Broncos Break Giants
by J.D. Cook
Well my hope that the Giants would rise to the occasion and best the Denver Broncos was completely incorrect. They humbled us in our stadium and proved once again they are the class of the N.F.L. The New York Giants stare 0-2 in the face whilst traveling to face the Carolina Panthers who are also 0-2. All common sense says the Giants should win that game but even if they do it will bring little solace for their opening two losses to a division rival and the loss to Denver, a rare moment where every other N.F.C. East team lost, so the Giants had a chance to take an early lead in the divisional race. That said who knows the way the ball has been bouncing lately for the Giants they may end up 0-3 next week. Going into this year I really felt the Giants were setting themselves up for their worst year since 2004. The Giants did very little in the off-season to shore up their problems from last year and their draft class seemed average but only more time will tell if that is true.
The good news is Denver is not a conference team so the loss means very little in terms of standings but it still stings. Peyton Manning now has all the victories against his brother head to head but Eli has 2 Superbowl Rings to Peyton’s 1. There’s not much more I can say. The Giants had fewer turnovers in this game but they were still a big issue, the passing game was still excellent but rendered almost useless due to the fact that the Giants have little to no run game. Brandon Jacobs return was heartwarming but he is a short yardage back and unfortunately not a fix to the running back problems. David Wilson looked good on one or two plays but did nothing on others. He seems like he has bi-polar playing abilities. The Giants defense held Peyton Manning down well in the first half but the offense didn’t capitalize on it by building up scores. With someone like Peyton Manning it’s a matter of when he scores not if he will score. In the second half the Giants were setting the game up to be a shootout until an incomplete pass to Reuben Randle was picked off. The sad part about watching a shootout is that one non-scoring drive can really easily cost one team the game. Well that’s all I got. I knew the game was over at that point and started writing this. If we don’t win next week the Giants are heading for an extremely bleak season. If we do win we could still be on track for the playoffs or at least a winning record.
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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.
Each time Peyton beat Eli in the past (2006 and 2010 with the Colts), he led his team to the Super Bowl that same season, so that is a good omen for the Broncos. That being said, I still think the Giants are the best team in the NFC East.