The Giants did what they were supposed to do on Sunday. They won a game at home against a clearly inferior team. It was not a blow out, but the outcome was never in doubt. They controlled the clock and did not turn the ball over. There was nothing exciting or intriguing from an average fans' perspective except for the outcome. This is exactly the kind of win though that big time teams make routine. This game had serious danger that the Giants avoided without a hitch. As a fan of this team for 17 years you never take anything for granted though, especially in a game that had "trap" written all over it.
The Giants have and will continue to play a very hard schedule. This was the first game they played this season in that they were considerable favorites. In addition, they were coming off their biggest victory of the season last Monday night in Dallas. Following that win they were three straight games at home. First Tampa, then Houston, and lastly the undefeated Chicago Bears. It would be very easy for the Giants to overlook the two games leading up to the Bears. They focused on Tampa and earned a very smooth victory.
Another reason this game was dangerous was the recent play of the Tampa Bucs. This team looks very poor on paper, but they were coming off an improbable victory last week versus the Eagles, and have been competing very hard. Their young quarterback has been improving and have a ball-hawking defense. Jon Gruden is a Super Bowl coach who gets the maximum out of his plays on a week to week basis. The Giants had to fight off complacency and match Tampa's effort from the first quarter on.
The last major reason this was such a potentially dangerous game for the Giants was the health of the defense. Sam Madison, Osi Umenyiora, and Lavar Arrington all did not play. All have been to Pro Bowls and are very important to this team. While Arrington is out for the season, the others need to get healthy for the Giants to contend. They can beat the Tampas and Houstons of the league with a banged up defense, but the Bears will be a much tougher task.
After watching the game I talked to a couple of my friends concerning the Giants play and the game itself. Adjectives such as boring and uninteresting were used. In the position the Giants were in that's exactly the type of game they were looking to play. No big stories, just fundamental and confident football. Looking around the league this is the type of game teams like the Patriots, Broncos and Colts have made their staple. If the Giants want to be on the level of those franchises and compete for a Super Bowl they need to make this a habit of theirs as well. Sunday was a start and we will see how they play in trap game number two next Sunday.
- I will have a quick hitters post later today. Probably a serious bite of Peter King's Monday Morning Quarterback, but that's all good by me.
1 comment:
I agree with your assessment of the game. The Giants played smart, relatively conservative ball and came out with a boring, but important victory. For me though, the game was like an episode of Lost. Every time you watch that show you are hoping to get some answers, but all the show every gives you is new quetions. The same is true with Eli Manning. Each week you hope to see Eli break out a performance that will convince everyone that he is the great quartback that we want and hope him to be and for the last 4 weeks Eli has turned in performances that have been good enough to win, but come short of definitely proving that Eli is the real deal. As Simmons commented a few weeks ago it is still unclear whether Eli is a great quarterback in clutch situations or simply someone who has been able to pull big throws out of his ass this season. I tend to be less cynical than Bill on this question and think that Eli deserves some major credit for the wins this season. He has definitely clicked with Plaxico Buress and the two of them have proven to be a dangerous weapon that other teams need to seriously prepare for. Still, I need to see Eli finish a few more games with a passer rating higher than 80 (his highest rating in the past 3 games) before I can seriously say that the Giants are superbowl contenders.
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