Loading ...For weeks now, comparisons have been made between the 2011/12 New York Giants and the 2007/08 New York Giants – both roster and staff. Rightfully so…well, to an extent.
Similarities were, in no particular order, injuries to key players/contributors, starting off 6-2, playoff hopes coming down to the last regular season game, being “swept” by a division rival, beating a division rival to make it into playoffs, beating an NFC South opponent in the Wild Card round, beating the NFC’s 1st Seed in the Divisional round, and advancing to the big game with a Lawrence Tynes over-time field-goal in the NFC Championship. Then, of course, there's the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl. Creepy? Sure is.
This year, though, Eli Manning is leading his team. Actually, he’s commanding it. The offense is better than the defense (ranking-wise) as opposed to 2007 when the exact opposite rang true. Power running with Earth, Wind and Fire propelled the team back then. An elite quarterback, awesome route-running, great hands and fast strides for yards-after the-catch now open things up (sort of) for a once missing-in-action run game. Dare it be said that this Big Blue offense is feared??
As for the other side of the ball: injuries and new/young faces added to the stress of finding a new defensive identity while also fixing the problems and teaching assignments. Captains stepped up and put their bodies on the line for the sake of “team.” Eventually, it all “clicked” and at the perfect time.
More so, the entire team had an overnight epiphany and became one (much like 2007) but had become more than resilient. It’s “resiliency” multiplied by one-hundred. The quiet confidence in teammates turned into a stealth mode beast that is hungry for more blatant disrespect. ALL IN.
Every Giants fan reading this knows the story of ’07 and how it ended on a particular Tuesday in February.
Now….having just about experienced both 2007 and 2011 fully, which season would you proclaim the victor that’s worthy of hoisting your Giants Pride Trophy (assuming this current one does end in the Canyon of Heroes)?
Also…
- Be sure to "like" Giants 101 on Facebook and to follow Giants 101 on Twitter
- Get your tickets to meet Brandon Jacobs and Chase Blackburn at "The Man Show" January 29th
- Meet Lawrence Tynes & Steve Weatherford at Dunkin Donuts in Midland Park, NJ this Sunday at noon.
- Win a David Baas signed football by supporting rock band Eve to Adam
- Text "oneteam" to 20222 to donate $10 to the One Team for the Lights charity initiative.
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Am I living in an alternate universe, did the world open up and swallow everyone, or am I just the only one without a life on a Sunday morning with no football?
Yeah, I don’t really understand the sudden slowdown lately.
I can speak for myself in saying that while I continue to check in I’ve been taking a break from putting too much thought into the game, or at least trying too. It was a tense run and while I’m sad there is no game today, I’m a bit relieved that I won’t be wound up to the point of exhaustion following the game. I needed a bye week. I have been listening to the idiots call into Sirius NFL radio and given their analysis. It’s good to know that there are fans dumber than I am out there.
G101 (myself included) shows up to diagnose the bad. There’s a lot of good right now. I’m kinda worried that this team will show up underestimating the Pats.
Look on the bright side, Dan.
Should the unthinkable happen and the Giants lose this game, the traffic on this site will be off the charts. I daresay it would be the highest it’s been since the aftermath of the second Redskins game.
Was actually the highest ever the Monday after the Giants beat the Packers.
No , I think there are some people wide awake out there – Some very good analysis in the previous thread .But you do live in NJ some I know would consider THAT an alternative universe and you have to squeeze through the black holes of the Lincoln and Holland tunnels to get back to the real world
I found this article which helps pass the time
http://markrfox.hubpages.com/hub/Preview-and-Analysis-of-Super-Bowl-XLVI-New-York-Giants-vs-New-England-Patriots
Thanks, I suppose you’re right Jersey is an alternate universe. Thanks for the link. I’m off to get my coffee and bagel so now I’ll have something to read.
Repost:
Offensively, I have very little doubt that Belichick will dare the Giants to run the football to win.
By now, I imagine Billy B’s seen enough tape to know – to put it bluntly – that the Giant running game stinks. I’m sure he’d be happy to take his chances with the plodding Jacobs and “Can’t Follow His Blockers” Bradshaw against run-stuffer extraordinaire Vince Wilfork (who’s been playing lights out of late) Yeah, they’ll each get their yards for sure. But I’m sure the Patriot coach is counting on the Giants not being able to sustain many long drives and put a whole lot of points on the board by predominantly running the football. And he may very well be right.
Simply put, Belichick is not going to allow Eli Manning to beat him. It would not surprise me to see him dust off the 2-3-6 defensive alignment that he used to great effect against Jim Kelly and the high-powered Buffalo offense in the 1990 Super Bowl. I know that Belichick does not have anywhere near the quality of personnel today that he had back in 1990. But, then again, the Giants don’t exactly have Thurman Thomas to carry the football either.
I still think the Giants have the better personnel. But I also believe that Belichick is still the superior tactician. And there’s no one better at coming up with a strategy to limit (if not completely shut down) that which the opposing offense does best. Belichick is still Belichick. And Killdrive? Well… he’s still Killdrive. If the game comes down to a chess match between those two, it will turn out to be a whole lot closer than many folks think.
There’s a lot of truth in that post, I can’t argue. If Jacobs decides it’s a day where he wants to tip-toe up to the line and fall down and Bradshaw spends his whole day juking instead of running, you’re right, it will be tough. However, I’m still confident that scheme can only do so much and at the end of the day New England just doesn’t have the bodies to cover our receivers even if they drop 11 guys into coverage.
im srry but if he runs a 2-3-6 BJ and AB will have a feild day with that the running game has been good of late (minus sf but there foont 7 beast) if hes paying 6 DB he will be in trouble
Well, as I’ve said, I’m sure Belichick would happily take his chances on Bradshaw or Jacobs having the “field day” that neither of them have had in recent memory.
norm, I’m just not as worried as you. The Pats’ problem is the lack of defensive backs who are any good. How are they going to find six when they cannot find three? And even if they do, if they play just Wilfork and one or two others up front, backed by Spikes and two other linebackers (any combination of five “up front” defenders), do you REALLY think Jacobs and Bradshaw would not have a field day? With five defensive linemen and a tight end blocking for them (and Nicks getting over and taking out one of the defensive backs and Cruz another), they would shred that defense.
Maybe Eli wouldn’t throw for more than 250 yards, but at some point, after a series of consistent 8-20 yard runs, play-action would start to work and there would be completions up top.
The reason Belichick was able to win with that defense in 1990 was because the Giants’ linebackers were so damned incredible that they prevented Thomas from breaking many big runs. The key was holding him to modest gains while eating up the clock. And even then had a field goal attempt gone two yards left the Bills would have won. The Pats’ linebackers aren’t all that great. There would be some big runs against that defense. And eventually the Pats would have to change away from that.
Now, your point that Belichick is likely to come up with something the Giants haven’t seen is almost certainly right. The problem he may find, though, is that Eli has seen almost everything by now, and generally succeeded against all. The other is that Tom Coughlin ain’t no dope, and he will certainly know that Belichick has to be taken into account. I would guess they will be doing plenty of practicing against dime defenses, even having guessed which personnel will be in which places.
As it pertains to Gronk and his injured-ankle, I think the thing to do is employ the same technique we did against Finley 2 weeks ago–whenever he lines up near the offensive line, JPP should be jamming him hard and throw him off his rhythm. That will wear him down as the game progresses.
Im plugging around reading articles in between selling houses here
I like this one
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/giants/unsung-ny-giants-helped-run-super-bowl-xlvi-article-1.1013394
Norm , I agree with you totally about the quality of personnel of the Giants vs the superior tactician in BB . I think its going to be a game that hinges on turnovers . Also , I know Im going to get heat for this and I might be considered as putting a little extra something in my coffee this morning but
I think I would rather have Eli than Brady for this one game
i agree but i got a feeling this game might not be as cose as you think pats 21- Giants 35 are D shut out GB (who has a better offense) and are O is way better then the pats D just going be a really good matchup for us
Another one – pretty pics for those whose mind wont absorb anything this early
http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46159241/ns/sports-nfl/displaymode/1247/beginSlide/1/
Here I am sipping my coffee, relaxing, checking out the blog and reading the sports news of the day on various sites, looking forward to watching some NFL Replay games that I DVR’ed. I am feeling good, enjoying my Giants down time.
Then I come across an ESPN article by Seth “the Weakest Link” Wickersham that within 3 paragraphs that made me apoplectic.
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/7502352/nfl-patriots-giants-cover-weaknesses-super-bowl-xlvi-espn-magazine
His basic premise is that the 2 teams are seriously flawed and are not great teams……
“LET’S START WITH THE OBVIOUS: No matter what you hear during the hype of Super Bowl week, the inarguable fact is that the Giants and Patriots are not great teams. True, Super Sunday’s matchup could have been much worse. Consider yourself fortunate to have been spared a game pitting Joe Flacco’s dump-offs against Green Bay’s alleged pass coverage, or T.J. Yates against Alex Smith, which basically would have been a 60-minute dissertation on why fifth-rounders might be better than No. 1 overall picks. And Tebow? Four words: Thank you, football gods.”
“But make no mistake, the Giants and Pats are seriously flawed. Both seem at once capable of defeating the best teams and losing to the mediocre ones. Opponents outscored the 9-7 Giants 400-394 during the regular season — the same Giants who beat the 13-3 Patriots, who didn’t defeat a team that finished above .500 until the AFC championship game.”
“Together they feature the two most porous defenses ever to play on Super Sunday. Call it the Romney Bowl, in which the finalists appear strong only because the rest of the field is so weak. But on Feb. 5, somehow, one of them will hoist the Lombardi trophy, and the winner will have followed an obvious but mysterious tenet common to all successful teams: masking their deficiencies better than their opponents.”
Those are just the first 3 paragraphs, his analysis gets worse, It’s truly dumbfounding to me how some of these analysts keep their jobs.
Why analysts continue to focus on how the 2 teams played in the regular is beyond me. To any casual observer, focusing on the CURRENT play of each team might be considered more pertinent and a more accurate portrayal of the quality of each team. But yet, this simple observation eludes most simple-minded, formulaic analysts.
Finally, this dim-wit Wickersham thought he was sooooo clever by making a political analogy in his article. What socio-politico-sports genius.
Anyway, so much for my coffee sipping relaxing bye week Sunday.
I feel like Plax right now…..going to ESPN was my self-inflicted wound. When will I learn.