2007 was not a good year for the Giants. Oh, the 2007 season itself was spectacular. The 2007 calender year was not all that kind to Big Blue. It began with a heartbreaking loss to the Eagles in the NFC Wildcard playoffs and began with 2 straight losses to start the 2007 regular season. Although the 2007 regular season was fairly successful, 10-6 with a wild card birth into the playoffs. 2008 however may prove to be the greatest calender year in the history of the franchise. Not only has Big blue won its third Superbowl title in historic fashion by wining 4 straight road playoff games capped off by ripping the guts out of Patriot nation by handing the Pats its only loss of the season; New York is 4-0 in the 2008 regular season as well.
Although the 2nd half against the Skins and the entire game against the Bengals were not awe inspiring, the 4-0 record including an NFL best +78 net points certainly has been. Although a week 4 win against a mediocre Seattle team is not nearly as meaningful as any win in January, it is noteworthy because it had its biggest margin of victory in 32 years and did so without its best football player on the field. Also noteworthy is the defense's continued dominance without its two all world Defensive ends from a year ago.
The Defense- A+: Although I would have liked Spags to have made this adjustment at halftime against the Bungles, he made a smart change in his usual blitz-happy scheme prior to the Seattle game it appears. He, instead of blitzing from the secondary, stayed in medium zone coverages so as to not allow the short passing game to flourish the way it did for Carson and company 2 weeks ago. The result was a Seattle team that was clearly flummoxed. Sure Hassleback was not sacked at all in the first half nor was he picked; but he had no open guys to throw to and not enough of a running game to force New York to sell out for the running game. Amazingly this dominant defense has only 2 turnovers all season. As my buddy "Islanders" told me, "just think what would happen if we got turnovers". I'm fine with the way its going thank you very much.
The Offense-A+: I guess I have come to expect sheer dominance from this elite NFL defense. However, the offensive explosion that the G-men put forth Sunday warmed the heart of Big Blue nation the way few other games have. Eli was dominant in the first half when the game was still somewhat in doubt and Dominick Hixon looks like he might become a great 2 man behind Plax. Brandon continues to embarrass smaller and weaker defense players by running either over them or by them and the offensive line has to be considered the game's finest. What can I say Gilbride, you did a hell of a job yesterday.
Special Teams: B: If there was 1 infinitesimally small negative Sunday it was special teams. Carney's kickoff out of bounds allowed Seattle to drive deep into Big Blue territory for its second field goal and final points of the contest. Carney's kickoffs were also fairly short. Who cares!!!
Coaching A+: Perfect game plan on both sides of the ball. The Reason why I go for the A+ is because of the way Coughlin got his team to respond without its best player. He has gotten his other stars like Pierce and Tuck to buy into the team concept and tell Plax, "we love you but we love this team even more." This is a wonderful message by a wonderful coach to a wonderful team. I sound like a hallmark card but I don't care this rocks.
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2 comments:
Uh, we got a turnover. A Dockery pick, notable in that he broke like 15 tackles and almost scored. Also notable in that Dockery generally sucks.
first half I was referring to
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