Dallas @ Car (where the Cowboys’ playoff hopes disappear: Sounds good to me)
**NYG ** @ Wash (Go Giants, fight for the bye week)
Phil @ Arz
That would suck on many levels.
Giants would prefer it if the Cowboys could beat the Panthers. A Bears loss would also be just super.
Road schmoad, I think the Giants have an excellent chance to win out.
Crap, I forgot the reason I was posting here. Sorry for the doubler.
Giants Probowlers in 2005:
Tiki Barber
Jeremy Shockey
Michael Strahan
Osi Umenyiora
David Tyree
All worthy candidates this year, as opposed to making it on on name recognition alone. I’m not sure if anybody is going on name alone this year, but I know guys have in the past. For example, Shockey in his sophomore season…
But not this year. All five guys earned their way in, which is nice to see.
I heard this on WFAN on the commute home, nice to see them get the well deserved recognition.
Jim
Not a good week for you to make picks. Holy chestnuts, that did’t clear anything up. Though it did keep the Cowboys alive. Sadly the stupid Bungles cost me the office football pool.
Not that I’m complaining in the least, but what was with the Jints opting to single cover Santana Moss most of the game? Were they more worried about Cooley, or did they just not see Moss as a threat, even after the first TD?
In any event, I’ve suddenly become a Raiders fan.
I just wabt to say Ughh!!!
I give up on my own beloved Boys and they freakin’ win.
With my renewed faith, I think the Cowboys will beat the Rams and Atlanta will beat Carolina.
Dallas takes a wildcard!
Will Allen lost the game for the Giants almost single-handedly. He got beat badly on all three Moss TDs (got burned once and missed two tackles), and has was out of position on Portis’ 19-yard TD run.
It’s unlikely he’ll be back next year.
Not surprisingly, I disagree with you here as well. Yes he played a bad game. Show me a player who never has and maybe you’ll convince me that he should go.
Like all announcers, the ones in that game pissed me off with their ignorance. Will Allen is not soft against the run. In fact, he’s one of the better corners in the league at run support. How do you think he got 62 tackles when a starting safety – Brent Alexander – only got in the forties?
I have the game film, and believe me it isn’t by Allen letting up a catch and making a tackle. That’s actually one of his weaknesses. His strengths are making tackles in the backfield and breaking up passes with decent coverage (and amazing speed).
Granted, he will never make another interception in his career. That’s not his bag, baby. But he is usually solid on coverage and run support. He tends to have a little trouble when left on an island, but nobody ever said he was a shutdown corner.
Answer me this: who’s responsibility is it to stop a speedy WR from streaking down the field and catching a deep bomb? I’ll give you a hint: the position abbreviation ends in an S, not a B.
Don’t blame Will Allen for those touchdowns. (Well, blame him for taking a bad first step against that Portis TD. I concede that that is a play he is expected to make.) Blame Tim Lewis for leaving Will Allen on an island with no safety help deep whatsoever against Santana freakin’ Moss.
Then again, you don’t even want Tiki back either, so who’s next? Osi played every bit as bad as Will Allen against the Redskins…should we be looking to dump him as well? (You think those bombs would have happened if one of our vaunted DEs could have maybe applied some pressure to the QB?)
Like you and soulmurk, I’m mystified by the Giants’ coaches’ decision to single-cover the Redskins’ only dangerous receiver. As a 'Skins fan, I’m not complaining, but it’s been common knowledge for most of the season that the 'Skins have gotten almost no production from their other wideouts, so you can afford to double Santana; you won’t need deep help with any of the others. And you can hardly afford not to, as Saturday’s game showed. The Giants are a better team than their coaching staff gave them the chance to be on Saturday, and my guys were lucky as well as good.
Thanks to everyone who brought my goof to my attention. My list, such as it is, is now posted in the proper year.
Uh, what?
I’m not saying he should go, necessarily, just that his contract is up, the team gave Will Peterson a big contract extension, and they drafted a CB in the 2nd Round. It looks like the decision has already been made, unless there’s so little interest from other teams that the Giants can afford to bring him back as a nickel corner (which would be a steal).
True, he absolutely should have had deep help at all times. Still, he knew it wasn’t there and let Moss get behind him with some regularity. He got juked by Moss a little too easily on the WR screen for a TD, and on the long catch and run, all he could do after the catch was flail at Moss’ head as he fell down. He’s not nearly this bad a player, but there’s no denying that he had an awful game. That’s all I’m saying.
Hey now, that’s not fair. I do want Tiki back next year, no question. I’m just saying that after next year that $5M of cap space could probably be better spent. Could be wrong – hope I am.
Wait wait wait . . . you have game film? Like overhead, coach’s cam film? Of entire games?
Please, for the love of God, tell me how one such as myself might go about obtaining such treasure. I’ve asked on the Straight Dope, I’ve asked on other boards, I’ve googled the hell out the topic, and I’ve come up dry. If I had access to game film, I’d never get any work done at all, ever. Fortunately, I’m unemployed.
ISTM that the NFL and its teams have a substantial untapped market out there for films of games from past years. There’s a pile of Redskins games, going back to the 1960s, that I’d be willing to pay $20 each for a DVD or even a VHS of.
The problem is that Cory Webster isn’t even in Curtis Deloatch’s league, and poor Curtis is nowhere near Will Allen’s league.
Will Peterson is basically the same skill level as Will Allen, but he has a different skillset. Peterson can actually catch the ball, but isn’t nearly as efficient at run stopping. He’s also about the same quality as Allen in coverage, but is much much slower than Allen. (Will Allen is the fastest player on the team.) In my opinion, they are a perfect complement to each other.
Corey Webster may or may not end up being great, but his coverage abilities need a couple more years of gestation. In the meantime, I see Will Allen as the best option at corner. And since Will Peterson has broken his back two years in a row, and it is quite likely he will never play again, I think Will Allen is a guy we desperately need to sign.
I would agree with you in several areas about Allen, though. I think we’d both agree that he’s not good enough to command a big contract, so EA should let him test the free agent market and then come crawling back to Big Blue, ala Troy Brown.
One thing that annoys me is the concept of Allen playing nickel. That makes no sense at all; his best asset is run support. Why only put him on the field in passing situations? Makes no sense to me.
I know. It was a cheap shot. My apologies.
Sadly, no. Just the broadcasts. And not even in high def, so the secondary is generally unable to be seen at the snap. But you can still tell quite a bit from the live feeds.
Generally speaking, WR screens never work against us. The reason is almost solely Will Allen. Sure, he sucked in the last game they played, but as I’ve said, everyone has had a game like that.
He really did suck against the Redskins, but I’m not eager to toss him to the curb for a single game. (Though I was ready to toss Jay Feely out of the plane after one bad game, but then again kickers aren’t real football players.)
As far as actual game film, try emailing Jaws or Hodge. They’re not affiliated with any team, and they have access to all game film. Their show gets such low ratings that they might actually respond to your email, and you could get the definitive answer as to whether it is or isn’t…who am I kidding, you could get the definitive reason why you will never be able to get your hands on such film.
Actually, Will Peterson is a better cover corner than Will Allen, and is also taller. But as I said, much slower and not nearly as good a tackler.
And the Pokes finally wise up and cut Cundiff!
What the hell took 'em so long?
I don’t know, but I’m of the opinion that any time a kicker misses a 32 yarder for the tie, his team deserves to lose, roughing or no. The football gods apparently saw otherwise.
Predictions this week:
Washington at Philadelphia (“Playoffs? PLAYOFFS!?”)
St. Louis at Dallas
NYG at Oakland
Carolina at Atlanta, and the Cowboys cry themselves to sleep.
Dallas plays the late game on Sunday night, so they’ll know before it even starts whether or not they’re playing for a spot.