I love the Giants. I have been a Giant fan before I liked any other team. Everyone in my family and extended family (save my father) is a Giant fan. I have never been more annoyed with my team.
The Giants walked into Seattle yesterday and got embarrassed. Plain and simple. They went in to Seattle under the guise of being a playoff team and walked out of there looking like a glorified version of the Browns. Never before, that I can remember, has a team been packed with so much talent, yet be so horrifyingly inept. To add a cherry on top, Jeremy Shockey had the unmitigated gall to go to the media and mouth off about the team and how they got outplayed and outcoached. Shockey, again, ran his mouth off at the media. And why not? It’s the only thing this team is good at.
This, remember, is the same Jeremy Shockey who, with about 30 seconds left on the clock and the team trying to get into field goal range, decided against going out of bounds and cut in to get tackled in the open field, costing the team 10 seconds. The same Jeremy Shockey who just loves to call out his team is the same guy who just can’t seem to manage to keep himself healthy.
LaVar Arrington came into to New York with much fuss and fanfare. He let everyone who would listen know how good he would be. After three weeks, he has no sacks and less than 10 tackles. Can you only blame him? The Giants’ defense, including Michael Strahan, tells us how good they’re going to be. The Giants’ “terrific pass rush” netted two sacks in 3 games. They rebuilt the secondary in the offseason”¦ yet somehow not one of the five touchdown passes from the Seahawks was contested. In at least three of them, there wasn’t a Giant in 10 yards of the receiver. The defense was atrocious, and not for the first time this season. In game 1 against the Colts, Peyton Manning tried FOUR TIMES to throw interceptions. They caught one. The three other times, those missed opportunities turned into points. Also, don’t forget the 11/16 3rd down conversions they allowed, most over 5 yards. For the sake of completion, the Seahawks were 10/16 yesterday, putting the season total at 27/46. The Giants have given up a first down on more than half the third down.
Now, should we put the whole load on the defense? Probably not, even though they’ve given up a fortune in points. We’ve already taken a look at Shockey, but let’s not leave Plaxico Burress out of this. When it’s going well for Plaxico, he’s out there making one armed grabs and firing up the offensive line. When it’s going bad for him, like last week, he leaves the game. He’s tipping perfectly placed passes into defende’s arms. He’s fumbling. Last week, Plax got good press for getting in the faces of the false starting linemen and telling them to get it together. Where were the linemen were this week to tell him to get his own act together?
I understand how hard it is to be an offensive lineman. Your job is to take bullets for the quarterback with zero credit. But for the supposed disciplinarian Tom Coughlin, how is he allowing this team to false start five or six times per game? How is it Petitgout, Diehl, and Snee just can’t seem to figure out the “hold still until the ball is snapped” thing? They had 11 false starts in Seattle last year. Six this year. How is it that no one can fix this false start problem on the Giant offensive line? It’s been going on for THREE WHOLE YEARS now. They brought in Tom Coughlin to instill discipline because Jim Fassel “lost the team.” Coughlin still hasn’t found them.
And how much of it can you put on Eli? The first interception thrown yesterday was inexcusable. He tried to force a Brett Favre pass into double coverage when he had 10 yards of open field in front of him. Now, however, we’re watching Eli mature, but none of the other players are. Shockey’s still the same whining clown he was three years ago who leaves games when he has a hangnail. Plaxico is constantly running his mouth but quits a game as soon as the team’s behind. Can we maybe start looking for some maturity in these other guys now?
For all the “improvements” the Giants made in the offseason, they’re the same team they were last year”¦ maybe a little worse. Strahan, Osi, and LaVar have been horrible. The corners get beat every time down the field. The secondary apparently has lawn chairs set up on the 50. Yesterday’s comeback was meaningless. If you’re up by 40 points at the start of the fourth quarter, you know what you’re not doing? Caring. The Giants could have put up 35 points in the second half and it would have only been useful for covering a point spread.
The Giants, so far this season, have been a huge disappointment”¦ except in sound bites. They’ve been great for those.
