New York Giants News & Notes: Giants Have a Little Swagger Back
by cjmulrain on Dec 9, 2009 7:00 AM EST
in News
41 comments
- Fred Robbins posts on his blog about the Giants win over the Cowboys and their upcoming game against the Eagles. He mentions that the Giants have their swagger back after excelling in all 3 phases of the game on Sunday.
- Domenik Hixon was a big part of the reason the Giants Special Teams performed well, returning a key punt for a touchdown. For his efforts, he has been named the NFC Special Teams Player of the Week. Amazingly, that was the Giants first punt return touchdown since Chad Morton returned one against the Cardinals back in 2005.
- Another key to the Giants performance against the Cowboys was how well the defense responded to the shuffling starting lineups on the defensive line. Osi Umenyiora should especially be commended for taking his demotion in stride, and coming up with a huge fumble recovery. For that, maybe we should thank LaVar Arrington. He was a bust as a free agent for the Giants a few years ago, but if his pep talk really helped Osi get his head right, I'll be forever grateful.
- In perhaps the best news of the week, Chris Snee's knee is "very sore," but not seriously injured. It's still undecided if he will be able to play on Sunday, but it's at least good news that he won't miss significant time. Snee is the best player on the Giants offensive line and they're gonna need him down the stretch.
- The Giants will have revenge on their minds Sunday against the Eagles. The Eagles have beaten the Giants in 3 straight meetings and have handed the Giants their last two playoff losses (of course, a Super Bowl Championship was squeezed in between, so we can't complain too much). I heard a lot about the revenge angle when these teams met a few weeks ago, and the Giants got killed. At this point, I don't care about revenge, I just want the Giants to win the damn game and get back into first place in the NFC East.
- Steve Serby talks about "Hate Bowl II" and looks at the remaining schedules for the Giants and their playoff spot competition. On paper it looks good for the Giants, as long as they can beat the Eagles. That said, "any given Sunday" - which is why I hate looking ahead on the schedule. As the 2007 (and 2008) Mets proved, you can lose tro anyone down the stretch.
- I joked about this in the comments a few days ago, but Plaxico Burress is looking for a work furlough to get him out of prison parttime. I'm extremely happy with our current crop of wide receivers & I know Plax left a bitter taste in a lot of mouths, but I'd be willing to take him back just for this weeks game against the Eagles & let him run a few plays. He always dominated the Eagles, and the Super Bowl run showed that he really doesn't need to practice. I'm only half-joking about this.
- Finally, the NY Times 5th Down Blog continues its look at the 10 greatest Giants moments at Giants Stadium with their 41-0 NFC Championship Game beatdown of the Minnesota Vikings. It's really a shame they cancelled the Super Bowl that year, I really think after that performance the Giants would have absolutely destroyed the Ravens. I mean, Trent Dilfer...c'mon!
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Credit where credit is due...
…we got manhandled in Super Bowl XXXV by a record-setting, once-in-a-generation defense. In hindsight, it was foolish to think we could score enough points on them to win. Defense wins championships, plain and simple. What can I say, they stepped up and made big plays (even their offense did; laymen like Stokely come to mind) and proved themselves superior on that Sunday.
by Step up and make big plays on Dec 9, 2009 7:58 AM EST reply actions
I set..
my sehorn jersey on fire in the back yard after that game
by Gmen Fan in Gmen Land on Dec 9, 2009 3:33 PM EST up reply actions
I'm probably
revealing my old-timey attitude here, but I really dislike the term ‘swagger’. To me, it carries the connotation of a bully-boy demeanor that disappears at the first sign of trouble. You are either TOUGH or you are NOT TOUGH. To X with swagger!
well
I’ll go further, and say that I despise when the term ‘tough’ is thrown around. WTF does that even mean? Do you go through rosters analyzing players’ personalities?
If you win low-scoring, close games, I guess you’re ‘tough’. If your D gives up a lot of points, you could NEVER be ‘tough’. If you have a couple of guys that make big hits that make the highlight reels, you’re really, really ‘tough’.
Tough
is something you don’t have to get back because you don’t lose it in the first place. When players say they have their swagger back they are, at the least, implying that they lose it periodically due to difficult circumstances they may be described as tough. Tough isn’t about winning, it is an attitude that you always have and never have to retrieve.
chad morton?
who’s chad morton? what happened to him?
by jerseybillfromva on Dec 9, 2009 8:55 AM EST reply actions
chad!!
i used to love watchin him return punts.. he was quick and zipped through lanes but was small w/ a short running stride, he always seemed to get walked down in the open field lol.. .that punt return was crazy..he got wwalked but took an angle to barely make it to the endzone. lol
Yes CJ
it is time you got over the Superbowl loss to the Ravens.
That is the only Superbowl I have not watched to the end and I have been watching them since 1983!
Amazing some of the things we have been calling for on this site for weeks has happened and guess what they worked against Dallas! Such as Hixon for returns only, playing the young guys.
by G Fan in England on Dec 9, 2009 8:57 AM EST reply actions
I agree.
CJ, its very Met fan of you to still be bitter about that SB.
I usually boast about it. Cuz you gotta say, the Giants have been to a SB twice this decade. Teams like the Pies haven’t even sniffed a bowl..and the Eagles pretty much did the same.
I’d also think the Giants in 2007 made up for it too?
As for Lavarr Arrington…I’ve always wanted to know what would’ve become of him if he wouldn’t have gotten injured.
HE was really starting to ‘get it’ before his injury, he was a wrecking crew against Dallas in that final game of his too. Real shame.
"It ain't over till its over"---
-1
Maybe it’s a Met fan thing, cuz I’m still mad about that SB too. I’m a UDelaware grad, and still find myself rooting against Flacco, because I’m still so butter about that SB I just want Ravens fans to be miserable.
LOL!
I’ll give up the point I guess.
Yea, its Met fan-ish, tho Simms says he can’t stand it either…and he’s a Red Sox/Brewer fan.
I dunno man, I just don’t get bitter about it.
I pretty much felt like 2007 when we got there, like we were playing with house money.
Its not like we got beat by say….the 2007 Giants….The Ravens were pretty much the #1 squad the whole year.
"It ain't over till its over"---
by FreeBradshaw on Dec 9, 2009 10:29 AM EST up reply actions
I can't say I remember
a Super Bowl that year. I went to both playoff games. The first one was the best live experience I can remember. opening kickoff returned to the house by Ron Dixon.
The second one, this week’s Greatest Giant Stadium moment…was 1000 times better than the first. Complete domination. The last 3 quarters were just a gigantic party with 80,000 guests with white towels. Unreal atmosphere. I watched the tape the next day and Madden was pooping himself over the crowd reaction before the game even started.
Go Blue Hens!
what year did you graduate? I’m Class of ’06 – and I root for Flacco, I just also root for the Ray Lewis led defense to give up a lot of points.
"[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
Yay Blue Hens!
Class of 1990 here! I also rooted for Rich Gannon just cause he went to U of D.
I didn't go there
But i did go to football camp there back in ‘90. lol Didn’t they use to run the Wing-T, i don’t remember? My high school ran it and i thought it was odd that we had to go all the way to Delaware for camp. Living in NY, i figured other schools would host camps that were closer?!
yup
the Wing-T was actually invented at Delaware by David Nelson and then more or less perfected by long-time coach Tubby Raymond. Raymond retired the year before I got there, though, and his successor KC Keeler implemented a spread offense similar to that at Florida. It’s been fairly successful – they won the 1-AA Championship my sophomore year and then lost to Appalachian State two years ago with Joe Flacco at QB (same year App St. beat Michigan)
"[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
a few things
1) I’m not really bitter about it. It’s just a running joke that I’ve had with some of my Giants fan friends since like a week after that game to pretend it never happened. I was bitter up until the Giants won in ‘07, but then that happened and the Ravens drafted Flacco and Ray Rice and now I don’t hate them anymore (and once the murderer retires I’ll actually start actively rooting for them in the AFC)
2) lol at the Mets thing – I know so many Yankees fans who were bitter about the 2001 World Series & the 2004 ALCS (not to mention the 2000 Super Bowl), which is beyond ridiculous. I think it’s natural for fans of any sports team to be bitter about their most recent losses.
3) The Ravens weren’t the #1 seed in 2000 at all – they didn’t even win their division. Yea, they were hot coming into the playoffs, but so were the Giants. I still believe to this day that if Armsteads INT hadn’t been called back that would have at least been a very competitive game.
"[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
No, CJ is right
that SB was a travesty and it’s giving me indigestion just to leave this comment. I’m with you, CJ!
You play to win the game!
Jesse Armstead
And the holding call on Armstead when we picked off a pass and ran it back for a TD was complete BS. Every time I hear someone talk about that game I think of how the momentum swung on such a non-existent holding penalty.
You are right
Jessie ran it back.
It was a real nitpick call – but can we really say that it would have changed the game result!
I remember Theisman(?) said the Ravens would score on offence, defence and special teams and they did!
by G Fan in England on Dec 9, 2009 10:07 AM EST up reply actions
had that call stood...
…we would have scored in all other phases except offense! ;)
by Step up and make big plays on Dec 9, 2009 10:16 AM EST up reply actions
Well
we were offensive to watch that night!
by G Fan in England on Dec 9, 2009 10:18 AM EST up reply actions
not that Theisman
had an axe to snap grind
You play to win the game!
by Simms-McConkey on Dec 9, 2009 11:57 AM EST up reply actions
Hey, we had Kerry Collins
The QB who you can count on not to win a game that you’re losing in the 4th quarter.
How about we remember
those great moments from Super Bowl XLII instead. I was just watching a clip of the game winning drive and I swear it felt like yesterday. Watching Eli miraculously escape a sack, and throw a bomb to (“somebody in a blue jersey”) Tyree and make the “helmet catch”, then the perfect throw deep left to a wide open Plax to seal the game. I could watch that clip all day long!
LET'S GO G-MEN
re: Trent Dilfer...
…all he had to do was be average and play mistake-free football, a la Brad Johnson in Super Bowl 37. In both cases, the whole was greater than the sum of the parts — these were truly great team defenses that could rely on any number of players to step up and make big plays.
by Step up and make big plays on Dec 9, 2009 10:24 AM EST reply actions
Only chance against Philly
The only way we will beat Philly is if we get a big push from the middle of our D Line. Our edge rushers have not recorded sacks this year because oppossing QBs have had nice cozy pockets to step into when pressured. IF we get a big push from the middle we can give mcNabb fits all day and we can also then use a guy like Sintim to really get after him. No pressure from the middle and McNabb will pick us apart. This is the game where we need Chris Canty to earn that monster paycheck.
there are a lot of reasons we aren't recording sacks...
…and you have mentioned one, but we are not getting “coverage sacks” either because, well, our coverage downfield has been mediocre at best. If the coverage were better (particularly over the middle), I suspect the sack numbers would be higher. Really, it’s a team defensive problem and not simply limited to the D-line.
by Step up and make big plays on Dec 9, 2009 10:59 AM EST up reply actions
Absolutely True
but I don’t think we can fix our secondary problems for this game so our only hope is putting alot of heat on McNabb
the 2007 and 2008 Mets, cj?
Was that really necessary?
"We were very much aware of that. There was a lot of phone call-type things going on in the room." -- Tom Coughlin
as a met fan
i like to pull a BBV on those two years… the seasons were canceled just like the superbowl the giants would have killed the ravens in
by Gmen Fan in Gmen Land on Dec 9, 2009 3:12 PM EST up reply actions
week 15 power ranks
joe theismann has the giants at #19 – one spot above the 3-9 redskins. two spots below the 49ers. what a clown.
maybe when it snows
his leg still aches
You play to win the game!
by Simms-McConkey on Dec 9, 2009 11:59 AM EST up reply actions
Number 17
I would honestly LOVE Harris Smith back in the Gents catching touchdown passes.
by Gmen Fan in Gmen Land on Dec 9, 2009 3:11 PM EST reply actions
Unless you're Brett Favre
:)
Never assume skill at bouncing a ball makes you smarter than the guy who built the court.
"Osi is probably one of our worst db's but he did alright there"
yea...
Philly’s had the Giants a-holes every which way the past 3 meetings.
…you ain’t gonna tell me that beating the Eagles is not gonna feel great, and not just cuz it matchs the Giants up record wise with them…its the past 3 beat-downs.
Revenge is rated as it should.
"It ain't over till its over"---
When in doubt...throw it to Steve Smith.
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