It’s so funny watching both Jacobs and the Hefty Lefty in the backfield together, because Lorenzan dwarfs the “big” goal line back. My only concern with him is endurance.
As far as Jacobs goes, I’m a big fan. I think he has all the ground skills necessary. Now it’s just a matter of his impact in the passing game. He was #3 on the depth chart last season because he was a liability in the passing game. While it was nice to see him catch a couple passes, I’ve been far more interested in seeing his blitz pickup skills.
Whether he’s ready or not, he’s got the #2 job by default since last year’s #2, Derrick Ward, broke his foot walking out of a meeting room. (?!)
Tiki said that as long as Jacobs progresses in his blitz pickups, (which Tiki was no good at himself until last year, btw,) he looks forward to Brandon spelling him for entire drives instead of just single plays.
I look forward to that as well, my fantasy team be damned.
Redskins Fan.
I think all the teams will pretty much end up where they were last year. Injuries (Brunell, Portis, Springs, MCNabb, Westbrook, Bledsoe, Tiki) are the wildcard to me – more than any additions/substractions from the offseason. Lets assume these guys and other keys are still standing in 18 weeks. Assuming that my predictions:
Eagles I think the loss of Childress is Key – it was he who made McNabb the McNabb of the past 4 years. I think a healthy McNabb means 2 more wins – but the loss of Childress means no playoffs
Giants. If Eli plays like he did at the start of the year they will win 2 more games – my WAG is we saw the real Eli the last half of the season …I’ll split the difference and say he was as good as he will ever be around week 6ish
Cowboys - I don’t think TO adds any wins in the regular season. Depends on the rest of NFC to make the playoffs
Redskins - I don’t think Saunders adds any wins in the regular season. Depends on the rest of NFC to make the playoffs
So I’ll man up and talk (out my bottom) numbers
Giants 11-5 Divsion Winner
Cowboys 10-6 (possible wild card)
Redskins 10-6 (possible wild card)
Eagles 8-8
Big Blue fan.
I think the key to the season is going to be Eli stepping it up or not. The Giants could be great if Eli makes the next step up, reduces mistakes and gets his footwork under control. I am very hopeful he will.
He has an excellent receiver core and Tiki. The O-line will be about the same as last year.
The Defense actually looks improved on both paper and from what I saw of the pre-season.
The Cowboys could be terrible with TO or a pretty good team, I think they are the Least of the East. The Eagles scare me the most and have the best chance of winning the Div if Eli fails to improve or the Giants have a key injury.
The Skins should be a good team.
Giants 11-5
Eagles 10-6
Skins: 9-7
TunaBoys: 7-9
Jim
Ugh.
It started off bad, then started looking up, then after a momentary flicker toward the end, it nosedived into Are you fucking kidding me?
Nice cut inside, Shockey. We didn’t need those extra 20 seconds or anything. I can’t really blame him, though; we did actually need a first down.
The refs were lame at best calling that offensive PI on Timmy boy. Eli didn’t help matters by throwing a pick the next play.
Tiki and Jacobs look to be a monstrous backfield this year.
OL depth is again a strength of this team. How many lines can lose their best player and not miss a beat? Hell, last year they were dropping like flies in the second half of the season and there was never a noticeable dropoff. (Two of Tiki’s 200+ yard games came after the line lost starters. Notably, in the Chiefs game they were down to playing the last guy on the bench when another starter went down, so they had to call a timeout and rub some dirt on him. They were warming a DL to pitch in, and Tiki still rolled 200+.)
I would like all you Petitgout haters (you know who you are) to bear in mind that Luke not only didn’t have a single penalty this game, he completely shut down Dwight Freeney. Averaging 7+ yards per carry shows he didn’t suck in run blocking as well.
I was pleasantly surprised by the interior DL. Fred Robbins in particular. When he went down, I wasn’t worried because I think Joseph is actually better than him, but I have to admit that Robbins was an impact player in there. And Barry Cofield looked like a 3rd year man, not a rookie. That is very encouraging, but then again Joseph came on like gangbusters opening day his rookie year as well, so who knows.
It must be nice to be Peyton Manning and have WIDE OPEN receivers to throw to on every single play. In fairness, this is a new secondary that needs time to come together. I think they have potential to become pretty good, but CATCH THE FUCKING BALL! The Wills era is over; please let’s not have this can’t catch a cold thing be a franchise-wide problem.
All in all? Sucks to be winless, but I see great things ahead.
Sorry, that was the Eagles game the week before, and Tiki didn’t even crack 100 that game IIRC. The problem there was that Coughlin didn’t dress Seubert, so the OL was shorthanded.
Great game analysis and as one of Luke’s detractors, I will gladly admit, he had a great game. Freakish game of miss opportunities by the Giants. Oh Well.
Jim
They did catch one. 2 easy INTs that were dropped and turned into 6 Indy points. Questionable call on Burress; horribly wrong call on Carter. 4 plays that might have changed the game for us.
I hate to complain about officiating, because I feel that the bad calls even out in the long run, but I hate when a game is likely decided by a bad refs call.
Agreed on all counts. Blown calls in the 1st quarter still hurt, but when the game is coming down to the wire, crap like that really makes my blood boil.
The obvious soultion, which we may actually see them implement some day, is to allow any and all flags to be challengeable. If yellow can fly, so can red. Yes, I know the arguement here is that things like PI are judgement calls, so you can’t really review them. Bullshit. Not one single person with any knowledge of the rules could call that as PI after looking at the replay. The ref stole the game, and if Coughlin had been allowed to challenge, that could have been prevented.
Committing the double sin of replying to my own rhetorical question, the answer is too good to pass up: Apparently not Seattle and Kansas City.
Hey, at least Shaun Alexander and Larry Johnson combined for more yards than Tiki.
hehheh.
The Seahawks’ line didn’t lose their best player.
True, but Hutch isn’t exactly a slouch.
I forget that Walter Jones is a stud because my only memories of him are when he was getting used and abused by Osi.
I don’t like the fact that the Cowboys lost, obviously. However, I think they can bounce back since they really killed themselves against Jax with penalties and Bledsoe interceptions.
I also take some solace in the fact that Dallas lost to an AFC team on the road, whereas, Washington lost at home to an NFC team, and the Giants lost a home game.
Current Standings & [Next Week]:
PHI 1-0 [vs. NYG]
DAL 0-1 [vs. WAS]
NYG 0-1 [@ PHI]
WAS 0-1 [@ DAL]
It’s interetsing how the alleged strongest division in football is 1-4 collectively.
Week 2 should make for some great football.
On this point I figured I’d share this little quote from ESPN’s Bill Simmons regarding the hyped NFC East:
Needless to say, I agree with him entirely and week one’s games seemed to reflect exactly this.
Right now it looks like the AFC North has laid a pretty solid claim to the ole “best division in football” title with the surprising NFC West looking like a sleeper contender after seeing the Niners show some real signs of life at the bottom and the Seahawks adding Deion Branch.
Yes, I was quite surprised at how the divisions stacked up after week 1. The two best divisions last year (NFC East and AFC West) are currently the two worst, while 2005 cellar-dwellar NFC West jumped all the way up to #1.
I sure hope the Redskins play better next week than they did against the Vikes last night.
The offense showed flashes of brilliance, but the key word is ‘flashes’; most of the time they were kinda lifeless. They were down inside the Vikes’ 10 four times, but had to settle for FGs on three of those occasions. And in the second half, they had only one drive of any consequence before the final minute.
The defense’s night looked better numerically than it really was - they were saved by the Vikes’ receivers’ inability to catch the ball. And I’m talking about times when it was thrown right to them and there was no hit that helped them cough it up. The Vikings should have had another TD or two.
And the Redskins’ pass rush is best described as ‘negligible.’ Tomorrow is Brad Johnson’s 38th birthday; where were the blitzes to see if the old guy could still throw under pressure?
If the 'Skins play like that in Dallas this Sunday, they’ll get shredded. And they’ll deserve it.
I can only hope that the 'Skins are just off to a slow start. Last year, after 11 games, they didn’t look like they had a clue, before going on the run that carried them into the postseason.
I think in Football we tend to lose sight of a season over one or two games. Last year when the Redskins beat the bears 9-6 on opening day “everyone” understood what it meant, two bad teams playing to level – not what it really was: two Playoff Teams with top 5 NFL Defenses slugging it out.
This past Sunday was 6% of the season and everyone is ready to throw out their predictions.
IMHO: the Redskins and Cowboys losing were upsets. The Redskins were a very makeable 47 yard field goal from tying the Vikes (who we will see how good they are this year)
Giants and Eagles results were expected.
So to the future: The Redskins have played 1 game against an opponent using their new offense (in which they are 0-1 some smartass will say) they are, barring injury, only going to get better. Portis will be back full time. Their defense will get pro-bowler Shawn Springs back soon (aka the first cornerback to lead his team in sacks and interceptions in NFL history) who is absolutely critical for the defense.
The Giants had a brutal start to their season (COLTS, Eagles(away), Seahawks, Redskins (home) Falcons, Cowboys(away). In my wildest dreams they started 0-6 - doubt that would/will happen – but I kind of expected a slow start for the G-Men - and if there wasn’t I was very scared of them
Parcells is like the flu to me, I enjoy reading how he is back on his heels, but I don’t expect it to last through the winter. (But the Cowboys looked** bad ** to me and I am surprised they are a 5 point favorite)
A pair of quick hits for this weekend:
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The Giants are a mortal lock – the Eagles will be getting a well-deserved trouncing.
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Something Giants and Eagles fans can agree on – it doesn’t matter what happens on Sunday night – either the Cowboys or Redskins will start out 0-2, and that’s always good for a laugh.
- I like #1, I hope you are right, I will settle for squeaking out a victory.
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, but what if they tie?
While I never like seeing the Redskins or the Cowboys win, if I have to make a choice I would say, "GoRedkins!"