Giants on to NFC Championship: January 16, 2012
Say goodbye to the Cheeseheads for the year! The New York Giants came into Lambeau field and packed Greenbay 37-20 on Sunday, sending the 15-1 defending champions home. The impressive Giants victory marked the second time in four years that Big Blue has knocked the Greenbay Packers out of the playoffs. Fans may remember the 2007-08 season when they defeated Brett Favre and the Packers in the NFC Championship. The Giants did it again this time in the division series defeating a Packers squad led by Aaron Rodgers.
In fact, the New York Giants did not show any signs of fear or recognition of a highly favored 15-1 Packers team. Pregame speculation praised the numbers that Aaron Rodgers put up, and favored the high-powered offense of Greenbay. This is a team that is supposed to return to the Superbowl and be crowned victorious again, maybe even have a 1-loss season. The Giants came in and demolished all that. Their level of domination proved superb against a highly-predicted Greenbay team. Many speculate the by-week may have potentially hurt Rodgers and the Packers, and the New York Giants coming off hot was the right place at the right time.
Credit the Giant defense as they stopped a Packers offense that beat them earlier in the season. Much of what we are looking at is a different Giants team. This is not the same team that we saw earlier in the year. Osi Umenyiora put it, "It feels good, where we came from, all the doubting all the hatred, we came in and pulled this game out". This team is playing with heart, this team is playing with fire and passion. Give credit to the players and especially credit defensive coach Perry Fewell whose defense stopped a quarterback with 45 touchdowns this season. Umenyiora's reaction when asked about the superb defensive performance, "Coach Fewell, he believed in us and we believed in him, I can't say enough about this team, we are going to keep on fighting". Giant defense forced 3 fumbles against the Packers squad including two outstanding returns off of Packers offside kicks. Osi Umenyiora and Michael Boley combined for the 4 sacks on Aaron Rodgers. The Giants showed some impressive defense even despite two critical and seemingly unfair calls in favor of Greenbay made by the officials during the game. There is no question Big Blue is playing with alot of confidence, the coaches, the players all seem in sync with one another right now, there should be no reason why the Giants should stop right here.
As for Eli Manning and the offense they scored 37 points against a cheese defense as this game seemed to have displayed. Taking nothing away from the Packers defense as they did play the Giants tough, Manning was on his game. Eli threw for 330 yards, which is the first time in his career he has thrown over 300 yards in a game let alone impressively in a playoff game. Him and his receivers were on the same page and played outstanding. There was no bigger play then the final 10 seconds before the half when Eli Manning hurled a 37-yard Hail Mary into the endzone which landed into the hands of Hakeem Nicks for a touchdown with defenders all around him. "Pretty confident in my hands, as long as I can compete to go get it" Nicks responded about the exciting catch. He added that it was his first time making such a hail Mary play. It gave the NY Giants a 20-10 lead at the half, and the Giants went on to roll over the Packs. Nicks ended the day with 7 receptions and 165 yards including a 66-yard touchdown in the first quarter. The offense played superb led by Eli Manning and touchdowns to Mario Manningham and Brandon Jacobs later in the second half to seal it. They came into Greenbay and destroyed this powerful Packers team.
Giants fans reek the rewards of redemption and revenge against the Greenbay Packers especially if it meant taking them out of the playoffs. However the New York Giants are not done, they will head to San Fran next week to take on another behemoth in this NFL postseason. Mario Manningham says the Giants are ready to take on the 49ers, "Oh we're going back, we're going back.. with confidence too" he added. There is no doubt the New York Giants would love a rematch against Alex Smith and the 49ers that defeated them earlier on in the season. No question it just gets harder and harder in the playoffs as the San Francisco 49ers showed on Saturday that they are a much better and superior team than they were during the regular season. Still to many Giants fans and the Giants community, there are shades of the 07' season hanging in the air. They are one big game away from that possible deja vu!
To San Fran,
B.C
Giants take Falcons: January 8, 2012
A season of inconsistency, mediocrity, a team that just a month ago showed little speculation of their attendance in the playoffs, have won their last two big games of the final season defeating the New York Jets and then the Dallas Cowboys to clinch a playoff berth. There is certainly no question that the New York Giants(9-7 in regular season) to showed up big and proved they are worthy of the playoffs. On a Sunday afternoon in East Rutherford, NJ the Giants did just that as they pounded the Atlanta Falcons in a 24-2 victory to secure round one and knock the Falcons out of the playoffs.
There is no question that we saw a completely different team on the field Sunday than we did all year. A team that fans doubted would make the playoffs made the playoffs. A team that many fans see as lacking in many aspects of their game this year especially offensively saw an explosion in the running game. An offense that lacked the consistency of pass-yard completions during the regular season saw an especially improved completion percentage particularly during third-down conversions. A defensive-line that was dotted with injuries and given little hope held the opposing team to 0 points on offense. Much of the New York Giants that we followed during this regular season completely redefined themselves in their impressive performance against the Atlanta Falcons. There seems to be no doubt this moment for the Giants faithful out there of what this team is capable of especially in the playoffs. In fact there is this feeling in the air that is very reminiscent and familiar to that feel that fans remember in the 2007 season.
Could the Giants simply have gotten lucky?! Well ask the defense. Justin Tuck leading that defense was a big part of that, "I just feel like we're playing together, sometimes in this season we were kind of divided in the fact that we just wanted to make plays and also alot of guys were trying to be individual out there, but now there's eleven guys playing at once, we are going to get efforts like this". A defense that saw injuries all year held the Falcons to 64 rushing yards and 183 passing yards. This defense stopped Matt Ryan and the Falcons rushing on 4th down attempts multiple times in Giant territory. It seemed as if when the Giants needed a stop, they made a stop. In fact the only points the Falcons put up were when they sacked Eli Manning in the Giants endzone during a defensive play resulting in a safety. The Giants defense was so key and overly dominating that they allowed 0 Falcons points during their offensive possessions. In fact, this is the first time in playoff history where a team scored as little as two points. Credit Tuck, and Umenyiora on the defensive end. The defensive stops and plays of Jason Pierre-Paul were key in this victory. It was obvious the way the defensive end played, Matt Ryan almost had no chance in this game. Luckily, that scary collision between Jason Pierre-Paul and Aaron Ross did not result in any critical injury although Ross returned to the locker-room.
The defense certainly highlighted this big win, but the offensive line did a great job as well. Eli Manning went 23-32 in pass completions and threw for 277 yards. The rushing game deemed huge for Big Blue. A team that averages around 89 yards a game had a total of 172 rushing yards well over their average in this win. Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw were a huge part of that combining for 155 of those rushing yards. The rushing really opened up the field for the passing game as well. It opened up wide-receivers such as Hakeem Nicks, Mario Manningham and Victor Cruz. The offense showed up as Nicks put it, "we know what we're capable of doing, we gotta step up make plays on offense, we came out second half and that's what we did, running game came out pretty good and the offense was clicking". Hakeem Nicks had 2 touchdowns including a 72 yard touchdown run. When asked about the "dirty-bird" dance in the endzone, he said, "Antrel Rolle told me to do it". The offense proved effective with the running game doing the its job as well as the passing percentage and conversions. The Giants are sure a playoff team. Giants fans as well as the team have to be happy and very pleased with the way they played.
However this only the first week folks. This big win over the Atlanta Falcons only means what is next for the New York Giants, the 15-1 Green Bay Packers. That is right, the Giants travel to Lambeau field next Sunday to face off against this strong Packers team which beat them 38-35 the last time the teams met earlier in the season. This will surely be quite a matchup especially this time of season with the New York Giants winning impressively their last three games and heating up at the right time. This would be the perfect challenge for the Giants defensive line to prove themselves against the high powered offense of Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers. The Giants know they have been in this spot before back in 07' when they defeated Brett Favre and the Packs in the Conference Championship. The ice cold weather will again pose a big factor in Lambeau field. The Packers with 3rd in passing yards and the best record this NFL season will welcome in the Giants. Big Blue will be bringing in a new look, new surge and fired-up defense and offense line. Can the fired-up New York Giants surge and continue to explode in the playoffs or will Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers claim the crown in the NFL this season?
To Lambeau Field, Wisconsin they March!
B.C
Giants in Playoffs:
January 2, 2012
What seemed to be a foreseen disappointment for a team that has struggled in the second half of the season in recent years, Big Blue found a way in all their possibilities to avoid such a disappointment this year again. It would once again come down to a deciding game where the Giants would have to pull off a big win. The Giants 31-14 victory over their division rivals the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday was huge and propelled them into the playoffs. With the win, the Giants clinched the NFC East and move on to round one of the playoffs at home against the Atlanta Falcons.
With the season coming down to its final game, it would be either the Giants or Cowboys locking up the wild card. With both teams tied for first, it would make it the most important game of the season. Playing against an arguably less than one-hundred-percent Tony Romo and a defensive-proned Cowboys team, the Giants would have to be relatively be more accurate in completions, yardage, conversions, and making key stops in the game. There would be no one better to spark the Giant offense early on than rookie wide receiver Victor Cruz who took an Eli Manning pass completion for 74 yards to give NY an early 7-0 lead. With a 21-0 lead at the half, it seemed the Giants would make a statement and make this one look easy. Not so fast as Romo and the Cowboys get on the board in the third quarter with a completion to Laurent Robinson taking it for 34 yards to the endzone. Trailing by 14 in the fourth, Romo and the boys would cut the lead to 21-14 with another touchdown pass again to Laurent Robinson. It was crucial the Giants had made several defensive stops to the Cowboy offense in the second half. However with the Cowboys not going away and right on Big Blue's tail, it would be Victor Cruz again with a huge 44 yard pass completion from Eli Manning which lead to a Lawrence Tynes 28 yard field goal giving NY a 24-14 lead. Eli would throw for another touchdown to Hakeem Nicks in a later possession giving the Giants the key victory over the Dallas Cowboys.
Eli Manning threw for 346 yards and three touchdown passes, and now leads NFL quarter backs for most touchdowns in the fourth quarter in a single season with 15. The Giant defense showed up big sacking Romo six times, and Victor Cruz who already leads Giants receivers all time in single season receiving yards continued to impress in his rookie season. Just the way Giants fans and the community liked it, coach Tom Coughlin was pleased. The Giants would have to pull off two wins in the last two games of the season. The Giants went out and did what was expected, they came out and beat the Jets last week, they came out yesterday and played big against the Cowboys, they put that devastating 4-game losing streak behind them and now they are looking at round 1 of the playoffs against the Falcons next week. All in all, the Giants are back in the playoffs! A way to kick off the new year!
Until the NFL playoffs, Go yard!
B.C
