Detroit should have beaten Minnesota twice last year.
New
Sleek
Modern
…and sterile and lacking in “character” IMHO. It’s amazing place, I’m sure, but also boring in a way. They could have thought up the Dallas Cowboy equivalent of a pirate ship, but I don’t know what that would be.
A cow. Or a giant Stetson.
Did anyone else think Jerry Jones looked a bit like he’d been embalmed or something?
I agree with this post completely. Eli’s big downfall is his ability to throw in heavy wind. If you look at his stats over the course of the past couple of years, his numbers go down quite a bit right around the time that the really bad weather in NY sets in. I assume the new stadium next year will also have harsh wind since it is in the same horrid swamp; but lets hope otherwise.
On another note, does anyone thing the Giant’s red zone struggles are at least in part due to Eli’s less than ideal accuracy? Even when playing his best, Eli has never been a passer who consistently puts it right on guys’ numbers. I’m thinking that in the red zone, where the passing lanes are so tight, his inability to consistently but the ball right on target is rendering the passing game ineffectual. I’m not sure this is the case, but it is a theory that I was rolling around in my head the past week or so.
I don’t. Eli has been extremely accurate for the past couple years compared to his first few, when every catch had to be a circus catch because the best Eli could do was get it in the general vicinity of his target. Nowadays he threads the needle quite nicely.
One of the problems in the red zone is playcalling. If you notice, once they get into the red zone Gilbride stops calling vertical routes and it’s all underneath crap that requires YAC to score. I am not a fan of this tactic; I would much rather a pass be caught in the end zone instead of one the 10 yard line and need to be run in. They have no qualms about chucking it up and down the field between the 20s, but once in scoring position it’s all dinks and dunks.
Carl Banks made the excellent point that the redzone problems predate the loss of Plaxico. He said the Giants had redzone problems all last year, even when Plax was still there. I tend to agree with him, though I haven’t watched last season’s games since transferring them to tape so I can’t say so with confidence.
But if that’s the case, the redzone problems may be due to the loss of Shockey. I know they never seem to target Boss in the redzone, which annoys me to no end. Maybe Gilbride (and Eli) doesn’t trust Boss enough to throw to him into the end zone, forcing underneath routes that get stuffed easily because it’s plain as day on film that you don’t have to worry about Eli throwing into the end zone.
Review of the new Cowboys Stadium, by the NY Times architecture critic. He seems to give it roughly a C+/B-.
While I agree with the fundamentals of what you said (Gilbride needs to get more agressive with calling those end-zone lobs at which Eli excels), I don’t think it’s an issue with trusting Boss. Keep in mind that he was the Giants’ leading TD receiver last season.
Ellis, you’re more in tune with the day-to-day working of the Giants: is there the sense that Manningham is going to be the starter, even assuming a healthy Domenik Hixon?
If there isn’t, there certainly ought to be.
I said last year that Steve Smith was going to catch 80 passes sometime soon, and I stand by that- I think he’s an excellent possession receiver in the Lavernues Coles mold- but Manningham clearly has special big-play ability.
No idea what they see in Hixon, incidentally.
I certainly didn’t expect him to emerge this soon, but in terms of physical tools, Manningham is probably the best WR on the Giants. It wouldn’t surprise me if Manningam takes the job as Hixon seems like he might be too slight to really be an effective every down receiver.
Manningham caught me by complete surprise. I remember mocking VarlosZ for taking him in the All Pro fantasy league. Luckily I wised up and grabbed him the following week in the Dynasty league. I do stand by my assessment that he’s basically a Steve Smith clone: crisp route runner, sticky hands, has the elusiveness to get open and run after the catch.
I can’t imagine Hixon gets back into the starting lineup. Which would be ideal, since he’s a better return man than Sinorice Moss. If the Giants can make it work with Smith and Manningham as starters, that would be a remarkable thing in this age of freak receivers.
This is hardly a ringing endorsement. The Giants were terrible in the red zone last year, scoring a TD on only 50.7% of tries. That ranked 20th in the league. This was especially painful because the Giants had the most trips to the redzone in the entire league, and by a decent margin. (69, compared to the three-way tie for second place between Arizona, New England and San Diego at 65.)
Here is the 2008 data, but be warned that I had to manipulate it in a spreadsheet to determine the Giants’ TD% ranking. Also, it doesn’t look like it includes week 17.
To my eyes, he seems a lot faster than Steve Smith, and though he ran a 4.59 at the Combine he was expected to break the 4.4 mark apparently.
Now that you mention it, yeah, he definitely seems faster.
I didn’t think he was that fast until that touchdown catch on Sunday. Not only did he get behind Terrence Newman- one of the fastest players in the league when he was drafted, and presumably not that much slower now- he actually had the quicks to circle around behind Newman to make the catch.
It looked like Newman was running in quicksand or something.
He is the male Joan Rivers.
Terence Newman had a 4.37 at the combine 7 years ago but plantar faciitas, ankle and groin injuries have taken their toll on his speed.
You have to admit though… the camera shot of the inside of the main scoreboard was really cool. Incidentally, I heard there’s a stiff Jerry Jones-imposed fine if any Dallas punter hits the scoreboard. Any truth to that?
It looked like the ideal setting for a climactic clash between James Bond and a villain.
Fuck fuckitty fuck fuck fuck.
After making a couple of picks against Dallas on Sunday night, and what looked like the makings of a Pro Bowl season, Giants’ safety Kenny Phillips has been placed on IR.
They’ve picked up Aaron Rouse off waivers from the Green Bay Packers.