Just want to give some props to my man Linval Joseph. The dude is a beast and an unheralded star of the D-Line that came up HUGE in the playoffs for us. The guy learned on the job this year, no doubt, but I can honestly say that the results of this every-inch-mattered, one-play-changes-everything Super Bowl VICTORY (!!) might have been different if it wasn't for the big man, #97 in the middle. The guy weighs 320+ pounds but was instrumental in pressuring the QB all game long. Even more impressive is the fact that it was against a perennial pro-bowler all-pro G in Brian Waters.

It's almost impossible to win it all without talented DTs in the middle, and Joseph was huge for us this year. Barry Cofield was great for us but Joseph has stepped in and stepped up when it counted the most. Props!!

What up everyone, I'm Mo, I'm a Giants fan over at Big Blue View. This team that I love decided to diarrhea into my eyeballs every week by having C.C. Brown as a starting S.. We went from our stud starting FS, Kenny Phillips (On IR after a 2-pick game against Dallas w/ Patello-Femoral Arthiritis in his knees), to him.... which is like going from Meagan Fox to Rosie O' Donnell, who could probably cover better than C.C.  I'm not one to cut down NFL players who are 1000x better athletes than i am and say they suck usually.... but sweet Jesus C.C. Brown sucks in pass coverage. When we played the Saints, C.C. had a team high 15 tackles. Good job, C.C!! Wait... that was because Drew Brees targeted him constantly, and except for one pass defended, he got the completions every time. C.C. watched Lance Moore jump up to catch a TD in front of him in the end zone and then did some whiffing spin move without leaving the ground. Tom Coughlin's face turned NFC-Championship Red on the sideline, of course, and how bad it was left me speechless, and then drinking. I'd never seen anything like it in professional football. Anyway, I wanted to get some input from all of you.Was he as much of a liability to the Texans as I think he is to the Giants? What is he particularly good/bad at do you think? Any specific good incidents or horror stories?

P.S.- Why does it seem like Kevin Walter is doing absolutely nothing this year? What's wrong with him?

Your GM. Seems really obvious, and thats because it is. Every bad and mediocre team's fans want its head coaches to be fired. The only two teams I believe have a case of poor coaching and great talent are Dallas and San Diego--- otherwise ownership and the front office are squarely to blame for poor performance. Zorn could be a bad coach, but Snyder and Cerrato are the true, long-term issues in Washington which directly cause and sustain mediocrity. Let me give you a five-year history of two teams that took completely different tracks based on ownership and general management:

To end the '03 season, the Giants and Redskins respectively had 4-12 and 5-11 records and we both chased the Eagles for the NFC East title. In the ensuing 5 seasons, the Giants reached the postseason each year, winning 2 NFC east titles, a #1 NFC seeding, and a Super Bowl victory (victory dance.... ok, done). The Redskins, on the other hand, were simply mediocre. Not quite bad, not quite good, with a couple losing records, a couple wild-card berths, and one postseason victory over Tampa Bay. What happened? Lets take a look at the drafts shall we...

New York Giants Drafting. 04-09

04: Eli Manning- Round 1, Pick 1, trade w/ the Chargers obviously. Chris Snee- Round 2, '04 also: (Torbor, Gibril Wilson)

05: Corey Webster- Round 2, '05 Justin Tuck- Round 3, '05 Brandon Jacobs- Round 4, '05 (also: James Butler, Ryan Grant)

06: Mathias Kiwanuka- Round 1, '06, Barry Cofield- Round 4, '06

And now, while the head coach and QB remained the same, a new GM, a guy by the name of Jerry Reese, takes over the chains in January '07. In April '07, the Giants add these guys to the bunch.

07: Aaron Ross, Round 1 Steve Smith, Round 2 Jay Alford, Round 3 Zak DeOssie, Round 4 (haven't seen his LB skills developed yet, but a pro bowl long snapper nonetheless) Kevin Boss, Round 5 Michael Johnson & Ahmad Bradshaw- Round 7

This draft class propelled us to a Super Bowl title, after which we experienced the loss of Pro Bowl DE and TE Shockey and Strahan. The following draft class contributed to a 12-4 #1 NFC 2008 Campaign.

08: Kenny Phillips, Round 1-- everyone knows how much I love this guy, future Pro-Bowler IMO. Terell Thomas, Round 2, Mario Manningham, Round 3, Bryan Kehl, Round 4 and Jonathan Goff, Round 5- like DeOssie, excellent special teams LBs whos LB skills are not there yet, Lawrence Tynes- Acquired in a trade for 7th round pick

09:  way to early to judge so I will omit all but Hakeem Nicks, Round 1, and Bruce Johnson, UDFA, who have seen extensive playing time and have performed well.

Ok, so?

Maybe we wouldn't be a successful team without Tom Coughlin, but without a whiz GM and talented scouts to procure all this talent for us, we would surely be nowhere, much like the Washington Redskins.

Instead, ,we see a trend for supplementing the current teams of the time with talent as well as ensuring success in the future. In these 5 draft classes, the Giants have around 25 notable players spread on both offense and defense:

Starting CBs, Starting FS/SS, Starting DE and DT, Starting WRs and #3 WR, Starting TE, Starting G, K, and obviously QB. Of these players, Corey Webster, Kenny Phillips, Justin Tuck, Mathias Kiwanuka (although not a starter), Steve Smith, Chris Snee, and Eli Manning all play at a Pro-Bowl level, with Tuck, Snee and Manning all having been elected to pro bowls.

My main point:

Because of excellent general management and an eye for talent, this team has withstood the losses of Pro Bowl DE Strahan, Pro Bowl RB Tiki Barber, Pro Bowl TE Jeremy Shockey, and its all-time leading receiver Amani Toomer and elite wideout Plaxico Burress and has earned a playoff berth from the 2005 season onwards with 2 division titles, a #1 NFC seeding, and a Super Bowl title to boot. Through these 5 drafts, this team has remained talented and well-rounded at all positions and has thus been transformed from that 4-12 team into a perpetual winner with a winning mentality and culture.

Meanwhile, over in Washington....

Since '04, the Redskins mildly successful to excellent draft picks have been:

Sean Taylor- RIP, Chris Cooley,  Carlos Rogers, Jason Campbell, Rocky McIntosh, Reed Doughty, LaRon Landry, and of the '08 draft class Davis, Thomas, and Kelley (Rounds 1-3) have all done virtually nothing while Chad Rinehart, G has played well but Chris Horton (S) has been recently demoted from starter in favor of Reed Doughty, and the best 1st Round Skin pick since Sean Taylor, Brian Orakpo this year.

These draft selections are very telling: These generously 'good' draft choices amount to 12 players, meaning the majority of the Redskins draft choices have been busts or non-factors, while the strengths of their drafts have been on the defensive side of the ball, where they are among the top in the NFL. Sean Taylor (again, RIP), even Carlos Rogers, underrated Rocky McIntosh and Reed Doughty, LaRon Landry, Horton, and Orakpo are all good to excellent defensive players. The defense, even under the poor coaching of DC Greg Blache plays well.

On the offensive side of the ball, with the exception of Rinehart and Cooley, in the past 5 years the Redskins have not added a good or great offensive player. Jason Campbell is decent at the QB position but has suffered from the Redskins' drafting ineptitude at the positions of RB and the entire O-Line. Now they face the issues of an aging and falling apart  o-line, an over-the-hill RB who is no longer nearly productive enough to sustain a successful running game, and there are no viable replacements for them on the Redskins roster. At the WR position, they have old trusty ARE and Santana Moss with young receivers in Kelly, Thomas, and Davis (TE) who could possibly be more talented then any of us know yet-- much like we did not know with our own group of WRs. However, any potential that group may have does not change the gravely serious issue of their abysmal running game that has no clear future on the roster and their aged and falling apart O-line which now stands to lose Pro Bowl OT Chris Samuels, now 33 years old, to injury-induced retirement. Washington has no young talent at the position to replace him and are now forced to use Pro Bowl TE Chris Cooley, their best offensive weapon, increasingly as a blocker. This situation perfectly illustrates the bottom line problem of this team, which is that poor general management has failed to fill this team's needs through the draft and have made them into a perpetually mediocre and seemingly worsening team that is incapable of contending in the NFL, while the exact opposite is true for our New York Giants.

Whattup everyone. I came to this blog randomly a few months ago and read something about a guy from Football Outsiders predicting with their ingenious formula that the Ravens would be a bad team this year. I'm wondering now how they would justify what the Ravens are doing considering there have been no notable free agent additions (besides Kelley Washington, but that can't be the difference between their predictions and reality). What's the deal? I want to see some crow get eaten. 

I'm bored and basketball and hockey have both taken an ugly turn for me these past couple days... so here ya go, my division by division standings

NFC

Beast- 1) Gmennnnnnnnnnnn 2) Eagles (y) 3) Cowboys 4) Redskins

South- 1) Panthers 2) Saints (y) 3) Falcons 4) Bucs

West- 1) Seahawks 2) Cards (Madden Curse comes true: Fitz gets leveled by Aaron Curry, or gets hit by lightning or something..) 3) 49ers 4) Rams

North- 1) Packers 2) Vikings 3) Bears (Jay Cutler has never been to the playoffs and this won't be the year either with the receivers he has) 8192) Lions

AFC

East- 1) Pats 2) Team Sanchez 3) Dolphins (Playing other division-winners in the AFC (chargers steelers and titans), league-wide familiarity with wildcat this year=worse record, no playoffs) 4) Bills

South- 1) Titans 2) Colts (y) 3) Texans (y)  4) Jaguars

West-  1) Chargers 2) Chiefs 3) Broncos 4) Raiders

North- 1) Steelers 2) Ravens 3) Bengals 4) Browns

The NFL did a terrible job making our schedule this year. Many things abt it do not make sense. This is what it looks like:

Sunday, 9/13     vs. Washington    
Sunday, 9/20     @ Dallas    
Sunday, 9/27     @ Tampa Bay    
Sunday, 10/4     @ Kansas City    
Sunday, 10/11     vs. Oakland    
Sunday, 10/18     @ New Orleans    
Sunday, 10/25     vs. Arizona    
Sunday, 11/1     @ Philadelphia    
Sunday, 11/8     vs. San Diego    
Sunday, 11/15     Bye   
Sunday, 11/22     vs. Atlanta    
Thursday, 11/26 @ Denver    
Sunday, 12/6     vs. Dallas    
Sunday, 12/13     vs. Philadelphia    
Monday, 12/21     @ Washington    
Sunday, 12/27     vs. Carolina    
Sunday, 1/3     @ Minnesota

1- Playing Washington in the beginning of the season should not become a tradition, it really is not an exciting game and to kick off the season the NFL should schedule a true NFC East rival-- which the Redskins undeniably are not, I couldn't care less about them--  or what would be an exciting matchup, like the Chargers, Panthers, or Saints this year. Preferably though, playing Philly. And for the second straight season they give Redskins fans an away game to begin the season. Stupid on both counts.

2- when the Giants play a team so inferior to us... Raiders!... it should be a home game for the crappy team. G-men will draw fans to the game in Oakland; I'm choosing a game to go to with my bro and I sure as hell did not consider seeing the Raiders for even a second.

3- why the Panthers the second to last week AGAIN, and at home AGAIN? Panthers fans should have a chance to see what was a sick matchup last year while we Giants fans should have a new matchup to see, like against the Bucs or Saints at home... think about that, Shockey on the Saints back at Giants stadium  or Ronde "Eli Manning and the Giants can be had easily"  Barber! You get none of that effect playing in Tampa and in New Orleans.

4-Lastly, Vikings in the last week, again?! Why do we close against this team again?! and away...again! Why is the NFL making our schedule as repetitive as possible? Plus we will end up extending our losing streak against the Vikings because we will most likely (hopefully, no jinx) be resting our starters for at least a half against them. Our second and third-stringers came within a point of beating the best theyve got last year, but we'll still end up with a 3-year losing streak. And look at the talk of how Eli couldn't win without Plax, losing 3 out of 4 of our last games, including  the Vikings game which David Carr Bradshaw Sinorice etc played.

So the main point...... I should run the NFL because the ppl in charge suck!

PS: I'm thinkin I'm going to go the Chargers game... watch out for me on TV, I'll be the guy being carried off by security for pegging a beer at Shawne Merriman's face as soon as he starts his lights out garbage

- Our corners cannot keep getting beaten whenever the blitz gets picked up and the QB isn't really pressured.

-Kenny Philips is playing great, and so is Terell Thomas (excels in open-field tackles if you noticed) even though he fell on that big play to Berrian or Bobby Wade can't remember who.

-Sinorice Moss played great today, I'm glad he's finally shown up for the Giants. You also have to love that Darcy Johnson has two TDs and in two tight end sets where defenses put a linebacker on Kevin Boss and an end spotting him as well, that DJ can make big plays.

-Does anyone notice how well Brandon Jacobs blocks?

-Hopefully 2, but definitely 1 of our playoff games will be at Giants Stadium, possibly in the snow, and we have the most talented 1,000 yd runningback duo in the league, meaning we automatically have a huge advantage over other playoff teams like the Falcons, Vikings, and Cards who can't rely on game-changing runningback, or in the case of the Cards, no real run game.  The most dangerous team to play at Giants stadium are the Panthers, we saw that last week.

- The mark of a truly talented team is consistency, out of the 6 NFC playoff teams, only the Giants were in the postseason last year and I don't have to tell anybody what happened then. On that note...........  LETS GO GMEN!!! bring on the Vikings or Eagles

 TC needs to get Ahmad Bradshaw off the kick returns and get Hixon back in there. It might be a rule that an eligible receiver can't play the down directly after special teams play, and I see two advantages to that: first, the Giants' drives are SO much more successful when we start out by pounding out 4-5-6 yards, giving us 2nd and manageable where we can run or pass. It frustrates the holy f*ck out of me to see a run up the gut on 2nd/3rd and long after an incomplete pass play on first down. It makes us so much less dynamic and thats when you see 3rd and outs like last week. I cant deal with it, and running the ball on 1st down means we can make due without Hixon in as a receiver for one play. Then, he can come back in after. The Bears do the exact same thing with Devin Hester and that is the end of  any similiarity I ever want to have with that awful team.

Another reason is that we face a vulnerable Vikings special teams that has given up alot of points this year, meaning Hixon can have his way and get us good field position and quick points on the board so our starters aren't out there too long. Another, you can't trust Ahmad Bradshaws hands so close to our end zone!! He almost fumbled away home field advantage last week. Let him actually play his position, after Derrick Ward picks up the 50-60 yards to give him 1,000 on the season.

"He can play with that injured toe," Jones said. "He can play with the soreness, combination of those things. I see nothing that would have led us to believe that he couldn't."

I hate the Cowboys and this is good for us, but for anybody to question Marion Barber's talent or toughness is retarded to me, especially the OWNER to the media when what you want from your team is to band together and and win out to get to the playoffs!

And T.O. screaming at his wide receivers coach after Jason Witten's Shockey-esque game makes me wonder how long it'll be before T.O. pulls another T.O. and wants out.

Plax might've shot himself in the thigh but the Cowboys shoot themselves in the foot every week without fail.

A note for the rest of our season, I'm worried about the runningbacks we face, next week against the Cowboys we go up against  Tashard Choice who we have 2 games of film, a guy who shredded Pittsburgh, then Adrian Peterson and Chester Taylor, then DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart. Our Run D can't play like it did against the Eagles this past week, especially against the Vikings and Panthers because AP DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart all have that ability to breakaway that scares the sh*t out of me.

Oh baby, Domenik Hixon. What can't he do? He's become a legitimate threat now at receiver and especially on special teams. We've got ourselves a Devin Hester/Josh Cribbs type return man on our hands. I can't wait till the Vikings at the end of the season for revenge for last year.... Hixon's gonna run all over their special teams unit which is one of the worst in the league.

What do you all think of our seventh-round steal out of Marshall, Ahmad Bradshaw?

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