We’ll get to the game later on, but first, some historical perspective:

As much as we all suspended judgment after the Eagles game, it’s now time to face the facts: During the past two games, a Giants Super Bowl title has gone from probable to possible. Yes, I know, calling a Super Bowl ring “probable” is a little illogical. But let’s just say that going into last week’s game, we would have been absolutely crushed if the Giants continued their success only to come up short in the playoffs. That outcome, a nightmarish worst-case scenario eight days ago, doesn’t seem unlikely now.

As evidenced by last year, championships are determined by which team is playing its best when the playoffs come. After Week 15, with only two games to reverse the trend, it’s safe to say the Giants are not playing as well as some other teams. The Panthers are kicking some serious ass. The Cowboys and Eagles just beat us soundly. The Vikings have started to peak, and the Falcons are no cakewalk.

So we’ve fallen from the lofty perch we’ve occupied all season. The dream-like run in which wins came easy is over. We are now immersed in the same desperate struggle as every other team.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that Tom Coughlin’s Giants are uniquely equipped to weather this situation. Perhaps during that 11-1 start we forgot that this is the Giants we’re talking about, a franchise whose identity is tied to a belief that anything worthwhile does not come easy. It didn’t come easy last year, and it didn’t come easy in 1990, the most apt historical comparison if you want to be optimistic.

That year, a 10-0 start gave way to a 3-3 finish, with losses to the Eagles, 49ers, and Bills and thoroughly uninspiring wins against the mediocre Vikings, the lowly Cardinals, and the pathetic Patriots. We were written off, dropped by the experts from the ranks of the elite, but we kept grinding, eventually winning a championship that, like, 2007, owed itself to the team’s mental fortitude. Indeed, at their best, the Giants don’t dazzle, they grind.

Tom Coughlin’s Giants are a proud bearer of this standard of resilience. So while it may not look like it now, this is where we want to be. We don’t want to be above the fray, entering the playoffs with a dazzling 15-1 record. We want to be in the fight. Because there isn’t a team I like more in a fight than the G-Men.

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

 

I. The Running Game

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

II. Eli

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

A deeply satisfying win.  Once again, just when you thought you couldn’t be any higher on this team, they manage to impress you.

This game reminded me of the Pittsburgh game in that going into each contest, many people predicted us to lose.  The rationale was that we can’t win ‘em all, and since we have to drop some games, these wouldn’t be such bad losses.

Both performances attest to the hunger of this team to defend its title.  In both games, we showed early that we were the superior team (in the Eagles game, a 244 to 126 advantage in yards in the first half), but were unable to convert this play-by-play dominance into a commensurate advantage on the scoreboard (only a 20-17 lead).

And when both the Steelers and Eagles scored third quarter touchdowns to take the lead, it looked as if we had squandered our best stretch of ball and were positioned to lose a game we should have won.  But in both games, we persevered and resumed our dominance.

This team has heart.

I. Colonel Tom

Maybe today’s game will go down as the moment when we officially embraced Colonel Tom.  We all know what I’m talking about: the challenge on Eli’s pass to Boss that set up Jacobs’ touchdown to put us up 27-24.  That was the biggest play of the game.

Michaels and Madden were all over it: Tom has the best challenge percentage in league history (granted, the challenge rule dates back only to 2004).  But what does this tell you about Tom?  Sure, I have my gripes with him, mostly centered around his under-utilization of Ahmad.  But we have a great coach, and we should be grateful.  A lot of Giants fans, including me, were wrong about him.  Tom Coughlin is a winner.

As opposed to, say, Andy Reid.  Thank you, Andy, for the clock management at the end of the first half that cost your team four points, the senseless challenges that spent the Eagles’ remaining time outs, not running a play before the two-minute warning because McNabb was tired (awwwww), and the consecutive running plays on the last series. 

And you wonder why Eagles fans are so bitter?

II. The O-Line

Brandon Jacobs was NBC’s “Horse Trailer Player of the Game,” or whatever they call it, and Jacobs deserves props.  He ran really well, gaining 117 yards at 5.7 per (although his three fumbles, only one of which counted, detract significantly from his outing).

But we all know where this game was won: In the trenches, with the best offensive line in the league.  The Eagles came into the game with the third best rush defense in the league, with an outstanding -18.6% DVOA.  No problem.  Our boys up front paved the way for the running backs to gain to 217 yards on a cool 4.9 yards per carry.

The running game was the foundation of our attack that put up 36 points and notched 401 total yards on one of the best defenses in the league.  As for pass protection, Eli was only sacked once against a defense known for its ability to bring pressure. 

Nothing new here, but our O-line is the foundation for our success, probably the biggest a reason to be confident against any team in the NFL going forward.

So let’s honor these guys by name: Dave Diehl, Rich Seubert, Shaun O’Hara, Chris Snee, and Kareem McKenzie.  Once again, the game ball goes to you.

III. Fumblitis

Over the past few games, we’ve seen Jacobs be increasingly reckless with the ball, so I can’t say I was all that surprised about tonight’s three fumbles (again, only one of which actually counted, but still).  Add in the rare Ward fumble at the most inopportune time, along with another unconscionable fumble by Ahmad, and we have something to worry about here.

If Andy Reid and Donovan McNabb weren’t Andy Reid and Donovan McNabb, we might be blaming the fumbles for costing us a game in which we were clearly the better team.

Fortunately, we got away with it, but this is worrisome and has to stop.  Maybe we can bring back Tiki Barber as a guest lecturer on recovering from fumblitis.

IV. Special Teams

Save for the Quinton Demps fumble, we got killed in this area during the first half.  To our credit, we responded in the second half, but this still has to be considered an area of concern.

I can’t figure out why kickoff coverage has been a sporadic vulnerability for us over the past couple of years.  If the Jerry Reese Giants are characterized by anything, it is their athleticism on the roster from top to bottom.  This would seem to be a team ideally suited to field good special teams.

By the way, Tynes has to be the worst kickoff specialist in league history.  His kickoffs are probably better than Carney’s, but really, what’s the point or carrying him and not an actual kickoff specialist.  Are there any of these guys out there?  Because when it comes for field goals, I think Carney’s proven enough.  He has to be our guy going forward.)

Also, it was nice to see Hixon break one today – that call on Johnson was bullshit.  After the Seahawks game, that guy has been somewhat slept on, but he reminded us again what an asset he is.

Big ups on special teams also go to Ahmad, who made two great sticks on kickoffs.  Speaking of special teams…

V. Chase Blackburn

A crucial fumble recovery in the first quarter and then the game-clinching stop of Westbrook, along with a nice tackle on a kickoff.  He started at weakside linebacker today and should stay there for the rest of the season.  As I said last week, this guy needs to be on the field.

VI. Corey Webster

Yes, he got beaten by DeSean Jackson on that last scoring drive, but aside from that, I’m pretty sure this was a blemishless performance.  People talk about how much this guy has improved, but that’s a backhanded way getting at how good he is.  Sure, Corey Webster is the 2008 Most Improved Player.  But he’s also one of the best cornerbacks in the game.  In the NFL, it always takes time for a guy’s reputation to catch up to his production.  In the postseason, look for announcers to be making this point: Corey Webster is a Pro Bowl caliber corner.

VII. Odds and Ends

–What happened to the end zone fade to Plax?  Surely it’s worth one play on a goal-to-go series.  If the Eagles can do it with Hank Basket on Aaron Ross, surely we can do it with Plax on Asante Samuel or Sheldon Brown.

–Antonio Pierce was getting abused in pass coverage by LJ Smith over the middle.  This seam pattern has been a consistent vulnerability for this defense.

–Madison Hedgecock needs to re-learn how to catch.  What is that, four passes in a row he has dropped?  I don’t get it: Last year he had pretty good hands.  It was a drop by Madison, along with an uncharacteristic drop by Ward (who’s a great receiver), which kept us from converting those two Eagles turnovers into 14 points.  This effectively allowed Philly to stay in the game.

–Mathias Kiwanuka made a nice play “setting the edge” on a Westbrook run, but lost contain on two other plays.  I’ve said this before: ‘Nuke needs to be more disciplined out there.

–Kevin Boss, the end zone drop notwithstanding, can play.

So much for the nationally-televised coronation….  I’m sure most of us had forgotten how much losing sucks.  It’s been a long time since we’ve felt this way, which I guess underscores how lucky we’ve been this calendar year.  And hey, at least we’re not the Cowboys.

I started to worry – I always worry, but seriously worry – during the drawn-out pregame hype on ESPN.  All throughout the week, I had no problem indulging in the media love-fest surrounding the Giants, but as it crescendoed an hour before the game, it began to take on an ominous edge in my mind.  The “humanizing” segment on Coughlin featuring the Snees (Chris and Tom’s daughter) was an especially surefire sign that things had become too good to be true.  At that point, I knew a letdown of some kind, at some time, was imminent.

I just hoped it wouldn’t be last night.  But as I keep telling myself, we weren’t gonna go 16-0.  Even great teams will occasionally turn in terrible performances.  And last night, the 2008 Giants – who have become a great team over the last eight games by discovering an ability to play consistently well on both sides of the ball – laid their first egg.  It was a terrible performance, to be sure, but one that is now in the past while we are still in first place at present.

Or so I keep telling myself.  Because last night’s loss was not only brutal, it was worrisome, particularly because of our pass rush.

Neither or front four or are many blitzers could get close to Anderson all night.  Play after play, he was able to sit back, calmly scan the field, and find the open man.  Pretty quickly, he got into a rhythm where he was making his reads and firing strikes.

This makes it two out of three games where our pass rush has let us down (the Bengals game, the 6 sacks notwithstanding, was the other).  After that game, the Star-Ledger’s Mike Garafolo took stock of our pass rush over our first few games.  His conclusion was that while the sacks were there, the quarterback hurries were actually way down from last year.  Last night, neither the hurries nor sacks were there.

This points to two things that should really concern Giants fans: 1) We miss Osi and Strahan a lot more than we wanted to think at the beginning of the year.  Sure, Tuck’s great, but Kiwanuka and McDougle might not even be good.  At the position, it’s possible that we’ve gone from historically good to merely above-average.

And 2) Our blitzes were completely, utterly, scarily ineffective last night, which makes you wonder if we’re tipping them in some way.  There was talk after the Bengals game that we were tipping them, but that quieted after the Seattle blowout.  Maybe its time to start thinking about that again, as well as the uncomfortable possibility that the league may have caught up with Spags.

Could it be that our pass rush is a shell of what it was last year?  After last night, it seems possible.

While the pass rush was worrisome, there were some things last night that were merely bad.  There’s a distinction there: the bad stuff you expect will turn around.  The worrisome stuff you’re not so sure.

The play of the secondary, for instance, was bad.  But with all the time Anderson was given and with the confidence in his protection he accumulated, those guys faced a real uphill battle.

Obviously, Aaron Ross – a universally popular Giant, it seems – had a truly horrific game.  The first big play to Braylon – you rarely see Ross miss a tackle like that – the second big play to Braylon, and the fourth quarter touchdown to Braylon were all back-breaking plays and were all Ross’ fault (though it’s hard to kill a guy for suddenly getting a cramp).  On the touchdown to Darnell Dinkins, Ross was playing the deep safety position, and seemed a little slow coming over the top to help Pierce.  The good news is that he appears to be okay.  Good player, awful game.

The tackling was pretty bad last night too.  Repeatedly, the Browns were able to slip out of the initial tackle to pick up a couple extra yards to put them in “manageable” situations (the announcers were so big on that concept last night).  Against the Bengals, the tackling was poor too.  In both instances, this was probably a function of being on the field for so long but it’s still something to watch going forward.

In terms of the merely bad stuff offensively, there was obviously Eli.  It was a bad performance, but one that can be shrugged off – all quarterbacks, even great ones, have them.  And aside from the interceptions, Eli was actually pretty decent last night.  (I know, I know…  If my aunt had balls, she’d be my uncle, but still.)  His throws were generally pretty sharp, and he completed 18 for 28, or 64% of his passes, which is actually a hair better than his 2008 completion percentage and significantly better than his career mark.

The rest of the offense was fine.  We ran the ball very well and put up 373 yards of total offense, only 57 of which were full-fledged garbage-time yards gained during that bizarrely time-consuming drive at the end of the game.  (What the hell was that, anyway?  No, we weren’t going to win the game, but it was still mathematically possible.  You don’t give up, Tom!)

So in the end, you can shrug off some things about this game.  Eli and the secondary played poorly, but that’s in the past.  The pass rush, however, and to some degree the tackling, are things to worry about going forward.

“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.

Tom Coughlin took time out to speak to the press at the NFL Combine on Friday.

As reported on Giants.com:

“I’m trying to make sure that all the things along the way that you don’t read about or see on TV or whatever, the interviews and that type of thing, I don’t want to miss out on anything that was really good,” Coughlin said. “Hopefully, that’s not going to happen, but it’s a blur the way that goes. But it’s wonderful to hear people say ‘Super Bowl champions’ and ‘champions of the world.’ It’s kind of nice to get here and be back in the football environment and see so many friends from years gone by, people that have been in the league for a long time. It’s just a nice thought.”

Coughlin is not one to dwell on the past, even when it is worth celebrating. So he was happy to travel to Indianapolis for the combine, where he can begin to gauge more than 300 draft-eligible players and start preparing in earnest for the 2008 season.

“You really don’t ever stop,” Coughlin said. “We got back (from the Super Bowl) on a Monday night, we had our exit meetings, etcetera, on Tuesday morning, we had a magnificent experience in the Canyon of (Heroes) over there in New York and we had a great session when we came back to the Meadowlands with the fans being there. Then, all of a sudden, the next day we had to do (player) rankings and evaluations and write-ups and needs and things of that nature. So we went right ahead and did that. And then, as soon as we got back (from vacation), we continued along those lines with the information coming about the combine and free agency and started the evaluation of free agents, started our cut-ups. So we jumped right back into it.”

Because the Giants season ended so late, and the coaches were given much-deserved vacations last week, Coughlin did not have as much time as usual to prepare for the combine. But he’ll gladly make that tradeoff every year.

Just got it last night. I have to tell you, I expected something different; something closer to Giants Among Men or True Blue. 

The highlights only give you the games and nothing more and the music is pretty much the same throughout.

But the special features give you a lot. Interviews with Eli Manning, Tom Coughlin, Michael Strahan, for some reason, Mathias Kiwanuka highlight the extras. There’s also the two playoff games in Dallas and Green Bay and the Super Bowl Halftime show with Tom Petty.

I paid $21.99 at Blockbuster, but I am sure you can find it cheaper elsewhere.

Bob Glauber in Newsday reports Tom Coughlin will sign a four year extension worth about $5 million a year.

Two league sources familiar with the Giants’ situation told Newsday Monday that there are few hurdles left in negotiations, and that a deal could be completed sometime this week. One source said the contract will be a four-year extension through the 2011 season. No financial terms were disclosed, but the deal likely will average about $5 million — or perhaps slightly higher — per season.

Last-minute hang-ups could delay the extension, but if the two sides agree to the terms, an announcement could come within days, sources said.

The Giants would not comment Monday on the status of negotiations with Coughlin’s agent, Gary O’Hagan, who could not be reached for comment.

Coughlin’s original four-year deal with the Giants was to have expired after the 2007 season, but a year ago, he agreed to a one-year extension after the Giants went 8-8 and qualified for the playoffs. The Giants wanted Coughlin to agree to the one-year extension so he would not be coaching the final year of his contract in 2007 and be perceived as a lame duck.

Coughlin, 61, underwent a major soul-searching period last offseason, even consulting beat reporters and columnists about how to better interact with the media. He enacted several new measures with the team, including the appointment of a leadership council and the election of team captains. He was much more tolerant of the media during news conferences, and his more approachable and positive demeanor was welcomed by players, particularly veterans.