Sorry for not writing until Monday afternoon but I’ve spent the last few hours trying to cover Jason Whitten over the middle. Somebody’s got to do it.
Ok, so we learned three things on Sunday:
1)I can’t pick against the spread: 6-8 on Sunday. If I win both Monday night games I’ll be 8-8. Does that clinch me a playoff spot in the NFC?
2)The Giants defense is atrocious. Tony Romo is good – but not “I won my fantasy week because of him” good. I am not even remotely confident in the Giants’ secondary and Mathias Kiwanuka looked as comfortable at linebacker as the class nerd playing dodge ball in gym class. Also, I saw John Madden get less winded running sprints before the game than the Giants D-line.
3)The Giants are the exact same team as last year minus Tiki Barber. Just when you think the game is lost, they come back to give you hope, only to say 10 plays later, “you silly, silly man, did you think we were ACTUALLY going to pull it out?” Last year’s team did just enough to lose the big games. Last night wasn’t any different.
Plain and simple, the defense let us down Sunday night. Injuries aside, you can’t get torched for 45 points and 336 passing yards. Defense gets an F for Sunday’s loss. I’m more worried about the secondary than the injuries.
Let’s look at the bright side of things, now.
Ok…done.
Just kidding. In reality, we’re 0-1 after an injury-plagued game, on the road. If we take care of Dallas at Giants’ Stadium later in the year, we can call it a wash. Last night would have been a HUGE win, but it’s not the end of the world.
Manning looked better than I’ve ever seen him. Assuming his injury isn’t long term – the passing game looks promising, and who needs Brandon Jacobs when you’ve got Derrick Ward, right? There were glints of Tiki Barber last night from Ward, but I wouldn’t christen him the savior running back just yet.
At the very least we saw that Ward can be an extremely effective third-down-type back. Paging David Meggett…
No, seriously, we need David Meggett and any other football player that’s played running back before. Send resumes to: OnTheHotSeat@coughlin.com
Bottom line, it could be worse – we could be the Jets.
–Ryan
