Week Two: Giants vs Buccaneers

"It was the best of plays, it was the worst of plays, it was the throws of wisdom, it was the throws of foolishness..."

This is a modified excerpt from Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. It has been modified to  express how differently the Giants played on Sunday. More specifically how Eli played. A Tale of Two Elis you might say.

Aww dangit! What the heck am I doing?

Some of those throws in the first half were reminiscent of his early years with the Giants. You know the kind, the "What the hell are you thinking?" throws followed by the classic "Eli face". All three of his interceptions led to touchdowns. But he wasn't the only one that was lackluster in the first half.

After driving down field to put themselves in a first-and-goal situation, Manning doesn't see an open Bradshaw, but instead throws to the offensive lineman Will Beatty, who dropped the ball. Later on during that same possession, Martellus Bennett had a big drop in the end zone on third down. I know that he did make a great catch (spoiler alert) to win the game, but he has horrible hands. The nickname "Black Unicorn" that he gave to himself actually makes a lot of sense now. Do you have any idea how hard it must be to catch a football with hooves for hands?

"I don't have thumbs."

The defense, for the most part, played well. Out of the four touchdowns the Buccaneers scored, the only one that wasn't given up on a short field after a turnover was the last touchdown in the fourth quarter. Webster still looked silly on a few plays, and the Giants only had two sacks on Josh Freeman. Of course, the Haitian of Domination had one of those sacks.

I don't know what happened during halftime of that Giants game. I don't know if anyone made a rousing speech ala Jonathan Moxon, or if Coughlin gave them all a super drink that's actually water ala Space Jam. Whatever was done or said, it worked out for Giants as they scored twenty-five points in the fourth quarter alone.

Things started to fall into place by running the ball and completing short passes. Then, with over seven minutes left, Eli shows his guts and on third-and-two launches the ball downfield to Victor Cruz for an eighty yard touchdown (followed by a salsa). Eli has more way more Guts than any of those snot-nosed punks that scaled the Aggro Crag.

Nice job, Danny from Tampa. How many rings do you have again? That's what I thought. Get off the stage.

The Giants offense never looked back after that, scoring on the three following possessions, the last being the go-ahead score by the Black Unicorn. Looks like his hooves have turned into hands just in time.

"Of course I wasn't sleeping! I always look like I just sharted."

I guess I can't talk about the Giants/Bucs game without mentioning the ball kneeling incident, right? I know this topic has been beaten to death so much that people probably turn into Mike Francesa when they hear a debate about it on the radio. By Mike Francesa I mean the sleeping one, not the Mets rant one.
Okay, I understand that Coach Greg Schiano wants to instill a "never say die" attitude with his team, and maybe he wanted to send a message to the league that he means business, and maybe it worked against USF or Cincinnati, but diving low on the offense on a kneel down seems bush league to me.
It seemed like a move someone would pull in Madden when they were pissed about giving up twenty-four points in the fourth quarter and about to lose the game. Maybe Schiano would hit the restart button if he could. I wonder if he would still play to the whistle if he was down by fourteen points. I wonder if he would do that if he didn't give up a big lead in the fourth quarter. I wonder how he would feel about a team who's winning "playing to the whistle" and chucking the ball around on his team with five minutes left. Now maybe I'm biased, but if it happened to your team you'd be thinking the same way. Okay, I'm sorry, I really didn't have any intention of dragging that point out for so long.  Rant over.

So what have I learned?

Despite being overshadowed by the last five seconds of the game, it was an incredible win that showcased the Giants heart and determination. Despite playing badly for the first half, the Giants regrouped and didn't let their first half affect their second half. They finished strong. Maybe this has become the Giants' new team philosophy. It used to be gritty, smash-mouth football. Now it seems like a "play a mediocre game until the fourth quarter than unleash hell" philosophy (sometimes it doesn't work, though).

Hakeem Nicks and Victor Cruz overcame adversity this week and they both had an incredible game. Cruz even did a salsa dance in the end zone dedicated to his late grandmother. And Nicks had a game as big as his hands, being just one yard short of 200.

The defensive line needs to start getting to the quarterback more. At times, Josh Freeman had all day to make a pass and, with the secondary as thin as it is, that could be a lot of trouble.

Eli is the biggest, baddest, most unassuming monster in the league. His easy demeanor enables him to forget about his awful throws and toss a long-distance strike to his receivers. If Nicks has the biggest hands, Eli's got the biggest cojones. And now, he has a new "Eli Face".