rather watch him than his backup. The kid still shows a lot of promise. He reminds me of Joe Montana in a lot of ways, the scrambling, the arm, the demeanor….he just needs the same head, and that will come.
Rex has promised to address his young QB’s turnover problem personally. That’s what makes you love him. It may not be the right thing to do but ya gotta love the attitude. Rex has taken as many shots as has Sanchez, and he’s apparently taken them to heart.
So the Jets are a riot, if not a successful one.
The G-Men are a playoff contender but a boring one. I still don’t think they’ll make it to the playoffs though. Their defense won’t allow it. When their opponent has needed to score, they have scored. That’s not a good sign. And, while Eli was able to take advantage of the sieve of a Falcons pass defense, I can’t imagine he’ll be able to do the same this Thanksgiving against the Broncos.
Philip Rivers and his Chargers did though. But they have a strong defense and a better running game. They have LaDainian, we have Twinkletoes. They have Sproles, we have Bradshaw. Their offensive line blocks for the run as well as the pass. Ours blocks quite well for the passing game but the holes just aren’t there in the running game, and even the powerful Bradshaw can’t run through a wall.
Regular readers may wonder why I keep picking on Jacobs. Well, aside from picking up that 4th and 1 against the Pats in that wonder-filled Super Bowl, he’s done nothing up the middle. He has no explosiveness whatsoever, runs high and doesn’t have that much leg strength. What he can do is build up a head of steam and really roll, once he gets an opening.
That’d be great if they used him a little differently, I guess, but the Giants don’t. And they usually have better options in Smith and Manningham, Nicks and Boss and, well, just about anybody else….Hedgecock?
So I can’t be bullish on this Broncos game. We won’t be seeing Simms, we’ll get their first string of Kyle Orton, and the Broncs do have some receivers who can hurt us, Marshall and Gaffney and Royal and a nice tight end who can catch. The Broncs will be able to pass and they may even be able to run. They also have some nice defenders against the passing game, aka Champ Bailey and Brian Dawkins. Hell, Ty Law is their second-string corner.
Can our G-Men win in a shootout? I don’t think so. The only way they win this game is if they’re able to run the ball and stop the passing game. I don’t think they can do either. (I just deleted a whole passage ripping Sheridan, the defensive coordinator in name only, a new butt-hole). But who’s to blame when the defense has no clue?
Almost everything else NFL-wise went my way though this past weekend so I’m not complaining. My picks against the spread went 9-6, and, better yet, my best bets were flawless and I finally won my imaginary ten bucks. I won in both my fantasy leagues and still have a shot at the playoffs.
Not the Giants.
But you know I will.
Even a casual observer would have to agree that, at the very least, the Jets are a very entertaining team. The quarterback is a nut job, the head coach is even funnier and everybody else just tries to keep their heads up. And that’s okay. Anybody who really expected playoffs this year was just dreaming.
The Giants’ defense stinks. That’s really all you can say. But, with Eli firing bullets and lobs and showing a magnificent touch, and with his bevy of receivers seemingly open all the time, we could really see some shootouts in our future, and that’s not a bad thing either.
I guess that’s the biggest difference between these two teams. The Giants play a great football game, on one side of the ball at least, but they’re a bore off the field. The Jets turn in stinker after stinker on the field, but they’re a barrel of laughs off of it.
Did anybody expect the Jets to beat the Patriots again? I know I didn’t. I did think they’d beat the spread, which was 10 ½, a ridiculous spread, given that the Jets beat them the first time they played.
My mistake was that I thought they’d attempt to cover Wes Welker. At the very least, I figured they’d harass him coming off the line, or knock the bejeezus out of him when he caught the ball, thus discouraging him from perpetrating any further aerial offenses against them.
But that didn’t happen. Welker ran here and there unmolested. When he caught the ball, which was quite often, he either ran for big yardage or hit the ground before he could be pummeled.
And, last but certainly not least, the rookie quarterback started bad, came back a little, and then totally came undone.
But that’s what Bill Belichick teams do to rookie quarterbacks. That Sanchez somehow escaped that fate in the season’s first matchup with New England was nothing short of miraculous. Sanchez tried to win the game, though, and along the way, he threw a perfect long pass to Cotchery in the end zone that brought the Jets back to within 10.
But he started the game very badly by throwing that INT that went for a touchdown. That’s a killer for a team to start the game in a 7-point hole right off the bat. But he brought the team back before imploding and, all in all, I’d rather watch him than his backup. The kid still shows a lot of promise. He reminds me of Joe Montana in a lot of ways, the scrambling, the arm, the demeanor….he just needs the same head, and that will come.
Rex has promised to address his young QB’s turnover problem personally. That’s what makes you love him. It may not be the right thing to do but ya gotta love the attitude. Rex has taken as many shots as has Sanchez, and he’s apparently taken them to heart.
So the Jets are a riot, if not a successful one.
The G-Men are a playoff contender but a boring one. I still don’t think they’ll make it to the playoffs though. Their defense won’t allow it. When their opponent has needed to score, they have scored. That’s not a good sign. And, while Eli was able to take advantage of the sieve of a Falcons pass defense, I can’t imagine he’ll be able to do the same this Thanksgiving against the Broncos.
Philip Rivers and his Chargers did though. But they have a strong defense and a better running game. They have LaDainian, we have Twinkletoes. They have Sproles, we have Bradshaw. Their offensive line blocks for the run as well as the pass. Ours blocks quite well for the passing game but the holes just aren’t there in the running game, and even the powerful Bradshaw can’t run through a wall.
Regular readers may wonder why I keep picking on Jacobs. Well, aside from picking up that 4th and 1 against the Pats in that wonder-filled Super Bowl, he’s done nothing up the middle. He has no explosiveness whatsoever, runs high and doesn’t have that much leg strength. What he can do is build up a head of steam and really roll, once he gets an opening.
That’d be great if they used him a little differently, I guess, but the Giants don’t. And they usually have better options in Smith and Manningham, Nicks and Boss and, well, just about anybody else….Hedgecock?
So I can’t be bullish on this Broncos game. We won’t be seeing Simms, we’ll get their first string of Kyle Orton, and the Broncs do have some receivers who can hurt us, Marshall and Gaffney and Royal and a nice tight end who can catch. The Broncs will be able to pass and they may even be able to run. They also have some nice defenders against the passing game, aka Champ Bailey and Brian Dawkins. Hell, Ty Law is their second-string corner.
Can our G-Men win in a shootout? I don’t think so. The only way they win this game is if they’re able to run the ball and stop the passing game. I don’t think they can do either. (I just deleted a whole passage ripping Sheridan, the defensive coordinator in name only, a new butt-hole). But who’s to blame when the defense has no clue?
Almost everything else NFL-wise went my way though this past weekend so I’m not complaining. My picks against the spread went 9-6, and, better yet, my best bets were flawless and I finally won my imaginary ten bucks. I won in both my fantasy leagues and still have a shot at the playoffs.
Not the Giants.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
/>
