SB Nation User Blog: cjmulrain

New York Giants News & Notes: Playoffs? You Kidding Me? Playoffs?

cjmulrain — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:54:44 -0000

I hope you'll indulge me the title of this post, but much of the discussion regarding the Giants the past few days has reminded me of Jim Mora's famous rant back in 2001. Obviously the most important thing right now is for the Giants to use their bye week to figure out what has gone wrong, try to fix it, and come up with a big win against the Falcons. Bob Glauber of Newsday has 5 improvements he believes will get the Giants back to playing playoff caliber football.

Steve Serby, on the other hand, believes the playoffs are "Mission: Impossible."

Ralph Vachianno reports that the Giants still see themselves as Super Bowl contenders, and that despite the outcome on Sunday, there was a lot to like. Paul Schwartz of the NY Post offers a similar take.

Brandon Jacobs

Matt Mosley reports that Brandon Jacobs talked about the Giants skid on ESPN 1050, where he defended his now impossible 13 win prediction. Jacobs on the prediction:

"That’s one I’m going to have to deal with for making that prediction. That’s what I really thought then. We had a good team and I really believed that. It just so happened that we have not been playing as good of football as we can play and have penalties and those mistakes. [We're] really beating ourselves."

Speaking of Jacobs, Tom Coughlin sees no problem with the distribution of carries, despite the underutilization of a very effective Brandon Jacobs the past few weeks. This has been perhaps the most perplexing thing about the Giants this season: through the first 5 games, when Jacobs was struggling to a 3.6 YPC average, he was getting 20 carries a game. The past 4 weeks his YPC has gone up to 5.1, but he's only been getting 12.75 carries per game. Maybe one has to do with the other, but from watching the games it seems like the old Brandon Jacobs right from the get-go, and they're just not giving him the ball.

Coaching Questions

Sort of related to the Brandon Jacobs stuff as well as Ed's post from yesterday, Josh Alper of NBC Sports believes that the Giants must use the bye week to put their players in a position to succeed. Couldn't agree more.

Giants great Phil Simms was also critical of some of the coaching decisions on Sunday, and has the benefit of questioning them before they even happened.

Happier Days

The New York Times' Fifth Down blog continues their countdown of the 10 greatest Giants moments at Giants Stadium with a look at Jason Sehorn's incredible interception of a Donovan McNabb pass during the 2000 playoffs. Prior to Super Bowl XLII, this was my all-time favorite Giants play that I vividly remember watching live. Great memories. It's too bad they had to cancel the Super Bowl that year, I really think the Giants could have won it after that beatdown they gave the Vikings...

Interesting footnote: Check out how fast McNabb is moving at the tail end of the video - it's easy to forget that he used to be as much a running threat as he was a passing threat.

New York Giants News & Notes: Aaron Rouse, Step On Up

cjmulrain — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 06:35:46 -0000

The big news in Giants land this weekend is that C.C. Brown has been benched. Whether you call him "Bad, Bad, CC Brown," "Can't Cover Brown," or my personal favorite: "The Guy I Wouldn't Let Start on my Flag Football Team," I think we can all agree that it's about time this move was made. Whether Aaron Rouse will be any better is anybody's guess, but I don't think he can be much worse. Rouse talked about the switch yesterday.

Coughlin: It's a One-Game Season

In a pretty uncharacteristic move, Coughlin has told the team that Sunday's game against the Chargers amounts to a "one-game season." Coughlin is usually a "one game at a time" kind of coach, and while this isn't exactly a "this team is going to the playoffs" moment, Coughlin's definitely putting his chips down on the table this week. I have a feeling Sunday's game will be a make or break one for the Giants. Win and they're 6-3 going into the bye and still in good shape for the playoffs. Lose and they're 5-4 and two games behind the division leader.

Coughlin spoke about Rouse yesterday, and let's just say he doesn't sound super-confident:

"No, I just think that – it is just the ability to play the ball in the air and we’ll see. It means that we are going to have to put him in the game to see how that is going to be"

Also in that link, Coughlin says that he may get fined because he was running late to a meeting. Funny stuff.

Other News

Ralph Vachianno hands out his midseason report card. He gives the offense mostly high scores, except for a C- to Eli. The defense is treated pretty harshly. Gotta say I agree with him for the most part, though I might bump Eli up to a C or even a B-. True, he's been awful the past 3 weeks, but he was also great the first 5 weeks, and he is playing through an injury.
File this one under "no duh": a Subway Super Bowl is looking less likely than it was a month ago. I think most of us expected the Jets to fall off, but the Giants mid-season collapse has certainly come out of nowhere.
Not really Giants news, but Matt Mosley speculates that DeSean Jackson and Austin Miles might be going to the Pro Bowl this year, and questions Steve Smith. I know it's easy to dump on the Giants right now, but Smith still leads the league in receptions and is fourth in receiving yards despite playing with a struggling QB. Pro Bowls don't mean anything in the long run, but I hope Smith gets the recognition he deserves - he's definitely emerged as one of the top receivers in the league.

Fantasy Football Friday: Giants vs. Chargers Preview

cjmulrain — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:50:31 -0000

Before getting into the preview, I wanted to give a mid-season update of the Big Blue View Fantasy Football League. Right now posters hocke26 and XLII are in first place in their respective divisions at 6-2 each (fleaflicker divides the league into 2 divisions, though I don't think it makes any difference when it comes to the playoffs). Aceholioo, gobs56, MahmoodZaky, and myself round out the potential playoff teams, all with 5-3 records. Frequent poster Woogie526 has had a rough season so far, with a 1-7 record. I'll admit I was beginning to doubt my fantasy football credentials after a 1-3 start to the season, but with a 4 game winning streak, I feel competent enough to continue with these posts.

Anyway, onto the preview:

Start

Brandon Jacobs, RB, NYG - I swear, this is the week the Giants are going to remember they are a power-running team. They have to, right? Jacobs has actually been pretty darn good the last 3 weeks when he's been given the ball, averaging 4.9 YPC on 40 carries. Extend that back to week 4 and he's averaging 4.2 YPC over his last 82 carries. The past 3 weeks he's gotten 7, 13, and 20 carries, so I'd expect him to be over 20 again this week, especially if the defense can keep the Giants in the game.The Chargers run defense is also the 6th worst in the NFL, giving up 132 yards per game and 4.2 YPC. I expect Jacobs to have a "break-out" game this week.

LaDanian Tomlinson, RB, SD - This is definitely not the BLT of 2006, and at this point he's probably not even a top 20 fantasy running back. That said, he's facing a run defense that's in the bottom half of the league and would almost certainly be lower if it weren't for some of the awful teams they played to open the season. When Leonard Weaver runs for 75 yards and almost 10 YPC, you've gotta like BLT's chances.

Philip Rivers, QB, SD - CC Brown's not starting, but let's just say I don't have much faith in anyone in the Giants secondary right now. Rivers is one of the best fantasy QB's out there, and he's facing a team that has been lit up by Drew Brees and Donovan McNabb in recent weeks. Until the Giants D proves they can stop an elite QB, consider whoever they're facing to be a safe bet.

Vincent Jackson, WR, SD - Jackson has scored a TD in 3 straight games, has back-to-back 100 yard games, and is one of the better receivers in the league. He's a safe bet against the Giants secondary.

Antonio Gates, TE, SD - Noticing a trend here? To say that I'm down on the Giants defense right now would be a bigger understatement than saying Saddam Hussein probably didn't like the Bush family.

Steve Smith, WR, NYG - He hasn't had a huge game in 5 weeks, but he always ends up with a handful of catches and 60+ yards receiving. He's a solid #3 fantasy receiver even when he's not being targeted as much as we'd all like, and if the Giants ever get their O sorted out, I have no doubt he'll be amongst the top receivers in the league again.

Sit

Eli Manning, QB, NYG - I think his foot is more hurt than he's letting on (and it sounds like Jerry Reese does too). He has not looked good at all the past three weeks, playing more like pre-2007 playoffs Eli, which is not good enough to be a fantasy starter.

NYG Defense - They suck right now. Until they stop sucking, you probably shouldn't play them.

Ahmad Bradshaw, RB, NYG - Averaging 2.5 YPC over the past two weeks on 21 carries. He's clearly not at 100% strength right now. It's a shame, b/c he was having such a good season. Also, it's a bit of a travesty that someone as quick and explosive as Bradshaw has only caught 7 passes this season. I think Tiki Barber would struggle to get 1,500 total yards in this offense where wide receivers seem to be the only guys allowed to be targeted, with the occasional Madison Hedgecock pass thrown in. This applies to Kevin Boss, as well.

CC Brown Out at Safety

cjmulrain — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:46:57 -0000

CC Brown Out at Safety

Our long national nightmare is over. At least until Aaron Rouse gets lit up like a Christmas tree on Sunday.

Joe Pos Article About Yankees Payroll

cjmulrain — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:33:27 -0000

Joe Pos Article About Yankees Payroll

Definitely worth a read. It is staggering when you consider the advantages the Yankees have.

Bronx to name new bridge after Derek Jeter

cjmulrain — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:53:23 -0000

Bronx to name new bridge after Derek Jeter

I think Queens should counter by naming its new sewage plant after Luis Castillo

New York Giants News & Notes: 3-Game Losing Streak

cjmulrain — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:57:49 -0000

You may have noticed that I haven't been posting too many comments the past couple of days - mostly it's because I just don't know what to say about what has happened to the Giants over the past three weeks. I know a lot of people are ready to write them off as a team that feasted on an easy schedule and really isn't that good, but I'm not ready to do that yet. I don't think a team that looked so good for 5 weeks, regardless of who it was against, can really be this bad, especially when you consider the way they destroyed a Raiders team that made the Eagles look silly. Football's a funny game.

If you're like me and desperately searching for a ray of light in this stretch, here's something: two teams have had 3 game losing streaks and gone on to win the Super Bowl: the 2005 Steelers & the 2000 Ravens (and technically, the 2007 Giants lost 3 in a row, if you count the 2006 playoff loss to the Eagles). Onto some links:

Ian O'Connor says the Giants can't hide behind the Yankees any longer. His analogy to the '96-'98 Yankees makes me sad, because that's exactly what I thought was happening up until the Saints game. Instead, I'm feeling very similar to how I felt in August & September, 2007 - when it became apparent that the Mets, who had been the best team in the NL since opening day '06 were all of a sudden not very good. Luckily the Giants aren't waiting until the end of the season to have some kind of epic collapse.
Chris Canty & Michael Boley are returning to practice this week. They can't get back on the field soon enough - it's obvious to everyone that the Giants don't have enough athletes on defense right now.
This Sunday's game will be the first time that Eli Manning and Phillip Rivers will play against one another since they were traded for each other on draft day, 2004. Manning played against the Chargers back in 2005, but Drew Brees was still the Chargers QB then.
Paul Schwartz writes that the Giants cannot wait for a big turnaround. Well, at least we have something in common with them.
The NY Times Fifth Down blog continues its look at the top 10 moments in Giants Stadium history with Rodney Hampton's 51-yard TD runn against the Vikings in the 1994 playoffs. Interestingly enough, that game served as the last win in the careers of Lawrence Taylor and Phil Simms, but it was also the first playoff win for Michael Strahan.

Phillies & Yankees Fans Battle For Title of Biggest Douches

cjmulrain — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:24:34 -0000

Phillies & Yankees Fans Battle For Title of Biggest Douches

from the Daily Show. Great stuff

Fantasy Football Friday: Giants vs. Eagles Preview

cjmulrain — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:02:19 -0000

This week the Giants play the Eagles in a very important NFC East showdown, and a rematch of the Giants playoff loss last season. Revenge will be on the Giants minds, but this definitely won't be an easy game for either team.

Start:

DeSean Jackson, WR, PHI - With Brian Westbrook most likely not playing on Sunday, DeSean Jackson will be the focal point of the Eagles offense. Jackson has 3 receiving TD's, a rushing TD, and a punt return TD, and has two 100+ yard receiving games, a 94 yard game, and a 69 yard game. He's one of the better playmakers in the league, and with the Giants secondary woes, I expect Jackson to break a big play or two this weekend as well.

Steve Smith, WR, NYG - Even with three straight down weeks, Smith has still had flashes that he's a stud wide receiver. Against a banged up Eagles defense, I think Smith will have a big week this week.

Brandon Jacobs, RB, NYG - The juggernaut finally looked like he was getting untracked last week, until Kevin Gilbride shut him down. I think this is the week the Giants remember they're a running team and Jacobs breaks out with 100+ yards and a score or two.

Giants Defense - I don't think it's going to be a repeat of the 12 sack game, but I think the Giants D-line is gonna get to McNabb a couple of times, and I wouldn't be surprised if they force a turnover or two. I'm actually expecting this to be a lower scoring game.

Eagles Defense - Mostly the same reasoning as for the Giants. The Eagles have a tendency of making big plays on D, and Eli has struggled against them at times, not to mention the last few weeks. I'd say the chances of an interception or two are fairly high.

Donovan McNabb, QB, PHI - I went back and forth about where to categorize McNabb. I expect him to have a decent game - ~250 yards passing, a TD or two, maybe an INT. Chances are you don't have a better QB option than McNabb this weekend, so I'd start him.

Sit

Eli Manning, QB, NYG - Let's be honest, Eli has not looked good the past few weeks, and his last two games against the Eagles have been pretty awful. I think Eli might struggle a bit this week and throw a pick or two.

Ahmad Bradshaw, RB, NYG - Bradshaw had one good run last week, and fumbled away the best chance the Giants had of tying the game. With the news that his foot is broken, I'm not too optimistic about his chances this week. Hopefully I'm wrong, but play it safe and start someone else.

LeSean McCoy, RB, PHI - Without Brian Westbrook, expect Andy Reid's already minimal interest in running the football to disappear completely. I know everyone in Philly wants to believe McCoy is the next Westbrook, but I haven't seen anything from him to suggest that's the case. Stay away.

New York Giants News & Notes: The Big Apple vs. The City of Brotherly Love

cjmulrain — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 05:48:59 -0000

Lots of links this week. Funny how a struggling team that's lost two straight games generates a lot more media buzz than a team that easily wins five straight. And Giants fans wonder why the Jets typically get heavier media coverage.

Probably the biggest off-field storyline this week is the unprecedented showdown between New York and Philadelphia. It kicks off Saturday night with an early-season game between the Knicks and the 76ers. The main events come on Sunday, as the Giants-Eagles game has been moved up to 1 pm to accommodate Game 4 of the World Series between the Yankees and the Phillies. Hopefully Monday will be a very happy day in Gotham and a very, very sad one in Philly. Now to the links:

Eli Manning's Struggles

Jeffry Chadiha at ESPN saw lots of questions and no answers in the Giants performance against the Cardinals. One of the problems that both he and Matt Mosley saw was Eli taking too long at the line of scrimmage, resulting in a few delay of game penalties and a general sense that Eli was out of rhythm.

Steve Serby of the NY Post thinks the problem is that Eli needs some help.

Personally, I think the real problem with Eli is that I jinxed him by acknowledging that he was having an MVP caliber season and was one of the top QB's in the league before the Saints game. Maybe I should start calling for the Giants to bench Eli and draft a new QB of the future to replace him...it worked pretty well last time I did.

Giants Sliding

A few more takes on the Giants two-game slide:

The AP gathers a few quotes, including this one from Shaun O'Hara that more or less sums it up:

"I could come up with 100 words to describe how upset and disappointed we are," center Shaun O’Hara said. "With this team, we hold ourselves to such a high standard. We were upset with our play after some wins early in the season, but to lose at home like we did last night, really, we think that is unacceptable. That’s the standard we set, and we know we can play better, and that’s the thing that is frustrating. At the same time, we also know we are a good team."

Vinny Ditrani of NorthJersey.com finds some positives from the loss to the Cardinals, pointing out that unlike the Saints game, the Giants weren't totally outclassed. Little victories, I guess.

Looking Ahead

The Giants are using the playoff loss to the Eagles last year (and Donovan McNabb's uncharacteristically classless move picking up the phone on the Giants sideline) as motivation going into this weekend's game. There's definitely no love lost between these two teams, and they almost always play memorable games. Hopefully this one ends up more like the 12 sack game or the Sehorn bobbling interception game than "the fumble" game (more on that later).

Fred Robbins says the Giants are putting last week behind them and are ready for the Eagles:

It’s a good time to play the Eagles. A win would cure everything. We’re playing a division opponent, a good rival and it will be an intense game. That’s a good way to get back on track, stop all those sad faces in the locker room. And you can’t let the losses pile up, especially in the division.

Other News

Kevin Boss says he didn't get a concussion from the (uncalled) helmet-to-helmet hit on Sunday. Definitely good news.
Apparently Eli Manning gave Peyton a few pointers about Steve Spagnuolo's defense. Spags joked that Eli should have at least given him some pointers on how to stop Peyton. I've gotta say, I love that Eli and Peyton are close, but was this really necessary? The Colts are probably the best team in the league and the Rams are probably the worst. Peyton probably could have won this one if he'd spent the last two weeks binge drinking and played the game behind the '58 Colts offensive line.
Finally, the NY Times' 5th Down Blog continues it's countdown of the greatest moments in Giants Stadium history. Coming in at #10 is the aforementioned "fumble" game. Definitely the low point of Giants history, but it ended up leading to the changes that turned the Giants into Super Bowl winners and one of the better run organizations in sports, so it wasn't all bad. Plus, without that play maybe Herm Edwards never becomes a 2-time NFL Head Coach, and I think we can all agree: the entertainment that brought us was well worth it.