Week Four 2015: Giants at Buffalo

The Giants have won two games in a row. Not only that, but this game against the Bills can actually be categorized as a “good win”. They played a tough team in front of their fervent fans and went home with a two touchdown win. I’m not gonna lie, it wasn’t a perfect game by any stretch of the imagination. There were times during this game when I had a sinking feeling in my stomach, like when you get a “I need to talk to you” text from your mom. Luckily, like those texts, there was no reason to stress. The Giants won big, and your mom just wanted to tell you she saw your old Earth Science teacher at Applebee’s, and she needed to talk to you because she forgot his name.

This win has given the Giants some swagger. They came into Buffalo as underdogs, but they left with a win. The team's confidence must be off the charts, but they can't afford to be too confident. They gotta keep up this intensity if they want to stay at the top of the NFC East.

I hope the Giants don't go "Full Boyle" and ruin their season.

 About Last Week

Since this game happened in Buffalo, let’s talk about what went right and what went wrong using a Buffalo staple as the evaluator...

Hot Wings

The defense played out of their minds on Sunday. They aren’t loaded with playmakers, but they are playing at a real high caliber. They are swarming the ball, tackling soundly, taking advantage of the opposition’s mistakes, and making plays happen. When Prince Amukamara pried the ball from Robert Woods’ hands to force a fumble, he was literally a playmaker. But it’s not just the Fresh Prince that’s stepping up. Players like Devon Kennard, Unai ‘Unga, J.T. Thomas, Jonathan Casillas, and (especially) Kerry Wynn have made a huge impact on this defense. They may not be the most talented defense in terms of personnel, but they are definitely one of the hardest working, and that’s what makes them successful.

Now that I'm seeing it, it's pretty sexy.

Eli Manning, despite throwing his first pick in four games, had an efficient game. It was the John Stockton of games. It’s not sexy, but it got the job done. He also did a good job neutralizing Buffalo’s pass rush by getting rid of the ball quickly. Buffalo Bills' writer for ESPN, Mike Rodak, said that the Giants averaged 1.79 seconds from snap to pass. That was the quickest in week 4. This prevented the Bills' defensive line from being the dominant force that they usually are.
Also, Eli is continuing to spread the ball around. He completed passes to five different receivers.

The Giants rushing attack even got close to a hundred rushing yards. So there’s that. But in addition to that, Rashad Jennings made the play of the game with his one yard screen pass that was turned into a fifty-one yard touchdown due to Jennings’ sheer will.
I know it’s early in the season, and maybe I’m fanboying too much, but we might look back at Rashad Jennings' “never say die” touchdown as the play that breathed life into this season.

What I was very impressed with, was how tight of a game the Giants played. They let the Bills make all of the mistakes, and they made sure they capitalized on them. I know it’s not shocking to learn that a Rex Ryan team leads the league in personal fouls, but 17 penalties for 134 yards is way more than anyone would’ve guessed.
The Giants, for the most part, kept their composure, played smart, and forced the Bills to lose their cool on several occasions. When I say “for the most part,” I’m of course talking about the Odell Beckham Jr punch. It was immature, stupid, and he should be better than that. I’m sure Coach Coughlin had a few things to say to him about it.
But I don’t think Beckham looks as bad as the players on the Bills who are tattling to anyone who will hear them that ODB threw punches. You want to be the bullies of the NFL, the intimidators, but when someone throws a fist at you, the first thing you do is cry about it? That’s about as fitting as Liam Neeson narrating a Curious George audio book.

This book is called "Curious George Stops an Albanian Prostitution Ring"

Cold Wings

There isn’t much I can say that the Giants did wrong during this game. But I can say a few things...

The Giants gave up another big game to another tight end. Charles Clay racked up 111 yards and he would’ve had a touchdown too, if it weren’t for a questionable chop block penalty on Richie Incognito.

The Giants defense also gave up a good amount of yards in the air. Right now, they currently rank dead last in pass yards allowed per game.

The G-Men gave the Bruce Willis Wheel of Movies another spin against Buffalo, and this time they landed on A Good Day To Die Hard... gross.
With just under four minutes left in the game and the Giants leading by fourteen points, Big Blue decided to go for the jugular to end Buffalo for good. However, their plan backfired and Eli threw his first pick of the year. (I’ll give you one guess to figure out who the pass was intended
for.)
Remember, this was the drive after the Fresh Prince's forced fumble, so I understand the Giants wanting to be aggressive and completely break Buffalo’s spirit, Bane style. But remember the words of Mr. Keating, “There is a time for daring and a time for caution, and a wise man understands what’s called for.”
Maybe they’ll just run the clock out next time.



On to the next one

This Sunday, the Giants are hosting the San Fransisco 49ers, who aren’t very good this season so far.

A lot of people think that this should be a win for the G-Men. It has all the ingredients for it. A west coast team traveling all the way to the east coast, a struggling quarterback, and a defense past their prime. But perhaps the biggest reason to be optimistic about the game is that 49ers running back, Carlos Hyde, is their best offensive weapon, and he’s facing the best run defense in the league. This week we’ll also see an offense similar to last week’s. Lots of quick, safe passes that’ll keep the 9ers pass rush at bay. 

So if the Giants contain Hyde, force Kaepernick to make mistakes, and protect the ball on offense, they should have another win by Monday morning. Basically, it’s the same game plan as last week, only the names and locations have been changed.

Maybe it’s just Giants fan conditioning on my part, but these games make me nervous. The games that should be a slam dunk for Big Blue will sometimes be like blue balls in your heart. With everyone talking about how bad Kap is playing, I get nervous thinking that his coaches will just say “Fudge it! Let him do what he does best!” and then Kap will do what he does best. All over the Giants.

Then again, maybe I’m just being unreasonably pessimistic.  

Vince Vaughn still lies awake at night because of that blue balls line, and other eye-rolling dialogue he had to recite.