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Giants are out to prove they were no fluke last season
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The NFL is back. What, you never thought it left?
Seems that way, with all the off-season headlines. As training camps get set to open, Brett Favre saids he might come back after announcing his retirement. Or he might be traded. Or he may stay retired. And on and on.
Everyone from Roger Goodell on down will keep an eye on Bill Belichick to make sure he's not cheating.
And the Dallas Cowboys, with their 33 1/2 Pro Bowlers (the half being the newly self-christened "Adam" Jones) have been conceded the NFC's Super Bowl spot. Jerry Jones says so and so do the "experts."
The team that shocked the Patriots and won the Super Bowl last season?
If you pay attention to the jibber-jabber, the Giants will be lucky to make the playoffs.
In fact, when the Giants were discussed at all during the off-season, it was to write off their upset over the Patriots as a fluke and dismiss them for 2008. A few folks were nice enough to "rank" them sixth or so among 32 teams in May and another had them 10th. ESPN's "official" televised preview dismissed them as the third-best team in the NFC East behind Dallas and Philadelphia.
That's enough incentive in itself for the Giants.
"I don't feel that respect. Talking to guys throughout the league, a lot of them said: "You guys played a hell of a game,' " Antonio Pierce, the Giants' middle linebacker, said last month after the Giants ended their minicamp.
"A hell of a game? So the other 16 games in the regular season and the three playoff games really didn't do anything for us. You hear that among players. We played a good game at the right time. Your quarterback got hot at the right time, your defense started playing ball at the right time."
Nonetheless, this remains a good team, and a young one.
Six rookies played major roles in the Super Bowl and the remarkable string of road playoff wins in Tampa, Dallas and Green Bay that preceded it.
That group includes starting CB Aaron Ross; WR Steve Smith, who had five catches in the Super Bowl; DT Jay Alford, who had a last-minute sack of Tom Brady after the Giants had taken a 17-14 lead with 35 seconds left; TE Kevin Boss, who had a 45-yard reception replacing the injured Jeremy Shockey; and RB Ahmad Bradshaw, who led the team in rushing in the postseason.
Barring injury, all are likely to improve.
Yes, the Giants lost some good players: four defensive starters from the Super Bowl, including Michael Strahan, who retired after 15 seasons ranked fifth on the NFL's career list. But general manager Jerry Reese and his predecessor, Ernie Accorsi, knew that was coming and drafted accordingly. They took Matthias Kiwanuka, who missed the Super Bowl with an injury, Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora. They still give the Giants one of the league's best pass-rushing trios.
Then there are the "distractions."
They include Shockey's discontent at being asked to block in addition to catch, and his apparent unhappiness because much was made of the Giants winning with Boss in his place. Still, the Giants turned down an offer from New Orleans of second- and fifth-round draft choices for the multi-time Pro Bowler.
There's WR Plaxico Burress' unhappiness with his contract, which is being renegotiated — justifiably. He is three years through a six-year, $26-million deal that was signed after he left Pittsburgh with a reputation as an underachiever; the Giants were really the only bidder.
In any event, the Giants enter camp as a very solid team.
The offensive line has no superstar. But David Diehl, Rich Seubert, Shaun O'Hara, Chris Snee and Kareem McKenzie have been together three years and are one of the NFL's most cohesive groups, a must for an OL.
The receiving corps, led by Burress, veteran Amani Toomer and Smith, is so deep the Giants might be forced to cut currently injured Super Bowl hero David Tyree. The retirement before last season of Tiki Barber turned the running back position into an efficient committee of huge Brandon Jacobs, slashing Derrick Ward and the elusive Bradshaw. It's so deep the Giants traded Ryan Grant to Green Bay, where he became the Packers' leading rusher.
And, of course, the final piece of the puzzle is Manning.
Beginning with the final regular-season game, a three-point loss that allowed the Patriots to finish the regular season unbeaten, Manning went from inconsistency to stardom. In his last five games, he had 10 TD passes and just two interceptions (6-1 in the playoffs) and orchestrated a late Super Bowl-winning drive, the kind that gives any QB a pedigree that never should go away.
Few teams repeat as Super Bowl champions, so don't write the Giants in, which is what everyone is doing with the Cowboys.
But don't write them off either.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The NFL is back. What, you never thought it left?
Seems that way, with all the off-season headlines. As training camps get set to open, Brett Favre saids he might come back after announcing his retirement. Or he might be traded. Or he may stay retired. And on and on.
Everyone from Roger Goodell on down will keep an eye on Bill Belichick to make sure he's not cheating.
And the Dallas Cowboys, with their 33 1/2 Pro Bowlers (the half being the newly self-christened "Adam" Jones) have been conceded the NFC's Super Bowl spot. Jerry Jones says so and so do the "experts."
The team that shocked the Patriots and won the Super Bowl last season?
If you pay attention to the jibber-jabber, the Giants will be lucky to make the playoffs.
In fact, when the Giants were discussed at all during the off-season, it was to write off their upset over the Patriots as a fluke and dismiss them for 2008. A few folks were nice enough to "rank" them sixth or so among 32 teams in May and another had them 10th. ESPN's "official" televised preview dismissed them as the third-best team in the NFC East behind Dallas and Philadelphia.
That's enough incentive in itself for the Giants.
"I don't feel that respect. Talking to guys throughout the league, a lot of them said: "You guys played a hell of a game,' " Antonio Pierce, the Giants' middle linebacker, said last month after the Giants ended their minicamp.
"A hell of a game? So the other 16 games in the regular season and the three playoff games really didn't do anything for us. You hear that among players. We played a good game at the right time. Your quarterback got hot at the right time, your defense started playing ball at the right time."
Nonetheless, this remains a good team, and a young one.
Six rookies played major roles in the Super Bowl and the remarkable string of road playoff wins in Tampa, Dallas and Green Bay that preceded it.
That group includes starting CB Aaron Ross; WR Steve Smith, who had five catches in the Super Bowl; DT Jay Alford, who had a last-minute sack of Tom Brady after the Giants had taken a 17-14 lead with 35 seconds left; TE Kevin Boss, who had a 45-yard reception replacing the injured Jeremy Shockey; and RB Ahmad Bradshaw, who led the team in rushing in the postseason.
Barring injury, all are likely to improve.
Yes, the Giants lost some good players: four defensive starters from the Super Bowl, including Michael Strahan, who retired after 15 seasons ranked fifth on the NFL's career list. But general manager Jerry Reese and his predecessor, Ernie Accorsi, knew that was coming and drafted accordingly. They took Matthias Kiwanuka, who missed the Super Bowl with an injury, Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora. They still give the Giants one of the league's best pass-rushing trios.
Then there are the "distractions."
They include Shockey's discontent at being asked to block in addition to catch, and his apparent unhappiness because much was made of the Giants winning with Boss in his place. Still, the Giants turned down an offer from New Orleans of second- and fifth-round draft choices for the multi-time Pro Bowler.
There's WR Plaxico Burress' unhappiness with his contract, which is being renegotiated — justifiably. He is three years through a six-year, $26-million deal that was signed after he left Pittsburgh with a reputation as an underachiever; the Giants were really the only bidder.
In any event, the Giants enter camp as a very solid team.
The offensive line has no superstar. But David Diehl, Rich Seubert, Shaun O'Hara, Chris Snee and Kareem McKenzie have been together three years and are one of the NFL's most cohesive groups, a must for an OL.
The receiving corps, led by Burress, veteran Amani Toomer and Smith, is so deep the Giants might be forced to cut currently injured Super Bowl hero David Tyree. The retirement before last season of Tiki Barber turned the running back position into an efficient committee of huge Brandon Jacobs, slashing Derrick Ward and the elusive Bradshaw. It's so deep the Giants traded Ryan Grant to Green Bay, where he became the Packers' leading rusher.
And, of course, the final piece of the puzzle is Manning.
Beginning with the final regular-season game, a three-point loss that allowed the Patriots to finish the regular season unbeaten, Manning went from inconsistency to stardom. In his last five games, he had 10 TD passes and just two interceptions (6-1 in the playoffs) and orchestrated a late Super Bowl-winning drive, the kind that gives any QB a pedigree that never should go away.
Few teams repeat as Super Bowl champions, so don't write the Giants in, which is what everyone is doing with the Cowboys.
But don't write them off either.
posted by The Gryphon at 10:21 AM
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