Tuesday, October 23, 2012

SuperFan: Giants vs. Redskins (10/23/12)


Lingering Pains
By Superfan

            And when I say lingering pains, I mean that in the nicest way possible.  Because Washington’s newest offensive threats - Robert Griffin III and Alfred Morris - are going to be just that for our Gmen for years to come.  Once they hired Bruce Allen to work with Coach Shanahan down in Landover, most NFC East fans new it was a matter of time before the tandem started making its presence felt.  With Ryan Kerrigan last year and Griffin III and Morris this year, it’s pretty impressive to see just how quickly they’ve changed things around.  The team that used to be the “light” divisional matchup is now looking like our biggest threat to take the division.  
            I was getting a little worried last week with most experts picking us to win and celebrating our awesomeness (that’ll only get worse this week, by the way), but low and behold the Giants went out and took care of business.  This is a team with guys who never question whether the outcome will be in their favor.  They have too much faith in their quarterback and their own ability to ever have a doubt.  This is a team that knows, no matter what, no one is better than their captain when the game’s on the line.  And those are the types of teams that, in the past, have proven tough enough to make legitimate runs at a title defense.

            But let’s cross that bridge when we come to it.  For now, let’s celebrate a huge win against a tough divisional opponent for our Gmen!  Despite giving up 23 points, I think that was one of our best defensive efforts of the season (I’ll get into that in more detail later).  And once again Eli proved there is no one better in the last two minutes of a ballgame.  Let’s review that topsy-turvy, voice-killing, frustrating nail-biter of a win last Sunday:

The View From Home
            Back home after last week’s traveling, it was business as usual at the McClellan duplex.  The viewing party consisted of JJ, Joe, Vandy, and myself.  I got up nice and early to get my typical N.Y. Bagel and Deli breakfast, and JJ showed up (this time prepared) with his bagel and lox from Ralph’s. 
           
Changed the seating up a little bit this week.  JJ was next to me on the couch while Joe (and Vandy) had the recliner.  Not much of note took place while watching the game, though I do remember it was frustrating enough to force me to lose my voice from all the screaming before the final whistle blew. 
           
I also remember sending this text to my dad just as RG3 completed that fourth and ten late in the fourth - “D had no time to rest bc gilbride refused to run the ball.”  Two plays later, touchdown pass.  But like I said before, I’ll get into that...

Escaping with the Win
            …Later.  Just when I start to show Gilbride some love, he goes and makes me pissed off all over again.  Yes, our offense is productive this season, but I still think it’s very faulty and underwhelming.  Not only can his bad play-calling affect our offense, but it also has negative consequences for our defense.  This was on full display late in the fourth quarter:
           
After a long, 11-play drive, our defense comes up huge and forces a Griffin fumble.  The very next play, Eli throws an interception and puts the defense right back on the field.  Despite hurrying back out there, with our backs against the wall, our defense holds Washington to just a field goal.  The offense comes back out and for a short while runs things smoothly, forcing two timeouts from Washington in a span of five plays.  They have one timeout left, it’s 3rd and one, and this drive (while effective) has only run a couple minutes off the game clock.  We’ve got one of the hottest backs in the league (Ahmad Bradshaw) whose been getting fired up on the sideline wanting to run the ball more.  It seems like a no-brainer - give Bradshaw the ball.  He should be able to gain at least one yard.  No matter what, it’ll probably force the Redskins to use their last timeout.  It’ll also give our defense a little more time to rest up after the exhausting previous two series they’d been on the field for.  But alas, common sense seems to fail our play-caller, and we opt for a back shoulder throw to Nicks near the sideline.  Not only should you not pass it here, but why to the sideline?  So he can get out of bounds and stop the clock for them even if the pass is completed?  So, the clock is stopped and we punt.  Defense back on the field with less than three minutes of game clock having run since they left.  As a nearly direct result, the exhaustion could be seen as RG3 converted on a wild 4th and 10, followed by a perfect 30-yard floater to Santana Moss for a late go-ahead TD. 
In my opinion, the D played it as best they could, but it was only a matter of time before their fatigue became a legitimate liability.  As a defense, when you force the kind of clutch turnovers they did against the weapons the Redskins now have, your offense can’t continue to penalize you for it.  It’s just not right. 

I really don’t know why, after the success our ground game had against San Francisco the week before, the offense would be so quick to abandon it.  Twelve touches for Ahmad?  Of course the yards per carry were low!  Don’t you remember it took a lot of short gains last week before Ahmad finally busted out the big gainers?  How Gildbride’s memory could be that short is beyond me.  Maybe there’s more to it.  I don’t know, just calling it as I saw it.
            Nevertheless, Eli’s insane clutchness in the last two minutes, combined with Cruz’s unbelievable big play ability, made for one hell of an exciting victory in the final moments.  And again, our defense’s ability to force turnovers sealed the deal. 
          
Here’s my last argument about the state of our offense, and then I swear I’ll let it go (at least for the rest of this week) - our mistake-filled, non-opportunistic, poorly called offense still scored 27 points.  The league average is about 23.  Just imagine what could be if we were a little sharper and a little more consistent…        
Here are this week’s awards:

Offensive Player of the Game - Victor Cruz.  You can almost give this award to Martellus Bennett, who had some huge catches throughout the day that saved drives on more than one occasion.  But if Eli were a little more accurate earlier in the day, that game-winning touchdown catch and run Cruz had would have been his second of the day, or rendered completely moot.  Either way, huge day for Senor Salsa!

Defensive Player of the Game - (TIE) Jason Pierre-Paul and Chase Blackburn.  Too close to call, these two were responsible for three of the day’s four forced fumbles, including the victory-sealer at the end.  Pierre-Paul’s forced fumble also counted as a sack of RG3, lifting his season total to four and a half.

Special Teams Player of the Week - Lawrence Tynes.  In a close game, Tynes was perfect, accounting for 9 of our 27 points (2-2 on FGs, 3-3 on XPs).

Non-Gmen Thoughts of the Week:
  • ·      In case you missed it in the past few weeks, I’m taking my Halloween costume VERY seriously this year.  Going as the 10th doctor from Doctor Who.  And let me tell you something - nothing will cause random people more confusion than walking a light blue suit with silver pinstripes to a tailor.  Wonder what they’ll think when I put it on…
  • ·      Was anyone really surprised the Yankees lost?  Me neither.  Jeter or no Jeter, no team deserves to win anything when they hit that terribly.
  • ·      Very excited to see Cloud Atlas this weekend.  Really hope I’m not eating those words in this very section next week.
  • ·      Homeland was great as always, but I can’t help thinking they’ve jumped a little far this early in the season.  (*SPOILERS*) Now that everyone seems to know what’s really going on, is it possible for it not to become a completely different show than it’s been?
  • ·      Maybe I’m a cynic, but what bothers me most about these debates is that it preempts shows I look forward to watching every week.  I really don’t feel like anything said in a debate is completely honest or genuine, anyway.  It’s only about looking more capable than the other guy (again, me = cynic).  I personally know who I’m voting for, and understand nothing said in these debates will change that one bit.  I’d also like to think that, for something as important as this year’s Presidential election, the general public will be responsible enough to find out where these guys stand on the issues the right way, instead of simply relying on attack ads and overly-image-conscious debate responses to help form their opinions.


Looking Ahead:
            Oh, in case you missed it, it’s DALLAS WEEK!  That’s right - Eli’s domination of Jerry’s amusement park of a football stadium should keep right on rolling this weekend.  We really need to remind Dallas what an outlier that week one victory of theirs was in the grand scheme of things.  Here we go, baby!  To talk all things Giants, you can send an e-mail to gmensuperfan@gmail.com, find me on Facebook under the name “Gmen Superfan,” or follow me on Twitter under the handle “@gmensuperfan1.”  Until next week, GO GMEN!!

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