Obviously, State Farm's decision to replace the discount double check with Clay Matthew's move has had an adverse effect on the play of the GB Packers. Eli "just throw it up and someone will catch it with their helmet" Manning moves on to face the 49ers.
Keep sleeping on Eli... all season he just throwing it up in the hopes of someone catching it, apparently. That play was completely by design, the intricacies of which continue to be lost on many people. That was more about execution than luck.
At any rate, I so doh think of this board as having an NFL audience that I forget about checking here... nice win by my Giants yesterday, no real surprise, other than it was easier than anticipated. The score didn't even reflect the degree of dominance by the Giants... both Packers TDs were scored after the officials were complicit in extending Packer drives. First one official overruled two others on the field to rule that Greg Jennings didn't fumble... then Bill Leavy mystifyingly ruled there was not enough visual evidence to overrule the call. Maybe they need DirecTV in HD under the hood, because it sure looked clear as day to me that that was a fumble.
Next was the 3rd Down personal foul penalty on Umenyiora for an alleged "blow to the head of the quarterback". Maybe I'm just being harsh though... upon further review it did look as though Osi did in fact blow on Rodgers' helmet. Next time he need to hold he breath longer.
Final score should have been Giants 37, Packers 6, officials 14.
San Francisco next... just as I called it on Saturday on FB, even before we played GB (saying "I look forward to the Giants beating the 49rs next week"). I can't call it yet, but I feel very confident against the 49ers. There's history here: in 1990 the Giants went 13-3... the three losses were to Philadelphia, San Francisco and Buffalo. We revenged the loss against Philadelphia late in the season, beat SF in the NFC title game (Montana got hit by Leonard Marshall, mash up he back and never played for SF again) and beat the Niners, to go to the SuperBowl. In SB XXV we met the Bills and avenged the regular season loss.
In 2007 we similarly avenged regular season losses to go all the way to the SuperBowl... where we avenged a Week 16 loss to the Patriots by taking the title.
This season the Packers and Niners beat us. It's hard to win back
to back games against good NFL teams (doh ask me what happened against the Redskins), because teams learn a lot more in defeat than they do in victory. Winning teams have little incentive to change up their attack. Losing teams have to mash up and build back... often with harsh lessons learned from the loss. We will be better prepared this time around, not only because we are finally healthy (first time all season), but we are also playing better because players finally having the opportunity to practice together in stretches.
The Niners 'D' is very good against the run and maybe in the secondary. We are good, not
as good, but good against the run and in coverage. Our pass rush puts us over the top though. But even if defensively it's a wash, our offense is way more potent than the Niners. Eli Manning backed up his "elite" talk, and the running game showing signs of life. Our receivers out of this world though. Vernon Davis might be better than our two TE's combined (Ballard and Beckum), but Crabtree and Ginn, Jr. can't hold a candle to Nicks, Cruz and Manningham.
One thing that might break in SF's favor is weather... supposed to rain supposedly, which could make a muddy track. That will slow down not only our receivers, but also our pass rush, and plays into their strength as a running team.
