1) Buffalo was w/out their 2 best skill players on O, McCoy and Watkins. They also missed at least 2 starters on their O-line, including their starting OLT.
2) Bills committed 17 penalties. W/out the penalty 1st downs the Bills handed them, the Giants' 1st down totals would have been about as bad as the Bills... In any case we were awful on 3rd down conversions.
3)OL "playing well" might be a mirage created by the quick release offense McAdoo designed and Eli implemented with aplomb. We did run the ball better, against a monster D-line!
Grizz is way ahead of himself and the team anointing us SB contenders.
Loved the way OBJ and later Jennings made "Rambo" their little biotch.
Loved Flowers gutting it out on a bum ankle, Kennard playing like the best Giants LB since Armstead, Wynn giving 4 quarters of overachievement, Beason out "QBing" Tyrod Taylor, loved getting Harris going.
Loved Jayron Hosley's 1st STs tackle, inside the 20...
Lots to love, but still unconvinced.
If the other team is committing penalties you still have to capitalize of them.
Couldn't care less the Bills were short a couple of players when the Giants have been short players for the last 3 years.
The Oline looking better by the design of the offense isn't a bad thing, is it?
The Giants may not be Championship contenders but they are playing better than many of us expected.
2-TC told his players BEFORE the game that Buffalo would beat themselves with penalties..That's WHO Rex Ryan's teams are
3-Re mirage, that could describe Brady's, Rodgers' et al quick release games as well as it pertains to their respective OLs
2. Here I would argue that the Giants overcame some very dirty play by the Bills. Giants had 11 penalties for 85 yards. Bills had 17 penalties for 135 yards. How is 50 yards the reason they lost by 14 points.
3. Offense playing well might be a mirage based on the quick release offense? Do we plan to change the offense the rest of the year? If not, then they are playing well within their system. I'd argue they need more consistency in the run game but otherwise they are doing very well.
My only concern for our team right now lies with the pass rush. Cruz coming back to form would be a huge bonus if possible but the pass rush (or lack there of) scares me the most. I think competent QBs will throw at will against us with all the time they are getting.
I suppose you can what if any game in the NFL and come away with we should of, could of, would of or they should of, could of, would of too, however, there's normally a reason for a win and the Giants have been doing a lot of things right. They earned a win, it wasn't given to them. People think the Giants were lucky to win two Super Bowls with Eli at QB?! I guess it's all how you want to look at it. I am usually a skeptic, but have seen some solid play from this team, this year and really want to believe.
I want to see the glass half full, not half empty. Do they have things to work on, sure, but I see the arrow pointing up and the win in Buffalo, IMO was no fluke. Even if Buffalo would have scored on the two TDs that were called back, I think the Giants still would have been poised to pull it out with a FG anyway.
They led the league in penalties before this.
You play the teams on the schedule. It still counts as a win.
Then there were all the personal fouls that aided GIANTS drives, including 30 yards AFTER one play.
If the Bills had played more error-free and more disciplined football, the final score would have been something like 37 to 20 Buffalo.
Major Tom nailed it. The Bills beat themselves.
Then there were all the personal fouls that aided GIANTS drives, including 30 yards AFTER one play.
If the Bills had played more error-free and more disciplined football, the final score would have been something like 37 to 20 Buffalo.
Major Tom nailed it. The Bills beat themselves.
I'm not even sure if this post is serious. Is it? You really think that's how things work? Everything would have been the exact same if the Bills didn't hold on TDs and commit stupid penalties? But no mention of the Giants penalties and mistakes?
Holy crap.
There is just so much wrong with this line of thinking that I can't believe I even bothered to respond to it. Twice. Ugh....
Lots to love, but still unconvinced.
Lou, the only thing you need to be convinced of is that they are now playing better than they have been in the last few years.
However, the overreaction to this 2 game winning streak is almost as annoying as the overreaction to the 0-2 start.
The latter is especially true in regards to this defense. This defense is improved, obviously./. But it is still not a good defense and not one that can be trusted to get a stop when the game is on the line.
Some might indicate the goal line stand against Buffalo is evidence to the contrary. The stop was great, but after that, with the game very much in question, the Bills scored three touchdowns, two called back with penalties that had little bearing on the play.
They gave up 15 pts. against Washington in the 4th quarter and we all know what happened in the first two games.
Spags has made a difference...but when the game is on the line, and the opponent's offense is in full throttle, let's throw the ball mode, this defense has been mostly, defenseless.
Wait, you decide that Buffalo beat themselves (Giants had nothing to do with the outcome) and the penalties that Buffalo had were the difference between the Giants winning by 2 TDs and Buffalo winning by 17 points. It's that's simple, to you. Everything else would have remained the same and apparently the Giants didn't have any penalties, except, they did, and a lot of them, including one OL downfield call that cost them a 35 yard gain on a screen (they would have been in the redbone, but instead had to punt).
And you ask how old I am? I wa wondering the same about you. I mean, why is it so freaking hard for some of you to give this team some credit? And again, the Giants outplayed Buffalo in every phase of the game, so your logic of Buffalo would have won by 17 points is absolutely mind boggling. That's all.
Saying the Bills beat themselves isn't entirety genuine, imv. Giants were in control and the better team on the field for most of the game.
But as others have said the arrow is pointing up. We don't know what the ceiling is yet.
Some Giants "fans" love to piss all over the Giants, never have anything positive to say, and don't seem to actually like any Giants players, coaches, or management. It is a strange phenomenon that I don't understand.
If the other team is committing penalties you still have to capitalize of them.
Couldn't care less the Bills were short a couple of players when the Giants have been short players for the last 3 years.
The Oline looking better by the design of the offense isn't a bad thing, is it?
The Giants may not be Championship contenders but they are playing better than many of us expected.
Drop the mic. Nice post.
I called the Buffalo game noted that it could be easy BECAUSE they were without McCoy and Watkins..I saw a matchup problems where they didn't have enough skill players.
And, in fact, the game wasn't close. With those players Buffalo is a different team.
So? We dominated a good team not a superb team. I don't see how that can be anything but confirming.
We saw the emergence of a run game against one of the best fronts of recent years. Flowers with a bad ankle played well against a stud. The maligned Newhouse neutralized a great Def.end. That's what you're looking for, it was all positive and answering the question of how good we can be.
Going into this season it was fair to say...this team will go as far as the question marks on the O Line and the Safety position will allow us too. Well, those are coming up positive.
At this juncture every single unit of the team save two looks strong. TE and a strong pass rush. Solve those and I"d say we're a strong contender, without them I think we're a contender.
That's enough for now..I also don't think this team is facing the same strength of opposition that the other superbowl clubs did. Green Bay seems to me to be the strongest of the bunch and I don't know that we could beat them or even the Cards. Mercifully, we catch the Cowboys on the 25th. before Romo comes back. I think Seattle will suffer from the cap eating salary that Wilson got.
Usually a surprise team will emerge but if you want to arbitrarily call those four teams the most logical serious contenders I think it's increasingly obvious that we belong in the conversation.
And this team is still gelling and developing a new identity.
If the key players stay healthy, and TC doesnt meddle too much in the offense I think this team can be really really strong.
Re the penalties benefiting the Giants, looking at the yardage difference and claiming the Bills weren't that much more penalized than the Giants is IMO BS. Red Dog's comment points out the specifics of the penalties were much worse for the Bills, and several times the penalties called really had little or no impact on the play - like Tyrod's TD run. We caught some huge breaks!
Agree that our injuries to JPP and Cruz and Beatty are as hurtfull as the Bills' injuries. But at least Beatty's absence has been pretty well covered by little Ereck...
If I see the effort, intensity, and urgency of play keep up, that alone will make me pleased even if the Giants don't win the division this year.
NE did the same thing to Buffalo - it is a great game plan against that type of defense
Re the penalties benefiting the Giants, looking at the yardage difference and claiming the Bills weren't that much more penalized than the Giants is IMO BS. Red Dog's comment points out the specifics of the penalties were much worse for the Bills, and several times the penalties called really had little or no impact on the play - like Tyrod's TD run. We caught some huge breaks!
Agree that our injuries to JPP and Cruz and Beatty are as hurtfull as the Bills' injuries. But at least Beatty's absence has been pretty well covered by little Ereck...
If I see the effort, intensity, and urgency of play keep up, that alone will make me pleased even if the Giants don't win the division this year.
BlueLou, you can say "IMO BS" all you want. The Giants had 11 penalties for 85. The Bills had 17 penalties and many of them were in the last few minutes when they decided the game was over and they were just gonna get in some cheap shots. And several of the Giants penalties negated some very big plays and instead forced punts. Go back and look for yourself. Penalties are part of the game. How you can just say "if they didn't happen, team A would have won" is ridiculous. It's like saying that if Buffalo ran the ball better, played better specials and played better defense, they'd have won. It just seems like some people look for any reason whatsoever to be negative. Red Dog says take away the Buffalo penalties and they win by 17. I say that is absurd on a million different levels. How anyone could have watched that game and come away with that opinion is beyond me. The Giants were clearly the better team and in control the entire game. And again, they had some pretty bad penalties too. They just didn't "pad the stats" with them with cheap shots in garbage time like Buffalo did.