SB Nation User Blog: cjmulrain

Land of the Giants: Defense Edition

cjmulrain — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 04:49:53 -0000

I don't know about the rest of you, but since the baseball season is as good as over for a Mets fan like me, the lack of football these days is killing me. There's not a lot going on, but here's a few of the Giants related stories making the rounds:

Obviously the biggest story around the Giants these days is that of Michael Boley's one-game suspension by the NFL. According to every source I've read, it sounds like the Giants knew what they were getting into when they signed Boley and the suspension didn't come out of the blue. The following quote is being lifted from the Daily News by way of Matt Mosley's NFC East blog because the Daily News Web site hasn't been loading for me tonight:

"It's really unfortunate that when you're in pro sports everything gets overexaggerated a little bit," Reese said. "We don't condone any kind of domestic violence of any kind in any way, so don't get me wrong on that. But Michael Boley does all kinds of community service and people never talk about that. It's really kind of a shame that people don't say, 'Wow, this guy's a really good guy. He does all this kind of community service.' But the negative things seem to always come up.

"It's just unfortunate, but when you're in a high-profile position I guess this is what happens."

I'm never going to condone domestic violence and I'm definitely a little less excited about the Boley signing than I was before the injuries and the suspension, but if he can stay out of trouble from here on out, I see this situation blowing over in the long run.

According NY Times Fifth Down Blog, the Giants' downfall last season was the breakdown of their defensive line at the end of the season:

Burress had nothing to do with the decline. Instead, it was a regression in the team’s sack rate that correlated well with the team’s dip in performance, culminating in the playoff game versus the Eagles in which — despite playing behind an offensive line missing multiple starters — Donovan McNabb was not sacked once

That pretty much echoes what many of us here at Big Blue View have been saying all offseason. I will give some credit to Donovan McNabb and the Eagles offense for avoiding what seemed like a lot of close calls, but the fact of the matter is the Giants pass rush ran out of gas at the end of the season.

The article only devotes two paragraphs to the additions the Giants made in the offseason, but I don't think it gives Jerry Reese enough credit for the pass rush he's assembled going into next season. Some GM's in this town would see that they had a position that was a strength for most of the past two years and which was returning a key injured player next season and say "we're fine, it'll still be a strength," igoring the fact that it was clearly a liability by the end of the season. Reese, on the other hand, identified the D-line as the engine that makes the Giants run and decided that just returning Osi wouldn't be enough, so he went out and signed an impact player in Canty and a key depth player in Bernard.

Now, it's certainly possible that these signings won't work out and Osi will be a shell of his former self and the Giants pass rush won't be very good, but that seems highly unlikely. Instead, it looks like the Giants will have one of the best pass rushes in a pass happy league, which worked well enough to net them the Lombardi Trophy two seasons ago. It's things like this, more than anything else, that get me really excited for the football season to start up again. Even though the Giants didn't win it all last year, I believe they are poised for a long run of success because they have a front office that just seems to understand what it takes to build a winning football team. As a fan, you can't ask for anything more.*

* For those of you who are also Mets fans, I'm sure you recognize that this rant was as much an indictment of Omar Minaya as it was an endorsement of Jerry Reese. It's been a tough ~~month~~. ~~three years~~. four decades. But hey, it could be worse: we could be Jets fans, too.

A good article from the Sporting News about new defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan and his plans for the Giants defense. I like the fact that it sounds like the Giants have become a defense that players from other teams want to play on, and that Sheridan plans to keep that style intact. I was a big Spagnuolo fan, but I also give a lot of credit for the Giants success to the scheme developed by former Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Johnson, who in my mind is the most underrated football personality of the past decade. I'm very interested to see how his system is going to perform under a new disciple in Philly, a second-hand disciple for the Giants, and with much less talented players in St. Louis.

I was inspired by Eric's comment that Olerud had the best 3-year run as a Met outside Carlos...

cjmulrain — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 05:57:17 -0000

I was inspired by Eric's comment that Olerud had the best 3-year run as a Met outside Carlos Beltran to look at a few different Mets, and when I noticed that two of my all-time favorite players (Alfonzo and Strawberry) were kinda screwed by having (relatively)bad seasons in between some really good seasons, I decided to see which Mets had the best 3 seasons, period (non-consecutively). Beltran still comes out on top, but my all-time favorite player Alfonzo comes in 2nd place, and him and Straw are the only two to have three 6.0+ WAR seasons. Also interesting that Hundley comes out ahead of Gary Carter, Cleon Jones almost finishes ahead of Mike Piazza, and Joe McEwing doesn't make the list.

Land of the Giants: Play of the Decade Edition

cjmulrain — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:00:28 -0000

More photos » by Gene Puskar - AP

Browse more photos »

ESPN.com is spending this week doing an "all-decade" retrospective (which, in typical ESPN fashion is a year too early), and today they had NFC East blogger Matt Mosley select the best "moments" of the decade. I don't think anyone here is gonna have much argument with his choice for best play: Manning-to-Tyree. In fact, I think even TruePatsFan* would have trouble arguing with that play being the top play of the decade.

No Giants made ESPN's all-decade offensive team, but perhaps the least controversial inclusion on their all-decade defensive team was Michael Strahan (judging by the comments after the article - Strahan wasn't mentioned once, which is a good thing).

Some other Giants stories from around the 'web:

Some more from Matt Mosley, this time quoting Tom Coughlin on the loss of Plaxico Burress. I promised myself that I wouldn't link to anything related to Plaxico for the rest of the offseason, but I liked Mosley's take on the situation, especially the part where he predicts that our Steve Smith will make the Pro Bowl. For the record, he's now predicted Manning and Smith will be making trips to Honolulu. The Cowboys have shown us all first hand how meaningless that is, but it's still encouraging to hear that someone in the MSM has faith in the Giants passing game.
Mike Garafolo looks back at the Giants offseason so far, and for the most part he likes what he's seen.
From the NYT Fifth Down Blog: does Eli Manning deserve to be the highest paid player in the NFL? It seems there's indication that he very likely will be. Personally, I think it's pretty pointless to argue about - does Eli deserve to get paid more money than Peyton or Brady or Adrian Peterson? No, almost definitely not. But it's all about timing - next year someone else will be coming up on free agency and will get an even bigger deal than Eli, and that person probably won't be the best player in the NFL either. Just for comparison, here's a partial list of players who get paid more than Albert Pujols: Alfonso Soriano, Todd Helton, Vernon Wells, Carlos Lee, 3/4 of the Yankees infield (all but Cano), and up until this season, Ken Griffey Jr. and Jason Giambi.
Also from the Fifth Down Blog, football scientist KC Joyner crunches some numbers to try to figure out the Giants Red Zone struggles last year. His determinations seems to be that the Giants aren't great at man-to-man short yard blocking, but are very good blocking in space which leads to a number of big plays. That actually seems to make sense when thinking about the Giants run game from last year. Lots of big plays, but sometimes they would get stuffed on the short yardage stuff, even outside the red zone.

*For those of you who weren't around BBV during the Super Bowl run, TruePatsFan was the king of all trolls, who wouldn't even admit that there was a tiny microfraction of a chance that the Giants could win the game. Amazingly, he never made a post after the game. If you're feeling bored and are in the mood for some amusement, click this link and read through some of his comments during the two week run up to Super Bowl XLII.

Jeff Feagles: Hall of Famer?

cjmulrain — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:15:13 -0000

A quote in the Bob Glauber article that Ed linked to recently about Jeff Feagles prompted me to begin my "Feagles for the Hall of Fame" bandwagon again. I haven't been shy about my love for Feagles in the past, prompting Ed to write this post halfway through the Super Bowl season stating that Feagles has no shot. Since mini-camp is over and there doesn't figure to be much Giants news in the next few weeks, I thought this might be a good chance to take another look.

The obvious starting point for this discussion is that in the history of the NFL, 247 players have made the Hall of Fame. Of those 247, only one of them was a player whose contribution to the game came via his leg, and that guy was a kicker (Jan Stenerud). No punter, not even the great Ray Guy, has made it to the Hall of Fame. To say we're talking about a longshot here is a gross understatement. However, I'm not trying to see whether Feagles will make the Hall of Fame, I want to determine if he should make the Hall of Fame.

After playing at the University of Miami and helping them to an undefeated National Championship season in 1987, Feagles was signed as an undrafted free agent by the New England Patriots in 1988. He made the Pro Bowl for the first time in 1995 while a member of the Arizona Cardinals, which until this past season was his only trip to Honolulu. In addition to the Patriots, Cardinals, and Giants Feagles also spent time with the Philadelphia Eagles and the Seattle Seahawks.

Over the course of a 21-year (and counting) career, Feagles has amassed a number of NFL records. He has played in 336 consecutive games, blowing away the previous record of 283 straight games held by lineman Jim Marshall. Feagles also holds the records for most punts, most punting yards, and most punts landing inside the 20. It is that last record that probably best defines Feagles: he has never had the strongest leg, but he is consistently one of the most accurate kickers in the league.

As a rookie Feagles finished 3rd in the AFC with 24 punts inside the 20. After last season, he has now placed at least 20 punts inside the 20 in 19 consecutive seasons, an NFL record. This past season Feagles became one of only five players to have a net average of 40.0 yards per punt, though it should be noted that all five players have accomplished this feat in the past two seasons (and Shane Lechler has done it two years in a row).

I think it's pretty hard to dispute that Feagles is one of the greatest punters in NFL history, if not the very best. However, if history is any lesson, even the greatest punters don't get enshrined in Canton. Is that fair, though? I'm not going to argue that punters have as big an impact on the game as quarterbacks or linebackers, or even placekickers, but punters clearly do have an impact on games. It's harder to score when your drive starts from the 5-yard line than it is when it begins from the 20, and a good punter can really help a defense.

As long as NFL teams use a roster spot and pay money to guys who do nothing but kick the football, those guys should get some of the respect they deserve. Feagles has been among the best at his position for 20+ years, which should be enough to get him serious consideration for the Hall of Fame.

Poll

Should Jeff Feagles make the Hall of Fame?

Yes

599 votes

No - Punters don't belong in the Hall of Fame

44 votes

No - Punters should be able to make it, but not Feagles

38 votes

681 votes | Poll has closed

Land of the Giants: God is a Mario Manningham fan

cjmulrain — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 04:10:00 -0000

At the end of a very impressive first day of mini-camp, Sinorice "I can catch anything but a break" Moss suffered a hamstring strain. According to Ralph Vachianno, he hurt himself making a "difficult, sliding catch" and was tended to by a trainer for a few minutes. Luckily, he wasn't seen limping, but it's not known whether he'll be back on the field today.

In the same article, Vachianno reports that David Tyree has suffered a setback with his own hamstring injury, which is apparently unrelated to the knee injury that kept him out all last season. I have a feeling that unless Tyree can get on the field soon and be healthy enough to really impress the coaches, he's going to be the odd man out when the final rosters are announced. I'm contractually obligated to mention that Tyree made the greatest catch in NFL History, but the further we get from Super Bowl XLII and the more time Tyree spends nursing injuries instead of playing football, the easier it will become for the Giants to release him.

I think the Giants need to hire some "Wide Receiver Leg Experts" - and if no such thing exists, maybe they should invent it.

This oughta get some discussion going: ESPN asked each of its eight NFL bloggers to pick the 10 "building blocks" from their assigned divisions upon whom they'd build a Super Bowl contender. Matt Mosley has three Giants amongst his 10:

1. Eli Manning, QB, New York Giants: I think Tony Romo is capable of breaking through in the playoffs, but give me the young guy who has already done it. Manning is about to have a huge season. I'm talking MVP-caliber season.

7. Justin Tuck, DE, New York Giants: He took full advantage of Osi Umenyiora's absence to become the heart and soul of this defense. The smartest move Jerry Reese ever made was signing Tuck to an extension before the Super Bowl in 2007. Otherwise, Tuck would be preparing to break the bank. Also one of the best locker-room guys a team could have.

8. Brandon Jacobs, RB, New York Giants: I think Jacobs gives this offense its identity. When he's running downhill, he's almost impossible to stop. When he was banged up last December, the offense struggled.

I was actually really surprised that Mosley had Eli as his QB and that he expects him to have an MVP-caliber season. I sure hope he's right, though. I've also gotta say that the thought of a Brandon Jacobs/Brian Westbrook backfield has me salivating a little - could you imagine a better change of pace combo than that? The only pick that I really disagree with is Orakpo - how can you take a rookie who has never played in the NFL over Osi? Orakpo could be great...or he could be the next Vernon Gholston. I hope the only reason Mosley took Orakpo over Osi is to balance out the roster a little bit, as there would have been four Giants to only one Redskin had he gone with #72.

Tom Canavan reports that the Giants know they "let one get away last year." Kicker Lawrence Tynes pretty much sums it up:

"I believe we all think we could have had two (rings)," kicker Lawrence Tynes said. "I think it makes you a lot hungrier now. We were the No. 1 seed and you lose at home to a division rival, that's pretty much a slap in the face. So it makes everyone a lot hungrier."

Finally, the Giants have a big press conference today at noon in which they will make an announcement regarding the naming rights of their new practice facility. I'm no marketing or economics expert, but with the current state of the economy it just doesn't seem like a brilliant move to spend (presumably) millions of dollars to buy the naming rights for a practice facility. Still, I'm kinda hoping this trend continues, because at the current rate things are getting sponsored, by the time I'm ready to start having kids I might be able to get a naming rights deal for him/her. "Pepsi Mulrain" sounds like a beautiful name to me (as long as it comes with a few million bucks).

More evidence Jayson Werth is a douche

cjmulrain — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 22:39:18 -0000

More evidence Jayson Werth is a douche

I don't like Jeff Pearlman too much, but he's pretty much right on in this article.

Someone posted in the gamethread that we should use a blue and orange version of the Freakazoid...

cjmulrain — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:37:24 -0000

Someone posted in the gamethread that we should use a blue and orange version of the Freakazoid logo for Fernando. I decided to do one better.

New York Giants Notebook, 6.10.09

cjmulrain — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 08:17:07 -0000

A few topics to hopefully stir up some discussion out there in Giants land today.

Filed under "how far we've come," the Sporting News has ranked Tom Coughlin the #2 coach in the NFL behind only Bill Belichick. To think some people wanted the Giants to fire him less than two years ago. Shame on you - I was behind him all the way. (No, seriously, I was. Don't bother digging through the archives or anything, just take my word. Please?) Anyway, Sporting News' reasoning:

"Preparation is the key for the detail-oriented Coughlin. His team is ready to play every Sunday."

Bob Glauber of Newsday reminisces about "the Dungeon," the press room at Giants Stadium which is now shut down as the Giants have moved everything over to their new training facility.
Andy Benoit of NFLTouchdown.com ranks the top 7 (really top 14) defensive ends in the NFL, with Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora coming in at 6th and 5th, respectively. I would have flipped them and even moved Tuck up to #4, because I think Dwight Freeney is slowing down, but I can't disagree too much with his assessment.
This is a few days old, but I learned two things from it, so I'll link to it anyway. First, OTA's stand for Organized Team Activities. I never knew what that stood for - part of the problem is I assumed the 'T' was for "Training." Second, it sounds like all that posturing the last few years about Shockey and Plax not attending the OTAs was just that: posturing. Eli Manning on the importance of OTAs:

"You have the guys around the locker room, just hanging out, eating lunch together, those types of things, it makes the team closer," said quarterback Eli Manning, one of the ones who often excused the absentee players. "It makes everybody feel comfortable around each other. Everybody’s the same, no one’s getting special treatment, special attention. I think we have a great group of guys here. They come in and work. No one has an ego about anything. We’re here to practice hard and have some fun also."

Also a few days old from NFLTouchdown.com, Thom Brodkin lists his top 5 "Guarentees" (sic) for why the Giants will win the Super Bowl, followed by his top 5 reasons they might miss the playoffs. Among his arguments for why they're destined to hold the Lombardi Trophy again are that the Giants have possibly the best defensive line depth in NFL History, Tom Coughlin is a great coach, and quality depth at just about every position. His reasons to be worried include unproven receivers, David Diehl playing out of position (I disagree, but he makes a decent argument), and playing in a very tough NFC East. Most controversially, perhaps, is that his top 2 reasons on both sides of the argument are Eli Manning and the running game. On the run game as a potential weakness:

Are you seeing a pattern here? Strengths can be weakness too? It would be foolhardy to dismiss the loss of Derrick Ward. He wasn’t just a change of pace, he was a starting quality running back. When Brandon Jacobs was hurt or ineffective the Giants had a go to guy on the bench. Remember it wasn’t just Jacobs wearing out the defense for Ahmad Bradshaw's long runs at the end of games. It was Derrick Ward running by linebackers on pass patterns and laying the lumber on the inside runs as well. Jacobs has never played a whole season, Bradshaw has never played a whole game and Ware and Brown have never really played at all. If one domino falls the wrong way the best running game in the league could falter and falter quickly. Without it the passing game becomes vulnerable and the defense spends too much time on the field and the Giants watch the playoffs from the comfort of their living rooms.

He has a valid point, but ultimately I'm not too concerned about the run game. I think Jacobs is an elite back if he can stay healthy, and I'm pretty excited for what Danny Ware can bring to the table. Add in Bradshaw and Brown, and I think it's a pretty solid mix of guys. As for Eli, well, my feelings about him pretty much change with the wind (pun intended), but we simply don't know how he'll do without Plaxico and/or in bad weather and those questions probably won't be answered fully until next January.

Bill James & Jos Pos's Ode to the Walk

cjmulrain — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:06:24 -0000

Bill James & Jos Pos's Ode to the Walk

Doesn't have much to do with the Mets except a Royals-era Beltran reference, but I thought the regulars here would enjoy this piece nonetheless. Definitely my two favorite baseball writers teaming up.

New York Giants notebook, 6.03.09

cjmulrain — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:09:49 -0000

Good afternoon, Giants fans. Just a few stories making the rounds today.

This column from Bleacher Report pretty much sums up exactly how I feel about the "Plaxico problem," and I know many of the members of this community feel the same way

Passing up the free agency market and drafting rookie receivers instead was a clear signal he wants to move forward. I think the Giants brass knows the 2008 unraveling was due not to the loss of Plax, but rather to the team tapestry into which his role was woven; it was really the game plan that failed.

Fans calling for a Plax replacement should be careful what they wish for, and experts should know better.

The mainstream fixation on replacing Plax demonstrates that many Giants' watchers are missing the point, namely that to successfully move forward one must reconcile instead of replicate the past.

I coudn't agree more. The problem wasn't so much that the Giants didn't have Plaxico, it was that they weren't prepared for not having Plaxico. They have had a whole offseason to rewrite the play book to take advantage of the relative strengths and weaknesses of their current receivers, not to mention possibly the best ground attack in the NFL.

Mario Manningham is "ready for a breakout season," and Eli Manning offers some faint praise:

"He still has a lot to learn. He didn't get a whole lot of playing time in live action and in making reads and decisions. But he came in with a pretty good feel for what's going on. He's running faster, he's more decisive in what he's doing. He's not running on nails because he's a little indecisive. You really see his speed and his explosiveness and big-play potential."

If either Manningham or Moss could turn into a legitimate weapon this season, the Giants offense could be really explosive.

In case you weren't sick of wide receivers yet, and DeSean Jackson in particular, he responded to Osi's claim that Ed highlighted yesterday:

"But with him or without him, we are confident in ourselves. One player can't determine if they win or lose. As everybody knows, it's a team. You'll never know what would happen if he was there or if he wasn't there. All I know is that we got the victory and that's what I'm going to go off of. We've just got to get another two this year, or however many we play them...We went in their house and beat them twice. We understand what it takes."

I think it's pretty much a non-story, but for once I can't disagree with him. They won last year - now it's on Osi and the Giants to prove it on the field. One thing's for sure though - New York and Philadelphia have a nice little rivalry going in two sports right now.

Finally, the new Giants Stadium is going to be one of the greenest venues in sports when it opens. I'm no environmentalist, but it's probably not a terrible idea to make these stadiums a little more eco friendly - can you imagine the electricity bills they must rack up? No word yet on whether the Giants or Jets will be charging fans a "green tax."