Okay, so Bradshaw had some help from the other 44 players suited up, and the New York Giants beat the pulp out of the St. Louis Rams 41-13. (See last paragraph for more Ahmad.)
The Giants showed up for 4 quarters and kicked some a**. The Rams are a bad team but the Giants are a good one too. I do not care who you beat, when you win on the road it is a very nice win. The NFC East will be 6-2 after this weekend and both losses will be at the hands of other NFC East teams.
Justin Tuck is on a magic carpet ride to Hawaii for the Pro Bowl as long as he stays healthy.
The Giants had a Jerry Rice (Jan ’87) moment when, early in Q1, Steven Jackson is about to score a TD but the turf stops him.
The Giants announced after the game that they released Plaxico Burress because of his personal foul for excessive celebration. Okay, that was a joke merely to point out that that 15 yarder was probably the only real blemish on an otherwise great team performance. The Giants dominated the Rams on both sides of the ball. Two FGs by the Rams at 54 yards masked the difference. We know it is a dome, but if either is missed the Giants have field position at the freaking 44 yard line. The Rams kept themselves in the game with those scores, and then needed another piece of freakiness when Phillips played great on turning himself around to bat away a bomb to Holt- only to see that the the ball deflected right into Holt’s fallen body for a TD. Meanwhile, there was little the Giants did not do right today. Domenik Hixon was a beast. Plax and Amani were terrific. Was Smith touched on that play his YAC was called back? I thought he was not. Manning (outside of a few poor passes that may just as easily have been poor routes run) was solid. Webster and Ross were good. No, I do not like it when nickel Dockery hands off coverage to Butler, let me not watch that too often. Clark (nice play to set them back 3 yards for a 54 yarder which still made) and Pierce were effective. The defensive line was dominant, with Robbins and Tuck (who even Aikman admits, was being held the entire game) both collecting two sacks. Perhaps the only lineman who was having a tough day was Kiwi, who was playing on a gimpy ankle. (Wonder told me the Giants should bench him this past Friday, he was right as usual… that call was based on a belief the Rams were putrid and that the gmen would win without him. Looked like that was exactly what took place.) The offensive line protected Manning well for most of the game.
And then there is our friend #44. The guy plays for the last 10 minutes of the game, he gets 5 carries for 52 yards and 1 TD, 1 pass for 18 yards and 1 TD, hmmm 1/6th of the game, 70 yards 2 TDs. On the play where he runs for 31 yds and the score we are still waiting for Jacobs to get back to the line of scrimmage. Carl Banks: “shot out of a cannon… just another dimension to this running game.” On the play where Bradshaw does the catch and run, this is precisely the open space playcalling which can make this guy a menace, because his scamper is textbook. This play ended the game, folks. And Ward and Jacobs are not able to score on that play. What about having this guy in on 3rd down? Now you have him out of the backfield, Smith, Toomer and Burress all who can move the sticks. Lethal. Kind of remarkable that this guy goes the first 110 minutes of regulation not even taking a snap. Will someone please tell me when this guy starts? Hey, Jacobs went 15 for 93 yards, and Ward went 8 for 58 yards. Both looked very good. But Bradshaw is still this team’s best back.
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