SuperFan: Giants vs. Cardinals (10/27/09)

Superfan – Not Yet Time to Panic…

…But there’s certainly just cause for concern. I was thoroughly shocked watching the game Sunday night at the level of apathy displayed by our Gmen in their ugly loss to the Cardinals. I really and truly believed that we were going to step onto the field Sunday night and pound the ball right through that Arizona defense. Unfortunately, the opposite was the case for our Gmen at the Meadowlands. And I say OUR Gmen, not the Gmen, because I feel its necessary to remind everyone that we’ve got to stick by the Giants, win or lose. I’ll tell you what– it’s a damn good thing the Yankees clinched the pennant Sunday night, or else the New York sports columns would have been filled with Giant trash talk all Monday morning. Instead, there was cause for celebration, and it kept the loss in perspective (the trash talking got moved back a few pages).
In all seriousness, however, a two-game losing streak headed into Week 8 is no reason for people to start saying the five previous wins were a fluke. Are the teams we played and lost to in the last two weeks far more talented than the five teams we beat to open the season? Absolutely. But that shouldn’t take away from those wins. We beat up on the teams we were supposed to beat up on. You couldn’t have asked for much more from the Giants in those games. Now we’ve played two games against two top-tier NFC contenders, and lost them both. Should we be concerned? Absolutely.
You could say there might have been legitimate “excuses” for why the Giants lost the way they did the week before. Hostile environment, long flight, arguable calls, and the Saints were coming off the bye week. Again, those are just excuses, albeit somewhat reasonable. But there’s no reason to lose at home the way we did the other day. We simply played poorly in all phases of the game. Eli started off the game with two good, quick completions, and then went nearly silent the rest of the night, with the exception of one lucky tipped pass that resulted in a Hakeem Nicks touchdown. Similarly, Brandon Jacobs ran the ball very well to start the game, then for whatever reason seemed to lose the ability to find the running lanes (same goes for Ahmad). For the second week in a row, our secondary looked like a piece of Swiss cheese going through a shredder. Heck, even Feagles looked out of sorts! You don’t see that happen often (or ever, for that matter).
On top of that, we couldn’t help but commit stupid penalties at the absolute worst times all game long (mostly on 3rd downs). There were some very costly delay-of-game penalties, as well as a few ugly encroachment penalties against the D. All in all, very sloppy. Another thing to be concerned with was the play of the offensive line. For the first time in a long time, Eli seemed to be scrambling out of the pocket quite often, and the running backs got hardly any push at all. Not to say that missing one starter is grounds for a complete offensive line shutdown, but there was a very noticeable drop in productivity from the big guys up front without Kareem McKenzie.

Are the hopes of the Giants winning this division in dominant fashion for the second straight year no longer a possibility? Is it possible that maybe this team just isn’t as good as everyone thought they were, and instead just a slightly-above-average team which can only win big over bad teams? Absolutely not.

This was simply a wake-up call. The Giants had it pretty easy for the first quarter or so of the season, and it looks like they simply became a little complacent. Yes, injuries aren’t helping things, but we’ve already seen the depth this defense has, and its ability to fill in seamlessly. It was also the first time in a long time that I’ve seen Eli have the ball, down one score, late in the fourth quarter, and not come away with points. You have to give Kevin Boss some credit for the incredible catch he made, one that had every Gmen fan beginning to get that “we’re gonna pull this out” feeling, only to have it ripped away soon after by an unnecessary fumble by Ahmad Bradshaw who tried to make too much happen at the end of a play, instead of just going down. And I can’t begin to understand what Eli was thinking with those throws into double coverage late in the game. The best thing that could happen is either your receiver makes a ridiculous play (we’d already had it happen twice before with Boss and Steve Smith), or the ball falls harmlessly to the ground. Do it enough, and one of those passes are bound to get picked off. And that’s just what happened. Chalk that one up to poor decision-making late in the game.
What I’m trying to get at with all this ranting is that it’s not as though the Giants took the field Sunday night, left it all out on the field, and simply lost to the better team. Instead, for the second straight week, a good team came ready to play, and we didn’t. Some might want to criticize the play-calling or the disputable calls, but if the players simply execute what’s called for them (offensively and defensively), the Giants are 7-0 right now. This is a point I’d have to think the players and coaches are aware of, and we can only hope they regain that spark and start playing the high caliber, dominant Giants football us spoiled football fans have become so accustomed to. And who better to bounce back against than Philly?!

I decided to head over to my friend Jerry’s house up in Simi Valley to watch the games this past Sunday, for the second time, and this time my buddy JJ came with. We had to show up after the early games had ended, since I’m pretty sure Jerry thinks I’m bad luck ever since I went over to watch the Chargers get dismantled by Pittsburgh several weeks ago. We showed up, the Chargers had already beaten down the Chiefs, and all was well. Like last time, the food was amazing. For the afternoon games, we had marinated chicken wings (spicy as hell, but equally delicious), and for the big Gmen Sunday night game, we had marinated chicken and beef kabob, with garlic bread, both of which were some of the tastiest treats I’d ever eaten.
After watching the 1:00 pm games (4:00 pm EST) outside among the awesome tailgate-esque set-up, we came inside to watch the Giants. And, since the game had been rained out the night before, we had game six of the ALCS playing on the television in the next room. Funny tidbit – in the second quarter, just before the Giants went up 7-0, JJ decided to spend some time in the other room, and was in there for Jacobs’ touchdown run. Then, when he came back out later, the Cardinals scored to tie the game. It was then that I suggested perhaps he stay in the other room when Arizona had the ball. When he did the same thing in the third quarter (with the Giants up 14-10), having come from the Yankee-viewing room to watch the Gmen, only to have Arizona practically walk in a touchdown run, we (I) decided it would be best for him to just stay in the other room. He (reluctantly) obliged, but by then it was too late – the damage had already been done. Besides, I’m sure JJ had a much better time watching the Yankees win than I did watching the Giants get beat.
After the game clock read 0:00, we switched the main TV over to Fox just in time to catch the Yankees clinching the pennant. I have to admit it was a very strange feeling to celebrate the same night as a Giants loss, but in the grand scheme of New York sports, there’s no doubt that the Yankees pennant-clinching win was far more important and impactful than the regular season loss was for our Gmen.

Now on to my random musings for the week:

• HOW ABOUT THEM NEW YORK YANKEES!!!! As upset as I was to have been at the potential series-clinching game 5, only to see them lose, I’m very glad they had the opportunity to clinch the pennant at home in the first year at their new stadium. So far, they’ve had quite the season to kick off this new era of arguably the greatest franchise in the history of professional sports (along with the G-men, of course)!
• Go figure, the first Giants – Eagles game falls on the weekend just after a Yankees-Phillies World Series gets under way. Almost feel sorry for the rest of the country. Ah, who am I kidding…THIS IS INSANE!! Does everyone realize that in the span of a little more than a week, we can completely tear apart the hearts of all Philadelphia sports fans?? Mets fans, even you now have a reason to root for the Yankees! All-in-all, it’s the chance of a lifetime, folks. Can’t let it go to waste.
• Speaking of Philly-New York relations, am I the only Giants fan (born and raised in New Jersey) who’s incredibly bothered by the fact that most South Jersey residents root for the Eagles? YOU LIVE IN THE SAME STATE THAT THE GIANTS PLAY IN!!! And don’t give me that “proximity” crap. Your home state is your home state. Be proud of it – don’t let the enemy claim part of it! Freakin’ Philly, man. What a headache.

Alright, all this Philly-hating is making me incredibly antsy. We got the World Series getting under way on Wednesday, and a huge game in Philly on Sunday. It’s Philly week, in so many ways! Get ready! Any questions or comments, the e-mail address is gmensuperfan@gmail.com. Also, I’m on facebook under the name “Gmen Superfan.” Until next week, GO GMEN!!!!