Giants-Cowboys Recap

Statement game. Thats what I kept hearing from Giants fans yesterday ad the Giants came away with a thrilling 33-31 win over the hated Dallas Cowboys in the opening of their new stadium.

A couple of thoughts before I get into the game. This Cowboys stadium is a circus. As Don Banks said today on SI.com, this is more like a Vegas Casino opening that happend to have a football game going on. Now dont get me wrong, the stadium is probably RIDICULOUS and from the looks of it, looked like it was, but it is also an amusement park. (Side note: What the hell was NBC doing comparing the stadium to the St. Louis Arch...You can put two St. Louis arches in the stadium. Like what a random thing to compare it to.) Jerry Jones looked like he got another face lift before the game, in fact they probably offer that in this new stadium. Listen, I am a die hard Yankee fan, so I cant talk about stadiums, but this seemed a little over the top. Also, this was not a good litmus test for the punters hitting the screen. Jeff Feagles is not a booming punter, nor is Mcbriar, so dont let last night fool you with that. The story should not end with last night. With that, lets get to the game, and a recap of a huge Giants win.

What a win for the Giants. They are now 2-0 in the NFC and more importantly in the NFC East. They already got Dallas on the road out of the way, and now have three EXTREMELY winnable games on their plate. In fact, if they dont go 5-0 I am going to be furious. The G-Men should last night why they should be a force like they were last year, and made me trust this franchise and organization more so than I ever have before.

Eli Vs Romo

Wow, can you have two more contrasting games. Eli played one of the best games I have ever seen him play. I have seen them all, and here are my top 5 best WHOLE games Eli has ever played. (Note *=Playoffs)

5. @ Seattle 2005: 29-53 344 yards 2 Tds 1 Int
4. @ Dallas 2007: 28-41 312 Yards 4 Tds 1 Int
3. @ Dallas 2009: 25-38 330 Yards 2 Tds 0 Int
2. @ Philly 2006: 31-43 371 Yards 3 Tds 1 Int
1. @ Green Bay 2007*: 21-40 251 Yards 0 TD 0 Int

Notice a couple things. For one, I did not put the Super Bowl on there. Eli played a brillant first and fourth quarter, but in the middle quarters was brutal at times. Second, the NFC title in my opinion is his best full game because of the conditions (being that it was -1 degrees, and the third cooldest playoff game in NFL history) and the pressure he was under. He made every big throw and his recievers dropped about 5-7 balls in that game. Lastly, every game was on the road proving my point that the swirling winds at Giants Stadium are deadly for QB's.

Eli was good enough last night to put him 3rd on that list. He made every throw, every right decision, and that ball to Super Mario for a TD was one of the best balls I have seen him throw. Dont look now, but Eli Manning folks, is turning into one of the top 3 most clutch QB's in the league right now. I would put him behind Brady and then its a toss up. I am dead serious. Eli Manning is more clutch than his brother right now. Everytime you ask him to move the team down the field in the wanning moments of a game, he does it. In fact, there is literally not a time I can think of he did not do it. Last possession of a game, down by a score, and Eli has the ball tell me a time where he didnt come thru. You cant because it never has happend. Thats how clutch this guy has been, and it wasnt any different last night.

Conversely, Tony Romo is proving why he might be out of the league pretty soon. The guy is an average QB. Remember in 2006 when everyone annoited him the new Cowboys savior? Well look now in 2009, do you have any faith in Tony Romo? I dont, and I think Cowboys fans are slowly realizing that as well. He will go down as another average QB that people will remember more for his chokes and off field relationships, than on field product.

RB

This was one of the first times I have seen a team completly shut down the Giants rushing game. Jacobs was silent, rushing for 58 on 16 carries, while Bradshaw had only 37 yards on 9 carries. Though it surprised me, it shouldnt have. In 2007 the Cowboys and Giants had a shootout in pretty much both games, in which the Cowboys neutrilized Jacobs, and the same in the home game in 2008. Jay Ratliff played an outstanding game and the Cowboys put 7 and sometimes even 8 in the box to shut down Jacobs.

Barber and Felix Jones put on a show for the Cowboys last night, as Barber ran for 124 and Jones for 97 and thought he had the game winning TD in the closing mins of last night. 251 total rushing yards, a fantastic number for the Cowboys, and a trend they should see some of in the future. Barber is a huge back with speed but its Felix Jones, who is the one to really worry about. He reminds me so much of Darren Sproles and remembering him at Arkansas supplanting Darren Mcfadden, he is doing much of the same in Dallas. I like his game, and I think he is going to be very valuable to Dallas in the future, and he showed why last night.

WR

The Giants have no recievers. The Giants cant win with out Plax. Who is the number one guy. That is all I heard leading up to the season. Well, I think we have an answer for all three. Yes they do, yes, and Mario Manningham/Steve Smith. What a game for those two. Its the first time in New York Giants history that two recievers have caught 10 or more balls in a game. Lets start with Super Mario first. He looked like a big time reciever last night. He caught everything, even when he juggled the ball, and had an explosive first step and tore up Terrance Newman. I said this before the season and I will say it again, I think Mario will step up and become this teams number one guy. After tonight, he is making me look good. As for Smith, what can you say, the guys the best route runner on the team, and made a defender look silly with his TD catch late in the game. He has all the tools to be a fantastic number 2 guy, and with 10 catches and 134 yards last night, those were number one guys numbers. Eli had 25 completions and 20 were to Manningham and Smith. Boss had a huge catch during the game winning drive, and Domink Hixon ended up leaving the game. Tremendous job by this so called "mysterious" recieving core.

Jason Witten usually destroys the Giants. Not yesterday. In fact, the Cowboys recievers were what everyone thought the Giants recievers would be: Non exsistent. They completely did not show up and made me realize that TO might be missed more than some might let on. T.O might be a distraction, and a clown, but he sure does help in the passing game, something the Cowboys desperatly needed last night.

O-Line

Fantastic job. Absolutly fantastic. The Giants O-Line completly shut down the Cowboys line in the passing attack. The run game, as I said, was non-exsistent, so I will let them have it for that, but as far as the passing game is concerned, what can you say other than brilliant. Eli did not get sacked, barely got touched, and Demarcus Ware, maybe the best pass rusher in the game, was absolutly shut down by Dave Diehl. Remember last year, Ware sacked Eli about 4 times and Diehl was visibly and emotional upset. Revenge is a bitch, and Diehl got his on Ware last night.

I am starting to hate this group more so than anybody on the Cowboys. Forget Leonard Davis who is a notriously dirty player, and a human monster at 6'8 375 pounds. Marc Columbo is a dirty player who got into some scuffles yesterday. Then there is Flozell Adams. Flozell Adams' leg whip on Justin Tuck should have gotten him ejected and most certainly will get him fined. He has a knack for leg whipping D-Ends who beat him, and Tuck was killing him off the edge so what does Adams do, he hurts Tuck on purpose. What an asshole. But this is why I love Justin Tuck, after the game he called the play bush league and basically said Adams is lucky he didnt get back into the game. I am already calling for three or more sacks by Tuck the next time these two teams play each other. Mark my words, the Giants will destory, DESTROY this team the next time they play.

D-Line

This was a tale of two games for this unit. Before Tuck got hurt they looked fine, they were getting after the ball, making some plays, and doing their job of hurrying Tony Romo. After Tuck got hurt this unit fell apart. This means a couple things. One, Justin Tuck is by far and away the most valuable player outside of Eli and maybe Jacobs on this team, and most certainly the most important player on defense. Second, it means that the ends that we thought we great, are not AGAINST THE RUN. Against the pass there fine, but the run not so much. In fact, there down right bad. I always loved Strahan and defended him to the death as best all around D-End when he played because he was the only guy outside of Reggie White that I have ever seen that could get after the passer AND the running game. Strahan was brilliant against the run. Tuck is molding into his mentor Strahan. Not only is he capable of 15 sacks a year, he stuffs the run with the best of them. This brings me to one guy, and one guy only and that is Osi. Osi played probably the worst game I have ever seen him play. There were times were he looked like he was lost. Remember a few weeks ago when Osi just left practice because D-Coordinator Bill Sheridan yelled at him? Well, it was probably because Osi cant play the run and was looking like shit. Osi never played the run well, but too be an elite and I mean ELITE like Justin Tuck, Demarcus Ware, Jared Allen type player, you need to stuff the run. Osi simply cannot, and that is why he is wildly overrated. He is like Robinson Cano. He has all the talent, puts up the stats, but when you really need him to be the guy and too come thru he does not. Hes not a big time player, never has been and never will be. Kiwi filled in for Tuck and did not do much, and I am souring a bit on him as a player. He has never filled out to be where I would like him to be as a rusher. No Canty, which meant the run stuffing was not going to be where it will be but Rickey Benard did not do well as the fill in.

For the Cowboys, this unit did a great job against the run, but awful with their rush. Jay Ratliff made a name for himself as he dominated in the run department. But where was Demarcus Ware? This is the first game I have seen him where he completly vanished. Non factor.

LB

The play Antonio Pierce made on the Bruce Johnson pick 6 was why he is so valuable to this team. As my friend Jesse knows, I defend Pierce and almost got into a brawl last year arguing about Antonio Pierce. Here is my take on Pierce, as a player he is not the same, he is fat, he is slow, and he cannot make the plays he used to or should. However, as a leader and a defensive coach on the field, he is up with the best of them. He audibled from an all-out blitz to cover two which led to the pick and the TD. That was all Pierce when he smacked his helmet screaming ALERT, ALERT!! Other than that, the linebackers looked BRUTAL. The run game is mainly the responsiblity of the linerbackers. Sometimes there are exception, but majority of the time it is there sole responsiblity to stop the run. The Giants gave up 251 yards on the ground. That reflects very, VERY poorly in the linebackers. Sure, you can say it was Boley's first start and he didnt know the defense that well. Bullshit I say. The real problem is that Pierce and Clark/Blackburn are not doing their jobs and getting after the runners. For the good Pierce does, he also does a lot of bad, and is somewhat of a liability on defense. When you give up 31 points and your offense had zero turnovers, and the special teams played had solid coverage, that is a very bad sign. I will give this week a pass because of the win, and because Tuck missed half the game, but I did not like what I say from the D-Line and LB's, ESPECIALLY the LB's.

Do I even have to cover the Cowboys LB's? We know what they did, they were great against the run, and just beyond atrocious against the pass. They let up every big play and did not get any pressure on Eli. Can we end it on that?

Secondary

Kenny Phillips showed why he was a first round pick and why everyone has been raving about him. First, that one pick off of Witten's foot would not happen if you tried that 1,000 times. However, the wherewithal of Phillips to run it to the house was very impressive. He could have easily just stopped because he might have thought the play was dead. Also, terrible, ATROCIOUS job by the officials to call that incomplete. They should have not blown the whistle, have the booth look at it since it was under two mins and have it showen that it was an INT and it would have resulted in a TD. Instead Giants ball at the Cowboys 28. The second pick was right to him, but he was in perfect position at the time. He also caught down Felix Jones a number of times and Barber once on a run near the end of the game that could he could have scored on. Phillips played very well. How about Bruce Johnson. After the NFL draft he was unemployed, 5 months later he gets the first defensive TD in Cowboys Stadium. Again, great job by Pierce adjusting everyone on that play. Webster was fantastic as well, shuting down Roy Williams. He did miss a big tackle thought that resulted in a first down. The secondary overall wss very excellent.

Again, not much to say on the Cowboys front. They were awful, Terrance Newman was schooled a number of times by Smith and Super Mario. Orlando Schandrik had 6 tackles but looked awful in coverage.

Special Teams

I guess Tynes is back. He has been an actuve Giant for two years and has sent them to the Super Bowl and won a huge game at Dallas. Not bad considering he was supposed to be gone after a dreadful start to the 2007 season. Going into the big thing was would Feagles or Mcbriar hit the huge video screen. Neither came close. Moss did nothing in the return game. The Giants coverage looked ok, but made a huge play after Bruce Johnson's pick 6 where they recovered a Felix Jones fumble on the ensuing kickoff return.

Coaching

Coughlin outsmarted Wade Phillips (Well, I could have outsmarted Wade Phillips, I think everyone who is a football fan could outsmart Wade Phillips) and officially put Phillips on the hot seat. Phillips has been in Dallas since 2007 and has done this:

2007: Went 12-4 and was the number 1 seed in the NFC, looked prime for a Super Bowl berth, far and away the best team in the NFC and 2nd or 3rd best in the NFL and lost in the Divisional Round at home vs the hated Giants, who of course went on to win the Super Bowl (had to put that in there).

2008: Went into the year a Super Bowl contender and ended up going 9-7 despite trading for Roy Williams in the middle of the year. The Cowboys had a prime playoff spot and collapsed losing three in a row including an embaressing 35 point loss to the Eagles in week 17.

2009: Lost the home opener of Jerry Jones' $1.2 Billion stadium on Sunday Night Football to the hated Giants.

Not a really impressive resume is it Wade. I am 99.999999999% sure he will be gone at the end of the year and either Bill Cowher, Mike Shannahan or Jason Garrett will be the coach. Gilbride called a good game outside the red zone. Inside it, the Giants have big, BIG problems that could very well bite them in the ass in the future. Sheridan's defense had a good scheme but they couldnt do much against the run without Justin Tuck.

Overall

An enourmous win for the G-Men. They proved that they are the team to beat in the NFC and possibly in the league. The are flying under the rader because they are a somewhat boring team, but all this "boring team" does is win games. Including Playoffs, they are 28-11 since 2007, and since the 2007 playoffs are 18-5. I can no longer use the "suffering Giants fan card" or be a negative Giants fan. They are a fantastic team. They are now expected to win and usually do. Good things now happen to them. These are not the Bills or the Jets where the fans think they will lose no matter what. This is now three years of winning, and four years, maybe going on five, of making the playoffs in a row. The Giants keep proving that they are a team to be wrecken with, and the Cowboys were victim number two. Next up for the Giants is a rematch of the 2007 wild card game against the Bucs. This SHOULD be an easy win but in the NFL you simply dont know. The Giants have put themselves in sole possesion of first place in the NFC East, and are in good shape with the next three games coming @ Tampa Bay, @ Kansas City, and home against Oakland. Going into New Orleans, they should be 5-0 and that will be an interesting game to say the least if they are 5-0.

Since this was an incredibly look Giants recap, look for the NFL recap tomorrow so I can include the monday night game. Go G-Men!!

-Lew