Cowboys End Gmen Season
by J.D. Cook
I’m sorry to anyone who reads this blog when it usually arrives on the inter-webs on Sunday after the Giants have played. This week was just so emotionally devastating I needed to take a couple of days to recover. This game was literally the biggest one of the Giants season. A loss meant a sweep by the Dallas Cowboys and no chance at the N.F.C. East Crown. Due to the Giants starting the season with a six game losing streak being N.F.C. East champs was the only way they were going to make the playoffs as there are various better teams worthy of the two wild card spots open in the N.F.C. The Giants played fairly well too which makes the loss more painful in some ways. This wasn’t like the first meeting of the season where the Giants gave the Cowboys a win they didn’t deserve. The two teams seemed fairly evenly matched. The Cowboys offense just managed to outplay the Giants defense when the game was on the line.
That said there is something seriously wrong with Giants offense still. Not with Andre Brown or Jacobs who both looked wonderful! Eli Manning, on the other hand, has not looked like himself all season. I’m not sure if it’s a confidence issue or if he is secretly injured but I’ve never seen him look this lost through a consistent stretch of football. The big game receivers like Cruz look equally lost and I’m not sure if that’s a result of Manning or vice versa. Something is seriously wrong in that department. While the defense has played much better in the second half of the season it still needs a large turnover in the off season. In my book only Antrel Rolle should be guaranteed a spot back. This is coming from a guy who loves Justin Tuck, Pierre Paul and Kiwanuka but their just hasn’t been enough production from that group this season to justify keeping them all instead of heading out into the market and the draft for fresh and hungry talent.
I think next season it might be time to really shake up the New York Giants organization. It’s been a good decade of prosperity and winning but perhaps that has turned into complacency. I think we should start preparing for the post-Coughlin era and maybe even draft a new quarterback for somewhere down the road a bit. It’s never too early to start planning for the future and the best organizations in the N.F.L. are the ones that can constantly balance the influx of new blood and the outpouring of veterans.
It would be nice to see the Giants still shoot for 9-7 this season and it’s still possible if challenging. After what should be a win against the division rival REDSKINS (take that Obama) we face the Chargers, Seahawks and Lions. All of these teams are pretty good but it’s a perfect chance for the Giants to play spoiler and in the case of the Seahawks prove to the N.F.L. that despite their losing record they can run with the best in the league. Of course we could easily let this loss to Dallas bury us and stop playing but I don’t think Coughlin will let his team do that.
Finally there was a lot of talk of the Giants trash talking the Cowboys. After the game the Cowboys did their fair share of trash talking as well. One Dallas player went so far as posting a picture of himself with blood across his face saying ‘I just ate a Giant’. Now I don’t like trash talking because I do feel it gives the other team some extra motivation. I mean I know the Giants got fired up in the N.F.C. Divisional Playoffs when we found out Jerry Jones was laying out tickets for his Cowboys to go to the Championship game before it was even played. So I don’t agree with the Gmen talking trash. That said I think talking trash after a game is even more pathetic and classless. I mean if you’re talking before a game talk is silenced or given credence by playing the football game but the Cowboys were silent before the game only speaking up after they were safely in their locker rooms with a victory. Essentially they just gloated about their win instead of silently moving on, like a championship team. They dropped to their opponent’s level. They just did it after they couldn’t face repercussions for it. It’s silly on many levels because waiting until after the game won’t mean the Giants won’t use it as extra fuel for the next meeting. It just means they have to wait until next season. More time for it to build up.
Until next week.
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The Giants Blog is published every Monday during the NFL season while the New York Giants remain viable contenders (which in 2011 was right to the end and their Super Bowl championship). On the weeks when the Giants have a Monday night game, the blog will be published on Wednesday. The blogs are thoughtful (albeit heavily biased) analysis of the Giants’ performance from our editor-in-chief and Giant fanatic J.D. Cook.
