Taunted by the Birds
By: J.D. Cook
There is nothing more frustrating than seeing your favorite football team cost itself a game. This is made even truer when the team you lose to is the Eagles. Many of their fans (no offense respectful good Eagles fans) post some pretty nasty stuff post win. One of these tweets was answered by Bigbluebullfrog.com with the simple question…Super bowls? It’s a good question considering the Eagles treated last night’s game like the culmination of their season. They had fireworks, put Dawkins in their ring of honor (despite having abandoned him in his last three years) and simply seemed to make this game out to be the biggest of the season. Some person said long ago, “It’s better to be lucky than good”. Well the Eagles are certainly that. I’ve watched them play four terrible games and somehow end up 3-1. This flabbergasts me. Their defense is certainly good but their offense is as over-rated as it gets. Vick does not have the legs he once did and still isn’t a great passer.
That said it’s not the Eagles fault the Giants lost. It is their own damn fault. Faced with a 3rd and 19 at the end of the game the Giants elected to kick a field goal rather than go for a few more yards to set up Tynes. This is where I began to scream at the T.V.! Tynes is a great and accurate kicker but he has never been a distance kicker. The team had a perfect amount of time to throw a quick out for even five yards! That or they could have had the kicking team standing by to run on and kick. Instead they kicked a 54 yard field goal that fell just short despite being dead on. Of course this loss forecast itself in the 1st half. The Giants defense played stronger then I’ve seen in a while; nearly shutting down the Eagles offense completely. The Giants offense didn’t do anything. Then the Giants offense did great in the second half and Giants defense collapsed. Although they did make a fantastic final stand to hold the Eagles to a field goal giving the offense its final failed chance at a winning score.
I hate to critique the coaching because they’ve won two super bowls but in the words of the most famous coach of all, “WHAT THE HELL’S GOIN ON DOWN THERE”. This is a Giants team that has a limitless potential. Despite losing player after player they continue to have a solid defense and their offense is stacked with talent! Someone please explain to me why they aren’t the class of the N.F.C.? They just seem to always win with the odds against them and loose with them in their favor. This is the true underdog team!
In terms of players; Hixon did a great job filing in for Nicks. I would have liked to see more runs from Andre Brown but Bradshaw played well last night despite also not being run much. The Giants need to reconnect with their 2007 selves and focus on running first and then passing. I understand the Eagles D was tough but they seemed to trick the Giants into passing all game and never really establishing the run. Eli Manning still looks like the dominant Quarterback in the league right now despite having thrown an ugly interception late in the game.
Next week is a must win against Cleveland. If we are 2-3 going into San Francisco it is very possible we will be 2-4 coming out of there. Following that is the suddenly dangerous Redskins, the Cowboys again the Steelers and the Bengals before the break. It’s a pretty tough stretch of schedule and the Giants will need all the positive momentum they can muster moving forward. The team’s got the firepower; they just need to light their opponents up.
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The Giants Blog is published every Monday during the NFL season while the New York Giants remain viable contenders (which in 2011 was right to the end and their Super Bowl championship). On the weeks when the Giants have a Monday night game, the blog will be published on Wednesday. The blogs are thoughtful (albeit heavily biased) analysis of the Giants’ performance from our editor-in-chief and Giant fanatic J.D. Cook.