I’ve only attended one Giants game in person and they lost.
From this I conclude that the best way for me to ensure a win is to stay the hell away from the Meadowlands.
I’m 50-50, which considering there record in the 90’s means they win slight above average when I attend. 
I have not been to a game since 2000, so I am fairly excited.
I’ve only attended one Redskins game (in the lower level). When I did, they won by five touchdowns. Now I have explained to my dad’s fiancee that I simply MUST have the rest of her season tickets. If she gives them to me, they will win by 35 points every single time.
She doesn’t buy it.
With Buddy’s Ryan’s shut down defense and the exciting Randall Cunningham at QB, they’re due!
This week I choose all of the home teams.
Actually, only give guys besides C-Mart in the history of the league have carried the ball three thousand times. It’s a friggin’ lot.
As far as picks, I like Arizona, Washington, and the Eagles. I’m only kind of kidding.
Really? I looked up Barry Sanders, figuring he left before he was done, and he had over 3000. I just now looked up Spermin’ Thurman Thomas as a control, and he only had 2800+, so I assume you’re right.
In any case, 1600 carries is not an overly large amount of carries.
No, it’s not really a crazy lot of carries, but I think probably that VarlosZ’s contention is that it’s about as many as Tiki Barber had to give as a featured back, which seems like a credible claim to me. Running backs historically crap out right around the age that Barber is now, so pointing to Curtis Martin and saying “See? That’s what we’re going to get.” would be a mistake.
Think of it this way: 21 backs in NFL history have rushed 2,000 times or more. That includes the carries that came after that back was completely shot, which for just about every back besides Sanders and Martin was quite a few carries. These are the carries that Marshall Faulk and Jerome Bettis are getting now, that Eddie George was getting the last few years, that Ahman Green is (was) juuuuust beginning to slide into. All these guys end up playing out their careers either in reduced roles or by averaging about three and a half yards per carry. As I think VarlosZ was saying, you don’t want to be the team paying superstar money for those carries.
But wear and tear is only part of the story. No matter how much or how little mileage a back has on his legs, 32 years old is 32 years old. On average, RBs begin to decline around the age of 28. Very few are anything more than decent after the age of 30. Barber can probably contribute for the Giants in some way for a few more years, but I’m saying that it’s probably a bad idea to sign commitment that will pay 33-year-old Tiki like he’s 29-year-old Tiki.
By the way: the Giants are 8-1 in games I’ve attended, including two wins over the Redskins. So, who wants to buy me tickets to the game?
With a record like that, you could get a bidding war going between a consortium of Giants fans offering to pay your way to the game, with spending money tossed in, and a rival consortium of Redskins fans paying you to stay away!
That was a well reasoned and thoughtful response. I trust you’ll forgive me if my response to you is “LA LA LA I CAN’T HEAR YOU!” hehheh.
But seriously, I guess I just don’t agree that he’s past his prime. I think he’s in his prime, and will continue to be for another two years (through the 2007 season) at least.
This will be a much more compelling argument on April 7th, 2007. Back here in 2005, where Tiki is playing in a season that will end while he is still only 30 years old, it does shed light on why you thought Tiki was done.
I base my opinions on the fact that Tiki is currently in his fourth season as a feature back. I think he has a solid six seasons of being a feature back in him before he becomes the token afterthought ala Marshal Faulk. This is based mainly on his Rice-like offseason regimen, which could also be the reason he’s only missed two games since 1997.
Ginats vs Skins 36-0
Awesome Game, Wow. Great tribute to Wellington.
I have never been at such a great football game. It was perfect.
Tiki with 206 yards rushing looked like a man on a mission. He gave the TD ball to one of the Mara grandsons.
I still can’t believe that Gibbs passed on the easy FG to preserve the shutout.
Giants now #1 in the East. Yes!!!
NYG (4-2) wins
Dallas (5-3) wins
Wash (4-3) loses
Phil (4-3) loses
NYG (5-2) wins
Dallas (5-3) wins
Wash (4-3) loses
Phil (4-3) loses
DIVISION CHAMPS
- NYG 5-2 (Strength-of-victory over Sea; Conf. record over Atl)
- Sea 5-2 (Conf. record over Atl)
- Atl 5-2 (Div. record over Car and TB)
- Chi 4-3
WILDCARDS
- Car 5-2 (Div. record over TB)
- TB 5-2
LOSERS
- DALLAS 5-3
- Wash 4-3 (Div. record over Phil)
- Phil 4-3
- StL 4-4
- Det 3-4
- SF 2-5 (Strength-of-victory over Min; Conf. record over Arz)*
- Min 2-5 (Conf. record over Arz)
- Arz 2-5*
- NO 2-6
- GB 1-6
- Arz beat SF, but the tie-breakers work out this way due to the fact that Min is also tied with Arz and SF.
My picks in bold
NYG @ SF
Phil @ Wash
Dallas bye
Now that my work is done…
WOO-HOO! Dallas kicks Arizona ass! (Not that doing so is much to be proud of, but I’ll gladly take an easy win headed into the bye week).
They finally made a statement with a good margin of victory. The win moved Dallas form last to second place in the division.
The NFC East can’t seem to get any wildcard spots. The NFC South is hogging both of them and won’t let go. The East is knocking on the wildcard playoff door though.
I’m kinda hoping Phil beats Wash next week because whichever team wins will be tied with Dallas, and Wash wins the tie-breaker against Dallas, but Dallas wins the tie-breaker over Phil.
Well, that was fun to watch.
Half of the story is how poorly Wahington played, but the Giants are obviously better than I had thought. The defense, in particular, allayed some of my fears. Washington is no offensive powerhouse, but they did nothing in this game. Unlike previous efforts in which the Giants’ opponents moved the ball well but kept turning it over, the Redskins stayed still and kept turning the ball over.
Eli’s subpar numbers – as usual – are in part due to the fact that he has a pleasing tendency to throw the ball away rather than take a sack or risk an interception, as well as by the fact that the Giants employ a surprisingly vertical passing attack. I’ve seen better Giants offenses, but never any that resemble this one.
I’m liking our O-line more and more.
Now is where I usually get into trouble as a Giants fan. Their next two games should be fairly easy wins: @ San Francisco, then home for the Vikings. We ought to be 7-2 after Week 10, but I remember having these same kinds of thoughts last year before the Arizona and Chicago games, when the wheels flew off the bus and killed a handful of spectators. If the Giants can win the games they’re supposed to win this year, it could be a very interesting postseason in the wide open NFC.
Oh, and thanks for those playoff standing updates, bearflag. I always find them interesting.
I don’t know if the Giants played that much better to honor the late great Wellington Mara (whose [del]total hottie[/del] granddaughter sang a great, emotional national anthem) or if the Redskins were overconfident after last weeks big win over the lowly 49ers or if it was a combination of the two (Winner, ding-ding-ding). All I know is that the Giants took our asses, spanked them throughly and then handed them back to us bruised and throbbing and told us: Go back to Washington, son. There were times during the game when I could barely stand to watch. The Redskins “attacking” defense was sloppy at the best of times and down right porous at others. The offense never got into any sort of a rhythm, and seemingly couldn’t have purposly found the Giants end of the field without a map, a GPS tracking system and friggin Lewis & Clark leading the way. [Silver Lining] Well, at least Philly lost.[/Silver Lining]
Thanks for the updates.
**NYG ** has got to beat SF.
I think **Phil ** will beat Skins.
Skins have very little offense and TO vs Skins secondary should let Philly score enough to win.