If My Broken Walls
Could Talk, They’d Scream Bloody Mercy
By Superfan
Well, that
was frustrating. I mean really, really
frustrating. Then again, we shouldn’t be
too surprised. We’d won two games in a
row and the country was suddenly putting us in the top ten for power
rankings. No backs against any walls. People were even picking us to win a
divisional game on the road! That
should’ve been a clear sign of doom.
On the
bright side, we’ve made it to October.
Historically, October’s a good month for the Giants. Since winning Super Bowl 42, Coughlin’s Gmen
are 12-4 in October. It’s the month
where we usually string a bunch of wins together, getting our hopes up before a
midseason falter. If we can straighten
things out and get consistent play on defense, maybe we can even prevent a
collapse before settling into dire straights.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
We’re only through a quarter of the season. So about Sunday night…
It Didn’t Work, So
(according to Bud Light) It Was Just Weird…
First dark
omen of the day - JJ came over having (AGAIN) forgotten all about his bagel and
lox. “Well, I didn’t have any on
Thursday, and that was a prime time game.”
NO!
Well, yes, it’s a prime time game,
but prime time weekday and prime time Sunday are VERY different. On a Thursday you only have the time to do
what your work day allows. On Sunday,
you have all day. Maybe shift some
routines to a later hour (not even that late on the West coast), but you should
still be able to get all normal routines accomplished. Instead of my bagel and lox for breakfast on
Sunday, for instance, I had mine for lunch.
Small adjustment. Fortunately JJ
arrived early and had time enough to run over to Ralph’s to acquire the good
luck goods, but it didn’t seem to help.
Joe moved from the far left couch
to the left side of the main couch, but I don’t think that mattered too
much. He was still on my left. JJ and I even went so far as to order the
same pizza from the same place we did on Thursday against the Panthers, though
as I’m writing this I’m realizing how contradictory that was compared to what I
wrote in the previous paragraph. It was
a Sunday night game, and we went to a successful Thursday night trick. Maybe that was it. We crossed the streams. We mixed Thursday night routines with
regular, definitive Sunday superstitions.
Now we know. Oh yes, we know now. Won’t happen again.
Phretful in Philly
You had to
accept the fact going in that Sunday night’s game would be an ugly one. Fine.
I figured as long as it was a close game in the fourth quarter, we’d be
fine. Look at that, I’m getting ahead of
myself again. Backpedaling…
Things didn’t look great from the get go. After Andre Brown’s performance in Carolina,
and Ahmad coming back off of injury, most fans figured we’d be spoiled with our
plethora of weapons in the backfield.
But neither Andre or Ahmad showed up.
The great work the offensive line did against Carolina was non-existent
against Philly’s front seven. And the
one time we did get a big play in the first quarter (Eli’s long pass to Marty
Bennett setting us up nicely in Eagles’ territory) it was erased by a holding
penalty. Sloppy play loses games against
divisional opponents! Though our defense
held up pretty well, and we went into halftime down 7-3.
As bad as
our secondary may have looked in retrospect, the fact remains the defense held
Philly to just three Alex Henery field goals the entire second half. Can’t blame this one on the defense.
We had all
the momentum in the world going into the fourth quarter. Down only three, having just converted a
fourth and one on a big pass play, with the ball in Eli’s capable hands on their
ten yard line. And then Eli Manning,
MISTER FOURTH QUARTER, throws a pick in their end zone. I thought we’d gotten rid of the old
Eli! Still, our defense held them to
just three points, and Eli responded by driving us down the field nicely for a
touchdown and a one-point lead. All
should’ve been right with the world. But
then our defense let Philadelphia do what it absolutely shouldn’t have. They let them run nearly five full minutes
off the clock, driving the length of the field and taking the lead on a field
goal, leaving us less than two minutes and zero timeouts.
Still, we had
Eli. Just a few big plays, we’re in
field goal range. But on first down,
Victor Cruz slipped. Incomplete. Second down, David Baas had another (one of
what seemed like a hundred) horrible shotgun snap into the ground that forced
Eli to give up on the play, despite a miraculous ability to grab the ball, spin
around, and throw it away. Fortunately
we were bailed out on a couple big defensive penalties, and found ourselves in
easily makeable field goal range. Then
Eli threw a horrible pass to Barden deep down the sideline that (on further
inspection) really forced him to commit a big offensive pass interference
penalty (if Barden hadn’t molested him, the ball would’ve been picked). 2nd and 19, no timeouts, 21
seconds on the clock, ball’s on the 36 yard line. The sensible call would be to go for a play
that picks up enough to move us into field goal range, spike it on 3rd
down (if need be), and kick the field goal.
But alas, Gilbride called a deep ball to Hixon that sailed incomplete,
and with no other option we were forced to go for a 53-YARD FIELD GOAL ON 3RD
DOWN! Even Andy Reid’s effort to give us
a second chance by calling a “freeze the kicker” timeout didn’t pay off. We lost 19-17, and the poor effort in those
last few plays is going to piss off Giants fans for quite a while.
It wasn’t
all bad, though. Really liked what I saw
out of David Wilson in the return game - think we might finally have something
here. On a lot of those returns he was
just one or two broken tackles away from taking it to the house. How great would that be, for the Giants to
finally be a team that’s a threat in the return game? What a load off Eli’s shoulders if that were
the case.
Despite the losing effort, let’s give some awards:
Offensive Player of
the Game - Eli Manning. He had a bad
pick, but on a day when receivers were slipping, running backs couldn’t get
positive yards, and the pass rush was applying constant pressure, Eli had a
pretty good game. Over three hundred
yards, completed more than 50% of his passes, and more touchdown passes than
interceptions. Should be good enough to
win. Almost was.
Defensive Player of
the Game - Chase Blackburn. If the
secondary was the “bend,” then Chase was the “but don’t break.” Eight tackles and a sack? I can’t name a defensive coordinator who
wouldn’t love that output every week.
With Phillips going down with a sprained MCL, the linebackers will have
to step it up in a big way every week.
Special Teams Player
of the Game - David Wilson. Take
away that holding penalty on his return in the second quarter, and just about
every return he had was huge. For the
first time in a long time, every Giants fan got really excited when a
returnable kick came our way.
Non-Gmen Thoughts
of the Week:
- · I really am doomed in fantasy. Dennis Pitta and Marty Bennett - zero points. Steve Smith - four points. Atlanta’s supposedly-unstoppable defense - one point (the last two sentences shouldn’t make any sense either - Carolina runs and throws all over Atlanta, but the one guy who doesn’t contribute is the one guy I need points from). Of course if I make any changes to my lineup, all of these players/groups will get at least twenty points apiece. Ugh. Every year!
- · Did well in my picks league, though. If Miami could’ve pulled it out against Arizona, I’d have done GREAT. And the Giants against Philly, obviously. Thanks for reminding me. Jeez!
- · Looper - AWESOME! You don’t have to spend half the movie explaining the intricate details of time travel to make an awesome time travel movie. You just need great actors and an awesome premise. Check. And check.
- · How in love with Doctor Who have I gotten since my coworkers got me into it? My sonic screwdriver came in the mail yesterday. It’s awesome. It buzzes, it lights up, and it even comes with a UV pen that you can only see with its UV light. Sometimes, being a dork is just great.
- · Dallas got dismantled by Chicago last night. That was fun to watch, and really helped washed the stink off from Sunday night’s loss. When in doubt, just turn on Tony Romo and watch him throw 5 picks. If that doesn’t make you smile, you’re not really a Giants fan.
Looking Ahead…
Don’t think
I forgot what happened the last time we played Cleveland coming off a Super
Bowl win. You shouldn’t either. Always a trap game. Need to start off fast and never take our
foot off the gas. We do that, from a
pure talent standpoint, we should be fine.
To talk all things Giants you can 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
user handle “@gmensuperfan1.” Tough
loss, but like Dallas, we’ll get another shot later in the year. Ignore Inside the NFL this week if you have
to. Gotta flush it and move on. Remember, we’re 2-2, not 0-4 or even
1-3. Plenty of season left. Until next week, GO GMEN!!
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