In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
And so it was when a mediocre team played against another mediocre team in a must win situation, one of the two teams must win. The NY Giants prevailed. But let’s be honest and objective about this contest- both teams s*cked. Dropped balls, penalties, dead ball fouls, crazy plays, screwball turnovers that weren’t and were, insane playcalls… there was a lot of bad football out there. The Giants came out on top, proving that yes indeed, they are the best football team in NY. This is not something I’d be bragging about a whole helluva lot.
The Good
1) Victor Cruz is just fantastic. With the Giants slumbering through the first half with a FG (which was set up by a 28 yard pass catch and run by VICTOR CRUZ), the Giants found themselves down 7-3 at their own goal line on 3rd down and 10. I figured incorrectly that the Giants would run the ball out just so that the punter would have a few yards to move. Instead, Gilbride goes shotgun (one of three times we saw shotgun that I went apesh*t) and passes to Cruz for a ~12 yard completion. Except Cruz darts away from Wilson plus Cromartie, runs down the sideline, hops over an attempt at a shoestring tackle and scampers 99 yards into the end zone for a TD. Brilliant. BRILLIANT. This play broke open the game, awoke the Giants, changed tempo, and the Jets never recovered. It should be noted that Cruz figured in the second TD drive, getting the big, 37 yard pass play that set up the Jacobs and Bradshaw runs. And Cruz also came within a fingertip of another TD catch where Eli overthrew him in the endzone.
I’m not done talking about Cruz. Do you realize he passed Amani Toomer’s 2002 NY Giants single season receiving yards record of 1,343 yards with 3 catches for 164 yards, now with 1,358 yards for the (15 game) season?! This guy, in his first full season, breaks the all-time franchise record! He’s 25 years old. So his future is very bright.
2) It’s another game, it must mean Jason Pierre-Paul was busy. 2 sacks for 15.5 on the year.
3) Running game in H2. After running for 6 yards in H1, they ran for 110 yds in H2. Bradshaw ran over S Pool. Excellent.
4) Rex Ryan can eat some crow. I like him as a coach but he talks way too much. Shut the F up, stop talking about how your team is going to win the Super Bowl and just prepare your team to play. With your team at 8-6 going into the game, you are trash for talking.
5) The Eagles are eliminated. Good riddance, dream team. Nightmare this. Another country who we no longer have to hear from.
6) Darrelle Revis. Understand this- I root for the Jets when the Giants are out of it because I have so many friends and family who root for this team. I have said this before, that I will trade 16 Jets wins for 1 Giant win. And with all of that said, when I watch Revis play, it is art. I appreciate good football, preferrably when it is in a NY Giants uniform. Revis is a pleasure to watch. There is a reason why Eli only had 9 pass completions today and his name is Darrelle Revis.
The Bad
1) Kevin Gilbride’s playcalling was at times atrocious. I really do not want to go through all of the egregious examples of why I detest him, but in this game we saw so many insanities… I could write a bible. Third and 1, THIRD AND 1…. and he puts Manning in shotgun. I can hear ‘Nature’ going apoplectic. If you are going to pass, why not go play action and freeze the line. He did this playcall THREE times that I can recall, using shotgun where it was horrible. The Giants have just gotten a turnover in the end zone off the Sanchez fumbled snap, 1st and 10 from the 20, up 20-7, and there is Gilbride again in …. SHOTGUN! WTF???!!! Ya gotta be kiddin’ me. The world is expecting run, I am expecting run. Just do playaction if you have a hard-on to throw the damn the ball. Yes, it would be unexpected, and I love the unexpected and unpredictable. You can catch the Jets LBers and Safeties biting on run. Instead, we get a tipped ball which is picked off by a non-biting LBer.
2) Mark Sanchez. Please do not tell me, Daryl Johnston, how much better the Giants secondary played today. Sanchez just played worse, which was what we expected when we previewed the game yesterday. In the first half, McKnight has Boley beat by 3 steps and Sanchez misses him. Keller crosses on play action, he is wide open, Sanchez takes forever to get him, the Giants defenders close the gap and woohoo, incomplete pass. Holmes open and overthrown, woohoo. Add at least 4 more batted balls at the line of scrimmage (Tuck2, Tollefson, Joseph) and it was a weaker opponent abdicating. Please, do not schedule any parades just yet for Mr. Fewell.
Summary
Here is a stat to chew on- The Jets had 10 penalties for 95 yards. This should be a reminder that the Giants beat a garbage football team. Hey, at least the Giants played about 40 minutes of football today, which was about 40 more minutes than they played vs the Redskins. Let’s be thankful for small favors.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everybody!
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