SuperFan: Giants vs. Vikings (12/29/08)

Here Comes the Fun Part…

By SuperFan   

            First of all, let me apologize for my hiatus last week (my article had technical difficulties).  To catch up, let me start with some of the thoughts I had following our incredible victory over Carolina a couple weeks ago  (this was written last week, which is why it’s in italics):

            Like last week (after the Dallas loss), I got very little sleep on Sunday night after beating the Panthers.  This time, however, it was because I was too excited.  I just sat up and thought about what a great clutch performance our Gmen had put on.  It makes me so proud to be a fan of this team!  To come out on the national spotlight for the second consecutive week and get a huge win when they needed to against a top-ranked team, well, what more could a fan want?  This team represents everything that is great about sports – the players on the field are humble and let their performances speak for themselves.  We’re not bought and paid for like some teams out there, sporting a bunch of all-stars with egos as large as their paychecks.  Just some hard-working, team-oriented athletes and coaches doing what they love to do, and doing it very well.

            Which brings me immediately to my first tangent.  I’ve been a Yankees fan for a long time, relishing in the tradition, history, and admiration that comes with the pinstripes.  To say the organization has strayed away from that over the last several years would be the understatement of the century.  I recently got wind of Texiera’s new contract, on top of C.C.’s and Burnett’s (not to mention A-Rod’s), and in all honesty, it’s a little embarrassing.  My dad was telling me earlier about something a friend of his who happens to be a banker said:  “When C.C. Sabathia throws his first regular-season pitch as a Yankee, he’ll have earned more money than 99% of Americans make in a year.  This all happening while our economy is in its worst state ever.  Pathetic.  This revelation helped reaffirm something a theory I’ve been developing for quite a while.  The Steinbrenner family is doing everything in their power to destroy everything the New York Yankees once stood for, and it’s working.  I’m really doubting if it’s worth being a Yankee fan just to go watch a team that looks like someone drafted it in a video game with all the rules turned off.  Really – it’s beyond laughable at this point.  Okay, I’m done.  Let’s get back to talking about a REAL New York sports team.

            It’s amazing what a different team we become with Jacobs on the field.  Eli has more time in the pocket, the receivers seem to get open easier and catch more passes, and the other running backs perform at a higher level (Derrick Ward ran out of his MIND)!  Plaxico may not be there, but as long as Jacobs is on the field, we’ll always have a really good shot to win.

            I can’t tell you how amazing it was to receive so many e-mails over the past week from you fans.  I tried to get back to most, but unfortunately, I couldn’t use the internet for the majority of last weekend.  I was working at a golf tournament in Thousand Oaks, CA, and the Hyatt I was staying at had one of those “$9.99/day” internet deals.  I didn’t want to give in to the man’s demands, so I went most of the weekend disconnected from the world.  Sorry about that, but I wanted you all to know that I read them and you all have no idea how pumped up your e-mails got me for the game!  It’s so refreshing to hear from other crazed Giants fans, especially being all the way on the West Coast, where it’s only appropriate to get excited about something if pop culture says so.  So, THANKS AGAIN EVERYBODY!  Please keep them coming!  The address is gmensuperfan@gmail.com. 

 

            And now, back to the present.  Obviously, our loss last Sunday wasn’t nearly as dramatic and satisfying as the one we had in our last regular season game last season (regardless of how hard most NY sportswriters will try to compare the two), but I’m still feeling pretty positive after-the-fact.  Bottom line, we played our back-ups for over half the game, and Minnesota still needed a miraculous last-second 50-yard field goal to beat us, in their house.  Everyone got in the game and contributed.  Also, David Carr didn’t look too bad at all.

            Most importantly, our defense is BACK.  Barring one big 67-yard breakaway run, Adrian Peterson did very little running the ball.  And our offensive line reminded everyone that we’re more than capable of running the ball against a very good rush defense, even without Mr. Jacobs in the backfield.

            Heading into this very well-deserved bye week, while most teams in football will be looking for a new head coach for next season, many Giants’ fans can only pray that Coach Spags doesn’t decide to become one of them.  I also wish and pray that I find an incredibly hot model who’s a huge Giants’ fan and falls in love with me simply for writing these weekly blogs.  Both probably aren’t gonna happen.  Still, it’s fun to dream.

            With the regular season officially over, the playoff match-ups are set and ready.  As much fun as it would be to get to play the Eagles at home in the divisional round (it worked out very nicely last time), I really hope we don’t have to.  That team scares me more than anyone in the post season.  Nothing creates a bigger chip on your shoulder than having a tie in your record.  Gross. 

            That’s about it for this week.  I don’t want to write about too much since I won’t have a recently played game to talk about next week.  Enjoy the bye week (especially you Cowboys fans – hope you’ve already planned your golfing trips), where we’ll get to watch all the games with a mostly unbiased view. (I mean, if the Eagles are playing, I’m always gonna root against them.)  Hope everyone’s holidays have been going well so far, and have a happy and safe New Year’s this week.  Until next time, GO GMEN!!         

SuperFan: Giants vs. Panthers (12/23/08)

What Happened, Cat Got Your Tongue?

            By SuperFan

            Like last week, I got very little sleep on Sunday night.  This time, however, it was because I was too excited.  I just sat up and thought about what a great clutch performance our Gmen had put on.  It makes me so proud to be a fan of this team!  To come out on the national spotlight for the second consecutive week and get a huge win when they needed to against a top-ranked team, well, what more could a fan want?  This team represents everything that is great about sports – the players on the field are humble and let their performances speak for themselves.  We’re not bought and paid for like some teams out there, sporting a bunch of all-stars with egos as large as their paychecks.  Just some hard-working, team-oriented athletes and coaches doing what they love to do, and doing it very well.

            Which brings me immediately to my first tangent.  I’ve been a Yankees fan for a long time, relishing in the tradition, history, and admiration that comes with the pinstripes.  To say the organization has strayed away from that over the last several years would be the understatement of the century.  I just got wind of Texiera’s new contract, on top of C.C.’s and Burnett’s (not to mention A-Rod’s), and in all honesty, it’s a little embarrassing.  My was telling me earlier about something a friend of his who happens to be a banker said:  “When C.C. Sabathia throws his first regular-season pitch as a Yankee, he’ll have earned more money than 99% of Americans make in a year.  This all happening while our economy is in its worst state ever.  Pathetic.  This revelation helped reaffirm something a theory I’ve been developing for quite a while.  The Steinbrenner family is doing everything in their power to destroy everything the New York Yankees once stood for, and it’s working.  I’m really doubting if it’s worth being a Yankee fan just to go watch a team that looks like someone drafted it in a video game with all the rules turned off.  Really – it’s beyond laughable at this point.  Okay, I’m done.  Let’s get back to talking about a REAL New York sports team.

            It’s amazing what a different team we become with Jacobs on the field.  Eli has more time in the pocket, the receivers seem to get open easier and catch more passes, and the other running backs perform at a higher level (Derrick Ward ran out of his MIND)!  Plaxico may not be there, but as long as Jacobs is on the field, we’ll always have a really good shot to win.

            It’s also amazing how differently people talk about us after a game with Jacobs on the field.  A week ago, we were a team spiraling out of control, with no hope of regaining the momentum we once had.  Now, suddenly, we’re the team to beat once again in the NFC.  What a crazy game.

            I can’t tell you how amazing it was to receive so many e-mails over the past week from you fans.  I tried to get back to most, but unfortunately, I couldn’t use the internet for the majority of last weekend.  I was working at a golf tournament in Thousand Oaks, CA, and the Hyatt I was staying at had one of those “$9.99/day” internet deals.  I didn’t want to give in to the man’s demands, so I went most of the weekend disconnected from the world.  Sorry about that, btu I wanted you all to know that I read them and you all have no idea how pumped up your e-mails got me for the game!  It’s so refreshing to hear from other crazed Giants fans, especially being all the way on the West Coast, where it’s only appropriate to get excited about something if pop culture says so.  So, THANKS AGAIN EVERYBODY!  Please keep them coming!  The address is gmensuperfan@gmail.com. 

            Finally, let me be one of the last to wish everyone out there a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy New Year, Happy Flag Day, well, you get the picture…  This holiday weekend should be a nice, relaxing one for Giants fans.  It’s practically another bye week, where we can see how Minnesota’s first string fares against our back-ups.  If we see them in the post-season, we’ll have seen everything they have to throw at us, and they’ll see almost nothing from us.  Good deal!  Enjoy the holidays, and until next week, GO GMEN!!

 

SuperFan: Giants vs. Cowboys (12/16/08)

Please, Get Your Finger Off The Panic Button.

            By SuperFan

            Like I’m sure was the case for most Giants fans, I hardly slept at all last Sunday night after watching the pitiful beat-down the Cowboys put on our Gmen.  Let’s face it – they flat-out beat us.  Instead of sleeping soundly like I’d hoped after what I thought would be a glorious re-affirmation of our NFC dominance, I spent most of the night sitting up in bed, staring blankly at the white canvas that is the back of my sliding closet door.       

            I did a lot of wondering:

            Is this just two bad games in a row that can be flushed?  Is not having Plaxico really going to mean the end of our ability to score on offense?  Will things be completely different when Jacobs gets back in the lineup?  Or have defenses finally figured out how to shut down our offense by focusing on stopping the run with Plaxico not on the field?  Was the great fill-in play of our receivers in Plaxico’s absence earlier in the year simply a fluke, or have they just hit a slump?  Why have so many players stopped having the ability to make plays when they have to, which includes catching first-down and touchdown passes that hit receivers in the hands?  Why do we wait until there’s hardly any time left in the game to finally start trying some no-huddle, even though anyone can see it’s when Eli’s at his best?  AND WHAT IN GOD’S NAME HAPPENED TO OUR OFFENSIVE LINE?!?!?!

 

            No matter how long I sat and thought about them, I couldn’t answer a single question.  And now Giants fans, who are already notorious for being the biggest worriers in the league, have reason to be legitimately concerned.  Fantastic.  This season I’ve become more positive than I can remember, having assumed the Giants had already crossed the threshold from being a good team to a great team.  And in many respects, they certainly have – but definitely NOT in the last two weeks.  So now I’m trying as hard as I can not to revert back to the nervous wreck of a Giants fan I used to be.

             When the team decided to keep Plaxico off the field for the remainder of the season, they had to anticipate what it would do to the offense.  Clearly, they feel the other receivers we have are capable of stepping up in his absence.  So do I – and so should everyone else. 

            What I’m most worried about is whether we’ll have to play a team from the NFC East during the playoffs.  They scare me the most.

            The fact is, we sit at 11-3, have clinched the division, and control our own destiny when it comes to clinching the #1 seed in the NFC.  We’ve had two really ugly losses back-to-back, and it stands out that much more because they were against division rivals.  Don’t people remember when those ugly losses happened last season?  Around the same time! 

            There’s still time left to get this incredible season back on track and go into the playoffs with momentum.  Eli hasn’t necessarily played very poorly in our last two losses.  He had one really bad throw on the first interception Sunday night, but the second was nothing more than a heave to close the first half.  He hasn’t really had any time back there, and our lack of a dominant running game makes it very hard to soften the blitzes, which would open up the passing game.  It’s also hard for receivers to get open when the pass rush is getting to the quarterback so soon after the ball is snapped. 

            Hopefully the offensive line will let whatever bad press comes out this week settle in and use it as motivation to return to dominant form next Sunday night.  We will also get to see how much help Jacobs’ return to the offense brings.  I’m thinking quite a bit. 

           

            The NFC pro bowlers got announced recently, and six of them are coming from the New York Football Gmen.  Now it’s time for them to show everyone why they belong in Hawaii. 

           

            This team (and it’s fans) SHOULD be angry right now.  We’re better than this!  The defense has played well, but we’ve seen that they’re capable of playing even better.  We were crushing Romo in the first half, but our pass rush slowed down considerably after half time.  We have to adjust to the way other teams adjust to us late in the game.  Now that Eli’s turned the corner (he has, so please don’t bring those arguments back, that would just be ridiculous), it’s time for him to step back up and put this team on his back.  Keep firing those passes downfield – they won’t all get dropped.  And Jacobs, who didn’t make the pro bowl (I’m sure it’s because of the time he’s missed from being injured), has to remind everyone what a beast he can be in the backfield. 

            It’s not like we lost ourselves out of playoff contention – we’ve just had two bad games.  Now we can either decide, “Oh, well – it looked like a good run there for a while, but I guess we’re doomed without Plaxico,” or we can be true Giants fans and realize we bounced back from MUCH WORSE ODDS only a year ago!

            The Gmen have the ultimate stage to make their glorious comeback to the class of the elite – Sunday Night Football at home against the Panthers for the number one NFC  seed in the playoffs!  Get excited, fans, not scared!  You know who gets scared?  Teams that LOSE.  We have to appreciate the opportunity we have before us and relish it!  Carolina thinks they’re gonna come into our house, when we’re hungrier than we’ve been all season, and push us around??  I’ll bet Spags has a little something to say to that!  BRING IT ON!

            As always, I’d love to hear from all of you – the address is gmensuperfan@gmail.com.  Keep those heads up.  There’s a lot of football left to play.  Until next week, GO GMEN!!           

 

 

              

SuperFan: Giants vs. Eagles (12/9/08)

Just Another Bump in the Road…

            By SuperFan

            I’m not going to lie to you – that one really stung.  Not just because it was against the Eagles (at home), or because it was a divisional game.  No – I’m most upset because now all those people who said the whole Plaxico situation was going to be too much of a distraction will walk around believing they were actually right.  Damn!

            Of course having Plaxico on the field would have helped, but please don’t think for a second that that’s the reason we lost Sunday’s game.  They may have only scored twenty points, but our defense still let Philly’s offense completely dominate.  When some higher power reached down right before halftime and gave us that blocked-FG return for a touchdown, cutting the deficit to 10-7, I thought we’d have all the momentum in the world to take over that game in the second half.

            Unfortunately, it’s really hard for an offense to build any kind of momentum when they only get SIX PLAYS in the entire third quarter!!  Plaxico’s absence had NOTHING to do with our defense being unable to get off the field.  And I don’t care what Antonio Pierce was going through:  there’s no way he could ever catch Brian Westbrook one-on-one.  It’s just not physically possible. 

            Plus, and I don’t mean to play the “what-if violin” for too long here, if Hixon makes that catch on the deep post route, well, we’re talking about a completely different game.  In fact, several receivers were dropping passes Sunday.  In all fairness, however, Plax had made his fair share of drops this season as well.  Bottom line, dropped passes happen – they’re a part of the game.  We’ve got to accept it and move on.

            Let’s not forget, we’ve been very spoiled fans this season.  Out of the thirteen we’ve played so far, this is only our second bad performance.  When I was freaking out (ironically enough, RIGHT before the blocked-FG-touchdown-play), my little brother had to calm me down via text messaging.  What he wrote was, “relax, man, it’s only thirty minutes of a season.”  And then our touchdown happened.  To apply his wisdom a little further, last Sunday was only sixty minutes of a season.  All-in-all, after seven hundred eighty minutes of football the Gmen have played this year, they’ve played poorly for only one hundred twenty of them.  That means we’ve got about an eighty-five percent awesomeness rate thus far this season!  Hey, it’s all in the numbers.

            While it wasn’t the way most fans would have liked for it to happen, we did walk away from this football weekend NFC East champs.  Yeah, that’s right, we won the division!  Actually, I’d always love it if a Cowboys’ loss results in our winning the division.  But still, a W would have done even more for us.  Barring some huge catastrophe, I’m still pretty positive about our chances to clinch that #1 seed for the playoffs, regardless of how well Carolina played Monday night (that’s really going to be quite a match up on December 21^st, huh).  

            What I came out of the last game most concerned with was Jacobs’ knee.  Hopefully he’ll be okay.  He is a monster, after all. 

            I’d compare this game to either the Minnesota or (second) Washington game last season.  Late in the year, overall bad performance, and now we have to get right back up and start playing hard again.  And don’t you dare think Coach Coughlin will take this loss lying down.  No way.  I have a feeling he’ll get our players incredibly fired up for this Sunday’s match-up against Dallas.  What better way to rebound from an ugly divisional loss than to get to play another one the very next week?!  And who better to make a statement against than the Dallas Cowboys?!  A big win against the ‘boys this week will surely remind everyone who the best team in the league (still) is.

            So pick your heads up, fans!  Big game coming up!  And please keep the e-mails coming, to gmensuperfan@gmail.com.  Until next week, GO GMEN!! 

SuperFan: Giants vs. Redskins (12/2/08)

Giant Pride

By SuperFan

            Adversity can do one of two things to a team.  On the one hand, it can expose serious flaws, and create internal damage to a team’s core.  On the other hand, if the team can rise above it, well, it can expose true greatness.  And that’s what we all saw last Sunday as the Giants put a pounding on the Washington Redskins.

            Everyone, myself included, seemed pretty worried going into the game that the whole “Plaxico situation” would be too much of a distraction for the Gmen to overcome.  Not so much!

            This team is too full of talent and too well-coached to let something like this effect them.  That’s why we’re the defending Super Bowl champions, and on pace to have an opportunity to repeat again this season.  Ironically, it was the Giants’ defeat of the Patriots in the Super Bowl last February that has seemed to desensitize fans from how unbelievable of a season we’re having.  We’ve played twelve games, and won eleven of them.  Wow.  That’s already more wins than last year’s regular season!

            Eli is finally getting some MVP consideration, and deservedly so.  People are beginning to understand that numbers aren’t the only thing that make a player great.  His value to this team is arguably greater than any other player in consideration.

            I must say I’m really glad NFL Network is on the air, so fans aren’t relying on ESPN all the time to get their sports fix.  Why is that, you might ask?  Because unlike ESPN, the NFL Network’s main focus is on SPORTS!  Here’s what I mean:  I woke up this morning and turned on Sportscenter, and all I saw for the first twenty minutes of the show was “analysis” of the Plaxico Burress situation.  I understand it’s a big story, but what does it have to do with what happens on the field??  No offense, Plax, but I think the gmen have proven that your absence hardly makes a difference.  Now, I switched back to NFL Network, and they were wrapping up last Sunday’s action.  THAT’S FOOTBALL.  A player being escorted to a precinct (by the way, how ironic is it that he went to the 17^th precint!?!?!) – that’s an off-field issue.  Let Jim Rome go to town on it..  You can easily update us on the situation with a quick telling of the facts (five minutes at the most).  Why you feel it necessary to have a legal analyst come on the show and blab on about things that have nothing to do with the impact on the team, I can’t understand. 

            Fortunately, the team did the right thing and put him on the non-football injury list, pretty much ending his tenure with the team.  Good.  Let’s close the book on this and be done with it – the team’s certainly been able to.

            Remember before the Seattle game, when everyone was saying how it was a good thing to test the team’s waters without Burress just in case God forbid something were to happen?  Well, “God-forbid-something-happened.”  And Giants fans can rest comfortably knowing this team has the depth and the ability to win, just despite it all.

            What I’m most worried about is the situation surrounding Antonio Pierce, however I’d like to believe that he’s a smart enough guy to know how to deal with the situation in the right matter. 

            As for the state of the team, well, I’m really getting low on adjectives.  You look at the numbers, and they’re staggering.  Every week people are waiting for the wheels to fall off, and when we face our most distracting challenges, we prevail incredibly.  Every player is contributing, and every decision being made by the coaches is working.  This is the kind of team you show a person who’s never really heard of football and say, “you want to know what a great football team looks like?  It looks like THIS!” 

            I have no doubt that we’ll be able to continue this top-notch play for the rest of the season and right on into the playoffs.  Yes, Plaxico had a huge game against the Packers last January, and obviously had the game-winning TD catch in the Super Bowl, but this team will be able to adjust to his post-season absence appropriately.  As I heard a Giants’ fan say calling into a radio station, “Are we a better team with Plaxico on the roster?  Yes.  Are we a worse team with him off it?  No – we’re just a different team.”  Well said.

            Putting this behind us, let’s get ready for a huge game this weekend against the Eagles.  It’ll be for the season sweep against them, and all but clinch the division.  In our house.  BRING IT ON!!

            I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving – I know I did (although I did miss the warm weather a whole lot – glad to back out west).  If you want to contact me to discuss the gmen, this week’s game against the Eagles, or even tell me a funny Thanksgiving story (I promise I’ll attempt to respond with a good one of my own), the address is gmensuperfan@gmail.com.  Until next week, GO GMEN!! 

SuperFan: Giants vs. Cardinals (11/25/08)

In Spite of It All

By SuperFan

            Greetings from cold, wet, dreary, depressing New Jersey! (Great to be home for the holidays.)  The one great thing about being back home is my family’s Sunday Gmen ritual was back in full effect – we had the same faces, the same outfits, even the same seating arrangements as last season!  The only thing missing was my buddy Jon, but he’ll be around next weekend.  Oh, I also discovered that the long-sleeved blue shirt that I used all last season doesn’t really work as well this season, so I switched back to my California uniform – Eli Manning Super Bowl jersey.  Obviously, it worked!

            Once again, the Giants have proved that their versatility makes them, by far, the best team in the league.  No Brandon Jacobs, nor Plax (for the most part), and we didn’t even flinch.  Granted, we didn’t get over 200 yards rushing again, but Eli reminded everyone what a great leader he can be.  He’s certainly making a reasonable case for MVP this season – just ask Rich Eisen.

            Now I’m hearing a whole lot of talk about a potential Giants-Jets “subway series” come February, and I can’t say I’m surprised.  There are, however, a few things wrong with that.  First, it wouldn’t be called a “subway series!!”   There’s no subway system to Giants Stadium, and the Super Bowl isn’t a series – it’s one game.  A more appropriate nickname for that match-uip would be, perhaps, the “Swamp Bowl.”  Not only is the Meadowlands a swamp, but this year’s big game is going to be played in Tampa Bay.    Also, I mean, is everyone really convinced the Jets are the clear favorite in the AFC?  Yes, they were the best team in the AFC on Sunday, but that was all.  The Titans are still 10-1.

            I’m very happy for Madison Hedgecock.  He’s been having an amazing season so far (don’t forget – regardless of who’s been running the ball, it’s always the same guy leading the way), so it was only fair for him to finally get himself a touchdown.  And yes, the way he’s been playing, he’ll row all the way to the Pro Bowl.

            What was most impressive about their victory was the fact that the Giants pulled it off, despite the referees doing everything they possibly could to help the Cardinals win it.  I mean, it got obnoxious with how many awful calls were being made (and missed).  How bad was it?  So bad that Coach Coughlin challenged a play, knowing ahead of time it wasn’t reviewable because of a bogus penalty.  I think he only did it so the referee would have to make the crowd (and TV audience) aware of the horribly missed ineligible man downfield penalty.  Shame on you, officials.  I hope you lost your bets.   

            I am a little surprised that Ahmad got so few carries, given that Jacobs didn’t even play.  But, you can’t really complain with a W.  We have ten wins, and we’ve only played eleven games.  Think about that.  This season has continued to be unbelievable week after week.  There’s never been a better time to be a die-hard gmaninite!  Wooooo!!!

            The only other thing I wanted to get off my chest this week was more protest about Kornheiser working in the Monday Night Football booth.  ESPN, is it really necessary to have three guys in there?  What purpose does it serve?  If anything, it confuses the people watching the games more.  Although, it does make me feel REALLY REALLY smart every week, but I’m not sure whether or not that’s a good thing.

            Okay, that’s all.  Have a happy turkey day!  Keep sending me e-mails at gmensuperfan@gmail.com, and until next week, GO GMEN!!