The Giants Came to Play

The New York Giants came to play on defense this past Sunday night! We have talked about PRESSURE defense till we were blue in the face but this past weekend we finally saw it. 

The Giants were refreshingly inspired and they came with the perfect defensive schemes. They knew that the Bears offensive line was the achilles heel and they exploited it as “Spags would have done.”  Fewell, to his credit, abandoned his flawed use of the Tampa Two to “bring it.”  The Bears could not deal with a motivated Osi, a Tuck who was breathing fire, a Boley who looked like a real linebacker and an overall defensive exhibition par extra-ordinaire.

The Giants had TEN sacks and many bone crushing tackles. They really were dominant. They put Cutler out of the game and Chicago was down to number three by the end. It just goes to prove the value of a competent OL and the perils of playing without one. 

The Bears became NO dimensional as nothing worked. The Giants effectively shut down the running game which was all there was left without an effective passing game.

Webster, Thomas, Rolle, Osi, Tuck, Boley and Fewell stick out in my mind as reasons we won this past Sunday. It was as exciting watching tonight’s defense as in ’07. That’s as far as I am willing to go until I see them do it on a consistent basis.  

The problems once again stood out.  Our special teams, other than a couple of sticks, were just awful. Dodge is not an NFL punter yet. He has “leg” but his head is not there. Tynes was his abysmally unreliable self. We were fortunate that Gilbride’s familiar failure inside the red zone was not our undoing. The first two drives yielded but 3 points and ordinarily that will cost you a game.  

I thought Nicks was amazing but the Giant offense could only get 10 points until the game was already won. Bradshaw ran for 129 yards and is a pleasure to watch.  We will get tested on the road and we must establish on defense what we saw tonight.  The offense and specials will kill us if we can’t fix them.  

The Bears have an awesome defense and we have to consider that when critiquing our offense.  Dallas and others have that and a lethal offense as well. The Texans will be a test as we need to beat a good team to do better than .500. We need to win on the road.  

I was lifted by the guys who were inducted in the ring of honor. These were my heroes growing up and it brought tears to my eyes. Obviously many are senior citizens now and Lawrence Taylor’s physical absence broke my heart. No matter the mistakes he has made in life he was/is one of if not the Greatest linebacker in history.  No one can take that from him and he is now immortal in the ring of honor.  Andy Robustelli looked healthy.  He looked much bigger when he was playing DE for us.  

I was glad to finally see Joseph.  Outside of the costly fumble by Jacobs, his 62 yds on 10 carries was positive. He still looks like he is not into a team effort, but only for himself. He is not a happy guy.  

I think the return of our S Kenny Phillips is quietly paying big dividends. He had 3 tackles and is becoming a presence.

Truthfully the bookies knew that the Bears are bad on offense, very bad. This was a welcome respite and fun to watch. I am an Osi-backer and it was great to see him sack-stripping the ball with regularity. He was a force Sunday night.  

I seriously doubt the Giants can play consistently well on offense as they are so thin.  We are one injury away from being a Chicago-like offense.   From my perspective nothing has changed. Nicks and Smith are as good as it gets.  Gilbride unfortunately is still Gilbride. The defense has to prove they can do it against a good offense and do it consistently. Canty?  Well, he is neutralized by a competent opponent until proven otherwise.

This was a must win game for many reasons and they won. I will keep this game film and I hope I am driven to view it again.   This was effort that fans can be proud of.