Here’s the video of Eli on Dave from Wednesday night. Enjoy!!

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And part 2:

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I. Indignities

Depending on how one looks at it, there’s either a lot or not very much I can say about this game. The problem – and by “problem” I mean “defense” – has been pretty well documented in the papers the past couple days.

I’ll get to all that, but first, I want to share with you some observations from my depressing-ass day at Giants Stadium. I’ve been to the past three Giants home games; Sunday was my third consecutive dismal trip to the swamp.

Between the Eagles game last year (best remembered for the Trent Cole pick-six, and which should have been the coup de grace on our season if the NFC wasn’t such a complete mockery), the Saints game (um… which should have been the coup de grace on our season if the NFC wasn’t such a complete mockery), and this Packers game, it’s hard to say which was the worst: it’s like comparing slavery, the holocaust and Darfur: Each was uniquely awful in its own way.

An aggravating circumstance this past Sunday was the outrageous parking situation. Basically, because of the Xanadu complex and the groundbreaking for the new stadium, parking is scarce and only available to those with passes. Having gotten our tickets from Craigslist, my friend Wong and I didn’t have a pass, so we were directed out of the parking lot and handed a budget little xeroxed map that was supposed to lead us to supplementary parking.

I’m not sure if 1) the supplementary parking simply didn’t exist; or 2) the map was too unintelligible to make much sense of – it was basically a map of all the highways surrounding the Meadowlands with a confusing set of directions and no real destination – but after a frustrating and nerve-wracking 20 minutes of driving around, Wong and I spotted some people in Giants jerseys walking like refugees on the side of Route 120.

We passed by a hotel parking lot and saw a bunch of jersey-clad people get out of the car, so we came to the conclusion that no, there was no designated parking lot, but was rather an everybody-fending-for-themselves situation in parking lots of various roadside establishments.

A couple-hundred feet later, Wong and I spotted a Bank of America, and though there were no spots in the lot-proper, there was a little unused area adjacent to the parking lot – weedy grass, tire fragments, broken bottles – where other cars were parked, so we figured it was probably ok. We parked, contemplated how far away we were from the stadium, and hoped we wouldn’t get towed.

And then we walked. On the side of a highway, single-file through the contaminated New Jersey roadside grass, with cars whizzing by us, for around 25 minutes, we walked. At least there were other people walking with us to let us know that we were in the right place, and at least we got to the game on time, but the whole episode was the first of many indignities we Giants fans had to swallow. It sucked.

So, along with a lot of other shit, this organization needs to address the parking situation.

 

II. The Meadowlands Crowd is Dead

When I was a kid, I fell in love with this image of the Meadowlands as this cold, raw, raucous joint, the quintessential tough-place-to-play. But last Sunday, even before the game got out of hand, the place was completely dead, as it has been on many other of my trips to the Meadowlands.

It was a strangely laid-back, apathetic atmosphere, as if was inappropriate to get rowdy for a 1 o’clock game, and the game itself was secondary to enjoying a calm, sunny Sunday. Whatever a “college atmosphere” is, Giants Stadium on Sunday was the opposite of that.

And that’s when things were going well. After the Driver touchdown following Bradshaw’s fumble, the place rapidly and silently cleared out. By the end of the game, there were probably more Packer fans than Giant fans – when DeShawn Wynn scored his second touchdown with 4:22 remaining, the pro-Pack crowd produced a disturbingly loud roar. We were 0-2 and the Packer fans had taken over our place.

I. Eli and His Health:

What’s Eli’s health status? That’s obviously the million dollar question.

The defense was horrendous tonight, but the offense was great. Not as great as the defense was horrendous, but great nonetheless. And nobody was better than Eli: he made all the reads and all the throws, time and again taking the offense downfield in adverse situations and turning what could have been a blowout into a winnable track meet.

His stats speak for themselves. So do his body language and the way that he inspired confidence that the game was within reach even as the Pokes kept scoring.

Now, it would obviously be ridiculous to get over-exuberant about Eli right now (especially considering the injury). The guy has been a notoriously fast starter, finishing each of his three seasons by folding in ugly fashion. But we Giants fans really have no choice but to hang our hats on the guy. Tonight’s performance, his excellent preseason, and the flashes he’s shown in the past give us reason to do so.

His one mistake tonight was the interception by Jacques Reeves on that comeback to Plax. Plax fell down on the play, but Reeves jumped that route pretty good – I think he would have made that play even if Plax hadn’t fallen down.

But whatever. I’m sure we’re all fine with a 4:1 touchdown to interception ratio.

And I’m sure that we’re all most definitely not fine with what we’ve seen from Jared Lorenzen, who was pretty God-awful all preseason and, in only a series of work, managed to look pretty horrendous tonight against a prevent defense.

First, he vastly overshot an open Plax on a fly pattern on 3rd down; then, on 4th down, he basically ended the game by mysteriously sliding before the first down marker. Granted our chances of winning at this point were slim, but the bizarre short-of-the-marker slide was the nail in our coffin.

So we’re back to the question of Eli’s health. After watching all the post-game news conferences, I’m optimistic that he’ll be back next Sunday.

Here’s what I heard:

From Colonel Tom:

“On the two-point play he went down on his shoulder. His shoulder started to stiffen up. He came in and threw a touchdown pass, but after that we just felt like we needed to make sure that we got him iced down so we could have the best chance of getting that under control as fast as possible.”

From Eli:

“It feels just a little tight and a little sore right now. I think I just bruised it. So, I’m gonna get an MRI tomorrow but I was still able to throw on it. I threw the last touchdown to Plaxico on that last drive with it so, I feel like I can still make all the throws. It’s just a little tight right now, a little sore.

“As the time went on it just got a little more sore and tightened up…. When they got the final touchdown, it was a situation where I didn’t want to go in there and make anything worse.”

Ok, I’ll accept this. And I have no problem that we basically conceded the game after the backbreaking Sam Hurd touchdown: given our defense’s inability to make a single play all night, there was really no way we were winning that game.

But Eli’s health will be the story of the week. We need him back as soon as possible.

 

Ia. More on Eli: A Post-Script to the Eli-Tiki Bitch-Fest:

I haven’t really touched on Tiki v. Eli or Tiki v. Coughlin. To me, it’s pretty obvious that Tiki’s has been a pretty substantial tool in recent weeks.

Now, please bear in mind that I would never say that Tiki is a tool: I’m merely saying that he’s being a tool, in the same way that Crash Davis said the home plate umpire made a cocksucking call and didn’t call him a cocksucker.

Those who read this blog regularly know that I love Tiki, and so long as he doesn’t murder a member of my immediate family, I always will. Check out my borderline homoerotic love poem to him, or my study of his 234-yard game against the Redskins last year, which rivals O-Dawg from “Menace II Society” in the pantheon of obsessive attention to slow-mo detail on a taped recording.

But he’s been acting like a schmuck, no doubt. For more on this perspective, check out Deadspin’s Will Leitch’s “Kindly Plea for Tiki Barber to Shut the Hell Up.”

But tonight, both on the national NBC telecast and then later on Mike’d Up, he appeared to be trying to back away from his previous dick comments.

Here’s what he said on Mike’d Up about Eli:

“If you watched this game today, he carried himself with a confidence and a wherewithal and an “I’m gonna put you guys on my back.” And it showed. I mean, the four touchdowns, and a couple of huge throws to Plaxico and Amani. You can see that the leadership qualities and the attn to detail and the things that it takes to take your team to another level are there.”

So there you go. Tiki went too far about Eli during the preseason, then added fuel to the fire by vigorously defending himself. To his credit, however, he took the opportunity tonight to try to make things right. Let’s leave it at that and start talking more important things.

 

II. Other Injuries

Osi and Jacobs. Wow. If not for the awesome performance of our offense, tonight’s game would have been some Murphy’s Law shit: The quarterback goes down, the running back goes down, and our best pass rusher goes down. What an absolute fucking disaster.

The injury to Osi (something with his lower leg; he’s going for an MRI tomorrow) occurred on the Cowboys first drive, and spelled disaster for the rest of the night. Our lack of pass rush wasn’t our only problem, but it made our already struggling safety/linebacker pass defenders look even worse.

I haven’t poured over the DVRd game yet, but Strahan did not look ready – the combination of he and Awasom was pretty silent on the left side. Tuck, moving over to the right side, was quiet as well (save for the third quarter sack when he broke out with the baby-cradling dance).

Without any semblance of a pass rush, Romo was able to pick us apart with impunity. He didn’t even have to avail himself of his athleticism – his best attribute – to put up the best quarterback numbers of the week against us.

As for Jacobs (knee-sprain), who knows how long he’ll be out for? And who knows if/when this will happen again?

It’s an oft-made point, but Jacobs body-type and running-style leave him extremely vulnerable to hits like the one that sidelined him tonight. I’ve always compared him to Jeremy Shockey, who has the same long-limbed build and high-contact style. Think of how nick-up-prone Shockey is right now, and imagine how much worse things would be if he were carrying the ball every play like a running back?

Jacobs looked pretty good tonight (6 runs for 28 yards); it would definitely be a blow if he got hurt. Ward looked really good and clearly has some talent, but remember that his numbers are dubious considering they were achieved when the Cowboys ahead the whole time he was in and were therefore geared up to stop the pass.

So after the first game, we’re left with an 0-1 record and three injuries to three of our most important players.

 

III. The Defense

Where to begin here?

We gave up 45 points. We couldn’t stop the run, rush the passer, or guard their receivers. It was an absolute disaster in all phases of defense. There is absolutely nothing for us to hang our hats on as we pick up the pieces for the rest of the season.

It would be kinda ridiculous for me to cite specifically infuriating plays; after all, most of the plays the Cowboys ran were pretty maddening for the G-Men faithful. But fuck it. Here are some plays I can’t stop thinking about:

 

12:01 in the Second Quarter: 1st and 10 from the Cowboys 44:

Romo fakes the handoff to Marion Barber, then looks downfield to survey the scene before determining that nobody is open. Fortunately for Romo, Barber is wide open on the left side: somehow, outside linebacker Matthias Kiwanuka has lost sight of Barber and has abandoned his responsibility in the left flat.

Barber catches the ball, eludes the out-of-position Kiwanuka, and doesn’t stop running until he’s tackled at the 27. It’s 1st and 10 for the ‘Boys after a 29-yard gain, and it’s the inexperienced Kiwanuka’s fault.

10:06 in the Second Quarter: 4th and 1 from the Giants 18:

Pierce, Butler, and Webster all miss tackles (Butler most egregiously), as Barber bounces an off-tackle run outside and turns the corner for the 18-yard touchdown. 10-6 Cowboys.

4:07 in the Second Quarter: 2nd and 17 from the Giants 12:

Jason Whitten, who killed us all game but especially in the first half (5 catches for 78 yards) leaks into a soft-spot in the zone created by two inexperienced outside linebackers: Kawika Mitchell, who inexplicably drifted away from Whitten, who appeared to be the only man in his zone; and Matthias Kiwanuka, who was too late getting over to make any kind of play on the ball.

Romo zipped a nice throw in there to put the ‘Boys up 17-6.

12:07 in the Third Quarter: 1st and 10 from the Giants 22:

To give some context, it’s not as if Dallas wasn’t gonna score on this possession anyway: On their previous three plays, they had put together gains of 14, 21, and 18 yards.

Still, their touchdown was particularly bewildering.

It looked as if R.W. was in press coverage against T.O. on the right side: he bumped him and then ran with him, understandably a couple of strides behind. Only there was no over-the-top help, and T.O. was wide open to catch the touchdown pass.

Press coverage against T.O. with no safety help in sight? It had to be a blown coverage. Either way, the ‘Boys extender the lead to 24-16.

1:18 in the Third Quarter: 2nd and Goal from the Giants 9:

A strong interior pass rush forces Romo to the outside. Unfortunately, Kiwanuka, who had outside contain responsibility on the play, took an inside angle to Romo and gave up the outside edge. Romo took advantage and ran around the bend for the easy touchdown. Cowboys 31-Giants 19.

11:52 in the Fourth Quarter: 2nd and 11 from the Giants 47:

Once again, Romo has all day to throw. He sits back and hits T.O. dragging across the middle of the field. James Butler misses another tackle, and the Cowboys go up 38-22.

But more than anyone else, it was Gibril Wilson’s fault. Playing underneath, Wilson was way too late to react and get back in his drop zone, which gave T.O. a lot of space to maneuver against the overmatched Butler.

Another easy score for the Pokes.

3:11 in the Fourth Quarter: 3rd and 7 from the Cowboys 49:

The coup de grace.

Romo drops back and hits Sam Hurd on an inside dig. Hurd doesn’t break stride as he streaks to the endzone unmolested (strange phrase, yes).

Who’s fault was this? I don’t know, but it certainly didn’t look like it was R.W.’s fault for getting beaten by half a step on an inside move.

Maybe it was Pierce’s fault – he didn’t get enough depth in his drop zone.

Maybe it was James Butler’s fault – he was nowhere to be found after Hurd caught the ball, and was easily eluded as Hurd took it the distance to bury the G-Men. 45-35, Cowboys.

**

As preposterous as the phrase is might seem after tonight, let me look on the bright side when it comes to our defense:

1) The D was so horrendous, in part, because Osi went down and Strahan was clearly not ready. We’ll see what happens with Osi’s injury, but Strahan should be back in his old form soon. Our pass rush has to get better because it can’t possibly be any worse.

2) The above plays represent the tip of the iceberg, but if you look at these plays, you will notice that many of the culprits were either young or inexperienced guys starting their first games for this team at their respective spots.

James Buter looked bad tonight, but it’s his first start at strong safety; Kiwanuka looked bad, but he’s still learning to be a linebacker; Mitchell is an inside linebacker by trade, and made a critical mistake in his first game as on outside ‘backer; and Gibril is a strong safety playing his first game at free safety.

3) Like many of the players, the scheme is new too. We’ll learn it and get better at executing it. Hopefully, our performance tonight will be as bad as it can possibly get.

The D has to improve. Right? RIGHT?!

We’ll talk about this past year a little more as the off-season goes on, and free agency and then the draft are just around the corner, but since there’s no recent news in G-Men nation, let me use this post to direct our attention back to the happier times of 2005, when, horrible ending aside, everything seemed so promising.

Here are my detailed recaps of twelve of the seventeen games last year, linked from my old website. They’re pretty long and sort of blow-by-blow dramatic – I tried to make them kind of Roger Angell-ish (Roger Angellic?). Unfortunately, because I was super-busy at work, I missed writing up four games, including the Broncos game, which was, like, the best Giants game since, like, 2000.

These things might be a little too long to be read at your work computer. My suggestion: print them out and read them at your leisure. Enjoy, and no matter how disgraceful 2006 was, keep bleeding Big Blue.

**

Week 2: Giants 27 – Saints 10

Week 3: Chargers 45 – Giants 23

Week 4: Giants 44 – Rams 24

Week 6: Cowboys 16 – Giants 13

Week 10: Vikings 24 – Giants 21

Week 12: Seahawks 24 – Giants 21

Week 13: Giants 17 – Cowboys 10

Week 14: Giants 26 – Eagles 23

Week 15: Giants 27 – Chiefs 17

Week 16: Redskins 35 – Giants 20

Week 17: Giants 30 – Raiders 21

Week 18: Panthers 23 – Giants 0

I.

Death is for many of us the gate of hell; but we are inside on the way out, not outside on the way in.

–George Bernard Shaw

 

It’s finally over. The bitter Sundays, the weekday bickering, the sheer exertion required to cling to an ever-evaporating sense of hope. The false starts, the back-footed throws, the bratty arm-flailing of overlooked receivers. The missed tackles, the heart-wrenching third down conversions at our expense. The red face, the crooked nose, the beady eyes, the white sneakers, the golf shirt buttoned all the way up to the top.

All of the above, along with Brian Westbrook, pulled the plug on the Giants season yesterday, mercifully delivering us from our slow, wretched, undignified death. We were left on Monday with an appropriately gray and gloomy day in the tri-state area and what is sure to be a busy offseason in which we face a host of critically important questions:

Who’s the GM? Will this mystery GM do the sane thing and admit that the Coughlin era (25-25 after yesterday’s loss) is unsalvageable? Who’s the new coach? How are we gonna get Eli turned around, and is this even possible? Will we hand the keys of the running game to Jacobs, who seemed to have disappeared down the stretch? How are we gonna use the draft and free agency to address our obvious deficiencies?

But those are questions for another day, because now, Giants nation is in mourning. Like everyone else, I am left with the same mix of disappointment, anger, and of course, relief.

II.

Yesterday’s loss was typically painful, one final punch to the gut to send us into the off-season. Where to begin?

1) Well, how about our three chances to take a two-score lead in the first quarter? Our defense was playing with a fire under its ass in the early going, and Philly’s offense hadn’t yet woken up. After we took a 7-0 lead, we took possession at midfield no less than three consecutive times, with golden opportunities to establish some control over the game. As Mike Francesa said later on “Mike’d Up,” “If you really want to get crazy, it could have been 17-0.”

All we needed was just a couple of first downs, a couple of plays. But of course we couldn’t come up with them. And then Brian Westbrook broke off that quick, masterful 49-yard touchdown run – with no small assist from a missed tackle by Will Demps – and we had officially blown it.

What made these blown opportunities so maddening was that we’ve been pulling this shit all season. It seems like so many times that we’ve outplayed the opposition for an extended period of time in the early going, but just haven’t made the two or three plays that would make the scoreboard reflect that fact. It was obvious to all of us that the Eagles weren’t going to stay asleep forever – we knew we that they would eventually get it going, and if we were serious about winning, we had to capitalize on the good situation presented us in the opening quarter.

And after we failed to come up with any points, even though we were still winning and it was still early, you just got the same “here we go again” feeling. Those blown opportunities just so adhered to our persistent pattern of underachievement; you just knew that not being able to manage one measly field goal was gonna bite us in the ass. More than three hours later, David Akers drilled that field goal, the one that we couldn’t come up with, and that was the difference.

2) I have heard Eli get a fair amount of credit from some quarters for “bouncing back,” or something, in the fourth quarter to “lead” the Giants on a game-tying touchdown drive. I beg to differ with that assessment, and submit that this effort of Eli’s was almost just as bad as his collapse in last year’s playoff game against Carolina.

Look, I’ve tried as hard as anyone can to defend Eli for as long as possible, but the fact is that after three years in the league and two full years as a starter, he’s been a severe disappointment. A bust? No, I wouldn’t say that, because he hasn’t been awful awful and there’s still hope. But put it this way: he’s closer to being a bust than he is to being “on track.” I’m sorry, but it’s true.

In my previous article, I pointed out that Eli’s DVOA for the second half of the year was -14.9%, which means that during the second half, he was worse than such bums as Joey Harrington, Jake Plummer, Rex Grossman, and Alex Smith. (I’ll do the DVOA explanation for the uninitiated. You can click here and scroll down to the third paragraph for the short version, or click here for the longer version.)

An aggravating circumstance is that Eli, unlike many other top picks, is surrounded by excellent talent. Aside from his first year, the offensive line has been stable and solid, although, to be fair, the loss of Petitgout hurt our pass protection considerably during the second half this year. Tiki is not only one of the best runners in the game, but as a terrific receiver and savvy pass blocker, he is a quarterback’s best friend. Shockey is a Pro-Bowl tight end, and Plaxico is an excellent receiver.

So factoring in the talent that surrounds him, the only conclusion that we can draw is that not only are Eli’s stats disappointing, but he is actually worse than his stats would indicate.

As an example, look no further than yesterday’s game. Eli was 16 for 27 yesterday for 161 yards, 2 touchdowns and 1 pick. On the surface this is somewhat respectable, but not very good by any stretch – kind of like the numbers he put up on the year.

But if you look a little deeper, you’ll realize that an inordinate amount of these completions had very little to do with him. To wit:

-The 29-yard completion to Plax on the first play from scrimmage. I don’t know how Plax came down with this, but it was the first of a day full of ridiculous plays from a guy they said disappeared in big games. He somehow reached over the back of the DB and brought it in. An awesome catch.

-The 17-yard touchdown pass to Plax. Yet another bail-out attributable to Plax’ freakish height and athleticism. Eli had him wide open in the end-zone and basically overshot him, but Plax saved his ass with a nice leaping and soft-handed grab.

-The 47-yard pass interference penalty to Plax with 43 seconds remaining in the third quarter. Has Eli ever not underthrown a guy on a bomb? This one was woefully underthrown, so underthrown that Plax had to double back for it, which caused him to run into Sheldon Brown and pick up the lucky penalty. There was nothing wrong with the ref’s call – it was a pass interference. But we were lucky that yet another weak-ass duck from Eli actually led to something good.

-The 18-yard pass to Plax with 6:16 left in the fourth quarter, where Eli just chucked it off his back foot and Plax somehow came back and corralled it. Yes, I know you need breaks to win games, but this was nothing if not a complete prayer. Props again to the P-Man for making a play, but I simply cannot give Eli credit on this, especially considering that it was his atrocious (and frighteningly deteriorated) pocket presence that led to his drifting back and winging it off his back foot in the first place. I mean, it’s not as if there’s any precedent for this move producing good results.

-The 14-yard first down completion to Plax on the very next play. Horrible call, horrible throw, tremendous individual effort by Plax. Doesn’t the fact that we called this play on 3rd and 12 show how much our confidence in Eli had eroded, even during the middle of a drive during which he supposedly “stepped up?” Once again, he sailed one high, and if not for Plax’s ups ‘n’ hands, it would have been a most disgraceful incompletion. But Plax brought it down, slipped a tackle, and picked up the first down.

So not including the 47-yard pass interference call, which doesn’t count as part of Eli’s passing yards, those four plays add up to 78 yards that we can reasonably say had nothing to do with Eli. And if you take away those 78 yards, Eli is left with 83 passing yards on the day.

So instead of “focusing on the positive,” as Colonel Tom would have you do, why don’t we see this performance for what it was: Our franchise quarterback’s second awful playoff game in as many tries, and a horrible end to the horrible regression that was his second half of the season.

3) Will Demps’ poor play on the ball on 3rd and 5 from the Giants 40 with 1:53 remaining in the third quarter.

In a league with the parity of the NFL, with the teams as evenly matched as the Giants and Eagles, you knew there was a good chance that the game would come down to a matter of inches. You also knew that the Giants would probably be on the short end of those inches. It’s been that kind of year.

Critical inches were all that separated Will Demps from breaking up a 3rd and 5 pass intended for Reggie Brown, but alas, inches were not on our side yesterday, and the pass was hauled in for a devastating first down.

The smart move for Demps would have been to use a little finesse and reach his hand in for a tip, but he instead tried to set himself up for the hit, seemingly stopping in his tracks when he got to where Brown was, waiting for the ball to come into the receiver’s body. Only then did he resume his forward momentum, trying to deliver a ball-jarring hit that didn’t come close to doing any such thing. Phirst down, Philly. Phuck.

Another painful thing about this play was that Chase Blackburn (who, although he hadn’t really been heard from all year, put in a yeoman effort at linebacker yesterday), leapt up in the air to tip the ball but just missed it by a few inches.

Another step of depth, he would have broken it up and the Eagles would have been forced to punt. But no, the play went for a big first down, and the Eagles scored two plays later to take a 17-10 lead.

**

Ok, there’s obviously a lot more to say, some of which is actually positive, but we have a long time to get around to all of that.

I encourage you all to keep checking NYGMen throughout the off-season for thoughts on free agency, the draft, the year that was, and other matters. It was obviously a really rough year, but things can turn around quickly in the NFL, and I honestly think we’re not that far away.

Either way, it’s been fun getting this crew of die-hard G-Men supporters together. Keep bleeding Big Blue, and wait ‘till next year!

I.

“He sets his own standards. His way of living is different than everybody else’s.”

–Antonio Pierce, on Tiki Barber

 

Well, there’s not too much else to say other than: “Tiki’s the absolute man.” As you well know, his 234 rushing yards last night set a new franchise record, eclipsing his old mark of 220, set against the Chiefs last year. Not that there needs to be a statistical case for Tiki, but think about the following:

–Last night marked Tiki’s fifth career 200-yard rushing game, placing him alone in second place for the most 200-yard games in NFL history. In other words, only one running back – O.J. Simpson, who, by the way, is not a jew – has had more absolutely ridiculous games than the Teekster. (Tomlinson has four 200-yard games though, so it seems pretty likely that he’ll have this record by the time he’s finished.)

–Tiki’s 10,449 career rushing yards place him 19 on the NFL rushing list.

And of course, all the Giants team records conceivable:

–His 1,860 yards last year were the most in team history.

–His 2,390 yards from scrimmage last year were the most in team history.

–His 95-yard run against the Raiders was the longest in team history

–He is our all-time reception leader with 586.

–His 276 yards from scrimmage in the last game of the ’02 season against the Eagles was a team record.

–His 55 rushing touchdowns top the G-Men list.

So, um, any Giant fan saying that Tiki had “checked out” has to be feeling incredibly stupid right now. All those stories this past week were so preposterous that I decided not to dignify them by even addressing them. But wow. What a stupid fucking thought.

As for his admitting that he tunes out during meetings, well, I applaud his honesty. Anyone who’s complaining about that has to ask himself whether they pay attention 100% of the time on their jobs. As he himself said in Thursday’s Times article, “It’s just my approach. It’s how I prepare. I’m lucky because I get things quickly, and I’m looking for things to think about.”

Good enough for me. Besides, if memory serves, there was a guy on the Giants about twenty years ago who made no secret about sleeping his coke hangovers off during meetings. That guy was pretty good as I recall.

II.

Thank God for the Tiki, of course – he single-handedly put us into the playoffs in a Giants performance of the ages – but if we want to make any noise in the playoffs, the rest of the team needs to drastically turn it around. And judging by the second half of the season, including last night, this doesn’t seem too likely.  Everyone except for the offensive line and Tiki continued their frighteningly inept play.

–Yes, that means Eli, who was once again beyond awful. As annoying as the Gumbel-Collinsworth crew was last night (especially Gumbel), Collinsworth deserves credit for spotlighting Eli’s deteriorated mechanics. The guy is just awful in the pocket – instead of moving his feet to find a spot where he can step up and throw, he routinely just stands there, petrified, until the rush makes its way towards him, at which point he leans back away from the defenders and sails passes off his back foot. Maybe he should take a page from his brother’s book and start doing the “happy feet” thing – anything to break him of his lead-feet in the pocket would be good. At this point, it seems like a mental thing.

–The D self-destructed once we got that big lead. Again, how many times are we going to see Tim Lewis sit back in an umbrella zone while the other team gladly rips off 15-yard chunks? If not for Tiki – and some very poor Redskins tackling – we would have lost that game.

A note on the non-existent pass-rush as well:

1) This isn’t exactly news to anyone, but Lewis seems to have the most predictable blitz packages imaginable. It’s hard to complain about the lack of blitzing when the blitzes are so ineffective and our d-backs are so bad. Did you hear Collinsworth say “The Giants don’t have a lot of speed in the secondary” last night? That’s like saying… Well, I can’t really think of a good analogy right now, but it was pretty indicative/disconcertnig/funny.

(Also, did you hear Collinsworth refer to Lorenzen as “The Hefty Lefty?” Like, the Pillsbury Throwboy hadn’t been mentioned even once during the telecast – I’m sure many non-Giants fans viewers didn’t even know the guy was even on the team, or in the league. Like, a lot of people probably hadn’t thought of the guy since, like, 2002. But after he and Eli surreptitiously switched places and he plows ahead on the QB sneak, Collinsworth, incredulous and momentarily losing his professionalism, goes “Is that the Hefty Lefty?!” If was pretty funny.)

2) But back to the pass rush. It seems like we really miss Strahan, not only because he’s the most complete defensive end of the era, but also because his style of rushing the passer is a necessary compliment to Osi’s speed rushing. Let me explain: Strahan is a power rusher who comes from the quarterback’s front side. He pretty much takes his man, physically overwhelming him, and driving back into the quarterback’s face. Osi, on the other hand, comes around the bend from the blind side.

Now, when Strahan’s making his straight forward progress, the quarterback has no recourse but to belly out around Strahan, which leads him right into the wide arc that Osi’s taking. Even if he takes off on the run around Strahan, Osi has enough speed to run most quarterbacks down.

But, when we have Kiwanuka at the left end instead of Strahan, we have two outside speed rushers who both taking very wide angles to the quarterback. The offensive tackles who are blocking them who that if they just keep them wide enough, the quarterback can step up diagonally in the pocket, in either direction, in the space between the up-the middle defensive tackle and the wide end.

This gives the quarterback both time and space to make a throw. And quarterbacks with a modicum of maneuverability – like Campbell last night, and like Garcia, Romo, Hasselbeck, and Brees, for instance – can take advantage of this.

So despite Ernie Accorsi’s assertion that “you can never have enough pass rushers,” perhaps it matters what kind of pass rushers you have.

III.

As you may have ascertained by my tone, I’m a little ambivalent about this playoff trip. I had sort of envisioned that we would snap out of our funk last night and we would go into the playoffs having somehow found our form of the first eight games. That didn’t happen – last night’s game just adds to the mounting pile of evidence that we’re a deeply flawed team playing its worst football at the most important time. No, we didn’t snap out of any funk last night; Tiki just saved our asses.

Nevertheless, 2007 is a new year, and hope springs eternal that the G-Men can pull their shit together after weeks of unraveling. At any rate, NYGMen wishes you all a healthy, happy one. See you in ’07, amd see you in the playoffs!

I was at the Meadowlands today and I stayed until the bitter end. I don’t get to Giants games often, and I figured I might as well soak up the vibes, dismal as they were. There were two times (I think after Carter’s dropped pass and then after Whitfield’s second personal foul penalty) when my dad and I got up and almost left, but we just couldn’t peel ourselves from the fascinatingly awful spectacle in front of us. Plus, it was Tiki’s last home game, so as he jogged into the tunnel and the scoreboard flashed “Thanks for the memories Tiki,” at least we had something to cheer about.

But at this point, what is there to say? I think the “Fire Coughlin” chant, mournfully and angrily wailed by a few scattered pockets who stayed at the Meadowlands, said it more clearly and eloquently than I possibly can. Such chants mean that your organization is going through a low period. The bizarre thing is that we’re in such a low period at a time 1) when we have excellent talent. I still believe that. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been chanting for the coach to be fired; and 2) we are four straight wins away from the Super Bowl, against teams that aren’t that much better than us. I mean, the Giants are pathetic, sure, but aren’t the division-winning Seahawks, too?

I guess the question for us Giants fans is: What do we do from here? The fact that we’re very much alive in the playoff picture puts us in an extremely awkward position. As much as throwing in the towel with this team seems like the right thing to do, the (theoretical) possibility exists that we can make a deep playoff run.

So where do we go from here? Are we honestly rooting for the biggest miracle in sports history? A 500, or, quite probably, a sub 500 team winning the Super Bowl? Would this really say anything about this team except for that we got really lucky to get into the playoffs and even more lucky that we happened to play well when the 2006 NFC games finally started counting? Wouldn’t we be exploiting some flaw in the design?

I resented the Cardinals World Series victory, as did most of America, I suspect. There’s something about the structure of the pro sports playoff system that rewards teams that shouldn’t be rewarded. And I can’t think of any team that shouldn’t be rewarded by a playoff berth more than the 2006 New York Football Giants. 7-8 is one thing, but 7-8 after losing 6 of the last 7 games is quite another.

And therein lie the contradictory feelings we all harbor towards these G-Men. This team should be punished, for Christ’s sake, not rewarded with a second chance! I mean, we’ve already had a second chance! I was called the Dallas game, and we should have won it. But we blew it, and that should have been the end of our season.

But we went into Carolina and beat them, and in so doing, we earned ourselves another second chance against Philly at home. But we blew that one too. In any fair world, that would have been our last chance.

But no. The NFC is pathetic, we know, so we were granted one last chance to make good on this travesty of a season. If we beat the Saints, a legit playoff team, we could reasonably stake some sort of claim as a real playoff team. And after Eli hit Plax (or after Jason Craft fell down) a few plays into the game, it seemed like we may have finally righted the ship.

Nope. We proceeded to lay down. In a big spot, we turned in an unconscionable performance. Special teams mishaps. Horrendous throws. Dropped passes. Personal fouls. By now, you’ve heard that we didn’t run a play in Saints territory all game. Did you also know that the G-Men were 0 for 10 on third down (credit to my dad for being on that from mid-second quarter-on)? Absolutely horrendous.

It’s hard to blame the defense, because they actually held up pretty well against a really good offense until our offense (which is not a really good offense) did their best to keep their teammates on the field the entire time. Fatigued, having to contend with Reggie Bush’s quickness, what could the D do?

So we’ve blown multiple shots at redemption, where most teams are lucky to get just one, yet we somehow have another. I don’t know how I feel about this, and I don’t have any advice about how you all should. I’ll be watching though. That’s pretty much all I can say right now.

In that same section to my left, maybe around fifteen rows down from me, was this rowdy crew of Eagles fans, at least two of whom were clad in these sweet, late ‘80s jerseys that looked like they had been pulled off the wall of Gerry Cosby’s.

Anyway, these Eagles fans were getting pretty heavily heckled, and it very soon escalated into this fat, stubbly, K-Fed-looking piece of Philly trash in a green Cunningham jersey standing up, flipping aggressive birds, and repeatedly (and violently) grabbing his package.

Cunningham’s amigo was this short, slight dude, incongruously dressed in a white Reggie White jersey. The little dude wasn’t being nearly the dick that his Randall-clad buddy was, but Giant fans couldn’t resist the temptation:

“YOU’RE-A-MID-GET!” rang the chant, in the quarto-syllabic rhythm of the “Let’s go Yankees” chant. It was pretty funny, though not nearly as funny as when Jose Valentin was serenaded with “WHAT-A-MOU-STACHE!” at Shea Stadium.

Anyway, the beef continued with the Eagles fans, and at a certain point, Cunningham had clutched his Balzac enough times so that the yellow-clad, Meadowlands security guys saw fit to eject his ass. The crowd loved it, and a pretty coherent rendition of “Na-na-na-na, Na-na-na-na, hey, hey, hey, goodbye” was bellowed in his direction, accompanied by a rolling sea of full-armed waves goodbye.

I didn’t notice it at the time, but my brother pointed out to me that Cunningham tried to stick his arm out to the crowd and do the “bring it on!” gesture, only to have it violently yanked back by one of the security guards. Pretty funny. But with the departure of the scrambler, the beef was quickly forgotten about and the crowd could concern itself with the infuriating events on the field.

But a strange thing happened before the second half kickoff. Randall made his way back into the stands, and as he walked up the stairs to his seat, he waved at his former tormentors in a very cordial way.

What had happened? Sitting a section over, I didn’t really get the inside scoop, but the rumor was that he was taken down into the bowels of the Meadowlands, left to sober up and contemplate his crime against civil stadium society. At the half, he was paroled, and he returned to the stands as a seemingly changed man, one committed to peaceful coexistence with the Giants fans.

But it didn’t last long. The rate of recidivism for Eagles fans reverting back to being assholes is high, much higher than the rate for, say, child molesters. It couldn’t have been more than five minutes before #12 was at it again, and it couldn’t have been more than five minutes after that that security nabbed his ass again. The dude got ejected twice from the Meadowlands in the same game – it’s gotta be a record. If that isn’t a perfect encapsulation of what Philly Phans are all about, I don’t know what is.

I.

Ok, I’ve had it. My season-long optimism about this team evaporated on Sunday. It was a disgraceful loss at the Meadowlands, and I was there. Even before Trent Cole high-stepped across Eli’s face, I had chalked 2006 up as an underachieving, sour, and maddening season.

This game typified what this Giants team has been all about: tantalizing talent undone by ghastly mistakes, inferior coaching, and a knack for blowing it in key spots. Take your pick from Sunday’s game. What was the most infuriating? Was it:

–Jacobs’ fumble? Hey, Coughlin, if you can teach Tiki to stop fumbling, how about doing the same for Jacobs? Or Plax?

–Those two holding penalties that pushed us back from 1st and 10 from the Philly 42 to 1st and… 30! from our own 38? (Eli was picked off the play after that one.)

–Shockey’s personal foul? So asinine, but so not surprising.

–Those two consecutive 1st and Goals (one from the 10, one from the 7) that resulted in 6 points?

–Reno Mahe’s (or as my Eagle-fan co-worker Jarrett calls him, Mahi-Mahi’s) 64-yard kick return that immediately cancelled out our recent hard-earned field goal?

–Westbrook’s 28-yard untouched touchdown run two plays later? I’m sorry, but this because shit like this continues to happen, the only conclusion that you can possibly draw is that we’re being out-coached.

–The Shiancoe fumble? The way it stayed in bounds and was deftly scooped by Lito Shepherd was just cruel.

–Another sign that you’re being out-coached is when the other team converts their two-point conversion, and you don’t. Was there even any doubt that it would be different? It’s been that kind of season, because the 2006 Giants are that kind of team.

–Yet another sign that you’re being out-coached is when you run all over a team in the first half but get completely stuffed in the second half, while your opponent, in contrast, runs the ball on you with impunity with you in the second half. One of the most mystifying things about this game was the way we got utterly dominated in the trenches. Yes, I know that the players play the game, and no coach ever got physically dominated. But I refuse to believe that the Eagles interior players are better than ours – we’ve been strong up the gut all year. Therefore, logically, the only possibility is that as the game wore on, Coughlin, Lewis, and Hufnagel missed something.

–This goes for the pass rush too. Garcia is very crafty in the pocket and he deserves credit for that, but with the exception of a Torbor blitz and Will Demps’ forced fumble, we didn’t get near the guy all day. He had all the time in the world to sit back and find guys, many of whom were coming across the middle on crossing patterns on which a linebacker or safety was unreasonably asked to keep up with a wide receiver or Westbrook for, like, 4 whole seconds. An impossible task; the Eagles converted 3rd down after 3rd down on us all day on plays like those.

Now of course it’s football, and every team makes multiple mistakes each game, but it’s the consistency with which we make the biggest mistakes at the worst possibly time, week after week, that has made us a 7-7 mediocrity through 7/8ths of the season. This isn’t an isolated incident, but rather a self-destructive pattern.

 

II.

As far as the playoffs are concerned, yes, I guess we’re still in it. But this is solely a function of (to paraphrase Drago’s trainer) how pathetically weak our conference has become. Under normal circumstances, our seven losses would spell curtains on a season that began with such high hopes.

If there world were a fair place, the story should be over. Losing seven games, and five out of our last six, with the talent that we have should send the organization reeling into an early off-season of critical introspection, searching for ways to correct this team’s obvious flaws.

But because it’s 2006, and because we’re in the NFC, we get one more shot. We get one more shot to pull all of our shit together. Can we do it? Well, there’s certainly no evidence to suggest that we can. But who says we have to look at the evidence? Who says we have to be logical? Who says sports are reasonable? Who says life is reasonable?

Giants fans, I know you’re pissed. I know you’ve had it. But please, please stick with this team! I implore you. I know you’re tired of this team, but if this season isn’t meant to be, then you only have to deal with them for two more weeks anyway. Stay True, fellow Bleeders of Big Blue. Please.

 

III.

Okay, onto lighter matters.

There was definitely some hard-working, funny-ass dude in the Giants public relations department, or whoever is responsible for the scoreboard entertainment.

Before the game, the “jumbotrons” (if you really want to call them that at the Meadowlands – those things look pretty small compared to screens in, like, every other stadium) on each side of the field showed the famous training montage from Rocky. It was the one where Stallone picks up serious speed, and is practically in a full-on sprint for an impossibly long distance from the banks of the Delaware River to the steps of the museum (where he finally stops and does that both-arms-raised, feet-moving exultation thing).

When they first put it on the jumbotron, I let loose a vicious boo. “Fuck Rocky!” I thought. “What, are we the lovable underdog now? Pffpppbbffff!! Especially when we’re playing the Eagles!”

But a few moments later, I realized that whoever was in charge of the jumbotron entertainment was smarter and funnier than I had given him credit for, because as Rocky raised his arms, you heard the distant sound of thundering steps trampling through the City of Brotherly Love. You knew something was up, but you didn’t know exactly what until the camera panned out. Looming over the Philadelphia Museum of Art emerged a Giant man, clad in blue, a G-Man, dwarfing both the museum and the little Balboa.

The Giant stepped over the museum and without breaking stride, squashed the little Balboa, much to the delight of the Meadowlands crowd. It was on, and the Giants kicked off.

 

IV.

Some other observations from my afternoon/evening at the Meadowlands:

1) They continued the Rocky theme on the jumbotron for the whole game: They played Clubber Lang’s “Prediction: Pain” thing, Drago’s “I must break you,” Mickey’s “He’ll knock you into tomorrow, Rock!” and Adrian’s “You can’t win!”

It was pretty entertaining, especially for all of us Rocky buffs, but it became a little ridiculous when you realized that, um, Rocky beat all those dudes. Despite what Adrian said, he could win, and he did. (Besides, identifying with Clubber Lang is one thing. After all, no cooler man than Arnold Jackson idolized Mr. T. But Drago? It’s hard to respect a man whose wife wound up with Flavor Flav.)

2) I hate to say it, but the Meadowlands crowd was somewhat disappointing. It was a big, intense, night game, so it wasn’t exactly dead, but, like, the place really should have been more amped.

I don’t know – I think that the fans have an obligation to be as loud as possible. Every third down should be gotten up for. 76,000 person “Defense” chants should cascade down. “Asshole” chants should greet every possibly questionable call. I get to about one Giant game a year, and it really bothers me that these people with season tickets take it for granted.

I have seen pro football games in two other places: the Metrodome in Minneapolis (where I saw the G-Men beat the Vikes in 2002), and FedEx Field in Washington (where I saw the G-Men beat the ‘Skins in 2003, but then lose to them in 2005), and both of those places are much, much louder than the Meadowlands.

 

V.

One of the best things about going to NFL games is the pageant of jerseys – you’re always gonna see some jerseys and gear that generates reactions from, “Yo, that shit is hot!” to “Oooh. So not the move.”

The foursome with whom I rolled this past Sunday took a backseat to no other crew jersey-wise. My dad wore the Blue Tiki – not too flashy, not too original, but a necessary staple, a Big Blue Classic.

My brother rocked the White Osi. Two things make this jersey awesome: 1) The number 72 is so asymmetrical and random; and 2) Seeing the vowel-laden, Nigerian last name “Umenyiora” stretched across the back of a modest-sized white dude is… Well, it’s really what jersey-rockage is all about.

My brother’s fiancée, who has rapidly developed into a passionate, astute G-Men fan over the past couple of years, was adorned in the Red Pierce, rounding out the red, white, and blue tripartite Giants soul.

The red alternate jersey is a subject of debate among G-Men fans, but despite my usual aversion to alternate jerseys, I can’t help but liking them. Because they’re only broken out once a year, and only for big homes games, I consider them a welcome addition to the Giants’ uni-scheme. Seeing those red jerseys just fires me up.

The incorporation of the red as an official, game-used jersey makes the purchase respectable. The rule of thumb on jersey purchases is: DON’T BUY ANYTHING THEY DON’T WEAR IN GAMES! The Giants have been selling red jerseys for years, but it wasn’t until they started wearing the red that I went out and bought one for myself. (And you wonder why every pro sports team has a dozen different color combos.)

But if you’re gonna buy the Giants red jersey, you gotta get someone with some sort of attitude, some sort of edge. Like, you can’t be rocking the Red Eli, or even the Red Tiki. Pierce, Shockey, Plax, Jacobs, Sinorice, and Osi are the way to go.

Okay, back to the fearsome foursome of jerseys that rolled into East Rutherford last Sunday.

Last but certainly not least was yours truly, draped in a light blue, number 98 jersey. Across the front was embroidered “CAROLINA,” and across the back, “TAYLOR.”

Walking through the parking lot, enshrouded in that precious garment, I felt not unlike Joseph in his coat of many colors. To feel those longing gazes being cast in my direction, some parts envy and some parts awe, was like walking through a Venetian piazza with a beautiful woman clinging to my arm.

Those awestruck looks enveloped me as I ascended up the escalator, en route to my lofty perch in the third to last row of section 331. But before I got there, I was rudely asked by the usher who I had to show my ticket to, “Why are you wearing a Carolina Panthers jersey?”

Dumbass. I actually tried saying, “No, it’s an LT jersey from when he was in college,” or something like that, but whether my words were too panicked and garbled to make any sense, or whether she was just too stupid to understand the fairly simple (and not that uncommon) concept of college jerseys, the point didn’t register.

Either way, when I finally got up the neverending staircase of the Meadowlands’ upper deck, I realized I had met my match, when, about a section over from me, I saw an orange Clemson #20 jersey, complete with a paw-print logo on the sleeves and “Dawkins” on the back.

A sweet jerz, I must admit, and it wasn’t the only nice one that those Eagles fans had brought to the Meadowlands that day. At some point, I noticed a navy blue #20 jersey, a pretty bare-bones Penn State looking thing except for the “V” on the sleeves. It took a second to register, but it was a Westbrook at Villanova that was being rocked.

to be continued…

I.

For the second week in a row, we didn’t play our best game. But 6-2 is 6-2, and with the schedule we’ve had, you really couldn’t have asked for a better first half. I said four weeks ago that it would greatly behoove us to go 3-1 in our upcoming four-game stretch, which would place us at a solid 5-3 going into the second half. But we swept those four games, getting the hard part over with convincingly, on the road, against good teams, and then cobbling together enough plays in these last two games to avoid a letdown, battling a pesky but not devastating injury bug all the while.

This is no small accomplishment, and right now, Strahan news notwithstanding, you have to be as optimistic about the Giants as you’ve been in over a decade. I am not exaggerating: This team can be expected to go places.

II.

This past month has been great, not only in terms of what we’ve done, but with what’s happened around us.

Starting with the division: The Eagles have dropped three of the last four, losing to the Saints, Bucs, and Jags. It’s worth noting that they were favored in all three of these games. But despite being one of the league’s more talented teams, they stand at 4-4, two games behind us, to say nothing of the tiebreaker, which, with our division record, seems to be a safely within our grasp.

And Dallas. Was that great yesterday or what? Like the Eagles, they’ve also dropped three of the last four — all to NFC East teams, no less. If we win just one of our three remaining division games, we clinch the divisional tie-breaker over the ‘Boys, meaning that Tony Romo or not, they have to make up three games over these last eight. That’s not gonna happen.

But for a time yesterday, it really looked like we might end the day in a 5-3 tie with Cowboys. What a difference a few plays makes.

Outside of the division, good things are happening too. The Bears loss gives us a chance to claim the inside track to home field advantage this Sunday night. (The Meadowlands is gonna be completely rocking. Time for the red jerseys? I think so. I like the red jerseys, by the way. I can’t really explain why, but I do. But only for one game per year. That’s the key. Speaking of red jerseys, I just ordered the Pierce 58, rounding out my jersey collection, which also includes the blue Tiki 21 [the classic], and the white Osi 72 [nothing better than a white dude on the Upper West Side rocking the Umenyiora 72 jersey]. It’s funny about jerseys: As my friend Cory once said, “Sometimes, it’s just the right time and the right place to add to your jersey collection.”) Maybe the road to the Super Bowl won’t go through Soldier Field after all.

Another potentially imposing NFC team, the Seahawks, is having their struggles. Because of their shitty division, they should cruise to another division title, and they’ll start playing better once they get their two offensive Pro-Bowlers back, but there’s no question that this team is much weaker team than the NFC Champions of last year. Hopefully, we won’t have to go to Qwest Field again this year. If we do, though, I’m very confident that we’ll beat them.

III.

Ok, the game itself: Strangely, even though we were playing the notoriously terrible Texans, and even though we almost lost to them, and even though the final score was a depressing 14-10, I thought this game was much more satisfying than the Tampa game.

For one, we were battling through a substantial number of injuries. Our two best defensive players (Strahan and Osi), one of their talented backups (Tuck), a starting cornerback (Madison – who’s probably no better than R.W., but who was still missed because of the 4 and 5 wide receiver sets the Texans were running), two of the linebackers that we started the season with (LaVar and Short – although Wilkinson made the biggest play of the game in their place), our best receiver (Plax), a guy who would probably be our second or at least third best receiver (Sinorice), and our right tackle (McKenzie).

Nine key men down from our opening day roster – This is considerable up-bangage. If we went into the season with the roster we trotted out today, I’m not sure that we’d even be an above average team.

And the Texans, despite the fact that they’re the Texans, actually played pretty well yesterday – they’ve generally played solid ball over the past month or so. Let me put it this way: That Texans team yesterday was in a completely different league than the Bucs team we beat the week before.

I mean, give the Texans some credit: They came out with a great game-plan and executed it very well. Knowing that their pass protection is terrible and their quarterback is fumble-prone, they devised an attack of short, quick passes from a spread offense.

All told, Carr threw 30 passes, completing 21 of them for 176 yards. The key was the percentage: Nickel and diming us, the Texans strung together some good drives and kept our defense on the field. The game plan not only masked Carr’s deficiencies but also played to his strengths: He is very quick getting into his drop, and he was both accurate and savvy with the short passes he had to throw. As my friend Wong said sometime in the 4th quarter, “The Texans really couldn’t have asked for a better game out of Carr.”

The Texans receivers were well-suited to the task as well: Andre Johnson is an absolute beast at 6-3, 220, and our guys had a really tough time with him: He caught 9 balls for 83 yards.

And losing our Pro-Bowl ends really hurt. Even though Carr was taking short drops, the pressure we got from Kiwanuka and Awasom (who seems more like a run-anchor guy than a pass rusher) left something to be desired. Yes, I know the company line in Monday’s papers was that those guys played well, but they’re certainly no Osi-Strahan tandem.

(To his credit, Awasom made one of the biggest plays of the game by drawing a holding penalty that debilitated a Texan possession and led to us getting the ball back and scoring.)

But anyway, considering the fact that we were missing so many key guys, and that the Texans executed a well-conceived game-plan almost to perfection, and that we had the hardest time catching a break, and that we were primed for a let-down before the Bears next week, you can’t be displeased with how this game went. 14-10 isn’t sexy, but 6-2 most certainly is.

IV.

The recent play of Eli, on the other hand, may be a cause for concern. Thanks to some big numbers he posted during the season’s first three games, his numbers for the year still look pretty good, but it’s been awhile since he’s had an impressive performance.

Yes, we’ve won every game since then, and granted, Plax’s absence rendered our receiving corps pretty depleted, but Eli still looked pretty bad. He is still plagued by bouts with inaccuracy – there were a number of throws on sideline out patterns on which he didn’t give his receivers much of a chance. Against one of the worst pass defenses in the league, which was stacking guys in the box to stop our running game (which they weren’t even able to do because Tiki’s a God), Eli’s performance left something to be desired.

To his credit, he rebounded when he needed to, going 8 for 9 and leading the team downfield on a decisive fourth quarter touchdown drive. Ah, Eli! Some day, you will put it all together.

V.

And of course, Strahan. There’s not much more to add to this – here’s the latest Pasquarelli article that explains everything about this Lisfranc stuff. It’s obviously very bad news. I mean, the guy is our best defensive player, and even though he plays in New York and he’s in commercials and he loves the limelight and he has the single-season sack record*, I would venture to say that Strahan is actually an underrated player. The guy is just so solid; he’s as good against the run as he is as a pass rusher. We’re gonna miss him, but we can reasonably expect to have him back at full strength when the playoffs start, which is when we really need him.

Let’s hope we get both Osi and Tuck back for next week so that at least we can trot out three talented players at our two D-End spots. More news on that will be forthcoming. I guess the lesson here is that Ernie Accorsi was right: You can never have too many pass rushers. Thank God we have depth at this all-important position.

There’s much more to say, but it’s late. Remember to vote, G-Men fans!