Sunday, February 17, 2008

Let's Get this Straight about Eli!


Much is made out of how Eli did not have that great a year until the Patriot game and the ensuing playoffs. What many do not realize is that the receivers started catching the ball as of the Patriot game and thereafter. The Giants led the league in drops. What is a quarterback to do. The second factor is that Plaxico had never really practiced with the whole team and this was definitely a deficiency. Then Steve Smith got healthy. So now Eli has Plaxico, Smith, Toomer and Boss with Tyree in reserve. And they are starting to hold on to the ball. Of course, you can't say enough for the contribution of the emerging Bradshaw along with the solid Jacobs. So Eli and the defense was always there. The rest of the offense had to catch up.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

The Giants sign both kicker and punter.



The Giants signed Feagles to a two year contract and are about to sign Tynes to a seven year deal. http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/giants/2008/02/12/2008-02-12_giants_to_give_lawrence_tynes_fiveyear_7.html
Feagles is the best directional kicker and Tynes has shown his clutch ability. After all no one has ever kicked a field goal that far in such cold weather in Green Bay.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

One More Time---The Catch



Eli Manning, David Tyree show why Giants are Super this night
Monday, February 4th 2008, 3:34 PM
How/Getty
Eli Manning and David Tyree connect on play that propels Giants to Super upset on third-and-5 with 1:15 left.
Sipkin/News
Tyree makes an incredible 32-yard reception in the fourth quarter. For more photos of the play, click above photo.
GLENDALE, Ariz. - The best Super Bowl of them all really ended in the left corner of the end zone at University of Phoenix Stadium, one last ball in the hands of Plaxico Burress, who called this one the way Joe Namath called one once. Eli Manning delivered that ball to Burress, delivered it the way great quarterbacks are supposed to deliver the ball at the end of a game like this, delivered it the way Joe Montana did in a Super Bowl in Miami against the Bengals. And now it wasn't just Super Bowl XLII ending this way, even with 35 seconds still left on the clock. This was the ending to one of the great sports stories of all time, any sport, in New York or anywhere else.
"The greatest victory in the history of this franchise," John Mara said on the field when it was over.
And it was. It was. It was 17-14 for the Giants against the Patriots, and the Patriots weren't going to be 19-0 and Tom Brady wasn't going to have enough time to drive his team down the field one last time the way the kid, Eli Manning, just had. Eli and the Giants were underdogs again Sunday night, the way they have been underdogs for a month. Couldn't stop them because nothing could stop them, not in a month when a sports team carried the city, carried the whole area we think of as New York, as much as any New York team ever has.
The Cowboys couldn't stop them and the Packers couldn't stop them at Lambeau and the Patriots couldn't stop them yesterday. And as much as a money throw that last throw was, as much of a money play it was from Eli, it wasn't the play that will be remembered from this game. The play that will be remembered, a play that goes in with the best Super Bowl plays ever made, is the one you had to see to believe in that last drive, the one Eli made to David Tyree four plays before the winning touchdown to Burress. The one where Eli seemed to disappear underneath the pocket and then break free like a swimmer coming out of the water.
"An amazing play," Tom Coughlin said, "in the middle of an amazing drive."
The Patriots did not sack Manning (19-for-34, 255 yards, two touchdowns, the MVP of course) on third-and-5 from the Giants' 44. They did not bring him down even though everybody in the stadium thought they had. He was still standing, standing up and standing in there the way he had all day long. Then he was running to his right and throwing one down the middle of the field to Tyree, who outjumped an old Patriots safety named Rodney Harrison for the ball and came down with the ball at the Patriots' 24.
Under a minute left in Super Bowl XLII. And now the improbable had become inevitable in the Super Bowl.
Namath shocked the world once for the Jets. Eli did the same Sunday. Only he had a better game against the Patriots than Namath had in Super Bowl III, and against one of the best teams to ever play. Even after Tom Brady hit Randy Moss and got the lead back near the end, it didn't matter. Wasn't his day. It was Eli's day and his time to make history for the Giants, on the best day the Giants have ever had.
There will be other teams in New York, because there always are. There is always another team. This team goes with Namath's Jets now and the '69 Mets and Willis Reed, with anything the city has ever seen or will ever see. Never a bigger day than this, never a better Super Bowl than this.
Now Eli Manning came through the confetti of University of Phoenix Stadium, came into the tunnel through all the Giant fans at the other end of the field from where Eli had hit Burress. And now he put up one finger, the way Namath did when he beat the Colts.
"How did you get away from that sack?" he was asked.
"Don't frankly know," he said. "All I was trying to do was escape."
He was asked if he could feel not just the pressure, but a hand on the back of his uniform jersey.
"I knew I was getting grabbed," he said. "And then I saw Tyree."
A few minutes later Tom Coughlin couldn't stop talking about that scramble from his quarterback and that throw, amazing throw in an amazing drive, that Eli made to David Tyree that was like the punch that started to finish the New England Patriots on the day they thought they were going to be 19-0.
"It has to be one of the great plays of all time in the history of the Super Bowl, doesn't it?" Tom Coughlin said.
The last Giant drive, the end of everything that really began with that 38-35 loss to the Patriots on the 29th of December, began with a throw to Amani Toomer for 11. Then he hit Toomer again, out to the 37. Fourth-and-1. One hundred seconds left in the Super Bowl. Brandon Jacobs ran for the first down. Three plays later came the escape, the scramble, the throw, Tyree going up for the ball like it was a basketball rebound that was going to win the Super Bowl for the Giants, Tyree out-wrestling Rodney Harrison and holding on when he hit the ground.
"Some things just don't make sense," Tyree said. "I guess you could put that catch up there with them."
Eli hit Steve Smith at the 13 three plays later. Forty-five seconds left. Then one more dream throw from Eli, to Burress, like Brady had been making to Moss all year, all the way to 18-0, the pass to the guy who said the Giants were going to shock the world.
Last time the Giants won a Super Bowl, they won because Scott Norwood went wide right. This time it was because they were better than 18-0, because it was their day and their time to make history. And because the great Tom Brady could only watch at the end as another Manning won the Super Bowl, and Peyton's kid brother found greatness in himself.
"We believed the whole time," Eli Manning said.
There will be another team someday, another run, another improbable story. It won't be better than this football team, and this run, and this story. There have been other big games in football. Considering the circumstances, never one bigger than this.

Friday, February 8, 2008

A Quarterback Who thinks Like that and Spagnuolo Stays.


When commenting on the final drive in the Superbowl with the Patriots up by 4 points Eli said that is the situation you want to be in with the game on the line and you are driving to win the game. He also said: "Peyton said that you would rather be down by 4 rather than 3 because then you will work on winning the game instead of tying it by a field goal.

Strahan who was standing next to Eli when he said this said: "I don't know about rather being down by 4 instead of 3 but I'm glad my quarterback thinks this way."

Now its official. Our defensive coordinator stays. We will be even better next year. All we have to do is keep our great attitude. Play the game.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

The Winning Touchdown



You will be pleased to know that in my household the place rocked when Plaxico caught the go ahead touchdown. My daughter's fiancee was here with his brother and wife and her father and friend. It was better than being at the game because we had the intimacy of our own home. Simultaneously, all of us exploded including my wife of all people. It does not get any better. We knew there were 35 seconds left and anything could happen yet the euphoria was intense.

As soon as we saw Plaxico was free and the ball perfectly thrown going into his hands we erupted. It was a magical moment. It preceded an historic drive in which the G-Men converted on fourth and one, third and ten mixed in with the marvelous, incredible grab by David Tyree.



A great memory.

Monday, February 4, 2008

Giants are Super



What a defensive line. Five sacks of Brady and many, many hits and knockdowns. The Patriots did not lose this one. The Giants won it. How about David Tyree. The former special teams player showed that he can make great catches too. Now he has one of the top five catches in Super Bowl history. And Manning avoiding the sack and throwing a strike to Tyree. How sweet it is. The secondary came up big too. How far they have come. And Justin Tuck showed why the Giants tied him up for six years.

No denying that Eli has passion and talent. He has that championship character of playing his best when the game is on the line. The only reason the giants did not do more in the first half was due to receivers dropping balls again. They finally changed that in the second half. But Eli was on the money all through the game. Has he ever arrived.

And let's give the great coach Couglin his due. All he has ever done is to develop winners. He changed a little and got his players to buy into his philosophy.

I was surprised the Giants were not able to run better. At the same time Bradshaw had some amazing moments when he carried about three guys for extra yardage.

The Giants were clearly the better team. World Champions.

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Eli is Ready and So is the Team



Here we go and the pundits are wrong. Precision by Eli, swing passes to Bradshaw and Jacobs, slants to Toomer and mid range to Boss. Look for Steve Smith to be big and Burress to be awesome. Eli mowed Roma and Favre and Brady remains. It can happen. This is a defense which is peaking and an offense which has not reached its peak yet. Let's go Giant fans. Let's do this thing.