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!!
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