NYGMen was contacted this week by Michael Steffes, creator and lead writer of the Seahawks blog, Seahawkaddicts.com.  The following is Steffes’ take on Sunday’s game.

Hello Giants fans, my name is Michael Steffes and I am the creator and lead writer for a fairly popular Seahawks fan blog called Seahawk Addicts.  Greg and I have agreed to trade some analysis about our respective teams this week in order to give our readers some greater insight into this matchup.  

But before I get into my analysis of this year’s incarnation of the Seahawks, I wanted to talk to you all about a controversy that was stirred up this week.  Many of you may have heard or read about a different Seahawks site that posted a despicable attempt at smack talk.  I am not going to go into the specifics of what was said (if you are unfamiliar with what I speak, it’s for the better), but it was nauseating.  What I wanted to say on this subject was that every Seahawks fan I know, including all of the readers of our site, were universally disgusted with what this one fan said.  It was appalling.  Every fanbase has its idiots, but this person represents the smallest minority of Seahawks fans.   So from all of us true Seahawk fans, we apologize to anyone who was hurt by those comments.

Now, let’s move on to the 2008 Seahawks.  Currently the Hawks have a record of 1-2, which represents less than the standard they have set over recent years.  However, I caution you that this team is actually better than the team that was fielded in ’06 and ‘07, they’ve just been the struck with terrible luck.  The team has been playing this year without their top 5 WRs.  Never have I seen the injury bug decimate one position like this before–imagine the Giants with Sinorice Moss as their top wideout and you can see what we have been suffering through. 

Despite this, the team should probably be 2-1, but they lost in overtime to the SF 49ers in a game where they just couldn’t catch a break from either the officials or the football gods.  There were two interceptions on tipped balls and a Seahawk interception in the end zone was negated by a call the officials debated for several minutes.   Sometimes it just isn’t your day.

Because of their losing record, the Seahawks will come in as a desperate team.  They have a very hard stretch of games following this one (GB, Tampa, @SF, Philly).  They need to even their record, but this will be a hard task.  Historically, they are terrible after the bye with a record of 2-6 under Holmgren.  Also, they are notorious for struggling on the East Coast at 10 AM.  The good news is that the bye week has allowed them to get back two of their top wideouts, Deion Branch and Bobby Engram.  Starting RT Sean Locklear is also back.  Ray Willis played well in Locklear’s absence, but he isn’t the pass protector that Locklear is, and the Hawks will need his skills if they hope to contain Justin Tuck.  How much the returning receivers can help remains to be seen, but expectations are low since it will likely take a game or two for them to get back into top form. 

One thing that is new about the Hawks this year is their running game, which currently ranks 3^rd in the NFL.  As Giants fans you have seen a lot of Julius Jones over the years and probably weren’t too impressed.  However, he seems to have a new lease on life with the Seahawks and has willed himself to some big games in weeks two and three.  He is breaking tackles and moving the chains, which is a pleasant change of scenery for Seahawks fans.  Shaun Alexander stopped running hard after winning the MVP in 2005, and as a result often left the Hawks in 2^nd and 3^rd and long situations.  Jones’ best contribution may be keeping the Hawks on schedule, even when the big gains aren’t there.  The team also added TJ Duckett, who is 100% so far this year in short yardage situations.  The Hawks were one of the worst teams in the league over the last two years at converting on short yardage.  They lost a couple of games simply because they couldn’t manage to gain a yard when they most needed it.  The running game faces its biggest test so far this year in the Giants’ run defense.  As Hawk fans, we are using this game as a measuring stick for how far the ground game has really come.

Defensively, the Seahawks have great personnel.  However, they really haven’t put it all together yet.  The front seven has been very good this year.  You probably know the fancy Pro Bowl names like Julian Peterson, Lofa Tatupu, and Patrick Kerney, but the two players that really drive the run defense are fourth year linebacker Leroy Hill and second year defensive tackle Brandon Mebane.  Both are budding stars whose names you are likely to hear often on Sunday.  They have handled some good backs so far this year, and while the Giants are great at running the football, I expect that the Hawks will keep their running game in check.

This leaves the secondary.  A week ago I would have told you that Burress was going to destroy the Hawks, as they typically have a lot of trouble with big, physical wide receivers.  However, now that he is suspended, the Hawks match up much better.  This same group allowed the fewest TD passes in the league last year, and typically does well against smaller, quicker receivers.  The real weakness of this group seems to be 3rd and long.  For some reason they allow far too many 3^rd and long conversions.  Part of this is because of some predictable tendencies in defensive coordinator John Marshall’s play calling.  When he blitzes he often sends seven guys, but when he isn’t blitzing he prefers a soft two-deep coverage which allows receivers too much space.  When Marshall’s play calling is hot this defense can’t be stopped, but when he is off this defense disappoints.  I expect the Seahawks’ defense to focus on stopping the run to try to make the Giants’ receivers beat them.  Unfortunately for the Seahawks, it is not out of the question that Toomer and company will manage does just that, especially if the Hawks can’t get pressure on Eli Manning, something they will need if they hope to win.  The Seahawks pass rush tends to be non-existent on the road.  However, if they are getting to Manning I believe they have a shot at winning this game.

Overall, I expect to see a defensive struggle, simply because Eli is missing Plax, the Hawks are good against the run, and the Seattle offense will need time for the returning players at wide receiver to get up to speed.   I am not bold enough to predict a Seahawks victory at 10am PST on the East Coast against the defending Super Bowl Champs, but I do think the Hawks desperation to get a win will make it a good game.  I wish I could be more optimistic about the Hawks chances, but I have seen them fall flat in too many similar games. I am taking the Giants 20-17.  My thanks to Greg for giving me the opportunity to share with  all of you, and may the best team win this Sunday (and both stay healthy in the process!).  

“Well I think you expect that we’re gonna play well when the pressure’s on, and we’re gonna find a way to win the game.  And we did that today, although it was a difficult game.”

–Tom Coughlin

We’ll get into specifics later in the week, but for now, here are some general thoughts on today’s game:

It wasn’t the sharpest performance, but how can you not be very happy? Sure, the Bengals were a bad team in the previous two games, and having slipped to 0-3, there’s a good chance they’ll be a bad team from this point forward.  But make no mistake: they were a very good team today, led by a quarterback and an offense that didn’t look far removed from 2005, when they were one of the decade’s best.  As Coughlin and a lot of the players have said, give credit to the Bengals for playing an excellent game and putting our defense on its heels.

Last week, I wrote: “Two games into the season, the Super Bowl Champs couldn’t be more encouraging.”  Does this statement hold true three games into the season?  It’s an interesting question.

On one hand, for the first time this year, we didn’t play that well.  (Digression: Some have said we didn’t play that well in the first two games, but they’re wrong.  We did.  Even though the score was a little too close to comfort at points during both of those games, we dominated on a play-by-play basis.  Footballoutsiders.com, which calculates play-by-play stats based on situation and opponent, put us in the top spot in their advanced rankings this past week.  This is cold, scientific stuff, not some ex-jock bloviator being like, “They’re the champions, and until they’re not, they’re number one in my book.”)

Back to the point.  We didn’t play that well today for the first time all season.  I suppose if we had blown the Bengals out, that would’ve been a little more encouraging than gutting out a game we could have very easily lost.

But…  doesn’t this hard-fought win answer questions that weren’t addressed during our two dominant performances to start the year?  Pardon the cliche, but wasn’t there something “character building” about this game that is both a building block and a source of optimism going forward? After today, don’t you have a really good feeling about this team?

Going into the bye, we are where we wanted to be: 3-0 and healthy (though I’m not sure what happened to Aaron Ross’ shoulder…).  If anything, the struggle today will keep us grounded during the bye week as we prepare for the second half of our easy six-game opening stretch.  At this point, you’d have to say that a 6-0 start is likely, and anything less would be a disappointment.

**

Is there anyone out there who isn’t thankful Eli Manning is our quarterback?  At the 4:39 mark, was anyone not utterly confident Eli would take us down for the go-ahead touchdown?

Giants fans, do not take this feeling for granted.  Though it may be too early to call Eli Manning a “great quarterback” – the Super Bowl notwithstanding, there isn’t quite enough evidence yet to support this claim – there’s no doubt that he’s a clutch quarterback, a quality somewhat distinct from greatness.  By the end of the year, NYGMen predicts we will be able to count Eli as one of the game’s great, clutch quarterbacks.

I happen to be reading Ralph Vacchiano’s book, Eli Manning: The Making of a Quarterback, which I plan to review/discuss some time in the near future.  The book’s intro is written by Ernie Accorsi, who was famously smitten with Eli ever since laying eyes on him as a junior at Ole Miss in a game against Auburn.

The roots of Accorsi’s infatuation with Eli date back to 1970, his first year as the PR coordinator for the Baltimore Colts.  It was then that Accorsi first encountered John Unitas, the Platonic ideal for a quarterback whose form Accorsi has been trying to capture ever since.

Accorsi tells the story of noticing in Colts training camp in 1970 that Unitas has lost velocity on his ball, attributable to an elbow surgery two years before and old age.

“I turned to Milt [Davis, a Colts scout] and said, ‘Milt, he can’t throw like he used to.  Can we win with him throwing like that?’

“Milt, quite fatherly, turned to this brash rookie employee, put his hand on my shoulder and said: “Ernie, listen to me.  You evaluate the great quarterbacks on one element alone: Can they take their team down the field, with the championship on the line, and into the end zone?  That’s how you evaluate a great quarterback.

That, Unitas could still do.  We won the Super Bowl that season.”

And so Accorsi paid a King’s ransom for Eli Manning.  And three years later… “17-14 is the final score.  One touchdown, we are world champs.  Believe it, it will happen.”

(No, I’m not forgetting about the Asante Samuel and Brandon Meriwether near-picks on the final drive.  But you have to admit, Ernie was right: there’s something about Eli.)

**

So this was the trap game, it turns out.  It didn’t take the form of a flat performance against a bad opponent as we had feared heading into last week.  Instead, it was a flawed performance against a desperate and dangerous team.

**

I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge how easily we could have lost this game.  Sure, there are plenty coulda-woulda-shouldas we Giants fans could break out, but the Bengals clock management at the end of regulation was egregious.  If you’re a Bengals fan, you’re very, very pissed: your team just squandered its last, best shot to save its season.

You saw it, but to rehash: With 32 seconds left and a timeout remaining, the Bengals had just completed a 9-yard pass to Houshmenzadeh, giving them 3^rd and 1 at the NYG 14.  But they took 20 seconds before snapping the ball for the next play, which became an 11-yard pass to Antonio Chatman.  This gave them first and goal at the 3, but left them with only 4 seconds.  They had no choice but to bring in Graham to kick the field goal.

So in the span of 32 seconds, with a timeout to burn, the Bengals ran just two plays.  Based on how they were moving the ball on that drive, is there anyone out there who thinks they wouldn’t have won the game if they had run a third play during that time?  Shit, they could have easily run four plays.

**

Today’s game added to the mounting pile of evidence that Brandon Jacobs is the third best running back on the team.

Yes, I know the Bengals game-planned against the run, which makes Jacobs’ 14 carries for 35 yards (2.5 YPC) a little misleading.  And of course Ward’s draw-plays were more conducive to success, which makes his 80 yards on 9 carries (8.9 YPC) a little misleading too.  As Jacobs-apologists would have you believe, it was Jacobs’ bulldozing his way to a succession of 2.5 yard-runs that “softened” up the defense for Ward.  (As for his latest dropped past… well, that’s beyond even their excuses.)

But my question is this: Is there anything that can happen on the field that can change the coaching staff’s preconceived notion that Jacobs is our best back deserving of the vast plurality of carries? 

Alas, probably not, and the egregious misallocation of resources will continue.  Today, Jacobs got 56% of the carries.  Ward got 36%.  Bradshaw got 8%.

This week – during which we nearly lost, and all three of our division rivals won impressively – proved it: We cannot rest on our Super Bowl laurels.  We need to improve this team if we want to beat out the tough-ass teams in our division.  Earth, Wind and Fire in its current proportions is not a “winning formula,” as the coaches and many in the media might think, but rather something that might preclude us from being as good as we need to be to defend our crown.

“I want you to get on your feet, I want you to make some noise, I want you to get ready to stomp somebody out and welcome the New York Giants, Super Bowl Champions.”

 –Michael Strahan

I. Preliminary Thoughts on The Game

You have to be somewhere between pleased and very pleased with Thursday’s game. 

Yes, the offense went into the tank during the second half.  As is often the case, we left ourselves vulnerable to a comeback, which the Redskins, with their West Coast Offense not yet fully installed, happened not to be capable of making.

And for all the good things Eli did, he still did a bunch of bad things that showed he hasn’t turned into Peyton during the off-season.

As they always have, the Giants won ugly on Thursday, a trait that being Super Bowl champions will not change.

But the game provided an encouraging early answer to the biggest question mark going into this year.  Our pass rush was just fine without Osi and Strahan.  If the Tuck/Kiwanuka/McDougle combo is not a significant downgrade from the Osi/Strahan/Tuck combo, we should, at absolute worst, be almost as good as we were last year.

And if we improve in the other ways that all of us are expecting – Eli making The Leap, a healthy and potentially dominant Plax, a much better secondary, a better command of Spags’ defense – we should be significantly better, barring injuries.

More specifics on the game will follow as I pour over the game-tape.  In the meantime, here are some miscellaneous thoughts.

II. Strahan’s Pre-Game Thing:

How awesome was that?  And what would I have given to be at the Meadowlands?

A lot has been said about Strahan since he retired, so I’ll only add this:

While his outsized, eccentric personality is somewhat un-Giantlike in the traditional sense, winning the ‘Bowl has made him one of the most beloved G-men of all time.  Good for him.  His big ego and gaudy sack totals – both on display in the record-breaking Favre-sack in 2001 – masked his completeness as a defensive end and as a balls-out, team-oriented player.

(I should note that it was originally reported that he made $75,000 for his appearance, but both Strahan and the Giants denied this.)

In New York, for better or worse, you almost have to win a title to validate your career.  If the G-Men had been knocked out last year against Dallas, I think there’s a chance that Strahan might have lived the rest of his life as an underappreciated all-time great.  Fair or not, immortality almost comes only with the ring.  And now Strahan has it.  Could this have been predicted during his holdout last year?

II. Some More Thoughts on the Pre-game Intro:

–Spike Lee needs to stop getting credit as “the quintessential New York sports fan.”  He isn’t.  I’ll give him credit on the Knicks – it’s clear he loves them – but that’s it.  As far as football and baseball, he’s been documented to have worn the jerseys of the Giants, Jets, Mets, and Yankees.

The first rule of being a New York sports fan is rejecting the fallacy that it’s possible to be a “New York fan.”  It isn’t.  Being a sports fan is a monogamous relationship – if you don’t love one team and one team only, you don’t love any team.

–For those of you wondering, the Giants of Super Bowl years past who took part in the pre-game ceremony were: Harry Carson, Stacy Robinson, Karl Nelson, Brad Benson, Billy Ard, Howard Cross, Rodney Hampton, O.J. Anderson, Carl Banks, and Mark Bavaro.  Great job by those guys.

But no L.T.?  No Simms?  Kind of a bad job.

III. Giants Fans

Strahan referred to Giants fans as being “by far the best fans in all of sports.”  Frankly, I disagree.

When I was growing up in the ‘80s and ‘90s, it seemed like the Meadowlands was an intimidating place to play.  There were the winds, the tough D, and supportive fans who intimidated other teams with their deep-throated, thunderous New York passion.

But for a while now, and especially during the Coughlin era (pre-Patriots regular season finale last year), it seems Giants fans have become an easily-quieted, early-to-leave, and an overall counterproductive bunch.  Before the December 29^th of last year, the fans took a distant, judging, and antagonistic attitude towards the team. 

And the team realized this.  Let’s be clear: The whole Antonio Pierce-led “Nobody respects us mantra” isn’t directed at the national media, but much more the local media… and the fans.  The “Road Warriors” mentality was borne out of the G-Men feeling unloved in their own home.

Now, a lot of the scorn the Coughlin-era Giants received since the promise of early 2005 has been warranted.  The team had been maddeningly inconsistent, and until last December 29^th, they always could be counted on to fade down the stretch.

Here’s hoping the upshot of last year’s run is a love-affair with this team, rather than an entitlement complex.