Monday, September 17, 2012

SuperFan: Giants vs. Buccaneers (9/17/12)


A Tale of Two Halves
By SuperFan

It was the worst of halves; it was the best of halves.  Well, first things first, welcome to the 2012 season, Giants’ fans!  Sorry about the no-show last week - I say we pretend the first game was really the fifth preseason game, since that’s how our defending Super Bowl champion Giants’ treated it.  Besides, if there’s one thing our 21st century championship teams have in common, it’s ugly week one losses.  No harm, no foul (Dallas shmallus - it’s not like getting swept by the Cowboys kept us from winning it all in 2007, anyway).
I hope everyone had as much fun during the offseason as I did.  Did anyone catch the “America’s Game” for the 2011 New York Giants?  Oh man, it’s fantastic.  That did for the Giants’ die-hard fan in me what “Inglorious Basterds” did for the Jew in me.  Pure joy.

After two weeks, our Giants our 1-1.  Let’s relive yesterday’s wild win: 

Bagels and Lox
            Without the crazy weekday-5:30-game-start mumbo jumbo to worry about, it was like old times early Sunday morning when JJ came over to watch the game with Joe, Vandy, and myself.  Same environment, though slightly altered viewing arrangement.  By the time the Giants turned around, it looked as such - me on the couch, JJ on the recliner, Joe on the couch against the walls.  Yes fans, these things matter.
Of all the crazy superstitions JJ and I had last season during the gmen’s improbable super bowl run, there was one I never knew existed until JJ arrived at my place just before 10 am on Sunday.  “Man, I hope it’s cool that I just made myself eggs this morning,” JJ mumbled.  Apparently JJ went to Ralph’s for a bagel and lox breakfast before every early game last season.  I had no idea.  But, in all fairness, how often to ask your friends what they had for breakfast when you’re getting ready to watch football?  Well anyway, halftime rolled around, and JJ left to get his bagel and lox (better late than never).  Then the second half happened.  Hey, I’m not saying, I’m just saying…

A Tough Victory…
            …And I don’t just mean the formation.  Let me get this out of the way right off the bat and move past it - Greg Schiano, I’m from New Jersey and appreciate and admire what you did for the Rutgers football program.  But it’s time for you to grow up.  They were barely above .500 in your tenure.  This isn’t the overrated-despite-being-consistently-terrible Big East, it’s the National Football League.  In the NFL, you have to have class.  Or else you’ll have a lot of angry opponents probably resulting in a lot of cheap injuries on your roster.  Time to get over yourself and understand how things work at the professional level. 

Now, back to the game.  There is one thing the Giants do better than any team in the NFL, and they’ve done it for as long as I can remember.  In sixty minutes of football, the Giants put their fans through every emotion known to man.  If the team were to sell a catalogue of “Giants emoticons,” they might need to create a few extra (how great would an “Eli-face” emoticon be?!  Seriously!).  At the head of this movement towards madness is our quarterback and captain, Eli Manning.  Granted he had receivers swatting away his passes like they were grenades with the pins pulled out, but at least two of those interception were on him.  It also didn’t help things that our running game was, once again, dormant in the first half. 
But everything changed in the second half, and the offense we’ve all been expecting finally showed itself.  A quarterback with over 500 yards passing.  Two top receivers with nearly 200 yards receiving, a touchdown, and (at least) 10 receptions apiece.  Andre Brown coming out of nowhere to provide the spark the offense so desperately needed. 
I think it’s fair to say the first-game-fumble isn’t the only reason David Wilson lost his #2 spot on the depth chart to Andre Brown.  We’d know a lot more about the guy if not for poorly-timed injuries throughout his career, but one thing’s for sure - the 4th-round pick from the 2009 NFL draft can play - and the life he brought to our rushing attack in the second half had as much to do with our comeback victory as anything. 

Despite the final score, our defense played reasonably well, for the most part.  The first half touchdowns all came off of offensive turnovers, with the third being a direct result.  Though I’ll say this all season until something’s done - we can’t rely on our pass rush to alleviate pressure from our secondary.  Like the Bears offensive line woes, the problem with our secondary won’t just go away by ignoring it.  I understand we have guys injured, but we also have starters perfectly healthy.  Antrel Rolle needs to make more plays. Corey Webster has to get faster in open space.  And we desperately need VETERAN DEPTH!  Didn’t’ we keep Deon Grant’s option open for this exact reason?  Is there something I don’t know about?  He should’ve been resigned as soon as Terrell Thomas went down!  Yes, he’s a safety not a quarterback, but I’d still rather have a veteran safety in a nickel or dime slot than the guys currently in there getting beat downfield every drive.  That’s just my humble opinion.

Special teams - HOW DARE YOU let that kick return happen to start the second half after the horrible way the first half came to an end!  It allowed them to drive the field for an easy field goal in the blink of an eye, and just like that we were down two scores instead of one when Eli finally got the ball in the second half.  Good thing our quarterback is awesome.

I don’t think these replacement refs understand how to call pass interference, as was evident on nearly every pass thrown to Hakeem Nicks.  It seemed like he was being manhandled every time he went down field, and he still came out of it with insane numbers.  If things went a little differently, that would be a much bigger deal this morning.  I think.  As Peter King pointed out in his MMQB article this morning, the players are now taking advantage of the replacement officials and are pushing them to see what they can get away with.  So far, they’ve gotten away with quite a lot.

Offensive Player of the Week:  Eli Manning.  No one can put a bad first half behind him like Eli.  The guy’s insane.  Most quarterbacks would crumble after such a horrible first half.  Not Eli.  How does he respond?  With the game of his already remarkable career.  (Honorable mentions - Andre Brown, Hakeem Nicks, Victor Cruz).

Defensive Player of the Week:  Jason Pierre-Paul.  Four tackles, and his first sack of the season.  Let’s hope it’s the first of many. 

Non-Gmen Thoughts of the Week:
  • ·      These aren’t your older brother’s Fighting Irish.  Granted it’s only been three games, but this doesn’t look like the same Irish teams from a few years ago that got overhyped after early season wins.  These guys are tough, talented, and very fast.  And I think they can hang with the big dogs.  Will we finally get a relevant Notre Dame football team for the first time this century?  Looks like we just might…
  • ·      Saw “The Master.”  Great performances, good movie.  But there wasn’t anything nearly as entertaining as when Daniel Day-Lewis kicked the crap out of Paul Dano at the end of “There Will Be Blood,” that’s for sure.  Unless you’re really into fondling sand.  
  • ·      I think I’ve been cursed to suck at fantasy football.  When friends saw my roster before the season started, they thought I cheated or simply played with a pack of blind-deaf-mutes.  Yet I’m lucky to be 1-1 after this week (tonight’s game won’t matter, I’m already toast), and now my stud running back and tight end are injured.  Grrr.
  • ·      It took a very long time, but a few co-workers finally got me into Doctor Who (the 2005 reboot).  Currently near the end of season two.  Awesome.  Though it’s hard for me not to see David Tennant as one of Voldemort’s evil minions.


Final Thoughts:
            We’re 1-1 after two weeks.  Right in the thick of it.  Short week, but hopefully those who were banged up Sunday can play.  And hopefully all the Giants’ fans out there at least have friends with DirectTV so they can watch the game Thursday night (thanks again JJ).  To talk all things giants, you can e-mail me at gmensuperfan@gmail.com, find me on Facebook under the name “Gmen Superfan,” or follow me on Twitter under the name “gmensuperfan1.”  Until next week, GO GMEN!





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