That’s very interesting, and there’s clearly enough data for it to be statistically significant. I don’t see anything so pronounced with other bad-weather-city QBs (NYJ Pennington, McNabb, Hasselbeck, Brady) Has the NY media been aware of this? I’d think Lupica et al would love to write columns yammering about how Eli is “soft” and fades in the clutch, etc.
Is the Linc and/or was the Vet a windy stadium? I’ve never heard that it was. The only really windy stadiums I’m aware of from mainstream sports media are Soldier Field and the Meadowlands, plus I know SenorBeef says the same for Cleveland. I believe him that Cleveland is windy because it’s right on the water, just like Chicago and New York. Water is what seems to kick up the wind.
Not all QBs are affected by wind. Eli just seems to be particularly vulnerable to it. At least, that’s my personal impression. As far as I can see, other than wind and Darren Sharper nothing seems to get to him.
Ummm…yay?
Well, as a Giants fan, I say “Ah crap”. As an Eagles/Redskins hater, I say “Bwaaaaahahahahahaaaaaaaa!!!”
As a Cowboy fan, today was rather good, even though I took a loss in my pick-a-winner league as the Eagles were stymied by the mighty Raiders. I was shocked, shocked, that the Eagles gave up on the run so easily. 4.8 ypr, 4.7 ypp, Andy Reid, not a genius.
How did the Giants do? I didn’t see the game. Was it a few slip-ups and bad bounces or did they stink the joint up?
Now if the Cowboys can just get themselves on track after the bye.
Oh, yeah Cowboy fans won the lottery this week! 
The Giants lost to the Saints 48-27. IMO, the final score made it look way better than it really was for the Giants. NO just blasted them to bits, scoring on every possession except for two, until the fourth quarter, when they seemed more interested in running time off the clock and playing safe, than in scoring.
And, yes, I hope next week proves beneficial to the Boys as well. Two wins in a row really would be nice! 
ahem
Some observations from Giants-Saints:
– New Orleans is really, really good. They moved the ball completely at will, but it wasn’t like the Giants were out of position all the time (though they sometimes were, of course). There were a lot of intermediate/long pass plays that were well covered, but the ball was placed perfectly and the receiver held on despite taking a pretty solid hit.
– C.C. Brown, the replacement for Kenny Phillips at Safety, is a disaster. Can’t cover, bit on one play fake so hard that he wasn’t even in the picture when a TD pass went right though what should’ve been his zone.
– The Giants made a dumb decision at the end of the 1st half. Trailing by only 10 (felt like 30), they’d just stopped the Saints on 4th & Goal and had the ball at their own 15 (thanks to a penalty) with 0:55 left and no timeouts. Just get into the locker room with a little momentum and a good chance to come back if you can make some defensive adjustments. You need at least 50 yards in under a minute with no timeouts to have a shot at even a FG, so the expected value of the drive is really paltry, even before considering the reverse implied odds that come with trying to frantically push the ball against an opportunistic defense. Sure enough, sack, fumble, New Orleans scores a cheap TD to go up 17, and I spend most of the 2nd half watching Baltimore @ Minnesota because the Giants game was just so damn depressing.
Oh! Also on that drive, RT Kareem McKenzie injured his ankle and was carted off. Fucking disastrous decision.
Great week for the Cowboys on the bye week in the NFC East. Giants and Eagles lose! I think there may have been another team in the division at some point, but I forget.
Boys host Atlanta next week. Falcons look scary.
What a spectacularly awful week for the East. Redskins and Eagles both lose to total scrubs while the Giants get shredded by the Saints. The Giants offense wasn’t terrible, but they were unable to play their game for the entire second half. (Eli’s fumble for a TD was terrible, but you should be able to recover from one terrible play.)
The defense was just pathetic. Some on the giants.com messageboards are pointing to the fact that 4 of 11 starters on defense were out, but to be fair the secondary shouldn’t much matter. The entire defense is designed to get pressure up front to mask the holes in the secondary. They never pressured Brees all game.
I’ve seen Giants games like this before. Happened against the Saints a couple years ago at the end of the season, I think in 06. Happened against the Vikings a couple years ago as well, and then again last year against the Browns. A couple times a season the defense completely fails to show up. Not sure what’s up with that. A couple times a year the offense can’t seem to get in rhythm. It’s a perfect storm of sucktitude when both happen at the same time, as was the case yesterday.
One thing I’ve started to notice about Eli is that if he misses an easy deep throw early in the game, he gets out of rhythm for the rest of it. This has happened several times now. Just from memory, opening week against the Cowboys when TO joined the team, Plax dropped an easy deep TD in the first series. The defense failed to stop Dallas for the rest of the game and Eli seemed out of rhythm, just like yesterday. This preseason against the Bears it happened, when Steve Smith dropped an easy deep ball right in the breadbasket, after which Eli couldn’t seem to get in rhythm. Yesterday’s game was a little different in that the missed deep balls weren’t dropped, but rather batted away by defenders making good plays. The result was the same, though: Eli seemed out of rhythm (at least to me) the rest of the way.
On the plus side, Darren Sharper didn’t get any picks.
You are wrong, and have a short memory. This “bad decision” is what propelled them to a win over the Cowboys in the divisional round of their Superbowl run.
Looking it up, in that drive the Giants were on the 29 with 2 timeouts, not the 15 with no timeouts. Huge difference.
They scored a touchdown that drive. Just a field goal would be a big boost. Huge difference. So instead of marching 71 yards with 2 timeouts, they could have gone 50 yards with no timeouts and tried for a long field goal.
Part of the reason it was a good idea to try and score in the Dallas game was because, with a couple of breaks, it would be possible to march down the field and score 7 (also, of course, getting the 3 was much more likely than it was yesterday, and a turnover would be less likely to be costly). A touchdown just wasn’t a realistic hope against the Saints, and even the field goal would seldom come through – the Giants completed one pass for 18 yards and burned almost half the clock in the process.
I suppose it’s close, or that it’s possible I was just cowed into passivity by the fact that the team was getting its ass kicked. At the time, however, I thought getting to halftime trailing by 10 seemed like a really good deal, and nothing that happened afterwards made me question that instinct.
Question: at what point would trying to score with no timeouts have been a bad idea, in your opinion? 0:55 left from the 10 yard line? The 5? Starting from the 15 with 0:45? With 0:35?
My personal rule of thumb is the punt return rule: Inside your own 10, let it go. On the -10 or better, give it a shot. With no timeouts, you need at least 50 seconds to travel the length of the field. The particulars can be argued, but I absolutely disagree with your characterization of it as clearly stupid.
I would also argue that the offense wasn’t the problem. In fact, Eli had already thrown a number of deadly accurate deep balls that went incomplete only because of great individual efforts by the Saints defense. Great individual efforts are hard to sustain, so I felt the odds were pretty good to get a TD out of that scenario. Though after Eli wasted that 20 seconds I figured there was no longer a chance.
The team wasn’t getting its assed kicked. The defense was.
Anyone watch Tosh.0? They did a web redemption for the crying Giants fan that was funny as shit. First they brought in a Lions fan to talk to him, which was pretty humorous. But then they put him in front of a mock press conference to pepper him with anti-Giants questions to let him prove he wouldn’t cry. Oh man, I couldn’t breathe I was laughing so hard.
Two part question: Eli Manning sucks ass, and go fuck yourself.
Here’s a link to the Crying Giants Fan Web Redemption.
“Does having the games in HD make it easier to masturbate?” ha!
Wheeeee!!! Happy, happy, joy, joy!! throwing confetti, doing happy dance
After two weeks of hearing about how this was the real test and could Dallas win against a really decent team, yada, yada, yada, Dallas comes out on top, beating the Falcons 37-21!
I wonder how Deion Sanders is going to try and make it sound like an inconsequential victory, while he fellates Tom Brady for winning over a team that Dallas defeated in week one. A victory he pooh-poohed because, “Come on, it’s the BUCS!”
Well, it is.
Yes, of course. But they’re no harder to defeat when you’re Tom Brady–but does Sanders mention that?? No, Brady is a GENIUS!!
Just gets on my nerves, that’s all!
In Deion’s defense, the Buccaneers actually looked like they might be able to beat the Cowboys during the first half. They didn’t look like they might beat the Patriots after the opening kickoff.
Not last night…
At least I still have the Yankees, though the late fumble then even later interception took a bit of wind out of my sails. I’d rather they have turned it over on downs.