I’m usually not a spelling Nazi, but you mistyped “back home” as “to Arizona”.
A four point win is HOT? Losing two out of the last 3 regular season games is hot? Winning by less than a touchdown in 4 of the last 5 regular season wins is hot?
And Kerney’s going to. And the Vikes are going to stuff the run. Blah, blah, blah.
Might be? Aside from Tomlinson, he’s had the most yards in the NFL since he began starting and is coming off 201 yards against Seattle.
Keep telling yourself that. Early returns on the Grant for a 6th round pick put it on par with Brock for Broglio.
You’re scared of our second string QB, and not Favre? But you’re right, Rodgers, if he plays, is still better than Eli.
The Giants-Packers game is academic anyway since all they’re fighting for is the right to get slaughtered by the Patriots in the Superbowl.
Yeah, the Pack really did a poor job of handling those balmy weather conditions last Saturday. :rolleyes:
Hal, um, there is another way to look at the Grant thing, you know. As in, the Giants are so inept that they let one of the best backs in the league this year lounge at fourth or fifth place on the depth chart, and then only got a sixth round draft choice for him when he left. After all, after Brandon Jacobs, it’s not like the Giants had a ton of good backs. 
Senor Beef, you really should read what people post better. :eek: blondebear claimed Charger fandom back to the 60’s for goodness sake. When you’ve been a fan for 40 years, you are, I think, entitled to give up a team after one more example of collective stupidity without being called “fair weather.”
Ouch!
Now, now, I have $25 riding on the Pats this weekend. And besides, why would I sport LaDainian-wear when I already have a Doug Flutie jersey?
Ok, so is anyone making any predictions, now that we are almost at the moment of truth?
I’m predicting: Packers and Patriots
I have a reasonably strong sense that the Giants aren’t quite up to the challenge of Green Bay. I know they’re a great road team, and I don’t think they’ll suffer Seattle’s fate. But in that stadium against that team in the kind of weather that’s predicted, I think they’ll come up short. Their big hope is that Favre has one of his “heave it up regardless” games - with an edge in turnovers they could stay in it.
With infinite wisdom the NFL has decided that the Green Bay game will be the late game. 6:30. Going to be real cold.
Temperature at kickoff at Sunday’s game in Green Bay will be 3°F, with wind chill at –9°F.
It’s 1967’s “Ice Bowl” back again!
Football Outsiders’ NFC Championship Game Preview. Like most of FO’s stuff, the piece is worth a read, but a couple of things form it really stand out to me.
First, while the Giants defense led the League in Adjusted Sack Rate (percentage of pass attempts that result in a sack, adjusted for opponent, down and distance) at 8.8%, the Green Bay offense was also 1st in Adjusted Sack Rate, as 3.1% (NFL average was 6.4%). I find this very troubling as a Giants fan, since their secondary (especially the banged up version they’ll be trotting out on Sunday) is just not good enough to contain the better passing offenses if the front four isn’t getting pressure. Now, a lot of Green Bay’s success at avoiding sacks is due to Brett Favre’s skill at getting the ball out in time, so the Giants may well get pressure even if the Packers avoid sacks. The problem is that, this year, somewhat unlike the past couple of seasons, Favre’s throw-aways are generally becoming completions or incompletions, rather than interceptions. Basically, rut-roh.
Second, as FO puts it:
The point, which I think is correct, is that the ability of the Giants to be competitive in this game is dependent on the passing game’s continuing to function at an elite level. Now perhaps Eli really has turned a corner, but I think that’s the less likely of two possibities. The weight of evidence from the past few years, including the first 15 games of this season, suggests that he’s a lot closer to being the 16th best QB in football than, say, the 5th best. Eli has probably just been going through a hot streak which, given his famous inconsistency, is as likely to come to an end as not.
I really, truly hope I’m dead wrong. Not only am I a Giants fan, but I also like Eli on a personal level. He seems like a smart, quiet, introverted guy, and it bugs me that people generally mistake these traits for timidity or immaturity. Bill Simmons, for example, has a lot of fun mocking Eli’s “Manning Face,” which is understandable, but most Giants fans who watch him every weekend, I think, know that Eli always looks like that, whether he’s having the best game of his life or the worst one. Psychologically, he’s pretty unflappable (as opposed to athetically, such as when faced with a big blitz – in that sense, he’s entirely flappable).
Wait, what was I saying? Umm . . . Go Giants!
It annoys me that they cram both conference championship games into one day. I like to go out to watch those games, and without TiVo, having a 7 hour marathon watching session of football games can be tiring. I do it in the regular season all the time, but at a bar with all the games - I don’t have to sit and watch the 8000 commercials the NFL manages to cram into every game, cause I can just shift my attention around.
Not a big deal, but it’d be more enjoyable to have one game on saturday like they’ve been running the rest of the playoffs.
Really? Man, this is by far my favorite football weekend of the year. I get what you mean about the commercials, but there are a few things you could do about that. If you’re in a bar, or with friends, then you should have something to do (talk, drink, talk & drink, etc.) during the breaks. If you’re at home by yourself or with one or two other people, you could take advantage of your TiVo or DVR by starting up the first game a couple of hours after kickoff, which should give you just enough lead time to skip through all the commercials and both halftimes (this is my preferred strategy, all else being equal). Or, you could do what my father and I do most Sundays: stay in the living room for ten hours (or seven, tomorrow) with the NFL and the Sunday NY Times. Also opium.
Wait, scratch that last one.
Dude… get some friends to watch the games with, and toss a ball around during the commercials.
This is the best day of football all year long, and you want to split it up amongst two days? Heresy.
To paraphrase one of my favorite quotes about Eli this season: “That’s what he looks like on Christmas morning.”
Regarding your rhetorical question about whether Eli has turned a corner or if he’s just on a hot streak, I think you’re putting entirely too much emphasis on Eli. I think he’s playing exactly the same as he always has. It’s the game plan that changed; Gilbride radically changed the way he calls plays, and this new way is much more suited to Eli. (Just my opinion, of course.)
ETA: Plus the fact that the receivers aren’t dropping every other pass helps.
Um, the rest of the playoffs have had TWO games on Saturday, AND TWO games on Sunday. :eek:
Two playoff games on Sunday has been the norm for a very long time. Most of us old timers are pretty used to it, and it leaves our Saturday this weekend for doing other, more important things. 
Personally, I dislike the shift of the games to later times; I like my Sunday evening to be “family” time, not football time.
Yeah, I know. For wild card and divisional weekend I’d usually pick the more interesting of the two games and go out for that - the other I’d watch at home with tivo assistance. But for conference championship games - they’re both pretty interesting.
The movie theater down the street puts the HD feed on their 60 foot screen, I was thinking about going down there for the games, but 7 hours in a movie seat is too much.
Just thought it’d be cool for it to make two seperate days into (smaller) events. Guess it’s just me.
They won’t be doing that if the NFL finds out about it. That’s the sort of thing that violates their copyright (large screens, big no no).
Oh good, now I don’t have to wear a Chargers jersey on the 3rd. San Diego sure had Tom’s number today, though.
I’m hoping for a Brady/Favre showdown in Arizona. Go Packers!
Of all the thing the Pats are credited for this year I think their biggest achievement is sucking all the excitement out of any game they’re in.
Good god that was boring game.
If I didn’t see the fans there with my own eyes I would have sworn there weren’t any cause I sure didn’t hear them.
Brady looked bored.
I was too.
zzzzzz…