New York Giants News & Notes: Playoff odds, offense
by cjmulrain on Dec 16, 2009 7:00 AM EST
in News
31 comments
- As bleak as things might look, the Giants still have a pretty good chance of making the playoffs this year, according to NFL-forecast.com. They have a 48.7% chance of finishing 2nd in the East, which would all but guarantee them a spot in the playoffs. Nothing's a gimme in the NFL, but the Giants schedule the next three weeks is a lot easier than the Cowboys. It should also be noted that as bad as the Giants have looked for most of the past 8 weeks, they haven't lost to a team with a record worse than 8-5 all season. The 2009 Giants aren't a great team, but they've taken care of business against the teams they are supposed to take care of business against. Hopefully that won't let up against the Redskins and the Panthers.
- Apparently Eli Manning still sees Super Bowl potential in this team. The Giants haven't done much of anything since shellacking the Raiders to suggest that there's a Super Bowl run in them, but then neither had the Cardinals last year, the Giants two years ago, or the Steelers back in 2006. The NFL is a funny league, and a truly dominant regular season team hasn't won the Super Bowl since the 2004 Patriots won their second in a row. I'm not ready to write this team off until the nail is officially in the coffin.
- There's been a lot of talk about how bad the defense has been, but the Giants offense has actually been very good lately. Take away the Denver game and they're averaging just about 28 points a game. Even with the Broncos game they're on pace for their third highest scoring season ever. Whoever you choose to blame for this mess, don't put it on Eli Manning - at the end of this season he will have led 3 of the 4 highest scoring offenses in franchise history. With the talented group of young receivers he has around him, this offense should be very good for a long time. Now it's up to Jerry Reese to sort out the defense.
- Steve Serby takes the Giants defense to task for the "brainlock" they exhibited on the near interception/fumble that was blown dead. I argued after the game that it was a tough play for Boley to make (a near shoe-string INT on a ball that was knocked out of McNabb's hands), and I stand by that. You can't get on a guy too much for not making what would have been a fantastic play. That said, I agree with Serby that there's no excuse for nobody on the Giants defense (or the Eagles offense, for that matter) to not at least try to jump on the ball.
- The NY Times Fifth Down blog remembers happier days, as it continues its countdown of the top 10 Giants moments at Giants Stadium with Jim Burt's crushing blow on Joe Montana and the Giants blowout victory over the 49ers in the 1986 playoffs.
- Finally, this isn't Giants related but it is about our upcoming opponent and is hilarious, so I felt I had to share. Apparently Antwaan Randle El hasn't been doing a very good job returning punts, so some Redskins legends have been calling him out, including Joe Theismann with one of the best jabs I've heard in a long time: "He averages 3.9 yards a punt return. I will say this in all humility: I could do that. OK? As a matter of fact, I have done it. And I've done it better. I catch the football." Remember, this is a 60-year-old former quarterback who hasn't played football since LT snapped his knee in half 25 years ago. Gotta love the Redskins.
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Look up the stats… Thiesmann actually averaged around 10.9 per return once upon a time..1974 I think.
yea
he mentions that in his rant. But the thought of any quarterback returning punts in 2009 is just preposterous, which makes it funny.
"[The Giants] beat us down. We were beat by a grown-man team, a team we want to be like one day. They came in here and took it to us. Out-manned us, out-gunned us. ... It wasn't even close." - Raheem Morris, 9/27/09
Great job, cj,
agree 100% on every point. Jersey guy Thiesman’s a pisser. He couldn’t break into the lineup, but he’d do anything to play, thus he ran back punts. He wasn’t half bad either. When Sonny and Kilmer left he became #1 QB and he was pretty good there, too.
the boley fumble
can’t really blame anyone on that, one ref blew the play dead and signaled incomplete pass. when players hear that whistle they’re conditioned to stop. even if someone had grabbed it and ran i’m not sure a review would’ve done anything. it would’ve been similar to the ed houchili call in denver last year, when the play is blown dead its non reviewable
A shame
no one blew the play dead when Eli hit the ground on the basis of protecting the QB.
by G Fan in England on Dec 16, 2009 8:59 AM EST up reply actions
The problem I have with Boley's play is he tried to "Scoop and Score"
He bent at the waist and tried to catch it near his knees, so he could keep running with it. If he fell to his knees and caught it in his gut, he probably would have been tagged down, but we’d have the ball. Even if he dropped it, I’m sure he would have stood up with the ball and we still would have gotten the turnover.
Too many times lately I’ve seen turnovers not made because it’s obvious the player is already thinking about advancing the ball before he’s even secured it. The drill should be called “Get the damn thing >>> Then see If you can Score”
i made this point
with osi’s scoop and run. mathias went for the strip and osi went for the glory. i appreciate what a good athlete osi is, but if he would just focus on getting the goddam sack instead of getting on the ESPN highlight show.
Speaking drills you'd like to see practiced
How about the “Get on the Ground” drill!!!
How many times have you screamed “GET DOWN” when a Giant is standing upright, fighting for an extra yard (not first down) and there’s 3 or 4 defensive guys closing in on him with a “Oh, I’m gonna get a strip here” look in their eyes?
I’m all for fighting for YAC, but you have be smart and live to fight another down,
not kill the drive with a turnover.
+100
I couldn’t agree with you more. Or when the player already has the 1st down and fights for extra yardage. GET YOUR ASS on the ground. Reminds be of Jacobs vs. Eagles when he leaped over the defender then was stripped of the ball.
!
Burt vs. Montana = GLEE!!!!
For us older guys, all the frustrations of the wilderness years felt like they were alleviated with that hit. Mr. FancyPants and the Frisco Fudgers com to town and get pounded like pebbles in Sing Sing’s rock pile. I always remember Montana looking like Wile E. after the cliff overhang lands on top of him, and Summerall sayings he being helped off the field because of a leg injury, when it was obvious Montana didn’t have a clue where he was.
Eli’s Fumble; The Thought Experiment
I think that IF Eli had held on the ball and tried to get up and keep going they would have ruled him down by contact, you can’t have both ways
Would someone please make sure Collinsworth takes his brain out the jar and brings it with him when he goes to work.
Conan!, What is good in Football?!
Daa.... to run between the tackles,
To drive the linebackers before you,
And to hear the lamentations of the cheerleaders.
I was at that game....
…do you remember, I think it was SF first drive, Montana hit a wide open Rice down the sideline, I think Patterson was most likely getting burned by him. He had a clear path to score and…fumbles the ball into and through the endzone. WHEW!!! We still would’ve won but who knows what could’ve happened.
by Last year in Sec 127 on Dec 16, 2009 9:35 AM EST up reply actions
I'll always remember the
Lenard Marshall hit more than the Burt hit. Probably b/c I was older when Marshall got to Montana…but also because Burt pissed me off they way he dove at Hostetler’s knee clearly trying to take him outta the game. It was only right that we returned the favor by crushing Montana. Not to mention that game was actually a close game. The best though…was Montana’s quote about the hit…" I thought I was going to die on the field ".
"If you don't know what you're doing... just rush the quarterback" - LT
Speaking of 49er's anybody rember some of th Hits Harry Carson use to lay on Roger Craig?
by Late for Dinner on Dec 16, 2009 10:35 AM EST up reply actions
Harry Carson was awesome..He even played with broken ribs..He was/is extremely smart also
Perfect MLB…and a perfect gentleman off the field.
I'm confused about what play your referring to, Andia..Why and How would/could Jim Burt
Go after his own teamates knee?..but I agree..Leonard Marshall was a great player..and very scary to look at..When you saw him at camp..Looked like one of those aliens in the movie “Men in Black”..
Burt vs. Montana = GLEE!!!!
That hit signaled a new day for the Giants we had finnally arrived!!
by Late for Dinner on Dec 16, 2009 10:34 AM EST up reply actions
I was at that game also...I in fact recieved..
A Hero’s treatment after the game, because I fired up our section before the start of the game with “We’re gonna score 49 on the 49ers!!!”…Well as luck would have it: Giants 49 Niners 3..I had so many High-fives my damn hands were swollen the next day!!…I have never been right picking a score since then…lol..and that hit from Jim was the icing on the cake..awesome…Our modern day “Wrecking Crew” defense has only “Wrecked” winning games this year.
Collinsworth is right about one thing
and that is calling out Manningham for running terrible routes……..he called him out earlier in the year for the exact same thing. He doesn’t force the coverage inside enough to give himself enough room on the sideline — he just goes right to the sideline. Collinsworth was not the fastest guy or the most athletic but he had alot of success because he was a smart receiver who knows how to read a defense and run a route and I think he is 100% right about manningham.
Please sort out the defense...
but I beg for some depth on the O-Line!! There is good talent on defense, just needs some good coaching. The o-line has been troubling me!
Excited
With the talented group of young receivers he has around him, this offense should be very good for a long time.
the Giants should be very good offensively for 3-5 or more.
Boley
a tough play? Maybe but a play that should have been made. The ball was floating. IMO he makes that catch 7 out of 10 times.
a tough play? Maybe but a play that should have been made
I would have just settled for somebody picking the damm ball up after Boley droped it!
by Late for Dinner on Dec 16, 2009 1:12 PM EST up reply actions
CJ
you’re wrong on the Boley play….it was right in his hands and hit him in the palms.
You gotta come up with that.
Other than that I agree, someone’s gotta pick that ball up.
Coughlin said it himself he was baffled why no one picked it up. They’re taught to do so on practice and all a that…and no one did.
That play have been the game. it was a 7pt swing, and given where they were, it could’ve been a 10-14 points swing (tho..Tynes sure as hell isn’t automatic down there…)
"It ain't over till its over"---
3rd down + Steve Smith = 1st Down.
its just FKed up...
cuz they do this in practice.
WHY did no one grab it?
"It ain't over till its over"---
3rd down + Steve Smith = 1st Down.
by FreeBradshaw on Dec 16, 2009 3:19 PM EST up reply actions
If one of our guys
was just courteous enough to pick the ball up to hand to the ref, we would have had possesion.
Joe Theismann is just such a dickhead.
I would love to see LT snap his leg. Again. I truly can’t stand that man.
And for that matter, it'd be great to have LT on the team again...
…to snap some current QBs legs. We haven’t really had an aggressive force since he left. At least not in that realm of aggressive/beast nature.
Strahan was up there, but not at LT’s level of pure aggression.
I guess that’s why we have Bad Bad CC Brown. /sarcasm
Those were the days...
when didn’t care too much about the offense because the defense was just fun to watch. Can still remember Pepper Johnson making goal line tackle without an helmet because it got knocked off during the play.
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