I. Jacobs Will Almost Definitely Play

It really, really looks like dude will play – he even practiced yesterday on a limited basis.

To their credit, the G-Men have been super-cautious about this: Last week, Jacobs begged the trainers and coaches to let him play, but they insisted he rest, which was smart.  When Plax injured his hammy, he pushed it in a relatively meaningless game against Arizona, aggravating the injury.  Good to see the G-Men are learning from their mistakes.

Maybe if we win this game, we should consider resting Jacobs against the Vikings.  Consider how worn-down he looked in last year’s playoffs, when he averaged 3.2 yards per carry compared to Bradshaw’s 4.3 (which doesn’t include the touchdown-that-wasn’t in the Green Bay game, thanks to a ticky-tack hold on Chris Snee).  This brings up the question of whether we should rest guys against the Vikings if we win on Sunday, but I suppose we’ll cross that bridge if and when we come to it.

Jacobs had some pretty cool quotes in yesterday’s Star-Ledger.  Check these out:

“I don’t want to [have to] plead [to play] this week.  There’s kind of no choice.  I want to go.  Whoever I have to talk to to get this verdict, that’s what I’m going to do.”

And:

“We are the head honchos of the conference.  This game means a lot to our team, so I want to be out there to have a better chance for our team to win.”

“Head honchos” – gotta love it.  After Sunday, the G-Men will officially be the Big Cheese of the NFC.

II.  Getting Healthier

Via Mike Garafolo, Robbins, Ward, Hixon, and Moss all practiced today.  Yesterday, Jacobs, McKenzie, and Tuck practiced.  We’re getting healthier and we’re gonna fly around in the snow on Sunday night.

III.  Another Reason Not to Panic

As Ralph Vacciano pointed out in his live chat, a horrid performance in Week 15 does not a postseason run preclude.  Last year, we lost to the Redskins, 22-10 in a thoroughly listless, depressing games in recent memory.  This game saw the future Super Bowl MVP set a record for most incomplete passes in a game in a heinous 18 for 52 performance that made us wish Todd Collins was our quarterback.

So let’s see what happens on Sunday.  I’m expecting good things.

IV. Carney and Feagles

Most of the talk about the Pro Bowl has centered around Eli and Peyton becoming the first brother duo to make the Pro Bowl.  But I happen to think that Carney and Feagles become the two oldest dudes to make the Pro Bowl (44 and 42, respectively) is the cooler answer to a trivia question.

V. Great Move Locking Up Webster

Everyone knows that Webster has been good this year, but perhaps people don’t fully appreciate just how awesome: Although my fandom goes back only to around Mark Collins, I would venture to say his play this year is the best by a Giant cornerback I’ve ever seen.  Evidently, a light-bulb went on with this guy, and he was finally able to convert his incredible athleticism – he is quick, balanced, extremely long, and extremely coordinated – into results.

This outstanding article by Mike Garafolo backs up these claims with some statistics.

“Through 13 games, Webster has three interceptions and unofficially 22 passes defensed.  Webster also been the closest defender on 62 passes by opposing quarterbacks, — only 20 of which have been completed for a total of 238 yards and one touchdown.

“Add those numbers up, and opposing quarterbacks have posted just a 30.2 passer rating when throwing Webster’s way.”

So yeah… Webster is awesome and well-deserving of his five-year, $43.5 million contract.  Plus, he’s also only 26, so he’s a good bet to be good throughout the deal.  The following quote by Jerry Reese makes me feel even better:

“Corey has been an outstanding person and player in his short career for the Giants.  We are very happy to get this deal done.”

Outstanding person?  Sure, it’s a quote from a press release, but Reese didn’t have to say that.  If it’s true, it’s nice to know that Webster’s a character guy who can be a team leader in the future.

It sucks that Webster didn’t make the Pro Bowl, but in Asante Samuel, Antoine Winfield, and Charles Woodson, he was beaten out by some very deserving guys.  At first I was a little skeptical of Woodson, given the Packers overall defense.  But it turns out they have an excellent pass defense, so there you go.  Still, there should be Pro Bowl’s in Corey’s future.

I should mention that I had a one-on-one encounter with Webster the Saturday before he inked his deal.

I was at the Meadowlands watching the New Jersey high school football championships, having finagled a field pass through my friend.  (And yes, this was my first time on the field.  And yes, it was ridiculously awesome.)

I was standing near the tunnel – the one the G-Men come out of – when I spotted Webster coming out of the locker room and heading for the parking lot.  And although it looked like he was about to call someone on his cell, I went ahead and shouted, “Corey!” as I hustled toward him.

He was a little startled, but I extended a pound toward him and told him I was a big fan and he was having a great year.  That loosened him up, and he said something to the effect of, “Aright, man!” in a good-natured way, and we pound-hugged.

As we peeled away, I said to him, “You’re gonna get paid, you know.”

“I hope so,” he replied with a chuckle.  “That’s the plan.”

Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of the nadir of Eli Manning’s professional career, a game that Ralph Vacchiano describes as “his hideous, 21 for 49, 273-yard four pick performance” against the Vikings.  Two of those four picks were returned for touchdowns in a game we lost, 41-17.

Since then, as Vacchiano writes, the Giants have won 17 of their 20 games.  Eli has completed 58.9 percent of his passes for 4,133 yards, 31 touchdowns and 13 picks, good for a QB rating of 87.3.

I attended this depressing game with loyal NYGMen commenter Dan, and the thoughts running through our heads leaving Giants Stadium went something like this:

Wow, that sucked.  We’re 7-4, so we might luck into another bogus playoff appearance in the weak-ass NFC, but this franchise clearly isn’t going anywhere serious.  After more than three full seasons as a starter, our quarterback has pretty much shown us what he is.  Yes, he’s capable of some clutch moments, but he doesn’t seem capable of exceeding a mediocre 55% completion percentage and 75.0 rating.  And great quarterbacks – the type Ernie Accorsi’s old, deluded, Frankensteinish ass convinced himself Eli was – simply don’t turn in performances like that. 

The Giants are halfway decent now, and we should be halfway decent for the next several years.   But our quarterback will hold us back from elite status, a sad irony considering we drafted him to take us to the Promised Land.  Despite his last name and the early promise he showed, Eli is officially a mediocrity.  And now we have to wait an hour and a half for this fucking bus.  This sucks.

This is worth reflecting upon because 1) It shows us how miraculously our fortunes have turned for the better since then; and 2) It reminds us that there was nothing in Eli’s past performance that pointed to his sudden improvement.  It’s not as if Eli had gradually gotten better since 2004, and that last year’s playoff run represented the culmination of a linear progression.  No, Eli was sputtering more than ever until the New England Week 17 game, when behind his goofy smile and tousled hair, a lightbulb switched on.  Nearly a full season later, it hasn’t gone off.

It’s worth noting that the title for Vacchiano’s blog post – “It all began one year ago today, at rock bottom” – is a bit misleading.  For Eli, there were more depths to plumb after the Minnesota game.  He followed the Vikings game with two uninspired efforts against the Eagles and Bears (granted, in the Bears game, he led one of his patented fourth quarter comebacks).  Then came the ugly Sunday night game against Washington, in which – windy conditions and brutal Gilbride playcalling notwithstanding – he went 18 for 52, averaging an unsightly 3.5 yards per attempt.  Then came the two-interception, five-fumble performance against the Bills the next week, during which he went 7 for 15 for 111 yards.  Think about how bad Eli was at this point.

Anyway, as we approach Thanksgiving, it’s worth reflecting with gratitude upon the miracle we’ve witnessed in the past year.  There was nothing to indicate that this would happen.  No, Eli isn’t a world-beater, but as Tom Coughlin said after Sunday’s game, “He just continues to do what has to be done to win a game.”

The Giants Sunday matchup with the Ravens presents the opportunity to reflect on Super Bowl XXXV, that repressed moment in Giants history when a feel-good season was marred by a humiliating loss.

“A loss” is a severe understatement.  This was a beating.  After the game, the Giants – a franchise known for its toughness and physicality – looked like victims of a violent crime.

Before that traumatic night in Tampa, things had been going so well.  Somewhat implausibly, the Giants had managed a 12-4 record and the top seed in the playoffs in a weak NFC, which they rolled through in spectacular fashion to earn a place in the Big Game.  It was a magical run that, even at the time, seemed a little too good to be true.

And it was.  I will never forget the precise moment when I realized this: It was during the pre-game introductions to the starting lineups, after every Ravens defensive player had been introduced except one.  And then they called Ray Lewis’ name, and he emerged from the tunnel and did the most intimidating thing I’ve ever seen.

Many people are familiar with Ray Lewis’ dance, those spastic contortions he does during pregame intros.  I was too, but until then, I always thought of the dance as goofy and even endearing.  But I had been wrong: As I realized now, it was downright threatening.

Because in this dance was everything the Ravens were and the Giants weren’t: explosive, violent, and brimming with the fury of having been overlooked.  The Giants were a nice team and a good story, but the Ravens were bad, both in the 1980s sense of the word and in their intentions.  The Ravens were the villains, and they had the confidence to relish the role.

The dance also put into stark clarity that the Giants would have to reckon with Ray Lewis, who not even a year before had been charged with murder.  He was acquitted, of course, and now, eight years later, his image has been fully redeemed.  But at the time, it didn’t seem out of the question that the middle linebacker staring across the line of scrimmage was literally a killer.

Before that moment, the Ravens had never scared me.  Going into the game, I was confident about the Giants prospects, reasoning that while both teams had good defenses, the Giants’ had a good offense while the Ravens didn’t.  The Giants would win, I figured, because their advantage on offense was bigger than the Ravens’ advantage on defense.

But as boos from the pro-Giants crowd showered him, Lewis made it clear who the star of this evening was going to be.  I realized then that I had underestimated how ferocious he and his fellow Ravens defenders were.

And after Baltimore’s nondescript offense capitalized on a Giants blown coverage for an early touchdown, Lewis made what became the signature play of that Super Bowl in my mind:

The Giants had 2nd and 10 from their own 16 yard-line, having mustered just one first down on their first three series.  But when Tiki Barber took a handoff for a sweep to the left edge with a cavalcade of blockers and a lot of green space ahead of him, it looked like the Giants might have a chance.

But just as he was about to turn the corner for the Giants first big gain of the day, Lewis emerged to drag Tiki down from behind like a lion taking down a gazelle.

The Giants had no chance.  Tiki was a good player, but Lewis was a force of nature.

Now, I don’t know why, because they have a pretty stocked WR core, with Plax, Amani Toomer, and Steve Smith.

But here is what it says:

At least 10 teams have been in contact with the agent for the wide receiver who was released Friday by the Denver Broncos, including all four NFC East clubs, according to a source.

The 49ers, Bills, Bucs, Panthers, Raiders and Vikings also have reached out to agent Kennard McGuire regarding Walker. No visits had been scheduled as of early Saturday.

The Cowboys and Eagles have a couple connections working in their favor in pursuit of Walker. Dallas receivers coach Ray Sherman coached Walker in Green Bay. Walker is friends with Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb and the two have been training together in Arizona for several weeks.