and there are so many things that I see and wish we had with our team now. One thing I that really jumped out at me on an individual note:
Brandon Jacobs was the master o absolutely destroying people on the chip block. He literally puts DE's on their butt chipping them on the way out for the pass..
we are so far away
It's fun to re-watch all these old games on GamePass, I agree.
A team full of big, tough no nonsense PHYSICAL football players.
Then they lose four straight but manage to beat the Cowboys in a wild game in which Eli outplayed Tony Romo, Romo missed the chance to end the Giants season, and JPP blocks a potential game-tying FG.
The emergence and blossoming of Victor Cruz and JPP into genuine stars. Cruz, especially. We may sometimes forget how really good he was.
They follow the big win in Dallas with just a terrible home loss to Washington.
And then it's Salsa time. Nine-nine yards against the Dog-Ass Jets. And then its Sunday night against the Cowboys at home. Cruz delivers a 78-yd TD and another monster catch to kill the Cowboys come back.
Then Nicks takes over in the playoffs. The defense led by the pass rush peaks. Mike Smith lays two eggs on 4th and 1. Payback in Green Bay. The slug fest in SF. And then Manning to Manningham.
What a year.
Manningham had a bad habit of drifting too close to the sideline on long passes. He did it even on his best plays, but fortunately there was a QB who could still make the throw.
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in the post season but, Mario Manningham had a number of meaningful plays.
Manningham had a bad habit of drifting too close to the sideline on long passes. He did it even on his best plays, but fortunately there was a QB who could still make the throw.
Very true. He even did it in SB46 earlier in the game before he made the great catch on Eli's perfect throw. Same route, opposite side of the field but he took it to close to the sideline and Eli had to throw it out it bounds.
Very true. I also marveled at an Oline that wasn't as good in the run game as it had been in the past but they could pass block when they needed to.
David Diehl was vastly underrated.
Love game pass.
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his size and strength,, Giants RBs were always at least decent at it or they wouldn't play. Then some genius came in and ran 100% 11 packages and it stopped.
Very true. I also marveled at an Oline that wasn't as good in the run game as it had been in the past but they could pass block when they needed to.
David Diehl was vastly underrated.
Love game pass.
Yep. Diehl was a good player at 3 positions and played every week.
Plus Diehl moved from LG to LT when Beatty got hurt and did a solid job.
The running game struggled much of the regular season, but it was very good in the playoffs. Remember Jacobs and Bradshaw putting the Packers (+ the refs) away in Green Bay in the playoffs? That was awesome.
It's funny how both 2007 and 2011 included a really aggravating no-show loss to the Redskins late in the season that had everyone questioning whether the Giants were any good (and had many screaming for Coughlin's head), but both times we bounced right back the following week.
One thing I forgot was Ballard was injured late in the season and it was a knee injury. Makes me wonder if it just hadn't healed completely when he returned and that led to his knee tear in the SB. He could have been a difference maker over the years he not been injured.
No Super Bowl without him. Wouldn't have had enough to get past SF for sure.
The Giants dropping off the next year without him not a coincidence.
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in the post season but, Mario Manningham had a number of meaningful plays.
No Super Bowl without him. Wouldn't have had enough to get past SF for sure.
The Giants dropping off the next year without him not a coincidence.
Manningham's knee was shot when he left, the Giants got the last/best out of him. Remember, the 2012 Giants started out 6-2, went into SF and dominated the Niners. What killed them was Hurricane Sandy hit and pretty much took the Giants edge away as the players were (rightly) concerned about their own property and family. After that, the Giants kind of sputtered (they blew out Green Bay and New Orleans) but got dominated by Atlanta and Baltimore.
What killed the Giants was they had a chance to beat the Redskins in DC and the Skins had that fluky TD on the RGIII fumble and they lost by 1 point.
However, what's interesting about that, is the Giants probably cost RG III his career in 2012. Remember, RGIII hurt his knee late in the season vs. the Ravens. Cousins came in to replace him and helped win games to keep them just ahead of the Giants. Little Danny Snyder finally had a chance to make the playoffs so the Skins rushed RGIII back to stay ahead of the Giants was able to do so, only to wreck his knee in the playoffs vs. Seattle and he was never the same player again.
If the Giants had beaten Washington in that game on the road, they have the lead and win the NFC East, and the Redskins don't rush RGIII back.
Anyway, the bottom line, the Giants squeezed the last bit of juice out of the 2007 championship core to win in 2011, and they tried to do it again in 2012, but ran out of gas. It wasn't really the loss of Manningham to the Niners for why they didn't defend their title.