Tonight the Gmen play in Denver. We have a lot to be thankful for.
Some here ascribe Peter’s doom and gloom rebuild message as an inordinate manic-depressive reaction to the 1-4 slide.
Peter’s problem is that he started commenting on this blog a few weeks ago, right when the Giants were losing. Is he a Johnny-come-lately who is now seizing on the latest downtick, in kneejerk fashion? For anyone who does not know him, which is most people, you can certainly draw that conclusion if you choose. But from my viewpoint, he has the perspective of a scout, and scouts are very sensitive to players turning over. This is the way of the world in the NFL, where the average career length is 2 1/2 to 3 years. We saw here on the blog how many problems the slow LBers had last year, openly calling for a Safety to cover the RB (notably Westbrook, who started it). So we see Pierce as a liability and ask for LBer LBer LBer. We have the record of pointing out many problems because we love the team and want to see it get better. Craig and I (and a few others) were going nuts questioning why Reese wasn’t bringing in more Safety help and we pointed this out NUMEROUS times, well before Phillips went down.
Turnover is a way of life in the NFL. So when Peter wants to rebuild (yet he just began posting), you’re going to have to sit back and wait a while to pass judgment. How many of the 53 people on the roster on the 2007 Super Bowl champions are still on the team? Try 31. And considering that the draft class of 2007 was ‘lights out’ with all 8 making the team (and still here 2 years later), that 31 number is HIGH. NFL organizations are ALWAYS rebuilding. One of the things that impresses me most about Bill Cowher is how his Steelers teams constantly lost so many good players yet he was able to take lemons and make lemonade. Yes, coaches and schemes take ordinary guys and make them into football players. Parcells was great at this. George Young may have had a clue, but Parcells made him look better. Right now, Sheridan is not helping the careers of the players on defense. Spags helped, Fox helped. Fox had that incompetent Dave Thomas at Cornerback, just looking at him gave me the same vomitous reaction I have with CC Brown. So what did Fox do? He brang pressure from Thomas’s side, so that QBs could not throw that way and were almost forced to throw Sehorn’s way. FOX SCHEMED AWAY THE THOMAS SHORTCOMINGS and enabled a Super Bowl appearance. Sheridan is currently unable to scheme away all of the deficiencies at Safety, partially because one is worse than the next. Add the slow pieces of terd at LBer. Only been coordinator for 9 games. Losing Phillips after Week 2. You have to wait and give him some more time. He won’t be judged until the middle/end of the second season. He gets an Incomplete right now.
Peter ridicules the coaching. I’ll ridicule Gilbride. How is it humanly possible for a guy like Kevin Boss to come out of nowhere, 0 TDs in 6 games, 4 TDs in 3 games? We were ripping Gilbride to shreds last year while the team was marching to 11-1, ready to hang the man after the Bengals WIN and the Steelers WIN (go check the record, I am too tired to link it). Peter’s crime is that he was not posting back then, so he comes off as another nattering nabob of negativity.
As for Coughlin, hmmm, Lewis, Hufnagel, Spagnuolo, Gilbride, Sheridan. Lewis nearly RUINED Corey Webster. Right now Corey Webster (considering Tuck’s inability to stay healthy) is the number one player on the ENTIRE DEFENSE. Name me one better. And Coughlin’s MAN nearly ruined him. Spags brought him back from the brink. So Peter says that Spagnuolo saved Coughin’s bacon. Damn straight he did. In more ways probably than anyone knows.
We like to remind everyone that the NFL stands for “Not For Long.” It is possible to turn this thing around. I was there in the stadium on this very weekend 2 years ago when the Vikings whipped us 41-17. Old Eli was telegraphing. It was not a pretty day. Yet somehow the Giants found themselves 4 games later vs the Pats and went on a run. So ANYTHING is possible.
Problem is that the team we will see this evening has more than a few problems to fix. We’ll have plenty of time in the offseason to discuss what changes can and should be made. In the meantime, let’s win tonight’s game, go to 7-4 and go from there.
I dug up a guest post from Peter last April. Accurate comments on players like Oher and Maualuga, yet two comments stood out..
“The Jets moving on Sanchez will either be a good move or a total bust. That’s the problem. They are paying mega dollars for a kid who played 18 games in college and surely is not the next coming.”
“The pick along with the Delhomme extention will end Fox in Carolina.”
Now let’s get back to our regularly scheduled programming.
1) The Giants have been playing poorly, yet they are still in this season. No, our expectations and hopes are on life support, but at least the patient has a pulse. That is more than can be said about other franchises.
2) We get a gift tonight in playing the Broncos when they are not at their best. Somehow, the Giants are -6.5 point favorites yet again. We did not improve after 14 days of rest. Who out there thinks we can ‘improve’ on 4 days rest? Right now the Broncos are not a very good football team- this is unfortunately a game between two weak 6-4 teams that are vulnerable. The Broncos have a QB problem, so they are more vulnerable. This is why the Giants rate to win.
3) If the opponent is worthy, the Giants have shown us they simply cannot play. Until they come together as a team, they will lose vs a good opponent. ISSUES:
a) short yardage run game
b) penalties
c) Tynes FGs
d) Tynes kickoffs
e) Safety
f) slow LBers
g) Tuck hurt, inconsistent pass rush
h) inconsistent run gap assignments on defense
i) leadership
4) The Bradshaw injury is, like Pierce’s, a necessary evil. You never like losing players to injury, but seeing injured players who are out there yet are no longer able to help the team is not a good thing. Ware deserves more snaps.
5) When we talk about Smith (tough and reliable), Manningham (great moves), Nicks (nose for the ball and end zone) and Boss (soft hands and monster body) being the future, we ain’t kiddin. NONE of them has been in the league more than 2 years before this season. Scary. Here is another stat: Teams with catches > 25 yards. Found this when I was looking for the..
6) Coughlin bashing stat. 9th in the NFL in Penalty yards. And look who is also in the top 8. Some other underachievers like the Eagles and Cowboys. This is part of the reason why the Giants are not completely out of it. Overall, not a ringing endorsement of the NFC East.
7) I made this remark in the comments section but want to re-air it… the Giants need a HITTER. I was at a party last evening and we talked about the best defensive player ever- LT, the best offensive player ever- Jim Brown, the best defensive end of all time- this was where it was humorous… we all looked at each other and did not even have to blink or spend more than a split second on this one… Deacon Jones. All three players? They were hitters. Right now the Giants have two hitters on their roster. One is on IR (Phillips) and one is hurt/hampered/a shell of himself.. Brandon Jacobs. So I bring up hitters to make the point that the Giants are not imposing their physical will on other teams they way they used to. Our DL is not putting the QB on his butt, our LBers are too slow to even reach the ball carrier, let alone hit him and we are grateful our safeties are able to tackle, let alone hit. As for Jacobs, in 2007 and 2008 all we heard was how hard it was to play against him. In 2009, he is not intimidating others. This is yet another area the Giants need to fix THIS YEAR if they want to WIN.. THIS YEAR.
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