The World of C

Giants Talk: The Time Is Now

2010-12-13T22:37:00.000-06:00

Losses to Eagles must end Sunday

DETROIT – What was to be a potentially dangerous game was not much of a contest sometime around the third quarter.

Yes, it was men against boys out there (and the statistics back it up). And yes winning 21-3 was nice when you consider everything the team went through in the previous 48 hours.

However at the end of the day, the win was only for bookkeeping purposes. It gave them the same record as their rival Eagles going into this Sunday’s big one.

The Real Big One.

Not many will be as big as this tilt at the New Meadowlands Stadium between these two. With even records, this game will go a long way in determining how each other Road To Dallas will shape up to be.

What is in it for both teams? It is the potential of not only winning the NFC East, but also the ability to claim a first round bye in the playoffs.

Chicago currently holds that spot, but if the Giants can end up with the same record, they would become the second seed in the NFC.

The loser would likely need three road victories in order to reach the Super Bowl.

The stakes are that high.

Philadelphia has been the hammer in this rivalry to the New York’s nail the last five times they have met.

There was the loss several days after finding out Plaxico Burress shot himself in that nightclub in December ’08.

There was the playoff loss in ’09 when the team in Blue had thoughts of a repeat trip to the Super Bowl.

There were the two losses last season, embarrassing because of the lack of defense by the Giants, surrendering 85 points in two games.

Then there was last month.

Every which way, the Eagles have been able to find a way.

The main reason is because the Giants have given it away.

Literally.

This cannot stand.

In addition to the five losses, the Giants have turned the ball over an astonishing 15 times. This is never going to get it done when the margin between these two teams are more even the 5-0 record the Eagles have suggests.

Call it “not getting out of your own way”, but any success the offense will appear to have mostly seems to end in the ball going the other way. None was more evident than last month when the Giants turned the ball over five times in a 27-17 defeat at Lincoln Financial Field.

Yes, the Eagles should have blown the game wide open by halftime, but they did not. Two turnovers deep in their own territory led to only six points. With the game on the line down by eight, Eli Manning had a first down on a scramble, yet somehow forgot his sliding mechanics and lost control of the ball as he fell to the ground that cost the Giants a chance to further move down the field for the tying score.

The flashy players in this matchup belong to Philadelphia so it is incumbent on the Giants defense, resurgent after their dominant performance here against Vikings, are looking for a second chance to stop Mike Vick, LeSean McCoy and DeSean Jackson.

In the first matchup, they were able to contain them for the first three-plus quarters before the Eagles embarked on a 90-yard touchdown drive late in the fourth quarter to take the lead.

However, as teams figure out creative ways to get pressure on Vick, he has take an inordinate amount of hits. The Giants defense made Tavaris Jackson their sixth victim of the season last night and would love to make Vick the seventh.

What needs to happen is for the offense to wear down the smaller Eagles defense by pounding them with the running game. Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw have each had big game the last two weeks and with both backs feeling fresh and the return of David Diehl to the offensive line, they should be a market improvement over the 61 yards gained in the first meeting when all but one run in that game went to the right.

Also, this game is on Eli Manning, who has also been a major culprit in these losses, to protect the football and not put the team in disadvantageous positions.

Note to Eli: Assuming he plays, you may not want to throw in the direction of Asante Samuel (four interceptions in five games).

You are not going to beat the Eagles on sheer talent, raw emotion or brute force.

The Giants need to play with their minds. Smart plays instead of dumb ones.

No need for anyone to be a hero. If a play is not there, move on to the next one.

Too many times, the Giants have made the game too easy for the Eagles. Whether it be a missed tackle, long third down, poor kick coverage, running shorter routes or not protecting the football.

This has to end now.

You can get away with sloppy play against the Tavaris Jackson led Vikings. You cannot do the same against the Eagles.

This is the chance, finally to put this “Eagles Hex” to end.

The time to do it is on Sunday.

Giants Talk: Happy Road

2010-12-13T22:16:00.004-06:00

Giants run over Vikings, keep pace with Eagles

DETROIT – After 48 hours of hanging out in airport gates, airplanes and hotel rooms in different cities, the Giants finally got on the field Monday night.

No one could have blamed them for being sluggish or a bit off their game considering everything the events of the past weekend. Yet, as evidenced on the field, this is as tough group in between the ears as any you will see.

The depleted Vikings were the victims in the Giants 21-3 victory at Ford Field, who with the win, stay tied with the Philadelphia Eagles for the NFC East lead setting up the division game of the year on Sunday at New Meadowlands Stadium.

“We’re pleased with the win,” said Head Coach Tom Coughlin. “I was proud of the way our guy’s handled the inconvenience.”

If you were looking for style points, this was not the game for it. It was a workmanlike effort once they were able to find their running game and put the clamps down defensively, rendering the Vikings offense useless.

“It would’ve been easy for us to come in here and be distracted and not be focused at the task at hand,” said Justin Tuck. “But we did a good job. We did show the mental toughness this football team has.”

The combination of Brandon Jacobs, Ahmad Bradshaw and offensive line had their way with the normally stout Minnesota run defense, which came into the game ranked fourth in the league.

Both running backs gained over 100 yards for the first time in December 23, 2007 in Buffalo and gained over 200 yards for the second time this season to bail out the skittish performance of their quarterback.

“We know we’re a good running team,” Jacobs said after his second straight 100 yard game, finishing with 116 yards on 14 carries. “Ahmad and I just go out do what we have to do to help the team no matter what it is.”

“We have a (offensive) line that wants to run the ball, and that’s what we do best.”
Most notable from this game was the absence of quarterback Brett Favre, whose shoulder injury was too severe even with the extra day of rest to allow him to play, ending his streak of 297 straight consecutive starts.

“I’m kind of upset that he had to end (the streak) against us,” Tuck would say. “I wanted the opportunity to hit him one more time.”

Instead, Tavaris Jackson was behind center and it did not take long to see that if Favre was in the game, he likely would not have made it through with the relentless pressure put on from the Giants defense.

The Giants gave Jackson and the Vikings several chances early in the game. Early in the first quarter, the turnover bug continued as Frank Walker stepped in front of Hakeem Nicks to intercept an Eli Manning pass, returning it to their 34 but was only able to get a field goal.

In the second quarter, Manning threw his second interception of the game, this time to Asher Allen, returning it to the Vikings 41.

For Manning, it was his 19th interception of the season and 11th against the Vikings in his seven game career. However, Minnesota only got three points out of the two turnovers as the first three Giants possessions yielded only one first down.

Jacobs would provide the spark the offense needed when he exploded for a 73-yard run down to the Vikings 13. Four plays later, he would score on a one-yard touchdown to give the Giants the lead.

“Our defense was playing outstanding,” said Manning. We just played kind of smart and didn’t give them any more chances.”

Late in the half, Manning would find his rhythm, completing six-of-eight passes on a 71 yard drive ending with a six yard touchdown strike to Kevin Boss in the back middle of the end zone to make it 14-3.

The Giants run defense, showing leaks the last several weeks, closed up all of the holes and there was nowhere to run for All-Pro running back Adrian Peterson. He would finish the game with only 26 yards on 14 carries.

“We just had to make sure he had no cutback lanes,” said Justin Tuck. “We played physical upfront, the linebackers filled hold and our secondary tackled well when he tried to bounce outside.

“We just played an all-around great game against him.”

Bradshaw effectively put the game away when he found daylight off the left side of the line and took it 48 yards for the touchdown, increasing the lead to 21-3.

Without a running game, the loss of receiver Percy Harvin (migraine) and guard Steve Hutchinson (thumb) in addition to Favre, Jackson had little place to turn to with the ball and became prey to a swarming defense.

“We wanted to have at least 11 men at football,” said safety Deon Grant.

The Vikings gaining only one first down in the second half until less than two minutes remained evidenced this. Jackson’s scrambling ability and elusiveness was to be a help, but it was not, sacked four times and hit 10 more on a night where he completed only 15-of-30 passes for 118 yards and an interception, eventually having to leave the game for a brief period.

Finally with 0:16 left, Jackson would become the sixth quarterback knocked out of the game by the Giants defense in a truly dominant effort that limited the Vikings to only 165 yards, the fourth time they have held an opponent to less than 200 yards this season.

In all, it was a resilient performance given the circumstances.

“I think they handled this in a very professional manner,” Coughlin said. “There wasn’t any complaining. No nothing. We didn’t have any frustration.”

With the win and the Eagles looming on Sunday, they probably said to themselves, “There’s no place like home.”

Giants Talk: Boos to Cheers

2010-12-05T18:45:00.004-06:00

Real cheers to come as season hits critical point

EAST RUTHERFORD – What a difference a week makes.

All of those deafening boos the Giants players heard going into the locker room last Sunday were in complete contrast to what they heard after 30 minutes yesterday when nothing but cheers filled the air.

See Antrel Rolle, we want to cheer as long as you give us a reason to, and there was plenty to root on with the score 21-0 at the half en route to a 31-7 crushing of the Redskins.

”We’ve got to continue,” said Head Coach Tom Coughlin. “Many, many big games coming up down the stretch.”

While the victory was nice, even the fans, despite initial worry of the 30 MPH winds at the New Meadowlands Stadium, knew the team from DC was going to serve as little resistance despite all the injuries the Giants had at receiver and on the offensive line.

Coughlin continued, “Getting better each week, playing better in the games, play stronger, being physical.”

After beating Washington for the eighth time in the last nine games, it has become apparent they are the equivalent of the “Homecoming Game”.

However, the fans look ahead and see that the real season will begin this Sunday in Minneapolis, where the Giants see the finish line. Their road to the playoffs will likely be decided over the next three games, and if necessary, the final game against these same Redskins at FedEx Field.

As Coughlin calls the final part of the season, “the fourth quarter”.

“It’s the time. It’s December in the National Football League. It’s the time.”

Facing the Vikings on Sunday, followed by the rematch with the Eagles the week after along with a day after Christmas game in Lambeau Field against the Packers is what the Giants have to go through in order to make the playoffs. Win at least two of those games in addition to beating the Redskins in the last game of the year would gain entrance into the postseason.

Four wins can get you a bye week and maybe even three. Winning only two may not gain entrance.
Justin Tuck would say after the win, “The reason we are still in this race is because a lot of guys have been thrown into the fire and have really stepped up.”

By getting two wins while depleted with injuries, the Giants will now begin to get some of them back. David Diehl is expected back on the offensive line and so is Steve Smith.

Hakeem Nicks may return this week, but it is likely he will be back along with Shaun O’Hara in two week against the Eagles. Given the way the reserves have been able to perform in their absence, getting them back can only be a bonus.

“Steve (Smith) and Hakeem (Nicks) back practicing so that would give us some more options,” said Eli Manning.

While those players were out, the Giants offense had to change the way it did business. The high wire attack that produced points but a league-leading amount of turnovers has had to rely on its rushing attack out of necessity and it has been very successful.

Facing a porous Redskins defense without the enigmatic and indignant Albert Haynesworth on the field, the Giants moved the ball on the ground at-will for 197 yards, with little need to pass with the wind conditions.

Manning said, “I thought we played really well, smart football.”

The new “conservative” offense proved to be just as effective and it is needed for the team going forward when there will be days when chucking it up 35 to 40 times will not be possible.

Manning continued, “When it comes to December in Giants Stadium you are going to have to run the ball and we were able to do that.”

They will also continue to continue the stifling defense put on display. Over the last six quarters since “The Booing”, they have given up only 13 points, returning to the type of effort that made them among the top units in the league. Harassing quarterbacks with their pass rush with their pass rush with their pass rush with four sacks and taking the ball away, which they did Sunday to the tune of six turnovers and if they would have held on to a few others, would have taken them in for touchdowns.

“it’s an important win for us,” said Terrell Thomas. “A very dominating win on our part, four quarters of football again.

“I’m proud to say that we’re back on track.”

Going forward, they will need to continue that effort to slow down a Vikings attack that despite the erratic play of Brett Favre, still possess big play weapons in Adrian Peterson, Percy Harvin and the recent return of Sidney Rice to go along with numerous talented players on defense inspired under new coach Leslie Frazier.

However, if the Giants have long memories, they can think back to the final game of last season for motivation. With their season over and the Vikings headed for the playoffs, Favre and his team elected to rub their noses in it with the game already in hand late in the second half.

“We haven’t forgotten,” said Chris Snee.

Sunday is a chance to extract revenge.

After that, they get their rematch with Philadelphia at home with a chance to stop their string of five straight losses to them and with a win, really begin to think big.

With wins, the cheers will only get louder.

Giants Talk: Running away

2010-12-05T17:45:00.004-06:00

Jacobs, Bradshaw and defense key blowout win

EAST RUTHERFORD – Before the game, it appeared New Meadowlands Stadium was going to play against the Giants with the winds howling around up to 35 MPH.

In reality, it was the Redskins only chance.

Any real chance Washington may have had going into the game when away amidst their own internal dissension, the pounding administered by the Giants running game and an unrelenting defense in a thorough 31-7 beating to win their second straight.

“Good team win for us,” said Head Coach Tom Coughlin.

“We added to our two core goals – the goal of playing solid, trying to get four solid quarters in, winning the physical battle and winning the turnover battle, and I was glad we were able to do that today.”

The win was their eighth in the last nine meetings against the division rivals. It also allowed them to keep pace with the Eagles in the NFC East and continue their edge over the Packers for the Wild Card. It was an impressive victory for a team still playing without its two starting wide receivers and offensive lineman.

Winning while those players were out loom large now as the Giants go into Coughlin’s self-described “fourth quarter” of the season with most of the healthy players expected back for next Sunday’s game at Minnesota.

“That would give us some more options,” said Eli Manning.

The combination of Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw gashed the Redskins from the opening possession to the tune of 197 yard, making the wind a non-factor. It was the fourth time this season the rushing attack ran for at least 185 yards or more.

Said Manning, “When it comes to December in Giants Stadium, you are going to have to run the ball.”
A big part of the reason for the success was the loss of defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth, who was a late scratch prior to the game by Head Coach Mike Shanahan after reportedly feeling sick late in the week and not practicing on Friday. The loss in the middle of their already porous run defense created plenty of lanes that patchwork offensive line, led by second year man Will Beatty and Kevin Boothe on the left side was able to find from the opening drive of the game.

On the second play from scrimmage, Jacobs took the handoff left tackle and go around the corner, exploding for a 39-yard run that set the tone of the game. Five plays later, his eight-yard touchdown run gave the Giants their first touchdown on an opening possession this season.

“That is a big help, just to set the tempo for the game,” Manning said.

The second drive was just as easy. Bradshaw ripped off a 21 yard run as part of a seven play, 59 yard drive ending in him powering his way for a four-yard touchdown to increase the lead to 14-0 just over nine minutes into the game.

Only the Giants themselves could keep the game from reaching blowout proportions in the first half as Eli Manning threw into triple coverage on a first-and-goal from the Redskins 4 and had the pass intercepted by London Fletcher.

It was one of the few blemishes in an otherwise mistake-free game. Four plays later, Redskins receiver Anthony Armstrong would fumble that was picked up by Keith Bulluck at the Giants 49. He would have gone in for a touchdown if his momentum did not keep him from stumbling to the ground.

“I blame it on myself,” Bulluck said afterwards. “I have a handful of NFL touchdown off scoops, but that was the first time that had ever happened to me.”

However, there was no worry as Bradshaw scored his second touchdown of the game five plays later to make it 21-0.

The swirling winds affected a field goal by Graham Gane late in the first quarter. With the Giants running the ball the way they were, there was not a need to put the ball in the air as much. Instead, the offense resorted to short, quick passes, many of them going to Derek Hagan, who finished with seven catches for 65 yards and was getting so open that Shanahan has to bench his cornerback Phillip Buchanon at halftime.

Coughlin felt the wind was a factor during the game saying after, “both ends from the 30 in you could feel it, but in the middle of the field, it didn’t seem too bad.”

Manning only finished the game 15-of-25 for 161 yards, playing the role of “game manager” to a tee. The offensive line gave him plenty of time to throw when they wanted, not allowing a sack for the fifth consecutive game, a Giants team record

The defense, armed with the lead, the wind and an inept Redskins offense went to work, harassing their former tormentor Donovan McNabb, sacking him four times, two of them by rookie Jason Pierre-Paul, who recovered a fumble and appears to be growing into a force on the field.

“Coaches tell me, “Just go out and make plays”, said Pierre-Paul. “That is what I was able to do today.”

Jacobs capped off his day in the third quarter with a pretty 28 yard touchdown run to make it 28-0. On the play, he found a hole up the middle and put a shifty move on safety Reid Doughty, bouncing to the outside and strolling into the end zone for the seventh time this season.

“Just coming out and reading what I had to read, making a lot of one-cut runs,” Jacobs said after finishing the day with just eight carries, but for 103 yards. “(Ahmad) and I just had to come out, go downhill, no dodging, come right down the hill and whoever is in the way is going to feel it.”

Washington could not get out of its own way, turning the ball over five times in the second half on their final seven possessions, their only positive coming on a blown coverage that saw Anthony Armstrong wide open for a 33-yard touchdown for the Redskins only points of the afternoon.

Said Pierre-Paul, “We would have like to have had the shutout.”

Thankful for them, if they need it, the final game of the season is against this same Redskins team.
Perhaps then, they can get their shutout.

Giants Talk: Offensive Simplifies

2010-11-28T18:49:00.001-06:00

Without weapons, offense still moves

EAST RUTHERFORD – Long before Kevin Boss scored the touchdown to help win a ball game the team needed to have in order to save their season, the big question coming into the game was “How would the Giants be able to move the ball?”

It was a fair question.

They did so with stunning efficiency and resiliency in their 11-point second half rally, resulting in their 24-20 win at New Meadowlands Stadium.

“We executed really great when we had to, said Ahmad Bradshaw. “We are really excited about this win, especially coming from behind.”

“This win is a huge confidence builder for this team.”

With all the injuries, their once potent offense that once shot bazookas was now shooting water, and with their nasty penchant for turning the football over, their margin of error had slipped to zero coming into the game.

Steve Smith was out for the third straight week. Ramses Barden was out for the season after loss to the Cowboys. To top it all off, second-year standout Hakeem Nicks injured his leg in last week’s loss to the Eagles that needed surgery, putting him on the shelf.

Did I mention that three-fifths of the offensive line was out?

“We simplified some things a little bit,” said Eli Manning.

No one is going to confuse the Jaguars with the 1985 Bears, but it was up to the offense to be as resourceful as possible and find creative ways to move the ball.

To the surprise of many, Jacksonville did not stack the line and force Eli Manning to throw the ball to the inexperienced receivers that found their way into the lineup due to all the injuries and force the makeshift offensive line to protect.

Instead, on the Giants first possession, they moved the ball well. Derek Hagan quickly got involved with a 15-yard catch and Brandon Jacobs showed flashes of former self, ripping off two runs for
double-digit yards.

Luckily, a fumble by Hagan at the Jaguars 3 was overturned after a replay challenge showing that the pass was incomplete. They had to settle for a field goal, but it set the tone for day in many ways.

“We had some good plays (called), Manning said. We just have to fix things up there.”

The problem with the offense was despite their ability to move the ball up and down the Jaguars porous defense, drives would stall inside the red zone. This was normally their strength during the year until the injuries began to decimate that side of the ball.

“We had a drop here. We had a hold there. We had a wrong route on one. You can’t afford to make mistakes and a lot of those brought touchdowns back.”

Manning is referring to a play in the second quarter, as a touchdown pass to Mario Manningham was negated by a clear holding penalty on Boss that would have tied the score at 10 late in the first half.
There were different looks. Gone was many of the multiple receiver sets because the team did not have enough receivers to begin with. After Manningham, Hagan had the most experience of anyone at the position. he was only signed by the team two weeks ago.

This meant that Bradshaw would be split out as a receiver. Travis Beckum became a part of the offense along with Boss as the Giants anticipated double coverage on Manningham as the Jaguars would force anyone else to beat them.

All the changes meant they had to simplify would they do. Only using the plays that would generate a high percentage of success and trimming the fat.

The Giants only had to punt three times in the game as they showed an ability to establish a run game that had been dormant for the previous two games and that allowed the offense to open up.

None of this would have been possible without the great play of the offensive line. The remade group was tremendous despite the losses of David Diehl, Shaun O’Hara and Shaun Andrews. Second year man Will Beatty got the start at left tackle and was a monster protecting Manning blind slide and providing terrific protection, opening up running lanes.

“(Today) those guys came off the ball,” said Jacobs. “They knocked people off the ball. They created holes. They played their butts off.”

Jacobs took the ball and run hard, breaking several nice runs, including one nearly taking off what could have been a 50-yard burst if not a last second ankle tackle.

His 87 yards on 14 carries kept the balance the offense wanted to achieve. It also justified Coughlin’s decision to bench Bradshaw after watching him lose another fumble in Philadelphia last Sunday night.

He would make the most of his nine carries, running for 49 yards.

Coughlin felt after the game that both Jacobs and Bradshaw provided sparks to the running game.

Trailing 17-9 late in the third quarter, the Giants offense came to life with an 88 yard drive, finishing with a 26-yard touchdown pass to Mario Manningham to pull within two and Bradshaw’s two-point conversion tied the game.

Manningham would say later, “I just had to make a play.”

With the game on the line with less than six minutes left, the drive would start at their own 31 trailing by three points. Manning found Manningham on a great scooping catch for 18 yards and when Jacobs followed that up with a 18 yard run of his own.

On third-and-10, the Jaguars sent an all-out blitz at Manning, leaving Boss as the “hot” read. Boss and Manning were the only two receivers on the field with the most experience, so it was no surprise the two were on the same page before the snap.

The blitz came, and Manning quickly spotted Boss to his left side and he made the catch, escaped an ankle tackle from safety Courtney Greene and outran everyone into the end zone.

“It’s important to be on the same page as the quarterback,” Boss said. “Eli and I were both able to see the pressure coming.”

“The last two weeks have been pretty frustrating, We definitely wanted to come in here and get a victory.”

Another reason for their success was their ball security, not turning the ball over for the first time all season.

While they had problems converting on third down and not able to score touchdowns in the red zone, the Giants found a way.

Playing conservative and smart is not a bad plan of action.

“We did a few things really well and I think that paid off,” Manning would say.

Perhaps less is more.

Giants Talk: Saving Grace

2010-11-28T17:48:00.004-06:00

Second half comeback spurs Giants to victory

EAST RUTHERFORD – When David Garrard faked out nearly half of the Giants defense and found his way into the end zone to give the Jaguars 17-6 going into the break, the fans at New Meadowlands Stadium had seen enough.

They vented their frustration, cascading thunderous boos from their pricey PSL’s on to the players, particularly the defense, as they would head into the locker room.

Led by an inspired halftime speech by defensive captain Justin Tuck, the Giants found a way, clamping down defensively and executing with precision despite limited weapons on offense to come from behind, ultimately pulling out a 24-20 victory to end a two-game losing streak.

“I thought our second half was outstanding and our guys came back,” said Head Coach Tom Coughlin.

In almost three weeks, the Giants went from NFC favorites to seeing potential meaningless games in December if they did not snap out it in those final 30 minutes.

The Giants rally from 11 points down in the second half was their largest come from behind victory of the season and biggest since September 2007 at Washington (14 points) allowing them to slip back into a first place tie with the Eagles by virtue of their loss at Chicago later in the afternoon.

“Coming from our two game losing streak, we really needed to win it with the race with the other teams for the top of the NFC,” said Brandon Jacobs.

Playing with the amount of losses on offense, Eli Manning found a way, directing the offense to two touchdown drives in the fourth quarter. The first came on a 26-yard strike to Mario Manningham and the game-winner, a 32-yard catch-and-run to Kevin Boss when the Jaguars sent an all-out blitz.

“It was a blitz they’d done before and it was kind of last minute,” said Eli Manning. “I just hit it to Boss and thought it might be that blitz zero.

“He saw it. He went up the field looking for the ball.”

The first 30 saw the Jaguars in total control and running all over the Giants defense at will. This was a shocker to anyone watching considering their number two rushing defense ranking in the NFL, allowing only 89 yards a game.

A combination of Maurice Jones-Drew, Rashad Jennings along with Garrard would gash their front to the tune of 145 yards, many of them coming due to poor gap-control and other times when defenders would lose contain.

“They did hurt us on the run and everyone in that locker room knew it at halftime,” said Coughlin.

The Giants own inability to score in the red zone during the first half help aided Jacksonville. In the first quarter, the offense stalled at the Jaguars 5, having to settle for a 22-yard field goal. It was the first time all season the offense scored points on their first possession.

Jacksonville quickly marched 75 yards in nine plays to answer with a touchdown and take the lead and got a 22-yard field goal by Josh Scobee to go up 10-3, as the defense appeared flat and uninspired.

Said Justin Tuck, “They did a great job of running the ball and keeping
us off balance as a defense.”

A second failure to convert in the red zone came because of a holding penalty on Boss nullifying a nine-yard touchdown reception by Manningham in the second quarter. This led to another field goal by Lawrence Tynes that the Jaguars would answer with 0:30 remaining in the half when Garrard found his way into the end zone.

On the play, the elusive Garrard rolled to his right and Osi Umenyiora appeared to have him for a sack but missed him. Garrard then reversed field, catching both Tuck and Jason-Pierre Paul out of position. Jonathan Goff was wiped out on a block allowing easy entrance into the end zone.

“He’s stronger. He’s a lot stronger than (Michael) Vick,” said Osi Umenyiora. “We got to him, but a couple times we weren’t able to wrap him up.”

Terrell Thomas intercepted Garrard on the first play of the third quarter to set the Giants up at the Jaguars 34. However, for the third time in the game, the offense was unable to convert in the red zone, having to settle for another Tynes field goal.

Forcing punts on Jacksonville’s next two possessions, Manning would direct the offense on a five-play, 88-yard drive ending with a 26-yard touchdown pass to Mario Manningham. Ahmad Bradshaw’s two-yard run on a two-point conversion tied the game at 17.

Said Coughlin, “That was an incredible play there.”

Jacksonville answered with a 42-yard field goal by Scobee to retake the lead. Later, the Giants defense would force a three-and-out and took over on their own 31 before embarking on their game winning scoring drive.

Manningham made a great scooping catch for 18 yards after Manning took a hit on blitz, followed by a knifing run of 18 yards by Brandon Jacobs, who got the start as Coughlin benched Bradshaw due to his continuous fumbling problems.

Jacobs finished the game with 87 yards on 14 carries.

On third-and-10, the Jaguars sent an all-out blitz and Manning found
Boss, who escaped a leg tackle by Courtney Greene and ran into the end zone.

“You’re kind of just hoping it’ll be close,” Manning said about the play.

“Maybe he’ll fall forward and get the first down. You’re not really thinking of a touchdown on that play. But sure enough, he did a good job.”

Garrard attempted to move his offense to the game winning score. However, Defensive Coordinator Perry Fewell dialed up the blitz, getting sacks on three successive plays. The final one came when Thomas got a sack, forcing a fumble that Antrel Rolle would recover at the Jaguars 39 to seal the win.

“It was a complete team effort,” Tuck said. “Sometimes you just have to win some games ugly.”

For a team as desperate as this one was, they will take it any way they can.

Giants Talk: Big Apple Turnover

2010-11-21T23:57:00.000-06:00

Giveaways threatening to derail season

PHILADELPHIA – The Giants to a man say they have to be smarter as a football team.

If that were the case, then the results on the field would prove a severe lack in intelligence.

What else can explain the turnover epidemic that, along with the mounting injuries threaten to take a season a promise into a season of regret with potential ramifications?

After turning the ball over five more times on Sunday night in their 27-17 loss at Lincoln Financial Field to the Eagles for the fifth consecutive time, you begin to wonder whether there is any cure to this deadly disease ailing this team.

Said Head Coach Tom Coughlin after the game, “This callous disregard for the ball, which has been going on for probably a year and a half here, and no one seems to be able to do anything about, again, cost us the football game.”

Clearly, Coughlin has no answers for this problem. Otherwise, he would have found a way to correct it. The “year and a half” that he references goes back to 2009 when his squad gave the ball away an astounding 31 times. 26 of those came in the final 11 games after their 5-0 start that dissolved into a playoff-less 8-8 finish.

This year, the problems have grown worse. 30 turnovers is the number with six games remaining. Unless there is some magic potion that the suddenly depleted offense will take between now and say, starting next Sunday against Jacksonville, the Giants will shatter that number by a healthy amount.

It is outright reckless.

“We’ve got to stop, somehow, some way, stop the turnover,” Coughlin continued.

All season the Giants have given the ball away much as a family doles out candy on Halloween to kids who trick-or-treat.

Come one come all! Free footballs for everyone!

Quarterback Eli Manning, responsible for 20 of the teams 30 gifts to the opponent said, “If we want to go anywhere, we have to fix it.”

You can get away with this lack of ball security against teams like Carolina, Houston, and in the first Dallas game when you have the talent and scoring ability to overcome it. Eventually, this catches up with you and it will always happen against an opponent of your equal.

“I have to stop the turnovers,” Manning said.

Yet, it keeps happening.

It is a miracle the Giants were even able to make this loss to the Eagles as close as it was. In the
second quarter, the offense tried to make sure the game was over by halftime by turning the ball over on successive drives. The first one came when Ahmad Bradshaw had the ball ripped out of his possession by Eagles rookie Brandon Graham, giving them the ball at the Giants 23. The second one came when Asante Samuel read Eli Manning’s eyes, jumped in front of Hakeem Nicks and intercepted a pass, returning it to the Giants 15.

Incredibly, the defense (aided by a dropped touchdown pass in the end zone by Jason Avant) both times limited the high-octane Philadelphia attack to only field goals on both drives when the score could have been as much as 21-3.

Give the defense credit for picking up the offense in those spots. However, it is becoming very apparent that this issue of turning the ball over is not going to stop no matter what the players or the coaches say on the subject.

The tired line of “we have to fix it” has become old. Even older is the tired line of “we beat ourselves,” a phrase Brandon Jacobs mentioned after the game.

“We cannot continue to beat ourselves. I don’t think that we are being outcoached or outplayed in many of these games.

Maybe so. However, when you turn the ball over 30 times, you can no longer use that excuse. Continuous self-inflicted damage becomes part of their DNA. Yes, they can move the ball as well as any team in the league (with the exception of last night). Eventually though they will find some way to make a mistake and spoil everything they done.
It is unusual coming from a team that only two years ago set the NFL record low for turnovers with 13. The 32 last year represented a 250% jump from 2008 and the Giants are on pace this season to shatter that.

Jacobs continued, “There is a dark cloud hanging over us right now”, speaking of the giveaways.

In that sense, they are nothing more than a good team that cannot get out of its own way. What good is it to gain 400 yards of offense if you are going turn the football over numerous times?

Manning himself has been a large part of the problem. His 20 charitable donations on the season place him second in the NFL to Brett Favre. While you may put the blame somewhat on his receivers for allowing balls to bounce in the air (or in last week’s case, Nicks failing to run his route fully), a majority of his interceptions are on him.

Said Manning, “We can’t afford to make mistakes.”

Bradshaw, for all the heart that he shows on the field as a runner, fighting for extra yardage and refusing not to go down, has grown the reputation as a man who will put the ball on the ground. The number of fumbles could have grown to six if not for Coughlin’s replay challenge in the middle of the fourth quarter showing that his wrist was on the grass before the ball came out, averting disaster.

Miraculously, the Giants still had a chance in the game down by a touchdown after LeSean McCoy gave the Eagles a 24-17 on a 50-yard sprint on fourth-and-1.

Manning’s pass for Derek Hagan was tipped and intercepted by Samuel for the second time, but Bradshaw forced a fumble to give the ball back to the offense.

Three plays netted four yards and the Giants faced a fourth down needing six. Manning took the shotgun snap, and with no one open, elected to scramble for the first down.

He got it.

Then, instead of going to the ground by sliding, Manning awkwardly stumbled to the grass. Problem was that he did give himself up, thus the play was not dead. The same play happened when the two teams played last season.

The ball came out and the Eagles recovered.

Game over.

“I have to slide,” Manning explained. “It has happened to me before, I just got to not worry about the yardage, we already have the first down and I need to go feet first and move the chains.”
In that one play, you saw what has become of the Giants season. A mixture of great play combined with the bonehead mistakes that now has them fighting for a playoff spot instead of growing their status as elite title contenders.

“You know it’s frustrating,” said Justin Tuck. “But the good thing about it is we can fix it. It is something that can be fixed.”

Easier said than done.

Giants Talk: Turned Away

2010-11-21T23:56:00.006-06:00

Five turnovers lead to fifth straight loss to Eagles

PHILADELPHIA – All season long, the Giants have made a habit of finding ways to shoot themselves in the proverbial foot by turning the ball over.

It was only fitting that it would happen again in horrific fashion.

Trailing by a touchdown in the fourth quarter with 3:13 remaining and needing six yards on fourth down, quarterback Eli Manning had no open receivers to throw to, opting to use his feet to get the first down and ten additional yards before going to the ground head first.

“I have to slide,” Manning would say after the game.

Problem was he did not.

On the way to the ground, the ball came out. It was reminiscent of a similar fumble he had at old Giants Stadium against this same team last year. The Eagles would recover the fumble and hold on to beat the Giants for the fifth straight time since 2008, winning 27-17 at Lincoln Financial Field.

Said Head Coach Tom Coughlin after the defeat, “This disregard for the ball, which has been going on for probably a year and a half here, and no one seems to be able to do something about it, again, cost us the football game.”

When referencing last year, Coughlin speaks of to the 31 turnovers his team committed a season ago in which 26 of them came after their 5-0 start.

It was the most devastating loss for this team that now sees most of its early season goodwill slipping away as quickly as their playoff chances.

“We’ve got to stop the turnover,” Coughlin continued. “This is our team, these are the guys that are going to play.

The five turnovers were a season high, bringing the total to unfathomable 30 over 10 games. It is a problem the Giants have spoke of but are either unwilling or unable to correct it.

It has also been the difference in these games with the Eagles where over their last four meetings the Giants have turned it over 14 times.

Brandon Jacobs summed up the feeling throughout the locker room when he said, “We cannot continue to beat ourselves.”

The disgust coming from the players represented a missed opportunity. In reality, it was a game that saw a heroic effort by the defense in the game they likely never should have been in at halftime.

Philadelphia had numerous chances in the game’s first 30 minutes to jump out to substantial lead, aided in part by the Giants and the Eagles own inability to convert.

The defense did a good job of containing Mike Vick and not allowing many of the explosive, game-breaking plays that the Eagles put on the Redskins to the tune of 59 points last Monday night. However, it became apparent that when Vick had time and the Giants were only utilizing a four-man rush that was when he was most effective.

Vick used his feet to score the first touchdown of the game on a four-yard scamper that saw linebacker Michael Boley lose outside contain by falling for the fake inside. Once he bit, there was open room to the end zone.

The Giants would then attempt to gift-wrap the game in the second quarter when Ahmad Bradshaw lost his fifth fumble of the year when rookie defensive end Brandon Graham ripped the ball away from as he was going to the ground.

Said a distraught Bradshaw after the game, “I just have to protect the ball.”

Vick and DeSean Jackson missed on a potential touchdown strike, having to settle for a field goal. On the next possession, Asante Samuel jumped in front a pass intended for Hakeem Nicks and picked it off, returning it to the Giants 13. However, Jason Avant dropped a touchdown pass all alone in the end zone.

Another big break came at the end of the half when Terrell Thomas blocked a field goal attempt by David Akers, keeping the score only 13-3 in a game they were thoroughly outplayed.

“We’re lucky that it was as close as it was even with how well we played despite the mistakes,” added Justin Tuck.

Akers’ third field of the game halfway through the third quarter extended the lead to 13 before the Giants began to mount a rally.

With their running game non-existent (61 yards) and the Eagles, limiting the Giants offense, they would help them out when a 31-yard pass interference call on safety Quentin Mikell put the ball on the 2, eventually leading to a touchdown pass to Travis Beckum to cut the margin to 16-10.

After allowing Vick time to throw in the first half, the Giants defense finally would get to him as Justin Tuck would get one of his three second half sacks on a third down, forcing a fumble that Barry Cofield would recover at the Eagles 27.

Two plays later, Manning found newly signed Derek Hagan in the end zone for a touchdown pass to give the Giants an inconceivable lead.

With 7:52 left, the Eagles started at their own 10 after a holding penalty and advanced the ball near midfield. On third-and-six, rookie Jason Pierre-Paul jumped offside moving the play up five yards preventing the possibility of forcing a punt.

After a stop on third down, Vick nearly fumbled the snap and Osi Umenyiora almost used his outstretched hands to deflect the pitchout with defense selling out on the run. Instead, LeSean McCoy found space to the outside and sprinted 50 yards for the go-ahead touchdown.

“We had a guy who was supposed to be man-to-man on McCoy,” said Tuck of the play. “Once he got out on the edge, it was a foot race and he out ran us.”

Turnover number three came when Manning’s pass for Hagan was deflected an intercepted for the second time in the game by Samuel who would then fumble while running for extra yardage and the Giants recovered before Manning’s fourth down fumble ended any hope.

Averaging over 400 yards on offense during the year, the Eagles held the Giants to only 208, their lowest production to date as the loss of Steve Smith and the reshuffling of the offensive line appear to be taking its toll, taking the spotlight off of game effort by the defense until late in the fourth quarter.

“This is one of the tougher loses I have been around in a long time,” said Osi Umenyiora.
Having given up the division lead, the Giants now must regroup this Sunday at home against the first place Jacksonville Jaguars amidst questions that they annual “second half swoon” is not already taking effect.

“We’ve got to take care of our situation,” said Coughlin.

What if it already has?

Giants Talk: Power Outage

2010-11-16T22:26:00.003-06:00

Led by defense, Big Blue collapses

EAST RUTHERFORD – When you are in need for the proper perspective, who better to speak up than co-owner John Mara?

“If I had known it would’ve ended like this,” Mara said. “I would’ve kept the lights off.”

Mara was referring to the outage inside the new $1.6 billion New Meadowlands Stadium that certainly is no Motel 6, where they at least keep the light on for you.

Of course, he also could have been speaking of the Giants team as a whole, particularly the defense.

Perhaps they watched the film of the Cowboys last three games and assumed they only had to show up and cover the two-touchdown spread.

Instead, they were on a the wrong end of a 33-20 score that was not as close as the 13 point margin would indicate and now brings questions of the team mental fragility and sudden inability to handle praise and prosperity.

“Today, I don’t think we brought the energy that we had brought the last five games,” said Justin Tuck. “For whatever season, I don’t know.”

What else could explain such a woeful performance? Don’t tell me that the offense played well in this game because even early in the game you could see that the same crispness shown in the last several games clearly was missing.

However, this paled in comparison to what we saw on the other side of the ball.

After a good defensive stand on the Cowboys first drive, smack the Giants in the mouth when Dez Bryant beat Terrell Thomas on a 45-yard reception and then made a great, athletic play hauling in a 13-yard touchdown.

Dallas likely would have scored again needing one yard to go for a touchdown on third down when Jon Kitna tripped over feet on an exchange causing a three-yard loss forcing a field goal.

Maybe the Giants did not know it then, but it was clear that the Cowboys were here to play. This was not the gutless, 1-7 squad who quit on their former coach Wade Phillips. They played so bad Jerry Jones had to fire him six days ago. Suddenly, that team had a sense of belief in what they were doing.

The Giants, boasting statistically the best defense in the league, had zero answers.

“They came out to play,” said safety Kenny Phillips. We didn’t and we didn’t play well. They did what they had to do, but we didn’t take care of our business.”

When backup cornerback Bryan McCann stepped in front of a potential Eli Manning touchdown pass and returned it 101 yards for a touchdown, the sense of dread began to fill New Meadowlands Stadium.

Yet the score at halftime was 19-6. The Giants offense at least was moving the ball, but killing themselves with penalties and backing themselves and long third down situations. However, all the defense needed to do you figured was to stop the Cowboys on their opening possession of the third quarter and get the ball back to have a chance.

They could not.

The defense held them to zero yards on the first two plays as the stadium lights (about half of them) mysteriously went out. Needing to prevent Dallas from gaining ten yards on third down, Felix Jones got 71, taking a screen pass and using his great speed with help from his blockers to sprint all the way to the end zone to increase the Cowboys lead to 20 points.

“It was a great play,” said Antrel Rolle. “They got us at the right time.”

All season the Giants defense has been great at not giving up big plays all year. Only four times had an opponent gained 40 yards or more on a play. In this game, it happened four times.

There was a sense of confusion among the players. Were they complacent or perhaps taking the Cowboys lightly?

Maybe.

If so, they did a great job of talking themselves into believing it wouldn’t happen all week. Yet, it was happening anyway as everything Dallas was doing on the surface appeared to confuse the Giants.

“They played well,” said Osi Umenyiora. “They hit us with a lot of big plays.”

The pass rush could get to Kitna the way it did to Tony Romo in the first meeting.

Because of the Cowboys new scheme to protect its quarterback from suffering the same fate, tight ends Jason Witten and Martellus Bennett in to block and occasionally keeping a running back, thus negating pressure and allowing time to throw, something very few teams have done until Sunday.

With time, receivers were in one-on-one matchups with Corey Webster and Terrell Thomas. Arguably, the two played one of their worst games of the year.

None was more evident that a sequence late in the third quarter when trailing by 13 points, the defense needed to make another stand. The Cowboys faced a third-and-22 at their own 49 when Kitna lofted a pass down the left sideline that Roy Williams brought in for a 27-yard completion for a first down.

On the next play, Miles Austin spun Webster around three times before beating him inside on a post after Kenny Phillips crept close to the line, taking him out of the play. The result was a 24-yard touchdown that sealed any real chance the Giants had of making a comeback.

“They attacked our weakness, and they made plays,” said Thomas. “They went right after us, and they kind of caught us off guard.”

Kitna only completed 13 passes, but threw for 327 yards, the most by any quarterback against this defense this season. The 427 yards was the most allowed all year despite the Cowboys only having the ball for just over 22 minutes as the breakdowns and the big plays opened up an old wound watching last year’s defense torched over the final 11 games.

With the injuries to the offensive line and the wide receivers, the production from the offense is going to drop from the 36 point per game clip they were at over the last four games. It was now time that the defense carry them while they found their way back into the game.

They could not.

It was an ugly loss. Not the fact they blew a chance to cement their standing as one of the league’s elite, but because it bring about questions as to how good this team truly is. Did the Cowboys expose a flaw in the Giants that other teams surely will attempt to exploit, most notably the explosive Eagles attack next Sunday night.

“Maybe this is that wakeup call we can use,” Tuck would say. “I think we are poised to kind of rebound from this.”

After this loss, you wonder if this defense can flip the “on” switch and return to their dominant selves.

“We just have to bounce back,” said Rolle.

If they don’t, as we saw, it may be “lights out” on the season.

Giants Talk: Short Circuited

2010-11-14T20:23:00.004-06:00

Giants fall flat in loss to Cowboys

EAST RUTHERFORD – The way the Giants were playing perhaps it was an omen that the lights went out.

Yes, the new $1.6 billion New Meadowlands Stadium experienced a power outage early in the third quarter. However, the Giants were playing as if they flicked their own off-switch long before that.

“We didn’t play well enough to win,” was how Head Coach Tom Coughlin put it.

Coming in pronounced as one of the elite teams in the league before the game, to the point where they were favored by two touchdowns, the Giants saw their five game winning streak and splendid play go into the dark as an inspired Cowboys team under new interim head coach Jason Garrett took advantage in their shocking 33-20 loss.

Coughlin continued, ‘We didn’t execute the way we’ve been executing. We gave up big plays.”

There were definitely many of those.

“Sometimes you play lights out, literally, and sometimes you just don’t have it,” was how Justin Tuck put it.

How ironic.

The game saw a team appearing to come out flat at the beginning under the impression that Dallas was the same team they saw on film the last three weeks give up 121 points, including 41 in their previous matchup three weeks ago. Unfortunately, the Giants did not see that team.

“There are definitely some things that we have to fix,” said Eli Manning. “Maybe a few things that we have gotten away with in the past that you kind of know eventually are going to bite you and today they definitely bit us.”

They saw a desperate Cowboys squad under Garrett playing aggressively and intelligently without turning the ball over. This was contrary to the Giants who from the outset, appeared to be in quick sand, digging themselves a hole created of their own volition that they could not get themselves out of.

After an early field goal gave the Giants an early lead, Cowboys rookie receiver Dez Bryant made two great plays, one on a 45-yard reception when he sprinted past Terrell Thomas, and another when he showed incredible body control hauling in a 13-yard touchdown pass that officials initially ruled incomplete. Kicker David Buehler would miss the extra point.

With the score now 9-3, the Giants appeared to be on the verge of taking the lead. The ball rested on the Cowboys 2 on third down when Dallas sent a blitz. Eli Manning spotted Hakeem Nicks in one-on-one coverage, but Nicks did not finish his slant to the inside as he slipped and when the ball got there, cornerback Bryan McCann intercepted the pass and raced 101 yards to the end zone for a touchdown taking what could have been a potential 10-9 lead into a 16-3 deficit.

“You can’t do that,” Coughlin stated about Nicks appearing to give up on the slant route. “You have to continue to run the route, run through the defenders, do whatever you have to do.”

Trailing 19-6 to begin the third quarter, the Giants defense looked to force a three-and-out from the Cowboys and force a punt. Instead, on a third-and-10, Jon Kitna found Felix Jones on a perfectly executed screen pass that was set up for him and he sprinted past the defense for a 70-yard touchdown, shocking the crowd at New Meadowlands Stadium.

“It was a great play, and they got us at the right time,” Said safety Antrel Rolle, whose bad angle on the play sprung Jones for the score.

Manning would lead them back into the game briefly when he found Mario Manningham for a five-yard touchdown to cut the lead to 26-13. Yet again, the defense would break down again as with the Cowboys moved 85 yards with ease, starting with a 46-yard catch-and-run by Bryant.

Another key play of the game would come in the drive with Dallas facing a third-and-22 from their own 49. Kitna found Roy Williams on a 27-yard completion that followed up by Miles Austin beating Corey Webster on a post pattern for a 24-yard score to put the lead back up to 20.

“We got out-executed and outplayed, said cornerback Terrell Thomas.“That’s not Giants football.”

The touchdown was the third of the game by Kitna, who on the afternoon only completed 13 passes (13-for-20), but threw for 327 yards, the most allowed by the Giants this season. The 427 total yards were also a season high.

Kitna benefited from time in the pocket to throw as the Cowboys used a “max-protect” scheme, using two tight ends and occasionally a running back to slow down a pass rush that ended Tony Romo’s season in the team’s first meeting. The result was only one sack and that came when he tripped over his center on a third down play with the ball at the Giants 1 in the second quarter.

“They attacked our weakness, and they made plays,” Thomas continued. “They went right after us, and they kind of caught us off guard.”

It took just 1:08 for the Giants to bring the game back to 33-20 when Kevin Boss hauled in a 35 yard touchdown pass. Dallas would give the Giants several opportunities in the game to get close, but the offense was unable to capitalize.
On a fourth-and-1 from the Cowboys 49 with 1:08 left, Head Coach Tom Coughlin elected to punt rather than go for it. The result was Matt Dodge punting the ball into the end zone.

Facing second-and-20, Manning had Nicks wide open in the middle of the field after he split the safeties, but dropped the pass.

“I tried to cut up field and tried to make a play,” Nicks said. “I should’ve looked it in.”

Two plays later needing one yard, the Dallas defense stoned Brandon Jacobs short of the first down forcing a turnover on downs.

Deon Grant would intercept a Kitna pass in the end zone, but the Giants would give it right back when a bad snap saw Manning chasing the ball and eventually fumbling it as Anthony Spencer recovered.

David Buehler would then miss a 34-yard field goal late in the fourth, but the Giants would see their dreams for a comeback end when at the Cowboys 17, Manning would have his pass intercepted by Alan Ball to seal the game.

“Every time we tried to close the gap they would answer and we would make mistakes,” said Boss. “You are not going to win ballgames like that.”

The third turnover of the game increases their season high total to 27. The loss, pending the outcome of the Eagles game tomorrow against the Redskins now make next Sunday’s game for a share of first place in the NFC East.

“We have only played two division games and we have a lot of football left,” said Manning.

All season the Giants had been able to overpower opponents past their own miscues.
Sunday was either a wakeup call or a preview of things to come.

Giants Talk: Best of the bunch

2010-10-26T23:41:00.004-05:00

In down NFC, Giants for now stand above

ARLINGTON – You are not going to believe this when I say it.

The Giants, yes the New York Football Giants are the best team in the NFC.
I know this sounds very hard to believe. Even I wonder aloud how much I truly believe this.

However, the results speak for themselves.

Right now, the results say the following after the Giants too-close-for-comfort 41-35 victory over the Cowboys here on Monday night:

The Giants are the NFC’s best team.

Of course, this may be saying much when you consider that the conference as a whole appears to be down last season.

Dallas, Minnesota and defending New Orleans, the “heads of the class” going into the years all find themselves struggling mightily. The Cowboys now sit at 1-5, Vikings at 2-4 and Saints at 4-3 after taking an unexpected thumping from the Browns at home.

Instead of these contenders, the top of the NFC lists Seattle (4-2), Tampa Bay and Atlanta (4-2) and injury racked Green Bay (4-3).

Surely, the Giants are as good if not better than these teams.

They definitely showed that on Monday despite occasional bouts of ineptitude and mental shutdown early and late in the game was their sheer domination, moving the ball at will on the Cowboys defense to the tune of 497 yards and five touchdowns.

Defensively, despite spotting the Cowboys 10 early points due the turnovers on offense shut them down. You could see this coming early on and that was before the kill shot Michael Boley put on Tony Romo, sending him down and out in the second quarter and having Jon Kitna replace him, which was the equivalent of waving the white flag.

Dallas may feel the game would have turned out differently. They can think that all they want, but this is now the fifth quarterback the Giants have been able to eliminate from the game as their defense continues to be death on opposing signal callers and emerging as one of the league’s best.

Yes, there were the five turnovers. Yes, balls continue to bounce off receivers hands (though, not entirely their fault). Yes, they continue to have poor special teams coverage as a 69-yard booming directional punt by Matt Dodge turned into a 93-yard touchdown by Dez Bryant. Yes, they essentially took the last five minutes off, allowing the Cowboys make the score look a lot closer than what everyone’s viewing eyes saw.

In between all of that, there was a team that showed that whatever the NFC’s “elite” is, they should be in that discussion. Surely, no one is making reservations for a return trip back here on the first Sunday in February for Super Bowl XLV, but having lofting dreams cannot hurt.

Why not? Heading into their bye week with four straight wins, they can look at the remaining nine games of their schedule and begin to dream big at a slate that does not appear as daunting as it did when the year started.

If you are telling us the Giants can continue to have one the top defenses against the run and the pass, than success will continue as long as the offense can cut down on their season high 21 turnovers. The rotating defensive line, improved secondary play, overall health (despite the loss of Mathias Kiwanuka) and scheme of Defensive Coordinator Perry Fewell has turned them into a feared unit once again.

On offense, Ahmad Bradshaw and Hakeem Nicks have turned into star players to go alongside Eli Manning. The offensive line that was maligned early in the season as being old and no longer productive has found the fountain of youth over the last month and resemble their past dominant selves.

When you watch them, they still appear to be a work in progress, trying to figure out their identity as a team.

They are winning while still learning.

It has been a testament to Head Coach Tom Coughlin, a man many in the (drive by) media believed had lost the locker room after their 29-10 loss to Tennessee at New Meadowlands Stadium when the Giants committed five personal foul penalties.

That afternoon feels like so long ago now.

Four wins in a row will do that for you. Yet, there is still much work to do.
In the NFC, continuing to pile up victories will lead to a return trip to the playoffs.

The clouds have turned into sun for them over the last month and now they hope for sunny days ahead.

Giants Talk: Doomsday

2010-10-26T23:30:00.005-05:00

Giants KO Romo, Cowboys to take NFC East lead

ARLINGTON – Beating the Cowboys, especially in Dallas always brings a smile to the face of the Giants.

On a wild night that saw them on the brink of disaster early and late, in between saw an incredibly dominating performance that saw them take out yet another quarterback and with it, taking their season along with it.

The Giants 41-35 shootout win may look close on the scoreboard, but make no mistake of the thorough, embarrassing beating they handed their archrivals at Cowboys stadium.

What was to be a going away win became self-inflicted nail biter as Dallas rallied in the final minutes to score two touchdowns and a two-point conversion, needing Clint Sintim to hold on to the onside kick to preserve the victory, their second straight in the Cowboys new home.

Continued problems with turnovers and special teams threatened to blow the game for the Giants before they could blink.

When they were able to catch their breath and settle in, it was never a contest. The Giants moved the ball at-will on offense and limited the Cowboys to nearly nothing on defense.

Eli Manning threw interceptions on two of his first four passes to begin the game. The first went off the hands of Steve Smith, who saw the high pass go through his hands and intercepted by Terrence Newman, returning it all the way to the Giants 5.

Two plays later, Tony Romo found an open Jason Witten for a four-yard touchdown.
The lead would grow to ten as Manning’s pass went through the hands of Hakeem Nicks and into the arms of Gerald Sensabaugh, returning it to the Giants 18 where they would settle for a field goal after Miles Austin dropped a would-be touchdown pass at the goal line.

For Manning, it was the eighth time an intercepted pass went off the hands of an intended receiver. In fairness, both of the passes were high and both players tried to make a great effort.

The Giants would finally get going on a 79-yard drive, culminating in one of Manning’s two touchdown strikes to Nicks, this one coming from seven yards.

The key play on the drive came when Coughlin challenged an officials ruling of an 11-yard reception by Nicks along the sideline. Replays showed he dragged both feet in bounds with possession.

Brandon Jacobs would then fumble on their next possession, the third turnover in the game’s first 16 minutes. However, one play later, the entire tenor of the game changed when linebacker Michael Boley came clean on a blitz, and with no Cowboys lineman picking him up, Boley drove Romo down to the turf and the Dallas quarterback did not get up.

Doctors diagnosed Romo with a fractured left collarbone, sacking him for the game and potentially the season.

Dallas would take a 20-7 lead on a 93-yard punt return by Dez Bryant, running back a 69-yard booming kick by Matt Dodge, outkicking his coverage and with several gunners out of position, Bryant made several moves and was off to daylight.

Manning’s second touchdown pass to Nicks closed the lead to 20-14. His third of the half came on a beautiful touch pass to Smith, hauling in his second score of the season to give the Giants the lead.

Just before the half, Deon Grant was able to strip Jason Witten of the ball before going the ground. Initially, Witten was ruled down, but replays overturned the call, giving the Giants a chance to tack on three more points and go into the half with a 24-20 lead.

The fact they were only leading by four points on the scoreboard paled in comparison to the offensive output of the two teams, with the Giants outgaining the Cowboys 272 to 75.

With Romo out, backup veteran, Jon Kitna came into the game and you could feel the air let out of the stadium and on the sideline. Dallas was already having problems moving the ball on offense, and now things would only get worse. Their offense could not run the ball (41 yards) and with their continuous offensive line issues, few passes were even close to successful.

Keeping their offensive barrage going, the Giants took advantage of good field position and poured it on. Manning threw his fourth touchdown pass of the game on receiver screen to Mario Manningham, who used a great block from guard Chris Snee and used his shifty feet to split two defenders to stroll into the end zone.

Jacobs would follow with an impressive run of his own for a score, taking a run off right tackle 30 yards while keeping his balance to extend the lead to 38-20.

It was a run of 31 straight points for the Giants after trailing 20-7 in the second quarter. The offense appeared unstoppable as they amassed a 300-yard passing game from Manning (306), and 100-yard rushing game from Ahmad Bradshaw (106) and two 100-yard receiving games from Nicks (108) and Smith (101).

The running game, maligned early in the season appears to have come back to life as they run at will on the Cowboys to the tune of 200 yards. It was their first 200-yard output since their 44-7 thrashing over Oakland last season.

Manning is now 19-4 in the month of October.

It wasn’t until the fourth quarter when things got crazy. Dallas passed on a field goal attempt down 18 to go for from the Giants 6 with 8:19 left and did not convert.
Bradshaw would cough up the ball at the Cowboys 42, but then a sack and forced fumble by Barry Cofield gave the ball back to the Giants.

Manning would then make an ill-advised pass on third-and-five at the Cowboys 47, where rather than taking a sack, he threw off his back foot and Keith Brooking intercepted the pass, taking it to the Giants 15 where Kitna would find Bryant for the 15-yard touchdown. The two-point conversion made it 38-28.

After a failed onside kick eventually led to a field goal by Lawrence Tynes rather than going for it on fourth down, the Cowboys would drive down the field for another touchdown to trim the margin to six before Sintim finally held on to another onside kick to seal the victory.

The Giants are now 5-2 going into their bye week and the only question that remains now is whether they are the best team in the NFC.

After Monday night, that answer may be a resounding “Yes”.

Giants Talk: Bury the Boys

2010-10-17T17:51:00.003-05:00

With Dallas reeling, Giants given golden chance

EAST RUTHERFORD – Perhaps the Giants expected to be in this position.

Their record stands at 4-2 and most observers felt that they had the potential to be exactly that.

I predicted 5-1, and if it were not for some ill-timed turnovers and penalties in that loss at home to Tennessee, they would have the best record in the NFC.

What no one could expect was to see the Dallas Cowboys where they stand right now, at 1-4 and seeing their season quickly slipping away.

Enter Monday night.

All of a sudden, what would have been a normal edition of this hyped matchup now has significant ramifications for each side.

For the Giants, this game presents an enormously opportunity. With a three game winning streak and playing in front of a national audience, they have a chance to become a serious NFC contender in the minds of many by going to down to Cowboys Stadium and getting a win.

For the Cowboys, the math has become very simple. Lose this game, and not only will they fall to 1-5, but they will be 3 1/2 games behind the Giants in the NFC East. With tough divisional games to follow including several treacherous road games, their season will likely be over.

A win however gives the Cowboys life. They would pull to within 1 1/2 of the Giants, and with Jacksonville the following week at home. Dallas can crawl to within one game of the division with nine games to play.

Not a bad position to be in, now is it?

Since 1990, 70 NFL teams have begun their season 1-5. Not one has ever made the playoffs.

This is what sits in front of both teams.

The Cowboys have found ways throughout their four losses to self-destruct. Statistically speaking, their record should be better than 1-4.
However, the game is not played on a stat sheet.

They rank in the top five in both offense and defense, but rank only 17th in points. The combination of penalties, poor decisions and turnovers has caused breakdowns on both sides of the ball leading the Cowboys to their own mutilation.

Dallas’ inability to sustain a running game has put the game in the hands of Tony Romo. No offense to Romo, but he is no Peyton Manning or Tom Brady where you can give him the ball over 41 times a game and not think he is not going to turn the ball over several times.

Poor pass protection due to a porous offensive line has Romo scramble for his life at times and under duress, sacks and interceptions have followed. Blame Offensive Coordinator Jason Garrett for either not believing they can run the ball or putting too much faith in Romo to bail out the offense with the right arm when even he has his own limitations.

This then brings Head Coach Wade Phillips squarely into the fire. His team has come under fire for being undisciplined and suffering from a severe lack of intelligence with each game that falls squarely on his shoulders.

There is no doubting their talent. Arguably, they have the most in the league. Right now, they are severely underperforming and running out of time to turn around their season.

The Giants are the team that potentially ends their season before Halloween.

It is an opportunity they cannot allow to slip through their fingers. They never thought they would be in this situation where they were 1-2 after losing to Tennessee at home and questions were abound as to whether Head Coach Tom Coughlin had lost control of his team.

Those questions don’t exist now after three straight wins and a chance this week to stamp themselves as an improbable NFC contender.

To do it against the Cowboys in Dallas would make it that much sweeter.

Giants Talk: Lion Taming

2010-10-17T16:49:00.004-05:00

Giants proficient in third straight win over Lions

EAST RUTHERFORD – Perhaps winning ugly is going to be the theme of this Giants season.

Not every game is going to be a polished and dominating as their victory over Houston the previous week, but they will certainly take the win at the end of 60 minutes.

The Giants appeared to be in full control throughout, but yet needed their defense to make a final stand with under a minute left, forcing the Lions into a turnover to seal a 28-20 victory at New Meadowlands Stadium to nail their third consecutive victory and a share of the NFC East lead alongside Philadelphia.

“We came in looking to be 4-2 and we are,” said Head Coach Tom Coughlin.

One look at the score would suggest the Lions were in the game the entire way.
However, this was only the case because the Giants were unable to put them away until late in the fourth quarter, sending many fans to the exits.

Brandon Jacobs’ second touchdown of the game made it a 28-17 game, but after a field goal by Jason Hanson and a three-and-out by the Giants offense, the Lions had the ball with a chance to tie the game, but an interception by Antrel Rolle sealed the win.

“Guys are coming together,” Rolle said. “We went out there and played a great game together, and that’s what it’s all about.”

The game started inauspiciously on the Giants opening possession when the continuing problems of Matt Dodge continued the plague the team when twice he was unable to handle an exchange on a punt, eventually fumbling the ball that the Lions would recover at the Giants 43.

“I need to catch the ball obviously,” said Dodge. I can’t give them that kind of field position.”

Seven plays later, the Lions would convert the turnover into points when quarterback Shaun Hill connected with Nate Burleson for a 14-yard touchdown pass to take an early 7-0 lead.

A 56-yard punt by Dodge pinned the Lions deep in their own territory, the Giants defense forced a three-and-out giving their offense the ball at the Lions 40 and five plays later, Jacobs scored from four yards out to tie the game.

In the second quarter, the Giants offense started at their own seven and marched 93 yards on 11 plays, culminating in a beautiful 33-yard touchdown pass from Eli Manning to Mario Manningham on a deep post for his second score of the year to go in front 14-7, eventually taking a 14-10 lead into halftime.

“It’s a play that we have been working on successfully in practice all week, said Manningham of the play leading to his second touchdown of the season. “We knew we wanted to go to it when the time was right.”

Hill had to leave the game with an arm fracture on the final drive before the half.
Detroit would commit numerous penalties to kill themselves on the afternoon. One of their worst sequences came in the third quarter when a potential first down reception by Burleson came back due to an illegal formation penalty. On the next play, Osi Umenyiora sacked new quarterback Drew Stanton, forcing a fumble that Justin Tuck would recover at the Giants 43.

The Giants would take advantage of the turnover, as Manning would find Steve Smith for 14 yards and Kevin Boss for 25. They drove all the way down to the 1 before not being able to punch the ball in with Jacobs on both first and second down. On third down, Manning used play-action and found Travis Beckum for his first career NFL touchdown to give extend the lead to 21-10.

“We got off to a slow start,” said Manning. “We had a couple really good drives and when we got down there we scored touchdowns.”

Four touchdowns to be exact.

As they have done all season, the defense set out to stop the run and they did exactly that, limiting rookie Jahvid Best to only 16 yards on 12 carries as the Giants were able to move Rolle into the box as an eighth man on early downs. The lack of success turned them into a one-dimensional team, passing on 49 of their 70 plays.

“We were going against the number one scoring offense in the NFC,” said linebacker Jonathan Goff. “We got some timely turnovers, which got them off the field. And then we were able to give our offense a chance to put points on the board.

Looking to put the game away in the fourth quarter, an unfortunate break on a third-and-10 from the Giants 13, when Terrell Thomas mistimed his jump and with Rolle falling down, receiver Calvin Johnson was able to make a catch and went the distance for an 87-yard touchdown to cut the margin to 21-17.

The Lions would force the Giants into punts on each of their next two possessions and had the ball with 8:23 remaining with a chance to take the lead. On third-and-five from midfield, Stanton found Burleson for another first down at the 42, but the ball came loose as he went to the ground. Acutely, Deon Grant quickly snatched the fumble to give the ball back to the offense at their own 42.

“I knew it was out because their sideline was yelling,” said Grant. I felt him underneath me moving, and he was already tackled so I knew he didn’t need to move, so I knew the ball was out but I couldn’t find it. When I finally saw it, I had it.”

It would take only three plays to stick the ball into the end zone as Ahmad Bradshaw ripped a 45-yard run down to the Lions 13. Jacobs would finish the rest, gaining seven and then getting his second touchdown of the game from six yards out.

Manning was not great, but efficient, going 20-of-30 for 177 yards and 2 touchdowns.
It was another good performance by the defense, limiting the Lions for most of the afternoon and made their only gaffe with the Johnson play and being in disadvantageous field position after the fumble on the punt by Dodge.

At 4-2, a trip to Dallas awaits the Giants, who by virtue of their loss to the Vikings, can go 3 1/2 games ahead in the division with a win.

“We’ve earned it,” said Coughlin. We’ve earned the 4-2. We battled our way back and let’s hope it keeps going.”

They would definitely love to shove dirt into the Cowboys grave.

Giants Talk: Defensive Stand

2010-10-10T17:36:00.004-05:00

Giants defense emerging as force early in season

HOUSTON - The Giants desperately needed an attitude adjustment after last year.

There is no need to recite the ugly numbers from a season ago because everyone can recite and recall them as if it were the alphabet.

Before the year, the defense insisted things would be different, determined to exterminate all of those bad memories and reestablish themselves as the strong unit that carried the team to a Super Bowl victory.

The results from the first three games were inconclusive. However, the last two games have presented sufficient evidence that this may defense may be a force.

“Talent is potential and potential means you haven't done anything,” said Justin Tuck. “We're learning that. In 2007, we were a dummy defense. We're getting away from that and trying to make our own identity now."

After sacking Chicago quarterback Jay Cutler 10 times in their 17-3 victory over the Bears, the Giants defense played its most complete game of the season, dismantling the Texans 34-10.

"When the offense is playing well, the defense is playing well and we just feed off of each other,” said Osi Umenyiora. “That's the whole team concept."

It was so complete it was stunning. No one could really know what to make of the result except to wonder aloud as to whether this group can play anywhere close to the level that they would display on Sunday.

The numbers did not lie. Averaging 31.5 points per game going into the contest and putting up big numbers in terms of passing and rushing yardage, the Texans were a big offensive team.

Said Head Coach Tom Coughlin, "The key thing is that we've talked about having to be a smarter football team and I think our defense did a good job of that.

As the Giants scored quickly to begin the game, taking a 21-0 lead early in the second quarter, Houston had to change plans quickly in order to get back into the game. However, part of the reason they were down three touchdowns was because of the play of the defense.

The Texans first two drives of the game netted only one first down, coming on the opening play of the game, leading to two punts.

After Eli Manning connected with Hakeem Nicks for a touchdown, Corey Webster intercepted Matt Schaub’s pass by stepping in front of Andre Johnson to pick it off at the Texans 40 and four plays later, the Giants had a 14-0 lead.

Another three and out gave the Giants great field position and before the Texans knew it, they were down 21 points and unable to get gain yards on offense.

The first half domination was complete from start to finish. The defense held them to only 74 yards and four first downs as they saw themselves down 24-3 on the scoreboard.

Much like Cutler the week before, Schaub was under pressure from this suddenly resurgent defensive line. Sacking him several times, batting down passes at the line of scrimmage to negate the tendency of their offense to utilize many three step drops.

"The guys up front, when they couldn't get there, put their hands up to knock the ball down and that's great,” said Corey Webster. “We'd like to get our hands on some of those tipped balls but they did a great job of putting pressure on him and getting their hands up when they needed to."

Give Giants Defensive Coordinator Perry Fewell credit for studying the tendencies of the Texans and relaying the message to his players.

Their main goal was to slow down Arian Foster, one the league’s leading running backs. To a man, they all felt that their offense started with him before they unleashed their passing game.

Foster only gained 25 yards on 11 carries as the Giants played in control, staying in their gaps and not allowing any cutback lanes, something the Colts and the Raiders could not do where Foster had his two best games of the season.

"We didn't over penetrate,” said Coughlin. “We didn't give them the big cutback lanes; we stayed at home. We seemed to always have an extra guy hanging over on the back side. The safeties did a good job coming down and attacking."

With nothing in the running game and trailing by hefty margin, the game was on Schaub to win it with his arm. This time, the defensive line was able to dial up pressure and with numerous bodies in the secondary to flood passing lanes, he had very few places to go with the ball and few of their passing attempts could be considered successful.

Schaub finished the game only 16-of-34 for 196 yards, a down performance for one of the NFL’s top statistical quarterbacks.

Said Umenyiora, "Our offense put them in a situation where they had to pass the ball.”

Umenyiora was part of the reason for the Texans lack of success passing, who despite battling knee problems during the week, continues to play exceptional on Sunday. He was able to follow up his three sack, two forced fumble effort against Chicago with a two-sack, two forced fumble game against the Texans, wreaking havoc on their game plan.

If the Giants are going to get this type of play from Umenyiora to go along with Justin Tuck and the continued inside production from Barry Cofield and Chris Canty, than this becomes a defense to contend with.

Jonathan Goff continues his development, showcased by an impressive play blowing up a gap and taking down Foster for a three-yard loss early on.

The back end of the secondary has been tremendous as Fewell has taken to using a three-safety alignment with Kenny Phillips, Antrel Rolle and Deon Grant with the results so far being tremendous as the defense now ranks number one in the league in pass defense.

With great coverage play and the line creating penetration shutting down the run and forcing opponents to pass, perhaps the Giants can become that top defense again.

"Anytime you win a game it feels good,” said Tuck. “Hopefully we can make it three next week."

If they can, perhaps they can have lofty dreams this season.

Giants Talk: Tex Message

2010-10-10T16:31:00.004-05:00

Giants dominate in win over Texans

HOUSTON – What a difference two weeks make?

After their embarrassing loss to Tennessee, there were many questioning the Giants leadership and whether the season was about to unravel.

Now, the question becomes whether they may be the best team in the NFC.

Such is the crazy world week-to-week in the NFL, and right now, the Giants are riding high. It was never more so than their stunning wire-to-wire 34-10 victory over the Texans at Reliant Stadium.

The win was the first time since last October where they won two consecutive games, and the win vaults them into first place in the NFC along with the Redskins.

"Two wins in a row,” said Head Coach Tom Coughlin. “Let's keep it going."

“We talked about having to play better,” we talked about having to improve. We talked about this being a very important game, that we did rise in our performance.

We did show the quality of our team in all three phases, the way we might be able to operate together. So hopefully were in that direction."

What we saw was a team with incredible energy and control. It was a coming out party for wide receiver Hakeem Nicks, as he dissected a porous Texans secondary.

For the defense, their performance against a high-powered Texans offense was arguably their best in several seasons.

The first half saw the Giants play their most complete game in recent memory, jumping up to a 21-0 lead in the game’s first 17 minutes, eventually take a 24-3 lead into the half.

An eight play, 85-yard drive early in the first quarter ended with an Eli Manning six-yard touchdown pass to Nicks, who was able to get his feet over the pile-on for the first score of the game.

“We stayed in good rhythm,” said Manning, who is now 18-4 in October. “We didn't have a whole lot of negative plays, moving backwards and penalties.

On the Texans ensuing drive, cornerback Corey Webster had great coverage and stepped in front to intercept the pass from quarterback Matt Schaub intended for Andre Johnson at the Texans 40.

Nicks nearly scored on catch-and-run from 28 yards, but the officials marked him down at the Texans 1. Brandon Jacobs would score on the next play to make it 14-0.

Another three-and-out deep in their own territory gave the Giants the ball at their own 45. It took only six plays to stick it in the end zone as it became apparent that they had a mismatch with Nicks against both of the Texans starting corners Brice McCain and rookie Kareem Jackson. On a third-and-four from the 12, Manning found Nicks all alone in the end zone to increase the margin to 21.

"We just went out there and played to the game plan,” said Nicks. “Coach (Kevin Gilbride) put together a very good game plan for us and we just wanted to go out there and execute."

In all phases, the Giants dominated the first half, outgaining them in yards 254 to 74 in addition to having 17 first downs to the Texans 4.

For whatever reason, leading by 21 points, the Giants began to go away from a running game that they had some success running the ball and began to throw incessantly. Manning had one pass intercepted by Sherrick McManis and on the next drive on a third-and-15 deep in their own end, threw an inexplicably interception to Jackson that led to a touchdown by Derrick Ward to make it 24-10.

At one point in the third quarter, the Giants threw the ball eight consecutive times despite the sizable lead. Many of them came with Manning checking out of running plays due to coverage matchups they had with the Texans secondary.

Said Manning, “We've got to stay out of those situations.”

There was no need to do it considering the way the defense was playing. From the outset, they set out to systematically break down an offense averaging 31.5 points per game coming in and they did that, limiting them to only 195 total yards and only 2-for-11 on third down.

Counting the win over Chicago, opponents are now 2-for-24 the last two games.

Of the 11 drives Houston had, the Giants defense forced them into seven punts, six of them coming in five plays or less. Arian Foster, the NFL’s leading rusher had nowhere to run, gaining only 25 yards on 11 carries and was not on the field for most of the second half.

“I think the thing we did was we squared up on them a little bit more,” said Justin Tuck. “We took away their angles as far as him cutting back. We just made a flat line."

Schaub was under pressure from the Giants defense, sacking him three times, forcing two fumbles, and recovering one. They also did a great job of disrupting their timing by batting down numerous passes at the line of scrimmage and make Johnson, the league’s best receiver, a non-factor.

Johnson had only five catches for 95 yards, but Webster had great coverage on him the entire afternoon when you consider he was targeted 13 times.

“We're doing a great job of taking steps in the right direction,” said Corey Webster. “We're going to go back Monday, keep working hard and hopefully we can build off of this."

The Giants would finish off the Texans in the fourth quarter, completing a nine-play, 73 yard drive, ending with Manning’s third touchdown pass of the day, this time a four-yard pass to Steve Smith (his first of the season) for the game’s final margin.

It was their fourth red zone touchdown of the game in four attempts. They also seized full control of time of possession, having the ball for nearly 39 minutes.

Despite his two third quarter interceptions, Manning finished the day 27-of-42 for 297 yards. Twelve of those completions went to Nicks, who finished with his career high 130 yards.

Next Sunday, the Giants are back at home to take on the Detroit Lions, losers of their last 23 road games. It is important that they do not suffer a letdown.

Right now, things may be going too well for that to happen.

Giants Talk: Defense Cut down Jay

2010-10-03T23:53:00.006-05:00

Big Blue dominates again, KO’s Cutler

EAST RUTHERFORD – There are some games when a team and a particular player are just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Enter the Chicago Bears offensive line and Jay Cutler.

The New Meadowlands Stadium was not the right place to be for them on Sunday night against the Giants defensive line that seemed to be coming in waves on every play.

With numerous legends that put on the blue uniform that played to the highest of levels for the franchise, its current edition would pay tribute to its trademark past.

“We need to have a Ring of Honor ceremony every week,” said Justin Tuck.

From the beginning of the game until the end, every Chicago quarterback dropping back to pass for found themselves under siege, unable to escape the onslaught.

As a result, Cutler had nowhere to go but down, time and time again.

The Giants sacked Cutler an NFL record nine times in the first half out of the Bears 27 offensive plays, an average of once every three plays.

“We were just in position tonight to rush the passer,” Umenyiora said. “We were able to rush the passer hard tonight. Sacks like that – sometimes they come in bunches.”

Chicago utilized five and seven step drops as a means to attempt to throw the ball downfield under Offensive Coordinator Mike Martz. This allowed the defensive line to focus on nothing more than going after the quarterback and with the secondary playing great in pass coverage Cutler had little place to go with the ball.

“They played very, very well,” said Head Coach Tom Coughlin about the defense. “I know that it was very difficult for Chicago to get a first down (six) and we really did well against them on third down (0-for-13).”

The result was Cutler continuously finding himself on his back.

It took three plays into Chicago’s first drive for Osi Umenyiora to put him down for the first sack. Chris Canty would get the second on their next possession.

This was only the beginning of what was to come.

“That is the way we are capable of playing,” said Umenyiora.

Despite the improvement in the Giants defense under Defensive Coordinator Perry Fewell, the continued issue was the lack of consistent pass rush from a defensive line that is large on bodies, talent and paychecks and short on performance. Their inability to generate pressure from their four-man line has had a trickledown effect not allowing the linebackers or the secondary to make plays.

Sunday night was a different story.

In the second quarter, it was an incredible display. The Bears would run 16 plays and the Giants would amass a record seven sacks and forcing three fumbles utilizing very few blitzes.

“We were jelling tonight,” said defensive back Terrell Thomas. “Our d-line wouldn’t let him throw the ball, and they did a great job of attacking the quarterback.”

This was as perfect of a defensive performance you could get. It brought back memories of their 12-sack performance on Donovan McNabb back in 2007 and then in the Super Bowl against Tom Brady and the Patriots.

For the most part, that rush has been missing in action since the middle of 2008. With the help of the atrocious Bears offensive line, the Giants enjoyed a blast from their past.

Every quarterback has an internal clock on when to get rid of the ball. Once that clock expires, he has three options: throw the ball away, check down for minimal yardage, or end up on the ground.

While several of the sacks came from the relentless pressure (Umenyiora and Tuck each had three sacks), there were several in which Cutler could have gotten rid of the ball and live to see another play.

Instead, Cutler waited for a receiver to get open. Problem was there was no one open. The result was the quarterback on his back.

It was a great team defensive effort.

“Our d-line did a great job,” said Thomas. “We were in a great position as a secondary, and were allowed to make great plays.”

The clock officially struck midnight late in the first half when Aaron Ross came on a blitz from his blindside and violently drove him down with his head bouncing off the ground.

It was a fitting way to end a half that saw them limit Chicago to only two first downs, 22 total yards of which due to sacks saw the passing yards at -13.

As Chicago came out on offense to begin the third quarter, backup Todd Collins entered the game as Cutler reportedly was diagnosed with a concussion.

Of course, there is a good chance had he stayed in the game, the results would have been worse.

In fact, it did get worse. With the game now out of reach late in the fourth, Michael Boley came from the front side to drill Collins, knocking him out of the game as well.

Ten sacks, three forced fumbles, two interceptions, limiting the Bears to 0-for-13 on third down and 110 total yards.

“Tonight was perfect,” said safety Deon Grant, who had an interception and fumble recovery. “We’ll take 10 sacks any night.”

Giants fans have been waiting nearly two years for this effort. While the rest of the game was ugly until late in the third quarter, they can take solace in how the defense played and hope for more in the future.

Cutler would attest to that.

Giants Talk: New York Sack Exchange

2010-10-03T23:47:00.005-05:00

10-sack performance leads ugly Big Blue win

EAST RUTHERFORD – There was a point in the second when the suddenly resurgent and overpowering Giants defense sacked Bears quarterback Jay Cutler for what appeared to be the 100th time when you probably felt sorry for him.

The Giants sure did not, and so they kept coming and coming some more.

By the time the carnage was complete, Cutler had to leave the game at halftime with a reported concussion. His replacement Todd Collins would fare no better, knocked out of the game late in the fourth quarter and having third stringer Caleb Hanie in to finish the mess.

It was a night where with former great Giants of the past watching with smiles on their faces, the current squad played defense reminiscent of those old days, pummeling the Bears offense into the ground for a 17-3 victory at New Meadowlands Stadium.

“A great win for our team tonight,” said Head Coach Tom Coughlin. “A win that we really needed.”

The other parts of the game were not aesthetically pleasing, specifically the offense and the continued porous play of the special teams. However, the incredible play by the defense took the spotlight.

“Those guys in the back end did an outstanding job,” said Osi Umenyiora, who played his best game in nearly three years registering three sacks and two forced fumbles while referencing the secondary. “They made the quarterback throw the ball.”

Part of that was Chicago’s own game plan to be aggressive and throw the ball on the Giants, particularly having Cutler using five and seven step drops.

This would prove to be fatal with terrible consequences. The coverage was so good all over the field, Cutler held on to the ball looking to make a play and wound up on his back.

“Our D-line did a great job,” said cornerback Terrell Thomas. “We were in a great position a secondary, and were allowed to make great plays.”

Statistics did not lie. In addition to the 10 sacks, of which nine came in the first half, the Giants held the (up to this point) potent Bears offense to only six first downs. Chicago did not convert on one third down in 13 attempts and held to only 110 yards.

It was amazing that the game was even in the balance going into the fourth quarter. Most of that was due to the ineptitude of the Giants offense and their inability to take advantage of numerous opportunities the defense gave them on turnovers deep in Bears territory.

The first half may have set back offensive football 70 years as both teams combined for six total first downs (Giants 4, Bears 2). Relentless pressure from the defensive front got to Cutler, who was sacked more times (9 – an NFL record) than he had completions (8) as the Bears were held to only 22 yards of offense (-13 yards passing) and two turnovers in the first 30 minutes.

Unfortunately, the Giants were not able to take advantage. After a 22-yard field goal by Lawrence Tynes in the first quarter gave them an early lead, Terrell Thomas intercepted a Cutler pass at the Bears 28. After three plays did not yield a first down, Tynes missed a 38-yard field wide left.

“We have to find ways to take advantage when we get great field position,” said Eli Manning. “Our defense was playing outstanding, getting us turnovers.

Another Chicago turnover came when Osi Umenyiora sacked Cutler from behind and Deon Grant recovered the loose ball at the Bears 29. Once again, the Bears defense held the Giants offense to another three-and-out, forcing a punt. They were only 1-for-7 in a half where they amassed only 98 yards.

Said Manning, “We didn’t have any positive plays once we got down there.”

In the third quarter, the Giants offense got into gear for the first time in the
game. Starting at their own 10, they would march 90 yards in eight plays,
highlighted by two completions by Eli Manning to Hakeem Nicks for 21 yards and Travis Beckum for 25 more. Ahmad Bradshaw sprinted down 25 yards to the Bears 3 before punching it into the end zone to take a 10-0 lead into the fourth quarter.

“We had a good mix,” Coughlin said. “We hit some passes to get the things going and we made some outstanding runs.

“It seems at times like we were a little tentative like we were trying not to make an error instead of just playing the game.”

Bradshaw would finish the game with 129 yards on 23 carries.

“We just knew we had to keep fighting,” said Bradshaw.

Without Cutler in the game and Collins in, Chicago stood little chance. Their porous offensive line could not open up any holes for their running game (59 yards total) and with Collins under siege on nearly every play, the Giants continued to bring pressure, eventually coming up with an interception by Grant on an overthrown pass at the Giants 8.

However, the offense continued to keep the Bears in the game despite the play of the defense. At their own 33, a bad exchange between Manning and Brandon Jacobs led to a fumble Chicago would recover at the Giants 29. This led to a 40-yard field goal by Robbie Gould for their first points of the night.

“That is something we have to fix,” said Manning. “(The fumble) is the last thing you can do in that situation.”

Later in the fourth, Bradshaw was on his to a 36-yard touchdown run to seal the game. Instead, he would commit his third fumble of the season as cornerback Zach Bowman stripped away the ball from him and recovered it at the Bears 1.

The defense forced a punt on three straight plays to give the offense advantageous field position at the Bears 32 where Manning would find Nicks for a diving catch at the 2 before Jacobs would pound it into the end zone to point the way the Giants second victory of the season.

“We are right back in the thick of things,” said Chris Snee. We just have to play smart football from here on out.”

It was a gut-check for this Giants team. They needed to respond after the questions surrounding their head coach and the team’s mental psyche.

At least for one week, they will not have to answer those questions.

Giants Talk: Mentally Inept

2010-09-26T20:40:00.004-05:00

Big Blue problems too big to ignore

EAST RUTHERFORD – There were many enduring impressions from the disaster that took place at New Meadowlands Stadium with each of them leaving your head scratching.

However, none was worse than what took place with 13:34 remaining in the game and the Giants trailing by nine points as Lawrence Tynes lined up for a 39-yard field goal, still harboring hopes of a comeback despite their previous and eventual ineptitude in their 29-10 defeat to the Titans.

The whistle blew and a flag was down.

Delay of game was the call and it cost them five yards.

Really? Delay of game prior to kicking a field goal?

What followed next was pure justice as Tynes would miss his second field goal of the game, this one now a 44-yard attempt to give the Titans the ball back and eventually lock down their victory.

“We got in a position where it seemed to be that we didn’t get the ball snapped on time,” Head Coach Tom Coughlin. “The communication between the holder and the line of scrimmage, the clock ran down, we missed the long field goal.”

This incredible mental lapse was one of many throughout the day that cost the Giants dearly, turning what could have been a six-point deficit to 12.

Yet, none was more damning than this.

Coughlin put the blame on Dodge, but it was merely just one aspect of a game that saw many players suffer from numerous inexplicable mental breakdowns that makes one wonder if these players three games into the season have internally checked themselves out.

Sure, there were all the turnovers (three more), the penalties (reaching a plague like status now) and just complete bone-headedness that usually renders its ugly head at least once or twice during these games.

“It’s on me,” said Coughlin. “The way in which we play in between the lines is my responsibility I’m taking full responsibility for that.

“This was a game that we should have won, we didn’t win.”

What else can explain the continuous rash of turnovers? Three more Sunday added the season total to nine in the first three games as they continue to treat the ball like a loaf of bread.

The fourth play of the game saw Eli Manning’s pass deflect off the shoulder of Hakeem Nicks for an interception that led to a Titans field goal. For the fourth time this season, a deflection off the hands of a receiver ended in an interception.
Nicks is a talented receiver who makes many tough catches. However, when a ball is near your possession, catching it is necessary and not having it bounce off you for a turnover.

This of course paled in comparison to the foolish play by Manning near the goal line when, with at least three points in hand, he tried throw a left-handed to Kevin Boss and had the pass intercepted into the end zone.

Add in Ahmad Bradshaw’s fumble at the Titans 5 while fighting for extra yardage late in the third quarter and that is 17 points left on the field because of errors, twice in the red zone.

“When you don’t score down there, it is one thing,” said Eli Manning. “When you turn the ball over and get zero points, you just can’t afford those.”

What else can explain these breakdowns? Mind you, this is the same team that when they went 12-4 in 2008 set the NFL all-time record for fewest turnovers in a season.

Said Manning, “If you are going to make mistakes, if you are going to screw up so many things, it (the success on offense) gets canceled out.”

Since the beginning of last season, the Giants have turned the ball over a whopping 40 times in 19 games. These are unsustainable and represent a complete lack of concentration.

Said Coughlin, “We can’t stop trying to move the ball.”

But there was more. Much more.

In the fourth quarter, the team self-destructed. After Tynes missed his second field goal, right tackle Kareem McKenzie committed a 15-yard personal foul for ripping off the helmet of a Titans player in full view of the official who was close to the three feet from him when he did it.

Several minutes later he did it again, wiping away a potential scoring drive at the Titans 31, turning a third-and-10 into a third-and-25, ending any real chance the Giants had to win.

Add to it, Antrel Rolle would commit another personal foul, taking a swing during the Titans final scoring drive that would end in a touchdown.

That was the sixth personal foul on the day totaling of 11 penalties. Clearly, Coughlin had seen enough. He removed both players from the game and they did not return.

Who is to blame for this seemingly lack of discipline and control?

It does not matter if the Titans baited them into retaliating. Officials do not see who starts the altercation, only the end of it. Continuously losing their cool in such a manner is ridiculous.

“There’s only one flag,” said Coughlin. “They never see the first one.”

We have seen this type of team before. Coughlin had that squad before nearly losing his job after the 2006 season.

If this is a return of “that” team, then this season is shot already. This is not a young group of guys trying to find its way. This veteran has been through the highs and the lows over the last five seasons.

Whether it is frustration, an inability to execute or this teams talent has been overrated is anyone’s guess.

“Right now we’re not playing well as a team,” said Osi Umenyiora. “We have to figure out a way to get better.”

It is advisable that they begin to clean this up beginning Sunday at home against Chicago.

Otherwise, this already long season will continue to get longer.

Giants Talk: Titan-ic Breakdown

2010-09-26T19:36:00.003-05:00

Giants penalties, turnovers, cool, cost them in defeat

EAST RUTHERFORD – Almost to a man, the Giants felt as if they were the better team on the field Sunday with the mantra of “we beat ourselves” the recurring theme.

Statistically, they would be correct. The offense outgained the Titans by exactly 200 yards. Unfortunately, statistics are not the only part of the game.

Factor in everything else such as turnovers, penalties and numerous ill-advised situations of them completely losing their mind, and it is no surprise that the so-called “better team” convincingly lost 29-10 at New Meadowlands Stadium.

“The oldest axiom in football is the first thing you have to do is keep from beating yourself before you can beat the opponent and we didn’t do that,” said Coughlin.

In that sense, the Giants beat themselves senseless.

All week the team talked about needing to find the passion they were sorely lacking in their embarrassing loss in Indianapolis. The passion was there on Sunday, albeit misplaced, eventually spiraling out of control.

“We are not good enough to overcome mistakes,” said Mathias Kiwanuka. “We are not good enough to overcome penalties. We have to either grow and we can go uphill or we can go downhill.”

It began on the fourth play of the game when Eli Manning pass to Hakeem Nicks deflected off his shoulder and ricocheted off the helmet of defensive back Cortland Finnegan and into the hands of defensive tack Sen’Derrick Marks at the Titans 49 that would turn into a 48-yard field goal by Rob Bironas.

The Giants offense would drive down the field on their next possession, led by a 54 yard catch and run by Kevin Boss down to the Titans 9. However, on third down from the 2, Manning scrambled to his left and with a defender in his grasp, attempted a left-handed pass to Boss in the end zone only to have it intercepted by Jason McCourty for a touchback.

It was an incredibly poor for a veteran quarterback such as a Manning, particularly in that situation.

“Just saw Kevin (Boss) open and was trying to get him the ball,” said Manning, who finished 34-for-48 for 386 yards. “Everything is telling you to try and get him the ball, but you just have to know you can’t afford to have a turnover there.

After Lawrence Tynes missed a 53-yard field goal early in the second quarter, the Titans took advantage of good field position and marched 57 yards before Chris Johnson scored from one yard out to give the Titans a 10-0 lead.

The Giants would tie the game before the half after Tynes would connect on a 50-yard field goal and Ahmad Bradshaw scored on a 10-yard touchdown run.

In the third quarter, Manning completed a deep pass down the left sideline to Mario Manningham for 43 yards. However, the Bradshaw would be called for a chop block in the end zone as defensive tackle Tony Brown was on a straight line for Manning after center Adam Koets, playing in place of Shaun O’Hara, did not pick him up.

The result ended in a safety.

“I jumped over because the center took my guy,” said Bradshaw. “By the time I was in the air, I didn’t know whether he had his hands on him or not. They called the penalty.”

This would turn out to be one the biggest plays of the game. Matt Dodge’s ensuing free kick was short and returned to the Titans 49. With Johnson slowed by the Giants run defense for most of the game, Head Coach Jeff Fisher put the game in the hands of quarterback Vince Young, benched last week for poor play for Kerry Collins.

Young would complete four passes on the drive with minimal pressure from the defensive front, ending with a 13-yard strike to former Rutgers star Kenny Britt for a touchdown and nine-point advantage.

More self-inflicted wounds would come when the Giants appeared on the verge of cutting the deficit, but for the second time in the red zone, they would turn the ball over as Bradshaw had the ball stripped from him at the Titans 5, taking away another potential score.

Said Coughlin, “We just…over and over and over. There was a touchdown with momentum. There was a score coming with momentum. There’s the ball on the ground.”

The worse was still yet to come. As they lined up for a 39-yard field goal, a delay of game penalty would back them up five yards. Coincidentally, Tynes would then miss his second of the game, a 44-yard try and a personal foul penalty on David Diehl for removing the helmet of Finnegan that set the ball at the Titans 49 and would lead to another field goal by Bironas to extend the lead to 12.

Suddenly, the team began to disintegrate. Kareem McKenzie, one of the veteran players on the squad, got called for two unnecessary roughness penalties in full view of the officials, one of the taking them out of field goal range at the Titans 31.

Antrel Rolle would then commit the Giants sixth personal foul of the afternoon when he took a swing at a Titans player. Coughlin would remove both players from the game and neither would return.

“They are held accountable,” said Coughlin of the player’s responsibility for their actions. “They’ve been told that they do not have the freedom to hurt our football team, to take actions which hurt our team.

Penalties lose games – they know that, they’ve been told that, they all know it.”
“It’s a game of emotions,” said Rolle, “That guy took two strikes, and I made sure I struck back.”

They struck back and it cost them. Despite amassing 471 total yards, they only came away with 10 points in eight trips inside the Titans 35 yard line. Three turnovers and 11 penalties (most at inopportune time) cost them dearly.

“We’re not playing Giant football right now,” said Steve Smith, who had nine receptions for 103 yards. “All these penalties, no matter how well we thought we can move the ball offensively, the penalties kill you. That’s football.

Right now, it is anyone’s guess as to when this team will get back to that.

That has to happen soon otherwise this season will begin to spiral out of control.

Giants Talk: Not Yet Ready For Prime Time

2010-09-19T23:43:00.001-05:00

Smack down by Colts shows Giants have ways to go

INDIANAPOLIS – To be fair, it was not the Giants talking a big game before their nationally broadcast showdown with the Colts on Sunday night.

This was why it came as a complete shock when a majority of presumably astute football observers came to the same conclusion that the Giants would not only keep this game close, but also win it outright.

Slow down folks.

As the team made that slow walk off the field with their heads down after a 38-14 drubbing by the Colts that was not as close as the final score, they learned a valuable lesson. They could leave with the solace that they while they are not bad as they were made to look on this night, they are not as good as many made them out to be.

“Obviously not what we came to do,” said Head Coach Tom Coughlin.

All one had to do was look up at the scoreboard after the first seven minutes after the Colts marched down the field with little push back by the defense for them to realize that they were not fighting a scrub and were in a battle with a higher class of fighter.

For the Giants, this was the equivalent of going from fighting Peter McNeeley in one fight to Mike Tyson in his prime in the next.

“We have to understand we did get our butt whupped tonight,” safety Antrel Rolle said.

After their convincing second-half victory over the Panthers, many in the (drive by) media began to proclaim the Giants a very good team, one very capable of making some noise in the NFC East.

However, as the hours began to count before their game with the Colts, all one had to do was see the Panthers put together a tremendously weak effort at home against the lowly Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They lost 20-7, and looking bad doing so to make one wonder whether if much of what we saw last week was an aberration.

The Giants are slightly above average, but they are not ready to play a team the caliber of the Colts yet. Not to beat Peyton Manning and his group. Not to win 12 games and dominate the conference. None of that stuff.

To be fair, the Colts played a perfect first half and it is likely that no one in the league was going to stop them anyway.

“In spurts, we did well,” said Justin Tuck, “But in other spurts we didn’t.”
You would have liked to see some type of push back from the defense not to allow Manning and his offense to do anything they wanted for 30 minutes.

It would have been nice to see the Giants offensive line make a statement early in the game and control the line of scrimmage instead of finding themselves back on their heels on first and second down. This allowed for the Colts great pass-rushers Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis make a beeline for Eli Manning head with no regard for anything else.

We saw none of that.

What we see is still a team in search of its identity. Somewhere between the start of the 2009 season and now, their identity changed.

Internally, they still believe they are a run-first team. Perhaps it is simply machismo disguised as belief when the results continue to show a different result.
There is no doubt the 2008 offensive line would have had the Colts moving backwards. Instead, they were pushed around and turning back into the pass-first team they have been over the last year due in part to their inconsistencies in the running game.

“This is the NFL,” said left guard Rich Seubert. “It’s a long season. We’ll find a way to fix it and go from there.”

As we move along in this season, we will get a feel for the group mental sense. For now, the early conclusion we can draw is that Brandon Jacobs clearly is on his own planet.

Sunday night, he committed a personal foul penalty after an interception. Then on a running play, rather than follow blocks that were not to his liking, he attempted to reverse his field and the Colts defense shut down for no gain angering his head coach, adding to a litany of issues the enigmatic runner has been going through since training camp.

It did not stop there. In a fit of anger, Jacobs tried to slam his helmet to the ground and instead, it wound up in the hands of a fan ten rows into the stands that refused to return it. Coughlin did not see the incident.

“It was something that happened that shouldn’t have happened,” Jacobs said after the game. “I got frustrated and went to throw my helmet under the bench and it caught my middle finger and flicked up into the stands.”

Two games in and there are already questions about the Giants resolve. After last season’s bloody beating by the Saints, every assumed that the team would rebound and it never happened.

They dismissed it and their season eventually dissolved. The Colts took a beating last week in Houston, and while many wanted to write them off, they were silly to do so.

The Giants lost that equity last season, and that is why they have not earned the benefit of the doubt this time under proven otherwise.

This goes for both sides of the ball. It certainly is not for a lack of talent. There are issues they need to address and clean up before they can establish to the football world that they are a contender. Lucky for them, the other NFC East teams will give them several weeks to do so.

“You just learn from it,” said Eli Manning. “It goes down as a loss. We’re 1-1 right now. Everybody in the division is 1-1, except Dallas is 0-2 obviously. We’re not in a bad spot.”

All they can do is learn because right now they simply are not ready to step up in weight class yet.

Giants Talk: Oh, Brother

2010-09-19T21:23:00.000-05:00

Peyton, Colts dominate Eli, Giants

INDIANAPOLIS – it took nearly seven minutes for the Giants to realize they were not going to dominate the Colts in the same manner they did the Panthers.

As they found out, the Colts, the Super Bowl runner-up last season, may have been dominated in their loss to the Houston Texans last week, but chatter of their possible decline was nothing but pure exaggeration.

For the second time, big brother Peyton Manning got the best of young brother Eli as the Giants had the happy taste of their opening week victory wiped away in embarrassing fashion, losing 38-14 at Lucas Oil Stadium.

“(The Colts) played an outstanding game on both sides of the ball, said Eli Manning. “ When you can’t get first downs, it’s hard to get into your plays and your calls.

The Giants certainly did not get many of those in a first half (only five) that saw the Colts dominate the play in every conceivable fashion, including time of possession, racing out to a 24-0 lead.

It began with a textbook drive by the older Peyton, who moved his team 80 yards in 12 plays (including seven runs) without much resistance from the defense, ending with a seven-yard touchdown run by Donald Brown.

It would only get worse.

To their credit, the defense held the Colts to three-and-outs and their next two drives. However, the Giants offense did the same and this would come back to haunt them when Peyton found Dallas Clark for a 50-yard touchdown strike to increase the lead to 14.

On the play before, safety Kenny Phillips had to leave the game with a head injury. Backup Michael Johnson replaced him and Manning chose to pick on him. Johnson bit hard on a play-action pass to play the run, allowing Clark to get behind both him and Aaron Ross as he streaked into the end zone.

“Obviously not what we came to do, said Head Coach Tom Coughlin. “ I thought the first half they kept us off-balance with the run. I think we were all surprised that they were able to run and run with some consistency.”

Seeing the Colts run only 10 times and throwing 57 against Houston, the Giants defense designed their plan to stop the pass by going with a smaller alignment of three defensive ends and as many as six defensive back. Knowing this, the Colts opted to focus their emphasis on the run, amassing 124 yards.

“A lot of their runs just came off cutbacks, said Justin Tuck. “ Give them credit. Their backs did a good job of seeing the hole and hitting it. Even when we tackled them, they rolled forward for three and four more yards.”

Turnovers also did the Giants in. The younger Manning went deep down the middle of the field and the ball went off the hands of Steve Smith into the hands of Jerrold Powers for an interception that would lead to a field goal by Adam Vinatieri. Robert
Mathis would then strip Manning of the ball on third down play that the Colts would recover at their own 48.

Eight plays later, the older Manning found Austin Collie for a three-yard touchdown strike to cap off a perfect first half that saw them outgain the Giants 278 to 69.

The younger Eli resembled Matt Moore from last week, going 3-for-8 for only 17 yards.

“We didn’t run the ball especially well, we didn’t throw the ball well, Manning said. “They outplayed us.”

Yes, the running game. The Colts were determined to not allow the same 257 yards that the Texans put on them the week before, but the Giants were unable to get started quickly. This inability to run consistently put them in disadvantageous positions, allowing defensive ends Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis to create havoc in the backfield.

“They (the Colts) lost last week and they came fired up this week, said Ahmad Bradshaw, who finished the game with 89 yards on 17 carries. “ They had something to prove and they proved it to us.”

The Giants tried to get into the game at the start of the third quarter when the younger Manning threw a beautiful bomb of a pass that Mario Manningham reeled in down the left sideline for a 54-yard touchdown for their first points of the game.

The defense forced a punt and they had the ball with a chance to get within two
scores.

However, on second-and-four from their own 16, Freeney came around the left side to sack Manning and strip him of the ball. Fili Moala would pick up the loose ball and run it in for a touchdown to dash any hopes of a potential comeback.

“They have great defensive ends, a great defensive rush, causing us to get sacks of throw it away or get it out quickly, Manning said. “ They didn’t do anything different than we had seen on film. It wasn’t like they came out and showed a whole different defense. They just outperformed us.”

The defense that was so instrumental in the win last week was nowhere to be found inside Lucas Oil Stadium as the Colts efficiency ran the ball all evening to the tune of 160 yards. Also, by utilizing a three-step drop to slow down pursuit from the pass rushers, the older Manning was sacked only once in the game. He would finish the game 20-for-26 for 255 yards and three touchdowns to go 2-0 against his younger sibling.

Eli would finish 13-for-24 for 161 yards and three turnovers, with almost all of his yards coming in the second half after the score was already in doubt. His final touchdown pass, a 31-yarder to Hakeem Nicks, came in the final two minutes.

As a whole, the Giants are going to need better from not only Manning but also the entire team if they are going to correct what took place on the field.

“I told the players that there is an awful lot we can learn from this, said Coughlin. “ The team we played tonight out-executed us – outplayed us, out-executed us.”

They hope that doesn’t happen next week when they face a tough Tennessee team at home.

Yankee Talk: Message Received

2010-09-16T13:10:00.004-05:00

Rays showing no fear of Yanks

ST. PETERSBURG – Phil Hughes was one out away from giving the Yankees bullpen a chance to get the final six outs of the night to win not only the game, but the series.

Carl Crawford flew out softly and Evan Longoria struck out looking when Hughes froze him with a two-strike breaking ball for the first two outs of the inning.

Winning the game would send notice that despite all of their current ills facing them. From their problems with the starting pitching to their inability at the moment to field a full, healthy team that they still had enough muscle memory and mental toughness.

All he had to get was one more out.

His pitch count neared 100, but there was no evidence he was tiring at all. Hughes retired the first 12 batters in order and his only mistake of the game came in the fifth inning when Dan Johnson turned around a fastball for a two-run homer to give the Rays a 2-1 lead.

Thanks to help of great acting by Derek Jeter, he was able to get on base by claiming a pitch hit him. Curtis Granderson then stuck with a two-run homerun on cue to give the Yankees a 3-2 lead.

Now Hughes had a chance to close the game.

Matt Joyce hit a single to center and it looked so innocent. Manager Joe Girardi was so confident (or just trying to protect his bullpen) that no one was warming up in the bullpen.

This was Hughes’ game to lose.

And then he lost it.

Johnson, the man who took Hughes deep in the fifth inning would strike again with another two-run blast to give the Rays their eventual 4-3 winning margin to take the series and reclaim first place in the AL East.

It was a shocking turn of events. The Yankees thought they were going to steal one away from Tampa in classic fashion only to find themselves trailing in an instant.

For a team noted for their resilience, gut and grit, this was a crushing blow.

The Yankee had one final chance in the ninth inning. Closer Rafael Soriano issued a two-out walk to Mark Teixeira only throw three straight fastball past Alex Rodriguez to end the game.

That strikeout ended a tense, three game series between baseball top two teams. Say what you want about the surging Minnesota Twins, who are one game behind the Rays for the league’s best record, but this was a matchup of two heavyweights that went all 12 rounds for three straight days.

The battle will continue again next Monday night for the final four times in the regular season, but anyone watching could see that at least four more games and as many as seven appear in both of these teams future in October.

Once again, the Yankees had their chances to make sure that game was not in range for the Rays to come back, but their continuing failures with runners in scoring position continued to haunt them, stretching now to a woeful 20-for-100.

Late in the game, the Rays went to their two most valuable relievers and they held the lead, showing the Yankees that too have firepower and will not wilt when the game is in the line.

Since June, both of these teams have been inseparable. In September, no more than three games separated these two teams.

Only in the last ten games where the Yankees have gone 2-8 have the Rays found an opening to chase them down and overtake them as the last three days have seen the two team’s leap-frogging the other into first place.

I said two months ago after their three game series here that the Rays were not going to go away.

Two months later, they are still here and are on equal footing as the Yankees.

As evidenced by the three games all decided by a run, neither team has a decided advantage over the other.

From the 1-0 duel in 11 innings on Monday won by Reid Brignac’s walk-off homerun, to the Yankees 8-7 win in 10 innings Tuesday on Jorge Posada’s pinch-hit blast, to last night, it was three days of great baseball theater.

What we learned is the Rays are here to stay, perhaps all the way through October.

The Yankees definitely received the message.

A few Yankees-Rays random thoughts

The pitcher’s duel on Monday night between CC Sabathia and David Price was perhaps the best game played all season.

From the first pitch, both aces threw their best games and neither offense could muster many scoring opportunities.

The Yankees only got the leadoff man on twice in the game, back in the first and the eighth innings, but never put two men on at any point during the game.

From Derek Jeter’s leadoff single up until another single by Robinson Cano in the seventh, the Yankees went the remaining innings hitless against Price, who blew his fastball past hitters consistently.

Sabathia was just as good, allowing only one hit through his first seven innings. Tampa Bay had their best chance in the eighth inning when two men reached with only one out. However, Sabathia, in true ace form, would strike out BJ Upton on a slider and got Jason Bartlett to ground to short to end the inning.

Both bullpens kept the scoreless deadlocked in the ninth and tenth before the Rays finally broke through in the 11th on the walk off by Brignac.

You will not find a better game.

The next night brought just as much drama, but with a better outcome for the Yankees.

Jumping on top 6-0 in the fifth, the game was to be a cakewalk. Ivan Nova was in complete control and then suddenly lost it. Next thing you know, Willy Aybar stroked a three-run blast off Boone Logan to give the Rays a 7-6 lead.

Incredible.

The Yankees would tie the game in the seventh, and in extra innings, Jorge Posada came up as a pinch-hitter and hit a mammoth homerun to give them the lead.

Mariano Rivera came on to close the game, and after Carl Crawford singled and moved to second. A fly ball to right field was caught by right fielder Greg Golson, who fired a strike to third base to nail down Crawford attempting to advance.

You could see the entire team in joy after seeing Golson’s incredible throw that they mobbed him in celebration.

It was an extremely touching moment.

Giants Talk: The Return of Defense

2010-09-12T20:18:00.001-05:00

Giants defense the calling card in opening win

EAST RUTHERFORD – The ball was five yards from the goal line in the middle of the first quarter and the crowd was on its feet imploring the Giants to make a stop and hold them to a field goal at worst.

Panthers quarterback Matt Moore gave the ball to DeAngelo Williams, who cut to his right and looked to have clear lane to end zone.

Instead, safety Kenny Phillips charged in and with a shoestring tackle was able to trip Williams up three yards short, forcing a field goal attempt.

“(That was a) gigantic play,” Giants general manager Jerry Reese said.

While the Panthers got three points, the play symbolized something more. It was a huge victory for the Giants defense on a day where for the first time in a year, they rediscovered their defense that went all but AWOL in 2009 after the first five
games.

“I think last year we kind of got in a funk,” said Justin Tuck. “But this year, we started off right.”

“I told our group we started off last year 5-0. We just have to keep pressing, it doesn’t matter what we do.”

This was the Giants defense we missed. The group that makes key plays, comes up with big stops, pressures the quarterback and takes the ball away.

All of that was on display, especially in the second half of the Giants opening 31-18victory.

Due to two balls intercepted by the Panthers that went off the hands of receivers to go along with poor coverage on special teams. The defense early was put in very tenuous situations with the Panthers starting in great field position to score and jump out on top early as crashers to the New Meadowlands Stadium party.

If you go back one year, there is no doubt Williams gets in for a touchdown.

Phillips was gone after Week 2 last season and there was no way either CC Brown or Michael Johnson was going to make that play.

The team knew it and the fans knew it.

This time, Phillips and the defense made the stop.

On the Panthers previous drive, newly acquired Deon Grant made a great athletic play, leaping into the air to intercept a Matt Moore pass as in the end zone to leave them scoreless.

“We don’t like a team to go down there and get any points,” said Grant. “Today we were able to shut them down with some huge turnovers.”

Outside of a 29-yard run from Williams early in the game, the run defense limited Carolina’s ground attack. More and more it became apparent that Moore was going to win the game with his right arm and by the end of the first half, he led them on a touchdown drive to give the Panthers a 16-14 lead.

There was little pressure on Moore in that half outside of a near sack by Osi Umenyiora on the Panthers first offensive possession. Conscious of the Giants pressure, Carolina would max-protect, keeping a running back into block along with a tight end to chip a defender whenever a blitz came.

However, as the Giants began to take control of the game in the third quarter, taking the lead and then extending the margin to eight points when Eli Manning threw his third touchdown pass of the afternoon to Hakeem Nicks, it was time for the defense to have its fun.

“The fact that we were able to hold them to field goals enabled us to turn our athletes loose,” said Barry Cofield. “With the pressure we got, it worked hand in hand. That is when we are at our best.”

The Panthers were running short on time and could no longer keep players in to block. Devoid of offensive weapons outside of Steve Smith, Defensive Coordinator Perry Fewell began to dial up numerous pressure schemes, systematically break down and dismantle their offense.

Every quarterback has an internal clock they have in order to get rid of the ball. Now, the clock on Moore began to shrink. The defensive ends began to pressure him, sacking him four times.

In the fourth quarter, the Panthers tried to claw back to within one possession, but Terrell Thomas’ interception in the end zone once again ended another drive.

After another Giants turnover placed the ball their 12, Phillips came up with the third end zone interception of the afternoon.

"We created havoc on the quarterback which enabled us to get some picks,” said Corey Webster.

Last year, this defense does not make those plays. Those open lanes runners and receivers found at will were no longer available. The poor starting field position would have ended in some type of points.

Instead, the Giants held them to zero points. Three times this would happen amidst the rain in the teams’ new home.

“We’ve had some good goes in the green and the red zone during the preseason and it carried over,” said Coughlin. “Today we turned them away.”

“I think that the interceptions in the end zone when they were pressing so hard to get back in the game were huge.”

They would hold Carolina’s offense scoreless in the second half, limiting them to only 72 yards and holding Smith to just one catch, eliminating him from the game.

It was a great return to the field for a player who the defense desperately missed a year ago.

“I knew I could do it,” Phillips said about returning after missing most of last season. “The doctors and trainers were confident I could make a 100% recovery.

“I felt like myself out there. No pain or anything. I don’t feel limited in any way.”

What you could see is the defense growing stronger as the game went along. Justin Tuck was nearly unblockable on several plays. Osi Umenyiora looks rejuvenated, determined that last year was an aberration, and Mathias Kiwanuka played one of the best games of his career, getting constant pressure, picking up two sacks and forcing a fumble.

“Everybody came in with the same mentality, which was that this year is going to be a different story,” said Kiwanuka.

This was a group showing more energy and inspiration. They had the look of a defense that was having fun. There was a sense of confidence in what they were doing and went out and executed their plan.

It was a great opening act.

Giants Talk: This Won Is For Openers

2010-09-12T19:17:00.001-05:00

Giants use second-half surge to secure victory

EAST RUTHERFORD – For the first 30 minutes, the game was sloppy by every conceivable imagination.

From a lack of a running game, to passes going through receivers hands, poor pass rush, and several abysmal special teams lapses, none of it was good.

However, the game is not 30 minutes, its 60.

In the final 30 minutes, a new Giants team emerged. The upside that many observers felt about this team before the year began all showed up in the second half as they turned a halftime deficit into a convincing 31-18 victory to christen New Meadowlands Stadium.

“With a brand-new stadium, the crowd, you want to go out there and play well,” said quarterback Eli Manning. “It was very important for us to come out and get a win.”

The last time the Giants saw the Panthers, it was last December when Carolina embarrassed them 41-9 in the final game ever played for them in old Giants Stadium. It was an effort where many questioned their heart and whether they quit.

For the last nine months, that was game weighed on the players who were on that field that afternoon determined to right the wrong of last season.

Early on, it was difficult to tell that. On the second Giants possession, Eli Manning’s pass to Hakeem Nicks deflected off his hands and Charles Godfrey picked it off, returning it to the Giants 49.

After Carolina reached the Giants 18, Panthers quarterback Matt Moore lifted a pass into the end zone that safety Deon Grant intercepted, leaping into the air, somersaulting to the ground.

It was the type of play missing from the secondary last year.

A key play early was when safety Kenny Phillips tripped up DeAngelo Williams to save a touchdown on third-and-three, forcing a field goal from John Kasay. The Giants would quickly answer when Manning found Nicks for a 26-yard touchdown strike at the end of the quarter.

Carolina lived in Giants territory for much of the first half aided in part by poor kick and punt coverage. Add to it, Manning threw two interceptions, each of them ricocheting off intended receivers hands. This led to starting field position of the Giants 49, their own 45, 48, 36 and midfield.

Giving an opponent that level would have been a problem had the Giants an offense with a higher level of potency as they will see next week at Indianapolis. But on this day, the revamped defense would stiffen, limiting the Panthers to three field goals and 9-7 lead late in the half.

“Three field goals instead of three touchdowns, nine points instead of 21,” said defensive tackle Barry Cofield. “That’s the kind of progress we need to see.”

Manning would find Nicks again for the second time in the game to go back up 14-9. However, poor kick coverage allowed the Panthers to start at midfield and five plays later Moore found “The other Steve Smith” for a 19-yard touchdown to take a 16-14 lead into the half.

The first half combination of penalties (six for 55 yards) and inability to run the ball (13 attempts for 8 yards) forced the offense into disadvantageous situations, forcing them to rely heavily on the pass. Six times Manning and the offense faced a third down of ten or more yards.

Whether there was a pep talk at the half or not, a completely different Giants team showed up at the start of the third quarter. A field goal by Lawrence Tynes gave them a 17-16 lead. DJ Ware would recover a fumble by punter Jason Baker at the Panthers 38, where the offense would drive again and Manning found Nicks for the third time in the game to extend the lead to an eight-point margin.

“Hakeem, he just happened to be in the right spot at the right time.” Manning said. Ahmad Bradshaw took a shotgun draw for a four-yard touchdown run to give them a 31-16 lead.

From there, the Giants defense, unable to get to Moore in the first half, began to take control of the game. They first shut down Williams (16 carries-62 yards) and the Panthers ground game and putting it in the hands of Moore to win the game for them.

Unfortunately, he could not do it.

The secondary, criticized all season for their inability to take the ball away came up huge.

First, Terrell Thomas came down with an interception in the end zone with 8:40 left. Then, after Godfrey intercepted another Manning pass (the ball went off the hands of Ramses Barden) at the Giants 12, Phillips made his presence felt again, giving the defense its third end zone interception.

It was a great second half for the defense, holding the Panthers offense scoreless while amassing four sacks to go along with the three interceptions. They limited their offense to only 72 total yards and knocked Moore out of the game when Osi Umenyiora sacked him, having to leave with a concussion. In all, it was a great first game display under new defensive coordinator, Perry Fewell.

“What Perry has done with this defense can’t go unsaid, said defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka, who finished with two sacks and a forced fumble.

“Everybody has sold in. Everybody wants to win.”

The running game got going as well. After poor run-blocking led to eight yards, ran for 110 yards and wore down the smaller Carolina defensive front.

Manning was 20-for-30 for 263 yards and three touchdowns. The numbers would have been better had it not been for five dropped passes, three of them that went off the hands of receivers resulting in interceptions.

“The really shows the confidence he has in himself,” Coughlin said. “He continued to stay focused and not let the last play determine the outcome of the next play, which is very important.”

Next Sunday bring an even greater challenge when they travel to Indianapolis to face the AFC Champion Colts in a nationally television game dubbed as Manning Bowl II. For today, the Giants will just take the win before looking ahead.

Yankee Talk: Falling to the Finish

2010-09-12T19:06:00.001-05:00

Late season slump cause for concern

ARLINGTON – When you watch the Yankees over the last week, you can see they are not whole.

The squad that you see is not the same squad you will see in Game 1 of the Division Series assuming the unthinkable does not happen and they collapse.

You want to go into the postseason playing well, but right now, the Yankees are doing anything but.

It has not been a complete breakdown, but after leaving Arlington on a plane for St. Petersburg after being swept by the Texas Rangers this past weekend and losing six of their last seven, things do not look good.

Had it not been for a walk-off homerun on Wednesday by Nick Swisher to beat the Orioles, this team would be on a seven game losing streak going back to their loss on Sunday to Toronto.

To be fair, they have been in a position to win several of these games during the losing skid. Three of the losses came by one run, and one of them with Mariano Rivera blowing a one-run lead in the bottom of the ninth on Saturday night when he hit pinch hitter Jeff Francoeur with the bases loaded to end the game.

The problem has been the inability to come through with runners in scoring position that has kept these games closer than they should, allowing for these end of game defeats.

Pitching wise, they have not been bad. CC Sabathia lost for the first time at Yankee Stadium in 21 starts on Tuesday to the Orioles, a team that has improved greatly under manager Buck Showalter.

AJ Burnett pitched well on Monday despite giving up the go ahead run in the seventh inning. It was another positive step for him that was able to carry into his start Saturday in Texas, cut short after five innings due to a one-hour rain delay.

Javier Vazquez continued to sputter and Dustin Moseley pitched admirably against Cliff Lee on Sunday, taking the ball into the seventh inning tied 1-1 before giving up three runs with two out to blow the game open on an afternoon where nearly none of Joe Girardi’s trusted relievers were available due to back-to-back, five hour extra inning games.

Ivan Nova has been a great supplement to the rotation in the interim until Andy Pettitte returns, so for now the team is trying to tread water with him.

Offensively, they are dealing with injuries to Brett Gardner (wrist) and Nick Swisher (knee) and their presence in the lineup is far more important than anyone gave credit.

Alex Rodriguez returned from the disabled list last Sunday before the final game against the Blue Jays and his picked up right where he left off offensively. However, questions linger over how long he will be able to continue before another injury sidelines him.

To his credit, Rodriguez says he feels strong and that nothing is wrong despite Girardi giving him Tuesday night off. The standings show the Yankees do not need to push him every night until the playoffs. Giving his older body a day off despite upcoming games against the Rays no matter how unpopular, is a smart move.

Jorge Posada suffered concussion symptoms and missed three games before returning to the lineup on Sunday. His loss for any significant time would be a huge blow to the team considering how far Francisco Cervelli has fallen offensively since early May.

The consistent part of this team has been its bullpen. Even though they gave up two of the leads during this past weekend’s series, they have become fully reliable and you just hope the starting pitcher that night can pitch long enough to get the ball to them.

This has been Girardi’s greatest strength in comparison to Joe Torre.

Torre managed to win every game at all costs. However, he would sacrifice everyone and anyone to do it. If a good reliever had his arm fall off in the process, so be it.

Of course, that can happen when you have few reliable options as Torre did (see: Scott Proctor). Girardi has four guys he can go to at any given point during the middle of the game to get big outs in David Robertson, Joba Chamberlain, Boone Logan and the pickup of the trade deadline, Kerry Wood.

This group is going to need to perform at their high level as the rotation attempts to find itself.

However, a combination of all of the factors have led to the Yankees slide as of late heading into Tampa for a big three-game series to decide first place in the AL East.

The time may not be now for the Yankees to get everything right.

They just have to avoid their slide continuing.

Giants Talk: Defending Giants Pride

2010-09-11T09:48:00.000-05:00

After abysmal 2009, Big Blue D looking to rebound

EAST RUTHERFORD – Having a good defense is a vital element to any good team.

Have it, and you will always give yourself a chance to win.

If you have a great defense, that alone can carry you to victory.

However, if you have a bad defense, you have almost no chance.

Last season, to say the Giants defense was awful would actually be kind.

In one of the franchises most abysmal displays ever, the Giants final record of 8-8 was due in large part that the group unexpectedly played below their talent level.

It was a mighty fall considering they began the year 5-0. Yet, that hefty record was a creation of a tremendously weak schedule of opponents (Washington, Tampa Bay, Kansas City and Oakland) that gave them a false sense of bravado, even leading Antonio Pierce to say after their 44-7 thrashing of the Raiders that it “felt like a practice game.”

Statistically, when they were 5-0, they had the best defense in football. Yet, problems arose in their Week 2 win at Dallas when the Cowboys gashed them for over 200 yards. After the game, the Giants had to place Kenny Phillips on injured reserve with an arthritic knee condition, thus ending his season.

Not having Phillips in the backend of the secondary did not show up for the next three games. However, when they went to New Orleans during a battle of undefeated teams, the Saints exposed their deficient secondary and lack of speed at linebacker to rack up 48 points.

Afterwards, the defense chalked it up to nothing more than one bad game. Instead, it was the just the beginning a problem that would last the remainder of the season.

A lack of consistent pass rush, mixed in with a lack of athleticism at the linebacker position, added with the loss of Phillips in the secondary and numerous coverage breakdowns and “miscommunications” all led to what took place that afternoon.

This would follow for the next four weeks and the Giants went from 5-0 to 5-4 in an instant with one of the final nails coming at home when San Diego rallied from six points down in the final two minutes to win 21-20 on a last second touchdown.

The defense would not admit to a rift with their new defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan, but there was so much innuendo going around in the locker room that you could not avoid it.

It was obvious the defense was not the same aggressive, attacking defense as it was in previous years. However, with a lack of pass rush from their interior lineman, blitzing was very difficult to do because the secondary could not cover. How many times did we have to see C.C Brown chasing
defenders and only seeing the back of his jersey?

When they lost 45-38 to the Eagles at home in a battle for first place that was the ultimate sign that the defense could not solve any of its problems. No longer was it simply a mirage or a few bad games.

We had enough of a sample size to conclude that they were not any good despite the name players on the roster.

The fact they essentially gave up the final two weeks of the season was an enormous black mark on this team that it now must avenge this season.

That is the reason Perry Fewell is here.

Tom Coughlin brought him in to restore that Giants Pride that was lacking severely last year and needs to return with ferocity in order for this team to return to the top of the NFC East and put them back in contention for the Super Bowl.

The defensive line has the talent. Justin Tuck is 100 percent healthy and Osi Umenyiora has a clear mind and is ready to make amends for his poor performance and attitude last year.

Chris Canty, after contributing nearly nothing last year and back and healthy to go along with Mathias Kiwanuka. Added to that is rookie Jason Pierre-Paul and Linval Joseph to bring you and added athleticism. The hope is to rotate all of these players and come at opponents in waves as they did in 2007.

The linebacker spot is still a question mark. Keith Bulluck is fully healthy after a broken leg last season. But can he give 16 games?

The same can also be said for Michael Boley, who did not give a full season last year, only showing flashes of his talent, just not on a consistent basis.

Antrel Rolle was signed to fill the safety problems and with the returning Phillips, gives the Giants two ball-hawks in the secondary to anchor along with Terrell Thomas and Corey Webster.

No one disputes that the talent is there to get this done.

The question is whether they can be healthy enough to produce and play at the high level they should.

My bet is that they will.

Giants Talk: No Offense to the Offense

2010-09-10T08:45:00.004-05:00

Despite success, inconsistency marred 2009

EAST RUTHERFORD – A wise football man once said, “Statistics are meaningless.”

Anyone can use all the numbers in the world to draw any conclusion one would like.

All one has to do is look at last year’s Giants offense to prove this point.
Those dreaded “statistics” say last season the Giants ranked a respectable 11th in the league in total offense and eighth in scoring points.

However, a closer examination of the numbers and the simple “eye test” one would do by watching these games would tell that the team was simply not as good as those numbers would indicate. Yes, the defense was undoubtedly atrocious, but the offense before everything went downhill had to take responsibility for some of their actions that led to the eventual disaster.

In 2008 when the Giants went 12-4, one of the major statistics that stood out was their inability to convert in the red zone (the scoring area inside the opponents’ 20-yard line). This theme carried over into 2009 when they failed to convert on their first seven chances of the year. Though they won both games, the problem would not go away.

Running the ball was a staple of their offensive success, but for a multitude of reasons, they never got on track from the outset. Brandon Jacobs injured his knee in the opener against the Redskins and never was the bruising back the team had come to count on.

The offensive line, after being the team’s rock for several seasons, showed signs of weariness and age, lacking an ability to impose their will and establish themselves at the point of attack, frequently pushed back by the defense. These problems, in addition to not having enough consistently healthy running backs is what helped Eli Manning achieve career numbers in both passing yards and touchdowns despite playing on an injured foot for the final 11 games of the year.

Uncharacteristically, the team was a magnet for turning the ball over. 31 giveaways last year at an average of nearly two per game was a problem all season. Part of that is the defense forcing the offense, to take chances. However, many of the turnovers came before these games got out of hand because of poor defense.

This season, more emphasis needs to be made on protecting the ball. The offense is not the early 2000’s version of the St. Louis Rams where they can overcome numerous mistakes by bludgeoning their opponent with their high scoring offense. Unfortunately, this team is not built that way and the Giants defense as of right now, has yet to establish that they are good enough to overcome such mistakes.

The big question is whether the offensive line can hold up for the entire 16-game slate the biggest question mark.

The firm of (David) Diehl, Rich (Seubert), (Shaun) O’Hara, (Chris) Snee and (Kareem) McKenzie have yet to reach their “past prime” moment in their career, but after as many consecutive games the group has played together over the last four years, they are close to their expiration date.

Can they open up running lanes for Ahmad Bradshaw, who is now the starting running back in the offense, and late in the game when they attempt to overpower the defense late?

How about giving Eli Manning time to find receivers?

It has come to the point where we assume Manning will be a given. He is the elder statesman on the roster and the leader of the group.

We have come to expect a high level of performance and the job that he did helping in the development of the wide receivers was extraordinary.

Steve Smith became a Pro Bowl performer with a career-high 107 catches. Hakeem Nicks showed plenty of promise in his rookie season averaging nearly 17 yards a catch. Mario Manningham rebounded from a poor, injury-filled rookie campaign to gain over 800 yards and score five touchdowns.

With all of this, here are the questions facing the Giants offense coming into this season:

1. Can they reestablish their old dominant ground attack?

2. Can the offensive stay a cohesive and healthy unit all season?

3. Can Eli Manning continue to develop into an elite quarterback?

4. Can the wide receivers be an even great threat as evidenced by their strong season a year ago?

If the answer is yes, then with a hopefully revitalized defense, the team will continue to be in an advantageous position to win. However, they need to reduce their amount of turnovers and convert in the red zone when they get down there as often as they have over the last two seasons.

If not, they will be a mediocre football team.

Giants Talk: Season of Redemption

2010-09-09T08:37:00.000-05:00

After bad ’09, Giants seek to rebound

EAST RUTHERFORD – To say last season ended terrible was an understatement.

Going from where the Giants started last season to where they finished was the equivalent of dating Miss America and then ending up with Roseanne.

Such were the highs and lows of their season last year. One that began with plenty of promise when they were 5-0 dissolved in the middle of the year and eventually swept away at the end.

When it was all over last season in Minnesota, with the Vikings rubbing the Giants noses in it in much the same way other teams had done so during the season, the one hope that you had was that the team as a whole would take notice.

One person that took notice was the team’s principal co-owner, John Mara.

“I’m unhappy at everybody, Mara said after the Giants finished 8-8 and missed the playoffs for the first time in four seasons. “ It’s just not acceptable to perform like that. There are 8-8 seasons and there are 8-8 seasons, but this one felt a lot more like 2-14 to me.”

“I saw a lack of mental and physical toughness and quite frankly, a lack of effort over the last weeks (Carolina and Minnesota outscored the Giants a combined 83-16), Mara continued. That’s just something I never expected to see from this group of players.”

With that, Mara issued a challenge.

Losing, especially in the manner that team did last year was not going to stand. You get to do this for one year. Let it happen again, and serious changes will come.

The Giants built up too much equity over the past few years with their play that perhaps they spoiled themselves. When things got rough during their four game losing streak that effectively ended their season, they were defiant in saying that everything would be fine and they would correct problems.

Problem is, the problems continued.

They continued to the tune of statistically, the second worst Giants defense in the history of the franchise, allowing 427 points, and giving up 40 points or more five times.

Before the year, they built themselves up as a team free of holes. However, most of them did not find themselves on the practice field. The ones that did quickly found themselves in the trainer’s room shortly thereafter.

A team known for its power running game could never get on track from the outset. It would have its occasional moments, but fought inconsistency from Week 1. The inability to establish their strength compromised them in other areas. This forced Eli Manning into many more passing situations, and though he had his best statistical season, the Giants are never a better team when the team has to resort to “throwing first”.

Bad decisions, turnovers, poor special teams and the collapse of the defense all played a role in the team having a bad season. It is the reason most of them were not purged after the year, but instead, brought back to show that last season was an anomaly and this nucleus of team still had the same fire that made them champions just three seasons ago.

Most of the offense remains intact despite some of their imperfections last year.

The question that looms is whether the offensive line still possesses the same ability and strength to be a reestablished force.

Defensively, a franchise that prides itself on that side of the ball still has the talent to be dominant assuming they all can get on the field and perform.

Last year, Bill Sheridan took the fall for the player’s performance or lack thereof, replace by Perry Fewell, a man who worked with Coughlin back when he was in Jacksonville and was the defensive coordinator with Buffalo.

His task is to make this defense breathe fire again and restore what Coughlin calls “Giants Pride”, something that went away in an avalanche of points, poor execution, mindless decisions and uninspired play that led many to believe the team quit as the playoffs slipped away.

For the Giants, it starts with running the ball and playing defense, an old football axiom for success, but something they could not accomplish with the same proficiency in 2009.

Many of the faces from successful season’s past are still here.

The talent is here on this team to regain their status among the NFC’s elite.

Now, it is about putting back together what was broken a year ago.

It is time for this team to get to work.

Yankee Talk – The Jeter Question

2010-09-06T20:16:00.006-05:00

Struggles by The Captain present future issues

NEW YORK – With each weak at-bat. With each softly hit ground ball or fly ball, you begin to wonder if you are watching the end.

You always expect Derek Jeter to come through in situations when the Yankees need a big hit, because, well, he has always done so throughout his career.

But as we have seen throughout the last two months going on three, more and more evidence continues to mount that perhaps we have seen the best of the man who has known as “The Captain”, the man who has been an anchor at the top of the Yankees lineup for the last 14 years.

He does not appear to be able to catch up to a plus-fastball, particularly from hard throwing, right-handed pitchers. His inability to get his hands through the zone quick enough leads to his vulnerability, and eventual groundouts to short and third.

We would like to think that he simply has an injury and he is compensating for it by changing different mechanics in his swing, causing his problem. However, when you add in his lack of production at the plate and his decline in range on defense, add it all up and it leads to a man on the downside of his great career.

This all begs the question of what the Yankees will do with him when this season is over.

Jeter is in the final year of his 10-year, $189 million contract that he signed during the 2001 season that came off the heels of Alex Rodriguez cashing in on a $252 million deal with the Texas Rangers.

There is no doubt that Jeter has been worth every penny to the franchise that drafted him back in 1992. From day one, he has nothing but a great Yankee, part of five world championships and the most popular player the franchise has had in the last 40 years.

The marriage between Jeter and the Yankees has been great, but in 2008, questions arose about his decline. Two years remained on his contract and many wondered if we had seen the best of him. Instead, Jeter struck back last year with arguably his finest season both offensively (.334, 212 hits, .871 OPS) and winning a Gold Glove on defense as he helped the Yankees to a World Series title.

As customary, the Yankees allow contracts to expire before negotiating new ones because they have the ability to pay more than any competitor. The idea in some circles was that everything would go smooth and not become an issue because Jeter is a Yankees icon and eventual future ambassador of the team well after his playing days are over.

Of course, the cost of how much to pay him would be dependent on his production this season. What many people did not think would be to how much of a degree his decline would be.

As of Labor Day, Jeter came in hitting .264, which was 50 points below his career average and 80 points below last season’s average. His OPS of .703 is over 130 points below his career norm and 170 points behind last year in addition to grounding in more double plays this year than at any point in his career.

Those numbers are difficult to ignore. Add to it that on a Yankees offense that is number one in the league in scoring runs, Jeter has unquestionably been the least productive member of the lineup leading New York Post columnist Joel Sherman to suggest he should be dropped down to eighth or ninth in the order.

He has taken the most plate appearances on the team (630). Thus, he has made the most outs, and done so at a precipitously high rate. To put it nicely, he has been a black hole in the lineup while occupying for most of the season the leadoff spot. Only recently, Manager Joe Girardi very quietly was able to sneak Brett Gardner (.392 OBP) into the leadoff spot without anyone noticing and dropped Jeter into the number two spot.

In a past baseball era, many players that reached past the age of 35 would experience decline in their performance.

It was only natural. You have a specified amount of prime years to produce at a high level before you could no longer do so.

Then came the infamous “Steroid Era”, where not only were players able to keep up their performance of youth, but in some cases, continue to exceed well past their original expiration date.

Those days slowly are becoming outdated as aging players quickly find themselves weeded out of the sport, or forced to take lesser pay.

Certainly the Yankees are not going to “low ball” Jeter with an insulting offer knowing how much he means to the franchise. However, paying him $80 million for the next four years would appear to be nothing more than a “Lifetime Achievement Award” for years of good service rather than a sound baseball decision.

As it is, the left side of the Yankees infield is only going to continue to decline defensively as both Jeter and Rodriguez get old together. They will also play less games due to health, so it is incumbent that they find suitable replacements for them in the interim that can play and not be what amounts to filler (see: Ramiro Pena) once every seven days.

Jeter has no other position to switch from. Mark Teixeira currently occupies first base for the next six years and he does not produce good enough numbers to clog up the DH spot. The only other position that would remain is left field, and that would be insulting to a player the caliber of Jeter.

There is no doubt the two will reach a new contract and he will be the Yankees shortstop for the future as he approaches 3,000 hits and an eventual trip Hall of Fame.

Time remains for Jeter to turn his season around. Once October begins, perhaps he can erase the bad memories of his regular season with a spectacular postseason.

Until then, one can only wonder if we have already seen the best of Derek Jeter.

Time for some Yankee Random Thoughts

If Javier Vazquez pitched all of his games out of the bullpen, he probably would win 20 games.

Problem is he doesn’t pitch most of his games out of the bullpen.

After two impressive long relief outings against Toronto and Oakland, Girardi decided to put him back in the rotation this past Saturday against Toronto and it was clear he had no confidence in him.

Needing one more out to qualify for his 11th win of the season, Girardi pulled him from the game with the Yankees leading 5-3 much to Vazquez’s dismay after the game.

I’m not sure what he would be complaining about considering that at no point this season he has inspired any confidence to give him the benefit of the doubt when runners were on second and third.

Dustin Moseley came in and on the first pitch gave up the tying runs, though the Yankees came back to win 7-5. However, the larger issue was the complete lack of trust he has in him despite the double talk he may give to the (drive by) media.

The sequence right there was all you needed to know that he would rather jump in the lake than give Vazquez the ball to start a postseason game.

No one knows what to make of the Marcus Thames homerun-hitting spree over the last week.

Prior to his three-strikeout game Tuesday in the Yankees 9-3 win over Oakland, Thames had hit six homeruns in the last six games he started.

This type of run you would expect to see from the likes of Alex Rodriguez, not Thames.

Back in 2005, Tino Martinez went on a very similar run and now we see the same thing here.

Brought in to be a part-time player to face left handed pitching, Thames continues to crush southpaws (.349), but is also hanging in there against righties (.277), providing numerous big hits.

As long as he is not wearing an outfielder’s glove, he can stay in the everyday lineup. There certainly is not any doubt that in October if there is a lefty starting, he will be part of the starting nine that night.

If you listened to the Yankees radio broadcast, then surely you have become familiar with a lot of
John Sterling’s homerun calls.

As I have tracked it, here’s been the list to date this year:

“Gardy goes yardy!”

“Gardner plants one!”

“El Capitan!”

“Mark sends a Tex message!”

“You’re on the Mark…Teixeira!”

“It’s an A-Bomb…for A-Rod!”

“Robbie Cano…don’t ya know!”

“Jorge juiced one!”

“Nick…is Swishalicious!”

“The Grandy Man Can!”

“Happy Thames are here again”

“Austin Powers”

My sister still says that it is time for Sterling to get some new lines, but the cheesy stuff that keeps me coming back for more every night.

Alex Rodriguez came back to the lineup on Sunday and the Yankees eight-game winning streak ended.

Certainly, it was not his fault as he drove in a run, but it was incredibly hard not to notice the Yankees won 21 of the 24 games without him in the lineup.

Robinson Cano has been in a slump as of late and his average has dipped under .320 for the first time since early in the season.

Perhaps he is tiring a little bit, as he has played in nearly every game this season and has had to remain in the lineup with the different players that have been out.

A day off here and there is not a bad thing for Robbie. Having him at full strength for the postseason is the most important thing.

Kerry Wood has been a great addition to the bullpen for the Yankees, but I have to wonder if his numbers are unsustainable in the long term.

While his ERA is 0.56 over his first 16 innings, he has allowed 10 hits and walked 10 men. All it takes is one mistake after a walk to wreck everything.

Let’s hope he can curb the amount of base runners.

Phil Hughes continues to struggle and his ERA is now at 4.29 despite his 16 wins.

Michael Kay still says that wins is the most important thing and if he really feels Hughes has been as good as his win total, clearly him and I need to fight in a steel cage.

Yankee Talk: Road Trip Edition – A Successful Weekend in Chicago

2010-08-30T20:04:00.002-05:00

Yanks take two of three in series against White Sox

CHICAGO – When we did this same trip last year, the results were much different.

In four games, the Yankees only managed to salvage the final game to avoid a sweep.

This year, with much of its team depleted the defending world champions used all of its available resources to reach deep down and come away with a series win.

In watching Sunday’s starter Ivan Nova, who was making only his second ever Major League start, he showed everything that Friday’s starter AJ Burnett was not on Friday evening.

The spunky rookie showed of an array of dazzling pitches and control not in the strike zone, but also in his own ability to trust his stuff.

From fastballs on the corners to dancing off-speed pitches, Nova became a revelation right in front our eyes.

For the second straight start though, Manager Joe Girardi pulled the pull on him entirely too early as he was doing well, only to nearly have it backfire.

The moved ended up working out. But more than the Yankees eventual 2-1 win was that they feel as if they may have something in Nova and that he could be a valuable asset down the stretch. He had a great season at Triple-A Scranton and that has been able to translate with the big club.

In the fifth inning when he gave up his first run, the White Sox had mounted a two-out rally and had a chance to tie the game. Other pitchers may have folded in this situation, but not Nova, who was unflappable, striking out Omar Vizquel to end the inning.

Nova showed an ability to minimize damage and keep the Yankees in control.

The same could not be said for Burnett.

Burnett, who this earned his undisputed title of “Mental Case” for his horrific pitching for most of the season, simply showed up on the mound on Friday for the bottom of the first inning and quickly checked out.

How is this for an opening frame: Double, single, stolen base, strikeout, single, single, double.

Yeah, that’s a good way to start. It was as if the Yankees had lost the game before he ever threw a pitch. Watching Burnett in person is even more painful than watching on television.

You clearly can see him rattled on the mound and trying to find composure and confidence in himself that he clearly cannot find and does not have.

With each ball out of the strike zone or bouncing in the dirt, you know the clock is just ticking before the eventual explosion. You just don’t know if it is going to be a bottle rocket or nuclear bomb.

In this case, Burnett went nuclear.

Nine hitters came to the plate. Five of them reached on hits. Four of them scored. All of this took 37

pitches and nearly ended with me breaking my hand as I sat in the upper deck wanting to punch anything hard in effort to “pull an AJ”.

The best words came from Michael Kay after AJ Pierzynski’s two-run double had made it 4-0 when he said, “AJ Burnett has nothing.”

At the precise moment, you could have turned off the TV and found other things to do.

For me, I was at the park. Nothing I could do but sit through it and attempt to come up with something positive.

That would be hard.

Even less frustrating than Burnett was the offense clearly taking the night off against Freddy Garcia,

a man who had the third worst ERA in the American League since the All Star Break.

After scoring two runs in the first three innings, I thought the bats would eventually heat up.

Unfortunately, that did not happen.

Garcia would hold the bats down for seven innings as many players partied hard in Chicago the night before. Either that, or Girardi decided to punt the game by having Francisco Cervelli and Ramiro Pena occupying the eighth and ninth spots in the lineup.

Nonetheless, the rest the team resembled zombies along with Burnett and the offense.

Defensively, the team was awful. From poor throws from Nick Swisher sailing 30 feet over the catchers head, to bad throws by Cervelli and who knows what else, it was just not in the cards for them that night.

Amazingly I stuck it out until the end, which was an upset considering that after the fifth inning, the only thing that was on my mind was the postgame drink fest.

Saturday evening I thought were going to see a pitcher’s duel between two elite starters, John Danks of the White Sox and CC Sabathia of the Yankees.

However, as John Sterling always says, “You just cannot predict baseball.”

It was a relatively warm evening and the wind was not blowing out. But the Yankees rarely need wind to hit home runs.

Three two-run homeruns from Nick Swisher, Marcus Thames and Eduardo Nunez off Danks allowed the Yankees to jump ahead 6-1 after three innings.

Sabathia though did not have his best stuff. He appeared to be battling himself and the White Sox got back into the game with two two-run homeruns of their own to cut the margin to 6-5 after four.

The offense, clearly working with a full night of sleep and a halfway competent lineup struck back for four more runs to give Sabathia a 10-5 lead that he would carry through seven innings, striking out nine along the way.

It was the coming out party for Eduardo Nunez, who went 3-for-4 with a two-run homer and two run scoring singles to earn him the nickname “El Tigre”.

All of this proved my belief that “wins” for a pitcher, despite what Kay may want to tell you, is
meaningless.

Kay’s contention is that pitchers get their pay based on the amount of wins that they have and thus that is most important.

This idea of course is ridiculous because a pitcher that is mediocre during an outing can pick up a win as long as his offense can give him a high amount of run support. The numbers between Sabathia and

Mets lefty Johan Santana are similar in nearly every category expect run support, thus the reason Sabathia has 18 wins and Santana 10.

Sabathia finished the game giving up five runs, but got the win because the Yankees scored 10. The only reason he got the win was because he didn’t give up 11.

The bullpen struggled in the final two innings as Boone Logan, Joba Chamberlain and David Robertson were unable to hold a five run lead on their own, thus needing Mariano Rivera to come in to get the final two outs of a 12-9 victory.

It was good to see a win at the park, and with my group of 20 friends, we celebrated the victory in style.

As the saying goes, “You don’t pay to see losses.”

Certainly not on this night as the Yankees stopped a two game losing streak and stay tied atop the AL East.

Sunday was Frank Thomas Day at the ballpark as the White Sox honored perhaps the greatest player in their history. The team was giving up bobblehead dolls, but I had no plans on showing up at eleven in the morning. I did not have much interest and wanted my sleep.

Trying to take the third game of the series, I looked up and saw the lineup Girardi put out there and cringed again. Already missing was Alex Rodriguez to begin with. But the previous night, Mark Teixeira had to leave after injuring his thumb that came on a play from Friday night.

The new configuration had Swisher batting third, Thames hitting fifth and Cervelli back in the lineup did not inspire much confidence in me for whatever reason.

In the second inning, Thames continued his home run tear with a solo blast to left, his fifth in the last five games he has started. He sure may not field worth a damn, but he can turn around a fastball.

Brett Gardner’s single to center in the third upped the lead to 2-0, and with the way Nova was pitching, perhaps it was going to hold up.

The White Sox score a run to cut the lead in half by going on a two out rally, and in the sixth Girardi decided to remove the youngster from the game.

Perhaps he felt that was all he needed to see on this day as he has definitely earned another start if just so I don’t not have to see Burnett’s mug on my screen every five days.

Girardi brought in Boone Logan and eventually Kerry Wood, who loaded the bases but was able to get out the jam. He would stay in for the seventh and got two outs before Joba Chamberlain came on to get out of the seventh and a scoreless eighth to hand the ball to Mariano Rivera to nail down another victory.

A majority of the crowd left before the bottom of the ninth and I couldn’t blame them. If my team had to face Rivera, why would I stay to watch that? 97 times out of a 100, it is a definite loss.

What started as a weekend with the Yankees on the ropes, ended happily with a series win and a 3-3 road trip. The team can exhale as they head back home and I was able to breathe a sigh of relief as I was able to take in a few wins.

Just the way we drew it up.

Yankee Talk: No Bull from Pen

2010-08-23T21:41:00.008-05:00

Bullpen emerging as strength

NEW YORK – You realize very quickly how long a regular season is.

We make our snap judgments because we see what is in front of us and never really look too far ahead.

Earlier in the season, the bullpen of the Yankees outside of Mariano Rivera (known as “the bridge”) consisted of rough terrain and Russian roulette.

Manager Joe Girardi had no one he could trust. Every time he would make that slow walk to the mound, he would tap his right or left hand and hope against hope that was making the right decision.

As of late, the bullpen, once an extreme weakness has emerged as an incredible strength.

The starting rotation, a rock in the first half of the season with pitchers taking the ball into and through the seventh inning, has hit a rough patch. During this time, the bullpen has stepped up incredibly to continue to keep the Yankees as leaders in the AL East.

Before the beginning of the season, I championed that this Yankee bullpen would be among the best in the league.

Everything was in place in terms of quality arms and each man in a specific role that there never a thought it could be a problem.

Of course, things did not work out that way.

As we find out every season, there is never a thing as an absolute. The Yankees found this out the hard way over the first three months of the season as the relief core showed holes and their ineffectiveness made things worrisome.

The original plan was to have Joba Chamberlain team up with Mariano Rivera as a lethal tag-team to lock down games after the seventh inning.

David Robertson and, who put up impressive numbers last season, was to man the seventh inning.

Alfredo Aceves was to be the “jack of all trades” for the bullpen. He had the ability to get out one batter, or throw as many as four innings if a starter was roughed up early.

Damaso Marte and Chan Ho Park were to be power, situational arms as well.

Safe to say, none of this worked out.

Chamberlain battled control, velocity and mental confidence in his role.

Robertson could not find the strike zone, and when he did, balls were hit hard and some were leaving the park.

Aceves injured his back in late April has not been back with the team since.

Marte was also injured and Park had a mysterious loss in velocity upon signing with the Yankees and was nowhere to close to the pitcher he was last year for Philadelphia.

With a bullpen in shambles, questions rose as to what they would be able to do about it. General Manager Brian Cashman held firm that bullpens grow over the course of a baseball season and did not feel a major need to seek outside help.

For the most right, he was proven right.

Girardi continued to stick with Chamberlain in the eighth inning as the Yankees continued to remain in first place, but in the middle of July, he saw enough and without actually saying it, he removed the enigmatic right-hander from the role and replaced him with Robertson as he began to regain the form that he had the previous year.

Boone Logan took Marte’s spot as the primary lefty. Logan’s career has always been high on talent, but low on results. He had a stint with the big club early on, but to the minors after continuous career control problems.

Before the trade deadline, the Yankees release Park to the delight of many, replacing him with Kerry Wood, who was pitching for the Cleveland Indians. Wood had battled injuries over his career and despite good stuff, could never stay healthy. However, the Yankees decided to take a chance.

The results from Wood and everyone else has been amazing.

Since arriving, Wood has pitched in nine games, allowing only one earned run in 10 2/3 innings. He has shown his old velocity and his classic breaking stuff that made him one of the league’s most prized pitchers before injury.

Robertson, after starting out slow, has become one of, if not the best relief pitchers in the league. While his current 3.63 ERA is good, considering how far he came is even more impressive. Since June 5,
Robertson has pitched 28 2/3 innings, amassing a 1.59 ERA with 33 strikeouts and has not allowed a run since July 4.

After losing his eighth inning role, Chamberlain sought to rededicate himself and with the other stepping up around him, he wanted to remain in an important role. Over his last 12 appearances, covering 12 innings, he has given up only one earned run.

Logan also has a streak going of his own. Since June 29, he has thrown 13 innings, allowing only one run covering 16 appearances. Even Chad Gaudin has become a successful long man, giving up only two runs over his last 11 innings. His three scoreless innings on Saturday was a key part of the

Yankees 9-5 victory over Seattle when Javier Vazquez again continued his second half struggles.

At the end, the indomitable Rivera is always there, having another one of his traditionally great seasons.

Rosters expand on September 1, so that would allow for the returns of both Aceves and Marte to what has now become a deep bullpen.

With the innings restriction on Phil Hughes and the inconsistencies of Vazquez and AJ Burnett, the pressure is going to be on for the bullpen to continue their stellar performance.

As currently constructed, they are built to withstand an eventual struggle from one of their relievers with others picking up the slack.

However, with everyone on a hot streak, the Yankees hope this will continue for the rest of the season.

Time for Yankees Random Thoughts

After losing the first game of each series to Detroit and Seattle, the Yankees won the remaining five games to finish with 5-2 mark.

You can attribute this to the performance of CC Sabathia, who has proven to be an irreplaceable piece to this team and a true consummate ace pitcher.

At 17-5 with a 3.02 ERA, he is having arguably his best season. With at least seven more starts left, he only needs to win three of them to achieve 20 wins.

He has been absolutely worth the $161 million the Yankees paid him a year and a half ago.

Sunday against the Mariners, he was at his absolute best.

He did not allow a hit for the first three innings and after Austin Kearns’ homerun gave the Yankees the lead, the way he was pitching, there was no reason to think he would give the lead away.

The rain began to come down, so there was some fear that he start could be a waste. Instead, he worked quickly, throwing only 74 pitches and 54 for strikes. When Robinson Cano drilled a grand slam to make the score 5-0, Sabathia had nothing to worry about.

As it stands, it feels as if the Yankees need to win every game that he starts with all of the other pitching issues.

Sabathia brings a feeling of assurance.

I’m really starting to like this Austin Kearns kid.

Since coming to the pinstripes, he is hitting .341 and has an 11 game hitting streak through Sunday.

He always put on a tough, quality at-bat, and that is all you can ask for.

Right now, the results have been positive. Keep it up.

Of course, the same cannot be said of Francisco Cervelli.

Ever since his freakish start to the season that saw him hitting an unsustainable .781 in 14 at bats with runners in scoring position, is proving more and more that he will not consistently be able to hit major league pitching.

One of the most quirky statistics of the season is that the Yankees are 12-0 without Alex Rodriguez in the lineup.

Rodriguez, who had to leave the game on Friday night after his first at-bat, suffering a setback when he injured his calf on his way to first base, is now the disabled list and will miss the next two weeks.

In his absence, the offense has stepped up, averaging 8.2 runs per game. The main reason for the explosion has been MVP-candidate Robinson Cano.

Cano, in Rodriguez’s absence is hitting a blistering .375, with 6 home runs and 19 RBI in the games he has been in the cleanup spot.

Surely, the Yankees will eventually lose one without Rodriguez in the lineup.

Of course, there are some thought the Yankees should sit in the playoffs.

Um, no. At last check, he is still pretty good.

In Rodriguez (97), Mark Teixeira (89) and Cano (86), the Yankees possess three of the top 10 run producers in all of baseball.

Then why I do I complain about the offense?

One person I will continue to complain about is AJ Burnett, who turned in another clunker on Friday night in the Yankees loss to the Mariners.

You knew he didn’t have it in the very first inning, the most deflating feeling for any fan watching.

He had nothing and the Mariners hit him over the park for the first four innings. Girardi then came to the mound we thought to put us all out of our misery by taking him out. Instead, he made a smart move. He told him that because the bullpen had been taxed in the previous games, he was going to have to take one for the team and stay in there, which he did through seven innings.

Who knows what to expect when he pitches in front of my eyes on Friday night in Chicago. If last year on my birthday was any indication, the expletives will be flowing from my mouth at an unbearable rate by the third inning.

Oh, the pain.

Yankee Talk: Another comeback of champions

2010-08-11T23:52:00.001-05:00

Yankees show heart in comeback against Lee, Rangers

ARLINGTON – There are times in a baseball season where there is a point in the game when you know it is just not your day.

Sometimes, it can come early. Other times it can come late.

They say the game is 27 outs long, but other times, the game can be over long before that.

Not with the Yankees.

Yes, they have the most talent. That is not in debate. However, with most talented teams, it usually takes something extra. A tangible trait has no measure.

Call it belief or just plain old confidence. Several times this season, the Yankees have shown an innate ability to stage incredible rallies to win games.

Last Wednesday in Texas was just another example and it proved to be their best win of the season, gutting out 7-6 comeback win over the Rangers.

Consider the fact that the Yankees have plenty going against them after losing the previous night with Mariano Rivera and now having Cliff Lee on the mound dominating them through the first five innings, as he always seems to do.

Javier Vazquez, who has not shown an ability to pitch well against a quality lineup, was out of the game after another non-productive 4 1/3 inning, six run, eight hit outing.

Down five runs to Lee with the way he was going would be a definite loss on most nights. However, on this evening in Arlington, where the temperature consistently stayed in the low 100’s, the heat began to take its toll on the ace left-hander.

After scoring a run in the sixth to make it 6-2, the offense began to make Lee work in the seventh. Robinson Cano lead off with a double and with one out, Austin Kearns singled. Up came Lance Berkman, who despite terrible numbers against left-handed pitching was able to hammer a 1-1 pitch into the gap in right center that one-hopped over the wall for a ground rule double to cut the lead in half.

Brett Gardner would work a lengthy at-bat before drilling a single past Lee into center field to bring the Yankees to within 6-4.

Lee’s night was over. His invincibility over the Yankees taking a hit on this night as they finally showed an ability to score off him. No one knows for sure whether the main reason was the heat.

The Yankees would not score another run that inning, but Marcus Thames began the eighth inning with a blast off Frank Francisco to cut it to one.

At that moment, you had a sense that this complete could be complete, but you did not know how it would happen. It was not for Sergio Mitre and Kerry Wood teaming up to pitch 3 2/3 scoreless innings after Vazquez left, none of this would have been possible. But they had at least given the Yankees a chance going into the ninth inning.

With Neftali Feliz in to close the game, Berkman worked a leadoff walk. Gardner on a 2-2 pitch lifted a bloop single into shallow left to put things in motion. Feliz then uncorked a pitch to the backstop that ricocheted back to catcher Bengie Molina as both runners took off.

Pinch runner Curtis Granderson barely beat the throw as both runners moved to second and third with no one out.

Derek Jeter, enduring one of his worst seasons in this situation came up and hit a hard chop that hit off the glove of Feliz and past second baseman Christian Guzman into center for a run-scoring single to tie the game.

Swisher would strike out, but Thames would deliver again with a single through the hole of third and short to give the Yankees an improbable 7-6 lead with Rivera ready to hold it down in the ninth.

But of course, this game had more plot twists left. Elvis Andrus would triple to right center and was there with no one out for the Rangers three best hitters.

Under normal circumstances, a regular closer would not be able to get out of this situation.

Mariano Rivera is not one of those closers.

With veteran Michael Young up, Rivera induced a fly ball to shallow right that Kearns made the shoestring catch on, holding the runner at third.

Josh Hamilton was next, and after he was ahead 2-0, a cutter got in his hands and he grounded the ball back to Rivera, holding the runner again for the second out.

The game was now in the hands of Vladimir Guerrero. Would Rivera really escape this? Back in late June, he worked out of a bases loaded, no out jam in the tenth inning of a Yankees win in Arizona, but these were better hitters at the plate.

With the count 1-0, Guerrero chopped the ball to third. Alex Rodriguez fielded the hop and threw him out at first to end the game and finish off one of the best Yankees wins of the year.

This one goes alongside the ninth inning comeback against the Red Sox in May and the rally against the Dodgers in Los Angeles in June.

With everything not in their favor, they somehow found a way to get it done, coming back when they could have said, “Tomorrow”.

Champions show heart and fight until the end.

This is what they do better than anyone else in the sport.

Yankee Talk: Rivalry Edition – Left with a problem

2010-08-09T18:36:00.002-05:00

Yanks problems with southpaws problem

NEW YORK – While you are always looking to win today, when you are the Yankees, you are always looking ahead to the future.

In this case, October.

Judging by the results from this season, it is very easy to foresee potential danger ahead for the defending world champions the moment they attempt to pursue those final 11 wins.

Listen, Red Sox starter Jon Lester is good enough to shut down any offense when he has his good stuff as he did yesterday, throwing 6 1/3 innings of shutout ball, allowing only four hits his team’s 2-1 victory to split the wraparound four-game series.

However, the long-term problems exist of how the good (or even not so good) left-handed pitching has been able to handcuff the Yankees offense to where they seem to be on the defensive before the game ever begins.

In past years, seeing a left-hander would not faze the Yankees at all. They would have a multitude of hitters in their lineup that not only good, but also prolific to where they would not have to take a seat on the bench. Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui, two members of last year’s squad, were known for their ability to hang in against a southpaw and have success.

Such numbers have yet to translate to this season’s team as numerous players have put up incredibly feeble numbers to the put where Joe Girardi has to juggle his lineup considerably to give his team a good chance to win.

While Mark Teixeira, Robinson Cano, Derek Jeter and Nick Swisher are doing their fair share against southpaws, the performances of Alex Rodriguez, Curtis Granderson and Lance Berkman border on the obscene, with numbers suggesting they are nothing more than automatic outs.

To illustrate, Brett Gardner’s OPS against left-handed pitching (.739) is higher than that of Rodriguez (.677), Granderson (.518) and Berkman (.551) by a sizeable amount given similar sample sizes. This problems negates the ability of Girardi to use his “A” lineup, especially come October.

One look at yesterday’s lineup showed a bottom of the lineup consisting of Marcus Thames (a beast against southpaws, hitting .332), Austin Kearns and Curtis Granderson.

Granderson had a career reputation for his inability to hit southpaws before joining the Yankees and there was a belief the coaching staff could correct those flaws.

None of that has happened. His incredibly bad .183 average last year has marginally improved to .a still awful 206 in 2010, not good enough by any measure to justify his place in the lineup.

The big at-bat in yesterday’s game came with him at the plate against Lester with the bases loaded and no outs. Needing a fly ball to the outfield or a groundball to drive home a run, Granderson did neither. Instead, he produced an unproductive out, striking out swinging in an inning as the Red Sox held the Yankees scoreless.

We don’t want to beat up on Granderson, but the smart money is that either Damon or Matsui would have had a more proficient at-bat in that situation.

This becomes an issue in eight weeks, with the American League playoff field has a tough left-hander the Yankees would have to contend with in a series. Texas has Cliff Lee and C.J Wilson. Tampa Bay has David Price. Chicago has John Danks and to a lesser extent Mark Buehrle (though against the Yankees, he is 1-7 with 6.68 ERA). And as long as they remain in the race, Boston has Lester.

By coincidence, this week begins stretch of four consecutive games in which the Yankees will face a left-hander. CJ Wilson and Cliff Lee start for Texas in the upcoming two-game series that begins Tuesday, followed by Bruce Chen of the Royals on Thursday night.

The pitchers force the Yankees to change the configuration of their lineup. While Thames is great against lefties, he is a liability in the outfield defensively. His only suitable position is DH. Taking Granderson out of the lineup shifts Gardner from left field to centerfield and moves Austin Kearns into the lineup, who despite ability to put up a professional at-bat and play the outfield to quality, is not as good defensively compared to the ground Gardner and Granderson combined can cover when they are both out there.

If Granderson could just be an average hitter against lefties, none of this would be issue. The fact he along with Berkman (despite being a switch hitter) simply are utterly inept causes a trickledown effect the Yankees now have to deal with.

Not having the DH available to Posada brings worse defense behind the plate and also does not allow the older Jeter, Rodriguez or even Teixeira to get even a half day off.

The Yankees hope they are not “left” holding the bag at the end of the season.

Yankee Talk: Rivalry Edition – Can’t Win Them All

2010-08-09T17:30:00.001-05:00

Yanks miss chances, split four game series with Sawx

NEW YORK – Maybe the Yankees will regret not having their chance to put their foot on the throat of the Red Sox.

Then again, maybe they will not.

For now, they will look back to the seventh inning when they had an opportunity to put Boston away as they did in a similar situation one year ago when they swept them and took control of the AL East.

This time, the Red Sox made a stand, stopping the Yankees cold by holding them scoreless after loading the bases with no one out, allowing them to eventually come away with nai-biting 2-1 victory to split the four-game series in front of 49,476 at Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees had a chance to tie the game earlier in the bottom of the seventh inning before blowing their chance.

Boston starter Jon Lester handcuffed the offense through the first six innings, but Jorge Posada singled to begin the frame. Marcus Thames would step in a drove a pitch to deep right center that just hit off the padding atop the fence next to the Yankees bullpen.

Had it gone just several inches further, it would have meant a tie game. Instead, Thames had to settle for a double and runners were on second and third. Austin Kearns was then hit slightly with a 1-2 pitch to load the bases for Curtis Granderson.

Red Sox manager Terry Francona stuck with his ace lefty in an advantageous matchup against Granderson, who has amassed an abysmal .518 OPS this season versus left handed pitching. Lester struck him out on a slider on his 99th and final pitch of the game. For the day, he went 6 1/3 innings, giving up only four hits, walking three and striking out six.

Daniel Bard came into the game, and in an impressive display, struck out both Derek Jeter (high fastball) and Nick Swisher (outside fastball) on three pitches each to end the threat, leaving the Yankees scoreless and the Red Sox still on top.

“You don’t want to be the guy that gives it up,” Bard said. “Also you want to see where your stuff takes you.”

Papelbon added, “I think he showed us a lot of guts and determination.”

Boston got their initial runs in the second inning on balls that did not leave the infield against starter Phil Hughes.

With one out in the top half, Ryan Kalish singled, stole second and advanced to third when Posada’s throw went into center field and would later score on an infield single by Bill Hall.

Hughes got into more trouble when Jacoby Ellsbury would single to center and stole second. With Hall on third, Marco Scutaro would walk to load the bases.

A ground out by JD Drew would extend the lead to 2-0 nothing as Hughes would end the inning throwing 36 pitches, and 56 through two innings.

The lead was more than enough for Lester, who after blasting away off Josh Beckett the previous night found their bats ice cold. They did not get their first hit until Kearns lined a single to center in the fifth inning to start a mini-rally that continued with two out when Jeter singled to right. However,
Lester would strikeout Swisher to end the threat.

While Lester was dealing, Hughes would settle down, retiring 12 of the next 13 batters to make a good showing of himself on the afternoon, throwing six innings and yielding only those two runs and six hits over 114 pitches, walking one and striking out three.

With Bard still in the game to begin the eighth, Mark Teixeira connected on his 24th homerun of the year to trim the margin to a run and Alex Rodriguez would single to center. Brett Gardner would pinch run and stayed out of a double play when Robinson Cano would ground out to second base.

Posada drew a walk, and Lance Berkman pinch-hit for Thames. With a 2-0 count, Berkman was unable to get around on Bard’s fastball thrown at 98 and flied out routinely to left. With two out, Francona brought in closer Jonathan Papelbon, who got Kearns to groundout softly to second to end the inning.

The Yankees got the tying on in the ninth when Jeter drew a one out walk. But Papelbon would strike out Swisher and Teixeira to end the game and the series.

Tomorrow night begins a six game road trip starting in Texas and concluding with a four game weekend series against Kansas City.

Yankee Talk: Rivalry Edition – Dustin Quite A Find

2010-08-08T23:28:00.004-05:00

Moseley surprises all with another good effort

NEW YORK – He was not scheduled to start until Monday afternoon, but when Dustin Moseley received the call from Manager Joe Girardi that he would sub for AJ Burnett and to prepare himself to take the ball just in case.

When Girardi alerted him in the morning that he would in face the Red Sox in the nationally televised game, even he probably did not know what to expect.

In the seventh inning with one out, Girardi came to the mound. It would be the end of the night for the right-hander as he gave his manager the ball, giving him more than he could have asked for.

Moseley continued to impress again, allowing only two runs and six hits in the Yankees 7-2 victory over the Red Sox, becoming an incredible revelation as he fills the shoes of the injured Andy Pettitte.

“You can’t dream of anything better,” said Moseley.

One of the highlights of his night came during the first at-bat of the game when he made a great play fielding slow infield chop of the bat of Jacoby Ellsbury that he was able to grab with a bare hand and nail him on a close play at first.

“You don’t ever work on those things,” said Moseley. “That is just the athletic side of it kicks in there. I got a nice bounce and barehanded it and had a nice throw.

Using his two-seam fastball on the corners for strikes, attacking hitters with his quick pace and utilizing his defense, he has been very effective during his time and continues to earn trust not only of his manager, but also his teammates.

“That’s the way I have to pitch,” Moseley said. “If I fall behind in the count, I don’t have overpowering stuff to blow things by people. I have to throw strikes and expand the zone.

In a matchup on paper that was to be a mismatch against the Red Sox Josh Beckett. Instead, Beckett would leave the mound once again battered and bruised by the Yankees offense for the fourth time this season.

Meanwhile Moseley cruised early, only allowing one hit through the first three innings. In the fourth, he ran into trouble when gave up a single to Victor Martinez and then walking both JD Drew and Adrian Beltre to load the bases. Boston could have made a dent in the game right then, but Moseley induced a groundout from Ryan Kalish to end the potential threat.

A homerun by Bill Hall to begin the fifth was one of the few blemishes on his night. Once the Yankees lead expanded from 2-1 to 7-1 going into the sixth, the game was firmly in his hands to take home.

For Moseley, this game meant a lot to him and his family back in his home state.

“I have a lot of people back home in Arkansas,” Moseley said. “Most of the people cannot afford the package, and it was good knowing the game was on ESPN, so my wife sent out a mass text to let everyone know.”

They tuned in and saw a great performance. For a pitcher who spent his early years with the Angels before injury problems plagued him, allowing the Yankees to sign him this past offseason. It has been a long road just to get back to where he currently stands now.

He has never had overpowering stuff, but the organization brought him in as a low risk move in hopes of him providing depth on the major league club at some point.

“I put a lot of hard work in these last couple years,” said Moseley. “I’ve had some bumps in the road. “

Pitching six innings of one run ball in Cleveland, he earned another chance last Tuesday against Toronto and pitched into the eighth inning despite taking the loss. Sunday, he continued his string of good outings, lessening the pain of not having Pettitte in the rotation.

So far, it has been a success.

“They (the organization) brought him in spring training, and the thought was as he rehabbed himself, he would be a guy that would help us out down the road, said Girardi. “They have been right.”

“He’s had some health issues, but he has gotten over them and he’s pitched very well for us.”

Moseley can serve in a number of roles. Starting right now is one of them. The other would be a long man out of the bullpen assuming Alfredo Aceves does not return before the end of the season. His versatility is something that can be of tremendous benefit to the club going forward.

Maybe this is just a small sample of starts before eventual regression. Or perhaps he can channel what Shawn Chacon and Aaron Small did for the Yankees in 2005 when combined to go 17-3 to help propel the team into the playoffs.

They expect Pettitte to return to the rotation in the next two weeks, so he will not have to pitch the remainder the year. However, with the innings limit the organization has on Phil Hughes, Moseley has certainly earned the teams trust to take the ball whenever the time calls.

When it was over, he walked off the mound at Yankee Stadium to a raucous standing ovation for a job well done on this night.

“It was incredible,” Moseley said. “Something I will never forget.”

He only hopes he will get more opportunities.

Yankee Talk – Rivalry Edition: By a Mose

2010-08-08T22:59:00.001-05:00

Moseley subs in for Burnett as Yanks bomb Beckett again

NEW YORK – Two weeks ago, after Andy Pettitte went down and Sergio Mitre was ineffective in his start, the Yankees gave the ball to Dustin Moseley not knowing what to expect.

All they had to go on was his previous starting experience as recent as last July, his minor league success this season and two relief efforts.

Sunday night, forced to move up his start one day early due to back spasms by AJ Burnet, continued his good string of performances that even the Yankees could not expect him, pitching them to a 7-2 victory over the Red Sox on Sunday night to extend their AL East lead over their rivals to seven games.

For Moseley, who at 28 has had injuries set him back for most of his career, having this stage in a game on national television, and to pitch well was something he never could expect.

“I would go home every night in spring training and dream of something like this,” Moseley said after pitching one of the best games of his career, throwing 6 1/3 innings of outstanding ball, limiting the Red Sox to only two runs and six hits.

On paper, the matchup of Moseley against Boston hurler Josh Beckett would appear to be a mismatch.

The mismatch was what it was, on paper.

On the field where it counts, it was a mismatch in favor of the Yankees.

Beckett, roughed up by the Yankees for the fourth time this season, was unable to make it out of the fifth inning for the third time this year.

In the second inning, the Yankees scored the game’s first run when on Bill Hall, rather than holding the ball on a grounder with the speedy Brett Gardner running toward first, made a bad throw, allowing Lance Berkman (who doubled) to score from third.

Derek Jeter would then single to center after Gardner stole second to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead.

The lead was enough for Moseley early on as he only allowed one hit through the first three innings, including making a fabulous play to begin the game when he barehanded a ground ball and nailed
Jacoby Ellsbury at first.

Moseley ran into trouble in the fourth inning when he loaded the bases after surrendering a single and two walks. The threat ended when he induced a groundout from Ryan Kalish to keep the game at 2-0 before a homerun to Bill Hall in the fifth for the first Boston run.

In the bottom half, the Yankees would blow the game open and knockout Beckett. Mark Teixeira crushed his 25th homerun of the year deep into the right field bleachers. After a walk to Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano reached on a hit-by-pitch, Berkman doubled inside the third base line, driving home Rodriguez.

Things got worse when after Gardner struck out, catcher Kevin Cash ill advisedly tried to double up Cano at third base, but his throw went into left field, scoring the run from third anyway. Jeter followed up with a two-run double into the gap in right center to extend the lead to 7-1, also passing Babe Ruth on the all-time hit list at 2,874. The blow sent Beckett to the shower.

“You give up seven runs, who else are you gonna blame?” Beckett said of his 4 2/3 inning, 11 hit, 7 run outing, and the defensive miscues that led to runs. “It’s nobody else’s fault in here.

The numbers this season for Beckett against the Yankees have been ugly. In four starts, he is 0-3 with an 11.30 ERA, allowing 33 hits and 24 earned runs in 19 1/3 innings.

“It’s hard for our guys to catch ball when they are hit that hard,” said Beckett. “I just threw too many balls over the fat part of the plate.”

While Beckett stumbled again, Moseley flourished. Armed with the sizable lead, he took the game home. Throwing strikes with his two-seam fastball and working quickly on the mound, the Red Sox were unable to line him up and get good swings against him.

The big stage of The Rivalry was not too big for him.

Moseley took the game into the seventh inning before surrendering a double and an infield single brought Joe Girardi to the mound to take the ball from his right-hander, who left to a standing ovation from the 49,096 at Yankee Stadium.

“You can’t dream anything better.” Moseley said about the ovation.
“It is something I’ll remember for the rest of my career.”

“He attacked the zone,” Girardi said. “We told him (Saturday) to be prepared to pitch, and I wasn’t concerned about him handling (the situation).

With Joba Chamberlain in the game, an infield single by Mike Lowell made it 7-2. A two walk to Marco Scutaro loaded the bases for David Ortiz. Girardi went to lefty Boone Logan, who has been a revelation as of late, and got him to groundout to end the inning.

Logan pitched a scoreless 1 1/3 innings. With two outs in the ninth and five-run lead, Mariano Rivera, throwing only one pitch, got the final out of the game.

The Yankees have now won 15 of their last 20 against the Red Sox.

While Moseley came through, Berkman turned the boos he had been hearing from Yankees fans into cheers, going 3-for-4 after starting out a miserable 2-for-22 and then injuring Rodriguez in batting practice Saturday afternoon with a line drive.

“As long as we win, if doesn’t matter if I hit .150,” Berkman said. “But you want to feel like you’re contributing. You don’t want to feel like you’re an albatross.

“You kind of have to reestablish your credibility with a new team, with a new set of fans. And the only way you can do that is by getting some hits.”

Sunday night, both players found ways to help in victory.

Yankee Talk: No Trust Factor

2010-08-06T23:07:00.000-05:00

Vazquez performance hurts future credibility

NEW YORK – Javier Vazquez proclaimed before his start against the Red Sox Friday that he wanted this stage.

He wanted a chance to redeem himself. It was an opportunity to show that he can earn the trust of Yankee fans that look at him cynically, always awaiting his eventual meltdown.

Last night, he did none of that.

Even worse, Vazquez again served notice that in a big game, he has yet to earn the confidence that he can come through in big games, especially come October, which is a damaging sign for the Yankees.

The Yankees 6-3 loss to the Red Sox dropped their AL East lead to five games, but it was about more than that. This was about a continuing belief that this pitcher, when asked to come up big, continues to come up small.

It all began with two outs in the first inning when he left a pitch over the middle of the plate that David Ortiz drove out to dead center to give the Red Sox a quick 1-0 lead.

After Mark Teixeira gave him a 2-1 lead to work with in the second, he gave it right back, albeit with some help. After Adrian Beltre doubled to the gap to lead off the second, Vazquez got J.D Drew to pop out and then appeared to have the second out when Mike Lowell popped up a ball along with the first base line near foul ground. Vazquez would have caught it, but then Francisco Cervelli called him off and the ball bounced off his glove in fair territory.

It is unknown whether that rattled the right-hander. He was able to strikeout Ryan Kalish, but walked the ninth place hitter Jed Lowrie, who is not a threat with the bat to load the bases. Jacoby Ellsbury then drew a walk that forced home a run to tie the game as the crowd groaned.

Marco Scutaro then got a pitch up in the zone and drove it down into the left field corner for a two-run double to expand the lead to 4-2. The crowd, expecting the worst, got it.

It made no difference that since his awful 9.78 ERA start in April, he has been the Yankees second best pitcher (3.34 ERA). All Yankee fans know and believe is the past and that memory hangs over like a dark cloud.

Last week against Tampa Bay in a similar situation, he got behind quickly. Once the Yankees evened the game for him, he quickly gave it back.

When the game was tied in the sixth, all the Yankees asked was for him to keep the game the game tied, he could not do it, giving the Rays the lead once again. The Yankees would eventually win, but his propensity for “coughing it up” rendered its head again.

Friday night, it was back and no one was going to forget.

Vazquez would settle down for the next three innings and when Alex Rodriguez had an RBI single to trim the lead to 4-3 going into the sixth, it was incumbent on him to hold the lead right there to give the Yankees a chance against both Clay Buchholz and the Red Sox bullpen. All he needed to do was get at least three more outs.

This, he could not do.

After getting the first out, Lowell singled to left. Kalish then came up and drove a two-run homer into the Yankees bullpen in right center to balloon the lead to three. The crowd, the most intelligent in all of baseball knew what was going on here. They had seen this pitcher do exactly what they knew going in, and that was find a way somehow to spit the bit.

These were the house rules with Vazquez the moment he returned. No matter how he performed this season, he would never fully earn the fans trust unless came through in big games and in October. He could perform like Bob Gibson in 1967 or Pedro Martinez in 1999 and none of would matter unless had gave fans the belief and faith in him.

Here in early August, he still does not have it.

So as we look ahead to October, the dread still exists of Vazquez melting down on the road in the postseason or at worst, Game 2 at home and continuing his career legacy.

When the Yankees brought him back this season, the move was met with trepidation. Why bring this man back when his past stint was filled with negativity.

The belief was that he could not pitch in New York. Vazquez claimed he was hurt, thus leading to complete inefficiency in the second half of that 2004 season after Joe Torre named him to the All Star team.

His first month was awful and continued the trend that he was not fit to pitch here. However, he rebounded, able to salvage a season when all seemed lost.

Last night though, he opened up old wounds.

Who knows how the game would have turned if Cervelli was able to make that catch for the second. Maybe not all three of those eventual runs would have crossed the plate and he could have settled in to pitch a good ballgame.

Unfortunately, those things happen and the dropped ball did not lead to him walking two hitters and then give up a two run double, nor a two-run homerun in the sixth when the team needed him to put up a zero.

That is why when Joe Girardi came to the mound after his 108th pitch to take the ball from him, the crowd showered him with boos.

The past is still there. Only Vazquez can change it.

Right now, there is no belief in him that he can.

Yankee Talk: Rivalry Edition – Sawx strike first

2010-08-06T22:14:00.003-05:00

Javy, poor defense help Boston to victory

NEW YORK – Javier Vazquez was to earn himself the respect of his cynical fan base.

In the days leading up to this start, Vazquez relished the chance to face the Red Sox after having the Yankees skip him back in May for fear him completely losing his confidence.

Friday night did nothing the crowd, or Vazquez.

While poor defense played a role, the Yankees right-hander did not do himself any favors by allowing the game to get away from him early and see the Red Sox close him out late as they took the first of the four game series 6-3 in front of 49,555 at Yankee Stadium.

Vazquez, who statistically has been the Yankees second best pitcher since May when count the absence of Andy Pettitte, found trouble right from the start of the game. After getting the first two outs on ground balls, David Ortiz took an outside pitch and crushed it over the center field fence near
Monument Park for his 24th blast of the season that gave Boston the early lead.

Mark Teixeira would counter in the bottom half, drilling a two-run homer into the right field bleachers to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead. It was the fourth game in a row in which they had a two-run first inning homerun.

In the second inning, the Red Sox would add to their lead. After Adrian Beltre double to begin the frame, JD Drew popped out and the same was going to be said of Mike Lowell just to the right of the first base bag. Vazquez called for it initially, but catcher Francisco Cervelli took charge and the ball bounced off his glove in fair territory, allowing Beltre to go to third.

“Someone’s got to catch it. That’s the bottom line,” Yankees Manager Joe Girardi said.

Ryan Kalish struck out, but then Vazquez walked light hitting Jed Lowrie on four pitches to load the bases. Jacoby Ellsbury would also work a walk when a 3-1 pitch sailed outside, allowing Beltre to score from third to tie the game at two.

A hanging changeup to Marco Scutaro was hammered down into the left field corner for a two-run double to extend the Boston lead to 4-2 as the denizens at Yankee Stadium would cascade boos on the Yankees enigmatic right hander.

Because of the error, Vazquez was not charged with any earned runs. However, he could have picked up Cervelli after he got the second out instead of walking Lowrie to load the bases, walk Ellsbury to tie the score and the yield a two-run double to Scutaro that gave the Red Sox the lead.

Having a two-run advantage, Boston starter Clay Buchholz went to work. He has been among the league’s best pitchers this season and after struggling against the Yankees back in May, he sought a chance to redeem himself.

Working at a quick pace and throwing strikes, many Yankee hitters came to the plate and quickly went back to the dugout after the Teixeira homerun. He kept the Yankees scoreless until the bottom of the fifth when Alex Rodriguez’s RBI single scored Derek Jeter from third to cut the margin to 4-3.

Vazquez had settled down from his bad second inning and put up zeroes for the next three frames. However, needing just one more scoreless to come away with a respectable outing, he was unable to do so.

Drew flied out, but then Mike Lowell singled and Kalish would drill a two-run homer into the Yankees bullpen to build the Red Sox lead back to 6-3. Vazquez would then walk Lowrie and Manager Joe Girardi made that slow walk to the mound, marking the end of his night.

In 5 1/3 innings, Vazquez allowed six runs (three earned) and six hits, walking four and striking out five in 109 pitches to fall to 9-8 on the season.

Buchholz kept his pitch count low and departed with one out in the eighth inning throwing only 97 pitches before giving up a double to Robinson Cano, giving up only three runs and scattering nine hits while walking no one and striking out four to improve to 12-5.

Daniel Bard got the final two outs of the eighth to get the ball to Jonathan Papelbon in the ninth. The Yankees bullpen kept them in the game with 3 2/3 scoreless innings of pitching from Joba Chamberlain, Kerry Wood, Boone Logan and Chad Gaudin.

Papelbon got the first two outs quickly before Jeter worked a 12 pitch at-bat for a walk. The game would end when Swisher flied out softly to left field as the Red Sox came away with a win, determined to not suffer the same fate when they were swept in four straight games last August, thus eliminating them from the AL East race.

“It’s pretty big, yeah. Everyone has high hopes going into tomorrow,” Buchholz said. “We lose this one, and then lose that one, everyone knows where that goes.”

Boston closed within five games of the Yankees and on Saturday has John Lackey going to the mound against CC Sabathia.

Yankee Talk: Rays Have Staying Power

2010-08-01T23:25:00.001-05:00

Tampa shows Yanks they will not go away

ST. PETERSBURG – For three days in July that blended its way into August, we saw the two best teams in the league do battle.

In this battle of heavyweights, it was the Rays that would hold serve at home, winning two of three from the Yankees in response to what the Yankees did two weeks earlier.

There was nothing to settle over this weekend. The season still has eight more weeks to go and these two teams still have to player each other eight more times, even though by the looks of it, these teams appear poised to meet more than seven times by the time this 2010 concludes.

What we saw from this young, feisty bunch from Tampa Bay is that they have no fear of the defending world champions. The Rays, American League champions two seasons ago when they were able to outlast the Red Sox in both the regular season and in a seven-game ALCS, are battle-tested and were able to stand up to the Yankees and put them on notice that they will go away anytime soon.

They have the starting pitching, ability to get timely hits and have the relievers in late innings to get key outs and hold their leads. On the surface, the Rays do not have a definable weakness.

Friday and Sunday saw Wade Davis and James Shields handcuff the Yankee lineup. Davis, after giving up a two runs after five pitches Friday, settled in to shut down the vaunted lineup through seven innings. Sunday saw Shields pitch the best game of his season. Coming in at a mediocre 9-9 with an ERA hovering close to five, he completely dominated, throwing 7 1/3 shutout innings, striking out 11.

That the Rays were able to do this without potential CY Young candidate David Price and a subpar outing by Matt Garza illustrates the depth and quality of their rotation. Seeing that makes you know right away envision them and the Yankees meeting in October with a World Series berth at stake.

Price, Garza, Shields, Davis and Randy Niemann are as good a rotation as anyone in baseball and can stand toe-to-toe with the Yankees. This is why they have the second best record in the league and for as great a year as the Yankees have had, only one game separates the two.

You would have thought the Yankees were on their way to putting their foot on the Rays early on Friday night after Nick Swisher hit that two run homer in the first inning. With the way Phil Hughes was pitching through the first five innings, they were comfortably in control.

Suddenly, with two men on, two out and a 2-2 count to Matt Joyce, Hughes misplaced a fastball that went out for a three-run blast to give the Rays the lead.

The combination of Davis, Joaquin Benoit and Rafael Soriano teamed
up to hold the Yankees hitless the final three innings to win the opener.

Saturday night, the Rays jumped out early with runners on second and third with no one out in the first inning, but Javier Vazquez limited the potential damage to only one run.

By the end of five innings, Tampa Bay held a 3-1 lead and Garza had his good stuff even if he was not throwing a no-hitter as he did last Monday against Detroit.

However, the Yankees finally got to him the sixth. After Derek Jeter doubled, Mark Teixeira connected on a fastball and hammered it deep to right to tie the game.

After Joyce hit his second homerun in as many nights to retake the lead in the bottom half, Swisher would answer with a blast of his own in the seventh to re-tie the game.

In his two previous at-bats, Garza would pound the zone with fastballs only to finish him off with a breaking ball. This time, Swisher knew it was coming, sat on it, and got a hanging curve that he drove over the wall.

Boone Logan and David Robertson kept the score tied until the ninth. Benoit did the same on Tampa Bay’s side and now closer Rafael Soriano was in the game looking to give his team a chance to win in the bottom of the ninth.

He did not get that far.

After Soriano got Alex Rodriguez to pop out on the infield for the first out, Robinson Cano connected on a fastball down and in, crushing deep into the right field seats to give the Yankees a lead that Mariano Rivera would hold down in the bottom half for the save.

For the Yankees, it allowed them to breathe easily. The win assured them that they would leave St. Petersburg still in first place as both teams played one of the most intense games anyone will watch this season.

While Joe Girardi will not say it, he knew that winning Saturday allowed him to tinker with his lineup on Sunday. Resting was Rodriguez and Brett Gardner to go along with Teixeira as the designated hitter and Ramiro Pena playing third base.

The “A” lineup was not there which led to Shields pitching his best game of the season. Newly acquired Lance Berkman made two defensive miscues that eventually led to the three runs the Rays scored off CC Sabathia.

It is very likely that even the best lineup was not going to beat the Tampa Bay right hander the way he was throwing Sunday, but the Yankees did not take the loss as if it was going to have any bearing in the future. They see the long term in this season and with both teams firmly in playoff position, would rather tend to the health of their players than anything else.

No much separates these teams in August. Nothing much will separate the two the final eight weeks.

The two best teams in baseball appear headed for a classic matchup in October.

Time for Yankee Random Thoughts

Clearly seeing that the moves made in the off-season were not of quality or simply just did not work, the Yankees felt the need for a slight makeover without doing anything drastic.

In acquiring Lance Berkman, it was an admission the signing Nick Johnson and having him replace Hideki Matsui was an abject failure.
Johnson only hit .167, amassing double the amount of walks (24) than hits (12) in 24 games before suffering a hand injury that has put him out ever since.

Johnson was looked upon to make up for Johnny Damon’s slot in the number two hole, but despite working counts, never truly fit. His chronic health problems were always a concern and they resurrected immediately upon his return to the Yankees.

Now that they have replaced him with Berkman, the question has to be asked of why the Yankees got rid of either Damon or Matsui despite their advanced age and injury history for a man whose body breaks down faster than Carl Pavano’s did when he was here.

Berkman has always been a gamer on the field. However, his numbers have been in precipitous decline the last four seasons to the point where his current salary could not be justified. This is why the Yankees demanded the Astros pay a sizeable portion of his contract before even taking him.

It will take time for him to adjust. Since 2005, he has not played in any meaningful games for the Astros, and the change to a new league, new team, and playing in games of this magnitude, with this scrutiny and at this level take time to adjust.

All the Yankees are in search of is a quality at bat either in the number two slot (which he was in on both Saturday and Sunday) or even down in the lineup. Perhaps his new surroundings will invigorate him and he can perhaps find past glory.

Bringing in utility man Austin Kearns was a clear signal that the organization finally concluded that Curtis Granderson’s history of being poor against left-handed pitching was real and even they could not correct it.

When acquired, the Yankees talked in glowing terms that several mechanical flaws in his swing would help at least be competent when facing a left-hander at the plate.

Instead, with an average of .219 against them this year (.188 last year), those numbers were not trending upward in a way the Yankees could continue to justify keeping him in there.

Kearns brings a professional bat from the right side that hits lefty pitching and can start on those days, allowing Brett Gardner to shift to center.

Looking to October, Granderson would have been a near automatic out against potential lefty starters such as Cliff Lee, David Price, Jon Lester, Francisco Liriano and John Danks.

Putting a more competent bat in there strengthens the lineup and allows for Marcus Thames, a sold hitter against lefties, to not play in the outfield and rather, have him as a pinch hitter.

Kerry Wood as an addition to the bullpen is simply a “buy low” proposition. He still have tremendous stuff, but is often injured and just recently returned from a blister problem that landed him on the disabled list for several weeks.

Before that, the numbers were not good. Peripherally, he still strikes out a batter an inning, but has a few too many walks despite reasonable hit-to-innings pitched numbers.

The best thing one could say was that his addition was good only
because it meant the last of Chan Ho Park, who the Yankees released the next day.

I was on the Park bandwagon back in spring training and thought it was a bargain to get a guy who performed the way he did out of the bullpen for Philadelphia. Somehow, upon arrival to the Yankees, he lost 5 MPH on his fastball and lost all sense of how to pitch.

At least he gave us a great YouTube moment about how his poor pitching came from a case of diarrhea. It would not have surprised us if he had that the entire season.

All Wood has to do is stabilize the pen just a little bit. If he gets hot and can pitch 25 good innings the rest of the season, the Yankees will take that. With him, Chamberlain and Robertson to go along with the recent hot streak of Boone Logan, hope to finally build a solid bridge to Mariano Rivera.

Sunday he threw a knee-buckling 3-2 curveball to Evan Longoria for a strikeout. That type of power arm can help the team as he struck out three.

However, he did have two walks and left the game with the bases loaded.

Not good.

Not getting Cliff Lee made these moves appear like second prizes. The equivalent of this would be like asking for Playstation 3 and ending up with a Sega Genesis.

I was not a fan of the A-Rod “Chase for 600”, and now that the chase is ten games old, I think we have had enough of all of this.

Listen, Rodriguez is going to hit another homerun at some point before the end of the season.

However, this has become tedious.