GIANTS Mess!!!

So sticking to format best I can I am going to blog about sports on this next post. So There is an advanced warning for those who aren't terribly interested in hearing about some football. (A Ministry post will be back on the plate for next time) Ok warning aside let's get right into it.

Being from Connecticut and particularly the southern part of Connecticut I grew up liking the Yankees and the Giants! Now in my very first post I am obviously thrilled to be a Yankees fan right now. But now with baseball done for about 90 more days (Until pitchers and catchers report) I am now turning my entire focus to football, and unfortunately the last few weeks have been terribly sub-par for the G-Men.

I am not exactly sure where to start. Do I go back to their embarrasing first loss of this unimpressive 4 game losing streak, or do I focus my attention and start with this weeks game and the mismanagement by a coach down the stretch. Well I guess I will choose how it all began.

The Giants started the season off in impressive fashion going 5-0 (albeit against teams you would have to call subpar at that time.) But then going back to the game on 10-18 against the Saints is where things started going wrong. And let me first start off by saying I think the Saints are the real deal this year and at the halfway point they would be my pick to win the Superbowl. But on 10-18 it was a battle of unbeatens the Giants 5-0 and the Saints 4-0. You would think that's all it takes to fire up a team. Not so much! The Giants were outplayed and frankly embarrassed in the game by the Saints. And so began a slippery slope of lethargic and uninspired play by the boys in blue.

And skipping the games in which they played Arizona and lost, and Philly in which they lost (crucial since this was a divisional game) that moves us to this past weekend. This was the first game where I thought the Giants played well. Eli did pretty well going 25-33 wth 215 yards passing and 2 touchdowns. Mario Manningham is developing as a good young talent and the veteran Steve Smith is as always reliable. (especially on third down. They also engineered a great drive which ate up almost 11 minutes of the game. (The stat on TV said it was the first time they have had a drive that long since the early 90's)

The defense also finally started coming out of their atrocious slump. They were able to put pressure on Phillip Rivers and get a few sacks and force a few turnovers. All in all this sounded like the makings for a victorious Sunday right? WRONG!!!!

With about 4 minutes left in the game the Giants Michael Johnson picked off a pass and returned it all the way down to the Chargers 4 yard line. Up by 3 at this point a touchdown would have put it out of reach for San Diego. First play after that interception a costly holding penalty, (Penalties were killer 10 for over 100 yards) so restart this drive as 1st and goal from the 14 yard line. Still there is just about 4 minutes remaining. Coach Tom Coughlin decides to play it very, very conservative. A quick passing play and two running plays which ended up leading to a field goal.(Putting them up by only 6) Was he trying to run out the clock? I am left wondering why he wasn't being aggressive and going for the kill shot? Take a chance in the end zone at least once! Why manage this game like you are already at the 2 minute warning instead of about 4 minutes left and the chargers with all 3 timeouts?

Needless to say up 6 with just about 2 minutes to play Phillip Rivers calmly took his team down the field and scored with 21 seconds remaining. Leaving the Giants on the short end of the stick with with a 21-20 loss. Thus capping a terrible 4 game stretch.

After recapping this entire messy ending and 4 game losing streak I am trying to see what is ahead for the Giants this season. They have a bye next week, but at this point at 5-4 they are a long ways out of first in the division and will have a hard time evening going after the wild card.

For each week of the loss it seems like something is going wrong. Offense, Defense, Coaching. They have not been able to string these all together since the early part of the season. And as a huge fan it has been terribly embarrassing and hard to watch. Maybe the bye week will knock some sense into them!

That's about all I got for now. Since Big Blue is off next week maybe I will start watching Women's NCAA soccer, it's turning into MMA action. (New Mexico vs. BYU last week. Check it out if you haven't seen this yet.)

-C-