Two Ugly Wins
Still Make a Right
By Superfan
First of
all, I hope everyone is safe and protected back east, and wish you the best in
this tough, ugly weather. And speaking
of ugly, how about Sunday’s victory? On
the road against a tough division rival, with a record of 1-2 in the NFC East,
all that mattered was leaving with a W.
And we did, for the fourth time in as many tries in Jerry’s obnoxious
excuse for a football stadium. If Jerry
Jones put half the work into letting qualified professionals run his football
operations as he does worrying about making profits, they might actually put a contender
on the field some time this century. I
can imagine Wellington Mara up above, looking down and laughing hysterically, “That
guy still thinks he can be a General Manager?”
That
advantage was never more apparent than on Sunday. Because let’s face it, our offense played
horribly. Our defense took advantage of
Romo’s many mistakes, but this game should’ve been a laugher. We put forth one of our ugliest efforts of
the season, and we still won. Because Jerry
Jones, Tony Romo, and the rest of the Cowgirls can’t be outdone in their house,
even in a contest of sloppy plays.
Despite nearly flat-lining most of the Giants’ fan base in those final
minutes, let’s go back and relive the ugly win that was…
The View From Home
Halloween
weekend is always guaranteed to have its myriad casualties, and this year was
no exception. I want to take this time
to go on a bit of a tangent and accept my share of the responsibilities for San
Diego’s brutal loss to Cleveland. I was
unable to make it to Jerry’s to watch the games this past weekend, and in
responding the day before I sent him a kiss-of-death e-mail: “though
I really don't see the browns being a trap game for you guys tomorrow, should
be a breeze…” Remembering I’d sent that
the day before, I kept checking the Chargers score, hoping they’d come
back. They never did. Jerry, I shouldn’t have written that. My bad.
Anyhow,
the usual crowd was over for the game.
JJ, myself, Joe and Vandy. Things
were fantastic early on, and we were loving every minute of it. Though it was very frustrating watching us
settle for field goals after so many big defensive plays. It’s basically a two-for-one deal, so when
Dallas started their scoring with a touchdown, it was a little troubling. When they came back and took the lead, it was
miserable. I can’t tell you how many
times JJ and I switched seats while Joe was out. We even moved Vandy around from couch to
couch. Here are a few of the many insane texts I sent
my dad while watching the game, that I’m sure you’ll get a kick out of in
retrospect:
- · (early second quarter) “Man…Eli’s making all the throws, receivers aren’t making plays.”
- · (very soon after) “WOW…JUST AWESOME…JPP’S A MONSTER!!”
- · (midway through the third quarter) “having a terrible game…I’m gonna be sick”
- · (early fourth quarter) “I can’t remember the last time I was this pissed while in the lead”
- · (moments later) “This game is shaving years off my lifespan”
- · (last two minutes):
o
DAD
- “Unreal. Too close too call. TD.
______.”
o
ME
- “No his hand hit the line…even Troy said so” (still love that)
o
(It
got a little ugly after that…let’s just say it’s a good thing Troy was right…)
So a
peek into the ridiculous stuff that runs through the brain of a maniac (or
die-hard fan, whichever term you’d prefer), and the sage wisdom that passes
from father to son on football Sundays.
By the time the game ended, I felt
like I’d survived multiple heart attacks.
Or a dark, isolated viewing of The Shining. It was exhausting, but a relief
nonetheless.
A Doozy in Dallas
Despite the offense’s lack of
production given their starting field position most of the first half (and the
game), it’s hard to pin much blame on Eli. I remember thinking in the game’s
early moments, “wasn’t I just saying this about RG3 while watching the Redskins
play those counselors from Camp Bumblebee?”
I counted eight drops in the first half.
Might be more, but eight alone is far too many.
And Ahmad, it shouldn’t always take
a fumble to get you revved up.
Especially after your tirades last week, you HAVE TO protect the ball
better. Fortunately they punted, but
still, we were starting at our own 40 on that drive. Need to take advantage of good field position
at all times.
Great to see our pass rush playing really well once
again. But as great as Stevie Brown and
a few other secondary players have been, there are times where receivers get
way too wide open. Especially in the
middle of the field. Everyone knows
Jason Witten is Romo’s favorite target. Yet
he caught the ball 18 times. Now for this week’s awards:
Offensive Player of the Game
- Andre Brown.
Andre Brown was the only offensive
player to get into the end zone all game, despite our defense making several
turnovers deep in Dallas territory early on.
Defensive Player of the Game
- (TIE) Jason Pierre-Paul and Stevie Brown. The former had a
sack and a pick-six. The latter had sick
tackles, two picks, and a fumble recovery.
Can you really pick one over the other here?
Special Teams Player of the
Game - Lawrence Tynes. The only part of our offense that was
consistently successful all day, Tynes was a perfect 5-for-5 on field goals and
2-for-2 on extra points. His final two
field goals gave us the lead and sealed it on Sunday.
Non-Gmen Thoughts
of the Week:
- · Love and honor (and props) to my alma mater for knocking off the previously unbeaten, top-25 ranked Ohio Bobcats. Go Redhawks!
- · While we’re on it, HOW BOUT THOSE FIGHTING IRISH!! They absolutely deserve their ranking, no doubt. I promise, now that Oregon will be playing legitimate opponents, they won’t be blowing anyone out like they have been. You Ducks can keep rolling up scores like you’re playing Madden on Rookie level. We’ve still got the better strength of the schedule, and the poll that matters reflects that appropriately. Not to look too far ahead, but watch out USC! And please, don’t choke anymore until we face you at the end of the season - we want our victory to actually mean something.
- · The San Francisco Giants have now won two of the last three world series. To quote Bob Uecker from Major League II, “Great. I think I’ll wet my pants.” But seriously, besides fans in the Bay Area (I’m not forgetting about you, J-ron and Mike) does anyone even care? Granted I’m a pissed off, jilted, biased Yankees fan, but it doesn’t change the fact that last night’s game was probably blown out of the water ratings-wise by the Sunday night game. And I’ll bet the national newspapers gave college and pro football recaps bigger headline space Monday morning than they gave the champs of the baseball world. Oh, how far our national pastime has fallen. And to think the sport thought it was “fixing things” with its absurd new rules concerning the wild card teams.
- · I really wish LA had decent sports radio after 9am. Instead, I have to choose between Jim Rome and Colin Cowherd. They’re both such clowns. Like trying to choose between Chris Martin and Bono for most narcissistic, unnecessary human being alive. It’s a choice no self-respecting person should have to make, and one they’ll only make if they absolutely have no other choice in the matter. It also reminds me of just how little the mainstream sports media respects fans’ intelligence.
Looking Ahead…
Here’s
where things usually get tricky. 6-2 is
becoming a familiar start for Coughlin’s Giants. It’s November that usually provides a small,
panic-inducing losing skid. Can’t let
that happen this week. Pittsburgh,
thought too old for their own good a few weeks ago, will come to town having
won two big games in a row. Even with
Polamalu out, this is never a team to be taken for granted. The defense has to come out strong again, and
the offense has to respond as well.
Can’t settle for field goals off of turnovers - need to turn those into
touchdowns. We got this! ALL IN, BABY!
To talk all things Giants, send an e-mail to gmensuperfan@gmail.com, find me on
Facebook under the user name “Gmen Superfan,” or follow me on Twitter under the
handle “@gmensuperfan1.” Until next
week, GO GMEN!!