There’s lots more discuss about the Ravens game, but I’ve frankly been swamped/fucked with my day job, so I’ll get to it later.

But a special NYGMen shoutout goes to R.W. McQuarters, James Butler, Kevin Dockery, and Robert Henderson, who I had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with last night at a party.  Going into the night, I feared it would be a sleazy, uninviting club scene where the players would be dicks with no interest in talking to someone like me.  It wasn’t like that at all.  All of these guys were down-to-earth, jovial dudes just looking to have a good time.  They, along with everyone else at the party, did just that.

So those guys are awesome, and provide yet another reason to root for the New York Football GGGGMennnnnn!!!!

Tuesday is a day off for football players, which means Monday is party night.  Tonight, two Giants – Ahmad Bradshaw and Kevin Dockery – will host a party at the Branch Club, on 54th Street between 2nd and and 3rd Avenues.  Doors open at 11 p.m.

All G-Men fans 21- and-up are welcome, provided they bring an ID and abide by the dress code: button-down or collared shirts, and absolutely no work boots, baggy jeans, hoodies, or hats. 

In addition to Bradshaw and Dockery, Jacobs will probably be there along with some of the other guys.  And so will I, shaved and showered and, in accordance with the dress code, without my Bradshaw jersey, unfortunately.

So come one G-Men fan, and come all!  And a final word to the wise: The promoters tell me it’s probably best to show up at the door with female accompaniment.  (If you’re a female, don’t worry about bringing a dude.)  This isn’t Green Bay, so we’re not trying to make this a sausage-fest.

To RSVP, email Penetration101@gmail.com.

At this point, it’s getting a little repetitive, but it’s worth saying again: Another week, and yet another statement.  Has there ever been a better time to be a Giants fan?  It seems like nearly every week, we severely outplay the opposition.  When we don’t catch breaks and we’re playing a good team – Eagles game, Steelers game – we win gut-it-out games that prove our character.  When we do catch breaks like we did yesterday, we blow teams out.

I. The Running Game

Not only does this team win convincingly every week, they win in the most enjoyable way possible: by dominating the line of scrimmage and ripping off big chucks of yards on the ground.  If there is a signature image of the 2008 New York Giants, it is Brandon Jacobs turning the corner with a head of steam, his stride kicking into full gear as the crowd noise rises around him before blowing past flimsy arm tackles on his way to a big gain.

Jacobs left the game with what he and Tom Coughlin described as a “sore knee” – he will have a precautionary MRI today and people are saying it’s not serious, but this is obviously cause for concern until he’s officially out of the woods.  But even without him, the train kept right on rolling yesterday.  On the first series Jacobs sat out, Ward came in and accumulated 50 total yards rushing and receiving, setting up our third touchdown in our first three series’ that pretty much ended the suspense right there.

And as he does every week, Ahmad managed to do something impressive late in the game, even when everyone knew a run was coming.  His 77-yard burst – during which he devastatingly cut back on a slightly out of position Ray Lewis – was his most remarkable run this year.

By now, we’ve probably all heard the numbers: the G-Men rushed for 207 yards against what was by far the best run defense in the league.  This makes it five times in 10 games that we have surpassed the double-centch.  What this means is that the Giants turn in a rare rushing performance half the time; there is as good a chance the Giants will thoroughly dominate on the ground as not.  I don’t mean to sound hyperbolic here, but we are witnessing something very special.

With any good running game, the temptation is to parcel out credit on an either/or basis.  Is it the O-line, or is it the running backs?  But this is a false choice in our case, because I firmly believe it’s both. 

I have been hard on Jacobs in the past, but it’s time I own up to the fact that I was very wrong: Jacobs is fucking amazing.  As my brother said, watching him is like watching an Earl Campbell highlight film.  But I think it’s important to note that, even more than other backs, Jacobs talents are brought out by the dominance of his O-line.  While Jacobs has improved dramatically at maneuvering in tight spaces, he is most dangerous at the second level, when his stride kicks in and he starts running downhill.  When he gets a head of steam, there is nobody in the game better.  I don’t mean this to sound like a backhanded complement, but Jacobs and our line are perfect complements for each other.

As for Ward, he has no weaknesses in his game, and is an excellent player by virtue of being good in every phase: He runs hard between the tackles; he blocks well – he had one very nice blitz pick-up on the first series on Eli’s 21-yard throw to Plax; he’s a very good receiver; and he’s good on the edge and in the open field.

And then there’s Ahmad, who flies through holes.  The following comparison only goes so far, but doesn’t Ahmad display an aptitude similar to that of Tiki’s when it comes to timing his cuts through holes?

The other piece of our running game, the O-line, has been getting its due on this blog and the mainstream media as the best in the game.  The other week, I used Football Outsiders stats to support this point, and I’ll do it again: The Giants line ranks first in the league in Adjusted Line Yards (run blocking) and seventh in Adjusted Sack Rate (pass blocking).  Only Denver (third and sixth, respectively) is close to being excellent in both categories.

(The only not-so-great area in terms of our running game is short-yardage and goal-line situations, what Football Outsiders terms “Power” situations, in which the Giants rank 22nd in the league.  This may be due to their overuse of Jacobs in those situations.  His size notwithstanding, Jacobs is not a great short-yardage runner.  You know who is though, size also notwithstanding?  Ahmad.)

II. Eli

Thanks to the running game, we were able to dominate on offense on a day when our passing game wasn’t clicking on all cylinders.  Eli’s day was not bad, but less than stellar: he went 13 of 23 for 153 yards (6.7 yards per attempt) with a touchdown and one interception that, save for another smart Coughlin challenge, easily could have been two (I’m not counting the one on that tipped ball to Plax that was nullified by the offsides penalty because that wasn’t Eli’s fault).

But really, this game was pretty much over at 20-0.  And during the time where we accumulated the lead, Eli was sharp, going 7 for 10 for 82 yards and a touchdown, an integral part of our awesome offense that put the game away early.  (Another mitigating factor yesterday was the wind, which effected at least a couple of his throws.)

Still, we can’t get around the fact that Eli hasn’t been great in recent weeks.  I wouldn’t say he has been bad, only that he can be better.  See?  There’s room for improvement on this team after all, and that should be a scary thought for the rest of the league.

One very noticeable thing about Eli this year is how comfortable he is in the pocket, which I think owes to both his experience and our improved pass-blocking.  Where he used to back off and throw off his heels, he now displays great presence of mind in the pocket, deftly stepping up into empty areas to buy himself that extra moment to throw.  This ability was most evident on his first completion of the game, that 21-yard out to Plax near the sideline.

So even though he’s not putting up such great numbers, you don’t get the sense that Eli’s confidence is the least the least bit shaken.  He is still inconsistent with his throws and still makes some stupid mistakes, but we’re long removed from the whipped-dog days when you could see in his face that he was rattled and would be useless for the whole game.

Ok, lots more to talk about, but I have to cut it off for now…  I’ll be back later in the day with more thoughts.

Right now, they see a wounded dog in the division, and they didn’t like the way the Cowboys came into this season basically anointing themselves Super Bowl Champions before the season began.  And, you know, they’re smelling blood and they’re gonna give it everything they’ve got.

–Troy Aikman

**

Wow, that was an awful Cowboys team we played today, and makes you wonder if things will be all that different when Romo comes back.  Aikman and Buck made this point a lot during the game, but quarterback play was only part of the problem.  What about stopping the run (we averaged 5.9 yards per carry), running the ball themselves (3.4 yards per carry), or protecting whoever is playing quarterback (4 sacks and tons of pressure)?

In the rubbing it in department, behold and enjoy the following G-Men quotes:

Plaxico Burress: “I mean, they had a star on their helmets so it was a Cowboy game to me.”

Justin Tuck: “They still had us outnumbered 10 Pro Bowlers to none, so I don’t see where all the sympathy is coming from.”

And even some words of wisdom from our favorite Cowboy shit-talking choke-artist, Patrick Crayton:  “In games like this against teams like this, if you don’t bring your A-game, you will get your ass whooped like we got our ass whooped tonight.”

It’s too early to write the Cowboys off, but making the playoffs would require quite the ill run.  It’s possible, and if they make that run, watch out come playoff time.  But they really have no room for error as they pursue the Wild Card.  At 5-4, they’re not catching us for the division.

Good God, that team is a mess.

**

But we’re not.  The 2008 New York Giants: Another week, another statement.

Ah, where to begin here?  Obviously the D, which allowed only one touchdown and 183 total yards, forced 4 turnovers, and was so dominant that even a downright bad performance by Eli didn’t get in the way of a blowout.

All three defensive units were nearly flawless.  We’ll start with the linebackers, who haven’t gotten much love this year.  Danny Clark made a team-high nine tackles and was generally all over the place, shooting gaps and making plays in space.  Is this guy rounding into Kawika Mitchell, redux? 

Chase Blackburn filled in for Brian Kehl – whose toe injury forced him to miss practice this week but isn’t serious – and did an admirable job.  This guy’s such a good player – even when Wilkinson comes back, wouldn’t you rather see Blackburn splitting those weakside snaps instead?  He needs to be on the field.

And Antonio Pierce made two big plays.  The first was when he stripped T.O. deep in our territory after Eli’s weird fumble.  The second was on the Cowboys second series, when he ran stride-for-stride with Jason Whitten down the seam and forced a perfect throw from Johnson that didn’t come.  Tony P has been assailed for his notoriously poor coverage of that seam route, so it’s only right to give credit where it’s due here.

Moving over to the D-line, Tuck was a force.  Coming into the season, we knew he was good, but it was still a question whether he would blossom into a truly elite player.  Eight games and six sacks in, that question is close to being definitely answered.

Tuck had the 2.5 sacks yesterday, but the guy I noticed the most, on a play-by-play basis, was Kiwanuka.  ‘Nuke was way too quick for Flozell Adams, and after being named the Defensive Player of the Week last week, he had his second excellent game in a row.  He only had one sack, but he routinely beat Flozell to the edge and forced Johnson/Bollinger to step up and get flustered.

It appears ‘Nuke is fully recovered from both the high-ankle injury from Week 1 and the leg injury from last year and is ready to explode into a full-fledged pass-rushing force.  I still think he plays too high and can be undisciplined against the run.  But he can straight-up abuse left tackles with below-average quickness, like Pittsburgh’s Max Starks and Flozell the Hotel.

As for the interior guys, I actually didn’t notice that much, but holding Marion Barber to 2.8 yards per carry speaks for itself.

Praise for the secondary begins with Corey Webster – or as Chris Berman calls him, The Dictionary – and his two picks.  The great thing about Webster’s first pick – the one he brought back to the Dallas 27 – was that it came right after that sideline circus-catch by Roy Williams.  Webster covered Williams very well on that play, but a perfect throw and a semi-miraculous catch beat him.  Such is the nature of playing cornerback or defense in any sport: If the offense executes perfectly, they’ll do what they want to do.  But the offense doesn’t always execute perfectly, which was apparent on the next play when Johnson badly overthrew T.O. and the ball sailed right to Webster, who provided great coverage for the second play in a row.  If you have a short memory and do your job play after play, you’re gonna get good results.  That’s how you play cornerback.

Let’s also use this opportunity to praise Webster’s season in general and how far he has come.  His improvement has been well-documented, but it bears repeating: he has evolved from a complete bust into a truly excellent player, though it will take a while for his reputation to catch up to the quality of his play (another Super Bowl ring will help, though).  I never thought I’d say this, but has Corey Webster become a guy you don’t want to challenge?  (And yes, he got beat by T.O. on that short touchdown.  But he had no help in the middle of the field because we brought a blitz.  Tough assignment.)

Then there’s Aaron Ross, who I didn’t notice in pass coverage (good thing) but who I did notice in run support (also a good thing).  Ross had 5 tackles including 3 solos – I continue to be impressed with the angles he takes and how surely he wraps up guys, usually by going low.  And for all those people who panicked so much after the Cleveland and San Francisco games?  I think you were overreacting.

Terrell Thomas started at nickelback and played well, making a big play when he separated T.O. from the ball on 3rd down on the Cowboys eventual scoring drive (The ‘Boys converted the 4th down on the next play.  Oh, and that touchdown drive was illegitimate anyway – that personal foul on Tuck for driving Bollinger into the ground was bullshit.).  Apparently the G-Men are very high on Thomas, and after today, we can see why.

After Thomas was injured on that play – I don’t know the status of that one – Sam Madison came in and provided excellent coverage of Roy Williams on an endzone fade.  At that moment, the following thought crossed my head: Holy shit we’re deep!

That goes for the safety position too, where James Butler headlined the action with his second athletic pick in two weeks.  Butler sprained his knee during the game, but he’s confident he will play in Philly next week.  James Butler… I think us fans are coming around.

Kenny Phillips and Michael Johnson chipped in with five tackles apiece, and another forgotten veteran, Sammy Knight, made five stops also, all of them solo.  Yep, we’re mad deep…

**

Offensively there was a lot to like too.

Obviously the running game, which ran for a clean 200 yards on 34 carries.  As always, the O-Line was the big star here.  Aikman – who, as loyal NYGMen commenter Dan pointed out, has gotten to know the Giants very, very well over the past few years – heaped his usual praise on the fatties up front.  At this point, there’s not too much more to say about them, other than to say definitively that they’re the best in the league.

I’ll once again avail myself of FootballOutsiders stats to prove my point: The G-Men rank third in adjusted line yards (run blocking) and second in adjusted sack rate.  No other team ranks nearly so well across the board.

As for the running backs, Jacobs bounced back from a rough game last week to average 6.9 yards per carry, including two Tiki-esque zig-zag runs in the second half.  He ran over guys and he juked guys out of their cleats.  He was terrific.

Derrick Ward was his usual super-competent self, a performance that included a number of key first downs.  Ward might be one of the most underrated players in football: how confident do you feel with the ball in his hands?

And Ahmad Bradshaw, stashed in the doghouse though he might be, turned in an impressive performance in his brief outing nonetheless.  That guy seems to rip off an awesome run every game.  (Here comes the weekly ritual: We need to get this guy more touches – it’s criminal how underutilized this resource is.)

As for the receivers, there’s Boss and his soft hands, Smith and his nose for the first-down marker, along with Amani and his solid awesomeness.  No receiver stuck out, but there was nothing to complain about.

Except maybe Plax, who dropped those two passes (including a touchdown), and had that miscommunication with Eli on Jenkins’ pick-six.  But while it wasn’t a good game for Plax, I can’t kill the guy. 

For one, the pick-six looked like it was Eli’s fault, at least judging by the body-language during the sideline conversation that was caught on camera.  On the play, Jenkins jumped the route, which probably called for Plax to break it off and run a streak.  Plax saw that, but Eli didn’t.  And wouldn’t that throw probably have been picked even if Plax ran did what Eli thought he was going to?

Secondly, Plax’s great blocking was on display during two key runs – Jacobs’ 31-yard run and Ward’s 17-yard touchdown run – on the touchdown drive that put us up 35-14.  (The awesome thing about that drive was that we answered the Cowboys’ scoring drive right then and there.)

So lay off Plax.  It was a rough game in a tumultuous season, but there’s much less to worry about than many people will have you believe.  He finally showed contrition this week and we’re 7-1 with an awesome passing game.  There’s no crisis.

**

So far, it has been almost all praise.  But now we get to Eli, who was pretty bad, no question about it.  To rehash, he went 16 for 27 (59%, not terrible) for a season-low 147 yards, averaging a sub-par, but also not awful, 5.4 yards per attempt (his career average is 6.4, and his 2008 average is 7.1).  The damaging things were his three turnovers, including an inexplicable fumble and the pick-six by Jenkins.

Today was Eli’s second truly bad game this year, the first being the Cleveland game.  But doesn’t it seem like there’s a difference between these games and the bad games he had in the past, when he looked completely shook out there?  In his bad games this year, he has looked a little reckless.  But I’m sure most Giants fans would prefer Eli to have a bad game due to this overconfidence rather than the underconfidence that characterized his bad games in the past.

A mitigating circumstance in all this was the Cowboys’ solid pass rush, which was really the only facet in which they were remotely successful.  And look at it this way: How ridiculous is it that we beat the shit out of the Cowboys when Eli had a bad game?

**

Other negatives were the kickoffs and the kickoff return game.  On the kickoffs, Carney’s boots have reached a critical point.  The problem is that we shouldn’t part with him as a field goal kicker – a kicker having an automatic season must be respected.

So it looks like we’re gonna have to carry two kickers.  Yes, this seems absurd considering Tynes’ kicks are no great shakes, but it’s honestly the best thing we can do.  Let’s just not dress Rueben Droughns and be done with it.

And on kickoff returns, doesn’t it always seem like the wedge doesn’t get up-field enough for Bradshaw, which causes Ahmad to slow down and tip-toe into it?  This has been going on all year – it prevents Bradshaw from exploding through a hole for a big return.  There aren’t many areas in which this team to improve, but it shouldn’t be too hard to get a lot better in these facets.

What an awesome win, and what an example of the resiliency of that has become the hallmark of our New York Football G-Men.  I can’t think of an attribute I’d rather my team have – since we turned the corner late last year, the Giants have developed an ability to overcome shit, to get up and fight back from things that would fall lesser teams and lesser men.

The big thing we had to overcome yesterday was the officiating.  Normally, I refrain from bitching about the refs, but yesterday was unique: I can’t remember a game in which so many key calls were blown, so egregiously, against us.

–We’ll start with the fourth down goal line play on which Jacobs was stuffed.  1) That was a touchdown – he clearly pierced the plane; and 2) The challenge that preceded that play, while validly overruling the initial touchdown call, led to the refs spotting the ball about a foot further back from the goal line than they should have.  It was a shockingly careless spot, and it cost us.

–That ridiculous personal foul called on Kenny Phillips.  Aikman – who is amazing, by the way – was all over this one.  On that play, Mewelde Moore was bobbling the ball and Phillips led with his shoulder.  There was absolutely nothing dirty or unnecessary about what Phillips did.

The NFL has gotten so protective of players’ health that refs break out the flag at the mere sight of a big hit, as if automatically means that the rules were broken.  But as my brother said at the time, “I’m sorry that Big Ben exposed [Moore], but that’s not our fault.”

–There were two extremely visible holds by Steelers d-backs that weren’t called.  On of them was in the third quarter, when Smith, who would have been wide open on a flag pattern, was slowed up when a Steeler tugged his jersey.  This led to an incompletion on a key third down pass Smith probably should have caught anyway (not a great game for my man yesterday…). 

But the refs miss those calls occasionally, so you don’t get too bent out shape over one of them.  Until later in the game, when they missed an even more obvious hold on Plax on a fade play that probably cost us a touchdown.

**

Ok, let’s get to the players.

I haven’t reviewed the tape yet, but the obvious game ball goes to the swarming pass rush, which sacked Big Ben five times and knocked him down 16 times.  Remember after the Browns game when our pass rush was a huge question mark?  That seems like a long time ago now.

Again I haven’t looked at the tape so it’s hard to tell, but my sense is that we didn’t blitz very often and much of the pressure was generated by the front four.  Certainly the sacks themselves – three by ‘Nuke, one by Tuck, and one by Tollefson – went to our D-linemen, so good job, boys.

It was also nice to see us get those four picks, although two of them were on fourth down in bat-down situations.  But along with our pass rush, our seeming inability to create turnovers had threatened to become a disturbing trend.  Hopefully there’s nothing to worry about in both respects, Charlie.

Offensively, the game-ball goes to the O-line.  Although the run-blocking was uncharacteristically poor, the pass protection more than made up for it.  The Steelers have a nasty pass rush and Eli wasn’t sacked once.  Awesome job, fatties.

Eli also deserves credit.  No, it wasn’t his best game, but it was a winning performance that should make us even more confident going forward.  19 for 32 for 199 yards doesn’t sound great, but don’t forget those two drops each by Hedgecock (on short passes) and Smith (on the flag pattern described above and a deep post on which, although he got crushed, he probably should have secured the catch).

Eli also saved his best pass for the most important moment, that fourth and 6 to Amani that set up the field goal that pulled us to 14-12.  Speaking of Amani, a special game-ball goes to him: Once you saw that the open man downfield was Amani, did you not 75% more confident at that moment?  What a fine receiver and a great all-time Giant.

**

On the downside, yesterday’s game was a clear example of the coaching staff’s forcing the issue with Jacobs, particularly in short-yardage situations.  Just because a guy is big doesn’t mean he’s the best man for the job.  In fact, I would argue that Jacobs’ size prevents him from getting the leverage necessary to generate power in cramped quarters.  And his lack of short-area quickness precludes improvisation: if the hole is blocked and Jacobs has the ball, we’re fucked.

In terms of the running backs, the obvious question after yesterday is, as NYGMen commentator Cody put it last week, “Whither Ahmad Bradshaw?”

On Saturday, I gained some insight into this from a source I met while covering a story for my day job, who told me Ahmad has been “getting into trouble with the coach.”  So there you have it, folks: Ahmad is in the doghouse.  For what, we do not know.  Maybe it’s related to his historical legal troubles, and maybe it’s not.  Either way, this is very disappointing to hear.

Speaking of the doghouse, this shit with Plax has gone too far.  I’ve tried to defend him all year, but his most recent episode of insubordination has, I fear, made a fool out of me.  Plax: Stop being a dick.  We just gave you a new contract, and all we ask is that you do what’s asked of you at your job.  It shouldn’t be so fucking hard.

**

This game reminded me of the Green Bay playoff game last year.  It was a tough road game at dusk against a storied opponent wearing yellow helmets.  And while that opponent was favored, it became evident over the course of the game that we were the better team.

As with the Green Bay game, our dominance wasn’t reflected on the scoreboard.  Yesterday, we had to overcome poor red-zone efficiency when our first four trips yielded four field goals.

Also like the Green Bay game, our inferior opponent stayed in the game with a couple of big plays: Against the Packers, it was that bomb to Driver.  Against the Steelers, it was the long run by Moore and then the bomb to Washington (obvious point here, but what in the world was Butler thinking on that one?).

And like the Green Bay game, this one appeared to be slipping away in the third quarter, when our opponent finally got their shit together and started playing well.  But in both games, we came back and won the fourth quarter decisively.

I’m proud of this team.

First, I apologize for the late post.  I actually went to the game on Sunday and then went out that night, and because I had a ton of stuff to do yesterday for my day job, I didn’t get a chance to watch the tape until last night.

Second, I find it hard to believe that people are complaining about Sunday’s win.  If a 12-point win that would have been a 22-point win if not for the fluke of having a field-goal blocked and returned for a touchdown isn’t enough, then the sense of entitlement in this town is completely out of control.

Sure, the 49ers handed us the game.  But we took it, and didn’t give them a chance to take it back.  Was there really ever a doubt about the outcome?  Of course not.  The G-Men won going away.  As fans, we should be happy our team is capable of this even when they don’t play their best.

**

As long as I’m accentuating the positive, I’ll start with the defense.  Going into the game, the big concern was our pass rush, which had been nonexistent against the Browns.  Also, the fact that we hadn’t forced many turnovers this year was threatening to become a gathering concern.

Both trends reversed against the Niners: We racked up six sacks, “forced” two interceptions (granted, that might be a stretch) and four O’Sullivan fumbles, one of which we recovered and one of which led to the safety that put the game away.  (Nothing more fun than dong the safety dance – the contradictory motion of powerfully bringing your hands above your head like He-Man while gyrating your hips like a teenaged girl.)

For much of the first half, O’Sullivan actually did a good job evading our blitzes and finding guys.  But that changed very abruptly, as he went on to play a brutal game.  But still, credit our defense for completely shutting the Niners down in the second half, during which they gained just 67 yards and managed a mere four first downs.

There are many game balls to go around on D:

Justin Tuck was thoroughly disruptive and made a sweeeeeeet play when he forced that fumble that led to the safety by coming around the edge and deftly separating the ball from O’Sullivan’s hand.

Robbins and Cofield consistently got great penetration into the backfield on a day where we made 12(!) tackles behind the line of scrimmage.

Michael Johnson, an overlooked member of the 2007 draft class considering he has probably had the biggest role the past couple years, made the first two picks of his career.  The first one was easy, but the second one was impressive: he did a good job recognizing the post route and turning his hips, and then took a good angle on the coverage of the receiver.  The guy is a pretty good player.

Chase Blackburn started in place of Pierce and frankly looked faster and more physical than him.  Blackburn notched twelve tackles, two of them for losses, and forced a fumble of O’Sullivan.  I know Pierce is the leader of the defense and everything, but I’m sure most Giants fans will join me in telling him to take his time getting back.

And Spags.  Maybe the magic isn’t gone.  As ineffective as the blitz packages were against the Browns, they were that good against the Niners.  Like all sports, football is a game of adjustments and counter-adjustments.  The league adjusted to Spags, and if Sunday’s game is any indication, he countered.

On the downside, much has been made of Aaron Ross’ recent struggles – he even sat on the bench on a couple series’ in the second half while Dockery filled in.  But I don’t think it’s anything to worry about.  On the touchdown he allowed, he actually did a pretty good job in single coverage until the ball was in the air, at which point he suffered a very uncharacteristic breakdown in ball-skills.  Against the Browns, he had a rough game; against the Niners, he had a rough moment.  He’s good, he’ll bounce back, so let’s move on.

**

On offense, not so great, but serviceable enough.

Eli wasn’t at his best, going 16 for 31 for 161 yards.  He averaged 5.2 yards per attempt, well below the standard he has set for himself this season of 7.3, and even his career mark of 6.4. 

And no, he didn’t throw a pick, but there were two balls that probably could have been picks (one on an out to Smith that the defender undercut and could have taken to the house had the ball not been thrown high).  He also had four passes tipped, a distressing reemergence of an early-career trend that we are probably lucky didn’t lead to a pick.

But while it wasn’t a good game, it was an adequate game.  And sometimes, good and even great quarterbacks play merely adequate games.  Will that type of effort cut it against Pittsburgh?  Probably not.  But who among us isn’t confident Eli won’t play better next week?

At receiver, the game ball goes to Steve Smith.  If all Chris Carter did is catch touchdowns, all this guy does is catch first downs.  What a nice player.  Such great field sense and such good body control.  This guy is gonna be good for a long time.

Although we only averaged 3.5 yards per carry, I was actually pleased with the running game.  Not counting Eli’s rushing line (3 carries for -4 yards), we averaged 4 yards per carry, which isn’t bad considering we were sitting a lead for most of the second half.

Jacobs, who I’ve been harsh on in the past, was very good, as he has been all year.  On his first touchdown run, he made a nice little hesitation before squirting through a small hole, a sign of his improved feel for the holes this year.  On his second touchdown run, he kept his legs driving after the initial contact and plowed into the endzone decisively.  He’s been excellent, and it’s time for me to admit I was too harsh on him.  (Although the first-series fumble was worrisome.)

Ward, as usual, was terrific.  Announcers don’t seem to have caught on to how powerful this guy’s lower body is.  On that third down pass play in the first quarter – before Ahmad’s fourth down conversion – Ward pushed the pile a solid three to four yards, getting us close enough to compel Tom to go for it.  It should also be noted that Ward is a really smooth receiver.

And Bradshaw, despite the fumble, was impressive as well.  Sure, he only managed 28 yards on 8 carries, but he was facing 8 and 9-man fronts during clock-killing time.  For as sparingly as that guy is used, he always manages to do at least one thing that shows how good he is.

It seems like Coughlin and Gilbride are loosening up their rigid running back hierarchy, something long called for here at NYGMen.  Using Bradshaw on that fourth down toss-sweep was an inspired stroke.  It also seemed like they worked in the backs at different points of a series, rather than just being like, “Ok Brandon, it’s your series.  You take every carry.”

And Tom deserves credit for going for it on that fourth down play.  When you’re dominating the line of scrimmage like we were early in the game, you have to make hay.

The papers have tried to create a to-do about Plax, who seemed to be in a terrible mood all game.  There was the sequence with the personal foul followed by cursing at Coughlin, though that seems like a much bigger deal to everyone else than to the Giants.  Coughlin actually defended Plax, saying something along the lines of, “He’s a competitor.  Shit happens.”

And let me ask you, was it me, or was Plax’s gesture of firing the ball into the stands after his fourth quarter touchdown a kind of “fuck-you” to the fans, who booed him after the personal foul?  But whatever.  As a fan, I’ve made the same calculation as Coughlin: the guy can tell me to go fuck myself every once in a while when he’s PMSing, and I’m not gonna get bent out of shape.  He’ll get over it and generally be a great receiver for me.  Plax is a moody, mercurial athlete, but he’s worth it: my guess is he has a huge game against the Steelers next week and gets people off his back.

“The Giants are a new team.  This isn’t even the same team I played on.”

–Michael Strahan

(Note: Today’s entry will deal mostly with the offense.  A separate one on the defense will follow.)

The Best Team in the NFL:

Wow….  Four weeks into the season, the G-Men are the best team in the NFL.  This isn’t a guarantee of another title or even an especially bold statement, but rather a statement of fact.  If this were college football, we would be Number 1.  Does it mean anything?  No, not really – it’s a long season, there are always injuries, etc.  But isn’t this enjoyable?

Today’s game was probably the most dominant Giants performance many of us have ever seen.  At the end of the game, Fox posted a graphic saying the 44-6 margin was our largest since 1972.  But this neglected two playoff blowouts: 49-3 over the 49ers in ’86, and 41-0 over the Vikings in 2000.

Still, I don’t think we’ve ever opened up a can quite like we did today.  In the Niner game, we caught a huge break when Rice inexplicably fumbled, untouched, while streaking toward the endzone for what would have been a first quarter touchdown putting the Niners up 10-7.  The fumble completely changed the complexion of a game that might have gone differently had Rice not fumbled. Yes, we went on to destroy them, but there was a moment there when things looked dicey.

In the Viking game, two rather flukish events – a coverage breakdown on the Hilliard touchdown, followed by a fumbled kickoff – caused the game to be over before it began.  After five plays from scrimmage, it was already 14-0.  At that point, it couldn’t not be a blowout.

But this game was different.  This wasn’t a case of us catching some breaks or springing a couple of big plays.  We whooped their asses through and through, play after play.  The 2008 Giants are really, really good.

The O-Line:

There’s a lot of praise to go around here, but let’s start with the offensive line.  The Seahawks never had a fighting chance in this game because their front seven was no match for our big men, or as my high school football coach would call them, our “fatties.” 

At best, the Giants are a team for whom the run sets up the pass.  On the game’s second play, Jacobs slammed forward for 6.  On the next play, he galloped untouched through a gaping hole for a 44-yard gain.   On the next play, Eli hit Hixon for our first touchdown.

It was pretty much like that all game.  We ran at will, then we passed at will.  When they blitzed, we either picked it up perfectly or Eli maneuvered well in the pocket to elude it.  The first of many game balls goes to the fatties up front, who comprise one of the elite run-blocking lines in the NFL and are no slouch against the pass either.

I’ve discussed FootballOutsiders stats for offensive lines before, but let me point back to one called Adjusted Line Yards, which is meant to isolate the contributions of the offensive line and the running back on a particular running play.  Yes, it’s an imperfect stat, but in the case of the Giants line, it jibes with what we observe with our eyes: Since 2005, the Giants have ranked 10^th, 4^th, and then 2^nd last year in Adjusted Line Yards.  Coming into today’s game, they ranked 3^rd in the NFL, a ranking that should jump after today’s ass-whooping.

More praise in the analytical community for the Giants run-blocking came last week from ESPN columnist K.C. Joyner, who is now contributing a weekly piece for the Times’ Fifth Down Blog.

According to Joyner, the Giants offensive line laps the field in terms of the types of blocking schemes they employ, along with their willingness to run plays to either side of the field.

“The reason they are able to do this is because both their guards are capable of executing a pull block,” Joyner writes, anticipating the awesome job today by Seubert and Snee.

“But the Giants also take that concept one step further by pulling all of their linemen.  Most teams won’t pull their center or tackles, but the Giants have don’t that on nine different plays this year.”

That covers the run-blocking, but the pass-blocking is good too.  Footballoutsiders has a stat – and this one’s not nearly as esoteric – called Adjusted Sack Rate, which basically takes the number of sacks and intentional groundings and divides by the number of passing plays.  The premise of the stat is that it’s a better gauge than the raw sack total.

Since 2005, the Giants ranked 8^th, 7^th, and then 11^th last year in the category.  This year they rank 9^th.

So, Giants fans, it’s time to appreciate this group.  A big NYGMen shout-out goes to Dave Diehl, Rich Seubert, Shaun O’Hara, Chris Snee, and Kareem McKenzie (who missed most of today’s game with a concussion and was replaced by Kevin Boothe, who actually made two notable mistakes).

Eli:

Eli was absolutely fantastic from the get-go, and earned himself a much-deserved second half rest.  For the game, his stats were great – a 136.6 QB rating.  But in the first half, during which the game was sealed, he was virtually flawless.  After starting off the half a perfect 7-7, he wound up 15-18 for 224 yards and a touchdown.

Among the good things about Eli’s performance was the tremendous pocket presence he displayed.  Yes, the protection was very good overall – save for a Patrick Kerney sack and forced fumble at the expense of Kevin Boothe – but Eli was great in the pocket and great at exploiting the weak spots in the defense created by Seattle’s blitzes.

He was also especially demonstrative today in terms of pre-snap reads, looking positively Peyton-esque in his on-field assertiveness.  And his passes to running backs – often a weak point in his game – were, with the exception of an overthrow of Hedgecock in the second quarter, pretty much all on-target.

Four games into the season, Eli has a 61% completion percentage, significantly better than his 55% career rate.  He’s averaging 7.15 yards per attempt, significantly better than the 6.3 yards he averaged coming into this year.  And his rating is 91.1, leaps and bounds better than his 74.4 career rating.  Can you say “The Leap,” anyone?

The following are some good plays he made in the first half that show some of the headiness I talked about above:

–On the touchdown to Hixon on the first drive, Eli did a good job “looking off” the one deep safety before hiring a perfect ball to a wide-open Domenic Hixon.  (The Seahawks would come to regret putting Kelly Jennings, their second-best corner, on Hixon, our most dangerous, if not our best, non-Plaxico receiver.)  He later did the same thing on a third quarter touchdown pass to Moss.

–On a 2^nd and 6 from the 44 on our second drive, Eli did a nice job stepping up to avoid a blitzing Lofa Tatupu before firing a strike between two defenders to Amani Toomer for a 22-yard gain.

–Two plays later, with Tatupu blitzing again, Eli stood in the pocket and waited until Tatupu was just about to hit him, the better to allow Toomer to get separation downfield against safety Jordan Babineax.  Toomer got separation, and Eli got the ball to him for a 29-yard gain to the 3, setting up a Jacobs touchdown to make it 14-3.

–On the next drive he, hit Hixon deep for a 41-yarder on a play-action, which set up our field goal to make it 17-3.

(Although on this pass, with all the time in the world, Eli waited an extra half-beat to unleash his throw, which caused Hixon to outrun the outer limit of Eli’s arm strength.  He’s done this before, and he did this a little bit later on a pass to Moss.  That’s an area he can improve upon.  This drive also saw Eli overthrow Toomer – high, as usual – on a play that could have set up a 1^st and goal but instead forced us to settle for a field goal.  But we’re really nitpicking here…)

 –On the next drive, the Giants fourth, Eli kept things a rollin’ with a play action 19-yarder to Smith (a little high, but Smith did a great job going up and getting it.  His body-control is ridiculous).  Later in the drive, deep in Seahawks territory, he drilled Hixon on a come-back for 1 13-yard first down, setting up first and goal from the 1.  Jacobs took it in on the next play, giving the G-Men a 24-3 lead, and the game was over.

The Receivers:

Hixon: What a ballplayer this kid is, and what an asset for our future.  How in the world could the Broncos let him get away? 

Fortunately, the concussion doesn’t seem too serious: I heard him interviewed after the game, and he said he didn’t go back in because of precautionary reasons.  He seemed pretty coherent saying it, too.

Hopefully when Plax is back next week, we can get him back to returning punts.  R.W. actually did a pretty good job today – who on this team, in any phase, didn’t? – but it would be nice to have a dangerous guy back there.

Amani: Old reliable.  What more is there to say about this guy?  What a great Giant.

Sinorice: Shake, shake, shake, Sinorice!  It’s been an tough-luck career thus far, and who knows how long he’s gonna be with us – when Tyree comes back, if we’re still healthy, he would seem to be the odd man out.  But if we have to part ways at some point, let’s just hope the Cowboys, Eagles, or Redskins don’t pick him up.  He clearly has some talent.

Manningham: It was nice to see him doing some things.  That was a nifty little run on that quick-hitter in the second quarter, and a good job nearly toasting the defender and drawing the pass interference.  He also made a tackle on special teams.

Who’d a thunk it?  The G-Men are stacked at the receiver position.

The Running Backs:

Jacobs: I’ve been critical of Jacobs on this blog, but I have to hand it to him: he played a great game today – it’s hard to take issue with 136 yards, at 9.1 yards per.

It’s possible to say that Jacobs’ performance wasn’t all that impressive given the dominance of the offensive line, but I think this wouldn’t acknowledge Jacobs’ best attribute as a runner: He’s completely unstoppable once he gets a head of steam going.  Given the holes the offensive line opened up, Jacobs was the man for the job.

I also have to admit that he has looked a lot spryer this year.  Some portion of my negative impression of him was based on how lethargic he looked in last year’s playoffs, but perhaps some of this can be avoided this year if we use him a little less.

Ward: This guy is just straight-up solid.  He’s pretty much rates high in every running back scouting category across the board except maybe elusiveness, an unnecessary quality in the see-hole, hit-hole NFL: He hits the hole quickly and hard, he’s got a good burst, he runs with a lot of power, and he’s a good receiver.

Bradshaw: The guy gets in during garbage time when everyone knows a run is coming, and he still breaks off a ridiculous run.  This guy is so good.  I’ll keep saying it every week: FREE AHMAD!

Gilbride:

Last but certainly not least here.  Gilbride has been pilloried by many Giants bloggers in recent weeks, many of whom believe he holds back a very talented Giants offense from achieving true awesomeness.  Whether or not that’s true is still to be determined, but at this point, it’s hard to sneeze at scoring 40-plus points half of the time.

What impressed me in this game was his aggressive, pedal-to-the-medal play-calling, which continued until the Seahawks were dead and buried.  Kudos to Gilbride for bucking the Giants’ historical trend of sitting on leads that don’t warrant such complacency.

Injuries:

The bye week did wonders for Kiwanuka, who says he’s feeling about as good as he’s going to.

“There’s a little bit [of pain there], but I’ve played with far worse injuries than this.

Manningham, whom the coaching staff seems to have wanted to supplant Moss as the fourth receiver this week (and fifth receiver when Plax gets back), picked up a narsty stomach flu and returned to practice just today.  It remains to be seen who will get those snaps during the game.

Either way, the whole thing doesn’t bode well for Moss.  The guy seems to be on his way out of town, barring some bad injuries at receiver this year.

R.W. (calf) is back to practicing in full.  Jerome McDougle (knee) was limited on Wednesday, but expects to play Sunday.

The Pass Rush:

A very interesting article by Mike Garafolo of the Star-Ledger the other day. Although the Giants’ total of 13 sacks gives them the league-lead in sacks per game, their quarterback “hurries” are down substantially from last year.  The G-Men have 18 total hurries this year, a far cry from last year, when they averaged 15 per game.

These numbers, taken with the good job the Bengals did picking up the blitz last week, have led to discussion that the league is catching onto Spagnuolo’s schemes.

When asked if this year’s pass rush was on the same level as last year’s, Spanuolo himself said:

“No, probably not.  Some of that credit belongs to the offenses.  And the other thing…is that there’s a lot of film on our defense out there and there are some smart offensive coaches.  There start to pick up a little things and we have to be a little bit of a step ahead of that.”

The G-Men think they might have been tipping their blitzes last Sunday.

Said Barry Cofield, “We definitely felt like we picked up on some things.  Coach Spags presented them to us and we all agreed that that could be the case.  We’re definitely going to try to do a better job of disguising.”

And Tuck said: “When you get to go back and look at film from the view of your opponent, you’re going to see some things where you are kind of tipping your hand.  We got to him early; they made some adjustments.  The things we got home with early, they did a good job of picking them up [later in the game].”

Plax:

The details emerging after Plax’ suspension have been pretty disconcerting.

First, we heard that he had two restraining orders taken out on him this summer by his wife, though we don’t know whether this has anything to do with what happened last Monday.  We have no more information other than that it was a family situation that Plax felt was an emergency at the time.

Then, there was this article by Jay Glazer of FoxSports that Plax has been fined staggering 40-50 times during his Giants career.  So maybe this incident represents more than just a one-time relapse into immaturity.

Ralph Vacchiano, the Daily News beat writer, shed some light on Plax in his live chat with Giants fans on Tuesday:

I don’t think Burress and Coughlin have ever really gotten along.  They’ve peacefully coexisted more than anything else.  I remember talking to Burress a year or so ago and he said that he used to break Coughlin’s rules just for the heck of it, just to see what he could get away with.  That’s not exactly the mark of a good team player.  But Burress insisted he had changed.  Unfortunately, that’s not the case.  When he missed that meeting that led to his suspension, his teammates said that him missing a meeting wasn’t unusual at all.  I’ve also heard that he’s been fined dozens of times over the years.  I don’t think any of that is the result of, or will result in, strong negative feelings towards the Giants.  Hell, the Giants just enabled him with a five-year, $35 million deal.  I just think he’s Plaxico being Plaxico.  He just doesn’t care about fines and rules.  He does what he wants and he shows up on Sunday, gets his money, and that’s all that matters to him.  I’d bet anything that when he comes back from his suspension, he accepts responsibility but says that he’d do it again because whatever his reason was meant more to him than missing a game.  And I think the Giants knew this was the way Burress was.  If you want to get his remarkable talent (and I think he’s one of the top three receivers in the NFL) then you have to accept the rest.

Ok…  I have to say this was pretty disappointing to read.  I was under the impression that Plax had transformed and grown out his pain-in-the-ass-ness.  I guess that’s not the case.

But if I understand Vacchiano correctly here, it’s really not that big of a problem.  Plax and Coughlin “peacefully coexist,” and the new contract Plax just signed would seem to indicate that theirs is a tenable, if not ideal, relationship.  But will this suspension imperil it?  Hopefully not.

Punt Returns:

This kind of got lost in the shuffle, but now that R.W. is healthy, he has been seen returning some punts in practice, along with Bradshaw.

When Colonel Tom was asked whether Hixon may not return punts this week because he’s starting at split end, he replied, “We will see about that.”

This is stupid.  Hixon is by far our best punt returner (and kick returner); there’s no reason he shouldn’t handle both those responsibilities.

The Kicker Situation:

Conflicting takes from the beat reporters here: Mike Garafolo of the Star-Ledger says his knee has been swelling up and likely won’t play, while Vacchiano of the Daily News’ says he’s probably play.

Are there any Giants fans who want Tynes back at all, let alone if he rushes back?  There seemed to be a disconnect between the media coverage of Tynes after the Green Bay game and Giants’ fans opinion of him.  Correct me if I’m wrong, but he’s not really a hero in our minds, right?  I guess we’re grateful for the 47-yarder, but overall, I think most of us still want to strangle him for the two previous kicks.  And we  still don’t trust him.  Lawrence Tynes, you are no Matt Bahr.

Danny Ware Arrested:

Danny Ware, who earned a roster spot by running pretty during the preseason, was arrested in Athens, GA last Saturday after the UGA-Alabama game.  According to police, he was standing in the street with a girl oblivious to oncoming traffic, and blew a .152 on his BAC.

But according to some eyewitnesses who commented on the Athens-Banner Herald’s website, Ware was merely the victim of a power-tripping asshole cop.  According to these witnesses, Ware was standing not far from the curb trying to hail a cab when a cop abruptly rolled up and arrested four people for no good reason.

With our Big Three at running back, Ware probably won’t play a role on this year’s team.  But Jacobs is a free agent after this year, so it’s not out of the question that we will hear from this guy someday.

Madison:

This is a nice article by Paul Schwartz in the Post about how Sam Madison has evolved into a kind of player-coach in the secondary.  Madison took a $500,000 pay cut to stay with the G-Men, and though his skills are clearly diminished, he provides a valuable veteran presence for A-Ross, Webster, and Dockery.  And, of course, he made a great play on 3^rd down in overtime against the Bengals, enabling us to get the ball back and drive for the winning field goal.

The story would be even more heartwarming, however, if Madison hadn’t committed that egregious 15-yard personal foul penalty in the NFC Championship game that led to Donald Lee’s go-ahead touchdown.  Fox replays didn’t capture him throwing down Brandon Jackson last year, so I have never seen that clip.  Has anyone?  Is their any hand-held YouTube footage of this one?

If you weren’t happy with the Washington win, is there anything to complain about now?  Sure the Rams suck, but one of the hallmarks of great NFL teams is that they blow out the scrubby ones.  This game is a reassuring sign that we are among the NFL elite.  Two games into the season, the Super Bowl Champs couldn’t be more encouraging.

Yes, it was a seven-point game as late as the fourth quarter.  But to say that the final score did not reflect the feeling of the game is bullshit: the Giants dominated this game on a play-by-play basis from start to finish, but it wasn’t until the final minutes of the fourth quarter that the scoreboard reflected this.  Look at it this way: we outgained them 441-201. 

At halftime, the score was only 13-6, yet the Rams had not advanced past the Giants’ 36-yard-line.  It was only those two 54-yard field goals by Brown – one of which was enabled only by Tuck’s facemask penalty [on a play he was held on, no less] – that kept the Rams in the game.

The G-Men seemingly put it away by mounting an emphatic 97-yard drive on their first possession of the third quarter, but the lucky bomb to Holt – who probably didn’t even catch the ball – meant that the G-Men had to keep the can of whoopass open.  To their credit, they did for the rest of the game. 

Offense: 

Eli was excellent, going 20-29 for 260 yards and three touchdowns, averaging 9 yards per attempt – for perspective, realize that his career YPA is 6.3.  He made a couple of bad throws, but didn’t seem to make any dangerous throws or bad decisions like the near-picks last week, which is an important distinction. 

The square-ins and back-shoulder fades to Plax, the hitches to Toomer, the touchdown on the post to Toomer – that’s the throw Eli routinely makes the best, in my opinion – the catchable passes to the backs, that pass to Boss that got called back, that gorgeous touch-pass to Hixon down the sideline, and last but not least, the lefty toss to Jacobs that set up Carney from 33…  Great job, Eli.

The pass protection was solid overall, save for a brief period near the end of the second quarter when Long sacked Eli and then McKenzie got a holding penalty on the next series.  Overall though, they did a good job. 

But the pass protection had nothing on the run-blocking, which is probably the single best facet of this team.  Jacobs had 93 yards on 15 carries, Ward had 58 on 8, and Bradshaw – in addition to his touchdown catch – had 5 carries for 32.  Overall, we had 203 yards and averaged 6.8 yards a pop.  Much of the credit for that goes to the fatties up front.

Like a lot of Giants fans, NYGMen has long beat the pro-Bradshaw drum, wondering why the clear-cut best back on our team doesn’t get more burn.  Once again, Ahmad was electrifying.  On his touchdown run, when he exploded through the hole with one man to beat, was there any doubt he was gonna beat that guy?  And after today, is there any doubt he’s criminally underutilized?  Please Tom, since we know you’re reading this, FREE AHMAD! 

As for Ward, he was very effective too.  Ward hits the hole decisively and he hits the hole hard.  With our physical offensive line and our physical fullback, he’s a good fit.

And now Jacobs…  Look, I know his overall numbers were good today (though much of his totals came from one perfectly blocked 30-yard run at the beginning of the third quarter).  And I know his overall numbers last year (5.0 yards per carry) were good too.  But please, how much more effective are the other two backs when they enter the game?  To put it another way, when was the last time you remember Jacobs being more effective than Ahmad or Ward? 

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, but the coaching staff’s insistence on making Jacobs the featured runner is holding this team back.  Yes, there’s a place for Jacobs on this team; it’s just a lot smaller than the coaching staff thinks. 

Moving on, the receivers were very good too.  Plax abused whoever covered him, and Smith made a couple great plays, one of which was called back on the down-by-contact call.  Amani, for some reason, was featured, and he acquitted himself well.

I’m not sure why Amani got so many looks – probably because Plax was being double-covered, though I’m not sure – but some of those plays showed pretty clearly that he’s lost almost all of his speed.  Amani is a very skilled receiver, adept at finding creases in the zone and a master of the toe-tap.  But at this point of his career, he’s just too slow to run by defensive backs.  There were at least two plays yesterday where he was isolated one-on-one against a corner, but the defender was able to run stride for stride with him.  Amani still has his uses, for sure, but he also has his limitations.  Going forward – and by forward, I mean possibly as early as the second half of this year – we’re going to be happy that we have Maningham, Hixon, and Moss on the roster. 

Defense: 

201 yards of total offense, and only 68 allowed against a ground game that boasts Steven Jackson, one of the best backs in the game.  6 sacks and pressure on Bulger all day.  The Tuck touchdown.  For the second straight game, what a performance by the D.

As was the case on offense, it all started up front.  Tuck, who has become the face of the defense after the Osi injury, was a beast.  Big Fred, who has late-bloomed into a star, was beastly as well. 

The pressure on Bulger was constant, and Jackson didn’t have any success running between the tackles.  The only success Jackson did have was running outside, but that’s a small thing to complain about.

The starting corners, Webster and Ross, were absolutely phenomenal.  How exciting is it that we have two potentially awesome young corners?  Who could have predicted this before last year? 

And even though the Rams’ touchdown came at Phillips’ expense, wouldn’t you even say that that play was overall encouraging?  I mean, here was our rookie safety running stride for stride with one of the best receivers of the era.  He made a smooth attempt at the ball, and although he didn’t haul it in, it was only an unpredictable bounce of the oblong ball – and a highly questionable call – that made that anything worse than a nice break-up.

Not so spectacular was Butler, who was late arriving in safety help on a big play during the series on which Holt scored the touchdown.  Yes, I know safeties are always left holding the proverbial bag, but doesn’t it seem that way too often, Butler is nowhere to be found on deep help?  He seems to lack the range you want from your deep safety – you have to think it’s only a matter of time before its Johnson and Phillips getting the majority of the burn. 

And Dockery had a bone-headed pass interference to keep that touchdown drive alive: on third down, he laid a hit on a receiver before the marker.

Special Teams: 

This was an underrated aspect of this game.  The punt and kickoff coverage was excellent, which was a relief after the brutal kickoff coverage last week.  And Hixon’s punt return in the fourth quarter should finally close the book on the R.W. era.

It was an uneven offensive performance, with our low point total (16) somewhat belied by our 354 yards, more than the 331 we averaged last year.  And because we sat on the lead for much of the second half, you have to think we could have done a bit more.

But the second half was poor, no question about it. After gaining 241 of our 354 yards in the first half, we were out-gained by the Redskins 158 to 113 in the second.  A 9 point lead isn’t comfortable enough to justify this – as is their unfortunate wont, the G-Men seemed to fall asleep on offense with a lead that, based on the flow and feeling of the game, seemed bigger than it actually was.

Alas, we Giants fans have become accustomed to this maddening trait, and I doubt it’s gonna change.  This week, we got lucky – our defense played great and the Redskins were clearly not ready to score points at this point of the season.  But we haven’t been so lucky in the past, and we might not be so lucky next time.

One of the reason the scoreboard didn’t fully reflect our dominance in the first half is that we didn’t fully capitalize in the red zone (I refuse to call it the green zone, Tom), where we came away with only a touchdown and a field goal in three trips.  Last year, we were 13^th in the league in red-zone efficiency, scoring touchdowns 54.5 percent of the time compared to the league average of 52 percent.  Based on this percentage, we scored around 2 fewer points on Thursday than what would be “expected.”

Our low point total also owed itself to being stopped on a couple of third and shorts you would expect us to convert: 1) On our second possession, when Ward was met by London Fletcher at the 7 (John Madden aptly called this “a four point tackle); and 2) on our fourth possession, where Jacobs got stopped on a toss sweep, setting up Carney’s 47-yard field goal.

Going forward, these short-yardage situations shouldn’t be a problem.  Last year, we ranked 7^th best in the league in a FootballOutsiders stat called “Power” situations – the percentage of runs on either third or fourth down that result in either a first down or a touchdown.  The year before, we ranked 6^th.  Basically, we have a big, physical line made for such situations.  (My only complaint is that we seem to assume that Jacobs is our best good short-yardage option, just because he’s big.  When we had Tiki, I thought Tiki was better than Jacobs, even in these situations.  Now I think Bradshaw is.  More on this at some point in the future…)

Eli and the passing game:

Like the entire offense’s performance, Eli gets mixed reviews here.  But his sub-par stat-line – 19- 35, 216 yards, averaging 6.2 yards per attempt – sells his performance a little short, I think.

The guy did a lot of great stuff: a couple of those throws to Plax (including the pump-fake on the 30-yarder on the first drive), the pocket presence on the long 3^rd down completion to Sinorice (very nice to see), and a nice play where he stepped up in the pocket and hit Jacobs over the middle come to mind.

There was also his confident demeanor, something not only Madden picked up on, but also my friend Wong, who put it well by saying: “Do you see the balls on Eli now?  He thinks he can pretty much put the ball wherever he wants to now.”

Unfortunately, this confidence verged into recklessness on a few occasions.  I’m not even talking about the interception, on which Boss was actually open – that was just a poorly thrown ball.  What was more troubling were the four near-interceptions resulting from either bad decisions by Eli or miscommunication with the receivers.  One of these four near-picks — when Rogers jumped a route – could have gone back for a touchdown and changed the complexion of the game.

So overall, Eli did some great things and some bad things.

As far as the O-line is concerned, the protection was pretty good in the first half, but pretty bad in the second half.  On each of our first four second half series, the protection badly broke down at least once.  Eli threw his interception with Andre Carter in his face, which might have altered the trajectory of the throw. 

Plax:

What more can you say here?  Toby Hyde, the purveyor of Metsminorsleagueblog.com, pointed out in a non Mets-related note that on passes targeted for Plax, Eli was 10-13 with 10.23 YPA.  On passes targeted for all other receivers, he was 9-21, averaging 3.95 YPA.  This speaks for itself. 

Plax is a great Giant, he was a great signing, and he’s in for a monster year.  More than anything else, the hope of an improved Eli and a healthy Plax is reason to believe we’re gonna be better than last year.

Smith:

First down machine.  Thank God the Panthers took Dwayne Jarrett.

Running game:

Pretty dominant, though less so in the second half.  Still, its’ hard to complain about 4.8 yards a pop over 32 rushing attempts. 

Our run-blocking is probably the best single facet of our team, and is the reason that Jacobs, Ward, Bradshaw are all good contributors.  FootballOutsiders has a stat called Adjusted Line Yards, which seeks to separate the roles of linemen and backs to apportion credit on running plays.  The formula is kind of complicated, but the G-Men ranked 2^nd in the league in this stat last year after ranking 4^th in the league in 2006.  So basically, the stats — whatever value you put in this particular one — bear it out: our run-blocking is elite. 

As far as the backs go, you have to be happy with what both Jacobs and Ward gave you.  But at the same time, you have wonder why Bradshaw didn’t get in.  Ward and Jacobs are fine, but it’s pretty clear that Ahmad’s our best back – some of those holes were so big, maybe Ahmad could have maybe hit a home run with one of them.  The rotation should be set up around Bradshaw, to keep him healthy and fresh, and not Jacobs.  There will be more on this point as the season goes along.

Andy F., the proprietor of UltimateNYG and a huge Bradshaw supporter himself, dug up something of an explanation of the situation from Coughlin’s press conference: 

“That was my fault.  I didn’t get that rotation worked out the way I really would want to. …  When we were making yards, they were tough yards, and I was pleased with some of the things that were happening with Jacobs and then with Derrick Ward.  Not that I am not pleased with Bradshaw, no that is not the case, but I just didn’t get the right rotation.”

(I don’t really understand this.  Did he not put in Bradshaw because Jacobs and Ward were playing well, or did he fuck up the rotation?)

But give credit to Jacobs and Ward for doing a nice job.  As many have pointed out, Jacobs has looked a lot spryer this year than he did toward the end of last year. Maybe the key to keeping him effective over the course of the season is limiting his carries, which is why his 21 carries were a little bit worrisome and unnecessary.

Also, it’s pretty clear by now that Jacobs is a pretty brutal receiver.  He has stone hands, which not only causes drops, but also precludes him from maneuvering immediately after the catch because he doesn’t bring the ball in smoothly.  It’s almost as if you can see the defenders converging on him as he battles the ball.

Ward did a good job, showing his trademark one-cut, downhill style.  He had a nice, smooth catch ‘n’ run as well, which contrasted with Jacobs’ inability to do the same.