Recipe for a
Blowout
By Superfan
Hey Giants
fans! Hope everyone had a great holiday
break. The Gmen certainly did their part
to help make it so. What a huge win that
was! Really shows you how important that
bye week is. You could start to see the
wear on our Giants from having such a late bye, not to mention the Sandy mess
being thrown in there. But with two
weeks rest, we looked FANTASTIC. What
stood out most of all was the improvement of our offensive line. Yes, the Packers had starters watching on the
sideline. But, they also had plenty of
guys hurt the year they won the super bowl.
As did the Gmen last season.
Don’t care. They have depth on D,
and our line made great holes for Ahmad and Andre and equally great pockets for
Eli. The result was a 38-10 blowout of
the Pack at the Meadowlands Sunday night, bringing their five-game winning
streak to a screeching halt.
And, (with the help of an inspiring
fan’s visit - I’ll get to that later) it reminded the country of two very
important factors: (1) a few losses in
November are a VERY small thing to a Giant, and (2) we’re STILL the defending
world champs, and until proven otherwise, will always be the team to beat in
the NFL. Let’s go back and review a
great finish to a great holiday weekend --
The View From Cold
I’ll admit
it - living in California for nearly five years has turned me into a COMPLETE
AND UTTER WUSS. I don’t do well in cold
weather. Period. But I’m okay with it - not really a factor
anymore for the most part. But when I do
come back east to visit around the holidays, I’m a non-stop whining machine. I’d love to say I admire my friends and
family for putting up with it, but they don’t put up with it. So the whining is met with rational
hostility, which in turn is met with defensive aggression, and the whole thing
turns into a cycle of bitching. There
you have it. My visits home during the
cold weather months in a nutshell - a cycle of bitching. That sounds like the title of a book for
dealing with menstrual cramps, but I’m getting off topic…
As I just
mentioned, I went back east last week for the Thanksgiving holiday. Had a lot of fun seeing friends and family,
and of course stuck around for the game Sunday night. With family in town, our normal seats went to
my aunt’s family who were in town visiting, and my dad and I sat up in the
suite. Even though I’m sure my Aunt’s reading
this article, I’ll admit I was a little nervous that our family members in town
from Wisconsin were sitting in our seats at a Giants-Packers game. Fortunately, their youngest son (Jared) is a
Giants fan (and therefore a better person than most), so with his cheering and
my forbidding her to wear a cheese-head or cheer too much for the Pack, the bad
juju was kept to a minimum.
My dad and I went on the field for
a little bit before kickoff to watch the teams get ready and say hi to a few
people. He insisted on going over to say
hi to Aaron Rodgers near the visitors’ locker room, and who was I to say no? The last Giants’ home game I went to was the
Cowboys game that ended last regular season, and I went over with my dad to see
Jerry Jones before that one started. I
smiled through gritted teeth, mumbled something under my breath, it was over
before my hand got infected, and the Giants won easily. Why not meet the enemy once more?
After
wishing Aaron good luck (and mumbling “you’re gonna need it” under my breath,
which he did), my dad and I headed up to the suite. We stopped by
Judy Coughlin’s to say hello, and I heard one remarkable Thanksgiving
story. Turns out Judy’s sink broke in the middle of the day while
she and her family were preparing the Thanksgiving meal. For those
with little-to-no experience in the kitchen on Thanksgiving Day, it’s like
losing your internet connection at the beginning of an online fantasy
draft. There’s nothing you can do. UNLESS YOU’RE JUDY
COUGHLIN, and are basically a superhero. Somehow, someway, she
managed to acquire the services of a very kind and generous plumber, who came
over and fixed everything in plenty of time, and Thanksgiving was
saved. To most, it would be a story of tragedy. For Judy,
it’s the story of heroic triumph in the face of certain doom. Much
like her family’s football team.
After
saying hi we made it to the suite and settled in for kickoff. My dad stood most of the game, and I
sat/stood in the row in front of him. We
were all Giants fans except one person.
He kept quiet. We also shared the
company of the very funny Tracy Morgan, who did not disappoint. I was worried I was going to make a fool of
myself by being too fanatical, but with Tracy there, it became a moot
point. The guy LOVES the Giants, and is
very vocal about it. He had us all going
wild, and it was a great experience during a great performance. At first things were a little shaky, when the
Pack tied it at seven immediately following our opening touchdown drive. Obnoxious Packers fans in the suites to our
left were dancing and pointing at one another.
Needless to say the Gmen’s dominance kept them securely seated and quiet
from that point on. We ate, we drank, we
cheered, we laughed, and in the end, we celebrated a dominant win over the
Packers. All was well at the
Meadowlands, and it made for a wonderful flight West the next morning.
If Anyone Needs the Packers’ Number, the Giants Have It…
…On
speed dial. Seriously. The last three times we’ve faced them
(including playoffs) - Giants 110, Packers 68.
As was the case recently with the Patriots, you can only use the “you
caught them on an off day” once or twice.
That’s not the case anymore. Hate
on Gilbride as much as you want (I typically do), but he knows how to score on
Dom Capers.
As
I mentioned earlier, the Giants had a very inspiring fan meet with them prior
to the game. He was Adam Merchant, a
15-year-old who spent practice and the game with the Giants thanks to the
Make-A-Wish Foundation. And his speech
to the team, which carried its theme through meetings, practices, and the game
itself, consisted of him asking our Gmen to “play like World Champions.” It was exactly what they needed to hear, and
exactly what they did last Sunday night.
I
mentioned our offensive line playing lights out. They did all night, especially when we ran to
the right. Eli had a couple questionable
passes, but played great for the most part.
If not for a few early drops, his fantasy night might’ve been even more
mind-boggling. A terrible shame to hear
about Andre Brown’s fibula, but what happened happened. Time for David Wilson to step up behind Ahmad.
The
defense looked incredibly solid as well.
The pass rush was all over Rodgers all night, and the coverage (except
Webster getting beat by Jordy Nelson early) played lights out. And Webster made up for it quickly anyway
with his heads-up pick that set us up in field goal range. We got turnovers and scored on (most of)
them. All-in-all, a great game in all
three phases. The only part that still
troubles me is Reuben Randle returning punts.
He lucked out, but almost fumbled away two punt returns. If anyone knows the importance of a good punt
returner, it’s Giants fans (and 49er fans). Now for some awards:
Offensive Player of the Game - Eli Manning. His three
touchdown passes gave him 200 total, putting him ahead of Phil Simms for most
all-time in franchise history. But,
unlike Phil, Eli has only the highest regards for his fellow Giants legend.
Defensive Player of the Game - Mathias Kiwanuka. Five tackles and
two sacks. Chase Blackburn was a close
second, as he was all over the field, including a sack and a few tipped passes. Could also give this to the entire pass rush,
to be honest. Great game on all three
levels.
Non-Gmen Thoughts of the Week:
-
· That’s what I’m talking about, Notre Dame! HOW BOUT THOSE IRISH! In USC, no less. Got to watch my Irish get themselves into the National Championship Game the night before watching the Gmen demolish the Pack. Talk about a great sports weekend. And to the Irish haters, bring on Bama or Georgia. ND will surprise you once more, as they have all year.
- · Saw Life of Pi 3D over the holiday. Has to be the front-runner for Best Picture so far. Though I also want to see Silver Linings Playbook, even if it is about a bunch of dirty, probably smelly Eagles fans (please don’t let Jennifer Lawrence be an Eagles’ fan in real life…I really want her to remain my celebrity crush for a while longer).
- · Damn you, Target. Your Black Friday commercials are horrifyingly catchy.
- · How I Met Your Mother is funny again. Thank God. I was so close to giving up completely.
- · Fantasy football was a total bust this year. I was hoping I could at least beat my roommate head to head, and that would make missing the playoffs worth it. But nope, he beat me by one point. Grrrr.
- · Fireman Ed, cry me a river. Seriously. Worried about fans getting too hostile? Can’t believe what society’s done to fans all of a sudden? WAS THAT YOUR FIRST JETS GAME?!?!?! Only the Raiders and Eagles have more hostile, obnoxious, and annoying fan bases. If you’re gonna quit on your team, then at least man up and be honest about it. Don’t blame it on Jets fans being too hostile. That’s like suddenly not wanting to go to a Motley Crüe concert because the music’s too loud. I don’t buy it for a second.
Looking Ahead…
We’re
in Washington next Monday night, and then we’re into the home stretch - final
four games of the season! Let’s get
another great run going! Can’t let up at
all - won’t be any room to (even against Philly - divisional matchup’s a
divisional matchup no matter what - and they always bring it against us). To talk all things Giants, you can e-mail me
at gmensuperfan@gmail.com, find me
on Facebook under the user name “Gmen Superfan,” or follow me on Twitter using
the handle “@gmensuperfan1.” Until next
week, GO GMEN!!
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